Doesn’t Her Mother Know Summer is Approaching?

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Ehm – well Frida needed new pants. I went to look in my stash, and found some corduroy, that seemed sturdy enough to handle playground use, and temperatures that don’t quite say summer yet. I also took out some Japanese linen-cotton for pockets and cuff.

Pants for Frida

Both fabrics have been used before – I made a romper and a bib for Frida using the Red Riding Hood fabric, and Ronja had a pair of pants made from the corduroy – that was when I learned it’s a bad idea to combine a really light fabric with a dark one if the garment is ever going to need washing… :) I also made this purse from the cord.

So anyway – I like the result. Except… they’re screaming WINTER! I should have made these in November – I kind of saw it coming while cutting the fabric, but I just didn’t have a lighter tone of corduroy in my stash. I’m so going to take the season into consideration for the next pair I’m making – I’ll probably have to go fabric-shopping. Too bad! :D

I used a basic pant pattern from a Danish sewing book by Ulla Welinder, and added a bit of length because I wanted the pants to have cuffs. Cuffs and pockets were my own additions.

Pants for Frida

I used the technique in which you serge the elastic to the edge of the waist, and it seems to me that it’s stretching the elastic a bit more than I expect it to. I just always seem to make them too loose initially. I started cutting 45 cm of elastic, and they were terribly loose, so I unpicked the waist, and cut out 4-5 cm. They fit her, but they could be tighter still, so next time, I’ll be cutting something like 38 cm elastic including seam allowance.

Oh well – they look cute on her, and next time I’m making pants that appear to be made for the season they will be used for.

“Puuheppa” overalls with a few more inches

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Some of you will remember these overalls that I made Frida not too long ago. I still love the pattern, and they are just wonderful in use – practical, comfy (I think), and sweet looking, just the way I like it in a garment.

Well, I made them in a size 74, which fit perfectly at the time – but Frida is growing a lot at the moment, and within a month they were starting to look a bit short on her. As they are still nice and wide, I decided to lengthen the legs, using the contrast fabric. And this is the slightly blurry result.

Lengthened Puuheppa overalls 

I simply cut off the legs just above the elastic, making sure the edges were alike and even, and made a pattern for the added length based on the shape of the legs above the cut. Sewed the pieces together, topstitched the side seam as above the cut, attached the new leg bottoms to the overalls, topstitched the seam, and finished with elastic at the bottom – just as they were before. Easy-peasy.

In my opinion, they’re even cuter now than they were before – this is definitely one of my favourite patterns during my time as an Ottobre subscriber. I may just be making another pair soon.

Going Retro

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Do you remember when I told you about the wonderful cords, that Amy sent me? Well, last night I cut into some of it.

 

I made the “Nasta” pinafore dress once before, and I thought it would be perfect for this wonderful retro print. Also, last time I made it, I actually traced it one size smaller in length to make sure she would be able to crawl in it. However, now that she’s walking most of the time, I think it’s ok for her to have it dress length.

   

I still really like this pattern – I was totally unsure of what colour to go with for binding and pocket, but I think this works nicely – I’m actually quite fond of this one!

By the way, if you’re interested, the coupon for Fabric.com expires tonight Danish time - I believe in about 5 hours.

Clowns and Angels

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Yesterday, we all went to Fastelavn – you know, the thing I told you about the other day. And Ronja was indeed an angel – here she is on the wings.

On the wings 

On the wings  

Saturday I had been making an outfit for Frida as well – a clown costume to be exact. I based the costume on the Onion pattern 10009 that includes a pair of basic loose pants, and a blouse that buttons on one shoulder. I modified them a bit – the pants are meant for rib at the lining and at the ancles, but I decided that elastics in dotted casings would work better for my tiny clown. The blouse pattern is meant for a knit, and has a rib at the neckline – I switched it and went with wovens and a clown collar at the neckline. I covered the collar edge with bias tape, made from the same fabric as the collar. Then I embellished it with a tiny pocket and two flower-buttons.

A colourful clown 

I threw all kinds of colourful fabric in the pool; Michael Miller, Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, and a bunch of other stuff - and above you can see how it all turned out. Below, you can see the caring big sister holding hands with the little clown, while they’re having their picture taken together with Ronja’s friends Emma and Ida.

Fastelavn 

The Fastelavn-party took place in a gym, and all the kids lined up in different lines according to their age, to beat the cat out of the barrel (this very traditional event at Fastelavn has got to make no sense to many of you – read more about it here - about halfway down). Ronja had fun with her friends, and although I think the experience was a little overwhelming to Frida, she found it exciting as well.

