Alright, so this is officially the last day of summer. The day was fab, with sun, crisp air and the arrival of my new (old) shoes that are going to take me through autumn in style.
I bought these shoes from Here and There Vintage on Etsy, just five days ago, and today- there they were at my local post office. Now, that is what I call fast delivery!
I am pepped for the Self- Stitched September! I am going to wear as much self-stitched items as possible, and here you have my pledge:
‘I, Sølvi of delfinelise, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-September. I endeavor to wear only handmade and refashionedof clothing, except underwear, sportswear, shoes and rainwear, every day for the duration of September 2010.
I have made some exceptions, because I really don´t have anything really rain-proof (this is autumn, after all,) and I have not had the time (yet) to make sportswear and underwear.
The Summer Essential Sew-Along items will come in handy in the end of September, when I´m going to Greece, and I really hope I have enough self- made items to keep me warm until then…
I will, however, try to make some new autumn/winter appropriate things, both as part of the Hepburn Hepburn Project, and as I suspect I need some warmer stuff…
I did a wedding job a couple of weeks ago, and the couple wanted a fifties flair to their wedding, so we played old classics like That´s Amore, Mambo Italiano and a lot of Sinatra classics. Just look at Rosemary Clooney in this video. She is fantastic! (Did you know – she was the aunt of George Clooney?)
Best of all was that I had an excuse to make an over-the-top fifties dress, and be able to wear it! Yey!!!
Here´s the pattern:
…and here´s the result:
It´s obvious from the photos, I see this now, that I should have adjusted the waist a bit – see where my belt is, and where the seam is? But when I made it I had more concerns with the closing.
Originally this pattern calls for bound buttonholes. I don´t have the fabulous tool everybody is talking about, and I have never made bound buttonholes before either. I tried making some from scraps, but soon understood that there was NO WAY I would be able to make nine (!) buttonholes on a straight line…Soo, my fantastic mother suggested I make the closing that you see in the pictures. It´s just loops of satin cord sewn onto the facing. This, off course gave me some other concerns, as the whole thing didn´t come out symmetrical. The buttons are 1,5 cm to the right of the middle. But, at that point, I just ignored it and made it work.
I am very happy with the result, though! This is a pattern I have been wanting to try for a long time, and when I found this fabric I knew they were the perfect team! This dress is marked Easy on the envelope, how it´s possible to say that a dress with a million pieces, bound buttonholes and a fitted bodice is easy, is more that I can understand, but it is really fun to sew up with you have a bit more experience!
OK, so that´s the last summer dress for the year – I promise!
Sarah of Rhinestones and Telephones is hosting a sew-along, and as I have become addicted to sew-alongs these past couple of months, I joined her! Thanks, Sarah!
The project is to sew up some items this autumn with the inspiration from Audrey and Katharine Hepburn.
I´ve always been a huge Katharine Hepburn fan, and I love her style, so that´s an easy style icon to follow for me. And Audrey isn´t bad either;-). My favorite Katharine Hepburn movie of all time is Woman of the Year, from 1942. It´s (apparently) the first movie where Hepburn plays together with Spencer Tracy, but certainly not the last – they teamed up plenty of times after this. I love how they made movies back in the old days, and the little jokes and the plot, and off course, the fashion.
The most fun thing about movies from the 1940 is how, on a close up of a woman, the image is dozy, like she is in the middle of a shiny cloud (using back light, I suspect), but when the camera closes in on men, it´s a more natural light. LIke in the trailer here:
Fantastic. Anyhow. The film´s great, and I recommend it. Not only is there a great plot (we always hear about the feminists of the 1970´s, but what then about this gang from the 1940´s, or even those who came before and gave us the right to vote?), it off course also have some scandalous fashion items in it!
So, the items I have chosen for this sew-along are supposed to reflect what I need for the autumn/winter. I´ve been sewing summer dresses for so long now, that I´m not sure I even know how to make anything else…
And here are the nominees:
Audrey in Unst. This is actually a knitting project, I really need a black knitted cotton cardi, and this retro-inspired model designed by the talented Gudrun Johnson met all my criterias. AND it´s called Audrey. How cool is that? I have come this far with that project:
A refashion of a mans shirt. My darling cleaned in his closets recently (literally, not symbolically;-), and all of a sudden, I had a bunch of mens t-shirts and shirts at hand. Yay! So I´m taking this classic blue shirt,
and I will try to make it look a little like this:
The trousers.
I can´t be part of a tribute sew-along to Katharine Hepburn without making a pair of wide-legged trousers. These are from the june issue of Burda, and are made in tall gal´s sizes.
Perfect for me, as I always have to add an inch or two at pants patterns.
The 60´s dress.
This is to Audrey. I´m making this dress right now, but I just need a zipper. I am making the jacket as well, if I get the time.
Then theres the Christmas dress.
