Tilia's Blog

There’s one shop in Gent I don’t allow myself to enter, because if I do my bank account suffers. Huiszwaluw is a shop that sells interior and gift stuff. It’s full of uber cute stuff! Beautiful pillows, polka-dot porcelain, fair-trade and handmade knick-knacks and most of it with a Scandinavian feel.

Yesterday I bought a set of 12 mini food boxes by Rice. Rice is a Denmark brand that sells a lot of kitchen utility stuff. I wish I had all their things! I’m going to use the boxes for my sewing and corsetry stuff as there are often little buttons, caps and such that easily to lose.

The other thing I bought is something I’ve been looking for for awhile now: a roll-up tape measure. It’s also by Rice. It’s fairtrade and clearly quality work. The crochet crochet and the stitchings are really beautiful. This measures also in inch so it’s extra handy for me, as I didn’t have an inch measure lint yet.

I feel like I don’t have enough time do learn everything I want. There is still so much I want to learn. Let me tell you of some of the courses I still want to take someday. They say you learn your whole life, but I’ll indeed need it, if I want to learn it all.

• Adobe Photoshop
  I already have basic knowledge of Photoshop but it’s no longer up to date with the newest versions and I want get everything out of the software there is to get.
• Adobe Illustrator
  Same deal as Photoshop.
• Designer/maker of lingerie and corsets (Dutch link)
  Since I don’t fall into regular sizing I have trouble finding good lingerie and swimwear. I also believe you can make it better yourself if you know how to do it. I already know I little bit of making corsets and want to know more. This course I’ll start in January perhaps.
• Custom pattern-drafter (Dutch link)
  Builds further on the pattern-drafting knowledge I already have.
• Ladies Haute Couture (Dutch link)
  Course on the Haute Couture sewing techniques. I already have good knowledge on how to sew, but this would improve my sewing very much.
• French
  I’ve forgotten most of the French I learned in school, up to the point that I no longer can hold a simple conversation. My reading is a little better but still nothing to write home about. So I want to brush up on it.
• Herbalist (Dutch link)
  Herb and what you can do with them have always fascinated me, so I would love learning more about it. Trouble with books is that they always seem focused on folk tales and such, not very dependable or in dept.

My first item of this summer is finished. It’s actually the second skirt I started on, but that first skirt still needs hemming. It’s a simple gathering skirt which needs not much in matters of a pattern. It was the first time I gathered such a long round of fabric it took some figuring out. The rest was easy enough but took some time since I did a lot of handwork.

My parents garden has so many nice spots to take pictures! Mama tooks these pictures, she had problems operating the camera, I guess I’m lucky I’ve some good pictures to show you.

The skirt has a 3 metre circumference, nice to twirl!

Today I came across this sew-along challenge and it fit perfectly with what I’ve already planned for my vacation! I still have one week of horror (read: exams and assignments) and then I have vacation until September. Because I gained 10kg in one year time of which I managed to lose only 2 kilos, I need better fitting attire. That’s why I have planned to sew a few skirts, a pair of trousers, a dress and whatever else fits into my vacation.

If you are also interested in this sew-along here is the link:

http://wardrobereimagined.blogspot.com/2010/06/summer-essentials-sew-along.html

Sense & Sensibility patterns have reopened with a new and much improved site. To celebrate this they are having a 15% sale. So this is the moment to go shopping for your favourite costume patterns! If you don’t know S&S patterns yet, go have a look. They sell awesome Regency, Romantic, Swing,… patterns. It’s also a good place for tips and advice. I’m a member of the forum and it’s a very homely community there.

http://sensibility.com/

Years ago I got this old sewing chest, looking like it was ready to used as firewood. I got it from my grandma’s attic or some other place just as dusty, where it probably had been wasting away for a decade or more. I have no idea how old it actually is. If you can make a guess please do. Personally I would say older than the 1970’s, my dad thinks 30 years tops. Anyway when I got this, probably over 5 years ago, if not more, I planned to strip it and paint it. Back then I didn’t sew anymore, so it would just be for decoration. I separated the parts and dusted it, but never got any further on it. I actually forgot I had it.  So it wasted away some more years this time on dad his garage attic (where the birds pooped on it *cringes*).

Forward to now. I’m heavily into sewing again. I went back to school and studied patternmaking and couture sewing. I got interested in corsetmaking and historic costuming. Along the way I’ve gathered lots of tools and threads, all which need a place. So I started looking for a good box or something to put everything in. Because I don’t want to spend a lot of money on it and I like old things, I asked mom if she hadn’t seen anything that could do at grandma’s place (grandma loves flea markets and gathers a lot of stuff along the way). Luckily mom has a better memory than me and remember the sewing chest. I already have the perfect furniture for my sewing stuff! And it’s big, look!

