Karin´s Chamber

First "real" project on my knittingmachine

2012-02-10T18:21:00.004+01:00

I have 860 pins on Pinterest that are supposed to inspire me in mostly sewing and knitting. This is not only the first real project on my knittingmachine but also the first pin from Pinterest that I actually made something from.
This sweather I pinned or repinned, It´s from Net a porter

And I used Drop´s alpaca and made this sweather:

I sewed the folds on the lower sleeves by hand, wasn´t sure about the gauge so I made them 10 cm longer than normal sleeve length. The folds are a little uneven but I think it´s OK.
I used a basic pattern for a raglan sleeve cardigan in an old Vogue knitting and recalculated the entire thing, finally I knitted the neckline by hand, I don´t have a ribber yet.
Warm and cosy alpaca love.

And now off to do the other 859 pins...

No longer UFO

2012-02-10T11:56:00.004+01:00

I finished the february UFO, a baby alpacka silk yarn from drops for the body and various yarn in alpacka and mohair and maybee something else for the yoke, lovely and soft!
I also did the Miyake again and finished it at once, so now I only need a really nice shawl pin to be able to wear it. This is a really simple, fun and fast project and no sewing involved

The last item is a scarf that I bought yarn and pattern for when I visited Church mouse yarns on Bainbridge Island outside Seattle. The yarn is a silk alpacka lace from Classic elite and I made the scarf on the knitting mashine and finished the ends by hand. This pattern is super easy and really shows off the yarn.

Burberry pocket

2012-01-31T19:04:00.003+01:00

I was snoopshopping at one of the thriftstores in town the other day and they had a Burberrycoat, of course too small but I had my I phone with me and snapped a shot on the pockets

on the outside they are slanted one welt s with a button in the middle, you can see the button on this picture. On the back they look like this, the pocket is a patchpocket that you can reach from the inside too.
Today on the other hand was not a snoopshopping day it was final sale at many places and I had my salary last week and I bought my ticket for Greenland so a couple of more crowns that goes away doesn´t really matter. I got home with 3 dresses, 1 skirt and two blouses and some pamplets to get inspired by...

Na Craga

2012-01-19T22:07:00.007+01:00

It´s been a while since I finished the knittingpart of my Na Craga sweather...as usual it´s the sew-it-together part and the weave-in-all-the-threads part that where missing

I joined a challenge ( Can´t resist a good challenge...) This one is for finishing one UFO / month and now januari is done.

Winter slippers 24/7

2012-01-04T07:26:00.003+01:00

I like to join challenges, I don´t have a tendency to follow them all way. Knitting 24/7 is a very nice book by Veronique Avery who has written a few more books and they are packet with very wearable clothes and accessories knitted in different tecniques and all looks very nice.
On Ravelry thereé a "Very Veronique" forum and this challenge came up there. The challenge is to knit 12 items from this book during this year and The Januari project is finished but is waiting for felting.
I used leftover yarn from the Na Craga sweather that of course I have not sewed together yet. 100g, 2 balls and some still left on the skeins

Resumé 2011 and goals for 2012

2011-12-21T18:04:00.002+01:00

Hmm my goals for 2011 was denim, lingerie and blouses and let´s face it;I blew it!!!
2011 will always be the pink year for me and due to the reduction finbding nice bras at good prices was easy so I might have spent a lot more than expected on buying lingerie. Denim....Let´s take it into next year...
blouses, I made one during the very nice sewing retreat organized by Åsa. I´ll take blouses with me for next year too!
I did a lot of sleeveless things though, due to medical stuff etc...bought a lot of cardigans too!

So the goals for 2012:
Focusing on a few key pieces
I want to make a Odd Molly look alike knitted blazer using my knittingmachine
A couple of nice dresses for summer
There is that sampler sweather from Rowan that I´ve saved to do for 20 years and I want to make it with handspun yarns on the knittingmachine
I would like some pieces that say "night", after work oriented that I could not wear to work, a little fancy stuff. I bought fabric for a blouse when visiting Annika and I will sew it next year.
You can´t have too many shawles!
More spinning
There is a Vivienne Westwood skirt that I like to make. I adore both her and her clothes!
I need a slip or two
Have fun!

Prada style socks

2011-12-17T09:28:00.004+01:00

I saw these socks from Prada´s fall fashion show earlier and thougt they where cool.

The first attemt top was not so good but the bottom rocks!

I have to weave in ends but don´t whey look great!?
They are knitted bottom up and then I reached the point there the braid would start I knitted the entire braid, then I picked up stitches at the sides and knitted the sock back and forward picking up stitches from the sides of the braid. On the curvy first sock I took one stitch/row but on the good ones ( there is two!) I knitted two of the picked up stitches together on every second row.I also added stitches mid back since my calves are quite wide
I used Drops Fabel and the braid is in Nepal

First machine knit item

2011-12-09T12:16:00.003+01:00

In Seattle I went to Churchmouse yarn and tea out on Bainbridge Island. A very nice place both the shop and the island!
I was going to try out Annikas knittingmachine and wanted something easy to start with. I used one of the stores own patterns an a Berocco yarn with alpacka in a rusty shade I think 5 balls...

I knitted the bodypart on the machine and it went fast...at home I did the border using the Camomille shawl pattern by Amimono and finally did a little cowl and 2 rows of crochet for the lower edge

It´s really a nice way to knit a poncho and it can be made in many different yarns and textures...stripes...fair isle etc etc.
If you ever read a book called " Snow is falling on Cedar" It takes place on Bainbridge Island but a fictional one.
There was also a great coffeashop Blackbird café there I had my best carrotcake ever this far...and I have had quite a few....

PR weekend Europe 2012 Barcelona

2011-12-09T08:55:00.001+01:00

I started a thread on PR about this as an event. go there and join the chat and please book your calenders

Sewing a la Colette

2011-11-27T17:48:00.005+01:00

So I bought a new book. I haven´t got it yet but like the Burda stylebook this one has patterns too and they cost the a same, at least from Adlibris, a swedish net book shop.
http://www.colettepatterns.com/shop/colette-sewing-handbook a link to the homepage of Colette patterns.
The patterns seems to be popular on the sewing blogs and I bought the beignet pattern when I was in the US and yesterday I washed the mustard corduroi that I intend to use for the first skirt....I also have to find all the patterns that I bought there and probably stored in a good place...

Stamps

2011-11-16T09:53:00.002+01:00

Look at these stamps. They are so nice that I might actually send a letter instead of an email!

Burdastyle sewing handbook

2011-11-12T11:27:00.004+01:00

I love Burda, the patterns and the fit is great! I know a lot of people are complaining about the lack of instructions.
This book has great instructions not only on how to sew but also how to alter a pattern to 2 different looks, the looks are created by members of the Burdastyle homepage.
There are pattern for a A-line skirt, a shirt, a dress, a coat and a bag and part from the 2 illustrated versions there are 14 more of each garment to get inspired by.
The patterns are sized 32-46.
For sewers of all ages and the perfect X-mas gift for a young sewer.

Studio

2011-11-04T16:39:00.002+01:00

My camera will not work so I can´t show you my KNITTING MACHINE!!!!
Hopefully I will have it up and running this weekend. It´s a brother medium knitter and I bought a new spongebar for it. They dont make brothers any more but a brand called Nova Knit works on brother machines so I can get supplies for it. The machine came with a lace carriage and a carriage that I can switch between four colors of yarn, and I can also do tuckwork, that means that some stitches are made through 2 rows.
All this stuff made me go for an idea I have been thinking about for a while and I now sleep in my livingroom and the bedroom is now only for sewing etc. Will probably work fine since I plan to keep all my crafty items in there.

Shopping in Seattle

2011-10-10T18:32:00.001+02:00

We have been to a lot of Goodwills and fabric stores and I've bought a lot of patterns and some fabric and notions. We have been to two Pacific fabrics, JoAnn and some more "creative" stores. We also went to a pearl fair.

This is from across Pike Place Market

and this I think is on 4:th avenue. It's Pumpkin cake and the latte is clamed to be the best in Seattle

Mill Creek Main Street Yarn

2011-10-06T22:57:00.000+02:00

I've been here only a short while but have already visited the local yarn store

and bought some yarn from a local artist. It's handdyed and contains wool, silk, nylon and silver and my plan is to mix it with a lace yarn in a matching color and knit it Camomille wise.

It's almost Halloween and pumpkins sales for 3 for 10$

and I also tested the local brew...in this case coffea...

