Preparing for the Mathilde Blouse

It is finally on!

I have been wanting to make the Mathilde Blouse ever since I saw it over at Sleek Silhouette`s.

But it is not before a few days ago I bought the pattern. I even bought the fabric loooong before the pattern!

Does any one else do that?? hehe...

So yesterday, after the kids went to bed, I started figuring out my size (heeey... I lost some weight! )

and drafted the pattern. For me, this is often a very time consuming prosess...

so when I am finnished whit the patterndrafting and fabric cutting, then it is of the bed. Or the couch.

So that is what I did yesterday...

(sorry about the poor picture. I used my mobile..)

This fabric is really amazing! It is light cotton, and kind of semi sheer. I am shure it will look great as a Mathilde Blouse!

And I managed whit only 1,5 meter!! Gosh! It was touch and go for a second there! But it was JUST enough! The pattern description says 1,5-2 yard, so I was a bit off.... But I had to take a chance. 

Hopefully, it will be ready until sunday for me to wear.

 Were a having a party for my little girl who`s turning 6! 

Gosh, how time flyes by....

The search for the Perfect Chanel jacket-pattern

Let me tell you right now; this is not a easy task! 

There are sooooo many chanel-like patterns out there, and I cant seem to wrap my head around them, or to deside on which one that is the right one for me.

This is what I got so far:

As fare as I can se, this is a very popular choise amongst sewers.

But seeing as I am not perticulary experienced, this one scares me off a bit...

The next one is this:

I looooove the color! But unfortunately, yellow is not for me... 

But the design and shape is great! I`m keeping a finger on this one. 

And this one.. An easy, sophisticated look. Exactly what I need.

And then there is this one....

It has nothing to do with Chanel, but I fell completely for it!

So now remains to chose from all of these, and I do not know what to do...

The Dress of My Dreams

I stumbled over this dress on Pinterest. 

Think maybe my heart actually stopped for a second!...

It is stunning in all it`s glory;

The goldlike flowers on the pearlwhite background.

The lowered back and slightly "poofed" arms.

Not to mention the cute yellow belt!

I see that the dress can be bought here, 

but that is never going to happen on my budget!

I would mutch rather make it my self! 

It`s not like there is a lack of patterns to choose from!

The story of the beginning

I came across this blogpost at Sew Country Chick, where she talks about what got here started on her sewing career. I liked the idea of letting my readers get to know "my storie", and maybe to get them to tell ME about theres. So here is my story:

Groving up, I had grandmothers and aunts who were all very handy when it came to making clothes. 

But it was mostly knitting, and I think probably thats were it all startet. I remember my dearest grandmother taught me to knit, and my first dresses where for my dolls an such... 

I reallt enjoyed being in the same room as here, and listening to the "klickering" of her knitting needles, and the low voice of her counting the masks: "3, 4, 5, 6...."  and: "shush.... I`m counting.." whenever we interrupted here whit something... haha....

In Junior High, me and my best friend had a project in crafts where we designed our own clothing line. 

Thinking of the results today makes me giggle, but back then we thought we were "superstars". Haha...

We even did a big portfolio whit lots of design drawings, and made some of the clothes. 

It was soooo fun! (i really have to dig those drawings up!...)

Lets fast forward a bit...

Junior High---> High school, where I had 3 years of studying drawing, design, illustrasion and commerscial designs. ---> meeting my husband to be ---- > getting married ----> having our first child; thats when my knitting skills really had a go for it! -----> our second baby! Thats when I discovered Bloglandia.

I startet reading different blogs about crafting, and especially sewing. Mostly from vintage fabrics. I huntet down fleamarkets and second hand shop (still a big passion!) for fabrics. 

But it was about the time when my husbands grandmother had to move out of here big old family house, 

that tons of old fabrics apeard.  In her earlier days she had worked at fabric-factory and were so lucky she got to take home bags and bags of fabric. And I was even luckier that I got to look trough these to see if there was something worth saving. And there was!!!  I boroughed my mother-in-laws old sewing machine, which her mother again owned before her. So it was ooooold, but worked as nothing else! 

I taught my self sewing simply by reading many wonderfull blogs and getting inspiration on the internett.

The first items I made were clothes for my children, which my earlier blog posts are a big proof of! 

I have made some for order, and all though that has been fun, I simply dont have the time. I wish I did!

It is only in the last half year or so I have been making clothes for my self. I must say, that it isquite a different challenge than making stuff for my kids. And I love it. 

Alltough I am no professional, I love reading and learning about new techniques.

It is a learning curve that shifts both ways, and I am only glad I can learn as long as I live.

I have a LOT that I want to learn still! This is only the beginning!

My "likings" of homemade clothes has shifted a bit since it startet about two years ago.

Back then it was all about the retro-70 styles with those psychedelic colors.

Know it is leaning more and more over to the 50-60`s dresses. Have You seen Mad Men??

Then you`ll know what I am talking about!

Who would`nt be wearing something like that?!

So.. thats my story.

I would love to hear about yourse !

