My mothers jeans...

I helped my mother to shorten her jeans and just had to make something out of the leftovers and turned them into a little bowl!

Jag hjälpe mamma att korta sina jeans och kunde inte låta bli att göra en skål av bensluten!

Finally close to a sewing mashine again!

After a long time away from my sewing mashine I have finally landed close to a mashine I can use. My first item with my own label is a pair of tights for my daughter in an animal printed jersey I found at the market a couple of month ago. Labels from 3exter.se

Efter sommarens resor har jag äntligen tillgång till en symaskin och första plagget som dessutom pryds med egen etikett blev ett par tights till min dotter av ett stuv från marknaden i början av sommaren. Etiketter från 3exter.se

On holiday

As usual we are at our friends house on the adriatic coast at this time of the year. The picture is from last year, a beautiful stand at the market with only blue dresses, in styles and prints typical for italian housewives. Great inspiration :)

Formlös tunika blir kjol

Today's blog post in Husmorsskolans symöte is in Swedish with a summary in English at the end.

Jag har haft en hel vecka barnfritt och passat på att sy. Mitt främsta mål va att göra lite plagg i jersey för att öva på någonting som jag alltid fasat för. Det gick över förväntan och jag tycker att min gamla maskin klarade sig med bravur. Plaggen finns i föregående blogginlägg. 

Till sist tog jag tag i ett återbruksprojekt som jag funderat på ett tag. Jag hade en oformlig och genomskinlig tunika hängandes som aldrig blev använd och som jag tyckte skulle passa bättre som kjol. Min pappa var snäll och offrade en vit skjorta han inte längre använde till att fodra kjolen med. Ett isytt gummiband i linningen håller ihop plagget. 

Toppen på bilden ovan är ett enkelt provplagg jag sydde till mig själv i riktigt tunn singeljersy som jag köpt en stuv av på marknaden. 

Fler bidrag till dagens symöte finns på Husmorsskolan.

I had an shapeless and see-through tunic which I never found use for. Together with a shirt my father kindly donated I redfashioned it into a light summer skirt. I also made the top as part of my jersey sewing project. The fabric is a scrap piece of very thin single jersy bought at the market

I have sewn a lot this week because my kids are still on holiday in Sweden. It's been good to be able to take my time and I have learnt a lot about sewing in jersey and stretchy fabrics, so that is one of my fears overcome :)

The flower fabric is a scrap piece bought in a shop in Sweden.  It matches perfectly the cotton interlock fabric I found a the local market in Italy.

The long top-but-not-quite-a-dress, is a combination between two different patterns in Ottobre 3/2013 (there's lot of nice stuff also in-bigger sizes in that issue). It's supposed to be size 134 but it does look enormous... The pants are made using an old pattern I had at home.

Update: This set was not at all as big on as I feared and the colours are perfect for my daughter (which I knew they would be!). 

Polka dot dress

When I found this polka dot cotton at the market I couldn't resist and bought a ready cut piece of 150x150 cm. It's exactely the right colour for my daughter, but being 10 maybe the model is a bit to childish (?) She's still in Sweden so I have to wait a few more days to hear her reaction.

The pattern is from Ottobre 3/2013. The fabric is from the market and the dress is sewn in size 134.

Update: My daughter was very pleased with the dress. I found it slightly short though. 

My first time in jersey

I have alwas claimed that it's impossible to sew in jersey with my sewing mashine. Resently I remade a t-shirt  with a very satisfying result and now I have made this set with t-shirt and shorts for my 8-year old son. With a lot of patience and trials I think I've made the best possible and I've proven that it's actually possble to sew in jersey. Now I just hope he won't find the pattern too childish :)

I don't have any fabrics at home for making clothes from scratch, so when I was in Sweden resently I bought  some. In this case the fabrics are from the swedish web-shop znok, the patterns for both t-shirt and shorts (shortend) are from Ottobre 3/2013 and they are sewn in size 140.

Update: Size-wise it's on the limit and the set is an obvious pyjamas according to my son. To me three pockets seems to be overkill on a PJs though... Lesson learnt: use less childish prints for 8-year olds!

The Fashion Manifesto: The Style-Smart Handbook

I wrote about Swedish fashion journalist Sofia Hedström's book Fashion Manifesto on my other blog (in Swedish) but as the subject is very close to my refashion ideas I thought I'd mention it here as well.

It is very interesting and inspiring reading by a fashion journalist who gets tired of the clothes industry and the shopping frenzy and therefor decides to quit shopping for a year. The book contains interesting glimpses of the clothes industry, how the big chains make us come back to their shops every week because if we don't we think we miss out on something, short facts about chemicals, etc. but if you want more detailed information you have to search elsewhere. The book is a very good eye-opener though.

