Connecting the dots…

The Wedding Post

Our little family has been going through a summer marked by some great events.

It’ll come as no surprise to most of you, that many evenings and weekends have been occupied by wedding planning, and the making of the wedding gown as well as the bridesmaid dresses. Therefore it was a welcome break when we headed out to spend our first summer vacation on board our boat Anna – and then when we returned to Køge Marina we had two weeks to finish preparing for the wedding. It was a busy few weeks, but it was also the time when we most came to look forward to the wedding, and were able to relate to it much more than had been the case earlier in the year. A wedding is such a big event, and at least to me, it was hard to grasp until we were counting down the days by the use of two hands only.

When Mads first had proposed, one of my very good friends let me know that she would love to design my dress. So she has, and we have had so much fun making it. When all the details were pretty much decided, and the first versions sewn up in plain cotton, I went shopping for the fabric and other materials, and we spent a weekend together at her apartment, just cutting, sewing, adjusting, and having fun. We had the best time! I made the bridesmaid dresses, and my own clutch bag – I will put up a different post with patterns, fabric, and all that.

Besides this, I think I will let the photographs below speak. We had the most wonderful, loving day, and we so enjoyed having all of our friends and family around us to celebrate. Below is a small selection – you can find a larger selection of the professional photographs here.

Photos by Klaus Hoberg Markussen, foto24.dk

Midsummer Evening On The Water

Last week we celebrated Midsummer Evening in Denmark. This being our first Midsummer Evening as boat owners, we wanted to head out on the water in the boat to see the bonfires on the beach from the seaside. These are just impressions from an evening on the water that offered a beautiful ever changing sky.

Frida had fallen asleep below, but Ronja was high with energy, so she did a little midsummer dance on the deck.

See the rainbow here?

The proud captain.

Looking at the bonfire.

A view of the beach and the bonfire.

This past weekend, I have been sewing on a very special dress together with my friend Karen, who designed it. It may not be the same everywhere, but in Denmark as well as many other places, the groom is not to see the bride wearing the wedding dress until the wedding, so this is a secret project. That means even though I’m dying to show you our progress here, I can’t. However, if you are a blog friend, I can give you a guest pass to a secret Flickr album – just let me know here that you want to have a peek. I won’t be showing anything here until after August 13th.

Tutorial Mania

This evening we got home from a perfect sunny family weekend in Southern Jutland. Now, the children are in bed, and I’m seated in the couch with my laptop. I thought I’d tell you about some of the things I’ve made recently. I have made most with the help of tutorials, so I have some nice links for you as well.

This first one has become a favourite of mine already. I used a tutorial from mmmcrafts for a basic messenger bag and this tutorial gets my best recommendations – it’s as good as any pattern you can buy. Thumbs up, Larissa!

My inspiration for my rendition with the bias tape around the flap came from this beautiful version that she made herself. I widened the strap a bit to make sure it’s comfortable to wear, and I used sew-in interfacing to add body to the bag. I’m not too sure about the flower on the flap, but it’s a bit too late for that now. We’ll see what I come up with next time I make this.

This is a bag I will be making again for sure!

So second up, I made doll diaper bags for Ronja and Frida. It all started because I had promised Frida to get her new diapers for her Baby Born doll – I got her diapers for premature babies, because they are much cheaper than the ones in the toy stores. When I got home with the diapers, it quickly came up that she didn’t have a diaper bag to carry them in. Sooooo, I promised I’d make one for her. Ronja heard. Ronja hardly ever plays with that kind of dolls anymore, but if I was making a doll diaper bag for Frida, she needed one as well. What can I say…

I made these two diaper bags in an evening following the Pretend and Play Diaper Bag tutorial here. The girls picked the fabric themselves. The construction of these bags is slightly different compared to the messenger bag above, since the shell of the bags is quilted with batting, which is also what gives them kind of a diaper bag “feel”. The bag has one big room on the inside, and a small pocket on the flap. The tutorial doesn’t mention measurement and placement for the pocket, but I measured the feeding bottles to get it right. Make sure you don’t place the pocket too high, though – you don’t want it to go reach to the top of the flap.