Think Pink!

2011-09-29T14:18:00.003+02:00

It´s October and it´s time for breast cancer awarness again. And believe me this year I´m more aware than ever about it...
It´s time to donate money either just donate or buy any of those products that will share part of the profit to research.
In Sweden we have a tradition that the ribbon have a different patterns printed on them each year It´s an honor to do the design and there´s some symbolism in it. This year there are six different designs!

The desingers this year are Per Holknekt, one of the founders of Odd Molly ( you know my feelings for their clothes....) and his wife Lena Philipsson

Lena is a wellknown singer and performer who looked like this when she started out and the other thing she was known for then was that she sewed her own clothes!!!both for stage and private.

Anyway the symbolism of this year is the embrace and that breastcancer and that it affects both sexes, 3 of the designs are malish and 3 femalish.
Finally the flowers I got from my colleages at the formal salubration of my birthday

Georgeous!

Stil 23272 top

2011-09-11T16:11:00.002+02:00

I repin a lot of stuff on Pinterest and this top is one of my pins

I decided that I should sew it and had an Ottobre pattern in mind but found this dress while moving things in my sewing/bed room

and had a very different piece of fabric that was almost enought for the top I had to add a little seam on the back. I have no idea where this fabric came from nor the fibercontent. It does not have the drape of the original top but I have one more fabric that I want to make into this top, a vintage polkadot in blue given to me by a friend who found it at goodwill.

There´s been a lot of sewing lately but now I´m gonna work a couple of days.
The knife of my serger gave in yesterday so I removed it and are going to look for someone to sharpen it after work tomorrow, I believe that there is a place close to work.
I cut the top 21 cm under the mark for the ties and used ready made bias at the neck but I did not have to take in a little in the lower part of the armholes so next one will be made in a flash

Ottobre fall 2011 mod 7 Bubble pocket

2011-09-10T20:00:00.002+02:00

I fell in love with dress instantly and I even used one of my most cherished fabric in my stash, its a brown cotton with a little elasta in it and tiny light, light pink dots thats more or a seed starting to grow...
Bought in Paris on the PR weekend there almost 2 years ago. I had 3 meters and used almost all of it. I made the dress 6 cm longer at cutting and then I hemmed it I added a double border to add another 6 cm. Reduced it a little at the armholes and I omitted the zipper. The back facing is cut smaller due to the zipper and has to be cut with more allowances due to this. I had to make the back facing a little wider to due to puckering. I´m not sure if this is due to the little elastic in the fabric...
I love the pockets on this dress and want to make another one instantly.....

Crafty Karin goes friendship bracelets

2011-09-10T08:25:00.004+02:00

I´ve been making frienshipbracelets before but lately I´ve found some great ones on Pinterest tha lead me to this page with a lot of great patterns.
I use DMC floss for them but you can use any yarn, as an adult I like thin yarns but children can get great results with cotton knitting yarn. My plan was to bring this to do on the flight when I´ll be going to Seattle shortly I don´t thing anyone in airport security would mind...
I also decided that I need a new case for my camera so I did one in crochet very quilckly and topped it with a fancy botton from the stash.

I currently working on a dress from the latest Ottobre using one of my favourite fabrics that I was saving for a special project and it was worth the waiting. It´s one of the fabrics from the PR weekend in Paris. More on it later today...
You can also watch the MC Call dress fabric closeup here

Ottobre spring/summer 2011 mod 16, 5 and 7

2011-09-08T13:55:00.004+02:00

This design is kind of interesting, iy does not have shoulderseams; the front is extended into the back like some sort of facing and the front is double so it´s a different way to get into the neckline issue with making jersey tops at home. It works well and in this case the neckline is flattering.
The fun thing with this design are the sleeves. They are double and the upper part is garthered using the framilon to the under part that´s in the correct size

I sewed the framilon to the right side of the fabric in this case it should have been attatched to the wrong side

Then I sewed the sleeves together stretching as I sewed....

Works like wonders each time.
The fabric is rayon jersey the same as on the yoke on the Violet Rose top and since I did not have enought fabric I used a black mesh for the lining. If I would do this again I would probably use the regular sleeve. This is a fun sleeve but one top with it is enought

How to garther jersey with Framilon (invisable elastic)

2011-09-08T13:25:00.011+02:00

I used invisable elastic for lingerie and for stabilase the shoulder seams on knits but it took me many years to find out that the Framilon that so often are mentioned in Ottobres patterna where the same thing...and then it tock me some more years to decide to try it out and now I´m in love! It´s simple to sew, the result is great and you can get it almost everywhere even in Sweden...
I use the thin one that I guess is about 6 mm.
First you have to sew it to the part that is not going to be garthered and I prefer to do this with the 3-sted zig zag that propably has a totally different name in english. I sew it to the right side of the garment and just outside there the seam is going to be.

Then I pin the part that are going to be garthered to it right sides together and devide the ease with pins so the gartheres will be evenly over the area.

Now I sew the parts together...I´m not a skilled serger so I prefer doing this at first with my regular machine with slightly larger stitches like 3,5 mm.

When I came to the garthering part I stretch the fabric where the framilon is and continue sewing the entire seam

This is how it looks finished and the framilon is inside

so when I finally serge it it will be inside the seam but still doing the job as stabilizer.

And this is the finished top, the Violet Rose again in a grey rayon jersey for the yoke and som kind of ribbed knit of unknown fiber content for body and sleeves. Both fabrics are from Stof och Stil.

Ottobre fall 2011 Violet Rose ( mod 9 )

2011-09-02T16:50:00.002+02:00

I´ve always liked the models from Ottobre. They are very wearable but I have done very little from them. I have read a lot of times of the use of "Framilon tape" and Known for some time that it´s a brand name for invisible elastic. They use it to garther fabric and since that is one thing I don´t like I decided to try the method and it´s so great!!!!
Since it was a muslin I thought about making a night T-shirt so I had this fabric from the ugly fabric swap in Copenhaguen some years ago, I think it was Maria´s fabric and that the color wasn´t good for her.
I didn´t see until now that the yoke is supposed to be double so I tried a new method here to the Jalie way and it did only OK mostly due to that my fabric does not have any elastic length wise, but will work better next time...

Look at those garthers!
I will make a tutural for this!

Mc Call 5974

2011-09-02T16:37:00.004+02:00

Mc Call 5974...one of last years top rated pattern on PR and seen on many blogs and truly a great pattern, there are two versions one fakewrap and one singlepieced bodice. I made the last one and 3/4 sleeves in a striped fabric in dark green and black from the stash and I have no idea where I bought it, when and fibercontent...
This pattern is a Palmer Pletch pattern and that means that there are a lot of extra lines and instruction to fit the dress as you go ( and some before you start. There are extra wide sew allowances for this purpose and you know how I feel about sew alowances on the patterns...
i did some changes like raising the neckline some and adding extra fabric ( raising it a little bit more ) by doing the finishing different and taking in the side seams at chest level and about one cm at the front shoulders. This made it hard to set in the sleeves and if I should do it again ( I will; the wrap dress...) I will wait until the body is done and make changes to the sleeves before cutting them.
I also felt that the sleeve head was to high so I ended up using the sleevehead of a Jalie pattern.

This is how my dress looks and I think it will be a good transitional dress and a close up below:

Vogue 1250 DKNY dress

2011-08-20T12:40:00.002+02:00

Yeah! I had to try it too! and it is a great dress, and so fast to sew. This is my second attempt I wasn´t careful enought with the pattern so one of them came in a wrong position, I might shorten it to a top but not today.
I even got my serger to work, I changes the needles and threaded it correctly...

I made some changes, I needed the lowerpart bigger so I cut the pattern and spreaded it and I also added the extra for the seat. I later took that amount of fabric away and some from the back since there where a little too much fabric there.
I followed the instruction but stabilized the shoulder seam.
The fabric is bought in Copenhaguen at Stof2000 short after byuing the aqua fabric and my plan was to make a top from it, since it was 2 meters for 50 crowns sale I bought more then needed so there was enought for a dress.
I would not mind making this dress again in a very very nice fabric and I would not mind paying extra for it course this dress is worth it
Well...there is a reason why this pattern seams to be everyones favourite this season!

Burda 4/2011 mod 140, again!

