Mads is making a sprayhood for our boat. For those of you who don’t know, a sprayhood (also “dodger”) is the canvas hood that covers part of the cockpit and the entrance to the boat. You can see the old one in the picture below.

The one in this picture was old and brittle, and it had seen many repairs in its time. Last year was the end of it, it toar and was past saving. Which is why we have been looking for someone to make us a new sprayhood for some time now, continuing to be schocked by the prices everywhere. Having someone make you a sprayhood and a cockpit enclosure for a Shipman 28 (which for most is not a pattern they have lying around) can easily cost you around DKK 23,000 (app. 4,000 USD). This may be fair, given the time and material used, but at the same time, it’s around 25 % of what the boat cost us in the first place. Rather steep.

Now, I have been making a few things for the boat last year. I made new cushion covers, curtains, and pillows.

And it all turned out pretty good. However, a sprayhood is a heavy duty kind of thing, and I announced, that I would not sew a sprayhood. No way. So what does the man do? Does he go back to the best offer we received and ask them to make it for us?

Nope… He let’s me know, that in that case, he will do it. I objected at first, even a lot so, feeling certain that we would end up having an installation more similar to a hammock than a sprayhood over the entrance – but now he’s working. And even though we have yet to see the result, I have to say, it does look promising.

He borrowed a heavy duty sewing machine from the yacht club, used the old sprayhood for pattern, bought all the different supplies to make it look just right, and now I feel a bit guilty for backing out in the first place. Well, well – I’m sure he has fun with it even so. And I am so excited to see how it turns out. I’ll show you when I know.

The end of season dance is quite an event. Loads of children, parents, grand parents, and costumes all over the place. The air is tense with expectations, and there may just be more cameras present, than there is children. I’m personally not quite sure what I think about it – I love the dancing, music, energy, and joy, but I’m not crazy about some of the things that come with it. 9 year-olds that know more about how to look cool, and put on the right make up than I do. Or is it their mothers? And young women with so much make up on, such glossy hair, and such a fixed smile, you have to ask yourself if that’s the right way to show your joy for dancing.

However, this particular dancing school does amazing work with the little ones – their teacher has just the right balance between authority and warmth, and she never ever seems to run out of energy with the children. She is actually also the one that taught Mads and myself to dance our first dance at our wedding. She’s good! And whether I like the game or not, the children love dancing, and Frida was a joy to watch. (As usually, I’m biased…)

This last shot is from their Strawberry Shortcake-dance (Jordbær Marie for de danske læsere) – Frida is the little one in the front.

This messenger bag was something that I made previously in a different combination of fabrics – the messenger bag from mmmcrafts - and yay to her for putting the tutorial out there for all of us to benefit from!

This one was made for my mother’s birthday, and I love this fabric combination. The main fabric is babycord with small flowers and the lining is Nicey Jane Lindy Leaf in the blue colourway. The trim is Michael Miller bias tape. As you can see I made a small lined pouch to go with it.

A year ago, I made a quilt for Frida. With two girls in the house, making one quilt isn’t going to get me a long way, so of course, there had to be a second one.

For this one as well, I used a charm pack from Moda, and I cannot remember the name of it. I do like this one, but I personally like Frida’s quilt a little better than this one – it has more warmth to it. All the sources that taught me the techniques, are found in the previous quilt post.

Next up was my bridal purse.

It’s made from the same silk that I used to make the corsage of my bridal dress, and I used the same pale blue fine silk lining as well. I used a frame and pattern from U-handbag – The Easy Peasy Purse - you’ll find it about one third down the page. And I used a tutorial of her’s as well – “Purse frames demystified” as well as a YouTube tutorial that shows a woman attaching the frame to a purse – see it here. It’s always a matter of checking out the different sources of information and finding my own way of doing it, but I didn’t find it too difficult. Also, it was just right for our big day.

Now, another thing I made for the wedding was the dresses for the three little bridesmaids – Ronja, Frida, and my niece Marlinde. At the time of the wedding they were 3, 4, and 7 years old, and I wanted the dresses to have different colours but the same style. I decided to go with an Ottobre pattern, #25 from 3/2010, the Chopin Dress. I used thai silk from this Danish online shop, where I received great service. I sent her an e-mail, asking if I could have samples, and I received an envelope with samples of the different silks I was looking at and a kind response. So anyway, the lining fabric is the same as what I used for the wedding dress and the purse – the softest silk from a fabric shop in New York, brought home by my good friend Karen for the wedding dress project specifically. I changed a few things in the pattern – I wasn’t crazy about the roses on the belt, so I put miniature fabric roses instead to add a detail. Also, I added dusty, greyish tulle on the inside of the skirt, to give it more fullness. I did this by making a tulle skirt that was just a few centimeters longer than the main skirt with lots of ruffled tulle at the bottom, and then sewing it into the dress at the waist line, between the main fabric and the lining.

