My newly discovered passion for furniture furbishing {A blog launch}

I try to maintaine this blog simply as a craft-blog (e.g. sewing and knitting).

But lately I have found the need to blog about my furbishing experiments and finds. Because it is simply amazing what you can make out of a tired and worn out table or dresser. I have gained a lot of inspiration and experience, and just wanting to share with the world what can be made out of so little.

My main focus is furbishing for less. I want to save money, not spend it. So second-hand and thrifting is the key-words here! It has only one post so far, but I promise, there is ALOT on the drawing board! I have quite a few finnished items to show you:)

So, if you are interested, you are more then welcome to stop by my newly-launched blog

Frugal Furbishing

Animal Print + Easy Tee Raglan Pattern = Match!

For weeks now, I`ve had this great black and white animal print ponte knit in my stash without a clue as what to make of it! I thought it was a great idea when I bought it, and it still was when it arrived. But then I was like: "can I pull of an entire piece with only this animal print? Would that even work?!" So I just put it aside, waiting for the right pattern or idea to come along.
Eventually, I was more and more surtain that it would work just fine if I only could mix in a little neutral in there. Like black! I had a little left from when I made my second Perri Pullowe (not blogged yet. Have to get to it soon.....). It was just enough for 3/4 arms and the neckline+arm lining.

This pattern by the way, is GREAT! Super easy to print and patch up.  And you can make it in a million different ways. Go check out "Its Always Autum".

This is one of those patterns I will make again and again, for shure! The fit is perfect for me! I added a band on the bottom of the shirt so it gives a little extra "hug" around the hips.

Now, do you think the animal print is "to much"? Or just right? :)

Sweetheart Beret - A tutorial

Hi everyone!

Today I want to share another how-to with you!
I was browsing through Pinterest, looking for inspiration for something to make.
Then I came across a pattern for a suuuuper cute beret with the cutest bow!
My experience is that there is a tutorial for allmost everything out there, so I wasnt completely ready to buy a pattern before I had looked into my alternatives.
So..... after a lot of picture-looking, blogbrowsing and some sketching, I came up with a great tutorial.
I sewes it up twice, just so I could try out the differences when it comes to wether you`d want layering around the hat or not. If so, you make the top-hat pattern piece big/ger.
Here goes:


First, find youre fabric. It should be semi stiff, and quite stirdy. Wool, fleece and such is great.
I used a typical suit wool.
Now, fold youre fabric double. Find something big and round, like a lid or a casserole. Depending on how big the lid/casserole is, youre beret will be big and poofy or small and suttle. Its all up to you!

Now find something with a smaller radius then the first round thingy you used, and center it untop the one cirkle. REMEMBER to put away one cirkle for later!  Allso be shure that the radius you use for the "donut" is not smaller then the head intended for youre beret! This is where your math skills from elementary school comes in. FIY: if I told my math teacher back then that I would not need it for anything else then sewing and pattern making, well.... I think he would give me extra homework.....

Now you should have these three. The inner cirkle you can just through away.

Next up you pin the "donut" to the top hat piece. Sew down all the way around.

Now, more math... Measure the head circumference and cut a square with just that lenght + seam allowance.

When the piece is laying like this, you fold it on half, iron, and then fold in each end again (just like a bias tape) and iron again.

Like this! Then you fold it over and sew down the short ends.

Now, you almost cant see it on this picture, but here I have placed the "bias tape" on the inside of the hat, and pinned it down. All you have to do now is stich, fold over to the front/right side of the hat, fold and stitch again. 

And voila! You now have a beret for youre little sweetheart! Hey! How about making matching mother and daughter beretes?  

And for the bow, there are hundreds of DIY`s on net!

DIY on how to make a dress in to a hold-in pencil skirt

We all have it. The Dress. The one that you got just because you had to have it. Maybe because you had been spying on it at the store, stroking it between your fingers. Trying it on even though you know very well you won`t be buying it because it is just a little to expensive. By the way, where would you wear it? On what occasion would it be suitable? Oh.... if only it was on sale. Then at least you could justify buing it.

And then!! On day it happens! It`s on sale, and there`s only one left in youre size! It is faith! OFFCOURSE you buy it! What`s to question?
Weeks and months, maybe even years, go by. How many times have you worn it? ones? twice? Or maybe not at all? Did`nt the right opportunity come by? (I told you so!). Maybe by now you`ve stuffed it in a bag for goodwill. Or youre closet has swalloved it?
Dispear not! Because I have JUST the DIY for you!

You will offcourse need The Dress

Now, follow these steps:

Now, the easiest thing is to use a knit pencil skirt that you allready have, 

and just lay it flat on the dress. If you dont have such a skirt, 

you  can take a look at this tutorial on how to make youre own pattern.
Trace the pattern edges around the exicting skirt, and cut out.
Make sure you have enough seam allowance!

