so, here it is, the beginning of a sparkling new relationship between you, my lovely readers and me, the freshly selfmade blogger girl from Berlin :-)
This blog is about the two things I love the most in life: sewing and travelling (not necessarily in this order).
So, here´s a little something about me and what made me start this blog.
Since my early days I was fascinated with clothing and how it makes people look. I personally love the decades of the 40´s and 50´s, as these were the eras with the stunning silhouettes of women like Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Ginger Rogers, Judy Garland and Audrey Hepburn (just to name a few).
To my great dismay, my own silhouette lacks some curve in the bust department, therefore that was one of my earliest adjustments to learn, as common patterns are mostly for women with an average bust of a B or C cup.
But I´m drifting... okay, back on track. My love for garments went so far that I started an apprenticeship right after school with a dressmaking company in the industry, where I spent two years to learn the basics in sewing women´s clothing. Mostly in ghastly Polyester fabric with designs for women past the age of 60... nothing against it, but not really fullfilling my ambition to sew spanking elegant robes for thrilling cocktail parties (not to mention that I never ever attended a cocktail party to date!).
So after finishing the apprenticeship and unsuccessfull trials to get a place at University for studies as a proper Designer, my sense of adventure took over and I started (much to my mothers horror) working in a discotheque. Working the night suited me, I liked the music, the people, the liberty of sleeping all day and meeting friends and interesting folks at night. I also liked clubwear (only in my days there was no such word for it). I worked my way up until I reached my personal spot as a resident DJ, which allowed me to have fun at work, earn good money and- most important - to go for long holidays!
A former colleague infected me with the travelbug during our first trip to Brazil, where we hiked through the country and stayed in places at the lowest of expenses. I loved it. Since then, I´ve travelled around the world whenever it was possible to leave.
After the disco went insolvent (after I stayed there for 13 years!) my new employer sent me to Berlin for work, which I´m still doing. It´s not half as thrilling as my old job was, but then I grew tired with working the night, so I´m happy to have a solid job for the first time in my life. I settled in my new hometown and now that everything is in order, I even set up my homespace for sewing, it is almost time to go travelling again!
There´s still a 213 day waiting-list until my departure to Australia, and I´m allready so exited, I could burst!
I will of course take pictures of people with interesting clothes, fabrics and colors as I will be rolling along, and at the last leg of my trip, a small detour to Japan, where my former colleague is living now (he is one of my oldest and dearest friends), I will visit the fabric district of Tokyo to buy Japanese fabric! I am so fascinated with this country, and the fabric they´re making is just amazing, I can´t wait to have some to try it out in my designs!
Speaking of which, I will come to that soon. Up to now, I´m still mostly sewing patterns designed by companies or independent designers, but am also not unfamiliar with pattern drafting myself. That helps a lot when it comes to making adjustments to a bought pattern, which is almost always necessary.
Making entirely my own designs is something I will definitely tackle in the nearer future, for my love of the post-war era designs is still not satisfied and original patterns are often confusing me with their measurements and directions. So - do it yourself, gal!
I hope that was not too much information, I just thought, there are somethings you might want to know... I realised during writing this, I have a lot more to say about both topics, but that has to wait until some other posts. I will stop for now, and hope you didn´t fall asleep after the second sentence ;-)
Hope to see you soon again!
XX Milan