2011-08-20T12:31:00.002+02:00

Aqua corduroi, not really my fabric but saw something nice in a knitting book and thought: why not? Aqua has been big this summer and I might as well sew the fabric and wear it late summer...early fall.
This version is true to the pattern, a pattern that I will through away now, there are many nice skirts out there to be sewed.
I used a sparebutton from a jeansjacket I think and couldn´t hammer it to hold so I used superglue, I can always replace it if it falls off.

The skirt is a bit wrinkled after wearing it to work ( started working halftime wedensday! YEY! )teamed it with a red top since I´ve seen many kitchens and quilts in that combo and I think I might prefer it in that matter...

Vogue 1236 take two

2011-08-13T10:48:00.003+02:00

A kind of retro knit from the 1,5 meters cuts at Stof and Stil.
I had to make the dress smaller at the chest so I scooped out the armcycle to the smallest size and then I took it in about 2 cm on each side ( total of 8 cm ) I shortened it to a top by folding the hem to the " make-it-longer-or-shorter-here-mark "
I did this at sewing camp and Vibeke had made 2 dresses from this pattern too and had a beautiful!!!! fabric for a third dress she was going to wear at a wedding later this month. This is such a great pattern!

Burda Plus spring/summer 2010 mod 424

2011-08-10T10:22:00.002+02:00

This shirt comes with some different looks but this one is 424 minus the pleated edge around the bib and I also made "real" plackets on the sleeves, the sizes run large.

Well it does not hang so well on AE...
I used a very soft pink cotton skirting bought at a small fabric shop in town that now is closed...The good thing is that we have an excellent notion store and I bought the buttons there ( I also looked at a Cover pro machine, just looked!)

I used a light blue grey thread for all the topstitching as well as the buttonholes, apart from the bib every seam is flatfelled

Burda 4/2011 mod 140

2011-08-08T20:30:00.004+02:00

I´ve been to a sewing camp for three days and got a lot of things done including this skirt. The first picture is of a flea market skirt I bought, it´s a kind of german/ austrian look in a really nice fabric; a corduroi in cotton/rayon in a beautiful green variagated color

I used Burda 4/2011 mod 40 and raised it in the back adding a mid back seam and layed the front on the buttoned frontpiece. The original skirt was lined with a polyester lining, I used that for the pockets and added a black rayon lining

I tried to save as much of the cute stuff from the original skirt like the button holes and the little fake pocket.

The skirt is really nice with the sewed pleats and a nice basic skirt that I might do again.
Love the buttons!!!!

Burda Plus 2001 mod 410

2011-08-03T21:57:00.003+02:00

This skirt is as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. It´s a basic A-line from an old Burda plus that I shortened alittle and made room for a slightly larger "derriere" in the back. The fabric is a cotton stretch twill and there´s a recycled rayon lining from the dress I made for the wedding last summer and is too big now.
There is a lamp to the right of the skirt that make the colors on that side a little weird. The skirt is pinned to the dressform.

I did a lot of work on the inside;part from label there are hanging loops and the facing is in the fashion fabric. ( I usually like to use quilters cotton here...

I like this model due to A-line= bycycleably and the contour waistband and there are a lot of colors in it that I can use to match tops.

Hot Pattern Primavera dress

2011-07-30T12:16:00.005+02:00

I liked the look of a lot of Hot Patterns patterns but they cost more than I normally would like to pay for a pattern and though there are some talks about the cut of their pants I´m actually very pleased with Burdas patterns and not have to do an FBA makes them a lot easier to sew. But since you should try everything at least once I bought this pattern and thought I could make a nice dress from it using my nice silk fabric I bought in Paris.

And this pattern might work for someone with the boobs on there back or a serious haunchback. After I tried it on I checked the pattern sheet and the back bodice is 4 cm longer than the front!

You can see the difference in this photo. This keeps the dress falling towards the front all the time.

I picked size by measurement and this does not give the dress the fit intended and I really don´t get the "thing" with the semiraglan sleeves, maybee they would be easier to sew if the sleeves where on straight grain and not on the bias.
So now I have two options; use the skirt part and make a skirt or redraw the back bodice and do a lot of ripping...and I must say not today...and since I´m doing radiation and working for two hours now I don´t need this kind of occupation to get the days to go faster.
The pattern envelope suggests making a muslin first. I do that sometimes but not for a semifitted dress like this. I think it´s better these things are checked before sale! This is a construction thing not a fitting thing.

Burda my love there are thou?

Burda 06/2010 mod 123

2011-07-22T21:02:00.002+02:00

The good thing about that a lot of people are blogging is that you notice things you shouldn´t vave noticed before. That was the thing with this dress. I saw this
post and thought the dresses where real cute and realiced that I must have that magazine.
This is my dress, it needs a slip ( does not really show that in the photo...)The fabric is a kind of crepe cotton bought in Paris

Very plain and simple front

but the back is kind of cool. There´s no shoulder seam at the shoulders and there´s elastic in it to get the look

Now I´m looking for some knits to make one or two tops from this pattern, nice fast, easy and fun....now off to the slip....silk I think....

Nygårds Anna copycat

2011-07-17T20:27:00.003+02:00

I love the work of Nygårds Anna Bengtsson, she makes clothes using the finest linen, wool and cotton and in beautiful natural shades, inspired by Swedish folklore. This top or dress cought my eyes as a shortsleeved dress in the window

I used a very basic Onion pattern to draft a pattern from and a white linen from the stash, not at all the nice quality of the original dress and this wearable muslin is what I made:

I will have to make some changes before cutting the dress, on thing is that it it cut to low, there is a limit to how much cleavage I would like to show and this is way too far...I´m gonna make a little "modesty panel" to cover up and I will also clean the mirror!!!!!!!!!!!

Finally a photo of the fabric for the dress that will be washed tomorrow

I used some decorative stitches on the sleeves but should have stabilazed the fabric for a better result, but I think the blouse is kind of cute and will look good with almost everything and you can´t have too many white blouses...

Simplicity 3786

2011-07-14T08:45:00.003+02:00

This pattern came in my possesion a while ago and I liked both of the looks; the wrap and the pintucks, decided to go for view E ( top right) and used a skirting in very light blue and the combination was not so good....

You might not agree with me ...but it looks a lot what dentists and their nurses wear to work in Sweden but properly styled I might feel different about it.

The pattern is great! it has a lot of reviews on PR and it´s easy to sew. I have plans for view C too ( mid left) and making it longer into a dress in maybee linen.
And if I ever will go to a football game this is what I will wear, the color is the same as the local team shirts or I might wear it to work when they are playing...

McCall´s 5425

2011-07-06T10:06:00.003+02:00

This is a pattern I had in my stash for a while, I bought it after seeing some nice dresses and had this fabric in mind back then. It´s a cotton crincled fabric in colors that I really like but is hard to find in stores.
Resently I´ve been seeing som tops simular in style so I decided that it was time for this pattern!

The dress is super easy to sew but there is a two piece back and it has shaping at the waist

Vogue 1236 DKNY dress

2011-07-06T09:59:00.003+02:00

I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it and ordered a copy. I liked the simplicity of the dress, the way the stripes behave at the neckline and that I can wear a bra under without peeking out.

I used a cotton sateen stretch fabric and started by sewing the pleats down, they where supposted to be basted, but I actually prefer them my way so no ripping...

Detail of neckline, looks great in plaid but will work in any fabric and my plan is to make a top from it too. This is going to be a favourite pattern!!!

It´s all about the label

2011-06-28T08:16:00.004+02:00

I´ve been thinking of buying labels for a long time but it never happened due to I did not know what they would say. When I finally decided I wanted my name and DIY in some combination but when I was ordering this came into my mind and I like it a lot.I wanted to avoid the word "design" mainly becourse to over use an I´m more of a copycat. Malmö is the town where I live, Skåne is like the county and Världen means the world.

There where different options in color and styles and you could add little motives like a sheep too. They came like this and they look really really good as you can see in the first photo.

My chemo is over and I´m waiting for radiation to start and then a plan to go back to work.
The day after my fifth chemo my mother had a stroke so I´ve spent a lot of time at my parents house. She was transfered from the hospital thursday and is now at a nursing home there she will get proper training and we hope that she´ll be home before the summer is over. It´s a little hard to explain the swedish system here but the home care system is very good and they will get help to make changes in the house so she can access at least the bathroom with a wheelchair ( in the beginning) and hopefully later a walker.
She is improving all the time and saturday she could for the firts time squeese the right hand...

