Friday, December 30, 2011

Chanel inspired dress

At least one of my planned projects from earlier this 
autumn is moving forward...the dress from Burda nr 10/2011. 
I will not do the collar, and I will not open up the pleats as the instructions say, but otherwise it should hopefully look as it does on the picture when ready.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Back in my sewing room
It was a lovely week in Sweden, although I can not 
really say it looked and felt like winter....








Now it is nice to be back in Switzerland, ready to take on new projects (and finish of old ones). I did get some work done with my knitting, although I did not get it ready. Guess I have to speed up at bit, otherwise winter will be over....maybe it doesn't matter if it gets ready, since it is not really cold enough outside (unless I decide to travel to the alps for some skiing).

Sunday, December 18, 2011

No more sewing before christmas...
Planned to maybe finish off a skirt today,  but I had to do a few other things first....and suddenly that happened what often happens - the day was over. I guess the skirt will be hanging on my blue friend until the 29th of December ,when I am back in Switzerland again. 
Luckily my boss decided that our office will be closed over christmas and new year so I do not have to go to work until the 3rd of January 2012.


Well, well I guess the skirt I finished off for last christmas will work well this year as well. 



And I have of course the Mrs Santa Claus dress that I 
finished last weekend, and for which I found something 
nice to wear around my neck - adding even more color. 
I bought the scarf some years ago in Dubai, and I have 
never used it...it has been hanging in my sewing room 
since then, looking nice. Now it will actually be useful, 
which is great.



So, what will I do for a whole week in Sweden, 
without my sewing machine? 
Well, although I did not find yarn for a sweater yet - 
I did find a nice blue one to make something warm 
for my neck. This way I will keep my hands busy at 
least part of the time...




With only three days left until my flight take off for Sweden I am wondering how the weather will be - will it be as much snow as last year?

Sunday, December 11, 2011

A dress for Mrs Santa Claus...


Since some time I had a piece of red, crushed velvet on my shelf - not of very high quality and probably not really meant for clothing - but in a great colour that I just could not resist. I had no idea what I would eventually do with it - but some fabric earns its place on the shelf just because it is nice to look at. 
When I passed through one of the shops in Zurich I saw that they were selling "christmas underwear" in red velvet and I got a bit inspired....then I thought - why not make a red dress for christmas?  Maybe I can even find some white fake fur to decorate it with? 



I found an old pattern that I thought could be 
useful - I remembered however from the last 
time I used it that the fit was not really perfect, 
so I decided to pull together the fabric a bit, 
enhancing the empire line somewhat. 









I am pretty happy with the result (although the colour really looks better in real life). Now I just have to find that white fake fur also...


Saturday, December 10, 2011

Updating an old jacket


In Burda style number 2/2011 (at least german version) they had instructions for what you can do with an old jacket that needs some updating - remove the arms!


During a recent cleanout of my wardrobe I 
realized that this would be the perfect 
renovation for an old jacket from H&M that
I did not use a lot, so I went ahead - and the 
result turned out pretty OK, I am actually 
using it again.

Sunday, December 4, 2011

No seewing this weekend...


Since I was away in Vienna over the weekend 
due to work there was no time to sew, and my 
plan to find material for a knitted sweater did 
not work out...however, I did find other stuff...
A very nice winter coat that I have could be even 
better with more interesting buttons, so I went 
to "Wiener Knopfköning" (sorry, link is not 
working), and found some nice ones.





When checking on the web I also realized that the Komolka store, which I visited a few weeks ago, had very nice stuff on sale, so I decided to stock up on lining fabric - and for a third of the price I normally pay which is always nice. 

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Things to do when traveling
Started thinking about christmas, and the fact that I will visit the family in Sweden - and during this time my sewing project will have to wait of course. But I could still do some knitting....
I had not been knitting for the last 20 years I think but last winter I suddenly felt it was time again..so I made something warm for my neck ( I like doing warm things for my neck, it is cold out there) and I was pretty satisfied with the result. 


