2009

December 30, 2009

So one is supposed to summon up the year that have passed and here comes my 2009

January

I came up with a new version of my burned books necklace, did some embroidery. I started on a pair of stays and pocket hoops but it took me quite some time to finish them up.

February

I made a steampunk inspired shirt, finished my striped jacket, became 21 and therefore made a cake, posted my panties tutorial, printed on fabric, made a gray wool dress and thought that I would finish the pair of stays soon. (it is not done yet ;))

March

I started march out with making a summer dress, then I made another dress to, I had a mini photo shoot all by myself on my balcony, I covered a corset in vintage buttons, I posted my “Victorian skirt” tutorial, I made more pretty necklaces, I wrote about the school I studied at and I also made some bows and purses.

April

I made a rag rug, my sister turned 13 so I made her a cake, I was busy working with a final collection in school, I entered a competition and won my own sewing machine and I started to weave damask a technique that I totally loved.

May

May was a bad month for me, my father passed away and that made me tired and I had no energy, to be able to keep the school work up I did not tell my teachers or classmates about it either, I had no time for being sad or being treated different since we were at the end of the term. I did some some things this month, I posted a tutorial on how I sew my corsets which is the thing that is most visited post in my entire blog and I covered a second corset with buttons.

June

This month was mostly about dresses! I made a swim dress, we had a fashion show in school, I made a organic cotton jersey dress, I started on a new damask fabric, I made a dress for my fathers funeral, I made a dress out of the damask fabric I made, I made a dress with cherries on it, I made a carpet bag and I finally got around to taking pictures of the finished panniers.

July

I worked all of July so there was not really a creative month for me but I managed to make a tutorial on how to make a balloon skirt, drafted my first corset pattern for someone else then me and I also made steampunk hearts.

August
I did not make anything this month, but I moved and started a new school.

September

This month I did not make anything either, I felt bad about it and made a tutorial on how to make a pencil skirt and a tutorial for a really simple skirt.

October

My new school started in the end of august but I ha no time blogging about stuff until October, crazy crazy but fun fun! I tried out hands on new machines, made a leather rose, I made a green dress, I started on and almost finished a striped corset, I learned leather working techniques and how to colour leather, I made a wool balloon dress that became my definite favourite this year, I made a apron out of moose leather, I started some projects I never finished as this ruffle petticoat and this wool dress and I tried my hands on book binding.

November

Busy in school making stuff I had no time for blogging but I managed to post about how to turn leather scraps into useful things, I also translated my corset sewing tutorial to Swedish and made a peter pan collar drafting tutorial.

December

In December I made a lot of stuff but I have not posted about all I made yet. I did make a Xena outfit for a costume party at school, I did a lot of Christmas related stuff, chocolate, gift wrapping and “knäck”. I also made a gray dupion corset. built stuff out of cardboard, a Christmas dress, I finished the striped corset, I smocked a lot of fabric, and some leather to and then I also bought a kick ass pitcher that costed so much more then I could actually afford as a poor student.

Cordula B.-Morich

December 29, 2009

I just wanted to show you all this fantastic ceramic pitcher I bought myself as a early Christmas present. It was a lot of money for me, being a poor student and all but it was totally worth it.

It was love at first sight.

smocking leather

December 27, 2009

After the week with the guest teacher we were supposed to translate the techniques we learned into our own materials, leather.
I chose to work with a nappa leather, the colour is called “petrol” and was quite hard to catch on photo.

As the smocking was my favourite technique I decided to work with that, I worked with 2*2 cm (0,8*0,8 inches) squares.
I wanted to make a product in stead of just a test square so I decided to make a belt thing.

In progress

I have a waistband in it so that you can wear it without it dropping down due to the stretch of the smocking.