I was planning to make some other stuff as well, changing pads and sewn wipe cases with fabric wipes in them, but I was called to the kindergarten, because Frida had fallen over and hit her head pretty bad. So I spent my afternoon in the emergency room where Frida got stitched up, but at least, when we got home I could cheer her up with the new diaper bag. Both the girls love their bags, so they were worth the effort! And Frida’s head is fine as well.

The latest thing I made is an iPad sleeve.

I actually treated myself to an iPad 2 two days ago (LOVE), and I wanted to bring it with me on the family weekend, however I didn’t have anywhere to put it. I whipped up this sleeve in just under an hour (well, that’s quick for me!) based on this tutorial.

The tutorial is great, I followed her measurements exactly, and the result is good. However, the fit is a bit too tight, and if I were to make this again, which I just might in order to get it quite right, I would take out half a centimeter from the fleece lining compared to the outer fabric on each side. I made the fleece the same size as the outer fabric, and it’s just a little bit too bulky on the inside which means it takes up room that was meant for the iPad. Also, I would add an extra centimeter to the length of the outer fabric. If I make this again, I will let you know the measurements for the iPad 2 that I find to be the right ones.

As usual, I try to gather the tutorials that I like right here – you might find something you like as well!

New Territory

Today was a bit of a tough day at work, and it left me with a lot on my mind. As always, the obvious way for me to relax and get my mind off things is to sew – it’s pure zen. As was the case today, however the quilt below isn’t from today, it was finished last night.

Frida saw a picture of a patchwork blanket for a teddy bear in one of my sewing magazines a few days ago. She was quick to order a blanket for her Hello Kitty build-a-bear, and I didn’t put up much of a fight. A year ago or so when I last wanted to try making quilt, I ordered a few charm packs from Fat Quarter Shop. I broke open one of those for the picnic blanket – one from Moda called Patisserie.

So I got everything aligned nicely and sewed up all the little squares, and then I thought: “Well, this didn’t take too long, and I’m almost done!” And then I got started quilting, and found out that I was not nearly done.

I struggled a bit with the quilting foot, and I’m learning from the beginning how to control pace, movement, pattern and everything.

As usual, I have been using different sources for instructions: I found help for many things on YouTube, and especially Leah Day has gathered what seems like a year of quilting lessons there, and she is quite pedagogical. Check out for instance her thoughts on basic quilting designs here. And I used her tutorial on how to bind the quilt here and then for the final. She has loads of detailed and really great videos on how to make different quilting designs, which is really inspiring.

All in all – including watching lots of videos on YouTube, learning new techniques, using a new presser foot etc. then for the final closing of the binding after I had attached it all the way round, I used this tutorial from Heather Bailey, which shows clearly how to join the two ends.

To the right here, you see Frida just after she made Hello Kitty at the Build-a-Bear shop following her birthday last year. The cat is almost as big as Frida is, and it takes up just as much space in her heart.

Now Hello Kitty will definitely be able to go picnicing with Frida – which she has been today actually.  So here’s the result:

I’m fairly happy with it, although I acknowledge, that I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to quilting. Anyway, while I was attaching the binding yesterday evening, Ronja was watching. And now she wants one. And that is what I’ve been working on today, but it isn’t done yet, so you’ll have to wait. See ya!

The Tale Of Anna

It truly is amazing – everybody around here is saying it at the moment, but I’m just going to go with the flow, because the weather is incredible! It’s late April, and usually we would be far from summer temperatures, but this year, Easter is like mid-June.

I promised you last year to let you know what happened when we went out and got ourselves a boat in September, so read on if you’re interested – I’ll try to keep it brief.

