Eva's journal

As you may know it all started because Stoff&Stil, a Scandinavian chain of fabric shops, had this retro space themed printed cotton on sale. I persuaded my sister to drive me to the shop this Monday and not only did I buy ten metres, but she bought 3,5 metres too. And sent her hubby to buy 2,6 metres more today.
But what are we going to so with all this rocket fabric? Well, I am going to make a '50s style dress for me, either a buttoned through house dress or this wrap-over style, that I've made a couple of times before. The it's going to become a short-sleeved shirt for my husband, bed hangings for Maja (who doesn't want her net hangings with plastic "dew drops" on them anymore, but something opaque) and, if there's enough fabric a wrap dress for Maja too.
   My sister is going to make dresses for her two little girls and herself plus a curtain. We just have to take a group photo when all this is finished.



The rocket buttons are from an eBay-shop  called Punch'n'Julie and they have the most amazing buttons and other fun stuff. The buttons weren't expensive either and the delivery was super fast.
   But I'm not at all sure that they will be used with this fabric.

Well, it was finished over a week ago, but I had to have the time, energy and help to document it. The pattern is self-drafted, except for the sleeves which I took from a 1936 dress in Janet Arnold's "Patterns of fashion 2". The skirt is a full circle. The fabric is old - I found it in a dark corner where Gårda Textil, the shop where I nowadays get a lot of my fabric. They have vintage fabric for cheap there - this cost 40 SEK/metre I think. I thought that it was viscose and washed it as such, but when I started really working with it I felt the typical silk smell. After a burn test my suspicions were confirmed and I now have party dress in silk.

I'm posing both without a petticoat, for a more authentic (late) '40s look (yes, I know that I have purple hair) and with a huge tulle petticoat. I think I like it best without the petticoat. The shoes were on sale for 75 SEK (c. 7 pounds) on H&M a few weeks ago. The dotted tights (with a seam) are from What Katie Did and the pretty necklace is from Pimp your garb.



( more... )

A post with lots of photos from the old petrol station and of old cars can be found here.

Though I haven't got them yet. I bought these on eBay. I (mainly) blame my friend angi who buys lots of 50s half hats on eBay and got me into looking at hats too. Though I generally prefer the much more expensive 1940s hats. But I think that the fuchsia 50s hat I bought will look very good on me though.




( I also bought a pair of shoes )

I found this lovely film from 1953 today. It is a film tryign to get americans to go to Sweden to see the northern regions. All told in English.

So, lately I've been buying retro/vintage sewing patterns from Vogue and Butterick (yes - it's indeed me, Eva, who's buying patterns instead of making them myself). It started with a sale and then I registered for the newsletter and then there was another sale...

Anyway, one of the patterns was Butterick 4919 from 1952. I used the striped cotton I bought a couple of weeks ago in Shepherd's Bush.
The pattern worked well, though I needed to straighten the shoulders and when I make it next time I might try and make it a little bigger of the bust - it's not that it isn't wide enough, it's just that it's made for smaller boobs and a wider back.

But in all, I'm happy with it:




( And indoors, without crazy lighting )

I never buy sewing patterns. At least not new ones and very rarely vintage patterns too. Yesterday, however, heileen linked to a pattern by Chado Ralph Rucci which I just had to have. And since I was already ordering patterns from the US I added some vintage vogue patterns who were on sale, namely these: A 1930s(?) suit, a 50s coat dress, a 40s dress that I doubt will look good with my body and a this hat pattern. It ended up costing 44$, of which 25$ was the shipping to Sweden.

Or is it a dress? I don't have the pattern and even if I had it it's far above my skill level. But I loove it.

( You know what to do )

I curled my hair yesterday, with those bendy foam sticks. No products, just slightly damp hair after taking a bath and then I let the curls sit until the hair was dry. I loved how it turned out after taming it a little with a bristle brush. Having started to watch Mad men recently I was inspired to put on some tighter clothing (though not early 60s, definitely not my favourite period), so I chose to wear my wool pencil skirt, a blouse from H&M (which I would have liked to be less tight actually and cut more straight) and a cardi. I felt like a movie star from the 50s - when she's doing grocery shopping, not at a red carpet event ;)