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

Challenging my style-axioms

Is the fashion of all timeperiods for everyone? Or does some styles fit you better than others? Are there any total no-no's? I've always taken it for a given fact of life, an axiom that needen't be tested nor proved since it was so obviously true, that some styles fit me better, some are more so and so, and some I can't pull off no matter how hard I want to.

I've assumed that 20s, 30s and 60s fashion doesn't work for me. I need a waist definition, so the 20s and the A-line shift dresses of the 60s are a no-no. The hip-hugging 30s dresses with puffy sleeves accentuates totally wrong for me.

1936. Cute, but I'd never feel comfortable with so much puff at the shoulders.

But is that really true? Or is it worth testing this axiom? All right, yes, certain styles within an era might not work for me, but when ever does all the fashion variations from any era suit one person? Fashion through all ages has always been diverse, as in no point through history has everyone looked the same. Differences within a style can make that style work for very different body types, and I'm beginning to wonder if maybe when looking at period fashion sources (primarliy magazines and patterns) I'm giving the photo's/drawings too much credit. All the girls there looks the same, as they fulfill whatever beautyideal was prevalent at the time, but that's not how reality would have looked.

I started this summer with my 30s inspired wedding guest ensamble, and look! What would you know, it worked! However, I've been reluctant to leave my style-axioms behind, figuring that since it was just an A-line skirt on the bias it wasn't really 30s. But then I looked closer at a bunch of patterns and it seems the everyday wear of most of the 30s was worn with A-line skirts, not even on the bias all the time. And the huge, puffy sleeves? Yes, esp towards during 1935-1938 (approx) it seemes they were all the rage. But there was room for personal adaptions, just look at these blouses:

1936. All sorts of sleeves! On the same page!

So maybe I should give the 30s a real chance before I toss it out the window?

But my real eyeopener was when I tried on a late 20s/early 30s dress this Christmas. The story of how it entered my life is a cute one, and the details of the dress are amazing (albeit hard to see in this small, dark and partly blurry photo), but that's a post of it's own. You'll see more of this dress at a later date, I promise! Now I want to stay on track... so where was I? Right, bodyimage, time-eras and challenging my axioms.

This dress was made during an era when fahion appears to go 100% against what I know works for me, but it was obviously made for someone with a figure resembling mine. There's no apparent waistdefinition, but when I move, one can clearly see I have a waist. Also, while not emphasising my waist, it presents my derriere in a more flattering way than I have ever seen before. When made, it was fashionable, but still flattering for a figure totally opposite of the fashionable lithe girl.

So why do we dismiss entire eras ('cause I know I'm not alone in this) on the basis of not corresponding to the period fashionable bodytype? I think I need to get a bit braver, start exploring other eras and try to make them work for me. Who knows, maybe I'll discover another previous no-no fashion that becomes a favorite! =) I might even make a 60s shiftdress... I can't see how that could ever look good on me, but on the other hand, I've never tried! How can I be so totally sure if I've never tested? And here I think sewing gives me an advantage: had I just looked for vintage pieces or RTW, I would soon be discouraged (and has been in the past). Sewing it myself presents me with the golden chance of fitting the garment so it actually fits, and then maybe a tight 30s skirt or an A-line 60s shift dress can be made to look good on me.

How about you? Do you keep to one era or mix around? Has the fashionable body type of an era ever scared you away from that era? Ever had a similar experience to mine, when a style you thought never in a millions years would look good on you, suprised you with looking totally gorgeous?

Love, Erika

Inspiration: Swedish 30s pattern magazines

I've recently been on a bit of a shopping spree for 30s inspiration... Pattern magazines can be quite expensive here, but I've managed to score a few on Tradera/Ebay anyway. Here's my small but growing collection...

I love that some of the magazines came with pattern sheets! Although they make modern Burda magazines look like a walk in the park:

Basically, I just wanted to share some of my favorites with you =) Wanna see them? Here they are:

1932

1935

The text reads "A practical vacation dress"

1936

I'll def post more about these magazines over time, they have an abundant of interesting tidbits in them!

Love, Erika

Summer SWAP 1,2 and 3

First items on my Summer Sewing With A Plan are ready!

1) Half circle skirt in blue mixed cotton. At least I think/hope it's part cotton... I bought the fabric ages and ages ago, and half of it became the first sewn garment featured on this blog (a pleated summer skirt). I've had loads of grand ideas for the 1,5 metres left of this fabric, but nothing has ever seemed right. This may not be a fancy fabric, and it has a shady content, but it's grease and dirt-resistant, it hardly wrinkles and the pleated version is one of my most used items. Hence; another half circle skirt! =) This time with an invisible side-zip.

On a side-note: now I understand the whole shebang about using invisible-zipper feet. I'd only tried it on very thin and flimsy fabric, and thought it was a big hoax. But on this sturdier fabric it worked great!

2) Jersey top. Not much to the naked eye, but a big deal to me as I've adressed and - keep your fingers crossed - conquered the fitting issues in my previous makes! The excellent advices I got on my post really summed up to one thing: a modified SBA. What?! I'm an E-cup, for heavens sake. A very new situation to me... However, my starting point was my sloper for wovens. That sloper has undergone serious alterations, amongst others an FBA. Protruding things stretches jersey more than flat surfaces, meaning that what would in woven have been needed extra fabric for my bust, was in jersey surpluce.

Not wanting to alter the length of the sideseam or the shoulderseam, I reduced the overbust, the neckline and the underbust-gathers. I cut up the front bodice along these lines:

And then overlapped the desired amout (meaning: I made a rough estimation by testing the last top and tested by pinching how much it made sense to reduce over the actual bust. So, I guessed). It worked out darn well!

I also reduced the sleeveheads so the sleeve is inserted flat.

3) Time to test the new top-pattern as a dress! This is a real Frankenstein... The skirt and midriff is from the chevron dress (with 1,5 cm added at center front of midriff-piece), the back bodice is from when I altered the chevron-dress pattern for a V-neck dress that didn't get made, the front bodice and the sleeves are from the new TNT. (And I traced all pieces so all patterns are complete! Quite shocking...)

I've skipped the stabilizer in the underbust seam, but kept it for the shoulders. The waist is helped by an elastic inserted in the overlock seam. I messed it up a bit, though, as I sewed in the elastic wrong (forgot to stretch it and put it on the skirt side instead of on the midriff side) so this dress will be best to wear with a belt. The elastic may also get a bit better after washing. Ah, well, this was the test-run dress =)

New solution to finishing the neckline: cut a 4 cm wide strip and treat it like a mix between biastape and waistband. Attatch right side to right side...

...fold over the overlock-seam so it's engulfed by the band and top-stitch with a zig-zag just next to the seam. Setting my machine on a narrow zic-zag, I can use my zipper-foot (or whatever it is, that's what I most often use it for) and get really close. The finished band ends up a bit round, but I like the effect.

All the hems are folded under once and then top-stitched with a narrow zic-zag.

That was my three easy starting projects; fast to make, versitile and easy to wear. Now it's time for a couple of more jersey projects on the summer SWAP!

Love, Erika