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.

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

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

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!

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?

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....

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....

Vienna

Since I am spending part of the week in Vienna, due to work, I decided to check out what can be found here when it comes to fabric - a great deal it turned out. Komolka seems to be the place to go when you want to find great fabric here - I visisted one of the 3 shops, the one on Mariahilferstrasse 58.

I had read online that the fabric was expensive and

the personnel not exactly charming, and both of this

seemed to be correct, but it is still definitively worth

a visit. There is a large collection of high class wool

fabric in very interesting colours - lime anyone?

And if I ever want to make a fantastic evening dress -

this is the place to find the fabric - what I saw here
when it came to luxury fabric I have seen in very few
shops!

They also have a large collection of velvet, in the
greatest of coulours. It is not overly priced so I
might come back here during my next trip, most
likely November, to buy some black and royal blue
velvet for nice party dresses.

komolka

		Vintage buttons Found some really nice buttons (and lots of other useful material) in this shop:

35 Temple Place, Boston, MA 02111 (https://www.facebook.com/windsorbutton)


They are new but made to look like they are from around 1900-1910 (there are buttons from other timeperiods as well, and they are made by a company called Blumenthal Lansing company.

Will have to think a while what to do with them...

Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.
Coco Chanel 

Mood fabrics


The idea was to spend a looong time at Mood fabrics in New York, and buy a lot of great fabrics to bring home. Reality sometimes kicks in though ,so it turned out as follows - I only spent 15 minutes there - at the end of a very long day, full of museums, bus travel and walking along the streets of New York. So, I really did not have time to find the fabric that I wanted - I wanted so many of them ...


It was not so easy to find the shop, but luckily my man is a good friend of Google maps, so we managed to find it at last, but it is on the 3rd floor with no signs to show so you have to look closely.

It was as I thought - huge!! Lots and lots of nice fabric as well as stuff to use when sewing - so at least I managed to buy something - pattern weights! Remember something similar from a long time ago, but do not think I have ever seen it in a shop since then - but now I got a few of those, and in nice colours as well  (the pink and lilac ones).

Next time I will plan my day better so I have a couple of hours at least, and I will take a bigger luggage with me - it turned out that the one I had would really have been to small anyway...

Hope for some time this weekend to update the blog, and maybe even do some work with the fabric...

New York

Saturday 8th October is getting closer and it is time to hop into the plane for a trip to Boston and New York. There will be lots to look at but one thing I look particurlarly forward to:

moodfabrics            

There will be some hours spent there, so I have to consider which luggage to bring with me.                                        

Projects for autumn....

Althought the weather is still lovely and warm, with sunny days and up to 23-25 degrees - I know that autumn will come, with the chance to wear very nice clothes...the question is only - which project should I start with?

Or maybe this one?

In the end I might go for a pair of comfortable trousers instead!

All of the patterns can be found in the magazine Burda