Black Flannel Bloomers

The "Bloomers for Winter"-project is still running, and I have just completed my second pair of bloomers. These are made of black flannel (I dyed an old bed sheet for the purpose), with lace accents, and satin bows. I used my favourite pair of pyjama bottoms as pattern, or rather, I used them to make the pattern.

The bloomers turned out quite nice, I think. They are certainly very comfortable, and should keep me warm in winter :o)

New Apron

I have this fascination with aprons, this I freely admit. I love them. I enjoy both using them while cooking, and simply looking at them. It's a very feminine garment, and I love the frillyness and the retro appeal of them. At the moment I own 5 aprons, including this. This one will however be a birthday gift, so it won't remain in my collection for long.

Last week the Commercial Pattern Archive had a free, week long trial, and this is where I found the pattern I used for this apron. The pattern was from the 1930's, and has a flattering bias cut. The checked fabric I got at my favourite thrift store for a pittance, I don't think it's vintage, but it still has a vintage look, which is good enough for me. Here's a view of the back:


I'm rather proud of this apron; it's simple, yet very charming, and I hope the recipient will be as happy with it as I am :o)

New Laptop

After discovering the Dream Office, I did some more browsing, and happened upon this; a marvellously steampunk laptop. Just look at the details, the brass accents, and the aged wooden panel. I am literally drooling here.

Considering that the creator of this beauty charges 1200 - 1500 USD for one of his custom keyboards, I assume I would have to win the lottery to ever be able to afford this beauty, but I can still dream :o)

If you like the look of this, you can visit the makers homepage here. Looking at his creations makes me regret I didn't pay more attention in the woodwork classes we had at school, but at the time, I didn't see any apparent use for the lessons, except for making cradles for dolls, collages with shaved wood and brass, and the like. Looking back at those lessons, I get a feeling that most of the time was spent burning letters into bits of wood. God knows where all the odd little things I made ended up. But if I had known that some day, I might be able to make something like this, that would have changed the level of commitment completely, I think.


I wonder if I would be able to find classes for this type of work where I live. I think I'll have to check up on that :o)

Dream Office

My good friend Marcus found this picture online today, showed it to me, and I just love it.

Can you imagine this as your home office? I know I can! I would love sitting at the desk, imagining I'm in a steampunk movie, perhaps "The Golden Compass".

Sigh :o)

1920's sewing chest

1920's sewing chest
Originally uploaded by Vintage Granny

When I visited my aunts in Oslo this spring I went to this huge flea market with auntie Ann (owner of the vintage store Gatsby). We were waiting outside the market for about 30 minutes before they opened, to make sure we'd be amongst the first people in. It was a strange experience, my aunt has been in this business for some 25 - 30 years, and she knows all the others in the business, and it seemed all the "oldies" were gathered there that morning, discussing how the flea markets were better in the olden days, and how all these young upstarts were invading their territories - it was an education in itself. Especially since these guys tried to wrest information from each other regarding where they find all their merchandise, while jealously refusing to give out information regarding their own business dealings.

Once the market opened, everyone run like they had the devil on their heels, and I must admit I kept to the edge of the crowd, as I was scared of getting run over. Some of these people were fierce...

I had my eye on this chest when I was waiting outside the market, but didn't have much hope of getting to it first, but luckily, it was completely neglected by the running crowd, and I got if for a pitteance :o)

My aunt had given me strict instructions to haggle for anything I wanted, and I did. I am very proud of that, actually. I usually never have the guts to haggle, but driven on by the scenes around me I found myself replying "how about 30" when the seller asked for 50 NOK. After some symbolic squealing he agreed to 35. In the end I got it for 28, as this was all the change I had, and this guy couldn't give change for the 200 NOK bill I presented him with :o)

This was in truth a very, very good day. I also got a tweed suit for 50 NOK (haggled down from 60).

Behold the baggy bloomers of winter :o)

bloomers side
Originally uploaded by Vintage Granny

As promised in the previous post, here's a picture of the bloomers I made last weekend. If you want to see more pictures of them you can click on the picture, and visit my Flickr account.

Once the frills were in place, the bloomers looked a lot better, I find. I will still dye them, and probably also attach some lace to the frills, but now I can actually see myself wearing the bloomers, baggy behind or not :o)

Flannel bloomers for the winter

Lillehammer gets very, very cold in winter, last winter we had -20 and more. Freezing! So with August already here, I started thinking about how to keep warm in skirts next winter, and I decided to make bloomers. Flannel bloomers.

I decided to use the above pattern, which I got from one of my pattern books. I scaled it as per the instructions, it came together really well, and have all the distinguising marks of victorian bloomers, including a baggy, enormous bum. I have no doubt these bloomers will keep me warm, considering the amount of fabric used, but these bloomers might be the one of the least sexy garments I have ever seen. I suppose it doesn't help that I made them from a yellow, pink and baby blue flannel sheet. I am planning to dye them navy blue though, hopefully that will help. I will post a picture of the bloomers as they are now later on, as I reckon there are others out there besides my boyfriend in need of a good laugh ;o)