Do believe though that it is time for a bigger project, and I found 
one - now I only have to find the material.
Since I, due to work, will spend the weekend in Vienna I might 
go on a search there.





Saturday, November 26, 2011

Preparing projects


Since I was out traveling the whole week there was no time for any sewing projects. The way it looks now it will continue to be a lot of traveling at least the rest of the year, so I thought it would be good to do some planning - which means that I now have 3 piles of fabric, cut and ready to go:


 The first project is a dress, somewhat inspired by Chanel (always a good choice). This fabric I found last christmas when I was visiting my hometown Linköping, in Sweden - the shop owners must have known I was coming because they had stocked up with lots of fabric just my taste - I think I bought 5 or 6 different fabrics, with a total of around 15 meters (could have bought more but I did not have any place left in my luggage). All great quality wool fabric which cost almost nothing - it was definitively christmas for me.

Then I will do two skirts, the one on top with a fabric I 
found in Hamburg, which is so soft I might as well 
make a pyjama out of it. 



The second skirt is a fabric from Scotland, brought home 
 by my partner - it is great to have someone who keeps his 
 eyes open for me!

                                                   
In order to get more inspiration (as if that was needed...) I will visit a design exhibition in Zurich tomorrow, called "Blickfang" (which could be translated as something like "eye-catcher") - they usually have a lot of interesting things, both clothes and furnitures etc.
blickfang

Sunday, November 20, 2011

There is always room for another dress cont'd...











The dress did get ready - and the shoes works as well with it as I hoped for!







Also seen here: sewcountrychick


Saturday, November 19, 2011


In-between project 
My little in-between project turned out very well - I might even go for the other fake fur I saw in shop and do something similar again!


Thursday, November 17, 2011


Something to do in between....

Sometimes it is nice to take on a minor project, so when I found this kind of fakefur in a lovely brown-red colour I could not resist 
- the question is now what to do with it? 
Should I go for this - 



or maybe this?

Saturday, November 12, 2011


There is always room for another dress....


Next project to finalize before starting anything new is this dress. I am almost there, which is good since it is getting colder. The idea is to wear it with a nice blue turtleneck (might have to look for one that works with the shoes...). 




The shoes I already have - it was quicker to get them home than to finish off the dress - so I should hurry up before the snow comes - they are not really made for bad weather...(although wait a minute, didn't I just say that I wanted to have the dress ready for cold weather - maybe they have boots in this colour as well?)





The pattern comes from Burda, nr. firstrow-703-DL, I do believe that my dress looks a bit different than on the picture though, especially the upper part is much shorter on the photo than in real life. I also choose to do it less tight, believe this will be more comfortable when sitting in the office. 










(and when I said I have to finish off the dress before starting anything new I wasn't really telling the truth - I did cut the fabric for a skirt already...using the fabulous pink and lilac pattern weights that I found at Mood in New York)



Winter is coming


The winter season is really on it's way, and since my partner was so lucky and found not one but two winter coats when we visited New York, I had to do some work - shortening the sleeves. Now that work is done so I can go back my own projects....

Monday, November 7, 2011


First cape ever....


At last it was time to finish off the cape I have been working on for a long time - as always I have several projects running at the same time, and I admit to enjoying the start more than the finish. Since I usually buy fabric when I find good quality for a good price that doesn't really matter though. 
The fabric for this cape I found in Bern and Zurich...both of the pieces were on sale, about 1.2 metres each and bought with months in between - the first piece when I lived in Bern, and when I then moved to Winterthur and visited the fabric shop in Zurich (the same chain - modesa ) I found the second piece - so now I had enough to do what I wanted. What I wanted turned out to be a cape - I have never had one so it will be interesting to see how I like it.


I choose a simple model that I found in Burda - somewhat later I found an even better pattern, but I guess that will be for the next one...





The buttons I used were brougth back to Switzerland from the very nice button shop in Boston that I wrote about earlier - Windsor button. It is not the first time I use this kind of buttons of course but I did like the size - and these were not even the biggest ones.





 I have to pull this one over my head, luckily my hair is short so I can not really ruin it....