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

Ikea and luxury - a contradiction?

This weekend I did something new to me: An Ikea-roadtrip! It's bizarre, considering that Sweden is the hometurf of Ikea, but the closest warehouse to Umeå is the one in Sundsvall, 350 kilometres away. Personally, I'm not a huge Ikea-fan, I prefer shopping second hand or investing in solid, quality stuff. However, some things are actually in pretty high quality even at Ikea, one just has to know where to look. For organizer-mojo's they're great! I've been wanting to make my sewing room a bit more organized, to put that final touch to it, and this trip was perfect for that. I also bought about 25 metres of toille-fabric =)

25 metres... that's a lot of toilles!

Thing was, someone very dear to me (someone who might be what's been occupying my thoughts and time these past couple of months...) needed to get a whole lot of basic things, so we figured we'd make a mini-vacation out a trip to Ikea by staying over at a nice hotel in central Sundsvall.

I'll be honest, I voted that we'd stay at Knaust simply 'cause I wanted to take photo's on these stairs =) Unfortunatley, Ikea took so long (five hours!) that when I got to the hotel I was way too tired to fix my hair or press my new-sewn red dress before dinner, so you get to see the post-Ikea me instead of the fancy vintage version I had planned.

Just look at the ceiling! And the staircase...

Here you can see all the way up

Resting on a landing

Ever heard stories about how the hotel was overbooked and someone's room got upgraded? It always happens to someone else, right? This weekend my fairy-godmother must have been in a good mood... An albeit nice double room was tranformed into a loft suite!!!

We had dinner and then there was just no point in leaving the hotelroom. Had a glass of wine, some chocolate, and just chilled in our top-suite with a view over the rooftops in central Sundsvall...

Picture taken from the bed loft

Best of all: we could have a continental breakfast at the suite, served at a time of our choice (we did pay like 40$ extra for the change of rooms and the roomservice, but it was so worth it!). This will undoubtledly go down as the most luxurious vacation I've ever had. Not too bad for an Ikea-roadtrip, right? ; )

Bye, bye, Knaust! 

I had the best weekend, driving through this beautiful landscape, shopping things that will hopefully make organizing my sewing supplies a lot easier, staying at a wonderful hotel with roomservice, and spending the weekend with someone I care about. Pretty darn perfect =) Now my fingers are itching to build furnitures and to re-organize my sewing space!

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

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