Close up

I really like how it turned out.

manipulation fabric

December 26, 2009

We had a guest teacher week some weeks ago, she thought us some fabric manipulation techniques. My favourite was learning how to smock fabrics, since that is a technique I have been curious about before.

striped corset finished

December 25, 2009

This is a corset I have wanting to make FOREVER, what girl does not need a striped corset in her closet? And I have had it going for ages, waiting for the new grommet press in school. But it never came and I needed the corset for a event so I put the grommets in by hand in stead, as I have done for all the other of my corsets. ;)

Construction info:
Two layers of coutil
One layer of cotton with printed stripes
Black faux external boning channels (the boning is in between the layers of coutil)
Extra wide busk
7,5mm steel bones
Two piece grommets

I also made my first modesty panel, the design of it is taken from how electradesign makes her and it works really well, looks nice and makes it easy to lace yourself in without the modesty panel wrinkling.

A not so very good picture of me in the corset, the corset is not really that visible in this picture.

Christmas dress

December 24, 2009

Merry Christmas to you all!

We Celebrate Christmas the 24 of December in Sweden, and open our presents in the evening :)

As a tradition I make a dress for Christmas every year, this year is is a dark green velvet dress.

A balloon skirt and in stead of sleeves it has a cape. The lining is red and I just love it!

Traditional Swedish Christmas candy

December 23, 2009

Something that is made in many Swedish homes this time of year is Knäck, it is a caramel candy with chopped almonds in it, here is the recipe on how I make mine, and how my mother make hers.

Most people makes it on a pot on the stove but we make it ion the microwave, this is MUCH quicker since on the stove it have to boil for up to 1,5 hour. In the microwave it takes only 7,5 minutes.

1 dl non whipped whip cream
1 dl sugar (the ordinary white kind)
1dl syrup

Stir together in a ceramic or glass bowl (plastic will melt) and put it in the microwave for 7,5 minutes on full effect. Take it out and stir it a bit, pour little of the caramel in a glass of ice water, it the caramel can be formed into a pearl it is done if it is to soft to be formed into a peal pop it back for another minute and try the water test again.

Then wait a little while before adding 1/2 dl of chopped almonds and 1/2 tsp of baking powder stir and then pour it into a jug so that it easy to pour it into the small forms, you can also use a small spoon for this.

My mother also always makes chocolate caramel candy, it is my favourite

1 dl non whipped whip cream
2 dl sugar (the ordinary white kind)
1dl syrup
1 tbs cocoa
1/2 tbs butter

Stir together in a ceramic or glass bowl (plastic will melt) and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes on full effect.

After those 5 minuter take it out (the bowl is VERY HOT) and stir a bit, pop it back for 3 – 4 minutes and then pour little of the caramel in a glass of ice water, it the caramel can be formed into a pearl it is done if it is to soft to be formed into a peal pop it back for another minute and try the water test again.

When done I simply pour it into a jug so that it easy to pour it into the small forms.

Do this recipe but don’t add the cocoa and you will have ordinary caramel candy which we also always make for Christmas.

paper models

December 23, 2009

We had a guest teacher so we built paper models from drawings we made earlier this semester. I made the stairs outside of our workshop.

I also added some people to it, it was so strict and boring before, sterile and static. That is why I made them out of another material and not in the same way as I made the stairs, my teacher did not really like that but I don’t give a damn. I love that they are different from the stairs, after all humans are not made out of the same materials as stairs so why should my people be that?

I wanted to work “inside the box” and that is why I have chopped of everything that goes outside of the box.

I like the feeling of movement in the girl walking the stairs.

My classmates thinks they have a Tim Burton feeling to them, something that was not intended but that is nice, since I do like Tim Burton.

gray corset

December 21, 2009

I made this corset for a friend.

Construction info:
Two layers of coutil
One layer of dupion silk
Closed front
16 steel bones
Two piece grommets

I found this really nice taffeta ribbon for the lacing in the back, I did not know there were such a thing as taffeta ribbons and I thought that I had ordered ordinary satin ribbon (it is silly since I had a sample to look at and did not think about it not being satin at all). So one could say that I was happily surprised when this beautiful ribbon landed at my work desk.

I am also flossing the corset with embroidering floss that match the taffeta ribbon, I’m kind of in love with this colour combination, somehow it feels very Marie Antoinette. Don’t look at the horrible stitching on the binding, the dupion silk was a real pain in the ass.