Stockholm weekend

Stockholm! Swedens capital, my old home town (my birthtown even) and where the majority of my family lives. Last weekend I took the chance to visit family and friends before the holiday madness kicks in. I was supposed to attend a sewing class at one of  the few more advanced sewing schools in Sweden, but the class got cancelled just a week before =( I anyway had the plane-tickets, so instead of a weekend of sewing I had a weekend of food, cakes and talks. Quite nice, and very relaxing =)

Saturday morning at moms place. We made scones and listned to the "music-crossword", a radio show that has aired for ages. My mom, aunt and paternal grandmother used to do this crossword every week, calling each other when it was something they didn't know. Everyone knew never to call between 10 and 11 on Saturday mornings =) Granny's been gone for 15 years (rip) but my mom and my aunt carry on the tradition.

Scones, tea, homemade marmelade, music on the radio and a dog sleeping on the bed in the other room. A very relaxing way to start the weekend.

Said dog on said bed. Love how she matches mom's new bed cover! =) Mom claims it wasn't intentional...

During Saturday Stockholm showed her best side, all sunshine and lovely colours. It's utterly bizarre to see green grass at the end of November! I took the oppurtunity to wear my favorite hat (it's a tad too cold for hats in Umeå now), teamed up with the new coat, red gloves and my trusty handbag.

Sunday was a whole other story - windy, dark and a constant drizzle. Brr! Here I'm the Old Town, Stockholms oldest part, after a long lunch and fika with dad and my aunt.

A new blouse! I've been working on it for ages (or rather, not working on it) as I'm not 100% happy with the pattern. The sleeves look ok like this, but with the arm relaxed a bunch of strainlines appear. Also, the shoulder seam falls back. I'll re-do the pattern before cutting into any silk, but I've decided that this blouse is ready. Just like that =) I'm not thrilled about it, but it's ok and I like the fabric, so while I won't devote any more sewing hours to it, I will still wear it and be happy about it.

How adorable is Elsa?! We're all sitting in the living room, celebrating my brother's 25th birthday, and she naturally wants to be a part of it. Sitting in the sofa, with one paw on Joakim's legs to ensure that he won't run away =)

It was of course a huge disappointment that my class got cancelled, and I hope there will be other weekend classes in the future, but am a bit hesitant to sign up if they're in the habit of cancelling in the 11th hour. We'll see... While it would have been fun to sew the entire weekend, I instead had a very relaxed weekend with family and friends. Just the thing to fight the December darkness!

Love, Erika

Swingin it with friends

There's been a lot more "in vintage" than "swingin' it" lately, hasen't it? Have you begun to wonder if I've stopped dancing? Let me lay your worries to rest, I'm still swingin' it! =) I have however been awfully bad at documenting these evenings, but let me at least give you a hint of the fun last weekend offered.

Last weekend Mattias and Lisette, two great international lindy hop teachers visited Umeå. They gave a two day class for my local society, Swingum, and we hosted two social dance nights (Friday and Saturday), with live bands both evenings. It was a wonderful weekend! It's always such a treat to take classes, and for such experienced teachers... The socials were great fun as well, lot's of talented dancers on the floor!

During class. We did dance stop, sooo much fun! Dance until the music suddenly stops and then freeze. Lot's of laughs during this exercise, I can tell you.

As great as the dancing was, one of the biggest highs for the weekend was Malin and Johannes coming to visit, all the way from Luleå. They brought the kids, and the whole family stayed at my place during the weekend. Turned out three adults and two kids actually sleeps very comfortable in my 2 rooms (that's 1 bedroom and 1 living room for the non-Swedes reading). It was just wonderful having them here! Above is a photo from Saturday night dinner...

...and Erik and Rita was also at the dinner, they also wanted to hang out with 2 year old Alva, and cuddle 5 month old Milo =)

On the dancefloor. Yup, the kids were there as well! They really are the easiest going children! Both evenings they slept in the stroller while their parents danced the nights away =) Here is Alva, she was up on the dancefloor for a while during Saturday night, before falling alseep. And the doll also wanted to dance =)

It's been a while since I was in the show group, my problems with my legs prevented me from practicing that much and that intense dance, plus I don't really have the time. But my friends in Swingum Lindy Hoppers have continued, and they've taken the group to a whole new level. I was awed during their perfomance, such great dancing! I mean, the style, the moves, the whole set-up! So watch, and enjoy! Erik, Elin, Jimmy, Mia, Henrik and Barbara, swingin' it! =)



Love, Erika

Tailoring a cut-on shawl collar

Thank you so much everyone for the amazing response to the coat! Sewing it this past year has been a huge project, but a very fun one. There are few projects that have taken so much time and so much head-scratching but that I've still loved the entire time (in fact I think this would have to be the only one...) =) I've learned so much, and I wanted to share the solution I worked out for the one thing I couldn't find the answer to in either the Tailoring book or Gertie's posts: tailoring a cut on shawl collar. The book, and Gertie, talks of sewn-on shawl collars, but cut-on presents a few problems with the order of sewing. So here's what I worked out! Heads up: long and very, very geeky post ahed =) All the pictures are in full size if you click on them, for clearer details.

