NELLAND FASHION: THE FREEDOM COLLECTION

  "Freedom" for three practical reasons:
1. These clothes are worn on my days off (not work days).
2. These clothes look, at a glimpse, so ordinary that no one will begin to judge my appearance right away.
3. These clothes are colored so mildly, that they allow me to wear the minimum of makeup, I dare show my face on, in public.

  My main goal is still to make the perfect garderobe for work, but I need this collection now.
  Now is when I´m on maternity leave. You know, runningn errands with a kid hanging on my hip, which makes everything more difficult and so slow! I just can´t be sophisticated and look as fancy as I would like.
  So this collection is for my everyday shopping-, post office-, library-, having coffee with a friend-, etc. kind of things. Stuff I would normally do on weekends or other days off. My free days.

  This is the beginning:

Featuring my new favorite shirt and a pair of basic jeans (which are Levi´s curve id, not self made).

On free days it is possible to fool around, as I did with my hair now. After washing it, I braided it in small braids to make waves. Not straight-from-the-salon, but fun nonetheless! That´s what life is (or should be) about.

  Starting now, I will have no difficulties choosing an outfit when hitting the local grocery store weekly. Freedom, here I come!  =)

ABS WITHOUT EXERCISE

  When dressing up this morning I accidentally saw something strange in the mirror: my abs. Evidently I haven´t seen myself in the mirror too often recently, because such a difference has occured since the last time:

Now this is 11 months after having a baby. Never did I think a year ago, when eight months pregnant, that I would ever get my flat stomach back again. I´m so glad I was wrong!!! (Sorry about the non-made up look, but this was right after waking up...)

  Exercising is not my strongest points. In fact, despite one hour of Pilates a week, I do none. And that Pilates class has not yet made me sweat (once my ears felt warm, but that doesn´t count  =). I thought it was doing nothing for me! I will definitely continue going there!

MOTHER TO DAUGHTER -REPURPOSED DRESS

  Years ago I bought a robe made of soft and lovely jersey velour. It was a nice lavender blue robe, which I thought I would love to wrap myself into in chilly winter evenings and mornings. For some reason I never felt the need to do so. What a waste of money and material!

  Last March I wore that robe. Once. When the labor of my daughter begun, it was the perfect garment to wear at home before heading for the hospital.

  Now I decided it was time to make the robe useful. I cut it into tiny pieces and made this:

A lovely everyday dress for my little girl. In the color that perfectly suits Imbolc.

Buttons in the front are for decorational purpose only. I often like to add some contrast.

Lace in the hem is made of cotton, and along with the buttons, give the dress a bit of vintage look.

The back of the dress is similar to the front. Only there is a seam in the center, because there wasn´t enough fabric in the robe to fit it in one piece. And the buttons are smaller.

  This dress will have the honor of acting as a party dress too, when we go to celebrate a seven-year-old girl´s birthday soon.
   I love multi-tasking. When it comes to clothes, it also reduces consumption. A very nice bonus to practicality!

LOSING BABY FAT, PART 3: MISSION COMPLETED

  I have done it! All the weight I gained during my second pregnancy is gone. All of the 20+ kilos. I can hardly believe it myself.

I´m so happy to be back at my normal weight range!

  It took less than five months. I gave myself time until the end of this year, but I´m at the finishing point already. Yippee!
  It feels like the weight just melted off on it´s own, since I have done no exercising and have eaten as much as I wanted. I have followed the all-I-can-eat diet plans I put together, which I have also shared in my earlier posts. I am active in my everyday life, and I believe that counts as "exercise" in practice.
  In addition to staring at the kilos on the scale, I also like to keep in mind the BMI chart. Making sure that my weight stays in the healthy zone. I like to keep the index around 20. Too skinny is not good or healthy either.

  A toast for me is in order, I will now go and make a nice cup of green tea.   =)

LOSING BABY FAT, PART 2

  Three months ago I was in a place where I had to lose 15 kilos in order to get back to my normal self. It seemed literally impossible, and I even doubted ever feeling the same way about my body as I did before this second pregnancy. Having gained over 20 kilos during those nine months, I wasn´t enjoying the reflection in the mirror. (Which is ridiculous, because my body had just worked wonders by making a baby.  The most wonderful thing in the world! That is truly something to be proud of.)

  Now, three months later, I´m beginning to recognize that figure I see in the mirror. I feel more beautiful and  womanly again.

Yippee, the fat is melting off!

Now this is the stomach I recognize.

