Secret project revealed

I cannot tell you how pleased I am with myself right now. The reason is that I have managed to turn this mega-sized fake leather bag;

Into a corset;

This was probably the most challenging project I done in years...I did the pattern myself, made a test version from a piece of old bed sheet and then ordered the boning and planchet from Belle Modeste, where I also got a few tips on how to make the corset by looking at the pretty corsets they have made.

The whole thing has taken me a few weeks to complete, and it is not perfect, but I'm ok with that, considering it's the first thing like it I've ever tried my hands on. The biggest challenge turned out to be the fact that I had chosen such a bad material, hah. The fake leather bag that I paid 3 euros for seemed to get stretchier the more I worked with it, plus it was kinda sticky, so I had to sew through paper(!) to get it to go through the machine without sticking. Plus every needle mark is still visible, the thread tension never really worked with the material no matter how I changed it etc. Also, the eyelets at the back were a bit tricky...Really, I'm just glad to have it over with!

If anybody else wants to try this, my best advice is to chose a good sturdy material that doesn't stretch in any way, other then that, it wasn't as difficult as I had imagined...

The last of the summer dresses

It seems me being practical and thinking about what I actually will/can wear on a day to day basis has paid off, I've worn the sailor inspired trousers several times already.

The past few years I have made quite a few items that have been worn once and then stayed in the closet since, or worse yet, never even gotten out of there in the first place! So I have decided to take a brake from making summer dresses and such, as I didn't even manage to wear half of the summer clothes I own in the summer that passed. Instead I'm gonna try and continue on the practical route...We'll see how that goes!

Before the blog starts filling up with warm and practical winter clothes, here's the last of the summer projects, a thrifted over-sized shirt;

Which I turned into a summer dress;

Goodbye summer...

My vintage Nokias

Did you know that before Nokia made mobile phones, they made rubber? Nokia is still one of the most well known rubber boot brands in Finland. Apparently they made other types of shoes as well, such as these;

My dad found them when they were cleaning out an old shed where my great grandfathers house once stood. They have been in my possession for a few years, but I haven't used them as I had no appropriate not too bright white laces. Until I took a trip to a local flea-market last Sunday.

I wore them out yesterday, with my matching (now with waistband!) sailor style trousers, when I found these sunglasses;

They are slightly too big for my little head, and not as cat-eye as I would want, but for the price of 1 euro...Close enough.

Saturday in Vaasa

Last Saturday was spent in Vaasa, I had arranged to meet a fellow blogger and seamstress, TuunausTiina, to go thrifting with her. This is what I wore, note the hat!

(Sorry for the cameraphone-picture quality)

I rather enjoyed thrifting with someone who knows what vintage is about and who knows sewing and can see potential in items other see as trash. Sadly, we didn't find anything vintage to fit our tastes and budgets apart from this one hat which I bought;

But none of us went home empty handed either. Lucky for me these granny style winter boots were too small for Tiina;

Tiina found at least one skirt and a dress and we both found some fabric (mine just a plain dark blue, nothing exiting). I also found a couple of cute tops;

The last of the tops I bought ended up matching my newly finished sailor inspired trousers perfectly;

However I'm still considering adding a waistband to the trousers, to get a bit more...waist. Tomorrow I'm back at work again, so it's back to sewing only when I have energy left after work. Being on holiday was fun while it lasted.

More sewing and some treasures

The sewing continues, I have now made a pair of high-waisted trousers, a strapless top and a bolero, all from the same fabric. The bolero and the top are made using the silver scissor patterns, the top is actually the top part of a strapless dress, which with my long torso turned out way to short, even though I made it longer? Maybe it was the lack of the scaling tool that made it turn out like this...The bolero looks just like the pattern picture (apart from the sleeves) but it also feels like a short model on me. Wonder if any of the tops will ever make it out of the closet again...

Yesterday was quite a fun day, I went to see my grandma, and me and my mum helped her clean out her attic...And we got to keep pretty much anything we found that we liked! I came home with two suitcases full of clothes photos and stuff, plus a fur coat from the 40's (made in Washington!) with matching hat, another 60's coat, a 60's suit and grandma's old uniforms from when she was head of the village's mail office (ca. 1950's-70's). Unfortunately pretty much all the clothes are too big for me (sizes 40-44) and most of them are from the 60's and 70's. Anybody interested? I'd happily trade them for something in my size and a couple of decades older. Or sell.

For me, the biggest treasure here is mum's aunt Gerda's old suitcase, and all the photos it contained. Gerda was the aunt who lived in the United States for a few years, there was a scrapbook full of clippings concerning WWII and also some newer magazines. The fur coat mentioned earlier was also hers.

There was also an album with my great grandfathers name in it, with lot's and lot's of pictures of relatives from the 1900's-1960's. I also found my grandparent's wedding photo, and a picture of grandma taken around the same time. I think they got married in 1949...If anybody is interested in seeing old photos let me know and I'll try and scan some of the more interesting ones.

The second suitcase was grandma's own, the one she used to take with her on all the holidays she and granddad used to go on. She had tied a piece of blue string (still there!) around the handle to recognize it faster at the airports...I like things with a history, like the suitcases, especially as it is now me who travels the most. My grandparents also had a caravan (a bit like this one) btw, too bad it's now rotting away in the woods.