Click on the post title to continue reading...

It's a coat!

It's ready! It's finally ready! Got the idea two years ago, bought fabric one year ago, cut coat fabric in January, and now it's ready!!!  (Warning for long, picture heavy post...)

The pattern, found on Tradera (Swedish ebay). Won after a fierce bidding, where I questioned if I really needed a pattern. So very, very happy I followed through on the bidding! Without this pattern I wouldn't have known what pieces a coat requires, and that was just the start of the process.

The fabrics, from left: green wool, woven fusible, 100% lambswool interlining, brown lining. Of course I later discovered I needed more stuff, like horse-hair canvas, shoulder pads, buttons, waaay more coat thread than I have here.

And all that material somehow turned into this. =)

Of course it was not as simple as that, there was no magic wand, but lots of sewing needles, pressing, and all kinds of new to me construction techniques. To my aid I had the classic Tailoring book, which was great. One thing it did not adress was how to pad-stitch a cut-on shawl collar, or how the assembly order changes for shawl collars in comparison to ordinary collars. I plan to post the solution I worked out =)

The fabrics were a pure joy to work with. In the end, nothing behaves as friendly as woven wool that has been treated. This had a Melton finish, making it impossible to pull out any strands, meaning no seam-finishing needed. Very helpful, since basically all the seam allowances were trimmed at one time or another, some down to 0.25 cm. Tightly woven and felted wool is a great idea then! Also, making invisible stitching is a breeze with a thick, tight wool.

Happy blogger! Also a demonstration of why it looks a bit uneven around the bust in the previous photo; it needs the ease so that my arms can move. But mostley: Happy blogger! =)

Of course, thick wool is a nightmare to press, but hey! Now I had to learn how to do it! I'll readily admit; not all seams are perfectly pressed, even though I did a lot of press-testing on scraps. I don't really care though, I love the coat!

Naturally the pattern didn't work straight out of the package, there were some huge fitting alterations: shortening the back, shortening the front (different amounts), Full Bust Adjustment, re-directing the bustdarts, adding width on waist and hips, and lots of small fiddly things. Still, the back worked as it was (with a lenght reduction), which was a first for me!
The only style alteration I did was to alter the collar slightly, it was way too high on the neck in the original pattern. I did keep the original skirt length, though. In old catalog photos the coat always covers the skirt/dress, and keeping that detail gives the coat a nice vintage flair, I feel.

So happy with the silhouette! Just like I envisioned!

There is huge amounts of handstitches inside this coat. To begin with all seams were handbasted, machine sewn,basting removed, seam pressed open, then both seam allowances cross stitched to the coat to ensure the seam would lie flat. The collar is pad stitched by hand, lining attached with slip stitches and of course all the hems are hand worked. Plus a lot more minor details... That was fun parts though, I love hand sewing!

A hint of the lining, the light from the street light does something weird to the colour though. Also the inside of my bound buttonholes. First time I've done any of those, so it was... interesting =) Of course some details could have been better, but I'm generally pleased with them.

Phew! A long post for conveying a long journey. I've enjoyed lot's of it, I've sworn quite a few times, I've learned tons, and now I'm very happy it has come to an end so I can go on to next step: using the coat! Come on winter, bring me that snow! =)

And finally: Thank you so much Elin, for being my photographer for a day!

Love, Erika

Outrunners for winter

The air is beginning to taste of winter. Don't get me wrong, it's still (Thank heavens!) very much fall, leaves are yellow and the grass is still green. However, some trees stands bare and naked against the cold and today there has been three sure signs that winter is on the way:

1. Frost! =) Everything has been covered with frost in the mornings, so pretty.

2. I've put away all my cottonskirts and now the favorite wool skirt is back on, all fresh from the dry cleaners.

There's still a small, small dot on it, but I sincerely doubt anyone sees it.

3. I've bought new winter boots, as the old ones were falling apart...

All warm and fuzzy!

While I'm happy with all these things, I'm hoping winter doesn't hurry too much. Fall is so beautiful the way it is now!

Just ouside work, the red brick building is the office.

And with this bite in the air we've been having, I'm ready to put on my new winter coat.

 In the afternoon. Having a bit of a cold spell...

100% humidity and around zero celsius. The cold creeps in to the marrow!




Oh, the coat? Yes, there will indeed soon be pictures! I just need to find someone to take them... Using the timer on my compact camera, in a dark living room, will just not do the coat full justice... =)

Talk to you soon!
/Love, Erika