This is a Burda retro pattern, and I love it.
It has been laying around in my sewing room, cut and ready for, I think, nearly two years (or is it three?). You see, the sleeves are a bit intimidating, as you might see from the technical drawing. But I figure, someone must have sewn this at one point, and as always, I will ask google to help me. Or have some of you good people stitched it up?
The blue is actually much darker than what this pic shows you.
About time to finish it you say? Alright then!
Sencha. My first attempt at this didn´t go so well as I used a blue marker. On white rayon. Did it go off you think? … I havn´t desided in what material I´m making it in, but these are the candidates:
Any suggestions?
A coat. I don´t know which one yet, though. Gertie is hosting a sew-along for Colette Patterns Lady Gray, but all though that is a beautiful coat, here in Sweden I need something warmer, something that closes with a zipper AND buttons, that´s lined with something warm, and has full sleeves. So I´ll be looking! Any retro suggestions on coat/jacket-patterns is greatly appreciated!
There you have it, my plan for the Hepburn Hepburn project! See you at the Flickr Pool!
I know, it´s a bit greedy to wish for both a new sewing machine and a serger at the same time, but you see, I´m redecorating my studio/workspace and everything is turning out so lovely, except for the fact that my sewing machine is rubbish.
The thing is, I needed a quick fix. And, as I have been contemplating whether I should go “all the way” for self-stiched september and sew my own undies, I tried making a pair. What I didn´t take into consideration was that my sewing machine isn´t nearly as nice a lady as my mothers (the machine I´ve been using all summer), and a small fun project soon became a big hassle.
The main problem is that my machine does´nt sew an even zig-zag. And it constantly swallows the thread and then barks it up again, resulting in a million starts and stops. Maybe I´m doing something wrong? Or maybe the machine is rubbish.
All I know is that the fix didn´t turn out especially quick. Not quick at all. And it was not really a fix either. Oh, well. This little team, however, filled all my needs:
So, I´ve been away for a while, enjoying the summer in Norway. I have been finishing some more of my SESA- items, but unfortunately not all. I am still working on the swimsuit and the more evening appropriate things. I am almost finished with a knit cardigan, but only almost. The last bit is soooo tedious to knit…;-).
The things I HAVE finished are a white linen Beignet skirt, a cotton blouse from a 2008 issue of Alt om Håndarbeide, a UFO – a dalmatian print Vogue dress and a pair of sailor styled capris.
The Beignet was fun to sew up, and is easy to wear and as always with Colette patterns, I have nothing to say but Yey! for Colette, yet again!
It´s made out of a nice white linen, and I´ve lined it with rayon and I used cotton for the facing.
The cotton blouse was a spontaneous project, I had quite a lot of a blue cotton fabric left from the Beignet (I used it for the facing), and coincidentally, my sister had bought a bunch of old pattern magazines at a library sale, so I made this little blouse from one of those patterns.
The pattern was quite easy to follow, but the fitting was quite frankly non- existing, so I made some adjustments to make it work as both a tucked in blouse, and as a little jacket. I´ve already used it a lot!
The UFO is from a Vogue pattern (Vogue Easy Options 2530) I have had laying around for some years, I´ve wanted to make this for quite a while.
I bought the fabric on sale last year, I think, and then I finally cut it out earlier this summer. I really like how it turned out! For some reason, it reminds me of Charlotte of Sex and the City. This pattern did have some flaws, though, most important is the fact that it fails to mention when to sew the darts of the bodice. It wasn´t a big problem for me, as I know when and how to do this, but this pattern is from the easy options line, and I would imagine a beginner seamstress to find this lack of information a bit frustrating.
I needed to adjust the fit of the bodice quite a lot as well, I added some extra darts in the bodice, to make it more fitted to my bust. I made view G of this one, but skipped the hem flounce. The things I am most pleased with on this one is the anchor buttons, and the fact that I attached some loops onto the dress so that I can use a regular clothes hanger for it (I usually never bother to do this).
The last bit I made was actually on my SESA lists, and is the Simplicity 2656 capris I know some of you other sew-alongers are making as well. I made it out of a thrifted bed sheet.
Look, I can fly!
Although I am quite content with the result, I found the pattern to be very frustrating, and I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone! Only after I had made these I read what others had to say about this pattern over at Pattern Review, and though it is a small comfort to see others being as unsatisfied as me, I might have saved myself from some frustration if I had read their reviews first. Sooo, note to self: ALWAYS read reviews of patterns before you jump into a new project… I´ll write a review for it in a separate post as soon as I get into the mood of pattern trashing….;-).
Next project on the sewing table is this Vogue Retro dress, it is already cut out, I´m just building up some courage to make bound buttonholes (without this cool tool).