  "The fat you eat is the fat you wear" is what popped into my mind. Wasn´t it Dr. McDougall who said so in the nineties...? A way of eating I had come across with back then, and somehow felt suitable. I had to check it out, and I was right.
  Dr. John McDougall speaks for starches as the staple food in our diet. Daring, I might say, during these days of fat and protein ruling our tables. But, we are still getting heavier than ever, so are we doing something wrong by consuming all that protein and fat? I can only speak for myself, and say that the current trend of eating isn´t for me. When I tried to reduce carbohydrates, I didn´t get the sense of satisfaction from food as I normally would. Adding fat and protein to make up for the carbs only made me irritated and restless. No thanks.
  This Litha I´ve leaned more heavily towards McDougall´s recommendation, and I´ve lost weight nicely. I must stress that I definitely do not diet now that I´m breastfeeding! I eat as much as I want, but have cut down fat. As a result, I now have only three more kilos to shed, and I´m back to my pre-baby weight! Yippee!   =)

LOSING BABY FAT, PART 1

  It´s now been nine weeks since I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl. Pregnancy took it´s toll on my figure, and I gained 20 kg altogether. When returning from the hospital I had 15 kg extra to lose... quite depressing.

  I breastfeed, so I will not do any diets or restrict my eating. My plan is to eat healthy and as much as my body seems to want. This goes for healthy foods, not desserts.
  So far I have lost 9 kg. Wow, that´s a kilo per week, now that I think of it. Not bad. I´m lazy when it comes to exercising, or should I say, I rather use my time on other activities. I have a couple pathetic attempts to do some abdominal workout, but overall I must admit I haven´t really done anything that matters.
  So what has changed in my physics so far has totally come natural, without any further work.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would have such a flat belly ever again, let alone this soon after giving birth! Thank you Mother Nature.

  Clearly I haven´t yet reached my goal of getting back to the weight I was in before pregnancy. But this is a good start. I gave myself until the end of this year to get there. That means 6 kg in 6 months.
  I know from experience that the less weight there is to lose, the harder it becomes. So I may have some tough times ahead by the end of the year... But I´ll worry about that later.  =)

RAGS DESERVE A NEW LIFE

  I got a few pieces of old hospital clothing from a friend some time ago. She works there, and noticed that a big pile of old worn out t-shirts and pants (or more like long johns) were thrown into the garbage bin. They were all clean and had no holes or anything disgusting in them, so she thought to salvage them from doom. And I was lucky to get some of that treasure.

  At first I had no clue what I would make of them, but later on realized that they were perfect undergarment material! Now that I´m breastfeeding, I like to wear a tank top underneath my nightgown at night. Naturally I don´t own enough tank tops from before the baby arrived, so I really needed some more. What a better way to recycle those old hospital rags (and yes, they were hideous!) than turn them into tank tops? Stuff that I really need right now!

I used a pattern from an ordinary t-shirt, and left out the sleeves. These shirts really don´t need to be perfect, they just need to keep me warm and protect the "delicate parts" of a nursing mother.  =)

To save time, I left all of the edges raw. There is no need to put effort in perfecting them, because they won´t show anyway. No one will see them but me. And if my husband does get a glimpse, that will not likely scare him either. Not after seeing me give birth, twice!

The material is very soft against my skin. After all, it has been brutally washed in hot for who knows how many hundred times.

This brown shirt is the only one that has any lint, and even that it very soft.

Funny that these colors all happen to go well in my Oestara palette.

  I´m totally happy with these tank tops, even though I didn´t finish them off up to perfection. They serve their purpose 100% as they are. Sometimes it is important to sort out priorities. For me, at the moment, it is important to take care of my own well-being as well, and give myself some rest whenever I can. "Sleeping" the nights with a newborn is quite tiring...  But giving up sewing, cooking, and crafts is out of the question!  =)

OUTFIT #1 / OESTARA COLLECTION

  This year I will go with the minimal amount of outfits I can survive with, because I´m still in between shapes and sizes. I gave birth to a good-sized baby only three weeks ago, so my body is still shrinking back to it´s normal self (and oh boy, do I hope to achieve that state once more...). So in order to minimize the amount of wrong sized clothes in the future I will settle for only a few now, until I´m back in business.
  I do need to wear something though, and here is my first look from my Oestara collection 2012:

This tunic is a model suitable for breast feeding mothers. The neck hole is made so that you can easily pop out the milk jugs and start feeding your baby without uncovering your whole stomach. I made this tunic when still pregnant, so I wasn´t able to try it on beforehand. But it turned out okay, and I am happy with it. The 3/4 length sleeves are especially handy.