The facts that you need less clothes if you don´t work and that I´ve been away from home for a lot of time makes sewing-knitting-etc low. I´ve been knitting socks for fall and this is really not my thing and the ones I finished yesterday will have to be frogged.
What I really want to do is try the Jalie method of binding knits and the first weekend of august I´m going to a sewingcamp and hopefully I have some ideas of what I would like to wear this fall by then.

GI Jane ready for action

2011-05-29T09:10:00.005+02:00

I really love this dress I think it´s a good transitional dress and that suites the weather here now...

And there´s some details of the pockets and sleeves

I haven´t been doing this kind of sewing for a long time so it was fun to know that I still has the skills
Right now I´m refashioning my Onion goes Chanel jacket by taking of the hood and changing the trim to a more stand out way and using the fabric from the hood to add pockets, a lot of hand sewing but portable. I also bought fabric for a new jacket ( why use your stash??....) and are doing a lot of knitting.

Oh! I entered the dress in the PR knock off competition and there are some really nice prices so please vote for me....or for someone else of the nice items....

Livstycket

2011-05-20T11:45:00.004+02:00

Every museeum has to have a shop and so did Möllegården.
I found this very nice dress made by Livstycket
I known about livstycket for a long time and am really impressed with the work they do. I linked to the english site. Please take some time and read about them!

This is a close up on the screen printed panel:

Is it dutch Sigrid?
At least I know it´s linen and that I´ll be proud wearing it!

Möllegården

2011-05-20T11:28:00.007+02:00

Möllegården is located just outside of Malmö and are dedicated to folk costumes and you can buy material for making your own or maybee buy one.
Here you can se different aprons from different part of Skåne ( the county down south in Sweden )

Even if I am interested in this kind of sewing it was not what made me go there.
Í saw in the paper that the swedish tailor organisation was having an exibition there and these clothes are from it. really some neat details, I love the dress and chanel jacket in coordinating fabric!
The last picture is theatre costumes from The merry widow from our local theatre when Ingmar Bergman worked there.
Enjoy!

GI Jane or Where have all the flowers gone?

2011-05-14T09:01:00.004+02:00

The 19 buttondress are in progress and I´m adapting a Burda shirt dress with mixed results, my main problem right now is that I can´t "shoot from the hip" It´s to tight there and it should not be according to measurement and I don´t have the energy to find out how it happened. I just know how I will deal with it.
I will also rip the seam on the right pocket flap that I´m not content with

I added some glamour on the left side with a batch and have one more for the sleeve that I´m currently working on.

And here´s where the flower went

There´s alot of stitching and since I´m making flat felled seams a little more to consider and a lot more timeconsuming but fun and I like the result. I bought 3 meters of fabric at first but had to go back for a little more and came home with another additional fabric that I will have to wash before I can finish the dress

This is a picture from the other day when I took a walk to alocal market for groceries. Feel the smell?

Na Craga

2011-05-07T16:43:00.003+02:00

I wanted a classic Aran for ages and bought this yarn called Navia at the sale, it´s mixture of faroese, shetlandic and australian lambs wool. A nice 3 ply that knits nicely on needles 4,5.
I borrowed Alice Starmore´s book at the library and will soon add it to my own library. I fell in love with this model instantly and even though this yarn is thicker than my usual preferences I like knitting with it. I payed 200 dkr for 20 balls. a very good price!

Sad news

2011-04-23T09:44:00.002+02:00

My favourite yarnstore in Copenhaguen are closing down.
They start 50 % sale on tuesday and that just happened to be the day I´ll be in town...
I got money (in danish crowns) from my colleagues to spend on a luxury day in Copenhaguen or yarn, fabric etc. The good thing is that it´s identical for me;-)
I will also look for green or kaki fabric for the dress. I have a rather large "collection" of hammer-on-buttons from various items, the ones when you get a spare one in a little bag, so the plan is to use them for the dress so all buttons will be different.
Wishing you all a happy easter, I´m at my parents house and we are combining dad,s birthday dinner with easter.
The weather is really nice and I spend a lot of time sitting in the sun.

19 button dress

2011-04-12T18:34:00.004+02:00

I saw this dress in a magazine in light wash denim and decided I wanted one but in army green or maybee something like on this picture. It´s a Tommy Hilfiger dress and have some nice details like the bands on the sleeves and the pockets. and a lot of buttonholes to sew....

Fabric shopping

2011-04-12T08:31:00.002+02:00

Not beeing able to attend PR weekend in Bryssels last weekend did not stop me from shopping for fabrics ( or yarn for that matter...)
Very close to my parents house is a huge fabricstore. They have a lot of crap or should I say used to have a lot of crap, I think due to change of ownership it has been better. Fabrics are arranged due to color and most things are not marked with fiber content. There´s a lot of old fabrics and I think they by leftovers, but the pricing is rather fair and last week I found a trolley with shirtfabrics, probably of italian origin and they where going to be folded and put in the shelves there they would disappear...sadly...
I bought 2 2 meters pieces and went back the day after for more
from left
Yellow chambray type of fabric
Light blue twill weave
Red shirtstripe
Brown green stripe that I had in my stash for years and made a very nice blouse with last fall, of course with FBA...saved the buttons I used tealish mother of pearl buttons and I know this will work with teal piping. It´s almost like not buying any fabric...
Pink shirting from a fabric store in Malmö
Flowery fabric for a blouse, it´s the same fabric as for my dress for the wedding that I mad last summer but with a different print and a totally different price...
Today I´m going to do some alterations and finishing including hemming a dress I made 10 ? years ago???
and I have rotated the furniture a little more...

McCall 5586

2011-04-11T20:54:00.003+02:00

I rarely use other patterns than Burda and Onion but this pattern came into my stash last year I think

It´s now out of print, but I like it I think it makes nice summer tops and could easily be made into dresses.
This fabric a rayon print I found at the attic a couple of months ago and has apparently been cut in some kind of wrapdress that I did not want today

I did not want the brown border but needed it for the backing of the yoke and I used my mean ironing machine to attach it, works like a charm everytime!!!

I read a review that said that it was big under the arms so I decided to sew the side seams last and when trying it on it was very big and low cut so I used my quilters ruler and cut off 4 cm at top tapering to pattern width at hem. The top is also shortened by 6 cm

When going through all the stuff from the wardrobe clean out I found that I used to do really nice stuff and lately I´ve been sewing fast so I decided it was time for a change so to try something new I did french seams at the sides that provides a clean finish.
I have plans to add "crafty" stuff to the yoke. Let´s see if I have time tomorrow to go shopping for some.
I spent the day reorganizing or redecorate my sewing/bedroom for making sewing easier and more fun.

Cleaned out the closet

2011-03-29T12:29:00.001+02:00

And there are two more boxes...and maybee some more...
New start!

Green of Envy shawl

2011-03-28T22:49:00.002+02:00

A shawl in a colorway and style that I´m really fond of from the start.
I had 2 hanks of Lorna´s lace´s sockyarn in Envy that I payed to much for...I never liked the colorway and tried to knit socks but no love. Finally mixing it with green alpacka toned down the variagations in it. There are a brighter green to and the beige border is a danish yarn containing merino and mohair.

LIKE LIKE LIKE

At the fair

2011-03-27T13:36:00.007+02:00

It´s been the annual Sewing fair in Malmö and as usual I did not take many pictures and as ususal the South Swedish handicraftorganisation brought great things to show

Some of these are old and some new samples of south swedish wool embroidery, the stitches are stemstitch, chainstitch and the satin stitch is done so the "satin" is only on the outer part of the cloth, to save yarn.
Here´s my attemt to do this, a style that I like so much

Lingerie revival

2011-03-21T17:35:00.005+01:00

When it comes to bras I have actually nothing to wear and since the time thet I will need somthing is coming closer.
I bought a bra and pantie that does not fit me properly and I´m going to re sew the cups of it on a nice day... Anyway I used the cup that I modified a little and my old bra band that I liked and made two bras. This is the second bra in a kind of retro style:

The panties are from the latest Ottobre and I added a 5 cm/ 2 inches band of the grey fabric to match the bra:
This is the first bra in white with a lace that has light light pink roses

I used all lace so I could not make any matching panties for it.
Here is another pantie from the ottobre pattern in a flowery fabric. I think it matches the old pantie in pink that I used to have a matching bra for...That fabric is from Elingeria and I´m going to order some more to make me another one

I also been knitting. I bought two hanks of Lorna´s laces Envy yarn a long time ago and did not like it, but here I´m mixing it with a green Drops alpacka ( that I must go and buy one more ball for tomorrow )The plan is to add a lace border in a lighter green or a tan that I have in my stash. Alpacka have a tendency to lose it´s shape but mixing it with a sockyarn will hopefully make it more stable.

