SewNordic Day 2

Welcome to Day 2 of SewNordic. Even though it says Day 2 on the label. I’m going to talk about the dinner as well. If you want to find out about Day 1 check out my blog post.

The Dinner

So it was a big red carpet entry with photos and champagne. Inside we sat at the tables I got to sit with the Dutch ladies from Stavanger, a lady from Switzerland and another from Narvik. There were others on the table but they were a bit too far away to talk to. (I don’t like round tables. They restrict who you can talk to even more than long thin tables).

Anyway, the MC came out and all I could think was Eurovision. Yep, long gold sparkly dress, big blond hair and high heels. She did all the announcing and made jokes in Norwegian. Then the best bit happened a fashion parade. It was a bit funny. My sarcastic self came out. Lots of comments about wearing the outfits in normal situations. It got better though when one of the models started singing in a sparkly blue-green dress. Making it all a little more Eurovision.

There may be footage of me dancing down the catwalk in my dress. They did ask people up on stage who had made their own garments.

The food was great. We had the trouble table with two vegetarians, a no cheese and two weird food people (I’m one of the weird food people). The venue coped pretty well with the whole thing. I was a bit disappointed after dinner that everyone went shopping and there was no dancing. I might be weird but what is wrong with a bit of dancing after dinner to some retro tracks. So since there was no dancing and not much point in buying anything I went to bed.

Day 2

Day 2 started with fighting to get everything inside my bags. A truly epic challenge. I would send stuff home but I can’t decide what. There was breakfast which was normal then I rushed down to the class only to find I was an hour early. So I did some mending of my travel check pants.

Dressmaking with Marie Eivik

So my next big challenge was doing a class in Swedish. Marie from Scandinavian Home Products, the hosts of the event, was the teacher. It was a massive class of 32 people. Marie did a big introduction then sew your own adventure.

The fabric

The fabric that we got to use was divine I hope that there is enough left over for a top when I get home. The fabric is by the Nuppu Print Company. We also got a grid book, stickers and postcards from them. You can find my fabric here. All the fabric selections were beautiful.

The Pattern

The pattern was the Karolina klänning from Svenska Mönster. The patterns had been traced off and the seam allowance added so it was pretty simple to cut out. We also got an original pattern to keep and the instructions in Swedish of course.

The Sewing

I decided to make a V-neck to conquer my fear with an expert close at hand. For the sleeves, I went with the crepe puffy with elastic at the cuffs to challenge myself. Also added pockets. I drafted the neck facings myself which was a big tick in my book. I found a sewing buddy, who is a dealer from Sweden. She was great helping me with the pockets, heam ideas and holding my hand as we both tackled the sleeves together.

The Garment

I’m stoked with how the garment turned out. I will wear it. Marie said I did a perfect V-neck. Yippee! I understand a lot more about getting that right now. Marie was amazing at being able to help everyone. I have no idea how she did it.

Wrap up

If I can swing it and they have SewNordic next year I will come back. It was a great couple of days surrounded by amazingly talented, friendly and inspirational people. I made some great friends and got to finish two items of clothing. Here’s to many more sewing adventures in the future.