PURE HOME FASHION: COUNTRY DENIM DRESS

  This fall I have begun to listen to country music through online radio stations. That´s practically the only way to hear it over here, and one can not even by accident stumple on anything country overall. It has to be sought after, or created by your own. That´s what I did when designing and making this new home dress for myself:

Basic denim and ruffles combined with browns. Since this outfit is for the real-world use, I did not add layers of white lace or ruffles (which was tempting, but not easy to wear without looking ridiculously over-the-board  =). And since country style is not common in my neighborhood, I wanted to give hints of it rather than go all the way with cowboy hats and boots.

This is an authentic milieu I wear the dress in.

I can even sit on a tree stump without dirt showing too much on the dress. A nicely carefree garment for home wear and with kids.

The necklace has a big silvery sunflower on it as a focal point. It adds the same country feeling as traditionally big belt buckles do, but in a more subtle and feminine way.

 The beads are from a craft store, and were readily assorted to match each other. Making wired jewelry is a new thing to me, and I have completely fallen for it. It creates an airy, light, and modern look to beading.

This is a good apple year, and I have eaten them soooo much. This pair of my aromatherapy earrings suit country style well, and they have been my favorite recently.

Yummy!

  I first ran into country music, and the culture around it, during my exchange year in Kentucky long ago. It felt bizarre and overwhelming to hear only country music, and see folks wear boots and hats and stuff. But I got used to it of course, and now it feels somehow nostalgic and intriguing.
  The movie Country Strong was on tv some time ago, and it inspired me even further. And as a funny coincidence, I learned recently that my sister has also listened to some country lately.

PURE HOME FASHION: 100% NELLAND- TUNIC

  This is the first tunic in my Home Collection. The simple reason for a tunic appearing in my homewear is that I can wear it with a pair of leggings, which are just perfect when hopping outside to play with the kids. It is so cold that I always put on warm and thick skiing pants when going outside, and they slip easily over my leggings. Plus there is no need to fold and tuck leg hems inside my boots. Handy!
  But back to the tunic itself:

My own, always a favorite, pattern is perfect for any look. Here I made a camel brown version, spiced up with pale pastels and dark brown. I never wear makeup at home, so my homewear needs to be subtle in color. I have a pale skin and light eyes, so soft and warm colors are the best choice for me "in the nude". =) The skirt hem is too very short, and I would never wear it to work, but at home it is okay. I can be totally relaxed and won´t have to worry about clothes, when wearing this.

Our house was originally built in 1830. We made dramatic extending to it, but respected the old, and kept the atmosphere as original as possible. This wood burning stove for example is new, but made to look like the previous one. My tunic is designed to match our old-fashioned home. How cool is it to be able to custom-make clothes this specificly!? I love it. I have never taken a single lesson in sewing, so I can honestly say to all non-believers that sewing is quite easy, not difficult! Just get a pattern with instructions, and start making your dreams come true!

Who can resist the lively flickering  of candles? Always a must in winter.

Notice the elbow patch, a small but important detail in this overall plain look. There is one on the other elbow too, but made of diffeerent color. I wanted to create a rustic, cute-ish, fairytale-like feeling. Handmade stitches here and there around the tunic also add to that.

The lable is meant to give this garment a potato sack-like feel. (Last spring I made my first version of this outfit, but was later disappointed by the fabric stretching out of limits. =(  But I like this look so much, that I want to keep it in my wardrobe!)

A detail of the ribbon running across the tunic hem.

The jewellery is something I made a year and a half ago, right after having my second baby, but have not yet been able to wear it much. My daughter is still very interested in everything dangling, and would destroy these pieces in a moment! But the time will come when I´m able to fully enjoy my "art"!

PURE HOME- FASHION: MABON DRESS

  Recently I realised that in fact it does not matter which season it is, as long as the sun is shining. Meaning that all days are enjoyable and beautiful, as long as it is sunny. Be it in Samhain or Litha, sunlight makes my day!

  I made a dress for those sunny and brilliant days of Mabon. It is featured at PaganPages.Org, but there was a mishap with publishing, and two (of the best?) photos are missing. Here they are:

A sneak peek of the dress.

Fully enjoying fall colors! Beautiful!

  After all it does not matter what you wear, as long as you feel good in it. And I do feel good in my newest home dress! Go check it out!

PURE HOME- FASHION: MABON PLAID

  It is about time I make an outfit with pants for home wear! I have strolled through the summer in basically dresses only. Now pants feel good again.

