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.