In the pale light of the morning...

 At around this time in 1979, ABBA were in the midst of the first leg of their world tour around the US and Europe.  For this tour, ABBA were adorned in beautiful outfits meant to share the cold, icy temperatures of their home country of Sweden.  For the first half of the show, they wore a white ensemble, and then half way through the show they changed into a blue set of outfits. 

Throughout my 10 years of sewing, I've attempted these outfits quite a few times, but as you probably guessed, I was never happy with the end results.  Thankfully I finally have a version of these outfits that I like. But before I show you, let's take a stroll through memory lane, shall we?

In November of 2012, I came up with my first complete versions of these outfits.  I had actually made versions of these outfits a bit before that, but they were bad and extremely inaccurate.... 

Let's just forget we saw those.... xD

My first official attempt was actually pretty decent considering I had no idea what I was doing.   I had the gist of the outfits pretty well, just they weren't really made of the right materials, and I had no idea how to sew buttons/button holes or zippers, and used mostly snaps.  I made the outfits out of cotton bought from Walmart, but for what they were, I didn't do such a bad job.

I never liked how I did the stripes on Frida and Agnetha's outfits though.... I hated those. xD

Then in 2014, when I discovered ribbon, I took the opportunity to redo the majority of their outfits, replacing the stripes on the front of their outfits, and completely remaking the boys' outfits.

This time Benny had piping around his sleeves and collar, and Bjorn's outfit was made out of satin.

But, I was never really satisfied with these outfits either.  So recently I bought a ton of fabric from a specialty store in the UK, and made sure to pick out all the right colors to make these outfits out of the correct material.  I unfortunately could not find a satin in the correct medium blue color for Bjorn's outfit, so hes still stuck with the same light blue satin that I used before, but it is better than nothing and thankfully looks pretty decent.  But anyway, without further ado, here they are:

First up we have Agnetha and Frida's overdresses??? Idk what to call them haha, but the sparkly tops they wear over their jumpsuits.  I actually ordered the fabric for them off of Ebay from a seller in Bankok (One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster....) and they're really pretty and sparkly.  Possibly more sparkly than their actual outfits, but pretty decent.

The ribbon details on the front of Agnetha's outfit:

And the back:

Unfortunately the ribbon I used is not quite the right color, but I think it looks visually enough like it I'm not too worried.

The silver trim on her outfit goes all the way around the front...

... to the back.  This ribbon is a pain to sew, and it frays a ton, so I had to go over everything with hot glue.

The ribbon on the front of Frida's outfit,

And the back:

The entire thing is actually all one piece with one seam going across the side and wear the sleeve joins in the front.  It was super hard to assemble, but I'm really happy with how it turned out!

And here they are without the tops:

These were also a pain to sew, I did so much seam ripping and restitching, even stitching on some of the stripes by hand, and I'm still not super happy with them.  They are lumpy in spots, and aren't laying flat in other areas, but maybe after I iron it, it'll sit better?  At least I can easily replace these pieces if I needed, but for now they're decent enough.  I like the way the outfits sit on my dolls as well, like they're the perfect width and everything.

 I think I did a pretty good job finding fabrics that either are exactly or at least look similar enough to their actual outfits.  Of course there are bits and pieces that aren't 100% accurate, but I'm super happy with how they turned out and hopefully won't need to redo these outfits yet again for the next few years. xD

Next up we have the guys' outfits.  

 Bjorn's outfit was actually really simple.  I was able to make it all in just under an hour I think, despite satin being a slippery fabric.  I really like how it looks too.  And if you're wondering why the belt is a slightly different color, that's because I reused my older belt and it's aged a bit. xD  It is 8 years old after all...

The shoulder is white and has a white lining as well so he can roll them up in Bjorn style like he sometimes did. xD

 Next is the nightmare that is Benny's outfit haha.  I had a lot of trouble patterning it, but I think it came out pretty good.  Yes I'm aware the tie is massive, but I can always fix that later.

Benny's outfit has a ton of folds and pleats where you'd least expect them to be, but I think I did a decent job adding them in.

I really like how the back of the outfit looks! :D

I also found the PERFECT fabric to use for his trousers.  I ordered it from Amazon, and it has teeny tiny pinstripes that are perfect for my miniature dolls, and the best thing is that Benny reuses his pants and trousers for the white outfits they wear in the first half of their concert, so I won't have to make them again.  Woot!

 I think I did a pretty good job finding fabrics that either are exactly or at least look similar enough to their actual outfits.  Of course there are bits and pieces that aren't 100% accurate, but I'm super happy with how they turned out and hopefully won't need to redo these outfits yet again for the next few years. xD  Anyways, at some point I'm going to try making the white versions of their outfits yet again.  I have some new techniques I'm excited to try, but until then, tata for now!