Connecting the dots…

Oilcloth Apron For A Little Painter

Frida loves to paint. A LOT. And so far she has been using an oversize bib as an apron, but yesterday I decided we should be able to do better than that. So I made her an apron.

The oilcloth is something I bought for another project – those of you who have been with me long may remember the oilcloth backpack, which is still Ronja’s preferred bag for her gym class. I got the fabric long ago from Stof&Stil, but it’s over a year ago, so I don’t think you will find it there anymore. I used Amy Butler dots for the straps – I never seem to stop turning to that fabric, it just adds a great touch to almost anything.

I was looking for a nice apron tutorial online, and I found this one (pdf) on Sew Liberated. Her blog is amazing, she has made some gorgeous patterns, and I wantwantwant her book, so do take a look over there if you’re in the market for inspiration.

Anyway, her apron pattern wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, I only wanted to use one layer of fabric due to the sturdy quality of the oilcloth, so I couldn’t sew straps and ties in between two layers. Also, even though I like the idea that a child can close the apron herself, I think that a proper tie is best for an apron that I want Frida to use for a long time – it is more adjustable that way. I ended up using her pattern as a guide line, but widening the apron a bit and shortening it as well, since Frida is younger. I trimmed the apron and the pocket with bias tape. For the neck strap, I followed her directions exactly, and it works perfectly. I could have made it a bit shorter, but again, it isn’t crucial, and this apron will last for a long time.

And as for the little painter, she loved the apron the moment she saw it. I wanted to put up a picture of her where you could see the entire apron, but I wasn’t able to drive her away from the painting, so I guess that proves a point as well…

Sunny and Freezing

Yesterday afternoon, while Mads was working on the preparations for installing the exhaust hood in the kitchen, the girls and I went to a nearby playground. The weather was beautiful, which was such a thrill after what seems like an eternity of grey weather.

Frida finds it hard to move around with the amount of snow we have, her legs just aren’t long enough yet… We did have a lot of fun though, but it was freezing, so we eventually headed home to get warm, make tea, and sink our teeth into the yummy muffins we made before we left.

Earlier in the day, while Frida had her nap, I made dresses for the girls’ dolls, Lise and Laura. I don’t make many things without a pattern, but I didn’t have one for these – it’s actually fun to make such tiny garments.

The fabric is from Stof&Stil, and the buttons were given to me by my sister-in-law who lives in Amsterdam – aren’t they sweet? There’s velcro below the straps, so the buttons are just an embellishment. The dresses were a huge hit, so I’ll probably make more for the dolls sooner or later.

Butterfly Pouch and Costumes

For 10 weeks, Ronja has been saving her pocket money in order to be able to buy a Nintendo DSi. The rest of the money has been given to her through birthday presents, but she needed to save up for 10 weeks for the rest. She gets DKK 10 (around $2) a week, and usually they are spent on candy, so I do think the successful saving is quite an achievement for her. She has been looking soooo much forward to getting it, and has literally been counting the days.

Anyway, today she went to get her Nintendo DSi – and she has been spending the afternoon playing with it. We will definitely need to make some kind of rules in that area, but we didn’t today. Now she’s in bed, but we’re going to be spending the weekend at my Mom’s, so I had to make a pouch for the thing, of course.

I found the perfect tutorial over at Mad Quilter, and it took me around 45 minutes to make it. I used heavy sew-in interfacing which worked well and velcro for the closure. The fabric is from the Danish fabric store Stof & Stil.

The tutorial is super-easy to follow, and the pouch is just the way it should be. Next time I make this, I may add a strap to it, so she can carry it easily. Other than that – it you have a child with a DS and no pouch (or you are missing one yourself) – get to it!

Finally I just want to show you what Ronja and Frida ended up looking like last Sunday at Fastelavn (carnival).

This is after they came home, and Ronja’s hair has dropped a bit. I think Ronja was really happy with her costume, and even though Frida initially had a bit of a “I-want-to-be-a-ballerina-as-well” trip, when she got to choose the colour of Pippi’s freckles (purple), and a flower on her cheek, she seemed alright with it.

As for the organza for the pettiskirt – I cannot advise anyone to use it, it frays too much, and the seams will fall apart eventually. I will be making two more skirts for sure – this time using the right fabric. It costs a fortune to have nylon chiffon sent here from the states ($50 shipping alone), so if any of you wise women out there know of a way to get it at a more reasonable rate, please let me know!

Pettiskirt for a Ballerina

Shrovetide (fastelavn) is coming up here in Denmark, and Ronja wants to go as a ballerina. I decided to try to make her a pettiskirt, and even though the rest of the costume isn’t there yet, I wanted to show you how it turned out.

I have been sewing for most of the day today – geeeeez, there are so many yards to go over!

I should share the details, because I have been using quite a few resources, and learnt a few things during my sewing. I know I link to this tutorial/video in my section of tutes that I want to try. I did watch the video in the link, as well as read through the instructions, but I needed a bit more than that. A link in the comments led me here, and that tute did it for me. But you know, I do tend to Google everything to the extreme, so I’ll share a few more links.

• Best free tutorial (that I’ve found) by Kerri of Kerri’s Kreations

• Martha Stewart tute video with Kandi Lightner

• Overview of pattern pieces at Made By Bronwyn

• PDF with some great tips on how to not make it too hard on yourself

• Fabric source for nylon chiffon

Oh, and if it’s just too much to spend hours reading online before you can get down to business, Kerri has a photo tutorial here as well for purchase.

