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

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