After you have cut the two skirt pieces, staystich the edges.

Try it on to see if it fits. If so, you can now sew permanent stitches.

Now, here is a GREAT tip!

If you are like me and simply love pencil skirts,

but is not quite comfortable with the tummy hugging ordeal, 

then this is something for you! 

I love the look that a pencil skirt gives, and I have envied so many women for it!

But you see, my stomach is bigger then my (really not that big) chest, 

so I have hesitated about this surtain fashion staple.

But fear no more, because I read this suuuuuuper tip over at The Sewing Rabbit. 

Jess Abbott made a genius pencil skirt with a tummy control panel!

How genius is that???

Now, how could I not try that when I first was up to making my very first knit pencil skirt?

I did`nt have any power mash available, but I did have a tight lycra nightie that allso was swalloved

by my closet, and managed to save....

Now you put the "wathever" you want to make the hold-in with,

and lay it over the skirt. 

Now remember you want the hold in skirt to be hugging and tight,

so you cut it in a size or two smaller then the outer skirt.

Cut the lycra a few inches shorter then the outer skirt. You dont want it to show under.

You will need a wide elastic to youre skirts waist.

Try the skirt on and put the elastic around youre waist to figure out

how much you need. Remember to keep it tight.

Sew the ends of the elastic together, and fold it around your pencilskirt,

included the hold in skirt. Pin the elastic on the right side of the skirt. 

Sew it down (again, from the right side).

Et voila!

Look! Hold in!

Hopefully very soon, I can show you a picture with the outfit on.

But I can assure you, the skirt looked like da`bomb! ;)

Now, what do you think? I think I`ll propably get more use of these two 

more than I did the dress in its former state.

I`ll wright about how I made the top in my next post.

Patter testing! The Taking Notes Skirt by Sewing In No Mans Land

Kelly Crawford is the author of the beautyfull blog Sewing In No Mans Land.  My first meeting with her blog was when I discovered the Taking Notes Skirt for girls.

I was in the look-out for an easy but classy skirt patter for my little girl, and this pattern struck my liking.

It might have been the pictures, because they are so fresh and cheerful, but Kellys instructions are very easy to follow, so within a little while I had a lovely skirt for my little twirling girl.

So, when Kelly posted that she was looking for pattern testers to make her pattern even more user friendly and perfect, I did not hesitate to enlist as a pattern tester. She got a lot of requests, and I was one of the lucky ones to review the pattern.

As you might know, a tutorial for the pattern has been out for a long time on her blog, so there are probably a lot of you who all ready know about it and even have made one. I would like to shear some pictures of my results. I will not go in to the details of the sewing, except that it is soooo easy, and everyone can make one!

I made mine out of a quilting weight fabric I had in my stash. I love the flower pattern and the colors.They are so me! I will bring this with me on our family holiday next week!

The skirt is topstitched where ever possible, wich give a great touch of professional sewing.

It allso has nine boxpleats all around the waist. The waiste band gives it all a geat silhouette.

You should all just put away your computers, and wip out this skirt right away, because it really is that simple!

Grainline Studio`s Tiny Pocket tank - without the pocket-

I am continuing my journey against filling the whole in my closet, that I mentioned in my last post.
I simply realized that I have a big lack of comfortable yet fashionable shirts and tops, now that we are safely heading for summer. I have had the Tiny Pocket tank for some weeks now, and desided it was time.
The fabric is bought at Fabric.com. I was quite surprised by it, as I have never sewn whit rayon challis before. I actually bought several types of fabric just so that I could get familiar with the different types of fabric and fibres. And the rayon challis is soooo soft and lightwaight, but still strong and sturdy, whit a nice drape to it. I had only 1 yard, so I had to use it on a project that did not take more then that.

Lets try sitting down first, like I do this aaaall the time. Just chilling on my front stairs. No?...

Ok, lets try standing up..

Is this better? Should I have my hands in my pockets, like this? 

Does that give a good picture of the shirt? NO?

How about now? What if I untuck the shirt? Maybe that will give us a better idea

of the finnished product... 

Now my hands AND my shirt is out. Se what happened?! I gained 10 pounds!...

Lets just take it of and put it on a hanger instead....

Much better! 

If you look closely you see the bias that I used to bind the neckline and armholes. I only had scraps left, but both colours where the same as the shirt fabric, so that went very well. I allso added about 1,2-2 inches on the bottom lenght. I like my shirts whit a little extra length.

The Tiny Pocket Tank is a great basic patter, ment for non-stretch fabric, but I actually made one in a stretch fabric yesterday, and that went very well. But you might want to go down a size.

I can see allready now that this is going to be a pattern for many more tops this summer, along whit my Kirsten Kimono Tee.