The tunic is also loose enough around the belly to fit me from right after delivery to until I´m back to my normal size. That´s a small green step for the environment´s sake, not buying many different garments that I will only use for a short time. I will surf through Oestara with this one.

To me Oestara is about childish fun and play, and I want it to show in my outfits. Here I have combined bright-colored wooden beads with turtle earrings. The world is so full of sad and bad news, there has to be a place for cheerful details in it too!

  Make up is as important of a factor as clothes, accessories, and hair, when putting together an outfit. Here I used shimmering pale yellow and darkish purple eyeshadow for the eyes, rosy pink blush for the cheeks, and glittering purple lipgloss to finish the look. I always feel like a different person when I wear make up. Although I don´t consider ever wearing that much of it, it always makes such a huge difference. Or maybe it is all in my head, but as long as it makes me feel more confident and good about myself to face the world, who cares!  =)

  Bright colors like green, yellow, and lilac, are the core of my Oestara palette. Combined with grey they can make stylish looks to carry me through any occasion. Only this year, most of my so called "occasions" are home-based. There aren´t that many places to go to with a newborn. But luckily I have many friends and family who come and see us here at home, and it is nice to dress to the occasion (Oestara-look) for them too. Everybody appreciates a neat appearance and fun company!

 

THE BRIGHTEST SUNSHINE EVER

  Finally I´m a mother of two! My baby princess was born, and now everything just seems to be glowing along with the spring sun!

Bright, happy light seems to cover everything in Nelland these days!

  My life is plain filled with happiness and joy right now! What a wonderful world we live in!

HANGING CRADLE FOR A BABY

  This hanging cradle cost me around ten bucks altogether. Major savings in money, I´d say. I thought about it for quite long, but thought I´d never come up with a clever way to make one, easily.
  But here it is, from design to finish, all made by me (so anyone can make one too!).

Situated between mom and dad´s beds, so we can equally take care of the baby at nights. (Yes, separate beds. The secret to a lasting happiness in our relationship   =)

Made simply of a spare cardboard box. I slightly decorated it with a piece of an old cotton curtain, to give the cradle a touch of  aged romantic look.

The ruffle hides all the ugly screws and hooks used to bolting it in the ceiling. The bands the cradle hangs by are made of an old, very sturdy, table cloth I once got from my grandmother as an early "heritage" (she knows I love to make stuff, and wanted to make use of it).

I cut a piece of  my older child´s baby mattress to fit the box. The bed linens I have also saved from since my first-born was a baby (seven years ago! How time flies...).

This cutie awaits for someone to hug it and drool on it! The string around the teddybear´s neck is secured with stitches, to prevent opening and causing any danger to my coming baby.

This teddy bear is made by Tilda´s instructions.

  Everything, except bolts and hooks used to attach the cradle into the ceiling, is made of old, already existing material. I just checked that, if store-bought, these kind of cradles cost 200 bucks and up! Some examples you can see here and here.

  The recipe:

a cardboard box, big enough to fit a baby in for the first weeks/months
4 pieces of board, short enough to fit into the box (any kind will do, but not too thick and heavy)
glue (and a stapler)
2 long and strong bands (old safety belts would be awesome!)
screws and hooks to attach the cradle into the ceiling

+ Cut the boards so they reach from end to end of the bottom of the cardboard box. One to each side: 2 long and 2 shorter ones. Place these in the bottom of the box so that they form a square around the edges, ends overlapping. Glue in place, underneath the box. This will reinforce the base of the box, so it will hold for sure.
  Measure the distance from the ceiling to the desired height of the cradle, and make two strong bands according to your measurements. The bands need to be somewhat wide to hold in place well.( I made mine a bit wider than the boards in the bottom, so I could hide them.)
  Screw hooks in the ceiling, check the precise length needed for the bands by fitting it in place, and sew the ends together tightly. Place the bands around the cradle so that they go along the crossing boards underneath. Staple/glue in place. This is very important, so the cradle won´t slip out!

  There you have it! Now the most fun part can start: decorating the cradle. Tune it to your own linking which ever way you feel best, and what suits your style. Just remember not to add anything that might come loose or off, and cause any harm to the baby by accident.

  This cradle is easy and cheap to make, compared to what it looks like! Custom-made to suit your bedroom, or a great gift to anyone having a baby!

IMBOLC STYLE

  At Imbolc I concentrate on softness and warmth in clothing. Pastel colors spice up greys and white. In fact, the colors remind me of those we like to dress our newborn babies in. But I draw the color scene directly from nature, emphasizing the pastels, especially light blue.

