A dress for blues dancing

A dance night that comes only once every 6th month is a special event, right? And it’s made to feel even more special with something new, special to wear! =)

As per usual my carefully laid sewing plans this fall went straight to… *erhm* They didn’t work out as I had planned. Or at all. That meant my grand vision that included a gorgeous rayon, matching chiffon with embroidery and sequins, and of course a smashing 30s silhouette, that vision had to be put on hold for a later date if I wanted a finished dress to wear to the dance instead of just an idea. So what to do instead?

I wavered between the three drawings to the left above, but even though I decided for the one to the farthest left, it was never a “Yay! I’m going to love this dress!”. At first I tried to ignore it and stick to my chosen path, but as I picked out the jersey I bought in London last year (intended for a bluesdress) and the pattern pieces, a new dress just seemed to grow out of what was in front of me. The result was the dress on the right, minus the split (when test-dancing the dress, I realised I didn't need the split).

Ever had that happen; that a project seems to change itself, and take an ok idea to something totally different? The end result was a lot more suited to the occasion, to the fabric and to what I really really deep deep down wanted. It’s strange what can come out of being true to one’s gut feeling and just follow the intuition. I’m not sure I can say I drafted this dress, it more or less drafted itself.

The entire front bodice got an overlay of lace, pleated to the neckline. The skirt was cut (on-grain) from my bias 30s skirt pattern, so made long + slim. Sleeves also got a cover of lace.

The best is the back! Covered with lace, the jersey beneth dives into a deep V. This is a style I’ve dreamed of wearing, forever! But with my bust, skipping the bra just isn’t an option. However, when I realized the Glamour Corselette I also got in London would be ideal under the thin jersey skirt, my mind raced to the conclusion “Holy Moses, I can make a deep back!”. As a deep back isn’t ideal when dancing - the lead’s hand goes right over there, and as I’ve discovered myself when leading followers wearing tank tops with spaggetti-straps, it really is a much more pleasant experience to have some fabric between hand and back – I kept the full lace back, and just cut out the jersey.

Due to the cut out back, my slips wouldn't work, so I made a lining from knit stretch lining.

Dress inside-out with the back lining visible...

...and the front.

Did I lose something with this change of plans? Yes and no. The original jersey dress would have been an allround Little Back Dress, usuable for many occasions, from dancing to dinner parties. The dress that I ended up making is a pure Blues Dance Dress (ok, I may wear it for New Years Eve as well ; ) ). However, a multi-purpose allround LBD wasn't really what I desired deep down. I wanted a dress that walked the narrow line between classy, but not "funeral". Elegant and simple, but interesting. Sensual, but not sexy nor slutty. A bit like blues dancing =)
Also, from a more practical point of view, this jersey isn't of a very high quality and I fear it wouldn't make it long as a much-in-use allround LBD...

 And I did my first attempt on fingerwaves!!! The rest of the hair is brushed through and pinned up in a faux bob.

The dress was fantastic to dance in, and we had a wonderful Blues Dance Night! Above is me and my sister Kajsa during clean-up after the dance. We didn't coordinate or anything, but I love how our outfits matched with black jerseys, textured bodices, matt skirts and long-ish sleeves =)

All for now!
Love, Erika

In London, on vacation!

I and the mr spent a week on vacation in London! It's been years since I've been abroad, so an out-of-the-country vacation is a huge deal for me. The whole idea really came from "Look, there a blues dance camp in London! Wanna go? Hey, let's take some extra days off work and make a vacation out of it!". Said and done, we left for Blues baby blues on Friday 16th, not really sure what to expect from Britain in mid-November. And yes, there was some rain (thankfully we missed the storms with a hairs width, I hope all my Brittish readers are well!), but there was also fun dancing, good food, impressive buildings, intense shopping and a sometimes gloyriously sunny late fall. Here's some pictures from it all, enjoy! =)

Dinner the first day, tired after getting up at 4.50 to catch the first morning flight from Umeå. See that slight curl at the end of my hair? I set the hair in pincurls the day prior, it was a pudel-80s-mess when I took it out at noon Friday, after lot's of brushing it looked pretty darn nice and I thought to myself "Yay! Now it will be all curly and cute until Sunday!". This did not take the humid London air into consideration... I swear, during 4 hours my hair drooped 10 cm!

The weekend is was all dancing, and we saved both shopping and touristy stuff until later. We did go through Hyde Park on the way to the dance classes, and I couldn't resist some photo's of the park in all it's sunny glory... Please excuse the weird coat+baggy jeans combo! Those jeans are the best for dance practice, but not quite in style with the rest of me here =)

Dinner at the hotel Sunday evening, giving you an idea of the quite nice little hotel restaurant where we had breakfast (included with the room, not a given thing in London, apparently).

Strolling down Portobello road in Notting Hill, on our way to What Katie Did, one of my longed for shopping destinations. I'll get back to my shopping in a later post, let's just say it included 1-2 hours at WKD, and a number of shops on Gold Hawk Road... =)

Lot's of cute stuff along this rather tourist heavy part of town. Loved these suitcases!

Interesting wall. See what all those items along the wall and the dividing shelfs are? That's right!

Vintage sewing machines!

I love walking around new cities at night, all the historical buildings are lit up so beautifully, making their modern surroundings fade away. Here's Big Ben and the House of Parliament.