The concept of the book is not very applicable to my own life. I find myself to be a fairly conscious consumer already and I don't think I have a big shopping issue, and if I did, I would not have any problem to stop shopping for clothes if I already had 71 dresses in my closet!

Personally I think that the second part of the book which includes ideas on how to make refashion clothes is ... to simple and simply not consistent stylistically with the person I read about earlier in the book and there are no ideas which I found very useful (but a couple which I found rather unusful - but that probably just mean I'm too old!!)

Lilla julafton

Today's blog post in Husmorsskolans symöte is in Swedish with a summary in English at the end.

Det har varit en intensiv vecka med skolavslutning och andra avslutningar får barnen. Dessutom har vi förflyttat oss från Italien till Småland och det har medfört att ingenting har blivit skapat sedan förra veckans symöte.

Däremot har jag med min pappas hjälp letat fram en låda kläder jag sydde på 80- och början på 90-talet. Rena rama julafton! Nu ska det gås igenom och luftas och kanske finns det något som kan väckas till liv igen?

Jag broderade mina egna lappar till kläderna på den tiden. Iris är ett av mina mellannamn och Lind är en förkortning av mitt efternamn. Nu funderar jag på att beställa färdigtryckta lappar med texten Made by Vicky. Såklart kommer även de i så fall ha en elefant :)

The kids finished school last week and we left Italy and are now in Sweden, therefore I havn't managed to make anything during the past week. At my parents house I found a box full of clothes I made in the 80-ies and early 90-ies. It's like christmas. They will now be sorted and hung up outside so that I can decide what to do with them. I also made my own labels back then - I have always liked elephants :)

Favoritjeansen som blev en kjol

Today's blog post in Husmorsskolans symöte is in Swedish with a summary in English at the end.

Förutom att jeansen var trasiga så är de ju för varma 

denna årstiden och jeanskjolen kommer jag 

att bo i närmsta tiden, så jag är mycket nöjd!

Panik! I lördags upptäckte jag stora hål i grenen på mina favoritjeans. Samtidigt var jag i stort behov av en kjol som går ner en bit och täcker mina bleka ben så igår omvandlade jag dem till en jeanskjol. 

Kruxet var att få rynkningen i volangerna jämn och fin. Först provade jag med rynkfoten, men det gick inte alls i det tjocka tyget, och inte heller fungerade det att sy med elastisk undertråd i jeanstyget. Till sist sydde jag fast ett 5mm brett resårband i kanten (jag mätte resårbandet efter den del av kjolen som tyget skulle sättas fast i och drog ut det till volangens längd när jag sydde fast det i volangen med trestegszickzack) och då gick det som en dans.

Ett par jeans räckte inte riktigt till hela kjolen. Nedersta våden är gjord av baksidan på benen, men till den mittersta fick jag förutom framsidan av benen ta till lite bitar från andra jeans som jag hade liggande. 

Fler bidrag till dagens symöte finns på Husmorsskolan.

At first I panicked when I discovered big holes in the crotch of my favorites jeans on Saturday, but I was in great need of a skirt covering up the major part of my pale legs so yesterday I transformed the jeans into a skirt. The jeans were anyway getting to warm for this time of year and I'm sure I'll use the skirt a lot so even if they were my favorite pair I'm very happy with this refashion!

Not as I expected...

It was patching my favorite jeans as a teen in the 80-ies that got me hooked on sewing. 25 years later I realise that I had forgotten how hard it is to sew in jeans! The sleeve for my Sony Reader didn't turn out at all as I imagied from the start and I think I redid every stich 2-3 times and some even more times than that!

One of the first things I did was to add interfacing, but it didn't only not stick properly (too old?), it also made the whole piece impossible to pass trough my sewing mashine so it had to be ripped off again. At one point I had a pocket from a pair of kid's jeans sewn unto the back, but it was too big and didn't fullfill any function as I had imagined that it would so it was also taken back of again (and so on...) 

At least my e-book reader seems happy ad comfy in there so I have decided to leave it as it is!

I had to give up a few details I wanted, but at the end I'm glad I managed to get a pocket and a string to hold a pen in. 

The lining ended up different to the ones I took a picture of on Tuesday. I find the bird fabrics from IKEA fit very well in there. That's something more I'm happy with about this little project. Now that I started to get a go on sewing in jeans (and I have quite a lot of it) I think my next jeans project will be a pair of slippers.

