Re-organizing the sewing room
Got inspired and decided to improve the sewing room by moving around some furniture - very happy with the result.

It even inspired me to finish of 2 dresses:

This one got the last detail added

And this one, that I started back last summer, was finalised as well. 

I am not absolutely convinced that it  will be as comfortable as I would like, since the linen fabric is a bit "stiff" - but I guess I will only know that if I start to wear it. 

I am still considering to add one small detail, have not decided yet....

Spring has finally arrived
Or actually - it seems that we might skip spring this year and go directly for summer. This week started with winterboots and ended with flip flops - so there had to be a quick tour to the basement to get some clothes that can actually be worn in this heat.

When visiting Paris a few weeks ago a few nice linen fabrics were found, but I guess I am supposed to finish off the winter dresses first?
At least with this one I am slowly getting there, just a few details left.

Back to work
Easter is over for this time and it is time to get back to work. Had a couple of nice, relaxing days with my parents who left a cold Sweden for a cold Switzerland....but at least we had sunny weather on the day when we took the Bernina Express through the Swiss mountains:

We also made a trip to Zurich, where we started off having a coffee in the highest building in Switzerland, the Prime Tower:

The trip ended with a trip to the Kunsthaus, where you can see an exhibition with Marc Chagall until the 12th of May 2013.

Too much travel this week...
Not a lot of sewing lately since last week was one of the busiest in a long time.

First a visit to Padova

Then it was time for a short trip to Paris

And ending the week by going to Bern for the day

Would prefer to go there when I don't work....

Changing size....

What seems fine when they are made sometimes turn out later not to fit anymore - which was the case with two pair of trousers that have been hanging in my wardrobe for some time now, without being used.

 Some places needed more fabric...

 Some places needed less....

 And although I do not really think it is fun to change things it is even worse to through them away if the fabric is still nice - so here they are.

 Finally ready

And in the end none of the buttons I thought of were used.....

Buttons in Berlin

Spent a sunny saturday in Berlin yesterday. Everytime I come here I  think about how it must have been like when the city was divided by a wall, but it is difficult to imagine. Have only vague memories about seeing the wall fall on TV:

Anyway, yesterday was a lovely day and I had a plan - to find interesting buttons and books. 
I started with the buttons - had found a shop on the internet called knopf-und-schnalle, and it turned out to be well worth the visit. Found lots of great looking buttons but the most interesting things were stuff like this:

Even if you do not use the practical function - it can be opened - it will look lovely on a black dress.
These ones will be great for a jacket or coat: 

although I think they look best if the ring is turned, showing the back of the ring instead of the front. 

After my visit to the button shop there where two book stores I wanted to visit, which I had found on another blog: Stil in Berlin. 
Bucherhalle turned out to be a good choice, left it with 5 books....which only cost me 20 Euro!
The second shop is called dialogue-books,  and they sell english books. Since I had already bought 5 books I kept my purse in the bag, but the shop has a very interesting mixture of writers and themes and is well worth a visit.

Pinstriped velvet
Time to do something about this pinstriped grey velvet that has been lying around for a couple of years now. The fabric was found in Leuven, Belgium, and was a leftover piece of 1.5 meters. 

 

After a lot of thinking I decided to make a dress out of it, and thought this Burda pattern could work. To me it has a bit of a 20s feel to it with its straight lines. 

The fabric part is basically ready, as is the lining - now I just have to get them together....

On a cold winter day...
The weather was too nice to sit inside today, so instead of working on any of my projects I went for a walk.

The walk took me to the Fotomuseum Winterthur. They usually have very nice exhibitions there, which was also the case today. And the cafeteria has lovely cakes, today I tried the lemon cake which was not bad at all. Actually, there is a lot to see in Winterthur, Switzerland:

After the visit to the museum there was not a lot of time left, so the only thing that happened in the sewing room today was an exchange of a zipper in a pair of trousers that have been hanging for a long time.  

As for new projects, I am getting inspired to do something with this fabric, bought at Ohlssons Tyger in Linköping, Sweden, several years ago. I think it will turn into a dress, but as always I don't know until it's finished, might change my mind along the way.