Maria Of Denmark Kimono Kirsten Tee

I have noticed a big hole in my closets lately, where there should be nice, fashionable and comfortable t-shirts. Until a few days ago, there really wasnt any. So what do you do? Go shopping? Noooo.... (unless its for fabric, of course) I had been searching on Pinterest for t-shirt patterns, and I came by the Kirsten Kimono Tee by Maria Of Denmark. This is a great pattern, plus its free! Whats not great about that?

The shirt has a very comfortable fit, and NO sew-on arms! There`s only two pattern pieces, + the neck binding of course. Its the perfect base pattern for youre own modifications.
As you can see on the shoulder part, I inserted a contrast fabric of a sheer animal printed chiffon.
Enter: "fashionable"!
Allso, I added a wide cuf-binding on the shoulders, instead of hemming the edges. That added a little length allso.
I am very happy with the results! The Kimono tee has everything I want in a t-shirt. IAnd it allso looks great styled up whit a pair of skinny jeans and heels or boots!

This is definetly something I will make again and again! Thanks Maria for a super pattern!

Question!

... what do you do when you have been obsessed whit a pattern for days, even weeks? You buy it, draft it and cut it. But then it stoppes!... The pattern pieces lay there, untop of the intended fabric, and nothing happens. Nothing! For days and days.....
That is what has happened to me! I had my heart set on a very spoken-off pattern for my daughter, but then suddenly all my sewing-mojo for this dress were gone! Wanished in thin air.....

So my question to you guys is this;
In times like these, what do you do? Do you simply abandon the whole thing? Or do you push through it? Because in the very beginning the idea of the pattern and product was quite good, and the chance that the exitement will be back when you get startet are quite relative? Or is it just a waste of time and effort?

You see, my problem is that if I dont have fun while sewing, I get really upset. And things tend to go wrong whit everything! But on the other hand, the dress is in the back of my head everytime I enter my sewing room. It is giving me all kinds of guilty feelings, and I dont need that! I have enough on my plate!

So how would you approach this? Would you just continue and get done whit it? Do nothing and keep feeling the overwhelming guilt? Or are you actually able to forget all about it for as long as it is necessary, and continue when you are ready?

I think a big part of my problem is this: The "good girl"-syndrom! We all have it! The overwhelming feeling of having to please everyone all the time. To be honest, I`m not so good at it....
Right now I am torn beetween sewing what I really want, or finnish something I started....
I just wanna sew and be happy!

Where are you guys on this?

Have You met Lola?

...she`s all over the web, these days! Infact, It feels like there has been a Lola-invation. I`m just fashionable late to the party. I must admit though, I did`nt reallly notice the dress when I saw it on Victory patterns webshop. I am not shure why, but lets face it! It`s allways a bit more interesting when you se the patterns on "real" people. Am I right?..... (say yes...) A few of my other favourit Lolas were made by Kate who made hers whit the coolest leather pockets, Tillys version was the first one I saw. And then there is Katies version.
All of these versions are so different from each other. Thats how versatile this pattern is!

The Lola dress is allso very comfortable! AND you get to look nice at the same time! Who does`nt want comfortable and nice at the same time?? For me, comfy trumps nice almost any time. But whit the Lola dress, I dont even have to choose. Heck, I`ll even wear this to work! It`s a hacked version of the classic collage sweater, just longer so that you can wear it as a dress. I wear them whit thights and short or high boots.

It has been a couple of weeks since I made this dress, but it was`nt before today that I got someone to catch it on camera. Pluss, we had lovely weather, and that allways helps.

The fabric I bought at Stylishfabric.com . The pattern calles for a knit fabric such as French terry knit or a knit fleece. I bought a french terry, but I was suprised when it arrived, because it was thinner than I imagined it would be. In fact, it was more like a regular jersey knit. BUT, the quality was great and very comfortable, so I was happy whit it.

I have the sun in  my eyes, but ok... I`ll give it a go...

Biiiiig pockets!

Really not bad from the behind, either...

I am quite happy about the results! But be aware, and I read this about an other bloggers version of the Lola allso. The neckline binding is a little big. When my dress was finnished, the neckline was a bit slouchy and shapeless. After a few days I cut it off, shortened it and sewed it back on. And allso, I think I easly could have gone down a size on my regurlar size. This was a size 10. I think....

I really want to make an other one right now!

