“There is a spot near our house, for just a few weeks in June, in a fifteen minute window in the evening, where the midsummer light turns the fresh grass into gold. I catch the light as I bind a crown of grass; bundles of strands with bulky heads over and around a ring of ivy.“
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main spinning channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Come with me on a journey of stitches, seams and dreams through fabric in the making of a bodice just for the sa making of it.
If you are a patron, or want to become one, you can have access to a video postcard where I show you the bodice and what I made of it.
I took a course in how to sew a bodice and learned lots of new stitches and techniques for historical sewing. Read about it in my digital magazine.
“Down the sides in a dancing figure eight, pulling tight between each stitch. Wild and merciless, strong and efficient. With the side seams in place the once flat fabric has turned into a three-dimensional structure that fits and supports me perfectly.”
The main fabric is a wool/linen twill woven in a mill in Austria and sold at the Berta’s flax guild. The lining is antique linen, from the same place. The ribbon is my handspun silk that I have dyed with my homegrown indigo and the rings are made for me by Marianne Hellman, as a gift from my friend Cecilia.
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main spinning channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
Sometimes you just need to make something, have had the making of it sizzling in your hands. This happened when I watched Bernadette Banner’s tasteful video about making a modern length Victorian walking skirt. Spoiler alert: Apart from an occasional skirt twirl, there is no spinning in this post.
A couple of years ago I stumbled upon a video by Bernadette Banner, a costume designer with a huge YouTube account where she documents the exploration, reconstruction and reinterpretation of fashion history. In the video she explores how she can create an Edwardian walking skirt in a contemporary length. For some reason I was totally fascinated by the project. I do have a soft spot for the late 19th century fashion, and I realized I needed to make a skirt for myself.
The ensemble
I am very happy with the result and astounded that it all went so well. It must be because of all the hand stitching. In the pictures I am wearing the skirt with a linen shift underneath, from the Berta’s flax guild. I don’t think it is visible, but it does a lot for the presentation of the skirt. I bought the bloomers a couple of weeks ago at a textile sale after the death of a textile antiquarian and reenactor.
Flat front and gathered back for a silhouette typical for the Victorian era.
The jacket is my creation, including spindle spinning, two-end knitting and embroidery of the sleeves, weaving the bands and hand sewing the bodice. And some machine sewing. The blouse on the indoor pictures once belonged to one of my Austrian great-grandmothers and should be contemporary with the skirt model.
The model
Bernadette refers In her video to a pattern from Truly Victorian, and that’s the pattern I bought too. I did browse through the description, but for the most part I followed Bernadette’s clever guidance in the video.
The Victorian walking skirt in a modern length is finished! With pockets and rose lining. The blouse once belonged to one of my Austrian great- grandmothers and should be contemporary with the skirt model.
The skirt has seven gores, a simple waistband and a 20 centimeter [8 inch] stiffener panel at the bottom of the skirt. Bernadette has shortened the ankle length original model to about 60 centimeters [24 inches] from the waist, and added the stiffener at the new length. I chose a similar length for my skirt. Like Bernadette, I also added side pockets. The fitting is flat at the front and sides and gathered at the center back, giving the skirt a bell shape.
Fabrics
My main fabric was a wool/linen fishbone twill from an Austrian weaving mill, available for the members of the Berta’s flax guild. Earlier this winter I finished a pair of trousers using the same fabric. I bought a linen/cotton fabric with printed pink roses on Swedish eBay for the lining. I am a firm believer in roses for any lining. For the stiffener I used an antique coarse linen fabric, also from Berta’s flax guild. And oh, a diagonally striped scrap fabric for pockets.
A wool/linen fishbone twill for the main fabric and a linen/cotton rose print for the lining of the Victorian walking skirt.
The wool/linen fabric is drapey and heavy, as is the antique linen fabric I used as a stiffener at the bottom of the skirt. All in all the skirt weighs one kilo.
Basting
The skirt is flatlined, meaning that the main fabric and the lining are sewn together for every gore, as opposed to a lined fabric which is made up of two separate garments – one in the main fabric and one in the lining – and then sewn together at the edges. Apparently this technique was common in the Victorian era.
