Me Made May week 3 1/2 - summer is here!

I've fallen behind on posting my Me Made May-outfits... There haven't been a lot of time for blogging, and somehow the sewing post seemed more important (and fun) =)

We've had an unextecped change in weather, and the entire region seems to have skipped spring and gone straight for summer. Seriously, go back and check my pictures from the beginning of May and behold the snow and ice. Then we were gone a week, and the grounds turned emerald. Summer heat struck (which is 20 C in this part of the world), and one warm weekend later every tree and bush had leeves! Not too unusual, spring is always fast here. The unsual part is that it stayed warm. Loving it! =)

This is a long post, with outfits you've likely to have seen before, so why not check out the surrounding landscape, and see what happened during that warm weekend...

MeMadeMay goes on holiday - week 2

That's right, I spent last week (wednesday to wednesday) in beautiful, sunny Alicante, Spain!

Wednesday 8th, after a half-day of work, some hours of last-minute packing, pin-curl setting, and a nice, direct flight Umeå-Alicante, it was over midnight before we reached our hotelroom (with seaview from the balcony!). I'll admit; due to the whole "I'm travelling all day anyway and oh, drat, I've already packed all my me-made tops..." this outfit only has a me-made skirt =(

Thursday 9th (my birthday!) we spent the day exploring the Castle of Santa Barbara, a place I strongly recommend any Alicante-tourist to visit! The views of the city were spectacular, and the castle itself awe-inspiring.

In a me-made chevron jersey dress, and my hair still in pincurls =)

We had dinner at a restaurante-ship in the marina next to the hotel, and it was the best fish I have ever eaten! Just wow! It was a lovely birthday, and a great start on the holiday.

Outside the restaurante, in a me-made 30s inspired dress.

Friday 10th we explored the city. It's a beautiful old town, with plenty of pretty buildings. I even did a little bit of shopping!

Maybe due to the lack of rain throughout the year, many trees looked like this. This particular one was extreme, just look at how one heavy branch is supported! I'm wearing me-made blouse and half-circle skirt.

In the evening, at Alicante's beachwalk. I'm wearing a me-made blue jersey dress I haven't blogged yet, and the 30s inspired me-made jacket. Oh, and the handbag I bought earlier that same day! =)

Saturday 11th, there was an art museum, churches, gorgeous buildings, pittoresque alleys... We walked all day, and a me-made jersey top and pleated blue cotton skirt was comfortable and easy to wear. And yes, in almost all day photo's I'm wearing my new walking shoes. They're great! Supersoft to walk in, and with the added support of my ortho-insoles my feet remained happy through the many hours of walking. Not the cutest, though... Sometimes function beats aestaethic ; )

Sunday 12th we visited the archeological museum (MARQ). It was interesting to see the development of the city, but it might have been even more interesting with English texts... Everything was in Spaninsh! (And something similar, maybe portuguese). My high-school French gave me the tools to decipher the most vital information, it was quite fun to put it to use =) Anyway, a really nice museum!

In me-made jersey top and the pleated skirt.

Monday 13th we took the ferry to the island of Tabarca, about 20 kilometres outside the coast. Stunning scenery, lovely little town and the ocean was... beyond words.

In a me-made jersey dress and the pretty sunhat the mr gave me for my birthday!

Tuesday 14th, last day in town! Went around the town some more, visited a couple more museums. I recommend the Volvo Ocean Race museum! I haven't seen the race, nor am I very interested in sailing in general, but it was still a very interesting exhibition. I might even watch parts of the race on TV next year!

In my favorite me-made blouse and the half-circle skirt, on the plaza outside the hotel.

Last evening, after a delicious tapas-meal. Wearing a new me-made jersey dress, yet to be properly blogged.



It was a wonderful holiday, and I hope I'll soon be able to return to this area in Spain.

Love, Erika

Me Made May week 1

Me Made May is in full swing all over the blogosphere, and I love seeing everyone wearing their me-made garments! However, as I rarely follow daily-outfit posts, I didn't want to post such (and I doubt I'd manage it anyway). So instead, here's the first of my weekly round-ups!

Wednesday May 1st - a holiday in Sweden, so a me-made top and RTW jeans was as dressed up as I got. Here just home from dance practice with friends.

Thursday May 2nd - back at work in me-made jersey top and me-made halfcircle wool skirt.

Friday May 3 - first day with any real warmth in the air! Premier for the floral jersey top from my summer SWAP, and my favorite me-made summer skirt (first project ever featured on this blog!).

Saturday May 4 - beautiful day with a chilly bite in the wind. Picture taken during a 50 min walk the mr and I like to take a couple of times a week. Love Nydala lake at this time of the year, the ice is melting fast! Still a bit left in this photo, but I think it's clear by now. I'm wearing slouchy jeans and a floral me-made top.

Sunday I was in my me-made sweatpants the whole day, sewing away on my summer SWAP. No pictures =(

Monday May 6 - at work in my red blouse, and premier for the blue half circle skirt.

Tuesday May 7 - mirror shot. Green top and blue pleated skirt, all me-made.

Figured out tops and skirts are my go-to stapels? =) Of course, in 9-10 months a year, there's acutally a cardigan on top of it as well...

About the summer SWAP; I'm done with three more jersey projects (one top and two dresses) and I've finally finished lining the jacket from last summer. There just hasen't been time to take pictures of it, as I'm doing a last minute rush to get as much as possible ready of the SWAP-list before the trip to Spain. Maybe I'll just post pictures of me wearing them there, instead =)

In Sweden, today is the start of a 4-day holiday (for many people, at least). So have a great (long) weekend, folks!

Love, Erika

Me Made May - I'm in!

Zoe from So, Zo, what do you know? is hosting another round of the by now iconic Me Made May-challenge! I participated in Me Made-june two years ago, and learned a lot about the gaps in my closet. At first I was a bit hesitant about signing up this year - for me it would feel like cheating to pledge to just do what I anyway do, it needs to be a challenge. A dream (and a longterm goal) is to be able to go all-in, but I'm not there yet (outerwear, knickers and knitted cardigans all remains for that). However, I decided to pledge...

"I, Erika of Swingin' it in vintage, sign up as a participant of Me-Made-May '13. I endeavour to 1) wear one me-made garment that is not a skirt, each day for the duration of May 2013 and 2) wear a me-made dress in a non-social dance context minimum once a week during May."

The plan is to not sew anything for this challenge. The summer SWAP I'm of course making anyway! I will sew during May, but only what I anyway would have. The goal is instead to see how much me-made I actually wear, what gaps that remains and which type of make(s) I really feel most comfortable using in my everyday life. Also I want to give myself a nudge to wearing blouses and dresses in my everyday life.

I have a pretty good idea what I need in my closet, and what I need to sew to complete the list, but it will be interesting to test the theory against reality.

Oh, and this won't turn into a daily update of outfits-blog during May, I'll post weekly outfit-round-ups =) Inbetween them, there will still be ordinary posts.

So, are you in on Me Made May?!

Love, Erika

In retrospect...

So, seems I went into blog-hybernation... The dark months up here are... well, they're dark. Like really dark. Ok, not "the sun doesn't rise"-dark, since we do get 2,5 hours of light even at the end of December, but my energy tends to dip very low during December and January. Also, this winter there has been something special occupying my mind and time... I don't want to jinx anything, but if all goes well you'll find out eventually (oh, how I hate when people tease with information like that! But sometimes it just feels necessary to tell a little but not all). Anyway, it's something fun! =)

In the meantime, and to get me blogging again, here'e some of the things I've been up to during the past two months:

Meeting up with Kattis at Nya Konditoriet when she was in Umeå, and eating the worlds best cheesecake: saffron and raspberry. Yum! The hot chocolate is something else as well =)

Visiting my sister Kajsa, who moved to Malmö in southern Sweden a year and a half ago. It was wonderful to have a weekend just the two of us! She studies in Lund, and we went there for an afternoon, so she could show me around. Lund is an old university city, and although it's a 15 min drive from Malmö, it's still considered to be a city in it's own right.

The university area was beautiful, just check out the ceiling in this underpass! And all the streets are laid with cobblestones, so pretty!

To something else: Of course, I have been sewing. The amazing thing is that I'm actually very close to being ready with this make. Of course a far cry from being ready to Christmas like the plan was, but there will be Christmas next winter as well =) This dress took some time, since although I had done a dress in this style, I wasn't 100% happy with the bodice (it was too long in the back and in the front edges, and the sleeves were a disaster). I went back to the drawing table and am much more pleased with this version. The sleeve pattern could still use some more tweaking... All that's left is one buttonhole (I sew them by hand) and the corresponding button. And I want to make a matching belt! See, I finally did it...

