Inspiration week 3: Granny

It's time for my most favorite inspiration, my own grandmother! My granny is someone I will always look up to, and whose values I will always try to uphold. She grew up in a humble working class home and spent her early twenties during the WW2. She met her true love during those years and ended up spending 55 happy years with my beloved grandfather. They had five children together and before her passing she became a great-great-grandmother. My granny and grandad were the embodiment of love and I can only hope to maybe one day have a glimpse of that myself.

I wanted to share this with you because it was my gran who inspired me to really start blogging. The name of my blog Malmikon palmikot  is a tribute to her. Malmikko was her maiden name and I wanted to honor her roots by using that name on my blog, and on my apparel too. Palmikko refers to braids or cable knitting, and it rhimes with Malmikko. The name of the blog can be translated into Malmikko's braids.

My granny and her friends in 1940. She's the second from the left with the lovely neckline embroidered dress.

A summer day with friends (and adorable button details!).

Looking classy on Tähtitorninmäki.

Gran and granddad around 1943 behind the Barker weaving-mill.

Who's your inspiration?

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Tämän viikon inspiraationa on oma rakas mummini.

The Back and Forth dress

 It feels like I started this dress ages ago! At first I had a clear vision of what I was making. I would make the Simplicity 4491 with the wider skirt and that would be it. And I did, until it was time to hem the dress. Then I started second guessing my choice and started thinking of tearing the skirt down and making the wiggle view instead. In the end I went back and forth with the decision for weeks (hence the name) and finally went with the original idea. Isn't that always the case by the way? lol! I did take some construction photos when I worked with the bodice part but forgot to take any with the skirt part. I underlined the bodice with white cotton and did the skirt lining with the same cotton. The flower fabric is a polyester cotton blend sheet I thrifted for 2 euros from the Salvation Army and the white cotton is and old sheet I got from my mother. The only new thing I had to buy was the zipper, so in the end the dress cost about 4 euros, not bad!

I did the underlining my own way; pinned the two layers togethet and staystiched the edges.

The sheet had a tag that said the fabric was ironing free. It wasn't but still it's pretty!

The darts were worryingly pointy at this point.

I trimmed the darts and finished them with hand overcast.

Sewing the neckline facings. I added interfacing to all the facing pieces to stabilize them properly.

I didn't make any alterations to the bodice piece since I had done it once already. With the skirt part I had to make do of what I had. There wasn't enough fabric to make the skirt as wide as the pattern required. I ended up not using the skirt pattern pieces at all. I just took as big a piece of the fabric as I could and made a one-piece dirndl skirt. I did to the pleats in the front according to the pattern, but that was easily done even without the pattern pieces. I handpicked the backzipper, all 50 cm of it! And twice! I also added a waiststay to secure the skirt.

Finished!

The hat is a must on the 1st of May, but so uncomfy on!

Here's a peak of the 1st of May celebration in the 1940s:

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Sain vihdoin valmiiksi mekon, joka on lojunut keskeneräisenä viikkokausia. Nyt se on kuitenkin valmis ja istuu kuin unelma!