Hello! Just a quick note to say I won´t be blogging as regularly as I have the last couple of months. I´m staying at this place:
It is beautiful here, but the internet connection is fairly slow. Oh well, the lack of internet is compensated with a lovely view! I have finished my capris for the Sew-Along, and I´m finishing up a white linen Beignet, and I´ll show you one of these days. Hope you all are enjoying summer!
So far in the SESA I have only published pictures of actual garments. But, I have also been making some accessories to match my items, so I thought I´d show them to you all at the same time.
First, there´s the sailboat belt:
In my home town there are still some fabric stores that is quite old- school, where you can find notions from three decades ago. These sailboats are obvious evidence of this. I love that they have a surprising yellow color, not the traditional red-white-blue! I crocheted around a thrifted belt buckle using single crochet.
Second, I give you the Agatha Christie…
Fascinator?
Cocktail Hat?
Head piece?
I´m actually not quite sure of what it is that I have made, but it is a crocheted hat-like item, that I can wear whenever I´m in the mood for some 40ies style. I got the inspiration from an episode from the TV-series about Miss Marple. Any suggestions to what this thing is called?
Third there is the petticoat.
Yey! A real one. I had a fake one (just some tulle attached to a skirt), but for the Vogue Vintage dress I´m sewing up, I needed a proper one.
I used this and this tutorial from the talented Sugardale, and it turned out great!
I took some shots of it, and some of how one simple skirt gets some wa-wa-woom using the petticoat underneath.
As I mentioned in this post, it´s amazing how a simple undergarment can add so much to a whole outfit. Love it!
I take no cred for this top. Or not for the design, anyway… The design is all thanks to this post by the lovely Casey. I saw the top and thought, hey! I want to do that too!
So I bought some cotton voile and found a perfect pattern for the crochet at mypicot (what an amazing resource that site is!), and I started to crochet.
I first made a square and measured it. Then I took my above-bust measurement, and divided that with the size of the square, and I got the number of squares to be made. Easy peasy. Then I joined them with filet crochet, and sewed the crocheted part and the cotton voile part together.
Traditionally, I´ve been a skirt-sewing gal. I have made a million skirts, and when Me-Made-May came around I found that I really didn´t have much else, so now I´m sewing up mostly tops and dresses (although I can´t resist Beignet, and it is already cut…).
The latest result of this is Simplicity 2362, or the Emerald Sundress, as I like to call it. This pattern was fairly easy to read, but as the last dress project was Ceylon – a dream to sew up – the anticlimax that came when sewing up this was bound to happen.
I made view E of this. From the back view of this dress, it seems that view E is not supposed to have a zipper, and the pattern for E includes elastics for the back, so I came to the conclusion that a zipper was not needed. BUT, while reading the pattern, there is nothing that says that the zipper is to be excluded. Confusing. I skipped it anyway, as this is supposed to be one of those dresses I can just throw on when the weather is hot.
I love the front of this dress. I really like the pockets, the pleats on the bodice and those on the front skirt. These details is what drew me to this dress in the first place.What I don´t like, is the pleats in the back . There are two rather large pleats in the back as well, causing my rather stiff thrifted cotton fabric to create a not-so flattering shape in the back (I didn´t even include a pic of this- that´s how bad it is;-)). The back pleats would probably look better with a fabric with more draping, so if I´m making this again I will use a more suitable fabric, or I´ll skip the pleats all together, and perhaps make some darts in the back instead.
All in all, I´m fairly content, this is a dress I probably will use a lot, because it is easy to dress up and down, and I can wear it both to work and to the beach, but if I will make it again, I´ll make a better choice of fabric, and adjust the back to be more flattering for my shape.
Yesterday, we went to two of my favorite stores, IKEA and Stoff & Stil.
While IKEA needs no further presentation, I might explain that Stoff & Stil is one of the largest fabric stores in Scandinavia and I usually go there once a year (so this is a major event as you all can understand).
Among others I bought this fabric:
It´s a sandwashed silk and I bought a meter to make this one:
The pattern is from a 1980 issue of the Norwegian magazine Alt om Håndarbeide. I really needed a new slip, as the ones I already have don´t have quite the right fit.
I LOVE the whole slip idea. Why would anyone not wear a slip underneath a dress or skirt (if it´s not properly lined, off course or it perhaps is more of a lounge wear type of garment) ? Everyone and everything looks SOOO much better with an extra layer between skin and fabric. The ladies back in the days had it right all along, I say, with all their crazy undergarments (the comfortable ones, anyhow…).
The instructions told me to baste the whole thing together, try it on, make any adjustments and then sew it together.
And so I did.
I usually don´t bother basting everything first, but as this was supposed to have such a close fit, I thought it was wise.
I cut the dress on the bias, to give it more elastics. I needed to make some adjustments, and then stitch it up . The whole project was done in one evening, including hand stitching the hem with the help of this instruction (in Norwegian):