I ordered belt-kits from A fashionable stitch! I've been eyeing them for ages, as a matching belt and buckle really screams "vintage!". I'm hoping this will be the cherry on the top =) I also got a point turner and some tailoring tape. Sunni runs a wonderful shop, and it was a pure pleasure shopping from her. Easy to order, the parcel shipped superfast, and I had my things a whole week earlier than I counted on. They look almost too pretty to use, don't they? =)

I've been adding some books to my sewing library as well, and so far I really like them. The Dressmaker's technique bible was a Christmas gift. Make your own dress patterns was my desperat attempt for some guidance for the weird problems I have with sleeve fitting. Not sure how helpful it is with that, but it's an interesting read.

Last but not least; I've been dancing! This seasons classes have begun, but I'm only teaching the second half of the intermediate class this spring. Quite nice to be able to focus on just getting some classes really good. This photo is however from the social dance last Friday. I look a bit strange, sorry about that. I was coming down with a fever, and have been ill since. However, I wanted to show the outfit anyway, as both the skirt and the blouse are me-made =)

All for now, and have a great week!
Love, Erika

P.S. Did you see I was the Featured member on WeSewRetro during January?! I still feel a bit overwhelmed and very flattered at being asked! =) It's such a great community of talented seamstresses, I'm glad I've finally started posting there after lurking inthe shadows for over two years =)

Colette sewing book and personal style

As those reading sewing blogs may have noticed, Sarai who owns Colette patterns released a sewing book during November, The Colette Sewing Handbook. I've been reading reviews of it all over the internet, and everyone loves it! It seems like a great book for beginner-intermediate sewists, it comes with 5 patterns and it covers some areas I usually miss in sewing books, namely planning, choosing a pattern and fitting. The chapter on finishing also sounds interesting, new techniques are always good.

Tasia from Sewaholic wrote a great review here, focusing on the part about wardrobe planning. Casey also adressed this part of the book in her review, and she had some more pages from the book for us to read. Sarai's tip is to pick out 5 garments/outfits/accessoiries that you really love and feel good while wearing (meaning that you not just love the idea of them, but actually enjoy wearing them as well). Then analyze these pieces and see if you can find some common feature, like type of colour, fabrics, fitting, etc. Tasia wrote a follow up post where she did this, found here. I liked this idea, so I figured I'd try it myself! =)

Red doubleknit cotton-jersey dress, swing/40s style (me-made). Pattern made from my blockpattern. I love the colour, the heavy weight of the fabric and how extremly comfortable it is to wear.

Wool winter skirt with grey cardigan. Wool is my all-time favorite fabric! And this is my favorite cardigan; I love the length, the loose-fitting sleeves, the lacepattern on the bodice and the little tie-band just beneth the bust which ensures that the cardigan fits correctly.

Blue cotton skirt (me-made) with purple knit top. This skirt is perfect! It never wrinkles, it's mostley cotton so it breathes, it moves beautifully when I'm dancing, the pleating makes it comfortable to sit in all day at work. I love the top, the sleeves are just my length and I adore the detail with the lace inset and the small covered buttons.

It goes without saying that of course The Coat is a favorite to wear. For the first time in my life outerwear actually fits! The back isn't too wide or long, the overbust isn't too small, the waist fits, and the width of the skirt means the coat is loose over the hips and doesn't gape open when I walk.

Thrifted green vintage dress of unclear decade. This dress is just so nice to wear. Simple as that. =)

A few things springs to mind about my taste:
-Solid colours, dark or jewel, are a favorite.
-Fitted in the waistarea, loose around the hips, not overly loose around the bust but with enough width for easy movement. Waistseams sits in the natural waist.
-Natural fibers; wool, cotton, linen, silk. Jerseytops and cotton cardigans.
-Necklines that are not tight but not deep enough to show cleavege.
-Hemlines on skirts right beneth the knees, 2" longer on winter skirts.
-Always some sort of sleeve, either short or full-length, seldom elbow or three-quarter for every-day wear (too hard to layer).

Now, these things were far from new to me, and I already sew with this in mind. For example I know that the fitted over the hip/calf long/blous-y at the waist - dresses of the 30s  that I just love isn't what I feel most comfortable in. Instead, I'm sewing 40s style and 50s style skirts and dresses to wear at work.

