Summer

One thing I really, really liked about Ireland was the weather. It never got too hot, the sun was never blinding me, nor was it intolerably warm at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Like now in Stockholm. It's the end of May and the heat is already more than I can take without wilting. I dread what it will be like in July/August. Maybe I should move north. Somewhere with real winters (Snow... Sigh.) and summers that don't get so much sun. Like beyond the polar line, or something. I don't want to move, but I may have to because I can't take the sun anymore.

When I moved to Ireland I expected it to be sunnier and warmer there. It is, after all, south of Sweden. Not so. Ireland has much more humidity in the air than Stockholm. Even with the lake and the sea in Stockholm, it is still much drier here than Dublin was.

All that humidity means that the sunlight is much milder there. It does not burn, does not blind, the temperature does not go beyond 25 C or so. Perfect.

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Dress Progress

There has been some progress on the dress. Not as much as I'd expected to report, but I haven't given up on it. I fitted and fixed the dress yesterday. I was so tired on Monday that I went to bed right after dinner and slept for 11 hours straight. I suspect a budding cold I'm fighting off. I'm not normally so tired.

Anyway. All the seams that can be sewn with a machine have been sewn. All that's left is hand-finishing and that's going to take some time because this dress has more than a normal amount of hand sewing in it. Next dress will be entirely machine sewn. I'll probalby hem it by hand. Maybe.

P.S. The sewing machine still hates me. Not as much as it used to, but still. I hate it back too, even when it is a faster way of getting clothes that actually fit than hand sewing or shopping. Shopping takes forever, hand sewing just takes lots of time.

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More Sewing

You know what is funny? Or weird. My body image is still out of whack. I wonder if I'll ever be able to see myself objectively? I hope so, otherwise I'll be forever fixing things because the size that I am and the size I thought I was don't match.

I fetched the sewing machine yesterday and proceeded to sew up the dress. Then I tried it on and it was too big. WTF?! How's that possible? I haven't lost that much weight and anyway I took measurements that matched the pattern. GRRRR!

That was my first reaction. Then I remembered that the ready-made patterns never fit right at first. The medieval patterns always fit because they are made for me to begin with. Modern patterns are made for a mythical average that I am not.

My own fault, of course. The only thing that I can say in my defense is that I haven't sewn any modern stuff for myself in 8+ years and one can be excused for forgetting something in 8 years. Right?

I wanted to wear the dress to work today, but I was so bummed about my own stupidity that I didn't fix it last night. It was too dark anyway so I went and spent some time in WoW instead. Fixing a black dress in poor lighting is a recipe for disaster, better do it tonight in daylight.

Another thing that I saw when I tried the dress on was that I'd been right about the fabric and it has fabulous drape. It'll make a lovely late spring/early fall dress. The wool is a bit scratchy next to skin so I'll wear it over a top of some kind at all times. That was the plan from the beginning, but after the fit fiasco I'm glad to be right about something.

There will be pictures of the dress when it's finished. The only thing I'm worried about is that the weather is getting to be too warm to wear it. I'd better check how much linen I'll need for the next one and go shopping. After this one's finished.

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Busy Week

My! Is it Wednesday already? And a week later to boot. Sorry about that.

Last week I went to see Iron Man with a friend. A bit light on the story side, but that's not why I go see movies based on comic books. I go see them to be entertained, and entertained I was. Good FX too. Recommended.

Last Friday I had my first work trip here in Sweden. My department has loaned me as a database expert to an internal project. The customer is in Gothenburg so the meetings are going to be there. It was a bit of an adventure because I took a wrong turn so was about 10 minutes late. Excruciatingly embarrassing to be late for the first meeting of the project. Fortunately they didn't mind too much.

I'd printed out the map, but had forgotten it to Stockholm and tried to go by memory. I would have been fine if I'd trusted my memory more and continued down the street I took first. Next time I'm going somewhere, I'll make darn sure that I have a map or know where I'm going.

Yesterday I attended a seminar about data mining. It was really interesting and I learned things from another perspective. I'm used to building a data warehouse first and then develop reports on top of that. He demonstrated how you can use a transactional DB to base your queries on. Fascinating! I'm really itching to put what I learned yesterday to use.

I've made a little progress on the black dress I began last week. The front is almost finished, but it's taking longer to hand sew than I anticipated. It's a modern pattern and shouldn't take so long, but I chose to use a slow method of sewing so...

I bought the latest Burda issue in Gothenburg because it had several dress patterns in it. I have already picked three patterns to make, but I want those dresses by summer. I might even break out the sewing machine, because these patterns are meant to be sewn with a machine and take so long by hand.

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Sewing Update

There's a change of plans. I'm making a dress instead of a skirt. When I was laying out the skirt pattern, I saw that I had too much fabric for a skirt. I'd forgotten that 2m of fabric is enough for a sleeveless or short-sleeved ankle-length dress for me.

I went through my dress patterns and found that I've lost the pattern for my favourite dress. It would have been size 40, but I could have enlarged it a bit. I ended up modifying another dress pattern to make it into the style I was after. That took most of the Saturday and on Sunday I sewed the front bits together.

I might have made a mistake by choosing the size 42 pattern (with size 44 hips) because it seems to be a bit tight over the belly. I'll still finish the dress, if it won't fit perfectly right now, it'll fit in a month or so. (Note to self: Self, get on with the ab crunches already!)