   I stick with these basic shirt and pant patterns, simply because they just work! I truly have tried many different shapes of clothes during this pregnancy (both at shops and at home, custom-fitted), and I must say nothing else works. It is amazing how stores dare to sell most of their maternity wear, not to mention the people who design them. Most tops look okay, sometimes even nice, when seen from the front, but my god when I turn to check out the profile! Anything falling loosely from the highest point downward makes a pregnant woman look like an elephant. And that is sad, because having a baby belly is after all quite a rare occasion in a woman´s life, and she should be able to look good and enjoy her body working miracles!
  This Imbolc style has all the essentials: white, baby blue, grey, and warmth, and I do feel good wearing them!

This was a cloudy day, so the pants don´t repeat the color of the sky. Nonetheless, increasing baby blue skies are worth embracing every day!

It is becoming more and more challenging to look good with the growing belly...

The accessories, hairbow and earrings, I´ve had for three years already. And still every year it is equally uplifting and pleasant to dig them up from the storage boxes and take into use at Imbolc. That is my way of reducing consumption without giving up on the sense of newness.

A close up shows the material better. It is cotton jersey with printed-on snowflaky florals with grey dots, which make the fabric look like lace (but isn´t see-through at all). The lacy appearance gives this outfit an upgraded feel, and no more jewellery is needed.

 These patterns aren´t maternity ones to begin with. I´ve made some modifications to make them fit my  current shape. 

  The shirt: only the front piece needs to be fixed. I added 10 cm length to the hem, and measured my belly from side seam to side seam at the biggest part. To this measure I added 2 cm seam allowance, drew the outlines of the pattern with this measure, forming a round outward bulging line around the waist, and that´s it. Before sewing the side seams of back and front together, I gathered the front piece to match the back one´s length. 

  That´s it, and you can get a perfectly fitting maternity shirt, custom made!

  The pants: only the front piece needs to be fixed again. These pants are very simple, and have an elastic band at the waist to hold them up. Sew the pants as you normally would, and before inserting the waistband, try the pants on, and see how much you need to lower the front, measuring at the lowest point of your belly. Mark it in the pants, draw a nice, round line (don´t forget to add seam allowances), and cut along. Once you´ve sewn the waistband, put the pants back on, and slip an up to 50cm long tube of well stretching welt on around your belly, tucking the lower end inside your pants. Pin on, sew in place, and put the pants back on to measure the top part of the welt. Mark the suitable points around your belly on the welt fabric with pins, making sure the edge will reach high enough to pull the belly-pouch up, instead of hanging on the highest point of your belly, where it simply won´t stay. Cut along the line you drew, sew an elastic band around the edge, and start wearing your best-ever maternity pants!

DIAPER COVER PANTIES

  It is time to start preparing for the arrival of my baby! I am due in mid March, but there is so much to do before that, so I better get started.
  The first, and most important thing I need to do is make diaper cover panties. I have all my thumbs up for washable, reusable, cloth diapers! I had those for my first baby as well, seven years ago, and I am going to use the same ones with my second baby. But what I do want to do different this time is the covering pants.
  Seven years ago there weren´t many choices available with the pants. Back then I went with woollen pants to cover the outer clothes from getting wet. Well, they did work, but the whole package around the tiny little butt was ridiculously big! Nowadays there are nice thin fabrics lined with some plastic type of material (is it polyurethan- based?) to make the covering diaper of. But again, I hesitate using another diaper-shaped cover over the actual nappy, because I´m thinking it will enlarge the package unnecessarily much. So what I decided to go for and try is regularly shaped, puffed panties, made of modern diaper cover fabric. This way I hope to achieve the thinnest, smallest, and most comfortable cloth diaper package for my baby.

  Finding a pattern wasn´t very easy, but I did come up with three different models. At this point it is difficult to figure which is the best, since I yet have no baby to try them on to. So I made a sample of all of them, and will decide later which is my favorite and best.
  Here are all of the models:

The color looks wild now, in the middle of the winter, but these will come in use in spring time, when fresh green is everywhere.

 

The material is 100% cotton, lined with PU. At the waist I folded the edge inside, so that the part that touches baby´s belly above the nappy is cotton, not plastic. It is the same thing with legholes.

  A closer look at the legholes shows the real difference these panties have. Otherwise they are pretty much alike, the waistline raising just above the nappy. Size in all of these is for 62 cm tall babies (smaller ones wouldn´t fit the nappy in).

Presumably the best-working model. The pattern is actually for shorts, of which I simply shortened the legs.

These simply have to be tried, because the pattern is for actual baby panties. But I am concerned about wet diaper cloth showing from the legholes...