Of course it’s already dismantled, but it’s 3 levels on a stand and they open diagonally (the upper level to the back and the bottom to the front, looking like stairs). The upper level has a lid and 6 smaller compartments.

I like the small flower on both sides of the stand. This might be a hint that it’s a 1970’s item.

A detail of the lovely knobs on the chest. They have a slight golden patina. When I redo the chest I think I’ll give the patina a new layer so it shines more brightly.

My plans with the chest are to strip the rest of varnish away with product, rub down the wood to smooth the surface, then I plan to paint it. I’m not sure on the colour yet. I was thinking old rose or another old antique looking colour and then going over it with a very thin layer of gold to give it an aged effect. The gold would go together with the gold on the knobs too.

I got to pick up my packet from Sense & Sensibility patterns today (I wasn’t at home when the post-man tried to deliver it yesterday). I ordered the whole Regency set of patterns. I’m so happy with them. I can’t hardly wait to start on them. Damn school for getting in the way! LOL I have so many plans for these patterns, not all of them I’m ready to share yet. To begin with I want to make a full Regency outfit: chemise, stays, chemisette, dress and pelisse. But before I can start on this I should finish my Victorian undergarments and then make my handbag from Etsy. I’ll have to do some serious time management or else I won’t be able to start on this before the big holidays.

It’s finished! It’s finally finished!

I was starting to think it never would, but I did it. And it turned out to be quite well for a first corset, I think. Okay it’s not perfect. It has it’s mistakes (not that I’ll tell which they are), but they aren’t to bad. A noob wouldn’t spot them.

The colour of the silk on these pictures is completely wrong, my camera shoots green-tints really badly and turns them blueish.

As you can see, the dress form isn’t quite as curvaliscious as me. Actually my dress form is totally the wrong shape: small hips and broad upperbody. I’m the opposite.

This is the only photo of me wearing it, that was a success. Because we wanted to capture the right colour, we couldn’t use flash, so a lot of the other pictures were blurry.

Yesterday I went to see Alice in Wonderland. It was the first 3D movie I saw other than a short promo movie for WWF (or something like that).  I must say it’s still not ideal watching 3D when you wear glasses because the 3D is to far from your eyes. For scenes with a lot of movement it gives a very dizzying effect.

Other than the 3D-ness: I loved the movie! I found most actors perfectly cast. Mia Wasikowska as Alice and Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. I didn’t know Mia yet, but now I want to see more of her. When Jane Eyre comes out, I’ll be sure to watch. Johnny was purrrfect again, but then when isn’t he? I find him one of the best actors in the world. Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat was spot on. All the characters were just quirky and crazy enough.

I loved the costumes. Alice changes constantly because she shrinks and grows a lot. In the trailers you could see some of the outfits already but there a more of them. One of the scene’s that made me laugh is when the Mad Hatter made Alice a tiny dress. I so want the Alice dress, the one from the poster. With the shoes, must have the shoes! What didn’t make sense to me though was that everyone at the party wore full length dresses and Alice as the only one wore a shorter one. Didn’t that make her dress indecent for that time?

Yay my new laptop has finally arrived!

After my keyboard on my 4 year old laptop broke down, I decided it was time for a new laptop. I had been planning to buy one next year (if my battery lived that long) anyway. I’m a Dell and Apple user. I have an iMac (which is a desktop in case you’re unaware) for my graphic programs and because Apple is simply such a great operating system. I would have gone for a Mac for my laptop aswell if not for 2 reasons: 1 you can’t use lot of software on a Mac and 2 they are freaking expensive( and I just don’t have that much money to spare right now).

I’ve chosen a small laptop: the Dell Inspiron 13z, which has amazing features I find (and some downsides). This is my 3rd Dell laptop already (second Inspiron). My first one is still used by my mom without problems, which makes me feel secure about the quality of Dell. Luckily my mom doesn’t do much more than browse the internet and check her mails because that laptop is ancient in computer terms.

This is also my first experience with Windows 7 and I must admit I like it so far. I only wish their website was better because information on the new functions is chaotically placed (and not all in view). Without the search function I wouldn’t have found the page with the shortcuts explained. Ideally I would have liked a page have had the shorcuts and the new handmovements together but apparently that was to much asked, or I haven’t found it.

Right now I’m having fun customizing my laptop and discovering all the new stuff of Windows 7. I’m not working on my corset and haven’t worked on it for over a week. I need to go shopping first before I can continue. I need something to perforate holes for the eyelets. I thought it would be together with the Prym eyelets I bought but it wasn’t, so I’ll have to go looking.