Nan Hedenrå

2011-02-27T22:15:00.002+01:00

I think I+m rather known for my fleamarket finds and that I think that a lot of things need a good home like mine...
The other day I found alot of lacemaking supplies including a lot of patterns all marked to be designed by Nan Hedenrå. A search on google does not help, this woman is unknowen to cyberworld.

I haven´t been doing this for years but now I have some time and some of the patterns are not even pierced...
Still don´t know who Nan was. There is one man by the name of Hedenrå though but his wifes name was not Nan. I´m thinking of giving him a call.
There are differnt ways of doing laces, these patterns are of Vadstena type , in Skåne there I live laces are made on striped fabric and in Dalarna they are made on plaid fabric ...or the other way around.
In the boc there where a lot of "stars" or small tablecloths that I think I could use on blouses as ornaments so I might be at it again!

Shopping spree

2011-02-13T18:36:00.002+01:00

I´ve been doing some fabric shooping the other days. First I bought the babycorduroi in aqua that I´m gonna make a skirt from, take a look at the Ottobre skirt on the next picture. The other two are knits that I´m going to make something nice from maybee with a empire cut. I bought the knits in Copenhagen and the fact that one of them matched the corduroi was a happy coinsident.

I also got 4 yards of viscose lining fabric and tuesday I booked the laundry room to get them all prewashed.
I wonder why Ottobre never can tell how long the skirts are, it would be a big help when buying fabric.
Aqua is nothing I have in my closet but a skirt for spring is always nice...

Fair Isle shawl

2011-02-13T13:19:00.002+01:00

I did this before new year and I´ve used it a lot!
I always had a fear for fair isle but working with Kauni wool was easy. The yarn is variagated so I´ve used two colorways and some extra yarn for the back of the border ( Rauma Finull)

Right now I´m working on a cardigan with some fair isle knitting as well and using alpacka is a very different thing when it cames to doing stranded work.
The shawl is done in the round and cut open. It´s a ravelry pattern but the borders are my own.

DeFBAing clothes

2011-02-09T20:35:00.002+01:00

I did some very nice shirts this fall, draping the front to make sure the bust dart was the correct size and correct position. These shirts now add to my button stash...
The summer dress that I whore for the wedding will be dartless and altered and I praise all the clothes I made being too lazy to do any FBA and digging out my empire cut disasters and thinking of giving the Kwik Sew Wrap Top a new chance.
Will start work again on monday ( Yey!!!!) and have an appointment with my new doctor;the onkologist on thursday to discuss and plan chemo. My need for clothes are very small right now but I´m working on my second chemo hat a 70-style something in crochet. I have to reload my camera and show you pics. The first one is a simple 2K2P hat in drops new alpack silk baby yarn.
I also started a yoke cardigan. I need thin cardigans for work in the summertime. This one uses the alpacka silk yarn too and some alpacka for the Fair Isle parts.

Left over yarns

2011-01-19T09:30:00.003+01:00

House of Dagmar is a swedish clothingcompany. I saw this sweather in a magazine and did not realise that it was so short, but I did not intend to buy it anyway I just thought it was a good inspiration for leftover yarns

Sew along

2011-01-17T08:11:00.002+01:00

I love to join a lot of things like sewalongs!
I joined a bra-panty sew along there I will save the bras for later and start with making panties. I recently bought a couple of "Sloggi" panties and they are so great!!!!I+ve forgotten how great they are. I think Sloggi is a scandinavian thing and at half price it´s OK to buy some. I also bought 2 bras at the supermarket to wear during the healing period, 10 euro fot two, really dull boring stuff. I´m supposted to wear a bra over the comfort bra that I´ll be wearing 24/7.
PR has a yearly one garment a month sew along and I+ll have my own verion of that that include finishing items and update the fit in different ways. I´m starting with a bolero top that´s to big over the chest and that I just bought.

Whatever happened to 2010?

2011-01-14T18:13:00.002+01:00

When I wrote in January last year about my ambitions for this year I wrote:
Lingerie
Denim sewing and distressing
Basic and not so basic shirts
Make myself nice summer work clothes
Going to Copenhaguen for more knittingcafée knitting
Finishing a few knitting projects
Chanel 2.55 sewing
And the results are:
Lingerie, yes I did a lot of that!
Denim sewing and distressing, Yes I sewed a lot of denim and liked it but the distressing part did not go so well
Basic and noy so basic shirts, made one
Nice summer work clothes, I bought some but I made one nice dress
Going to Copenhagen for knittingcafées. Yes I did and made som new friends
Finishing a few knitting project. Yes I did, I finished I frogged and I threw
Chanel 2.55 sewing Yes!!!!

Goals for 2011:
Denim goes on
Lingerie
Blouses

My real goal for 2011 is getting well from the breastcancer that I was diagnosed with the day before New Years Eve and operated for two days ago. The operation included a breast reduction so FBA will be a thing of the past...

Paper craft

2010-12-17T12:40:00.002+01:00

As a sewer, knitter and a lot of other things I collect a lot of stuff that will be good for something sometime. Years ago I bought a tall chest of drawers size of a paper. Half of it; size wise is very shallow about 1,5 inch and the others about 4 inches, I´ve been keeping some order here like buttons in two of the drawers. The other week I decided to do something about it so I garthered all heavy paper from corn flakes boxes etc and started making little custum boxes

It´s a lot of work but I like the result. Of course I got some help from a friend at the beginning, a friend that´s not with me any more. Gorbatjov died two weeks ago,almost 18 years old. Found this picture when loading my camera and smiled becourse it was so typical him...

Finally internet

2010-12-13T20:50:00.002+01:00

After beeing out of ínternet at home I´m finally connected again and will be able to load all the pictures from my camera and start blogging again. I finished a beatiful an warm shawl in fair Isle that I partically proud of since fair isle has been not really my thing...I also finished my bohus sweater and it´s gorgeous! More to come in a couple of days

Fiber Vacation ends

2010-10-24T17:52:00.002+02:00

My fiber vacation ends today.
This is what have happened:
There´s a hole in my finger due to to much knitting, resting
The mermaid yarn is ready, keeping it single and are going to knit a shawl ( as if I lack of them...)
One skirt is finished and one more that I will hemmed tonight
A jacket i half finished, need to find that purple lining and finish it
2 blouses ready
I bought an Elnapress, for the first time in a long time I have no interest in learning to master sew in interfacings.
Baby owl sweater finished
2 bras finished ( one was only the eye and hook band...)
I passed a lot of things to the garbage, things that I cut out, sometimes started or never started to sew.
I worked out a god basic T-shirt pattern that fits me
I spend a lot of time on the internet...

There´s a lot less things laying around in my sewing/bedroom and it will be so much easier to start on my pants tomorrow.
And I really enjoy going back to work so I can apply for next vacation
and when "real" computer is back there will be pictures!

Computer crash

2010-10-17T19:34:00.002+02:00

My computer crashed and when getting the bag to put it in for trip to doctor aka brother I found my old computer and it´s very low on memeory and keep remainding me of that every 10 minutes or so. It´s also very laod, you can actually hear it work and I think watching episodes of Power sewing is out of the question so when I´m not sewing, knittin, spinning I browse old issues of Threads and are finding old memories an real treasures.
I made myself one more blouse, almost done, using a Patrones pattern that I had to change due to lack of fabric, some ruffles hade to go and since I´m really entusiastic about piping I added some piping as a contrast but now I´m having second thoughts if it makes it looks like a pyjama...
I also have a skirt cut out, a lovely striped cotton in purple with pink and some other colors in the stripes and some texture too, really a favourite, bought in Paris.
Now I planned to line it and I wanted a pink lining and that´s no problem...the problem is that I want a rayon/ viscose lining. I really wish there where a store in my town with a large selection of this type of fabric. So I´ll probably not line it.
I talked about my love for Odd Molly before and they have some really nice details in collection that are not the first thing you see due to all the colors and stuff, I´ve seed underskirts that are buttoned to the side of the outer skirt and also can be worn seperate and that´s my intension. Is underskirt a proper word or should it be slip??