These look like they would hold in a ton of baby poop! But maybe the legholes are in an odd place...

  The diapers themselves I will use are  Snug-To-Fit one-size-fits-all ones. The link takes you to one of the internet based sellers, but I have´t bought mine from them. They present the diaper well in their pages, and you can get a good look at the product.
  My firstborn learned to potty well before his second birthday, and right after the birthday he was dry at nights also. I do believe I can partly thank these cloth diapers for the early dryness.
  I found Snug-To-Fits working well, through all sizes, and loath the general marketing idea of selling S, M, and L sized diapers separately. That just works against the overall idea of reducing consumption!

  I believe I am all set for the war against baby waste material!

NAILS!

  Nailpolish is wonderful! What a difference it makes to apply just a coat of clear polish to my nails, as opposed to undone ones. But... others say everything we put on our skin, and nails, is partially absorbed into our bloodstream and thus to our bodies. This is especially concerning to me now that I´m expecting.
  But I do love to have pretty hands and nails! So what to do in this controversy? Well, I´ve come to a compromise, made the ends meet in the middle. I use nailpolish only in parts of my nails! Like this:

This was a cold day, so my fingertips turned red in a flash. But I wanted to show what natural environment this color choice was meant for.

A close-up reveals the truth about the simplicity of  this decoration: only drops of nailpolish is needed to create the well cared for look! Easy to do, lasts longer than the usual way of applying polish all over the nails, and is quick to fix if part of a color spot should chip off in the middle of the week!  No clear nailpolish is needed to protect the drops of color, they will stay on well without it (plus the clear coat would ruin the idea of preventing chemicals from absorbing into my body as much).

Toenails also need to be pretty! Some people hate toes, and even find them repulsive (and I´m sure there are tons of disgusting toes in the world!), but by taking care of toes makes them as cute as fingers. A home made pedicure and some nice nailpolish keeps my toes in a show-off shape. It´s just a shame that in winter flip flops aren´t the best alternative for shoes, and pretty toenails will not show... But at least I know they are well cared for and therefore they make me feel good!

   The colors, dark blue and silver, are the key colors of my second half of Yule time (past New Year). I have used this method for several years now, and found it very useful in a busy life - now I have more time for something else and still don´t have to give up looking good!
  Highly recommendable!

LOOK OF YULE

  This year I´m staying with the basic shapes in my wardrobe, since my own shape is just the opposite of basic! I´ve come to realize that no matter how much I like dresses and skirts normally, they just aren´t very flattering to my current figure. Wearing a normal t-shirt with wide-legged pants is the best option right now.
  I designed a look suitable for Yule. Here´s the sketch:

Red and grey. The best place to start! Two essential colors of the season. The idea is to look casual, yet well put together. The hairband is the key element to making this look polished. I wear no jewelry for a change. It´s a good idea to alter the amount of make up and jewelry throughout the year, so you don´t get stuck with only one custom. Since Yule is the time of midwinter, I wanted to accentuate that by creating a strongish blush on the cheeks, which is naturally due outside in the crispy air. But we all spend so much time inside these days, that the effect doesn´t last very long naturally, so I thought it needed a boost. All in all, casual, comfortable, healthy looking style.

And here it is on me, in real life:

We have exceptionally little snow by Yule this year, but I have my hopes up. It is trying to snow even during the photo shoot, thus the white spots in the picture.

Clean, fresh make up, with nothing too much. Healthy cheeks are the key. You can see how simply adding the hairband makes this look polished, without gimmicks. Sometimes simplicity is bliss.

 

  Here is the same exact picture, first taken without a flash, then with a flash. The make up looks very different in each.

  Make up how-to:

Eyes: only ivory white eyeshadow on the whole of the moving lids. Eyeliner can be added to make the eyes pop a bit, if you have pale eyes like mine ( I often envy people with dark eyes, which reduces the need of make up overall ). Eyebrows are brushed and filled in with light brow color, only to create a neat brow.

Cheeks: warm red, slightly glittery blush on the apples of the cheeks to create a healthy, rosy, look. Just like the one you have after skiing or building a snowman.

Lips: warm red, non-sparkling, lipstick is dabbed softly and subtly to the lips, preferably by your fingers to make it look not made up.

  So here it is, the very core of my Yule look this year. Red and grey is a classic combination, and classic I like, but with a twist to suit my personal style. 

  And the clothes are, of course, wholly made by me, using my favorite patterns once again. ( You can find yours by testing and modifying. What suits one person, doesn´t mean it suits the next. )