Christmas baking

Muscovado carrot cake from BBC Good Food. Used the frosting as filling and poured icing on the top. Quite heavy but utterly delicious!

After 5,5 months still in progress

House update

The front garden is cleaned up (tons of stones and weeds, even a tree have been removed by me) Although we still haven't really finished anything, we've made some progress during the past two weeks.
View of the back, no opened up. One day we have big garden doors installed in the whole length of the back wall:


Part of the walls is plastered:


When removing the old tiles big chunks of the wall came off and it had to be filled up with a thick layer of really heavy plaster.
That's me:

House update

Slow progress around the house. The above picture is from yesterday, we had  the wall removed between the living room and the extended kitchen area.
My current activities involve a lot of digging in the garden - thankfully the weather is dry and cold, with now and then a bit of sunshine.



This is my little plan for the garden - we might get to realizing part of it next year. I love the minimalistic, structured base but also love the English-style flowerbeds and hidden places to relax with a beer and a book.
There is also a main terrace right at the house (not visible on my plan but should be below the picture). For now I'm trying to get rid of the huge amount of stones the previous owners have left and in the meantime also digging out the roots of the 3 trees we've removed.



How about the amazing color of this Burberry lace dress? (Keira Knightley wore it recently on the Tonight Show) The simple and clean lines let the color and the lace structure shine.
Why oh why don't they sell dark green lace here in Holland?

Brown autumn top

   
Pic from Burda 09/2012

My favorite item in the september Burda was the dress versions of this pattern.The tops were okay but I didn't really liked the choice of fabrics and in the picture above they also ruined it by trying ironing (just look at the shiny lines alongside the darts). After seeing this version I was convinced that it would look good and wanted to make it as well. It also seemed a good wearable 'muslin' before cutting up the other fabric for the dress. The dress has  a round neck while the top has an interesting V-neck in the back.

Tracing the pattern was a horror. The people at Burda had the greatest idea of printing this pattern in pink. Not only tho outer lines but everything. Pink text and pink lines on a pink background. This made it nearly impossible to find the right lines while tracing. After that all kinds of things went wrong. I was so excited with my new parallel tracing wheel that I marked a 2,5 cm (almost 1 inch) seam- allowance everywhere instead of 1.5 cm (5/8 inch). Luckily discovered this after sewing the front darts. Next thing is that I rushed sewing the sleeves. I sew the darts first but that should have been the last step - sewing the shoulder seams and the darts in one go.
Did I mention I couldn't find any pins? There was a box of needles on hand...

I didn't like the idea of a 'standing collar' and cut about 12 cm inches off the neckband. Well, after sewing it it appeared to be way too small and pulled everywhere. After sewing one side of the neckband hand sewing the other side seemed just too difficult. I noticed that the basic zigzag stitch I choose worked really well (1.5 cm wide and 1.5 cm long stitches) but was almost impossible to remove the seams (of course, I didn't have my seam ripper on hand)

I removed the neckband and 1 cm fabric around as well. I cut a new neckband and decided to attach the neck- and waistband in the same way as on the Renfrew top.

Retro inspired printed Burda patterns

I wonder if anyone knows and tried these printed Burda patterns?
They look really pretty, with old fashioned artwork and the prices are (at least, here in Europe) half of the big 4 pattern prices. Overall, a nice selection of mostly 50's and 60's garments.
Strange enough I can't find any review online. My biggest problem with Burda patterns is that the garments like jackets are very loosely fitted or have a lot of ease. I always make size smaller than my measurements indicate. The back of the envelopes state 'fitted' for the 50's patterns and 'semi-fitted'  for the 60's patterns. Promising! The Vintage Vogue patterns look for me the best, I love that there is some variation in the designs they choose to re-issue. The Retro Buttericks are mostly dresses and Simplicity has only a few Retro patterns.