Since we had Ronja in 2004, we have enjoyed to go on charter trips during our summer vacation, and mostly they have been really successful. However, these past few years, our charter vacations haven’t felt quite as relaxing as we thought they should, and last summer was an eye-opener to both of us. We spent a week in the beautiful Spanish Island, Mallorca, which we have visited once before and were looking forward to visiting again. So… though we did have a trip with many wonderful moments, we both thought that it wasn’t quite as relaxing family-time as we would have liked it to be. Every place you go presents new temptations to the children in the form of candy, icecream, toys, entertainments etc., that basically leave you with two choices – either you give in or you don’t. Neither one of your choices is the good one, and since a huge part of the offer in places like these are based on temptations for the children, we just never quite got the sense of harmonious vacation that we were looking for. Aside from our trip to beautiful Deia, which was pure bliss (can I please live there when I’m old?).

So last year when we returned from Mallorca, we had planned to go canoeing in Sweden with the girls. Tent and all packed, we were ready to go, and when we got to lake Immeln which we had chosen for our trip, it rained. We waited for an hour, had lunch, waited a bit more – but the rain went on. We decided to put on our rain coats and head out in the canoe, certain that it would stop sooner or later. It didn’t. It kept on raining. And the eye-opener was this: The girls sat between us in the canoe, taking turns with a paddle, “fishing” in the water – and singing! They got cold, quite a lot so eventually, but they were happy, gliding through the water, talking to each other and us. We found a place to make a camp, and it was just pooring, so Mads and I got up the tent as quickly as we could, put them in their sleeping bags with crayons and paper, and they warmed up and had fun.

So just to sum up; we had loads of rain the entire time we were there, and we ended up going home one day before we had planned to, but in spite of piles of wet clothes, we had almost no complaints from the girls – quite the opposite. And that was when we decided to do something else with our vacations. Mads and I both love sailing, and in September we bought Anna – our Shipman 28 from 1975.

She has been up during winter, but we had her put in the water again last weekend, and with the weather we have this Easter, today was a brilliant day to go sailing.

Loving, loving, loving it!

The girls were below deck some of the time relaxing together or individually with their Nintendos, but everyone thought we had a wonderful day. Today we came from Hundige Harbour where we usually have our boat, to Køge, which is much nearer where we live, and where we hope to have her by the end of the season (we’re on the waiting list). We’re spending the night at home due to the low night temperatures, but tomorrow we’re taking her back to Hundige – our first real back and forth expedition. Almost.

There you go – this is why we made the rather sudden decision to get a boat, and I personally cannot wait to go on summer vacation in Anna. No charter trip for the girls and us this year.

Tropical Blend Dress

We have weather for summer dresses here in late April. I can hardly believe it – 20 degrees (Celsius) during Easter holidays, isn’t it amazing?

It definitely makes me want to sew summer clothing, so yesterday I made another dress from the latest Ottobre – this time for Frida. I picked out 5 or 6 fabrics that I would be happy to sew it up in, and Frida made the final decision, which is a beautiful design from Heather Bailey’s Nicey Jane collection.

The dress is #18 (design B) from Ottobre 3/2011, and in spite of the simplicity of the design, it has the piping at the neckline and the bias tape at the hem to add a few nice details. I traced a 98 length and a 92 width, and it’s a perfect fit. The bias tape I used for the hem is Michael Miller gingham, and I used it for the piping as well, cut in halves. I even managed to find som matching daisy buttons for the dress – it could not be any more summery, and Frida loves it.

I haven’t made piping before, and it’s not perfect, but it’s not bad either – I found it a little hard to work around the strap roundings, I probably should have stretched it a little more through the curve. Anyway, this is the perfect summer dress!

Meanwhile, it’s always hard to predict what will happen to the stuff you sew, isn’t it. Take the tulip dress – I almost had to bribe Ronja into modeling the tulip dress… Why? Apparently, it’s scratchy. If any of you guys have a quick fix for scratchy linen, let me know, because I’m afraid otherwise there is no rescue for the dress. But here she is wearing it – at least she looks content.

