Sewing for Spring

I’m currently quite excited about making my own clothes. It’s funny because as little as one year ago, I would have told you that taking the time and the effort to sew something I can easily buy in the nearest mall is silly. But now, although I do enjoy shopping for clothes, I’m also fascinated about the process of taking a flat piece of fabric  and turning it into something that can be worn.

For every thing there is the right time I guess…

The thrifting gods seem to be playing along nicely. Last week I came back from an estate sale with a small pile of patterns. I chose an easy-to-sew peasant top: 

 

The pattern, in case you care for such details, is Simplicity 5620, which I believe is out of print by now. I used a light weight cotton shirting fabric, very warm weather friendly.

I think I’m heaving some personality issues, since I choose to make these loose fitting tops, only to decide later on that they are too loose on the back, followed by some cursing and spitting while trying to remedy the situation.

Anyway, after adjusting the back, I added the stem with leaves applique to personalize it a little.

Which in turn got me thinking about a new pillow design for the shop, and so this cushion cover was born.

Now I’m going to find more loose-but-not-too-loose patterns to play with….

I did it!

I finally overcame my fear of sewing garments, and made myself a new top.

I used the tunic pattern from the 5/2008 Ottobre design magazine (which was patiently waiting for me since February).

It wasn’t very easy, as this is my first try at sewing anything more complicated than T-shirt pyjama pants, and the instruction are not very detailed. Yet I managed to pull it off, and although it’s very far from perfect, I like it, a lot.

I miscalculated my size, and had to take it in on the side and back seems, and also skipped the zipper, it was large enough to wear without one. I love the front, but the back turned out huge and very tent-like, so I added two darts. The most important part though, is that it was a good learning experience, and left me wanting to sew more stuff.

How do you like my new model? Frida (I can’t just call her my vintage dress form, can I) was one of those too-cheap-to-pass Craig’s list finds, and I was happy to give her a new home.

The fabric, by the way, was a 1.99 piece from Value Village. I usually avoid them, can’t stand their high prices, but one trip to the “regular” fabric store made me realize I can’t afford to shop for normally priced fabric very often…

And on a different subject, am I the last person in blogland to join twitter? it’s fun, and it makes spend even more time in front of your PC. You can follow me here.

Enjoy your weekend everyone, and Happy Mothers day!

Scones on a Saturday morning

Writing about food doesn’t come naturally to me.

I don’t consider the kitchen to be my stronghold, and that’s putting it very mildly…

But these are so worth the exception:

When I lived in Oslo, more years ago than I’d care to admit, every Saturday morning we would walk down a couple of blocks to the neighbourhoods bakery/coffee place, arm ourselves with a few fresh loaves for the week, and then sit down to have coffee with scones and the best home-style strawberry jam I have ever tasted.

Try as I might, I never found equally good scones, with the same crumbled texture, and that just-so sweet taste again. After many tries of so called scones at other bakeries, I gave up.

But yesterday I picked a copy of Molly’s book from the library, and there was this recipe for Scottish scones. A quick search on her blog, and I got a photo that looked very much like the scones I craved for, and a recipe that sounded easy enough for even the kitchen challenged me to try out.

My little ones cooperated by waking up at 7 today, instead of the horrible 5:30 which my youngest thinks is a good time to start the day lately. So I was in good spirits, and ready for kitchen experiments. I ended up making the blog version, and used raisins.

For some reason mine didn’t rise very well, but they were still so good, and so easy to make that I’ll be trying many more variations in the near future. And they taste very much like the scones I remembered, so finally my craving was satisfied.

Yum…

Have a great weekend everyone!