Mermaid yarn

2010-10-14T11:15:00.002+02:00

Wool from Spinderiet in Helsingor ( Denmark )

Black jeans skirt

2010-10-14T11:01:00.005+02:00

I was importing pictures from my camera and I have no pics of the shirt ( all buttoned ) so here´s one of the jeans skirt instead:

It´s nailed to the dummy and I used a basic 8 gore skirt from an old Burda Plus, very basic and made pockets in the side panels using quilters cotton to line them.
All the seams are flatfelled using a jeanstread in a color that I think is the proper color for that purpuse ( stof och stil ) The rivets are from Prym and reversible so there´s one side that´s silver also.

Had a little accident doing the topstitching

Is now repared by handstitchin a new piece of fabric to cover it up.
For the waist treatment I used Petersham band. After Sandra Betzina´s article in Threads years ago I found a small fabricstore in the basement of an optimistic womans house that was closing down and they had curved Petersham so I bought 20 meters and still have some left.
The denim is from Stof och stil, theire 10 oz black unwashed that I washed myself but I really prefer the prewashed they sell.

Notion shopping

2010-10-12T21:23:00.002+02:00

I bought my buttons today and after seeing a lot of Sandra and Ron I was curious about wondertape and using wooly nylon on the bobbin when hemming knits with twin needle ( They have a lot of great tips in those shows). My local dealer Greger had it all! and some more things. The store is small, crowded but boy do they have things in there...Now I want to find the steam a seam light narrow thing that they use and the gauge to measure placement of buttons and buttonholes with.
I started a jeans skirt using 10oz black denim and doing flatfelled seams and everything. In David Page Coffins book on trousers he has a great way to install a zipper with a fly. I been using it a couple of times and the step by step instructions makes it easy.
the flatfelling of the seams are glued using my regular craft glue. I sew the seam using 2 cm seam allowance, press it open. the one that will be folded over are pressed down to half and the other one is cut of leaving about 5 mm fabric, then I add some glue to the overlapping part and press it over and press using my finger. Easy to sew and stays in place.
I bought a flatfeller for jeans, I think it´s a 9 mm that´s available for my Viking machine but I think that I have more control doing it without it.

Buttons wanted

2010-10-12T09:46:00.002+02:00

I finished everything but the buttonholes and the buttons yesterday. Will take a walk later to get some.
The shirt ( there will be pictures later) is a mens skirt style and quite roomy. I will probably wear it over a dress or skirt and top. I´m really proud of my sewing that I put into this one. I used David Page Coffins book as referens and the Burda plus pattern from the spring-summer issue with the bib. I omittet the bib and did a FBA that turned out to be to small so I kind of draped it on me and pinched the new dart that I later ripped and made shorter.
Everything is made properly on this shirt, the yoke is turned, the seams are flatfelled and the collar is made using DPC´s method of sewing the collar band to the skirt and adding the collar last so the last seam will be on the "underside" of the collar, not as I did before the wrong side of the collar band to the body.
I joined Powersewing this weekend and in one of the lessons they show a cool way to do the collar that I think is better so now I´ll have to do a new shirt...
I finished a jeans skirt the other week, same as the beige one in the review gadget but it much to big so yesterday I traced a new skirt pattern and are going down to the basement to cut it out now.

And I did the macig touch on the iron...I turned it of, let it cool and yurned it on again and voila!

Blouse delayed...

2010-09-16T10:45:00.003+02:00

I used to sew all the time, really ALL the time, I probably spend as much time with fiber today but in some way that does not count.
A nice way about blogging is that I have documented all, or almost all of my projects so I can see that I have made some things and some nice things too, but still, since it´s been a while since I felt that I challenged myself and I getting more spare time with my new job I want to start sewing for "real" again so yesterday I cut a blouse from a really nice stripe, white with pink and tan in the pattern, After interfacing the plackets for the cuffs today...my iron probably broke... so here I´m sitting all dressed up and no place to go...
I bought David Page Coffin´s book on shirt making earlier and I´m using it and are going to make flat felled seams and everything.

First home spun home knitted item

2010-09-12T12:34:00.002+02:00

I´m making progress on my first homespun sweather this is the yarn 2 ply

I started knitting a KAL on Ravelry but all the installments where so chatty that I got tired reading them so I switched to EZ knitting without tears that usually all these kind of patterns are based at and recalculated it from the top. I think the percentage works really well and I´m planning to use it more in the near future.
Anyway to make the increases as a design feature I did yarn overs to get the holes

This is the sweather so far, need to spin some more ( and buy some more wool ) to be able to continue and eventually finish it.

For my birthday a friend gave me this:

Cute right? well I thought it was something more to it and I felt a button in the middle of the back and thought it would sound like a sheep if I pressed it...it did not! Well maybee it´s a magnet so I can put it on my fridgedoor...it was not!
After 2 weeks I found out what it was:

Fast, fun skirt

2010-09-12T08:27:00.003+02:00

I was at my local fabric-yarn store for a visit from Hedmankvist, a new yarn manufactor with interesting yarns that are mixed in most of their designs. I bought two skeins to try out but on my way out I saw this light teal-aqua crincled hemp and bough some, my first intension was to make a wide straight skirt with some kind of elastic fabric over the hips so I went to my not favourite fabricstore and found a piece that was almost the samt shade. But then I changed my mind.
I used Burda 2010/07/138 what is really a slightly flaired skirt with elastic waist and hem, made it shorter and made the hemp fabric wider. pulled it tigether to fit the lining, sewed them together and then moved the lining 1/4 to the side before attaching them at waistline.So now I have fabric for a matching top.
My plan is to enter the PR accessoires contest of september and making, bags, shawls and maybee a belt to turn it into 4 outfits. That´s a plan...

It can happen to you too!

2010-09-05T13:00:00.002+02:00

We have a local fleamarket here in Malmö during the warmer part of the year; every sunday on one of the squares people can rent a spot and sell whatever they don´t want any more, and other might find things they never thougt they would need. Today I spotted this:

How much do you want for the rock? I asked with a calm voice.
50 said the man ( that´s 5 euro!)
Can I look at it?
Sure!
Do you have any more spools for it?
No, it´s just that, people usually want them to decorate their homes, I don´t know if it´s working
I know and it does. I take it!

Closeup on the flyer and orifice.
It needs an handyman or a couple of plugs and some oil

And now I´m going away to a sewing meeting arranged by a woman on a swedish sewingsite. It´s outside Klippan, so I´m gonna go early and visit the spinnery´s outlet

New Onion

2010-09-01T17:20:00.005+02:00

I must admit that I have a small collection of Onion Patterns and they have some new out right now and I´m getting two
The first one is this coat:

and Stof and stil, my local fabric store chain has two fabrics that I like this season, one, a cotton kind of quilted beige will be excellent with this pattern. The other a fake fur will be useful as accent for this anorak:

and I might even get this "old" jacket pattern too:

and since I´m actually starting to see the table surfice of my sewing area right now, I might get sewing again soon. Looking forward to it!

Lacemaking in Tönder

2010-08-22T22:49:00.003+02:00

Tönder is full of little cute houses and famous for it´s doors

I have pics of one or two of them too but here´s more cute houses

Tönder is also famous for it´s lacemaking and there´s a lacemaking featival every three years and sorr it was in june, but you can attend the museum on the main street

They sold pins for winding up thread on and I never seen such a variaty of styles

Goodibag

Spinderiet in Helsingör

2010-08-21T15:36:00.003+02:00

I spent a couple of days on Jyttland, I think that is the English word for it. I went to Fanö, rented a bike and visited a very nice yarnshop and I also went to Christel Seyfarth´s shop and was amazed over her knitting, she sells kits and my favourite shawl had 21 colors in it but was a 8 row repete I think. I went over the border to do some bordershopping ( that´s swedish for stocking up on alcohol!) But I also bought Burda, september issue not out in Sweden yet and there on page 17 is MY shawl!
On the way back I went to Helsingör to buy some fiber for spinning...and did I shop:

The little lilac, aqua and other colors was a blend she had made herself

and today I spun singels from it, and my plan is to Navajo ply them

I also started to spin singels from the big thing, it´s 600 grams

and I made my first try on Navajo ply. This is not it!
I found a tutural on youtube a while ago and searched for it again since I forgot how to start, it did not go to well until I figuered out where to put the finger and it did not go to well then either and that´s when I hear her say, " not suitable for mohair...and I was plying mohai and Leister.
Then I decided that I will practice the Navajo and I really don´t need a homespun single for that so I found a ball tha looked good on the skein but did not knit up well, but it made me realice how to do the technique.

