Mon 20 Feb 2012

SPRING 2012 FASHION

Posted by mariadenmark under Design, My life
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Well, I do not claim to be a trendsetter, or even a trend-spotter. But I have gotten pretty good at looking at trends from catwalks and in stores and reading articles and combining and concentrate them to figure out what I think are going to be the big trend items in a season.

I better tell you, that I am sort of picky and a bit conservative (in the known-is-save kind of way) about what I wear and I don’t follow trends blindly. Often it’ll take me a season or two to even like a trend…

Anyway. Here is my compilation of trends for Spring/summer 2012. I’ll link to ONION patterns where appropriate :-) :

{Spring 2012 inspiration}

Set from Polyvore.

 

First of all (and nothing to do with patterns) the fabric and colours:
Orange is big (but soooo not for me to wear) and red continues to be a great colour to wear as an accessory or as a single garment (jeans, a top OR shoes).
We’ll see (and I plan to wear) a lot of Polka dots – especially white/cream dots on red or blue background. Stripes continues to be great. And flowers, of course (but that gets to girly for me:-))

And on the other end of the spectrum – pastels – especially light green and light rose are everywhere. Also lace and eyelet fabric is very in style.

Also, and this is something I’ll look into wear: Chambrey fabric used in shirts, shirt dresses and skirts (and it’ll last well into next winter as well!)

 

As for design details and patterns (Links are ONION pattern numbers):
The drape details are still big – and will continue into winter.  (You will find them in patterns 2034, 2038, 2039 and 5035).
The 1960′s a-line shapes (also great for showcasing lace and patterns) found in 2035 and 2036  are still fun and pleats and gathers, too (as in 2019, 2021, 3023 and 3033).
New-ish are the Peter Pan Collars especially in contrasting colours (have a look at 2015 and 1041) and the big peplums (1037 and 1041). I’m not good with tight collars – makes my head look funny, so that’s not really a style for me. But I think it looks very cute.

{ONION patterns for spring trends}

For me – I’ ll look into the pastels. Especially the light rose and light green – mostly as skinny jeans, I think, but I might add a t-shirt.

I like to keep things and lines very simple, so I’m not sure about the peplum jacket just yet (I don’t wear jackets much as a elementary teacher, anyway. Cardigans are more suitable for my kind of work).

I also really really really like the polka dots. Fun and girly without being over the top, especially when worn as a loose fit knit t-shirt. And for summer parties: on a shirt dress. I also like the draped collars and will definitely wear those.

I’ll leave you with a pic of my latest fabric buy – Polka dots, of course:-)

{Polka dotted navy rayon jersey. Top is already cut.}

 

 

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Sat 18 Feb 2012

FOS (not foes)

Posted by mariadenmark under My life, Sewing
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Hello

Here I am junping out from my slight SADness and back into the life of light and creativety. I have been doing my job and taking care of my shop, my family and little else. I think it’s been worse this year than the other years. Maybe because of my dayjob being very demanding, but not very gratifying at the moment. Maybe because of a lack of snow (until the end of January we hadn’t had any). I don’t know. But here I am feeling better and ready to share my life again.

I have been finishing stuff – and here are some of my FOs:

For Christmas (which you may recall, Dennis and I spend without the kids (who were with their other parents) in Cape Verde) I got an e-book reader. Just like I wished for. I got it before we were leaving and I did have time to sew a cover for it and to add books before the vacation.

{My e-book cover closed}

I made it in some skirt weight linen (which I interfaced heavily) with card board inside, to protect the e-reader. I got some pics of making it, and I’ll show you how this week.

{Here it is open. I added a pocket to the inside.}

I’m reading “Purge” by Finnish author Sofi Oksanen at the moment. It’s a brilliant book!

During my down time I have been crocheting and knitting a bit as well. Here is my finished Poppy shawl:

{Excuse the look at my face. Rasmus shot the pic earlier this week, and I was waiting for him to get one of my mittens....}

And a penguin. Cute, isn’t he?

{At work I have a penguin keychain and penguin pens. I had to make this one when I saw the pattern!}

And some fun colourwork mittens. I loved knitting these!

{Fun to knit - and fast! I really like these mittens. And they match my shawl!}

I have also been sewing some dresses for my friend’s daughter. I don’t have any pictures of them though, as I gave her the dresses before there was enough light to get a decent picture..

Yesterday all the snow melted here and Rasmus and I went for a long walk in the woods. So the parting picture for today is trees drowning in melting water. Spring is on it’s way! Hurrah!

{I didn't mess with the colours. It really looked black and white - and then a splash of green moss..}

 

 

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Tue 27 Dec 2011

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Posted by mariadenmark under knitting, My life
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We ended up getting a good deal on a lovely 1 week long trip to Cape Verde. So I escaped the last of the holiday frenzy and here I am. Enjoying the Sun, reading an awful lot of crime fiction (i am on my 6th book this morning), eating, sleeping and even knitting a bit. It’s lovely and de-stressing!