The Tower Bridge

I also saw the Hollywood costume exhibition in V&A museum, it was amazing to see all those gorgeous and sometimes iconic costumes up close! No cameras was allowed inside, so no pictures I'm afraid =( I did buy the official "exhibition book" though (might be the point for the museum with the no pictures-policy... Ah, well, the book was pretty and I wanted it =) ). The whole museum was amazing, I could have spent days there! Strongly recommend a visit there for anyone going to London and being interested in art/craft of all sorts!

That was the tourist (and blues dance) part of the vacation! Early next week there will be a post on the shopping haul =) Stay tuned!

Love, Erika

All I need is blues. And my new dress.

There's been a lot of dancing going on here lately. Fun as always! Besides teaching the intermediate lindy class, I and my partner have been working on something all new on Umeå's dance scene: a blues dance workshop. I've been sold on blues for about 3 years, and while we've had a few blues dance sessions (playing blues for an hour after the usual lindy social), we haven't had classes or any pure blues night. But now it felt like the time had come and there was a demand for it! So last weekend we held a blues dance workshop for two hours, and it was a very interesting challenge to teach a whole new dance... Lindy I'm familiar with teaching but this was all new =) Darn tricky, but so rewarding when at the end of the class it felt like everyone had understood, and really was dancing blues!

Yesterday everyone got a chance to test their new and/or old blues-dancing moves, as Swingum hosted a pure blues dance social! We were a small workgroup, and we tried to change the concept to differ from our usual lindy socials. Diveded off part of the room to make it cosier, placed the tables in the room next door to give space for that quiet, cozy blues feeling on the dancefloor. We got a lot of positive respons on the new "layout", so it feels like we're on the right track.

The "socializing" area. Refreshments were in the kitchen next doors.

Blues night (or slow drag night as it's called nowadays) at Herräng is the night when everyone dresses up in their faciest outfits. Black or dark coloured dresses are usually favored among the ladies, with skirts that tends to be on the slim side. A lot of the gents are just dashing, dressed in suits or even tux's.
For this our premier Blues night I wanted to wear something special, so I introduce to you my vintage little black:

I would guess it's from the late 40s, judging by the grown-on sleeves, the lapped metal zipper in the sideseam, the bustdarts and the gathers in the shoulders, in combination with the A-line skirt and the pleated "belt" that ties in the back.

A few detail shots:

Sleeve with gathered shoulder.

Three covered buttons secures it in the back.

Lapped metal side-zipper.

Pleated "belt"

And a last picture from the dance, where my fully fashioned vintage stockings also are visible =) I loved dancing in this dress, the sleeves made it easy to move, the material was light and I never felt warm in it, the skirt was the perfect shape for blues.
Unfortunatly, as you maybe can see from some of the photos, it's not in mint condition. The fabric is fragile and the seams have split on some places, like the neckline. I'll need to do some needlework on it before wearing it again, but on the bright side: the not so perfect condition of the dress means I can dance in it without feeling like I'm comitting a vintage clothing-crime =) Also, blues dancing is a lot less straining on the clothes than lindy hop...

Now I'm off to dream about more blues. We'll def host more Blues nights in the future, and hopefully there'll be more workshops as well. For now, my legs are burning from all the dancing yesterday, I've still got that slow, dreamy blues feeling in body and soul, and my mind is playing Fade to black with Dire straits.

Love, Erika

Herräng! And not a year too soon!

This is the third part of My Summer. Want to read it in order? Then check out part 1 and part 2.

Last year I had to skip Herräng dancecamp, due to muscle inflammations in the front thigh muscles. You know, the muscles that are used the_entire_time while dancing lindy hop. I've been in physical therapy since then, and even took a total dance-break January through March this year. I'm not 100% well yet, but I am better and I decided that there was just no way I was missing out on Herräng another year! =)

Needless to say, I had a wonderful week. Classes were fun, the teachers awesome, my fellow dancers inspiring and socials in the evenings just magical. To be dancing for real again, to get to that point at three in the morning when the dancefloor starts to clear up a bit, and there's nothing but music and movement in mind and body... Bliss!

Erik at the piano during a break between classes. It was so cool to see the inside of the piano while he was playing!

There was a lot of "fika" for me this year. I've noticed that as I'm getting older I become less and less nocturnal. From my teenage years of sleeping generally 3-11 during holidays to waking up on my own at 8 in the morning and being happy about it for "one get's so much more done during the day", a concept 16 year old me scowled at =)
To counter-act my early habits I started each evening with cake and black tea (black! Which I never drink after 5 in the afternoon, else I can't sleep) after the evening meeting. Hanna and Rita were perfect fika-partners.

The only sad part was the weather; cold, gray and occasional rain. The last day it made a one-eighty and suddenly it was 25 degrees and not a cloud in sight! Happy dancers ran to the beach in-between classes and finally it felt like the real Herräng.

Herräng is such a special dance camp, it's not just the amount of classes or dancefloors, it's the feeling of entering a fantasy dance-world not quite set in reality. Herräng exists in it's own little universe, in a way no other dance camp I've been to does (but it reminds me of medieval events in that aspect). One week in this alternative dimension was more than eunough for my legs this year, but next year I will stay two weeks. I will! =)
 
That's all for this year from my favorite lindy place!
Love, Erika