Tulip Dress

Just before the weekend I received the latest Ottobre, and some of the designs in there show a simplicity almost like the one that you usually see in Japanese patterns – I love it. Sunday I went ahead and traced one of the patterns (#28 from 3/2011) – I originally wanted to make it for Frida, but it didn’t come as small as that, so I went with one for Ronja instead.

Ronja hasn’t been measured for a while, so I did just before I started tracing, and it turns out she’s a size 116 according to her height, but only a 98 width – phew! I decided to add room for growth, and traced a 116 height and 104 width for her – still I had to concentrate while tracing to make everything match up. I always highly recommend measuring before you sew up Ottobre garments, because they tend to be quite wide in the sizes, but they fit perfectly if you go by measurement.

I used linen for the dress and spiced it up a little with Amy Butler’s “Daisy Bouquet” for the sleeves. I added two appliqued tulips in order to create a link from the sleeves to the main fabric, and I think it works fine, even if the edge stitching of the tulips isn’t the best I’ve ever made – for some reason the fabric didn’t quite move properly while I was sewing. Other than that everything came together just fine, and it’s a perfect fit for Ronja.

I haven’t made this kind of pleats before, but I find them such a neat alternative to gathering – a beautiful design detail (yet slightly more time consuming). This is a wonderful summer dress – and it’s original name “Sunshine Sailor Dress” goes so well with the fact that we will be spending this year’s summer vacation on our boat!

My Schoolhouse Tunic

I did some sewing this weekend. It was weird really, because Saturday morning I stooped to lift up Frida, and as soon as Frida was off the ground, there was a crack in my back, and it hurt like … you don’t wanna know. It went on all Saturday through the night and Sunday as well, but when I started my sewing project it slowly went away. That must be some sort of sign, right? Seeew mooooooore….

As I was saying, I did some sewing. I bought the pattern for the Schoolhouse Tunic from Sew Liberated a few months ago, and I just love the design in its simplicity and elegance. I really don’t find much sewing time recently, so it’s been waiting for a spare afternoon, but now I have made my first version of this.

I used linen and a striped linen-cotton blend for the tunic, and I think the combo works well. The reason for using two different fabrics was actually that I thought I wouldn’t have enough linen, but I would have had afterall – I used nowhere near the amount that the pattern calls for. I made a size 10/12 (I’m usually a Scandinavian size 38-40), and I was worried it would be too small, but it could have been just slightly smaller. However, I didn’t prewash the fabric (never quite get around to doing that), so maybe it’ll shrink to a perfect fit – fingers crossed – when I wash it.

I can recommend the pattern – it includes easy-to-follow line drawings, and the tunic came together quickly. It is simple yet with details that give it a wonderfully finished look, so if you have sewn before and are wondering whether or not to give this a go, I would say jump right in – you can do it!

This is me wearing the tunic with jeans, but it is worth noting that the tunic/dress is quite versatile and can be worn with jeans, leggings, bare legs – and you can add a belt if you wish.

Now that I have you, I can also show you the dress I made for Frida a month ago. To Frida, the only scale that counts at the moment is the twirlyness-scale. I have made her a number of dresses, that she liked initially, but just don’t want to wear right now due to a low score on the twirlyness-scale – therefore my object with this dress was to get my creations well up there on her scale again. This is the result:

I used different designs baby corduroy for the outer dress, and quilting cotton for the inside of the bodice. I made up the pattern for the skirt myself, but I was quite inspired by this dress purchased for Ronja from H&M 4 years ago – and loved to pieces by Frida! For the bodice I used an Ottobre-pattern from 3/2008 #15 – the tie-back tunic – I took out a little more than a centimeter from the middle, because it is very wide, and I added an invisible zipper instead of the ties. So back to the scale – does it twirl?

OH yes!