Dress progress and stuff

Hello hello. I had some busy weeks. Big presentation at work, important fitting of my sisters dress, my boyfriends father and his girlfriend visiting... And at the same time weather in Stockholm has been amazing! The russian heat was here.
But okay, first things first. My sister was here to model in a fashion show last monday. This is her on the catwalk:


And while she was already here, I worked as hell to get the dress to be in one piece and try it on her. This is what it looked like from the front...



...and from the back



I especially like the back. It will even nicer when it has a zipper and is not just pinned together. I do need to make some changes though. I streched the fabric to tight when draping the bust in this version, which made the lining peak out. So I'm whipping up a new bust part right now. And then lining of the skirt needs to be sewn in, but thats easy peasy, and then it's just the hemming and zipper-attaching. In a week this dress will be worn. I'm both nervous and excited. I hope the dress will be beutiful, and that Smulan will love it! (Smulan is my petname for my little sister, I have called her Smulan since she was a tiny toddler. It means bread crum.)

After having my big presentation last Wednesday I was exhausted from working all day and night for two days. I rewarded myself by leaving work early and visiting the closest second hand shop. There I tried on some dresses.

I fell in love with this lovely seventy's dress. Unfortunately it did not close in the back. Partly because the zipper was broken, but a bigger problem was the missing 7cm of fabric...


I liked this sweet dotted thing to. But it also had a size problem. I could definitly close it, but I could only raise my arms about 20 degrees. Might be a problem as I intended to use it for dancing lindyhop.


Nope, both of them had to stay in the store. But I did buy this one:



I'm not sure when I will wear it, but I think it's fantastically whimsy and fun but still whith a classy silhouette. I imagine a sophisticated Italian lady in black wavy hair, red lipstick and black gloves wearing it for a shopping spree... in the eighties...

On saturday I was barbequing for our visitors. It was a sunny and wonderful day.



The next day it was raining and thundering. But I was happy anyway. It was nice to be able to stay in and sew with a clear conscience (since warm days are rare in this country, I feel obliged to be outside when one arrives). And I could listen to the rain hammering on our abatjour (is that the proper term? I looked it up in a dictionary, and chose most beautiful synonym).



Oh, that's it for now I think. I will try updating more often so I don't have to make these massive posts.

Need to sleep now.
Love,
Helena