A bat-sleeved shirt combined with rather basic pants. Both made of jersey fabric. I like the bat-sleeves because they add volume to my upper body, and balances out my overall shape.
What is more suitable for Mabon than plaids? It somehow brings out the essence of the season.

This set is criminally comfortable to wear! The colors are rather dark, but after the summer it is a nice change. Mabon, after all, marks the point of darkness taking over light.

To lighten up the impression I added buttons all over the outfit. Here can be seen the most obvious ones. I assembled the buttons so that they resemble a necklace, although I sew them onto the shirt directly. The colors of the buttons were carefully selected to add interest but still remain earthy and subtle.

Although not usually seen, I added decorative buttons on the waist too. It makes me feel good to know that the outfit is nicely finished. (It still doesn´t cease to amaze me how my belly was able to shrink back to it´s original size after two pregnancies. Even after the second one, which made my stomach expand beyond the midwife´s charts in the end!)

The look is plain, also in the back. Since this is an outfit made to be worn at home, there is no need for much decoration. Just enough to make it appear well thought through.

I often like to add a little something in the back. These little buttons are quite enough here.

  I love to get up in the morning and have no trouble of choosing what to wear! Even on those days when I know I´m going to stay home the whole day, I still want to wear something neat. Now I can.

PURE HOME- FASHION: BROWN BEAUTY- DRESS

  Need is the reason I made this dress. I´ve been totally lost while my favorite Cozy Rosy Dress has been in the wash... But no more! Brown beauty to the rescue:

Hay fields are slowly turning yellow, as Lughnasadh approaches. The Brown Beauty Dress suits particularly well this season, although in it´s neutrality, it can be worn year-round.

I love the color: greyish cool brown. I can see myself wearing this like all the time! And it is so comfortable it could be a nightgown. (But I will take it off for bedtime =).

The viscose jersey fabric is so stretchy that the neckhole ended up a little large... So it opened a great opportunity to use a vintage lace shirt, I once got from a co-worker (who again had gotten it from her grandmother), to make it less revealing. I cut a piece of the original neckline of the lace shirt, and placed it under the dress. Now I can walk around decent! The lace looked so nice, that I wanted to add a little more to it. Luckily I found a few crochet flowers from my stash to hand-sew onto the dress. Now I think they complement each other, and it looks nicely finished.

The sun was still rising when the photoshoot took place.

Ta-daa! I made a mini-bolero-like detachable sleeves of the same fabric to keep me warm on these chilly mornings and nights. Since the sleeves are made of the exact same material, they don´t stand out as they would otherwise. At a glance this looks like a long-sleeved dress.

In the back the bolero gives a little more volume to my shoulders, and narrows the waistline. Who wouldn´t like that?

Luckily I´m not allergic to hay pollen!

A close-up of the fabric. This type of pattern reminds me of the 80´s. I´m not particularly fan of the style in that era, but in this dress the pattern works well, and brings to mind grandma-style rather than the eighties. And I´m just fabulous enough to wear grandma-style without looking ancient, right (but let´s not ask my husband =) ?!

Since this is home wear, no makeup is included. I believe skin needs it´s rest, and I never wear makeup at home. (In pictures it looks really bland, but hey, that´s just me!)

PURE HOME- FASHION: LACY BOLERO

  My Cozy Rosy Dress has become my favorite home wear. But sometimes days aren´t quite warm enough for the dress alone, so I needed to make something to keep me warm in cooler weather.

It took a while to figure out whether to make a large scarf, a cardigan, or a bolero. I think this works well, and is a bit more surprising than a regular cardigan. Also a bolero does not cover the dress as much, keeping the main focus still on it. I went for a soft peach color to give variety to the outfit. Plus it suits well the straw hat I always wear outside when it´s sunny.

To my own surprise I have felt really good dressing in this romantic way. The bolero is equally romantic to the dress, so they go well together, complementing each other.

A simple length of satin ribbon keeps the bolero in place. The brown fabric showing from underneath the peachy main one is the same I used to make the petticoat to the Cozy Rosy Dress. A little detail, which binds the outfit together.

In the back the collar broadens my shoulder line nicely. The fact that the bolero ends at my waist emphasizes the hourglass-figure which, to my standards, is what us women should aim for. That´s what makes us feminine and separates us from men.

The fabric is literally full of holes, so even in a more humid weather it still breathes well, and doesn´t get sweaty.

  Hopefully this bolero will become a favorite too, just like the dress!

PURE HOME- FASHION: COZY ROSY DRESS

  There is a timeless attraction to floral printed dresses. A sight more rarely seen these modern days.