The Garden Party Dress; a love/hate relationship

First of all, let me tell you that I LOVE this dress! Adore it! I think it is sexy, gorgeous, sofisticated and classic all at the same that. It only depends on what you wear it whit.

I startet off very optimistic whit this dress. I saw the pattern over at Honig Design, Elises blogg, who is allso the talented lady who designed the dress and drafted the pattern herself! WHAT A JOB!

And from the very first moment that I saw it, i knew this was the dress that I had always been looking for!

I startet cutting the peaces, and was VERY thoroughly whit the description, so that I was shure I would`nt miss anything or screw up anywhere. I had desided that this dress was going to be my best work EVER!
Because thats how much I love it....

I had read Elises suggestions on changing the size on the sleeves, so I did. Kind of...
The bodice was finished. It looked great. And then!!! What?! How?!  Shit!!%"##&"
I totally missed where the pattern said that I had to make TWO pieces for the back!
Not ONE on the fold.....
Ok... what to do next. I could either make a new bodice from scratch, or I can continue, only cutting the back in two pieces. Even though I knew that I had lost about 4 cm of fabric at the back, I desided two cut the back in two for input of the zipper. At least then I would get the practice of the pattern, and I would do better on the next dress....

But when I was going to try the dress on, the sleeves was about to strangel my arms, and I was not able to move my upper body. It was to tight over my chest. I even opened the darts in the back and made them smaller to gain a few centimeters where I lost some at the back. But unfortunately it did not help.
The sleeves were to tight over mye arms/shoulders.

So I made a new bodice, from scratch. And this time I remembered to cut the bodice in two pieces!
So far so good. I even made the sleeves after Elises tutorial on how to customize the sleeves.
I gained about 4 centimeters in width I suppose. So now I was optimistic;)

Soooo... after ataching the sleeves, skirt and adjusting and fastening the zipper I was ready to trye it on for the finale. I was suuuuper exited! Unfortunately, the sleeves were still a bit to tight. Enough that it will freak me out while wearing it. But the problem was the opening around the arm, espacially the armpit.
Fortunately, I bought this fabric last week at a fleemarket. I am not shure what material it is, but it is some kind of medium weight, and I have a suspicion that it contains wool. It looks like a suiting fabric. I bought about tree meters for 20 Norwegian Krones, wich is 2,28 British Pounds. Thats nothing!
But this is not my last go on this dress! I have allready more fabric on the way, and now I am thinking of making it whitout arms at all! I think that is a good idea :)

Aaaanyway... here are som pictures of the dress that I have learned to love so mutch, but have a very tense relationship to.

I will post som action pictures at a later time! I promise:)

Fox and Flowers

A new shirt for my little man!

This lovely fabric is from Malika & Rosa and is a design by Lillestoff. 

Sleeves are made of fabric from Mylly Muksut

I love the combo of the pattern and the stripes as well as the different colors in orange, brown and blue.

<3 <3 <3

New fabric

My little man is growing. He 's always been quite small and skinny. He is still skinny, but he has stretched quite a bit these last months, so now he has grown out of all of his sweathers and shirts. And what an oportunity that is for me to buy new fabrics:D

I wanted to try out Lillestoff Designs new fabrics. They are so full of life and colors. I love them! These are bought at Malika & Rosa, a danish web shop whit sooo many wonderfull fabrics, mostly for childrens clothings.

 

And these under here are from an other favourit shop of mine, Mylly Muksut. 

These fabrics are college and jersey.

I cant wait to show you the finnished products from these lovely fabrics  :D

Eating outdoors and new coffe mugs!

You probably wont believe it, but it`s actually spring! At least thats what the calendar says...

We are in the middle of april, and it is just about 8-12 degrees Celsius in the sun. 

It is sooooo good in comparison to the -10 Celsius we`ve had for so long no.

Can you believe that mars month last year we had 20 + degrees Celsius!?! That even warmer than 

we usually have at summertime!

That has not happened in a hundred-something-years, and was not likely to happen again.

So, this is what we got. At least the sun is shining :) and life is goood:)

The other day, after I picked the kids in kindergardet, we went home and had dinner outside.

We had pancakes in the garden, and just really soaked up those warming rays of sun. 

It was fantastic, and the kids thought is was great fun to have their dinner outside.

Olivia, always ready to pose for the camera!

The snow is finally starting to melt!

All the snow had left about 2 weeks ago, but THEN! Last weekend the snowfairy desided we

had`nt had nearly enough, so she gave us more and more and more! 

But I really hope this is it! Bring me the spring! 

And oh! Check out my new coffee mugs!

Yeah! I have been longing for this since christmas, and now I finnaly got some home for my self!

I love the simple retro design and the colors. These are called Retro and are designed by a swedish company called Sagaform.  I love it!

Something fishy!

I recently got a sort of od knitting request from a friend.

He wanted me to knit a fish. A fish hat. And not the kind you would wear when you go fishing.

Well, of course you can, but you know what I mean...

The pattern is from Knitty.com

Check it out! They are really cool :D

And here`s mine two:

I hope the new owners like them:)