Lunch bag from London

After visiting the goldsmith on Saturday I took the bus back home and shut myself in my sewing room for the day.
I had one of my Saturdays off and Rickard took care of giving little girls lifts to parties and fixing lunch and dinner. It was great!



I ended up starting and almost finish this project that I have been mulling over for months. I didn't have time to finish completely on Saturday so I ended up sewing the last seams on Sunday.

The pattern is from Pink Penguin. I like it, but there are a few things I would change for next time. The tutorial suggests to add heavy interfacing if you use quilting cotton for the outside, which I did. But since I didn't have any iron-on interfacing I used a heavy interlining instead.
Then I added insulating interfacing too which made it way too bulky.
I also didn't bother altering the dimensions to fit my most used lunch boxes.

So for next time I think I'll enlarge it to fit, change dimensions so I can sew it with a 1/2" seam allowance and I will not add the interlining if I insulate it.

I will also change it so the cover is in two layers so I don't have any exposed raw edges on the inside.

Other than that I like it and I used it this morning.

Rings

Way back in the 80's when my grandmother passed away I inherited her engagement and  wedding bands as well as her mother's wedding band. The oldest ring was very thin and worn and we took all three rings to a gold smith to have them altered into one ring.



It felt weird to wear such a thing as a teenager and I kept taking it off and putting it in random places and my father kept asking me if I knew where it was to make sure I didn't lose it. (To be honest it happened a few times that I did lose it - but always at home so it was more a question of misplacing it.)
After a couple of years I decided to just get used to it and start wearing it after all.

We also built on it and added an amethyst to it (my birthstone) and later a diamond as well.

After Isabel was born I added a ruby which is her birthstone.

For the past few years though it has been too small and I ended up putting it in a bowl in the kitchen window and there it's been until this weekend.

I took the ring, a ring and pearl pendant, a gold chain and a little heart pendant I got for my christening to a gold smith in town and we had a nice discussion and design session where he drew up a sketch for one ring using all my gold.

I had plans to make two equal valued rings that I could wear now and that I could pass on to my girls, but we talked about that and came to the conclusion that it's better to make one thing of it that I really like and will wear and when the time comes to pass it on we'll melt it down and make two things for the girls that they really like then.

I hope I made the right decision.

I called him this morning and asked him to get started on it after talking money with Rickard.

I also left my own wedding and engagement rings with him to have them altered so I can wear them again. I go to pick them up in two weeks and he will have the ring prepared so I can try the new one on then. So excited!

Into darkness

No I'm not going to talk about the coming Star Trek movie .. although I'm ridiculously excited about it (Benedict Cumberbatch, people!)

I was thinking more about the darkness we are moving into at this time of year.
Once the lights of Christmas and New Year have been packed away it gets dark here. Like, silly dark.

Sunrise some time before 9 am if we're lucky, and sunset just shy of 3:30 pm. The days are getting longer, but only by minutes.

It will be February, late February, before you notice any significant difference.

But!

One good thing about this time of year is:

It is possible to have breakfast with two funny, silly, wonderful girls at candle light.
At least if you're me.

If you're not me you can't have breakfast with these particular girls (Unless you're their father. Or here visiting?) but maybe you have one or two of your own or maybe even some of the xy-configuration, you can have breakfast with?

The options are almost endless.

Either way, it really does make up for some of the compact darkness.

...

Just remember to put the candles out before leaving for work - N.B!! Important! (My Dad was a fire fighter. It rubs off!)

Oh, woe be me!

When Isabel was about a year old I visited a knick-knack shop in town and we found this pink pillow (it says: Here sleeps a princess. They had a blue one too.)
Isabel picked it up and gave it a huge hug .. with a still chocolatey mouth after an ice cream I had let her taste. (Thank God she didn't kiss the blue one ...)

So I had to get it, of course. It's been washed and loved more times than I can count. Last night after she vomited in her bed I had to throw it in the was once more .. and when I took it out of the dryer it had burst.

I'm going to try and mend it. It will not be an invisible mend ... I hope she'll accept it anyway. Maybe I can just cut off the front and put it in a shadow box ... That would be cute ....

Christmas dresses

I've been sewing dresses for the girls for Christmas. I have worried and agonised over them for days and weeks but now they are finally done.

Of course I have a few tweaks left on them (when don't I ever?) but they are both wearable.



Isabel's dress is made from thick party satin in a Christmas red with red satin lining and a transparent gold taffeta sash.
She says she likes it which is rare these days.



Sofia is getting a cerise dress in baby cord with a white batiste lining in the bodice and some acetate lining in the skirt to stop it from catching on girly stockings.
She also got a small white trim on the neckline and a wide, chunky lace around her waist. (That is the main focus of my tweaking. It didn't turn out exactly as I had planned.)
Sofia was very happy with her dress too and asked to wear it right away.

I have been guarding them like a hawk so I won't have to wash them before the holidays.

Choir

In Sweden every city with a bit of a population has a Folkets Park (People's Park). It is a remnant from the days when workers fought for labour rights and the parks became a place for gathering and entertainment.

Malmö's Folkets Park is close to where we lived when we had no kids, and later when we had only one.
We've spend many hours there at the playground and some at the Tivoli but I have never been to the big dance hall, Moriskan.



Built in 1902 it is a fixture in the park with its characteristic domes.

Wednesday evening it was filled with four classes of second graders. Two classes from Isabel's school and two from a school across the city.

They had practised songs with their teachers all semester and now they were to perform to parents and siblings, all classes together for the first time.

It wasn't a Christmas concert at all. All songs but two were written by the choir master. The last two by Mikael Wiehe, a singer/songwriter well known in Sweden.

It was so fun to see them all. Some completely disinterested and just aching to have it done and others singing with such fervour they looked like "proper" performers.

I hope Isabel gets a chance to do this again. I was reminded of my choir days and the concerts I participated in. It was always such fun.

Squishy

It felt good to be sewing clothes for the girls again.



I tried out the Field Trip tee-pattern from O+S and while I'm not satisfied with the stitching (I'm not an experienced knits sewist) I loved the pattern and how easy it came together.

Sofia loves the tee and has worn it on multiple occasions - pulling it off the line as soon as it is dry.

The next I make for her I'll shorten the neck band and see if I can make the neck less wide and get the shoulders to sit properly.

The knit is a Moda interlock, in the City Weekend collection by Liesl Gibson. I love it and I want a shirt from it for myself.

My friend - the fabulous Mel - managed to track down some of the pink colourway and it is on its was across the Atlantic as we speak/read. I kind of want to keep it for myself - but the candy pink really isn't my colour.

I might end up using it for nightgowns for the girls ...