The end.

Dear Friends!

After careful consideration I have decided to leave this blog as an archive and concentrate fully on my new blog Kittens Klädkammare/Kittens Closet. It's pretty much the same as what I've been doing here, only I now write also in my native tongue (swedish) with the english translation at the bottom of each post.

So, welcome over to my new blog and if you'd be so kind, please update any links you might have to me and let me know if you'd like me to link back to you too. Thank you for reading!

More changes!

In honour of my new life as a sewing student I have started a new blog;

Kittens Klädkammare 

(Klädkammare is swedish for wardrobe or closet so essentially it means Kitten's Closet)

Will you join me? 

This blog was never public in the sense that I haven't told my family about it or even many of my real life friends. I guess I didn't think they'd be interested. As time went on it felt more and more weird to go all "By the way, I've been blogging for the last three years and didn't tell you". But somehow studying to become a seamstress gives me the justification to be publicly interested in clothes AND blog about it even though nobody else I know does it. Anyway, remember to update your link pages if I'm on there and feel free to tell me about your blogs (preferably sewing and/or vintage related, please!) too so I can add you to my links when I get around to fixing that bit too.

See you at Kitten's Closet!

Memories of a summer holiday

As soon as I started my summer holiday, we began packing the camper-van for our trip around southern Finland. Our first stop was Pori and the beautiful beach at Yyteri. The weather at the time was terrific and we were too busy enjoying it to take any photos worthy of publishing. After a couple of days we traveled on to Hankoo at the southernmost tip of Finland, where I made friends with a headless soldier.

Hankoo was really nice, there was an area with loads of old wooden villas with beautifully crafted terraces and balconies. The sunset at the camping area where we stayed was quite lovely too, and there was entertainment too! 

The next day I went thrifting in Ekenäs while Mr. Kitten rested on the beach. I found two 50's magazines, a scarf and a tablecloth for our foldable camping table. We moved on to Raseborg where we checked out the castle ruins and saw a modern version of "the Wizard of Oz" played out on an outdoor stage, featuring my younger brother in a few minor parts. Halfway through it started raining...Good thing I had my umbrella with me!

 

 

After the play we hung out at my brothers place and listened to the thunder until it stopped and we drove to a 24 h petrol station for some shut-eye. The next day we went to Hämeenlinna where we spent the weekend climbing towers and visiting the castle. Relaxing, sauna and grilling Finnish sausages on the barbeque was also part of the program.

  

Our next stop was Helsinki. We went to museums, did some sightseeing and shopping. I visited several vintage stores without buying anything, as expected the prices where a lot higher than at the flea-markets I usually buy from. My own collection of vintage tripled in value, at the least! I did however find a UFF-charity shop by accident, where I found a second hand h&m dress with a fifties feel to it. It was mine for 8 euros, also more expensive than charity shops around here. But this was Helsinki price...

A few day later we were in Porvoo. We saw the lovely old town and a Swedish lady complimented me behind my back. She thought I looked like a princess in my poufy 50's style dress and wide brimmed hat...

 

We traveled on to Kotka. Did some more relaxing and barbecuing and walked along a nature trail by the sea. The next day we went into town and saw a man-made waterfall in one of the parks. I went thrifting again and this time I found a black vintage hat and a red umbrella/parasol. 

 

Lappeenranta was next on our tour. We saw their big sand castle which turned out to be a sand circus in reality, but none the less fascinating. I did some more thrifting and found a basket for my bike and a big piece of denim fabric for 2 euros. The ladies behind the counter spoke in Russian among themselves and the border felt kind of close.

The next day we crossed it. By boat. We went on a cruise on the Saima canal, through eight locks, and arrived in Vyborg, Russia in the afternoon.

Vyborg used to be part of Finland before WWII and the castle was built before that, when Finland was part of Sweden...

 

By nightfall we were back in Finland again. The next day we set our sight homeward, and on the way, we stopped at Olavinlinna.

We also drove along one of the most famous and spectacular ice age formations in the country, Punkaharju ridge. By now the temperatures had dropped and it had been raining on and off for a couple of days,  and going home was almost starting to feel okay.

Our last night on the road was spent in Kuopio. We got home without any major mishaps, despite our 23 year old car. A few days later though, when we were gonna use the camper van again, one of the shock absorbers gave up...

Kind of a change

I started feeling like it was now or never. I liked my job when I started but over a period of time things changed, the workload seemed overwhelming more and more often and at times I felt really stressed. We got more and more responsibilities but not any more time. At the same time I was disappointed with myself, I had expected more of me. I was a good enough student I could have gotten in to some pretty good schools had I only known what I wanted to do. 

My job in the supermarket was beginning to feel like a waste of my talents. I knew that the longer I waited the harder it would become to leave. I have no children (yet) or house mortgage (yet) and I'm still young, this is my chance - there's no good reason not to. I didn't wanna be stuck working in a supermarket for the rest of my life wondering what would have happened if I had only dared.

I have been sewing since I was six (started out making Barbie-clothes) and the dreams of becoming a fashion designer have pretty much been with me since. I just didn't think there would be much work for designer/seamstresses around here and I wasn't prepared to go very far away. But a few weeks ago I spoke to a couple of seamstresses here in town and they told me that there's plenty of work to go round and they really encouraged me to believe in myself and go for it. So a few weeks ago I sent a letter of application. 

Last week I quit my job and three days ago I started school with a bunch of 16-year-olds. In two years time, I'll be a seamstress.

Holiday's almost over

After over two weeks of traveling around Finland in our camper-van, I have now returned to my sewing machines and to blog land. How have you been? As always, we managed to take quite a few pictures, so while I sort trough them I'll post an image I took before we went on holiday. This is the outfit I wore to the annual old fashioned market here in town, my appearance caught the eye of two different newspaper photographers, resulting in images of me in two of the local papers plus a short comment...

The old fashioned market is a place where sellers dress up in old fashioned clothes (they mostly look like poor farmers) and sell handicrafts, antiques and vegetables and stuff. I was helping out my mum who makes and sells pottery and I convinced her to wear one of my vintage hats with her inherited American 40's suit. Too bad the suit is too big for me...

My dress in a 70's does 40's dress I found at a charity shop (shortened and slightly taken in) and my hat is self made using a table mat and candle holder decorations. Gloves, seamed stockings and handbag are vintage, the shoes from hush puppies.

Hope you are all well, I'll be back later with pictures of my finds and outfits from our trip! Toodeloo!

Summer update

 Summer is happening and like so many others, I too am busy living and not so busy blogging. This week has been especially busy as I'm working longer hours than I normally do, so even less time for blogging! Anyway, here's an outfit I managed to photograph the other week. The capri pants used to be just normal length trousers with the belt loops lower down, but not anymore! I just love it when I'm able to make something just how I want it. These capris have had a lot of use already...

For some reason I have been working every single monday evening the past 5-6 weeks, all but one, which means I haven't been able to go the the monday car boot-sales more than once. When I did go, I found some lovely things with hearts on them. I've seen the jar many times before, but always more expensive and in worse shape. The jug has already become a flower pot and suits it purpose very well.

 

I don't know when you'll hear from me again, as my holiday starts in two days and we have great plans to travel around Finland in our camper-van. We've been thinking along the lines of going down the coast stopping at Pori, Naantali, Raseborg, Ekenäs, Hangö, Helsinki, Borgå and Lappeenranta, from where we'll take a mini-cruise to Viipuri (Russia) and then make our way back home again the inland way. Feel free to leave tips on great places to shop vintage along the way, places to see and cafe's where you'd like to have a cup of tea and talk about sewing/vintage with me while I'm passing through.

Until I have the chance to write again, Have a fantastic summer!

Love, Kitten

Summer favourites

Finally I feel like I'm actually doing something about that pile of things to be altered, the pile that normally seems to be only growing has actually started to shrink!  This skirt didn't even stay in the pile for long, as it's the one I recently bought in Sweden. What was too long and one size to big now fits me and is likely to become a favourite this summer.

 

Another potential favourite is this red skirt that used to be my aunt's in the 60's or 70's. It was a bit longer before and made me look really short. But now that's been taken care of! I of course used my serger when I shortened both skirts, and then I had an idea and looked through my sewing machine equipment and indeed, turns out I've got one of those presser foots who fold over the fabric and make hems look neat and pretty...so of course I had to try it out and I'm pretty pleased with the result!

Today I have also turned a pair of long legged trousers into 50's style capri pants (high waist!) and I can't tell you what a difference using the serger makes. You can't really tell if those trousers/capris have been altered with the professional look the serger leaves. The sig-sag just doesn't do it for me anymore...