Out of curiosity and to take a break from the sewing, I tried on my jeans from 2002/2003. Yes, I've kept them all these years, don't ask me why. I certainly didn't think I'd fit in them ever again. ...and I fit in one pair! It was a bit tight, so I need to go down a few more kilos. Talk about motivation! I loved those jeans, maybe that's why I've kept them. The other two are size 40 and I'm not sure I want to go that far. We'll see.

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Weight Update and Clothing Rant

Check out the numbers on the sidebar. 15 kilos lost! Isn't it sweet? An old friend I hadn't seen for two years commented last week: "You're starting to look like yourself again."

This is exactly how it feels — I'm slowly becoming me again, inside and out. I know that I'll never get back that taut body I had 5 years ago because the skin is (and will be) looser. So what? I am getting older and it shows, but I havent felt so young or full of life since 2002.

I measured myself this week and I was totally gobsmacked to discover that my current waist circumference is 75 cm. 75 cm! My goodness, I haven't had a waist like that since 2003! The bust was 99 cm, hips 103 cm and none of my clothes fit me any longer. The jeans I bought in October are way too big and even the tops are starting to look loose. Especially around the waist. ;)

I tried to shop for new trousers, but the size 44 was too big and the 42 trifle too tight, not to mention that the current fashion is high-waisted. I need hipsters because no-one manufactures jeans with a 0.7 hip/waist ratio (28 cm diffrence). I remember having that problem before and giving up on finding trousers that fit.

I solved that problem way back then by wearing mostly dresses and I might try that again. Except black ankle-length dresses that fit are not easy to come by. Fortunately I can sew modern clothes as well, not just Medieval/Renaissance ones, I just need to gather some courage to actually try my hand at designing some.

Yesterday I went out with my friend S to trawl through some Stockholm's fabric stores and I bought 2 metres of lightweight black wool to make a spring/autumn skirt. Yes, the sun is shining, but it's still chilly and skirts are notoriously drafty anyhow. The plan is to sew it this weekend, but you know what can happen to my plans...

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That Was Fun

I enjoyed my week away from computers, traffic and buerocracy enormously. I met friends I hadn't seen for years, met new friends and had loads of fun.

I arrived on the first Saturday and was picked up at the train station. The trip was so comfortable that I might switch to trains vs. planes or cars for Swedish events. I got lucky with the tickets too — the 1^st class tickets were cheaper than the 2^nd class ones, so I bought those instead. The trains are faster than the cars or buses so that's a point in their favour too. More expensive, though. Anyhow, if I travel alone, it's definitely a comfortable way to get to events.

I'd packed a medium size suitcase, thinking that it would be enough. Well, it was enough for the clothes, but nothing else. Everyone had projects to work on, except me. Next year, I know to plan better. Being project-less, I asked if I could help others and fortunately there were kind people who gave me work to do. I entered a hood I sewed with the needle I'd made to the A&S display and got two tokens of appreciation. I could not thank them personally, so I say my thanks here. Thank you very much! And a big thanks to people who let me work on their stuff.

There was a market on Thursday and I bought fabric for three (sic!) new dresses. 11 metres total. Not that I don't have fabric... but it doesn't fit the style I want to go for next. There were a few who had the Flemish peasant (ca. 1560s-70s) clothes on and since they are fitted, but also laced, they are perfect to have when one's weight changes. The Flemish dresses from 1460s-70s I showed you before only accommodate +-3 kilos. I need more than that since I still have about 8 kilos to go.

Enter the working woman's dress. If I make the kirtle a bit smaller, I can still wear it now and after I've reached the target weight because it's laced under arms and the bodice edges do not need to meet. The overdress is laced as well — no problems with fitting there. Another clothing item I decided to make was a fur lined jacket to wear at nights (I'm tired of managing a cloak), but that must wait until I get my cloak back. I got a ride back to Stockholm from my Estonian friends and forgot it in the car. I'm not too worried because I'll be visiting Tallinn before the next year's Double Wars and it's the summer season with indoors events now.

I've got 8 weeks till the Coronation in London, there should not be any problems finishing one outfit with accessories and all. Did I hear a groan? :) Yep here I go again, making plans. This time I won't begin with dresses, though. Every time I make a new outfit, the shoes are a problem. This time I've decided to begin with the shoes instead. I've made shoes and boots before and peasant styles seem to be simple. I did a bit of research yesteday, but I need to read my shoe books and look at paintings before I decide on a style.

Just as there was lots going on at the event, out trip to Stockholm was also eventful. We had a very lucky accident — a flat tire. The tire was punctured some time before Jönköping and we were alerted before our driver noticed it. Luckily there was a gas station a couple hundred metres from where we were alerted, it didn't take long to change the tire. It took longer to unpack and pack the car, than to change the tire. The tire was broken and if we'd driven on it longer, it would have been completely shredded. I took a picture of it because it looked scary.

I was glad I'd insisted to leave an hour earlier than they'd planned. They might not have made it to the ferry otherwise. After the tire change we made good time, I could even offer a cup of tea and show my apartment a little before they had to leave for the ferry.

After that I just chilled and scritched the cats. Ursus does not demand hugs that often, but yesterday he would not leave my lap. Mao had no choice but to wait patiently for his turn.

All in all, I had an excellent vacation and inspiration for new projects.

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