The No-Shows

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I have a few things, that I made primarily last year, and never showed you here. I’m going to make up for that, because quite frankly, I want to, and also I count on being able to rediscover the things I made earlier in here, on the blog.

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!

Leafy messenger bag mosaic

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.

A quilt for Ronja

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.

Easy Peasy Purse / 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.

Bridesmaids dresses mosaic

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.

Patchwork pillow

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.

Patchwork pillow

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.

Purse       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.

 

New Territory

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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.

Trying something new

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 Simply Stylish Handbag

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Simply Stylish Handbag from U-handbag - detail

I have started looking at my pile of unfinished pre-kitchen projects, and this is the first one I decided to pick up again. I bought the pattern from U-handbag a little while ago – before I went into my non-sewing period. It came as a kit, actually – something I don’t usually buy, and still this time I did, because I just loved the fabric. I was looking for the pattern on the website just now, but it seems this exact pattern or kit isn’t there anymore. However, there is a description of it here, and a more recent version here – though I have to say, I like this one. I managed to cut the fabric, and after that it has just been sitting around, waiting for me to get on with it. So a few days ago I did.

Simply Stylish Handbag from U-handbag

This purse isn’t hard to make, and the instructions are very clear, though attaching the leather handle would be easier for someone with more hand-sewing skills than I have. Otherwise it was a fun project. The purse isn’t big enough to use as an everyday handbag (not for me anyway), but it’s big enough if you are going out for the evening and just need to bring a few items like your phone, money and whatever. I went with contrasting thread for attaching the leather handle, and I’m not quite sure about that decision – however, I do think the handle adds that little extra to make the purse look stylish.

I feel confident I will get a lot of use out of this one!

Simply Stylish Handbag from U-handbag - detail

What a Girl Wants

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One happy Floral Fantasma girl 

Ronja picked it out. I’m not too good at letting her choose the fabric (it’ll all end up pink), but this time she got to. I gave her the opportunity to pick the fairy fabric, and she did at first, but dropped it when she realized there wasn’t enough for this blouse as well as a summer dress in a few months. Good thing I had the “Floral Fantasma” from Alexander Henry as well. She went with some red dots from Moda for the neck line casing and sleeve edges. It’s girly, that’s for sure – and she loves it!

Floral Fantasma Blouse 

Today I made a blouse from the same pattern (Onion 20022) for Frida. It’s finished but I haven’t got pictures yet, so you’ll have to wait a bit for that one.

Reading 

In the meantime, we had a wonderful weekend. Nice and slow – we’re not getting out much at the moment, because we really, really don’t want Frida to catch a cold or something before her surgery next week. Her odds health-wise are pretty bad at the moment too – Mads has been having a severe cold this past week, and Ronja has just had a fever for a few days. Frida is still in the clear, and I am as well, so we’re keeping our fingers crossed. Of course, if she’s sick in any way when it’s time for the operation, they won’t operate, and they may push it a few months. Anyway, there’s no way we can keep the girls away from each other – above you see Ronja reading to Frida.

Mads finished building the small fence out front today – all it needs now is some paint.

Finished - all it needs now is paint

Water Lily Kimono and a cup of tea

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For a while now, I have been wanting to try this kimono-pattern made by Amy from Habitual. Yesterday I got started with the pattern, and today I cut the fabric and sewed it up. Ronja chose the fabric for the binding – and it’s a nice coordinate for the orange in the water lilies.

Water Lily Kimono 

Thumbs up to the pattern – it is quick and easy (and this is me saying that – I never think something is quick and easy), the instructions are really good, and they are followed by very clear pictures. I was planning on using my new bias tape maker for the binding, but mine is a 3/4″ (18 mm), whereas you need a 1″ (25 mm) binding maker. I did wonder if mine would do, but I decided that especially the ties would be to thin. I believe this was the right decision.

Water Lily Kimono - detail 

The binding will be much easier to make if you have the right bias tape maker, but it’s not a big problem without one either. Just takes a bit more time…

Water Lily Kimono - detail 

This is a great kimono-pattern. I made another kimono some months ago, when I had just started sewing, but this design is more simple, and I like the clean lines a lot. I have yet to try it on Ronja, but that’ll have to be for another post.

My model is sleeping on the couch at the moment. She wasn’t on top when I went to get her from kindergarten, so I’m letting her rest a bit for now. She has been coughing quite a bit, I sure hope she’s not coming down with a cold. Frida is sleeping too – when I was done with the kimono earlier this afternoon, she and I went to have a cup of tea and play a bit with Rikke and Nelle (from the mothers group), and I think the extra excitement in playing with Nelle made her wonderfully tired. Have to go more often – it’s really nice having a cosy chat with Rikke as well!  :)

Bird outfit for a little one

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A few of you guys have asked whether I made something for my new niece, and I did, so I thought I’d put it out here.

Bird outfit for my new niece 

I didn’t have that much time to make it, meaning it couldn’t be too complicated, and I still wanted it to be sweet and usable. I made the Nirunaru-dress from Ottobre for Frida a while ago (this was before I blogged about my sewing), and we have been using it quite a bit, over a long period of time, because it fits over several sizes. It is good for warm as well as chilly weather, because it can be worn over a onesie or a blouse to fit the conditions. I decided to make that for my niece along with a pair of matching pants.

The pants are a modified Onion-pattern, which in my opinion is great for babies. I left a small opening at the waist to make it easy to change the elastic, if needed. I added little details like flower-tags on both pieces, and ‘M’s for her name.

Bird outfit - detail 

The bird-fabric is one of my favourites from Amy Schimler‘s “On A Whim”-line, and the dotted fabric is from Moda.

I really like the way it turned out – the two pieces will be sweet together as well as by themselves, which is a good thing. I think they were pleased with it as well!