To succeed with flatlining without creases or bubbles, I basted every main fabric and lining counterpart together. This of course took time, but made the result so much neater and the process so much more relaxed than with a million pins. An I enjoyed sitting on the floor with the gores spread like sunrays around me, basting my little heart out. Once all the pieces were basted – main fabric gores with the lining, and the stiffener with more lining, I assembled them with my sewing machine, a 1965 Husqvarna 2000, way younger than the skirt model.
Pressing
You may have heard this a thousand times, and so have I: Be sure to press your seams neatly. This time I did. I knew from when I sewed the pants in the same fabric that it is a bit mischievous, so I pressed the flatlined seams thoroughly with a towel and steam. And it did the trick. It really is such a simple technique, but often neglected.
Trimming and hand felling
Every seam was now four fabrics thick, which is not ideal. I can’t change that, but I can ease the bulk by trimming the seam allowances. For the gores I trimmed the lining to be able to hand fell the seam allowance of the main fabric over and around it. Seven times. I didn’t bother hand felling anything that would eventually be hidden by the stiffener, though.
The antique linen stiffener is trimmed underneath the rose linin (left)g, that I am hand felling onto the gore lining (right).
The gathering at the back was a bit fiddly with the flatlined fabrics, but not much more than it would be with a single fabric. It looked a bit meager at first, but when I put the skirt on it was just right. I sewed the waistband onto the wrong side with the sewing machine and hand felled it on the right side.
When I sewed the skirt together with the stiffener at the bottom I trimmed the lining on the skirt part and the stiffener on the panel part. A thorough pressing and presto, a neat bottom seam. The final touch was the hand felling of the top of the stiffener panels.
Needle in hand
With the hand felling no seams and no raw edges are visible on either the right or the wrong side of the skirt. Oh, the satisfaction! And I quite enjoyed the hand stitching. A natural colour linen thread that I waxed, an antique silver thimble (from 1885, so contemporary-ish with the dress model) and a cushion on the floor and I was stitching away across the roses, happy as a clam.
I’m hand felling the panel lining onto the gore lining. To the left you can see the hand felled seam allowances of the gores.
Another sweet thing about hand stitching is the time it gives me to plan ahead. With a machine seam, anything can go remarkably wrong in a second – a fly sewn onto a trouser leg or a piece sewn back to front. I actually did sew the back pieces of the skirt panels the wrong way (one the machine), but with the tendency of the main fabric to fray I didn’t’ t want to risk ripping the seam, so I kept it that way (and attached the stiffener panels the wrong way too to match). But when I sewed by hand, the slow speed gives me the time to see and plan ahead. Many times I didn’t even have to pin the seam allowances, I could just fold them as I went. There will be more hand sewing!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for joyful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
When I was in my twenties I used to sew a lot of my clothes, mainly fitted dresses and jackets. When I now return to sewing in my fifties after a long hiatus I realize I’m a different sewist than I used to.
My mother used to sew clothes for me when I grew up. I remember asking her for a certain design for the last day of school every year and she managed to realize my ideas. I learned a lot from both her and from craft lessons in school and was quite independent when I got my own sewing machine in my early twenties. She is still going strong – a Husqvarna 2000 from the 1960s, weighing roughly 17 kilos [37 pounds].
I sewed the dress and jacket for a wedding a week after our own wedding in 1998. The green dress was for the graduation party after I had finished four years of interpreter training, in 1999. I think I created the pattern for this myself.
Cranky and hangry
My problem with sewing, though, was that I couldn’t stop. I continued way past my limit of energy and got crankier and crankier. Many times my husband gently took my hand and brought me to the kitchen to eat before I continued and hurt myself or ruin my work. I never got angry with people (at least not to their faces), but I could nearly tear fabric apart when it didn’t do what I wanted it to. Most of the times while hangry.
The wedding dress
The last larger project I sew was a wedding dress for my best friend Elli. Just a couple of years earlier she had given me a folder with a correspondence course in pattern construction that she in turn had got from her fiancé’s mother. After I had gone through the course I was fairly confident I could make a pattern and fit it to her body. The only thing I couldn’t do was to adjust it for a pregnancy, and so I told her I wouldn’t take any responsibility for the dress if she were to get pregnant with her second child before the wedding.