  One of my ultimate visions of the perfect summer day is a fancy, but relaxed, tea party in a  beautiful British garden. Ladies of all ages sipping from their tiny cups (some may have added in something stronger than tea...) and indulging in cakes and bisquits. Babbling along cheerfully, giggling, and playing card or chess, while checking out the men in their own flock. The sun is shining, but it is comfortably cool in the shade of big trees and roses.

  That is where I got my inspiration to make my cozy rosy dress for homewear. An outfit to be worn at home in the summer, for as long as the garden (or the weeds in it =) are in bloom.

This is probably the most feminine garment I have ever owned! But in the safety of my home I feel comfortable  stretching my limits...

This is definitely a non-makeup look. I never wear makeup when at home the whole day.

The material is light, soft, and fluid viscose. Comfortable enough even for a nightgown.

It fits well. The side profile always tells the truth about fitting. This pattern is super nice because it has a seam right down the center front and -back, which allows an easy adjustment to custom-fit me.

This is such a classic look, that I had to be careful keeping it suitable to our time. Had I added ruffles and lace, it would have ended up costume-like.

It is so cozy, that it feels almost criminal to wear this at daytime! Normally sleepwear is supposed to be like this - like you don´t have anything on at all.

There is a sewn-in petticoat in this dress also. Made from fabric I found cheap some time ago, and bought a bunch. I always go for sewn-in petticoats instead of a separate, they stay so much better in place.

  This dress belongs to my Pure Home- collection because it is at home in a garden. Not in a mall, office, or bank. Wearing it there would feel weird, and I misplaced. But now I´m so happy skipping around my home and garden, Nelland, with this beauty on!

MODERN PANTALOONS

  The secret to a successful everyday wear of skirts and dresses is pantaloons. I never knew this when growing up, so I found skirts difficult and unpractical. What a waste of time!

  These days I always wear pantaloons underneath all of my dresses and skirts. They can be ankle- or knee-length, depending on the temperature outside.

  The word itself, pantaloon, could be translated to modern English by saying "leggings". I never wear leggings as pants (I think they look like long johns =), so I refer to pantaloons when worn underneath a dress/skirt. They are an old invention, but to me this modern version came about ten years ago. And it opened a whole new world of dressing to me.

  These pantaloons are the latest ones I have made, for my Pure Nelland- collection:

This picture is an exception to my very strict rule of never showing myself in public in leggings alone! I just want to show what the pants are like as a whole. They end right at the most narrow part of my knee. The pants are made of swimwear-like fabric, and are very stretchy to all directions. Thus extremely comfortable. I find I´m fond of fabrics with print or pattern on it, and I was glad to find this one.

Even at home it can be risky not having pantaloons on. Here I am picking wild greens in our back yard. Can you see the risk, what if I didn´t have the pants on...? I want to protect the neighbors from an obscene sight.

Innocent, but very dangerous business without modesty pants! Oh, and yes, modest I am!

Even something as simple as ordinary relaxing would be a problem without pantaloons. Or sitting on a chair, if your dress was on the shorter side. Or getting out of a car. Or lacing up shoes. Or picking up a dime from the ground... The list is endless.

   So as you can see, the modern pantaloons wipe away all of  my worries about wearing dresses and skirts!

NELLAND FASHION: PURE HOME- COLLECTION

  Your home tells a lot about you, and reflects your personality. Whether you like it or not. It is interesting to go to somebody´s home for the first time! The owner and the home might not resemble each other at all, or they could be very similar. You can never tell beforehand.

  When I´m at home the whole day, I like to wear clothes that suit my home too. Something that blends in, and looks like it belongs there. Something like this dress I made:

This is a classic sheath dress, but made of an almost potato sack-like fabric! The style suits perfectly our country home, and is not too sensitive to small stains either - they just add charachter... =)

These earrings I made last year.

Despite it´s harsh look, this fabric hangs beautifully and is soft to touch. What a find. I kept the back simple, and the fit loose. Home clothes must be the most comfortable of all, or they will stay in the closet!

This is the only detail in the dress, and is the thing that makes it look sack-like . I cut out a piece of the fabric, stamped the writing on with fabric paint, and sew the piece on, adding decorative stitching by hand.

  This dress is not sabbat-related, and can be worn year round. Because it is sleeveless, it is easily suited to any temperature, by varying the shirt worn underneath. Or worn by itself if it gets too hot in the summer.

  You can find a similar pattern to this sheath dress here. This type of pattern is extremely useful because it transforms into any style!