Red Riding Hood cape

Jepp, thats right! I made a costume piece! *hands up*.
I allways wanted to be the kind of mum who makes her kids costumes, and I did a few times, but nothing fancy schmansy, just the kind of "take something here and ad something there*-kind of costumes. Shaaaameeee.....
But who would have known, that my firs machine sewn, home-made, thoroughly done costume was for my sister? My very grown up (at least her i.d. says so...) sister! But when I think about it, it really doesnt surprise me. Haha...
I should allso ad to the story that she was going to an adult costume party (not the nasty kind, all though, I did hear some stories afterwords...).
She wanted to go as Red Riding Hood, but was missing a long, red cape. So I searched the allmighty Pinterest, and found this great hooded cape pattern at Fleecefun. FOR FREE!
The pattern was a print-at-home pdf, and had three different lenghts. We went for the longest.
This was a really quick fix, as you dont really have to sew the edges when you sew whit fleece, because the edges won`t rip.
I lined the hood whit a "picnic-checkered" pattern in red and white. This really put a great finnishing touch over it. And to close the cape, we added a white silky ribbon.

A spring fling outfit

There is no doubt about it, SPRING is here! Allthough, that doesnt mean that the temperatures wont go down to freezing point at night, and I still have had to clear some ice from my car windows a few times in the morning before going to work. BUT! It is sunny when we wake up, the garden is packed whit daffodils, birds are chirping and temperatures are rising as we are able to play outside whitout wearing mittens.
It`s all good!

I took my daughter outside to model this new outfit that I made for a very special birthday girl.
Safe to say, she was very happy whit the gift. For the main fabric I used a french Terry from Stylish Fabric.
I had expected that the french terry would be a little thicker, but this reminded me a little more of regurlar jersey. But whit that said, it was a suuuper soft fabric, and the quality seems to be quite good!
For the pocket and headband, I used some scraps I had from a swedish fabric shop. I have allready made quite a few items whit this fabric, like this vest and this hat.

I have made headbands like these before, but I came up whit a super easy way to make them, (even easier than these, can you imagine??) that is so quick, you`ll make a bunch in no time! I`ll make shure to make a tutorial for those later:)

So there we were, outside in the morning spring, soaking up a few rays of sun. you know... just picking us some dafodils and listening to the birds tweeting around. Totally normal at 9 o`klock on a saturday morning.

Here`s a warming tutorial for you; How to make a heatpillow!

Today I have a great tutorial for you! This one is super for everyone with sore necks and shoulders, cramps or even cold feet.
For christmas I wanted to make something homemade for several of my family members.
And I thouhgt about something that I made about a year ago. My husband and I are both acquaintanced whit the term of stiff and tiered neck. So I made a proto type of a heating pillow. You know, the kind you just throw in you`re microwave and heat a few minutes before you place it on the needed area.

But as mentioned, this was just a proto type that I tossed together, so I had to come up with something a bit more clever and lasting.  I made a picture series that shows you the step-by-step making of this clever little thing.
I allso have to mention that the ones I gave away for chirstmas were VERY popular, and the word spread. I have made 15 of these, both as gifts and for paying customers. You should definitely give it a try.
Just follow these steps:

 1) Find You`re fabric. Flannel is the best kind.
Off course it`s extra fun if you have very nice fabric! I bought these flannels here

2) Then you have to cut you`re fabric. Cut two same length pieces (find the measurements that fits you. Mine
has about 60 x 12-15 cm ).  Pin the pieces together and stitch using zigzag stitches, starting from one corner, and all the way around. Leave an opening at one of the short sides, enough to get a big spoon in. The gap right here is where you are going to insert the rice.

3) Then you topstitch all the way around, BUT still leave an opening at the shorter side.  Howdie!

Now it is time to fill up this sucker! You might want to mark where you want to stitch up the pockets of rice in advance so that you get an even result.

You`ll need quite a lot of rice. You can allso use other things like wheat or even cherrystones, I have heard. But I dont eat a whole lot of cherries.... Allso, I like the waight that rice gives. It makes just the right pressure.

Here`s a tip for you: before you insert the rice, blend in a couple drops of lavender! It makes you feel like you are at the spa when you use you`re heatpillow :D

4) Pour the rice whit a spoon. Now, there will be some spilling. Just dont let it get to you...

Make sure that you dont add to much rice, neither to little. You`ll get the hang of it as you go.

After each "pocket" has enough rice, bring it over to an ironing board, or the edge of youre table. You want to do this so that the rice gathers on the bottom, before you pin it down where you measured it earlier. 

Now you are ready to sew it up. Just be carefull not to sew over alot of the rice. You can break the needle. But again, you`ll get the hang of it.

5) After you have finnished all of the "pockets", you have to close up were you kept the shrort side open. Just tuck in the edges short of a centimeter, pin it, and sew over a couple of times. You want to make shure it does`nt rip open.

And there you have it! Just throw it in you`re micro wave oven for a minute or two (this depends on youre oven) and place it where it is needed. I often have it with me in bed when it is very cold. It is great for coold feet. Even my two kids asks for it when it`s bedtime. 

But be ware! If you tell anyone of this lovey creations, they will bag you to make them one. So you might as well just make a bunch when you`re first at it;)