Tine Inspires: Simple Seventies Styles

I rarely talk about my inspirations on the blog. Though I'm constantly inspired by my surroundings, blogs and the occassional day of window shopping in the city.

It's been a while since I've shopped in a "regular" shop. Most of my shopping is done in a charity shop or in the fabric shops either online or offline. Though I also try to keep that as minimal as possible. I orgnaized my stash quite a few weeks ago and was overwhelmed by the choice of fabrics I already got and made the decision to use all of these fabrics in this year at least for one project. So far I've been doing good and only bought additive notions.

This year I've been to one fleamarket yet, but didn't buy anything. I try to be more decisive in what I buy and find a definite line of style. I find that I often buy second-hand more easily than if I had to pay the retail price. And I'm not sure anymore if that's how I want to consume.

It my sound weird especially knowing that I work in marketing and my job is to sell to people, my personal ideas about consumption are totally against what I promote as a professional. Though I always tell myself, that at least I' not promoting to buy garments made by underage workers from low wage countries.

Anyway, sometimes life is just contrary I guess.

My latest inspiration is all about the seventies. It started with my flares I made two years ago, then this year I got myself some original Swedish clogs and made my own pattern for a pair of culottes, which I shared on Instagram alreday.

Actually I guess I've always inspired by the Seventies. I have the theory that you fall in love with the decade before your birth decade. And since I was born in the Eighties, I naturally love the Seventies. Simple, isn't it?
I love the shapes of the Seventies fashion, some of the colour palettes like the mustards and oranges and also the patterns. It's great though that nowadays I can also combine the Seventies classics with some more modern shapes and make an interesting mix of old and new.

Tine Inspires: Knitting And Podcasts

Lately I've been more drawn to knitting than sewing. It all started with the upcoming Holiday season. Last year I gifted my dad a voucher for hand knitted socks. Delivery time up to 48 months. I set myself a personal goal though, to finish them till this years' Christmas.

And so the wool was there, I knew what I wanted to knit, but to get in the groove of knitting I started with something else. A hat. I never really use a pattern for a hat, I knit by intuition. So for this hat I just counted on another one, how many stitches to cast on and then just went for it.

The wool was a find at my local yarn shop. I'm pretty excited that I don't just have a fabric shop, but also a yarn shop in my neighbourhood. I had a browse there with a friend some weeks ago and this wool stuck into my mind. It's shades of grey but with a little sparkle by a lurex thread running through the wool. I bought two balls, because the shop assistant advised me to. Then I knitted the hat and found out I only needed one ball. Next weekend I went to the shop, returned the unused wool and then got a new colorway of the same quality.

So my next project is already planned and should keep my hands busy during Christmas.

But I didn't really start this post on rambling about my hat. It should be about the socks for my fahther. Yes, I can already say socks, because I finished the first sock and am already in the finishing stages of the second sock. The wool was also bought at my local yarn shop, but he got to choose a colorway - no sparkling threads, unfortunately. But he chose a nice red, grey and brown Regia wool, which makes an interesting striped pattern. And without any intent or knowledge about knitting socks with this wool - the patterns match on both socks. I have no idea, if that is a lucky chance, or if I'm just knitting the right size of socks with the ball of wool. I mean, certainly, if I chose to knit a size 39 instead of a 41 it wouldn't match, I guess. Or does ist? Anybody knitted socks more often than I do?

While knitting I found a new love: Podcasts! And audio books. I listened to my first audio book this weekend, which was a cheesy story by Sophie Kinsella and then some really interesting podcasts. A while ago I listened to the German one by Nahtzugabe5cm with Sinje as a guest. Today and the last days I found the ones by Elise Blaha of Elise Joy. Through one of her podcasts, I found this article linking to even more podcasts. And then I somehow found this blog by Emily Henderson, whom I didn't know before.
So much inspiration!

Tine Inspires: Coats

Lately I've been thinking about making a grey coat for the fall and winter season. I've been sewing for so many years already, but somehow I never managed to make anything that I frequently wear in winter and that keeps me warm and cosy. So I've been eyeing different online shops in the search for the perfect coat and found some nice ones. But obviously totally out of my price range.

Jil Sander/ Alexander Wang/ Burberry (images from netaporter.com)

So I figured I could go for it and make it myself!