Skydd till e-boksläsaren

Today's blog posts in Husmorsskolans symöte is in Swedish with a summary in English at the end.

Som utlandssvensk är min Sony Reader helt oumbärlig. Den har revolutionerat min läsning eftersom jag slipper vänta på att de böcker jag vill läsa först ska komma ut i pocket och sedan på att jag ska resa till Sverige, köpa dem och därefter bäras hem i en tung resväska. 

Min Sony behöver ett fodral i rätt storlek och jag funderar på hur jag ska göra. Provar mig fram på lite olika vis. Foder, knappar, mellanlägg, format (kuvert eller bok)... Många är frågorna och det enda som just nu är helt säkert är att den görs av avlagda jeans. 

I am in the process of making some kind of cover for my Sony Reader, but there are so may decisions to make before I can finish the work :)

Fler bidrag till dagens symöte finns på Husmorsskolan.

A bag to hold a wedding present

I couldn't resist this beautiful fabric at IKEA last week. I know I should't buy fabrics without already having a project in mind, but luckily it came in handy already! As we are going to a wedding tomorrow I decided to make a bag to hold the present. I hope they'll want to use the bag again so I made the bottom a bit rigid using interfacing and double layer fabriscs, but I didn't line the whole bag. I didn't follow any pattern at all making this one.

The two birds on this one are just perfect for a wedding couple! The leftover fabrics is probably enough to make one more bag, but it won't be quite as beautiful.

T-shirt med färg

Today's blog posts in Husmorsskolans symöte will be in Swedish with a summary in English at the end.

Det är första gången jag deltar i Husmorsskolans symöte med min nystartade blogg så jag passar på att presentera vad jag mest sysslar med på några rader. Jag har precis börjat sy igen efter ett mångårigt uppehåll. Hittills har jag mest sytt nytt av gamla kläder och tyger och det beror på flera saker. För det första har jag under åren samlat på mig en hel del tyg och gamla kläder och att jag nuförtiden försöker tänka efter innan jag köper nytt, men även att det är så svårt att få tag på tyger numera. Utbudet av välsorterade tygaffärer har krympt avsevärt sedan jag sydde som mest på 80-talet.

Nu till mitt senaste sy-projekt. Det är lätt att hitta på något att sy till en 10-årig dotter, men värre med en son på 8 år, så det var extra roligt att kunna hitta på något till honom.

Jag hade:
1. ...överblivna rester av en Marimekko-tröja som alltid varit för stor till mig men som jag inte kunnat göra mig av med för att både färger och kvalitet är helt underbara. Dess långa ärmar har redan använts till baby-leggings när min dotter var liten.
2. ...en helt ny HM t-shirt vars tryck krympt i tvätten och slitit sönder tyget (grrr). Jag har tyvärr för långt att det skall löna sig att åka till närmsta HM och klaga.

Jag sprättade loss ärmarna och halskanten från den orangea t-shirt'en. Sedan mätte jag ut nya ärmhål på den randiga tröjan efter den orangea t-shirt'ens ärmhål. Dessutom sydde jag in sidsömmarna så att den färdiga t-shirt'en skulle få rätt bredd innan jag sydde fast ärmarna och halskanten. Han blev mycket nöjd och stolt över att klä sig i något jag har gjort  - man får väl passa på nu innan de tycker det blir pinsamt ;)

Fler bidrag till dagens symöte finns på Husmorsskolan

I have combined to t-shirts; one which was to big for me and who's sleeves have already been transformed into a pair of babie's leggings and one where the print shrinked and tore apart the fabrics. I really enjoyed making something for my 8 year old son for a change. 

Spot the difference

I bought Sew! by Cath Kidston two years ago in hope that I'd get some inspiration. At that point I didn't. But all material for the bag on the cover is included in the book and now I finally decided it was time to make it.

At first I didn't want to give Cath Kidston the honor of my bag and stick her label on, but the more I realised that this bag is not really my style, the better I found the idea to use the label. So if someone asks me I can avoid admitting that I made it! (well, that I put it together anyway)

There was no lining included so I lined it myself with some scrap bits of fabric. I think lining is essential in this bag if it's ever going to be used. In a way it's kind of pretty, so maybe it'll get some use in the summer.

It's been good to practice some techniques, like making buttonholes and to find out that I can still handle them :)

Ready for the beach 2013

This dress will be just perfect at the sea side in July!

I managed to make a close enough copy of the dress in my last post. I'm very excited about the finished result and I already have plans to make another one. I'm sure it'll be a favourite this summer. Just like the original dress it has a pouch on the chest to add some detail to an otherwise very plain dress.

