Connecting the dots…

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.

On The Lookout

Weekend. This week became the week when I found out I will be spending the next few months looking for a new job. Not really the situation you would want at the moment, is it..? Especially not since I love my job and have the best colleagues. Well, not for long now.

Do you remember back when you were young and going to school and you had so few responsibilities? And still everything seemed tough enough, because at that time you were in your teens. If only you could have understood the amount of freedom you had…

I wouldn’t mind being able to press the ‘pause’-button on the responsibilities right now.

The Simply Stylish Handbag

I have started looking at my pile of unfinished pre-kitchen projects, and this is the first one I decided to pick up again. I bought the pattern from U-handbag a little while ago – before I went into my non-sewing period. It came as a kit, actually – something I don’t usually buy, and still this time I did, because I just loved the fabric. I was looking for the pattern on the website just now, but it seems this exact pattern or kit isn’t there anymore. However, there is a description of it here, and a more recent version here – though I have to say, I like this one. I managed to cut the fabric, and after that it has just been sitting around, waiting for me to get on with it. So a few days ago I did.

This purse isn’t hard to make, and the instructions are very clear, though attaching the leather handle would be easier for someone with more hand-sewing skills than I have. Otherwise it was a fun project. The purse isn’t big enough to use as an everyday handbag (not for me anyway), but it’s big enough if you are going out for the evening and just need to bring a few items like your phone, money and whatever. I went with contrasting thread for attaching the leather handle, and I’m not quite sure about that decision – however, I do think the handle adds that little extra to make the purse look stylish.

I feel confident I will get a lot of use out of this one!

Head Above Water

Let me see… Now where do I click in order to create a new post – ok, found it.

Hi guys – long time no see. I want to start out by saying thank you SO much for the concern in shape of comments, as well as emails and messages on Facebook and Flickr. Don’t ever think you can just wander off in the blogosphere and disappear – no siree! I’ve missed you all, but I had to take a break, due to – busy life, I guess. No blogging as you know (not even blogreading), no sewing, and the camera has been taking a bit of a vacation.

Where were we? Oh yes, the kitchen arrived and was installed. The pictures below give an impression of what it all looks like now, if you want to see more, go here.

We are missing a few details, but we love the kitchen, and we so enjoy using it. The finishing touches will be there when we feel like it. The pictures were taken on a sunny day in December, and they don’t even quite show the kitchen the way it looks now, because some wall cupboards are missing, but I’ll show you sooner or later.

But so many other things happened during November and December, and I’ll just leave the very short version here – wouldn’t know where to start otherwise. In November they had mass lay offs at Mads’ work, which happily he avoided. Frida’s hearing kept getting worse, followed closely by her speech, which caused her to have new ear tubes inserted in December – it’s all much better now. My father passed away late November, which kept me busy emotionally and led to lots of thoughts. We all went to funeral in December, and in spite of the occasion we had a nice day with the family. And then of course winter colds, flus and the likes to top it all off. Just before Christmas Frida had the chickenpox, followed closely by Ronja on the morning of New Years Eve.

We have had our share to deal with over the last couple of months, but during the Christmas break we have done nothing but relax. Nothing! Stayed at home, gone for walks, watched movies with the girls, had friends over for dinner, spent an afternoon at Tivoli’s Christmas Market as we do every year. It has been great, and we could’ve easily spent another month like that.

That’s pretty much it for now – but I won’t be gone long this time. Finally I just want to show you the beautiful picture of Ronja walking in a Lucia parade in the day care – even though it has been a while.