However, while I knew this in the back of my head, this was still a very useful exercise. Maybe it's time to focus on making more of the styles I know I like? Maybe it's not boring to plan more clothes in the same category as the one's I have, it's insightful of me to know what I feel good in =) And perhaps my taste is not the flashiest, lot's of people would feel grey and frumpy in it, but since I feel good in it, why should I strive toward other styles?

This brings me back to the Colette Sewing Handbook... Take a look at the patterns that comes with this book (I'll just link as I don't want to steal photos):
The Truffle dress and the licorice dress. Both very cute, but the sleeves are all wrong for me and the parts I do like (the fitted bodice) would be a lot easier to do using my block pattern than doing the 1 million alterations I'd need to do on the bodice. The skirts are not quite my taste...
The pastille dress. Adorable, but not my kind of sleeve nor skirt. See above about the fitted bodice.
The Taffy blouse and the Meringue skirt. Again, the sleeves on the blouse are not my style, the bodice on the blouse is too loose for me. The skirt pattern I could do myself in less than an hour, with the length, waistband, opening and pockets I prefer.

What I'm trying to do here is to decide whether or not to get the book. The patterns are super cute, all of them, but they really don't fit into my style. Of course referece books on sewing techniques are always fun, but I have a bunch of them and shouldn't I read them all before I can justify getting a new one? But at the same time this one seems so very interesting... And maybe some of my friends who sews would find these patterns useful? =) Having a major case of in-decision here!

Ah well, no need to get it now before Christmas, I can think about it for a while. I did really like the wardrobe analysis though, it was great fun to do, and a big help to being comfortable about my style and thereby likely helpful in the future for choosing sewing projects. Maybe the book have many more of those thoughtful gems, and I can justify buying it for that reason?

What do you think, have you bought the Colette sewing handbook? Do you plan to? Have you done any similar wardrobe analysis and what did you come up with? Should I buy the book?!!! =) I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Love, Erika

Vacation over, but what a summer!

I don't know why I continue to hold the misconception that I can blog during vacation/travelling/having guests. I can't. So instead of a polite warning "I'll be gone for x days/weeks" the blog just appears to die. I swear I'll try to do better. Not with the blogging, but with the heads-ups =)

So how to do this? I had planned to just do two really long posts, summoning up the summer, but found it boooring. Also, I've come to feel that my posts are getting more and more unpersonal, maybe it's 'cause of writing in English? So I'll do a few shorter posts, one a day for the next five days.

 At the airport in Stockholm

My dad had an Important Birthday this year (don't worry dad, I won't give away the number) so in June I made a weekend trip to Stockholm. It was intense but fun! Amongst other things we treated him to a traditional knife-shave at a barber shop.

I visited "Old Touch", a vintage & second hand shop I've been longing to see the inside of. I was too busy gawking at all the wonderful things to take pictures, but check out Miriams wonderful photos here. Trunk space and upcoming vacation made me hold back, so I didn't actually buy anything, but it was fun just to browse the store.

My favortie dress was a must for this special day =)

Mom's dog, Elsa, had just had her first litter, and they were so cute! 8 weeks old and oh my did I want one!
 

Here they are, all asleep... (there are three puppies in the picture above. Try counting and see if you can spot the third =))

... and the next second, out of the blue, they're running around chasing each other!

Cute little fluffy things... Sigh. Few things beats cuddling a puppy!

Love, Erika

It's all about the 50s!

This week I've been all about the 50s, alternating wiggleskirts and my huge more-than-circle skirt.

Monday 13th. A plaid wiggleskirt, made from the skirt in this pattern. At work (another place than the one featured in the previous post - I work for an outsourcing company).

The following picture was taken coming home from a work party, so it's about ten in the evening (yes, I made it an early night. There was work to be done early the following day). Quite bright, considering the time of day, right? I love, love, love that we are in the lightest part of the year. We now have 3 hours of official night - but it never get's dark. the sun dips below the horizon, and then a slow sunset gives way to a slow sunrise =)

Tuesday 14th. This skirt isn't really me made, but it is me-remade. As is the cardigan below the jacket  =) The skirt was too good for the occasion to pass over just 'cause it's MMJ. So I decided me-remade counts as well =)

Wednesday 15 th. Black wiggle skirt and vintage blouse from my grandmother. I rarely wear this skirt, and this was the first outing for the blouse. I'm glad I had an incentive to wear this, I loved the combination! The blouse is a bit too "fluffy" to wear with my usual pleated skirts (all definitions disappears), but it works with a slim skirt.