20111227-074729.jpg

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Wed 7 Dec 2011

UH – OH

Posted by mariadenmark under My life
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This accidentally followed me home from the Sheep Breeders’s Christmas Market last Sunday:

 

{And of course I got some fiber, too}

Uh -oh.

You know, it’s not like I need another hobby. Or another stash.

I don’t really know how to use it. I have tried spinning on a spindle once, but only once.

So at some point I’ll have a look at You-tube to try it out. And I just found some getting-started articles at The knitter: part 1, part 2, part 3.

I don’t see myself as a spinner (famous last words), but I just thought it looked so pretty…

{cute sheep spindle. I'm easy like that}

Do you know of any links to videos or articles you think I should read before trying it out? Please let me know!

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Mon 5 Dec 2011

FO: THE BOAT NECK JUMPER

Posted by mariadenmark under Design, knitting
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Yes! It is done!

And more importantly - I love it!

{Not a good picture, but Dennis snapped it when I got home, just before the sun went down and it was too dark to get any pics}

I wore it today (all though I haven’t blocked it yet, and it does need to be blocked) because it was cold and grey this morning and I felt like wearing a silky hug. So I did:-)

This is a top-down boat neck jumper that I have made in Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend on 7 mm needles. The tension is 13.5 st/21 rows to 10 x 10 cm and I cast on 34 st for front, 34 st for the back, 12 for each sleeve for the wide boatneck, then did a basic top-down raglan. No shaping, except for a few short rows at the upper back.

The colour is coming out wrong in the pictures. It’s a much more green-ish teal.

Another pic (not of chickens today:-)):

{Oh I do love it. So I had to do a mirror pic:-)}

And you can read more about this project H E R E [open ravelry link].

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Sun 4 Dec 2011

GIFTING

Posted by mariadenmark under Handmade gift ideas
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It is funny how this seems to surpise me every year – rigth after my son’s birthday (on November 29). But the christmas season is very near, if I like it or not (I am very ambevilent about christmas. It’s a long story. Let’s just say this “celebration” has not been easy in my family when I was a child).

This year we don’t get to celebrate with the kids (they are with the other parents every other year) and we are hoping to go away somewhere with sun and warm weather, but we will wait and see if we can get a better price if we order closer to the departure date.

{Bags like this one for wash bags - with soap etc, it will be a great little gift}

We still have to get gifts for people.  And this means I have to think fast (and work fast) to get the gifts in order. I am definately not going to do handmade gifts all around, but I feel the urge to do some at least.

Last year I did two posts on handmade gifts:

The handmade gifts for men

The handmade gifts for anyone else :-)

I read through them and came up with two things I know I’ll do: Box bags as wash-bags (I made knitting kits in box bags last year) and real home-cooked soap. I might add personalised wash-cloths as well. We’ll see.

Parting garden pic:

 

 

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Sat 3 Dec 2011

FO: A CHRISTMAS-Y T-SHIRT

Posted by mariadenmark under Sewing
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Wow. That week flew by too.

Last Friday I had a Christmas party thing with Dennis’ siblings in the evening. And I needed something christmassy to wear.  I had cut the t-shirt from red jersey the previous week, but had not got around to sewing anything. It’s a very simple t-shirt pattern. The perfected version of Onion 5022 (out of print), which I made a part of the search for the perfect t-shirt pattern. It’s only two pieces – front and back – and I have corrected the shoulder line (for a forward shoulder alteration) as well as doing a high round back alteration.

I just realised that I never got around to tell you about what I did to perfect the t-shirt patterns…. I will need to get the pics together, and then I’ll write a description.

Anyway. Needed t-shirt. Only thing was that all week I had been feeling a little ill, so I had not thought much about it and only realised Friday afternoon at 4, that I needed to get going. We had to leave for the party at 6.15. And I also needed to redo my make-up:-)

So thankfully the shirt was very fast to stitch up. But then I also had to press the seams and do the neckline, the hemming and the decoration. It could have done with more pressing than it got.

I used some underwear elastic (with the little picots) for the neckline. It stretched out a bit, so I’m thinking I’ll redo the neckline.

For the decoration I used the iron-on-studs I also used on Carla’s dress. I finished pressing the last star in place at 6.05. Then I let the shirt cool while I did my make-up. And I was in the car by 6.15. Whew.

