Starry Pants

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Climbing the old apple tree

I finished the pants above for Frida yesterday – apparently they work well for climbing trees!

I have had the star fabric for a while – I think I got it at Stof & Stil. The pattern is from Ottobre 4/2012, #19 called “Forest Path”. I chose this pattern because I wanted a bit more of a jeans look than with the average pattern for children’s pants, but I still wanted an elastic waist, which works well with Frida.

Starry pants - front     Starry pants - back

As always with Ottobre, I followed Frida’s measurements instead of her usual size, so I made a 104 even though she is usually a 110. The pants came together easily, and I really like the fit. However, if you do want to make them with elastics for the bottom hems, you should probably cut the legs a bit longer than the pattern says. I didn’t want elastics casings, and when I hemmed the pants, the length was just right – meaning, if I had made the casings, they would have been a bit short.

Starry pants

I will probably make another version of these pants – the fit is great for Frida, and in my opinion they are darn cute with the low back poskets and all the contrast topstitching.

I actually made Frida a summer dress today as well, but by the time I finished it, it was too dark for pictures, so I’ll show you soon.

Speaking of Frida, Thursday we went to the speech therapist for a follow-up on surgery, and it went so SO well! At home we haven’t noticed that much change in her speech, but when the speech therapist played us a recording from our last visit there before her surgery in January, it was quite clear that there is a remarkable difference, especially when it comes to nasalness. The speech therapist said that Frida made her day – that’s how positive the results of the surgery were. She even said we can expect improvement up to one full year after surgery. Next, check-up is in a year, and it is very unlikely that Frida will need another operation. So hopefully, this is it.

Which is great, because since the beginning of April, Frida has been going to after-school care full-time, which in Denmark is a much used way of letting children adjust to school before actually starting school in August. The next big step for Frida (school) is already happening, the surgery is over with and the results are better than we could have expected. Things are looking good for this little lady.

Tulip Dress

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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.

Tulip dress (Sunny sailor dress)

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.

Tulip dress (Sunny sailor dress) - pleats and appliqué

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

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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.

Schoolhouse Tunic

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!

Schoolhouse Tunic - modeled

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:

Twirly patchwork dress

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?

Twirly Dress for Frida

Twirly Dress for Frida

OH yes! :)

Gingham Flower Pants

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For some reason the pants that Ronja wore during summertime when she was Frida’s age, are too big for Frida still. So I have a good excuse for making summer pants for Frida, which I don’t mind at all, and I made her these yesterday.

Flower pants

The pattern is the same one from Ottobre, that I used for the chicken pants – #17 from 2/2003. The chicken pants have been such a success – she’s wearing them all the time, so I thought I’d try to follow up on that. I didn’t make the back pockets, but instead I used gingham for the bottom of the legs and the flower appliqués. The main fabric is linen.

Flower pants

I drew the flowers myself, and I think they turned out quite sweet. If you’ve been reading here for a while, you’ll know by now, that I am very fond of linen. I think it works perfectly for these pants as well – they should be nice and light for warm summer days like the ones we have now. It is very warm today, and the day will be spent relaxing in the garden mostly.

Flower pants

Summer Top with Leaf Appliqué

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Finally finished the summer top. You know, I mentioned I was making something else for me, and this is it.

Summer top with leaf appliqué - mosaic

It didn’t come about easily, and I’m still not quite sure what to think about it. If you’re not interested in the proces, just skip the next part or I’ll be boring you to pieces…

I love the lavender stripes from Kaffe Fassett (found the fabric at 50% off recently at Fabric.com – they’re having sales all the time at the moment!). And actually the linen, the ribbon, the buttons – everything is very much my choice. I started out thinking I wanted it to be simple – just the lavender stripes and the linen and nothing else. But when the top was almost done, it just didn’t look right – nothing brought the two fabrics together, and really it just looked odd. Chopped in halves, sort of.

Anyway, I put it on a hanger on my closet, and circled around it for a few days – finally I went through my ribbons to see if anything would help combine the fabrics. This ribbon from Danish Aspegren helped, but I still wasn’t quite happy. I thought about hemming the bottom with a lavender bias tape, but I was afraid it wouldn’t bring it together but rather just frame the obvious – that there wasn’t a link between the top and the bottom. So I decided I needed to use the lavender fabric on the lower part of the top as well – somehow. Which is how I came up with the appliqué. I browsed for leaves and trees on the internet, and found this one below that I liked. Yesterday, I traced it and put it on there. Helped more I think, but I’m still not sure exactly what to think – perhaps because it didn’t turn out the way I imagined it.

Summer top with leaf appliqué - detail

Because it is made with a woven, and you have to be able to get into it, the top is a bit wide, but not as wide as I think it looks in the picture – I’ll try to get a modeled pic soon. It has darts on the back, which I actually sewed together on the wrong (=the right) side of the fabric at first, meaning the seam allowances were on the outside, LOL! Wasn’t the easiest thing I ever had to fix. The pattern is from the Danish craft magazine Ingelise once more – same issue as the tunic, Summer 2008.

I like it – but I’m curious to learn what you think! Also – which top should I use for my entry in The Spring Top Week – this one or the summer tunic?

Finally, I’d just like to mention that Ronja’s tree is now blossoming. Small, pink, perky, lovely flowers – I love it when her tree is in bloom.

Ronja's tree blossoming

Light Summer Tunic

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You know already. But I’ll say it again: If you came here today looking for inspiration on children’s garments  – move on. Because I made something for me!

Frida and Mom 

The tunic is from a Danish sewing magazine, called Ingelise – issue #6, 2008. I like the pattern, but to be honest, I guessed my way through the instructions, which does show in the yoke area – but luckily mostly on the inside. Maybe I just need more routine sewing (of course I do), but as I don’t have problems following instructions from Ottobre or Onion, I tend to blame the instructions on this tunic specifically. Not a big deal, though.

Light Summer Tunic 

The fabric I used is a light weight cotton that I purchased online long ago from another sewer – it fitted the purpose beautifully. The yoke, button loops, and buttons are made with white linen. In general, I really love linen – also when it’s just part of a garment, it tends to give such a nice calm look.

Light Summer Tunic

The button loops scared me a bit, and the instructions didn’t give me much to go on, so I turned to the internet for a bit of assistance and found this tutorial. I didn’t do the paper backing, but used the pictures as a guideline, and also a comment below on how to turn the tubing for the loops came in most handy! 

Light Summer Tunic 

I did make a very simple blouse for myself last year, but this is the first garment I made for me, with a little more shape and details to it. And hey, I’m pretty happy with the result!