Work in progress

My fifteen year old favorite dress for the very hottest summer days is so worn and stained that it's actually ready for the bin. I've kind of been looking for some linen or cotton that would do for remaking it for a long time, but as my machine has been standing in a cupboard I haven't really put much effort into the search.

Times are rapidly changing though and last week when I was at the market looking for inspiration I found a perfect denim colored fine linen at the market, I bought it and went home to make the pattern.

Sewing is in progress but have come to an halt cause I miss a zip (which I hope to get on Wednesday when I plan to go on a shopping spree to get some dots and pieces I need for sewing). So far I'm very happy with the look of the dress and I can hardly wait to finish it later this week.

But there's more work in progress, I have one othe dress which I actually started on in January and which is also waiting for a zip and finally I need to finish a Cath Kidston bag which I'm not very excited about...

My best friend

My sewing machine is an old Husqvarna sewing machine which I bought for one of my first salaries from a sommer job in the late 80-ies, while all my friends used their money to go on charter trips. It has been through a lot and unfortunately the stitching isn't the best any longer (I have recollect that I used to be pretty hard on it back in the days). I don't seem to be able to adjust the thread tension very well which gives me bad results every so often.

If my project to become more creative and bring back my passion for sewing succeeds, a new sewing machine is on the top of my wish list! No matter what happens I'll probably keep my Husqvarna for many more years for nostalgic reason :)

The cover for my Husqvarna I started making about 15 years ago. I've had the quilted front piece lying in a box for all that time until I, this past winter, finally decided to finish the cover. And I did it in the simplest fashion possible. I skipped the quilting and just sew together big pieces of matching fabrics. There's a hole for the handle up top and it has a lining, so it is reversible, but the back side has no details so I prefer to have "the right" side out which apart from the quilt has a few handy pockets.

Girl's jeans skirt

I really wish I had taken a picture before remaking my daughter's skirt. The old skirt had a perfect fitting waistband, but apart from that everything about the skirt was wrong; it had no pockets, it was to long and much, much to wide which made it very heavy.

The old skirt was made with one enormous front piece and one enormous backpiece (each about 1/3 of a circle), so I took it apart and just kept the waistband including the belt holders intact. I used a pattern from Ottobre 4/2012 as a guidance for the new skirt, but I had to make a lot of changes to the pattern to get it the way I wanted. In the process I probably cut off half the fabric used originally.

The original skirt had some nice embroideries which I managed to keep. To keep the project as simple as possible I didn't plan to take the zip out, but then I realised it had to be done as the sides of the skirt was a completely different cut to the new pattern. I also put in pockets and made the back of the skirt out of three pieces instead of one for a better fit.

Beauty bag

This cute little beauty bag I just made with guidance of The Plaid Scottie's Box Pouch Tutorial. It's a pretty simple and straight forward project which took about 2-3 hours to complete. The big challenge for me turned out to be to translate inches into cm :)

As I turned the finished bag the right way around, one of the zip pulls fell out... If I make more bags I have to make sure it's properly fastened. I made the zip pull in the same material as the lining, but I think I could have made it a bit shorter.

Using the same measurements as The Plaid Scottie, my final product measures 11 x 15 x 8 cm. I'm not sure what to use the bag for but my makeup remover pads fit in pretty well!

Apart from my zip pull issues I'm happy with the result. It certainly looks a lot more complicated to make than it is. I love the way the zip is put in without leaving any bulky edges anywhere. 

The fabric comes from a two sided baby bed set used by my oldest child. I just grabbed anything I had lying around to try out the pattern. I kind of regret not to have chosen the lining for the outside instead, I really like the pretty small checked pattern. 

Jeans bag

Kids have a tendency to outgrow their clothes a little bit too quick and I turned my daughter's old jeans shorts in to a bag she can use this summer. As I didn't have any long bits left over from the legs of the jeans I made stripes of the shorts legs and patched them together. I also folded in the bottom corners to give the bag a bit more shape and firmness at the bottom. I used a pretty neutral lining made from a tablecloth bought second hand some years ago. If I were to make one for myself I think I would have chosen a more contrasting lining for a nice effect. 

She is pretty happy with the result. Now it remains to be seen if she'll actually use it as well... If she doesn't I might consider using it myself!

Makeup remover pads

Old towels make for perfect makeup remover pads. Especially with a 10-year old in the house who loves experimenting with makeup at home. I sew them in double layer with a colorful stich arround. These hold for washing at 60 degrees over and over again. Mine are about 10 cm in diameter.

Let's go!

Yet another blogg. This is a simple one though; no pressure, just fun. It's all about remaking and creating and sharing the results.