The girls loved the dresses, fortunately, and though this is not a dress a girl wears many times (if more than one at all…), it was worth the effort. I believe actually, that Frida will be wearing her’s in a few days for the end of season dance at the dance school – for that purpose, the dress should do just fine. (Check out pictures from last year’s end of season dance here.)

Next project was actually something that came out of a bloggers meetup. I haven’t done much hand sewing - ever, and it has been a choice not to. At the meetups however, everyone is always doing something with their hands – knitting, crocheting, sewing, or something else. So I thought, I’d give it a try, just to see what happened.

A pillow for Frida’s room is what happened – and actually one that she seems to appreciate immensely for some reason. The front, of course is patchwork, and the back an overlap closing to make it possible to wash the cover – see below.

Quite a nice project, that I just might try my hands on again, when I have the time to spare.

Finally, two minor projects, that I have made recently. A small purse for make up for myself (same pattern as the bridal purse), and pencil cases for the girls.

The pencil cases are based on the Perfect Box Pouch tutorial on Make It Modern. Other tutorials I have used, and some that I haven’t yet – are found here.

That’s it for the no-shows – now I think most of what I’ve made is on the blog, for me or anyone else to (re-)discover.

This particular weekend, I tried something awesome.

This is me, attempting to make a glass bead in Anne‘s lovely glass studio. She makes beautiful glass jewellery, and I loved getting the chance to try. I wear purple safety glasses, that block the bright yellow flare to help me see what I am doing, and to protect my eyes. I just tried to make the one bead, but I would definitely want to try this again some time.

The flame from the torch is really, really, really hot, so I wanted to keep my focus – I think this shows in the picture.

I chose a rose colour, but I think it changed a bit. Can’t wait to see what colour is is, when it has spend its time in the kiln (special oven).

I can see why this can turn into an obsession – finding the perfect colours and making them work together, seems to me rather like collecting fabric.

This is Anne working her magic – she describes it as her zen. Again, I see parallels to sewing…

It looks so easy when Anne is handling the torch, glass, and mandrel – it is NOT.

The pattern is from Made By Rae, and I totally love it. As always with Rae’s patterns, she takes you by the hand, and helps you all the way to the finished garment with different tips for finishing and altering the pattern included. This tunic is just adorable – one of those garments for your children that are great for everyday use, but with the little details that make it special. AND it’s great for boys as well as girls.

The one I made for Frida was finished quite a while ago, back in November. For that one, I used kind of a light, soft denim quality fabric (not really sure what it is – has a bit of a viscose feel to it), and Liberty fabric for the facings. I have chosen the same materials for the one for Ronja, only with a different Liberty print from my stash.

Since then, Ronja has been on my back for making her one, but with my new job and everything else that has been going on, it was just difficult to find time and energy. Now, this past weekend, I got around to it. The pattern doesn’t go further than a size 5T, and Ronja is 7 years old, but not that big of her age, and quite slim. So, I took the 5T, added 1½ inch to the length, and a little less than an inch to the sleeves. If you do something like this, remember to work in the added length in the vent facings as well – I had to cut new pieces for the vent facings, because I didn’t think of that at first. So this is the result that I finished 2 days ago.

I have to say, I didn’t choose the buttons. I was going with some wooden apple-buttons, but Ronja wouldn’t hear of it. So now it has pink heart-buttons. Not quite a match if you ask me – but oh well…

And now that I mention Rae, if you are not already taking part in her Spring Top Sewalong, get on it – it runs until April 22nd, so there is plenty of time to make your own top and enter it! The competition is fierce this year, and being one of the proud judges, I can safely say, there are no easy decisions this year! Click the banner below to check out how it all works.

This past weekend, Ronja participated in her very first horse show. She started riding almost 2 years ago when she was 5 years old, and let me just say, she was less elegant then than she is now.

She has loved riding from the very first time, and she never complains about going to her riding lessons in the evening after school, even when she’s tired. Mads and I haven’t got that much horse experience between the two of us, and riding was something Ronja chose for herself and continues to enjoy, every single week. It was a good decision!

Yesterday, Ronja was happy, proud, and excited all mixed together, and we so enjoyed seeing her at the horse show.

Frida had a hard time coping with the fact that you don’t get a rosette, if you’re not part of the competition. That’s how she ended up looking the way she does below. Ronja on the other hand, earned a shared 2nd place, and was  at least 2 feet taller for the rest of the day.

The sun is shining, it’s 8 degrees celsius in the garden, and the signs of spring are more than welcome.
The girls are playing outside, and I’m about to clear the table after lunch.
Everything is quite peaceful here, except for the occasional fight between the girls, and tomorrow Mads is returning from a business trip to Norway.
Maybe I should sew a little…

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

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.

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!