snow, sewing and (bell) sleeves

These are still from Lapland and I am now back home in the south so it's easier to say that I miss a proper winter like this. Because isn't it pretty? The snow everywhere, the frosty trees, the glow of the sun as it goes down, even the little snowflakes falling on me. We have a tiny amount of snow in the south at the moment, but it's nothing compared to this.

 In reality, though, as pretty as it looks, all the snow and all the low temperatures basically kept me indoors most of the time. While taking these pictures, it was going down from -20°C, it was only around 1 o'clock and I could barely feel my fingers as I got back inside. I'm surprised mum agreed to take pictures of me and to watch me stay in the freezing cold without a coat! But a blogger's got to do what a blogger's got to do, right?

 Dress - Self-made

Cardi - Borrowed off mum

Shoes - H&M

Honestly, I don't usually take outfit photos if the weather's even a bit too challenging or unpleasant. This just happened to be one of my last days up north, it looked nice, we didn't stay out too long really, AND I wanted to get pictures of at least one of my sewing projects. So, here's a dress I made! It's a combination of a pattern I own and have used previously a couple of times and this how-to by Merrick. (Although, I always love seeing Merrick's sewing creations and might try some others of her instructions, her style of creating your own patterns from already existing pieces of clothing you love isn't really my style. I do love having proper patterns and following rules, haha.)

Honestly (part two), I didn't love the dress at first. Although it was meant to be loose-fitting, something that's easy to just throw on, without zippers, and frankly something simple, I did think it was a bit too baggy in the beginning. But I do love the pattern, I do love the colour and I seem to be really into bell sleeves as of late (I may or may not have made another similarish bell sleeve dress and am about to start knitting a bell sleeve jumper...). After wearing it for a few times now, I've come to like it a lot more and am ultimately much more happy with the result. It's become one of my favourite dresses to wear at the minute, so clearly being hesitant about liking it at first is no longer an issue.