I added something blue to the underskirt for my friend Elli’s wedding dress and lots of fabric buttons and button loops.
Six weeks before the wedding she came to my house to pick up the dress. We hugged, and she whispered into my ear: ”I’m pregnant”, and I replied in hers: ”So am I”. I had done the test that same morning and was over the moon. The wedding took place and the dress did fit the bride. I sew a few baby clothes with epic failure after that, and decided to stop sewing – I had no dedicated sewing room and I didn’t want to risk dropping pins on the floor with a baby crawling around.
Back behind the Husqvarna
This was 22 years ago and recently I have found my way back to sewing. This summer I sew a linen pinafore dress and two pairs of trousers from Chinese vintage handwoven fabrics. I made myself a sewing studio in the shade on the balcony and enjoyed it more than I thought I would.
A linen pinafore dress with pounded garden flowers and two pairs of trousers in vintage Chinese cotton fabrics.
I loved both the trouser models and the vintage fabrics and bought myself enough fabric for another two pairs. These projects are waiting for spring. During the fall I have started sewing a pair of trousers and a skirt in a wool/linen blend. This week I finished the trousers, and I love them.
Wool/linen twill trousers
The wool/linen is a herringbone twill with lots of lustre. I bought it from the Berta’s flax guild. It comes from an Austrian mill and is made from local fibers. The fabric is very soft and the drape marvelous.
I created the pattern from a Japanese book of modular patterns. Some basting and some thorough pressing of seams are details can do wonders for the result. Notice the rose fabric in the pockets.
Just to make sure I overcomplicated things, I used a pattern books of module based patterns. In Japanese. The Google Translate app was my friend and through the very clear illustrations I could figure out what to do when and where.
My new pants, sewed with a wool/linen tweed from a Japanese modular pattern book. The shawl pattern comes from Sylvia McFadden and you can read about my version here.
This week I finished the trousers and they have that loose fit I love. The distance between the top of the zipper and the waist button is a bit long, so I added a hook and eye to avoid flashing my belly. Other than that everything went very smooth and I’m still shocked to be honest.
Wise and uncranked
As I sew, pinned, basted and lined, I kept wondering when things would start going wrong, when the tension and frustration would flatten me like a rolling pin. But they never did. I had one minor ripping incident, but that was it. I saw it, realized what had happened and dealt with it. I realized that the memories I have of sewing come from 20+ years ago. I am a different person now, with a calmness and with an inner wise woman who tells me to listen to my heart and learn from my mistakes. I am grateful sewing came back to me, especially at a time when I know where to find high quality vintage fabrics in natural materials.
I still have a couple of meters left of the wool/linen fabrics, plus four meters of antique linen fabric, also from Berta’s guild. And an indigo fermentation vat underneath my desk. I wonder if they marry well…
Happy sewing!
You can find me in several social media:
This blog is my main channel. This is where I write weekly posts, mainly about spinning. Do subscribe!
I share essay-style writing on Substack. Come and have a look!
Myyoutube channel is where I release a lot of my videos. Subscribe to be sure not to miss anything!
I have a facebook pagewhere I link to all my blog posts, you are welcome to follow me there.
I run an online spinning school, welcome to join a course! You can also check out my course page for courses in Sweden or to book me for a lecture.
On Patreon you can get early access to new videos and other Patreon only benefits. The contributions from my patrons are an important way to cover the costs, time and energy I put into the videos and blog posts I create. You can read more about my Patreon page here.
Follow me on Instagram. I announce new blog posts, share images from behind the scenes and post lots of woolliness.
Read the book Knit (spin) Sweden!by Sara Wolf. I am a co-author and write in the fleece section about how I spin yarn from Swedish sheep breeds.
I am writing a book! In the later half of 2025 Listen to the wool: A why-to guide for mindful spinning will be available. Read more about the book here.
In all the social media I offer, you are more than welcome to contact me. Interacting with you helps me make better content. My private Facebook page, however, will remain private.
I support Centro de textiles tradicionales del Cusco, a group of talented textile artists in Cusco, Peru who dedicate their work to the empowerment of weavers through the revitalization and sustainable practice of Peruvian ancestral textiles in the Cusco region. Please consider supporting their work by donating to their causes.