Thursday 16th. Do you ever get that tunnelvision when choosing clothes? That there's only one thing you feel like wearing, and no matter the occasion it's the only item that would be appropriate? I always do that! This week it's this skirt. I was saved from wearing it the whole week by it being too big and heavy to pack for a weekend trip =)

This photo is taken at the Lindahl residence (their youngest son just graduated high school), which seemed fitting as it was the first place the re-made skirt was worn last year!

Right now I'm in Stockholm, visiting friends and family. It's a short visit, though, just for the weekend. Hope you're having a great weekend so far!

Love, Erika

Summer is here! Or, it was here...

Warning! Picture heavy post ahed...
Last week summer suddenly struck northern Sweden, Yes, southern as well, but that happens every now and then. It has never ever been so warm in my county during these five years I've lived here. To kick off the week, and summer itself as it turned out =), the family Lindahl arranged their by now yearly dance on the sundeck to the beautiful, scrapy music of a vintage grammophone one turnes by hand. This is what I wore:

Monday 6th. Blue, floral Swingdress.

The heat continued, and this much loved but rarely worn green skirt made an apperance:

Wednesday 8th. The colour puts me in mind of icecream =) It's cute, but a bit unpractical as it's the kind of cotton that get's stuck on anything (even nylons. And itself!). I do love it for those hot days, though!

I had no imagination the day after (it was too warm to think), so I wore it again. For work, this time. I had an amazing luck with this photo; inspired by Karens project for June, I walked up to a stranger and asked if he could take a picture of me and the beautiful Umeå river. Turned out he was a photograpfer! =) He very kindly helped me, thus providing us all with a picture that does the river justice.

Thursday 9th

Next up, my blue skirt.

Friday 10th, at work.

This is an everyday look for me at work, both the clothes, the teacup and the headset =) See, I work in a reception/switchboard...

Saturday was the last dance night of the semester, featuring the wonderful Thomas Fisher's kvartett and vocalist Anna-Lena Kanon. They were really swingin'!

I wore the dress I made as a testrun for the bridesmaid dress I wore to my best friend's wedding four years ago. I still fit into it, but it was a bit more snug than it was back then =) This was the first non-medieval piece I made (not counting home-ed in elementary school), and my first ever attempt to insert a zipper.

I made the pattern myself, loosly based on a vintage pattern. I can't really claim any credit for it though, without my mom´s help with fitting and alterations it never ever would have worked. Thanks, mom!

I think that's it for now. I'm heading for Stockholm and the celebration of my dad's 60th birthday this weekend, so excited to visit some vintage shops. If there's time... Oh, and I'm slightly faster at posting the outfit photo's at flickr than here, so check out my photo's there if you're curious about what I'm up to =)

Love, Erika

Me Made June - and so it begins, day 2+3

Me Made June is in full swing, and I started out forgetting it... Day one I sewed, worked out and pottered about at home. Barely got dressed = no pictures. =)
Yesterday was a whole other story, celebrating a friend's graduation from university.

I wore my red dress in interlocked jersey, keds and my grandmothers belt. This dress is a great going away dress when I want to be able to indulge myself with lots of sweets =) I'm not really sure the red of the dress works with the red keds... It's a bit sad, I've mentioned before that my feet are picky with shoes due to injuries. To give you an idea of the extent of it: these are my "pretty and I can survive fine as long as I don't wear them everyday and take the bus as much as possible"-shoes. Tragic, huh? Esp as I've finally found (and bought) some cute high heels on Tradera this spring:

Ah well, eventually it will be us, my loves! =)

Today was another relaxed day, just sewing and cleaning up the place a bit. I wore my favorite me-made skirt, a dark blue creation. I love it because it's comfortable, it's easy to move in, the fabric is an amazing cotton (with maybe a little other in it, not entirely sure) that never wrinkles. I sometimes iron it after washing, but not always. And it continues to be wrinkle-free during the day! Staines seems to magically disappear from it. I can wear a belt to it, but I don't need to. And the blue is so dark that it matches almost everything, just as black does. A perfect skirt =)

I don't plan to post outfits everyday, but rather do a round up maybe once a week. There will be repeats during June, I don't have anywhere near enough me-made-clothes to last me the whole month otherwise. Do check out the Me Made June flickr group for inspiring outfits from the challenge participants!

Love, Erika