Afterwards, Frida and I went to meet with my mothers group. It has been quite a while since the last time, because we’re all working now – but we had such a nice time, and the kids are just growing up so quickly. It was great to see them all again, and to watch the children play! Frida was exceptionally tired when we went home, so she had herself a good long afternoon nap.

Ottilia angel

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Yesterday evening, I finished Ronja’s angel costume, which is based on the Ottilia dress from Ottobre winter, 2007.

Angel costume with wings and headband 

It’s made up of a dress, an underdress, a headband (as a halo), and a pair of wings. For most of the dress, I used white cotton and baby cord, which was pretty cheap. For the hem panel of the underdress, I added a layer of silverish net fabric over the fine cord to make it glisten a little, and for the dress itself, I ironed on rhinestones, edged the sleeves with feather boa, and added two types of silver ribbon. I left out all the frills, because I don’t find frills particularly angelic – angels are more into serenity, if y’all know what I mean… For the headband I found some silver elastic, and as for the wings – well, I went and got those from a toy shop… Sorry! Pretty much everything except the wings came from Stof og Stil – a Danish fabric store.

Ronja has a pair of slightly silverish sandals, which she will be wearing with the costume.

Ottilia angel mosaic 

The dress came together easily enough, actually. I really don’t feel the need to gather anything anytime soon, but then at the same time, I’m totally in practice! The silver ribbons were a bit stiff, which made the curve on the edge of the dress kind of tricky, but that went fine as well. I used elastic tape for gathering the sleeves in the middle, like the instructions say, and I must say, that is just brilliant – so easy! I used blanket stitches to edge the sleeves, to have something to pull the boa through. The boa can then be taken out, when the dress needs washing – which believe me, it will! Thanks to my invisible zipper foot, the zipper didn’t cause me any trouble either, so really – everything just went together quite nicely.

Feather boa edging the sleeves 

Need I say that Ronja loves this costume? And need I say, that I wonder how our 4-year old will look after a few hours in an all white dress, when she isn’t quite as angelic as she starts out?  ;)

Nevertheless – I really like this one! Good thing we have two girls!

**UPDATE**

Rikki just mentioned the fact that she has no clue what this costume is for. Of course, Rikki – that didn’t even cross my mind. Most readers of my blog won’t know, so that’s a pretty good point! Thanks!

In Denmark we celebrate Fastelavn at the end of February. I believe a common translation is shrovetide. In Denmark we don’t usually dress up for Halloween the way other parts of the world are known to, so fastelavn is basically our carnival. You can read a bit more about it here.

Our little one

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Playing - in her new overalls 

I have been wanting to write a bit about Frida. She’s 16 months now, and still our little one, but then again, she’s not all that little anymore. Her personality develops with every day that passes, and it is a joy to see! She really does light up a room and most of the time she’s just a bundle of joy! She has a will that surpasses several of those in the otherwise strong-willed people in this family, and she can definitely be a handful! Above you see her wearing the Puuheppa overalls – did I mention I love them?!

She walks now as her preferred choice of transport, but she didn’t give up crawling easily – still turns to that, when she finds it useful. Teaching her how to eat on her own is coming along slowly. It took our little handball player a while to stop throwing forks, plates, and cups (and anything else for that matter) through the air, whenever one was within reach. It’s almost under control now, and she does drink and eat on her own – when the food permits and it suits her…

Afternoon biscuit

And talking of playing handball – she is pretty good at throwing a ball, and sometimes she nearly even catches it when it’s thrown to her. We have been joking with her throwing everything, but it seems to be working, ’cause she’s rather good, and Ronja loves to play ball with her! Earlier it was sometimes hard to entertain her, but at the moment, she has become quite good at playing by herself for a while, concentrating on a toy or a book.

Looking out  More modeled pants

Getting older for Frida also means closing in on the palate surgery. As I have mentioned before, she has a cleft palate which is going to be closed in surgery when she’s approximately 18 months old. We don’t know the excact date, because they’re unable to give us a specific date earlier than about 3-5 weeks prior to the surgery. So during the coming two months, we need to get her off the night-bottle – she still has a small bottle of warm milk before she goes to sleep. And what’s worse, we have to wean her off the dummy! Good thing she’s so fond of her security blankets – that’s going to help us in the process.

Afternoon sky 

Meanwhile, she still sleeps like a baby during the night – and I know a lot of people to whom that would mean sleepless nights, crying, days of an unimaginable tiredness that only parents understand, etc. Not here though, in this house the term ‘sleeping like a baby’ covers sleep from 6.30 p.m. to 6.30 a.m.

Altogether, she’s just one lovely little girl!