Around the house

  

Trying to save some of my fig-tree (love the shape of those leaves!) and the pretty double-flowered oakleaf hydrangea from our current garden.




Hydrangea quercifloria 'Cloud nine'

Project in-between

For the new house we've bought a 50's Dutch design table and separate 4 50's Dutch chairs. The furniture has elegant lines, the table can be made bigger by pulling the sides and inserting an extra piece (hiding underneath) in the middle.
I knew that in the 50's Dutch furniture fabrics used mainly teak and palisander wood. Both are hardwood. Palisander has a dark reddish brown color and teak has a grey-brown color with a hint of red tones. Teak has a high oil content and is very durable. The chairs are also very comfortable.
I loved the shapes but didn't like the dark reddish brown fifties color. So I decided to sand away the dark varnish...

I used a rubber sanding block and it wasn't easy to get the deeper layers of varnish off! I'm halfway with the first chair and quite pleased with the results.

Once everything is ready I have to get some light colored, good quality upholstery fabric instead of the original green artificial leather to cover the seats. I'm looking forward to the sewing part of the job! The wood will be treated with oil or perhaps a thin layer of clear matte varnish.

To be continued!

 

 

  

UPDATE:
The color of the wood doesn't seemed even, and it took forever to get rid of the varnished layer, so I decided to stop with sanding the chairs and painted the chair back in the original color... One thing I'm going to do is to change the original artificial leather cushions into a lighter colored upholstery fabric.

House pics

Sewing plans - coordinates

   
Simplicity 3688 and 4044

Love or hate coordinates?
First of all the most beautiful, shooting music to wake up with... at least to whom who love classic music. Others might find this rather irritating because of the repeating theme of the Canto Ostinato from Simenon ten Holt. (the title means 'stubborn song')

Anyway, there is a new Sewaholic pattern!
I wasn't testing this time as I did with the Cambie dress, Tasia asked specially for pear-shaped ladies for pattern testing and I'm not one. Though, my weakest point (hello body image!) are my thighs. Trousers often stuck halfway up, even if they would fit in the waist. and how about the gaping backs? Pffff..... Now, the new pattern, the Thurlow trousers look like have enough room in the leg-area: "It’s the first trouser pattern designed for curvy hips, fuller thighs and a narrow waist." There is also a built-in extension in the back which you could adjust. Once we are settled in our new home I'm planning to make a suit, skirt and trousers to have a complete coordinated set, like the Vogue Wardrobe series.

To make my wardrobe-variation, I need to a fitted jacket. The jackets of the patterns above are not fittd enough for my taste. They are early 40's patterns, a bit boxy and long, while towards the end of the 40's the jackets got more fitted and a little shorter too. For the skirt and the suit I'm going to use the out of print Vintage Vogue pattern 2885 which I've recently ordered. The jacket is really nicely fitted and the skirt is an A-line, even if it looks on the pattern envelop like a fitted, straight one. For the trousers I'm planning to use the Sewaholic Thurlow pattern, which has wide legs, a slightly lower waist than the traditional 40's pants. I think it would go nicely with the 40's Vogue jacket:





Played with Photoshop a little to show how the fitted suit would look on my not-so-elongated torso. Just to show how different the proportions are. Still looks good...

Shingo Sato draping technique

"The pattern pieces are never stay still, they transform and rotate through different perspctives as a piece of puzzle or geometrical maps even as tie themselves up in mental knots."

Wow, here is a really interesting (let's say jaw dropping!) draping technique called Transformational Reconstruction. It starts with a tight fitting muslin made out of basic pattern blocks... (the bodice pattern is a basic one with just 2 darts at the front, I think this is essential because you want to eliminate as much  pattern lines as possible)
Then the lines of the design are drawn right on the muslin. The muslin is then cut up in pieces, following the lines. Then the muslin pieces are used as pattern pieces and the lines are transferred onto the fashion fabric. Easy as a pie, right?.......

Sailor dress pattern

Modcloth Paper Moon dress and Butterick Retro 5747

Once we are settled in the new house...I have a lot of sewing plans!

Pretty movie dress

Here is the pretty edge finishing visible on the top and there is a peek of the buttoned construction of the sash in the back:



Probably the prettiest dress in movie history...
Keira Knightley wore this emerald green dress in the movie Atonement. A mix between 20's and 30's  evening gown styles. There is a great analysis of the design features here .

The patterns:
Vogue 7635
has the delicate spaghetti straps and the back look similar to the movie-dress:
Vogue 8556
has a similar draped front. You could make the front without draping and add a wide sash instead. It is on my to-make-list for one day.



Vogue 8814
could be another alternative because of the similar front of the top and the skirt: