Matryoshka dolls blouse

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A week ago, an online shop with a small, but very nice selection – Silassen.dk - had a sale with 50% discount on Japanese fabric and trim. I usually buy Japanese fabric in the US, but with a discount like that, even Denmark was suddenly competitive. The sale is over, but I got myself a few things, and when it arrived two days ago, I just had to make this.

Matryoshka blouse 

It’s a blouse for Frida, and I love that this soft Japanese cotton linen blend is heavy enough to keep her warm, even when it’s a bit chilly. Frida loves it – which is funny, because usually you would think that a 1 year old didn’t care much what she was wearing, but this blouse has her giggling while looking down and touching the small matryoshka dolls all the time. Just a funny side effect.

Japanese matryoshka dolls fabric 

I actually made it from a size 92, which Frida is nowhere near yet. I took a few inches off the sleeves and cut it with only half a cm seam allowance, and it’s a really nice fit – roomy without being too big, but sure to fit her for a while. And if needed there’s room enough for a long sleeved t-shirt underneath.

Japanese ribbon 

 I also got this Japanese ribbon, and I love it. I don’t know what they will be used for, but the possibilities are countless.

By the way, the new Ottobre kids issue is up on the Ottobre website and it should arrive in my mailbox pretty soon. It looks like a great issue, and there are definitely several things that I want to make for the girls. Time is the issue as always – but that’s life!

Boys pants for Frida

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I did a bit of sewing today and made a pair of pants for Frida.

 New pants for Frida

The pattern I used is one from the Ottobre issue 01/2006, and even though there is one for girls, I chose to use the one for boys - just like that one better. For a while I have been looking at the rest of the linen I used for the “Tie-back” tunic,  and I have wanted to try to match it with another Sandi Henderson design from the Ginger Blossom line. I decided that these pants would work well for that combo.

 It did prove to be a bit of a challenge, since the printed fabric proved to be off the grainline. While cutting, I had to kind of come up with a compromise between following the grainline and following the design. If I had gone by the grainline only, it would’ve looked like I let Frida cut it on her own - which I didn’t. I think it went fairly well in spite of the grainline-issue, though – there are not that many straight lines, so you don’t really see it unless you look closely, as well as know what to look for.

The pants came together nicely – the only problems I had were caused by the vividness of the linen. It stretches and moves quite a bit more than the quilting cotton, which makes it hard to control at times. Anyway, I didn’t have serious issues this time, and I even decided to try out one of my sewing machine’s decorative stitches!

Girls pants from the boys pants pattern - detail 

The pants are a bit big for Frida still – I made them in a size 68, and I worried that they might be too small, but no need. I would like to make a small peasant blouse to go with it – we’ll see if I get around to it!

Red riding hood romper

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I love that post title – Red riding hood romper! Try saying it again, really tasting the r’s – rrrred rrriding hood rrromper… OK – I’ll move on!  ;)

For those of you who haven’t heard, my computer crashed some days ago. And I mean crashed – Mads tried several approaches with a boot CD over a couple of days, and luckily last night after numerous attempts, he got it to breathe again. He made my day! So if I have neglected you or your blog, that’s why!

Some of you will be aware, that I also suffered a total melt-down, sewingwise. On Friday morning I had a bit of perfect sewing time – Frida was asleep in the pram, Mads and Ronja were out, I had a pile of delicious new fabric that had just arrived in the mail, and I did NOT know what to make. I decided to turn to the always helpful Ottobre English Sewing Group and go with the advice of the majority. So I made another romper from the same Ottobre pattern, since Frida is wearing the last one a lot.

Red riding hood romper - mosaic

It was late Friday evening before I got it done – after my melt-down Frida was awake, and my perfect sewing moment had passed, so I had to wait until the evening. As always, sewing when I’m too tired means redoing a thing or two, but I won’t bore you with the details… ;)

Like I mentioned last time, I wanted to make some modifications to the front pocket, so I did. This pocket is bigger, and I like the overall proportions much better this time – and then I added the tag as a funny detail. I didn’t make an appliqué, because I think the wonderful Kokka-fabric delivers as much action as this romper can hold. I love the fabric – it’s a lovely linen-cotton blend – perfect for baby garments. The fabric for the lining is dots by Moda – which were also used for the Tie-back tunic, that I made for Ronja (description of the making of that one is found here).

For my next sewing project, I hope the inspiration will come easier – however, I do like this romper a lot!

“Tie back” tunic

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The weather cleared up a few hours ago, and now the girls are both asleep – each in their own room. Frida has been sleeping in her room for four nights now, and there have been no problems at all – fabulous. That girl just loves to get her sleep!

However – back to my last sewing project.

Mads was out Saturday night, and I was supposed to have a good friend visiting, who regretfully had to cancel because of a severe migraine. Too bad, because we haven’t seen each other for a while and I was looking forward to it. We’ll see each other soon anyway, though – so it’ll be alright.

Nevertheless, I had a welcome opportunity to do some sewing, making the “Tie-back” tunic from the latest issue of Ottobre. I wanted it to be a bit more colourful than the “China grass” dress, because otherwise they could easily end up looking a bit too similar. The fabric I had chosen was a gorgeous design from Michael Miller by Sandi Henderson (she makes some beautiful fabrics) - the Ginger Blossom Buds Avocado. To match it, I had found some delicious lime coloured linen from the Danish designer Bitte Kai Rand. Finally for the ties, I wanted to go with a contrast using red fabric with white dots.

First up were the ties for the back of the tunic - they took me a looooong time to make! It wasn’t easy turning them right side out, and once I had them all turned, I found out that I didn’t press open the seams well enough. This meant that I had to open them up while on the inside of the ties, before pressing the ties. Phew! That tought me a lesson – remember when it says to press seams open, it’s probably important… After this everything basically went together really well and without any problems – until I was pretty much finished with the whole thing, and I found out that I had stitched on the ties too close to the center-back edges – or to be more specific, the ties were placed correctly, but the stitches came too close to the edges. I think I forgot about the center-back seam allowances when stitching the ties in place, and consequently I had to redo the seams, because otherwise there wouldn’t be room enough to tie the knots, and the back would actually have a gap of an inch between the edges.

When Mads returned home from his party at about 1:30 a.m., I was still sewing…

Now everything that went wrong due to my mistakes is fixed, I certainly learned a few lessons, and the “Tie-back” tunic is finished. I think that the bodice is a bit wide, but I like it a lot, and more importantly, Ronja does too! As soon as I get the chance, I’ll get a modeled picture for you.