I found the perfect fabric at work, which I've been eyeing for quite some time already and I think I'm gonna give the project a go in the next weeks. It's the one on the left side a blend of wool and polyacryl. The one in the middle would be a cheaper alternative, but I'd get a swatch first, as I think it's too bulky. The one on the right is a fleece that I'd use for the muslin, which might turn out wearable.


Now I just need to find the perfect pattern. I have found something in an old Burdastyle from 02/2002 that I still had lying around. I like the raglan sleeves and the boxy shape.

But then I also found two jackets in the September issue and I think they fit even better to my taste. I would like to combine the collar of the parka-style jacket with the sleeves of the other jacket and make my own pattern out of it. But I think for this project I'm gonna do a muslin, because I'm totally unsure on what size to cut. I want the jacket to be boxy, but not too much, so that it would be cold on cold days. I needs to be the right amount of width.
I plan to prepare the pattern during the week and then get started on the muslin next weekend!

Love to have big sewing plans!

What about you? Are you taking part in the German coat Sew-A-Long? I'm rubbish at anything that involves a plan for sewing, so I'm just doing my own thing.

Tine Thinks: Where am I going

Follow me on Instagram @tinesews

Recently I've been thinking about this blog and where I want to go with it. I started it in 2011 while I was studying, living far from my family and using this blog as a documentation of my life and sewing projects. I still had some semesters ahead of me and thought that blogging would be a good way to get into the groove of social media, writing and figuring out what I wanted to do later. I also had the idea of writing my bachelor thesis about turning a blog into a business, was even thinking about starting to write a business plan on how to make money with a sewing blog and what kind of market is out there that I could cater for. I worked part-time for an online fabric shop, so I saw the opportunity to use affiliate programs and such to monetize a blog. The only issue was - in 2011 no sewing online shop in Germany offered an affiliate program.

So fast forward to 2014: Three years later I have my own apartment in Hamburg and work in an online-shop that sells fabrics again. I'm responsible for blogger relations, finding people for our affiliate program, writing texts and coming up with ideas for sewing tutorials and the general work that comes with creating tutorials. Basically everything that I imagined to do in 2011 I'm doing right now. But one thing is different - I'm not working on my own or freelance, I have a contract with Europes leading online fabric retailers.

This has it's perks and I learned a lot in the last two years, but anyway lately I've been thinking about my initial idea again. I'd love to spend more time with my blog and not the companies blog. The only problem is time. As I work 40 hours a week + some more, then having to juggle everyday life with a social life and my volunteer work for a sports club, I'm basically happy if I have a free moment that I'm not sitting in front of my computer.

Today I had a look at my blog after two months of not having a look at the statistics and I was very surprised that I still have readers everyday. I guess the content that I already put up is interesting to some people, or they are caught by the blog title? Anyway, I just wanted to use this opportunity to let you in on my thoughts. Maybe you have the same problem about time and finding the time to do something which is basically a hobby, but that you want to professionalize for yourself. Any thoughts?

My Undine Adams Look

While the third part of "The Adlon" was running, I sat down in fornt of my laptop (I don't have a TV) and finished the last seams on my new favourite pair of trousers. The sewing was a breeze, because I already made the pattern a couple of times and even the zipper could't freak me out anymore. Though I tried to do a blind hem with my machine and somehow I must have folded the fabric in a wrong way, because the seam wasn't invisible. So, in th end I did the hem by hand to add come couture details to the trousers. The waitsband was also done with slip stitches. The lightning in my room isn't very good for pictures after sunset, but I got an idea from Sinje and might be able to light up the living room with some equipment from the hardware store soon.

The outfit in the style of Undine Adams consist of my new handmade trousers. I wish I had a better picture of the soft velvet and the berry colour is also much nicer in real life. The top and jacket were both aquired in second-hand shops. The top is from a charity shop in London and the jacket was a score from Stilbruch in Hamburg. I got the hat at Oxfam in Berlin and the shoes were bought 2008 in the USA.

Inspired by The Clothes Horse

I always liked the two-tone cardigan that Rebecca of The Clothes Horse wears quite frequently. On one of my virtual window shopping tours on stoffe.de I found this great knit in different colours which I think will make a cosy fall cardigan. I haven't decided yet on the other fabrics I want to get with those and hope that it won't have sold out when I have finally made my decision.

green

mustard