{The christmassy t-shirt. After being washed. Should have been ironed}

I wore it with black skinny jeans and heels. And I had even painted my nails! It was a great party – way too much food, wine and vodka, but we had a great time. Good thing there are some weeks left before the next big thing:-)

P.S. I have finished the boatneck. I only have to cast off, weave in ends and block (carefully). But here is a pic of it the day I had finished the sleeves (the only day this week that had some light in the afternoon, so that I could get a pic):

 

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Sun 20 Nov 2011

NEW NOVEMBER MOOD

Posted by mariadenmark under My life
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So today I decided to deal with the bad mood situation by going outside to force myself to enjoy the nature and weather and look for beautiful things.

I forced my son (Rasmus, he is 14 next week) to step away from the computer and follow me for a walk outside. He actually only objected to it two or three times, so I think he kind of needed to get out as well.

 

{The forest is 1 km from our house}

 

We went for a 5 km walk through the small forest near by.

I love walking with Rasmus. He is the quiet type and when we are walking we can go for long without talking. But then suddenly he speaks and tells me what’s on his mind. Today he wondered about why a minute is 60 seconds and an hour 60 minutes ad why they were called seconds and minutes. We talked about it a while, and then we got the Iphone out and checked wikipedia.

{There were colour in the forest.}

We were looking for beautiful things and thought this tree was looking interesting against the fog and grey sky. And the hour (the sixty minutes) was well spend.

[It almost looks like something out of a Fantasy movie}

We were both in a much better moodand feeling energetic when we returned home before it got really dark and  went into the garden to have a look at the chickens.

My neighbour is a farm and they have quite a lot of feral cats that they feed, as far as I know. I guess these two went looking for food somewhere else. They have been hanging around the coop this week, and I’ve seen them eat some of our leftovers that I give the chickens. It’s gonna take all my strength to not give them proper cat food….

 

Sewing and knitting content in the next post! I promise!

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Fri 18 Nov 2011

NOVEMBER

Posted by mariadenmark under My life
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Nothing got done here this week.

The weather is gloomy and dark around the clock. All energy for anything but the most necessary (like working, eating, sleeping) has been gone this week.

Almost no knitting, no sewing – not a stitch. No gardening (I did take care of the chickens, though). No running at all.

Just sleeping, working, eating, cooking, sleeping some more. eating some more.

{This is how dark it was when I drove home at 1pm this afternoon. I want the light to return!}

 

November. It. Is.

PS. I have knitted the body on the pullover (Monday was a good knitting day at work. With lots of meetings). I need to get started on the sleeves tonight. I have also worked a bit more on the Poppy. Also. I cut the fabric for a t-shirt, but haven’t found time or energy to sew anything.

PPS: I’ll be in a better mood tomorrow!

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Sat 12 Nov 2011

FO: INTERMEZZO: A BABY DRESS

Posted by mariadenmark under Sewing
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I KNOW! Imagine sewing for somebody who is not me!

Well. I wanted a small in-between-projects project, so I had time to decide what to sew for me next.

Also. I wanted to figure out how I can get more sewing done. This was a usual semi-busy weeek, with no time for a designated sewing evening/afternoon, so I’ve been wanting to try out if it works for me to find more sewing time by sewing in 15-30 minutes increments.

Anyway. I chose to make another one of these very fast spencer dresses. This time in a size 6 – 9 months. The pattern is MiniKrea 10003 - Spencer Dress in the Newborn size range.

 

{The pattern I used. I did the basic EASY version.}

Every evening before making dinner, I have allowed my self to work on something sewing related for 15-30 minutes. I am actually amazed at how much that can be accompliced by just that.

First day I traced and cut the pattern (which doesn’t need to be traced, but I chose to, as this baby-dress can be made in 4 different sizes – and I think I’ll use it again!).
Second day - I cut the fabric. The pattern works with both knits and wovens, I chose a beefy knit velour, but am treating it as a woven fabric, by lining it with a cotton print. Also threaded the machines.
Third day I sewed the lining to the fabric and did the side seams and edge stitching
Fourth day was for pressing and hemming
Fifth day - buttonholes, buttons and decoration.

{The finished dress. I can't wait to see it on Carla.}

All the work was done in 15  – 30 minutes increments. Had I had a sewing night or day – I probably could have finished it in one day. Very simple project!

The pattern can be made in both knits and wovens. I chose a beefy knit velour, but treated it as a woven fabric by lining it with a printed cotton.

{When pressing velour, place a towel under it, so the pile doesn't get flat}

Here are some hints for sewing with velour:
1. When cutting the fabric, make sure you place the pattern pieces so that you would brush against the pile if you were wearing it and brushed downwards.
2. When pressing or ironing velour, always place a towel underneath the fabric. This keeps the pile from being pressed flat.

 

I decorated the dress with some star iron-on-studs. They are really cute and makes all the diffrence in making this a holiday dress.

{The iron-on star studs. Love.}

Parting picture from the garden:

:-)

 

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