I've bought the two patterns above. The packaging is not much, the patterns and instructions are sealed in cheap plastic. That means once you open it you have to store your pattern in an envelope because you can't put them back without tearing the plastic apart...
Surprise, surprise, there are no seam-allowances included. To tackle this problem I've got a 'parallel' tracing wheel with chalk which you can adjust to add seam allowances while tracing:



Basically you trace along the pattern lines with the wheel (at the right) while mark your fabric with the chalk (left) along the line with a seam-allowance included. No need to measure and mark seam-allowances after tracing anymore! Really a time-saver. Why didn't I know that?...
But back to the patterns:
- The instruction booklet consist more text than diagrams than I'm used to with the big 4.
- I like the fact that the pattern pieces are printed in a different color, this makes easier to trace the outer lines.
- But nothing is perfect, so the printing is a darker shade of the same color which makes it impossible to write the instructions over while tracing.



While looking at the pattern pieces I wondered if there are any 'vintage'  features like shoulder darts and darts around the elbow on the sleeves... As far as I can see there aren't any. Both of the jackets have seams through the shoulders, so that's not clear and there aren't any visible darts on the two-piece sleeves.
No time yet to start on one of these patterns, I think I'm going to try the knit dress from the september Burda first. I need a quick and easy project right now, since we are still busy finishing stuff for our new home.

   

   

   

   

   

    

Burda magazine - to buy or not to buy?

 

My mom used to buy Burda through the 80's. I had a subscription a few years back but after a while the design seemed all the same. Nowadays I occasionally buy a Burda if there are a couple interesting designs. In the past it was possible to lend magazines from the library, but they recently stopped and you only can read it there. (What's the point if you can't copy the patterns?) So now I try to figure out whether there are designs worth the money or not. Considering that one PDF pattern from the burdastyle website costs as much as one issue (plus ink and paper for printing) it is cheaper to buy the magazine anyway.

The latest issue I've got is the 09/2012. Actually I've bought it for the pattern of the dress above because of the interesting dart lines. Both the pink and the lace is mede from the same pattern #109. But there are more pretty, mostly retro inspired designs there:

 
#118 and #114

  
#108 and #103

  
#132 and #102+#116

Another issue I have is the 10/2011. I made my fourties style blue dress from that one.

New vintage coffee table

Another pretty 50's stuff for the new 50's house! Our current coffee table, a big wooden box actually won't fit in our new, smaller living room. We've been hunting for months to find a smaller,more delicate looking table instead. Now here it is. A second hand coffee table made out of teak wood, somehow, this seemed to be quite popular in 50's Europe. Vintage stuff is made so well, the quality remained through the ages. The legs are set in with metal rings which look really pretty and the glass top has rounded corners. These are some of the details you won't find on contemporary furniture. Unfortunately, vintage furniture from the 50's seem to be more expensive than a couple of years ago. Still, the prices are similar to prices of furniture from big warehouses like IKEA. When buying vintage furniture you know you can sell the pieces for the same price, even after a few years, and you have mostly original pieces of furniture.
To see our other 50's finds click on the label 'vintage' in the side bar.





Current coffe table:

Haider Ackermann S/S 2013

 

 

Haider Ackermann NYFW S/S 2013 - the prettiest mix of colors, textures and prints! The simple and elegant lines of the suit, pants and blouse are definitely worth of copying:

 

House

 

My 'new' second hand 50's bedside tables!

Marc Jacobs FW 12/13

The prettiest combinations of colors, textures and silhouettes. Pale lavender + olive green = beautiful!

Pattern hoarding...again

 
I can't sew, so I just buy new patterns... Sounds logical, right?
I had to get these two. There are a million versions on the internet of the Tracy Reese dress (right) and it looks good on everyone! It is a simple summer dress, well for next year of course since the warm days are gone here. The McCall's dress on the left is rather interesting since it has a peasant-style neckline with raglan sleeves but it is still fitted and doesn't look baggy. I imagine it as a top, rather than a dress.
Two new Butterick patterns which I've got with the less than 2$ pattern sale:

 

Shawl collar, kimono sleeves, fitted but with a flared 'skirt' - this coat has everything you want in a coat...



This one looks so pretty on the model, and I love the 3/4 sleeves!