Let me tell you right away – I got the fabric wrong. And it wasn’t because I didn’t know what was recommended, no actually I was just way too late. Ronja needs the costume by tomorrow, and I didn’t go fabric shopping until yesterday afternoon. Noone has nylon chiffon in the shops, polyester chiffon is supposed to fray a lot, soft tulle wasn’t an option since the shop I went to didn’t have it in pink (the requested colour), so I had to take a wild guess on what would work. I left the shop carrying a bag of organza and some satin.

Organza does have the right lightness to it, but it still frays terribly. It’ll do the job, but you will be tearing your hair out over why you didn’t get the right fabric from the beginning – I know, ’cause I have been doing just that all day.

I got myself a gathering foot for my sewing machine, and I must say, I couldn’t have done the pettiskirt without it. I know some would – but they would have to be much more patient than I am – and not have kids. You are supposed to be able to attach and gather at the same time using the foot, but I tried that with the tiers, and it was a complete nightmare. The organza kept slipping out of the foot, and I had no control whatsoever. Soooo, I cut 9 new 4½ inch strips of organza, and decided to just be happy that I bought enough. Then I gathered first using the new presser foot, and attached afterwards using my regular presser foot.

It does take a long time, but still it’s a fun project, and once you get it, it’s not difficult.

Ronja loves her skirt. She wasn’t overly enthusiastic while I was sewing, but she definitely was when it was finished, so I just had to show you right away in spite of the lack of light for photos. Tomorrow for shrovetide celebration the rest of the costume will be a simple improvisation. I will tie her hair up in a bun if she’ll allow me, and I have sewn some of the pink ruffles to an undershirt to go with the skirt. A bit of facepaint and she will be ready to go.

The only problem is, that after Frida saw this skirt, she is not quite happy anymore, that she is going as Pippi Longstockings. Do I need to say that I will be making more of these?

Quiet World

Yesterday, early in the morning we had another heavy snow fall. I had been looking forward to all 4 of us going for a walk, but as Frida had a terrible cold that came with a fever, and Ronja wanted to do something else, I decided to leave them all at home while Frida took a nap and just bring my camera.

I decided to head in the opposite direction of the toboggan run and the crowds, so my feet led me to the woods and the fields. Usually, there is a gravel road that leads to the woods, but at the moment everything is so covered with snow that you just can’t see where the trail is supposed to be. I took my guess and made it there anyway.

Making my way back, I thought I’d take a shortcut, but as I haven’t done that before, the “shortcut” ended up leading me to knee-high snow in the middle of a field. Lifting my boots high and sinking deep again with every step was exhausting, but now and again when I stopped to listen, everything around me was just really quiet and beautiful.

I was terribly tired yesterday – the impressions from spending an entire Saturday at a bloggers meet-up, in an atmosphere of inspiration, warmth, excitement and creativeness were still very fresh, and the lonely walk was a nice way to collect my thoughts.

I eventually found the path I was looking for to get me back home. Frida was feeling really bad yesterday evening, and her fever reached new heights, so today I’m taking care of her at home. She looks terrible and is a bit more whiny than usual, but other than that she demands entertainment – just as usual.

Going Downstairs

Just wanted to show you Frida in her new dress – I think she’s beautiful, but I may be biased…

Send More Sunshine

The sun showed itself yesterday! Following days and days of nothing but greyness, it was quite amazing to see the long shadows that were cast on the snow. I was driving in the car with Frida, and she complained about getting the sun in her eyes. Complained! Of course, I had to tell her to get her priorities straight – not sure she knew what I meant, though.

I made her this dress a few days ago, and I love it – it looks even cuter on her. I’m sorry to say it’s made from Onion 20022 again, but seriously this pattern has been worth every øre (penny or dime would sound better, but it just wouldn’t be true) I paid for it. Check out everything I made from the pattern right here. This dress is made from Hilco velvet (love, love, love it) from Malika & Rosa and cotton from Joel Dewberry found at Fabric.com.

Now, it’s Friday night, and I’m looking forward to the weekend. Let’s do a quick wrap-up.

Mads will be home in an hour or two after a few days of work in Stokesley, UK. Remember the photo of Ronja in the Lucia parade? Well, it just won a global Christmas season photo contest in my company, and an iPod Touch will be arriving in the mail soon. Nice. Also I have realized that there are job opportunities out there, and some of them seem not so far off – so now I just need to find the right one, and get it! It’ll be a nice weekend!

Amy’s Mini Dress

Besides the Simply Stylish Handbag, another thing that has been waiting for me to get on with it, is the Mini Dress from Amy Butler.

It’s rather funny actually, because I first saw it in a friends Flickr-photostream. She made two versions of the dress, and before purchasing the pattern I asked her for some advice on the pattern. She quickly offered to lend the pattern to me, which is so sweet of her – also considering that she lives in Spain. So thank you so much, Eva!

Well, this is my version.

As you can see, it was made for a different season (and a different skin colour) than the one we have now, but hey, spring is just around the corner, right? Please imagine the following photo with yummy chocolate brown skin (sure, like that’ll ever happen…)

I’m not sure what to think about it. I do like the design, but it has a slight tendency to look like a maternity dress because of the fullness in front. I didn’t press the pleat in front, because I’m still not certain whether that’s what I want. So anyway, even if the dress is quite wide, it has a nice fit in front, but in the back there’s just way too much fabric and nothing to fit it to the curves of my back. I’m working on what to do about that – I may gather it somehow at the waist to underline that there’s actually a female figure under there. No need to sew a dress if I want to look like I’m wearing a bag…

This is what it looks like in the front.

I didn’t get a photo of the back, which means you’re also missing out on my perfect invisible zipper (love my invisible zipper foot, but I may have mentioned that 1, 2, or 100 times earlier…)

That’s it about this dress. I’ll let you know later in the year if it turns out I get a lot of wear out of it.