Najvajo ply is a three tread ply from the same single there you kind of crochet the singles to get 3 treads. A really nice thing to do since you can use all yarn and you only need two bobbins instead of three. ( I really need to buy more bobbins!
Tomorrow I will ply the lilacy yarn and will be back with more photos

Ekelund, master weavers

2010-08-08T20:47:00.005+02:00

For a long time I wanted to go to Bohusläns museum to take a look at the bohus sweathers and the other day I was having breakfast and said to myself; you can drive there and back in one day, but on the way home I went by Borås. Borås is the mercantile area in Sweden and there are a lot of outlets here. It was the sign that said Coffea 5 kr that made me stop at Ekelund´s Go take a look, you can choose a lot of languages there!

The most common of there line are probably there towels. I think almost every swede has one of them or given them away as agift. They also made art with this tecnique

They call it the rainbow collection and all the colors are in the warp and you can change pattern in a couple of minutes, you can also get your custom towel! Apparently it´s cheaper than printing a pattern. I´m sure they describe this better on their webpage than I would ever be able to do...
Anyway part from the outlet they also had a little museum showing two looms

This one was for the jacuard weaving

that can look this beautiful!

I bought two towels with cats on them and no, I did not get any coffea, they where closing down...
Ekelund is located in Horred on the way from Borås to Varberg

Green Meadow

2010-07-27T18:40:00.003+02:00

I found this Bohus replica of Green Meadow in thrift store the other week. The yarn in this one is shetlandic wool, not the merino angora like in the most common yoke sweathers.
It´s probably knitted from a kit in recent years and very small and I might rip it and use the yarn to make tam, mittens and maybe a scarf

The cats belong to my spinning teachers, but I couldn´t resist showing it

Last picture of the dress

2010-07-25T14:58:00.002+02:00

The dress made it all the way to the wedding and after weeks and weeks of sunshine the clouds sprung open and it rained, was windy and cold on this day that was supposed to be sunny!
This is probably the only picture on this blog with me in it, here with mum, dad and my brother

Onion 2023

2010-07-24T06:35:00.002+02:00

Dress is finished, the picture looks the same but the bed isn´t made up yet... The wedding is today and we are hoping for nice weather.
Now I´m planning on making one more dress or tunik with the other sleeve variation.

Dress progress

2010-07-18T19:13:00.003+02:00

I did some sewing today and as always Onion patterns are so good! I love the shape of the neckline!

The sleeves are not attached and the lower part of the yoke has to be attached and I need some more fabric over the "B" area have un extra 2 cm in the sides.
I like the sleeve shape too but they need a fabric that does not need ironing.
If I could change one thing it should be a one piece totaly flat back, this one looks the same as the front omitting the plunge...

Teal clapotis scarf

2010-07-12T08:59:00.005+02:00

I probably woun´t be needing it for a while but at least it´s ready. Avery easy and fast project even if large size needles not are my no 1 option.

Dress report

2010-07-11T14:25:00.001+02:00

Didn´t buy enough lining, have to wait to monday...to hot to do anything anyway.....

"wedding" dress

2010-07-10T19:42:00.003+02:00

I started on the dress today, did the FBA to the pattern, bought the lining and washed it. I´m a little short on the flowery fabric so I will have to use another fabric for the inside of the yoke.
I cut the outer fabric and added silk organza to the back of the yoke pieces, this is a rather new tecnique to me but one that I favour a lot since it´s nice and soft yet gives the fabric some stability. I have light green and dark gray organza at home and the first one worked this time. I handstitched it to the outer fabric and treat them as one piece from now on.
It´s so hot here, but I will try to do some sewing early tomorrow.
Today is my birthday and I´m salubrating drinking Cava ( saving the money for fabric and fiber...)

"Babsan" * two

2010-07-06T20:18:00.003+02:00

I got this wool with my wheel, it´s of unknown breed, probably a cross between two, but her name is "Babsan". "Babsan" is a very popular dragqueen with astrong sence of personality and her name is really Lars-Åke Wilhelmsson. Not only does he do "Babsan" He also makes her clothes ( and clothes for other theatre productions )

Her she is with the swedish prime minister ( to the left) in her usual hairdo. She/ he has a homepage I stole the picture from it. Go there to her her sing and look at cool outfits!
I´ve washed the wool and have started carding it and no, I will not dye it pink!

Spinning around

2010-07-04T18:50:00.003+02:00

This is how I spent my weekend!

650 stitches

2010-07-03T06:49:00.004+02:00

Nobody is more macho than Börje Salming! At least not in Sweden. After a long career as Hockeyplayer in Canada he came home, started a underwear company and appeared himself in the first commerseal scanning his body only wearing the underwear and reporting how many stitches he had and adding the underwear. This year he published a cookbook on bbq and look at his hand! He´s wearing SAMIBRACELETS!

I´m a spinner!

2010-06-30T10:26:00.005+02:00

I´ve been thinking about it for a while and then we did the Öresund tour I bought some fiber and my friend Anna-Karin (she´s akastuff on ravelry)gave me a lesson and I did this on her Loët. It´s shetlandic wool.

This weekend I´m gonna take a beginner class at "Den gamla skolan" close to Malmö ( Den gamla skolan means "the old schoolhouse") We are going to wash and preper the fiber for spinning all the way and I´m looking forward devoting the entire weekend for fiber purpuses.
The sell Kromski spinners and I´m interested in this Symphony model:

Kromski´s are made in Poland are supposed to be really good!
To add to the discussion of spinster and female jails...in sweden when a cat purrs we say he "spinner" spinns.

Party dress

2010-06-30T10:13:00.006+02:00

I´m attending a wedding later this summer. The cermony will be at the beach and the reception at the grooms parents house, that are close to the beach. I wanted a summery flowery dress and seached the fabric stores for a suitable fabric. We don´t have that many fabric stores and I found this fabric at one of my favourites. It´s a italian cotton fabric with some structure, a little crincle, and I like the colors

I´m going to use this Onion pattern, the same as the girl is wearing in the drawing but a little longer and I will have add a lining.

The lime green of the flowers coordinates with my lime "Citron" and if my foot doesn´t improve my Scholl sandals are lime green too!

Fabrics

2010-06-13T19:41:00.004+02:00

I´ve been buying fabrics in Paris a lot of times, but never was there so much that appealed to me as this time, one fabric is missing on the photo, a geometric kind of black bottom fabric in cotton. The black retrolike fabric was marked polyester, then I found one that was marked viscose. Then I decided that there where a lot of nice dressed in the latest Burda and I needed a fabric under anyway so I bought it...the viscose of course!
From the left: Brown wool in a very tiny herringbone weave, shirtfabric with pink and tan stripes, have some lycra in it, print in Odd Molly kind of shade and a structured fabric bought in a fabricstore in another area, just passing by... the retro viscose--polyester fabric and a stripe purple with structure.

Le comptoir

2010-06-12T15:28:00.003+02:00

I searched yarn stores on Ravelry before going to Paris and one that I actually visited vas Le Comptoir.
The interior was from ca 1861 and this is what I want my dreamkitchen to look like

It´s cituated on 26 Rue Cadet that is very much in centrum of town. I walked from Lafayette with a broken toe....

She had a lot of cute sewing notions too!

I also went to Sweatshop Paris but on a monday so it was closed but looked like a very inspirational sewingroom ( with a lot of machines ) from outside

Love me love my car

2010-06-08T08:09:00.003+02:00

Meet my new baby. But my baby is in the color "champagne" more of o golden shade. Picking her up next friday.

