The result was a notebook and six matching cards with envelopes.

Owls!

Have you seen the sew-along that Anna and Sarah are co-hosting at A Few Threads Loose and Ohhh Lulu?  They are sewing a French pin-up corset garter belt and a French pin-up bra corselet. I’m tempted to sew the garter belt but I haven’t decided yet. There are so many other exciting projects on my want-to-do-list and it’s still thick-stockings weather here.

It’s really fun to see that the sewing community out there is starting to sew lingerie. I have dabbled a bit, panties and a garter belt, and they are surprisingly easy to sew. The best thing is that you don’t need a serger! (I have one but still uses my regular machine when I make panties.)

I took a course at LG Sömnad and Lisa has several very nice patterns for regular panties and bras (unfortunately everything is in swedish).

Take a look at these cute patterns:

• the Madeleine Mini Bloomers, from Colette Patterns
• 1930′s style Circular French Knickers, from Sew Vera Venus
• the Jane negligee top and shorts, from Burda

Swatches, blocked and tagged.

I took the basic measurement and using the Knitting Fiend Calculator I calculated an estimated yardage. Luckily I had enough of the green baby wool in my stash so I moved on to knitting swatches. Following Tashas recommendation I washed and blocked them and then measured them. I have a notebook for all my crochet and knitting projects and I write down all necessary information as I go along.

After careful reading I spent an evening resizing the Briar Rose pattern and was then able to cast on! I have almost finished knitting the back and I have a hard time putting it down.

Failure is always an option.

What he means is that even when an experiment fails there is valuable things to learn. This is what happened to my Meringue skirt.

The story and a picture:

Failed Meringue!

I was excited to start a new skirt project and made some pre-planned adjustments to the pattern (lengthen it and adding a waistband). Then I sewed together the muslin (I even added the zipper) and tried it on. Meh.

I usually wear wide skirts or pencil skirts. Now I know why. The Meringue made me feel like I was wearing a barrel, making my (not so small) hips and thighs twice as wide. Not a good feeling. Part of the problem is probably the length of the skirt, but since I’m not comfortable with above-the-knee lengths it’s not really an option. Making the skirt tighter around the bottom edge might help as well but I feel I’d be making a very different skirt by doing that and at this point I don’t really have the inspiration to fiddle with it.

So what did I learn?

Don’t make this type of skirt again! Stick to what you know (or in this case like): pencil skirts and circle skirts! This project goes into the bin, and the pattern back into the envelope.

For those of you that want to see some successful Meringue skirts:

• look here for Sarahs favourites (Rhinestones and Telephones)
• and here for Erins favourites (Miss Crayola Creepy)

Wrist warmers!

The wonderful week continues! I found a newsstand in town that sells Mollie Makes, a magazine that I have been admiring on the web, and the latest issue of Ottobre features really cute baby clothes with a squirrel application.

New projects include crochet wrist warmers and animal applications!

Squirrel and a cute baby!

To make things even better I received two packages; a bunch of vintage buttons that I found on Etsy and four vintage knitting magazines I bought on Tradera (swedish Ebay).

Coffee and knitting inspiration!

Vintage buttons!

I bought the buttons for my Briar Rose sweater. I had high hopes for the green and gold buttons (upper right corner) but I think the will be to big. Fortunately I also bought the pale yellow buttons (left) and I think they will work out great. By the way, how cute are the apple buttons? I need a project that I can use them on!

The Briar Rose knitting is super exciting, more on that later this week. The Meringue on another hand, not so great, but that’s for another post!

Have a great week and happy knitting!

• Casey had an excellent circle skirt sew along last year: draft your own pattern and get lots of good advice and instructions on completing the project.
• Want to use less fabric? Chie offers a free pattern and instructions for a half circle skirt.
• Make the most out of your fabric! Amanda shows an economically layout for the circle skirt.
• You don’t really need to buy a commercial pattern, but they are great to look at for inspiration.

Let’s make some more skirts!

Casey via Elegant Musings

So imagine my delight when I discovered Tasha’s knit-along at by gum, by golly! She finished her knit-along in June last year and all the posts about the instructions can be read here: Briar Rose Vintage Knit-along. Tasha teaches how to re-size a vintage pattern which is something I really want to learn and the Briar Rose is a very cute sweater from WWII. The pattern is generously uploaded by A Rarer Borealis.

Briar Rose via A Rarer Borialis

Better late than never, I will be participating in Tasha’s knit-along! I already have some merino wool yarn in a pretty light green colour, Viking Baby Ull, that I think will work well with this pattern. Tasha herself looks this lovely in her Briar Rose:

Tasha via by gum, by golly!

First up is the Meringue Skirt!

Meringue Skirt via Colette Patterns

Initial thoughts on the Meringue

• I want to add a waistband since I haven’t really like skirts without waistbands in the past. This should be as simple as just adding a waistband to the skirt since I also want it to sit on my natural waist.
• Lengthen the skirt. I’m not really comfortable with skirt-lenghts above the knee so it needs to be lenghten what looks like several inches.

My name is Anna and this is my attempt to inspire, create and document. I want 2012 to be the year when I:

• update my wardrobe with more self made pieces,
• inspire (at least) one person to start knitting,
• document my sewing, knitting and crochet,
• participate in (at least) two challenges,
• get more involved in the sewing community on the Internet!

Coffee and sewing!

So, who am I?
I’m a thirty-something teacher who lives in a red house in the countryside in south Sweden. My family consist of a husband, a daughter and two slightly weird cats. I’ve been doing all sorts of crafts for as long as I can remember. Nowadays I favour sewing, knitting and crotchet. I love vintage clothing and style from the 30′s to the 50′s and I find new inspiration everyday!

Join me on this adventure and please leave a comment if you’d like. I’d love to read your thoughts!