PR weekend Europe 2010

2010-06-08T08:06:00.001+02:00

We had a discussion about meeting for sewing but I had second thoughts about it and suggest a PR weekend in Stockholm instead. I started a tread on PR, please go there for discussion

Daytrip to Denmark

2010-06-06T07:57:00.004+02:00

Malmo is situated in the south of Sweden and we have a bridge that connects us to Copenhagen and you can also reach Denmark by ferries between Helsingborg and Helsingör. There is a ticket called "Öresund runt" that allowes you to go by train and bus this trip, once on the ferry and once on the bridge and there are trains on both side of the water. A loot of people who do this trip stops by Lousiana, a famous artcentre between Helsingör and Copenhagen. We where six and we did the yarnstores.
We started at Helsingborg at "Tant Thea" who opened an hour early becourse of us

This shop opened recently and it was my first visit there. A really nice selection of various yarn, I bought a lace yarn from Wales called Fyberspates in a very nice green shade.
After that we took the ferry and had some coffea and danish, newbaked, still warm...
In Helsingör we visited two yarn shops first "Tot og tråd"
Eva looks this happy when she buys yarn:

There we all liked this poncho and had a discussion on why you can´t buy just the pattern, but you have to buy yarn too. We would all accept to pay a larger amount if omitting the yarn. Compare this with sewingpattern there we can collect as many as we like...
Then we went to "Spinneriet" She imitiately offered us coffea and as swedes we never say no to that. "Spinneriet" means "The Spinnery" and part from yarn she sells wools and rowings and in a lot of different breads and colors and combos of fiber

And yes there where som spinningwheels too

I´ve been thinking for a long time to start spinning and one of my knitting friends who was on this trip has offered to teach me so I bought some wool to try on.
The old word for female prison in swedish is "Spinnhuset" meaning "the spinning house" probably a way to keep the inmates occupied...
After Helsingör we went to Copenhagen, we ate on the train due to time pressure and knitted.
In Copenhaguen we visited 3 shops, Wilferts, Garniture and Joruns. Joruns was my favourite and if it wasn´t for the fact that they only accepted "DAN cards" I would have bought some of here shatlandic wool.
Dan cards is a local danish creditcard and it´s more common than one will think that shops only accept it.
It was the first really hot day and we where really tired so I did not take any photos at the last shops.
It seams like all the ladies went to IKEA for the expedit shelves

Yves Saint Laurent

2010-06-01T13:28:00.002+02:00

YSL has always been my favourite designer and I had to se the retrospective exibition at Petit Palais that will close at august 29.
You are not allowed to take pictures in there and there´s no way you can sneake to do so.
There´s 307 models and some videoclips that are playing both from fashionshows and from films with Catherine Deneuve that he made clothes for. The clothes are displayed in themes that could be from the same collection or famous people, or other themes. One entire wall is covered with black manequins on a black background and showing all ( about 40) variations on the smoking for women. It´s in the same room with the theme "the last ball" that are showing spectacular eveningfashion in all kinds of colors. There are also a room with his swatches. He swatched fabrics and nailed them to papers and kept them in boxes by color for inspiration and boy did this guy know how to swatch!
There are also 14 different pictures of him from that famous nude shot displayed.
All signs are in french, english and one more language that I don´t recall.
When visiting the show I can see influenses of what I sewed as a teenager but not so spectacular. I would love to see it again! and if you are in Paris you should go and see it and it´s actually worth a trip...

Some advise if you are going. A lot of people want to see this and the lines are long!

I was there on saturday and there was an estimated waiting time for 2 hours. I took a chance and went back on sunday 30 minutes before opening and I was number 8 in line for people without tickets. A lot of people was reading my minds and there where long lines when they opened and the people with tickets was sent in first about 70 of them before my line had a chance so I came in 10 minutes after 10 so my advise is to buy tickets in advance and be there early!
The photo is of the line when I came out and some of these people will have to wait for three hours.

Twinkle sews

2010-05-24T21:34:00.003+02:00

I´m crazy about the clothes in this book I can even live with that the patterns are on a CD and need to be put together before being cut out

Yesterday I went to Stof and Stil and bought these fabrics for one project from the book, the front piece is actually more purple than this photo showes

Books and Paris

2010-05-22T20:47:00.002+02:00

Let´s talk books first.
I bought some nice knittingbooks. Knitting 24/7 by Veronik Avery, I´m not sure if I should pronounse it in french or english, either way her designs are great, a lot of different things to knit and there are one or two that I actually not want to knit.
Twinkle sews is a great book too, I borrowed it from the library to be bought later. It´s 25 patterns for skirts, blouses and dresses in hot, fun, funky looks and I love most of them, actually I love all of them but some dresses are not for me...
The best thing is that there´s a cd with the book with all the patterns in size 0, 4, 8, 12 and 16 and that´s her sizing, I compared with a Ottobre and 16 is a smallish 46.
So you print out the pattern, glue it together, cut and sew.
I so like the consept of including the full size patterns like this ( Of course I copied them to my computer...)
Then let´s talk Paris. PR weekend last year was short for me so I´m going on friday for three nights, I was planning Versaille, lot of walks etc ( Yes! fabricshopping ) and since my broken toe is almost fit for fight again things where looking good until I accidentally put my other pinkietoe under the horse foot two days ago. Well it´s better today and Paris has subway and a lot of nice parks so enjoy knitting and reading.
One thing that I´m going to do is visiting Petite Palais. There´s an YSL exibition there. He was my fashion icon growing up and still is...and they are showing clothes from his different collection and as I understood it a second part of the exibit is clothes of Catherine Deneuve who always was sitting in the front row on his shows and I think was a personal friend of his.
If you envy me...it´s OK

Jazz, le grande finale!

2010-05-17T19:40:00.003+02:00

Even if I knit a lot I don´t have that many sweathers and cardigans but now I have one more. I sewed the ties on today

Jazz!

2010-05-15T05:50:00.003+02:00

I almost finished my Jazz cardigan. I had to reknit the sleevecuffs, they where way to big! Instead of the 38 stitches I did 20 and now I´m sewing, I hope to finish it by tomorrow, have to knit some I-cord for ties.
Jazz is soaking in the cats waterbowl...or was it the other way around...
I´m always amazed what soaking and in some cases blocking does to a knit!

Here we SWAP again!

2010-05-09T20:29:00.002+02:00

Patternreview is having a SWAP contest and of course I have to join! I´m good at joining! Last time; the mini wardrobe I actually finished the pants, a Burda drawstringpants from 2004 that looks like the Marakesch (marocko ) pants from Hot Pattern. Since I trust Burda for pants ( raise the waist 1 inch mid back ) I used this pattern again and I absolutely hate the color!!!
Anyway this swap is a new page and you should make 4 tops, 4 bottoms, 1 topper and 1 free of choise. All tops must go with all bottoms and the topper etc etc. This time my plan was to make denim jeans and a denim skirt that I should try to distress, then I´ll add a petticoat, not to cupcake like and a drawstring pant, the one as above in an off white color, maybee mid calf lenght.
For the tops I will make tunic dresses in different fabrics a little mix and match, including some embroidery etc ( read Odd Molly ) and going through my stash I will have to buy a lot of fabrics for this. I´m going to Paris last weekend of May so that´s something to look for
The topper will be a shrug from Onion and the optional garment the cardiwrap "everyone" is doing these days.
Contest starts June first and last until end of August. 10 garments in three months. I can do that! maybee

Please summer please come!

2010-05-08T20:03:00.004+02:00

My balcony was not the cosiest place after this winter, everything but an Ivy had died.

The floor had to be done and plants needed to be bought and planted

Still not finished but improving

This vase is Mine

2010-05-08T19:57:00.003+02:00

I´m trying to be more domestic and since I love to have plants and flowers in my appartment but was lacking vases I bought this one. "Mine" started out with plates and glasses that I never liked, to thick, but the bowls and this one I like.

The designer is Ulrika Hydman-Vallien, who is more famous for her tulips painted on glass. If you payed attension when watching "Friends" Monica had one in her livingroom. Mine usually contains tulips; my favourite flower!

Madli´s shawl

2010-05-02T09:38:00.000+02:00

Madli´s shawl is blocked and finished

I really like these estonian lace shawls, but the tradition say that you knit the borders seperately and sew them on using kitheners stitch. Things like that has a tendancy to not be finished in my home so I pick up stitches and turn the chart upside down instead.
The shawls originate from Haapsalu in Estonia and was like Bohus knitting invented and knitted to provide an income. Haapsalu was a famous spa resort for the rich and famous southwest of Tallin. It´s also where I´m going on my summer vacation! ( After Paris last weekend of may...)
Then I might pack the "Triangulas summer shawl" that I´m working on the border right now. Beautiful lily of the valley pattern in white

Skirt from thrifted skirt

2010-04-28T18:22:00.002+02:00

Hotpatterns had a free pattern ( via fabric.com) a 8 gore skirt with elastic waist and a simple hem, fast and easy. I bought a skirt in a thrift shop that was kind of dirndl style, lots of fabric that I used.
The skirt is really easy to sew and will look great in different fabrics, I´m thinking of adding pockets and making it into a six gore skirt, but not tonight, I´m knitting Estonian lace, a new one, the rusty one is finished and blocked and will be published one of these days

Calculating and knitting

2010-04-22T13:14:00.005+02:00

25 grams and 48 cm

Estonian lace is fun, challenging aka nupps and beautiful