Time for next Give-Away

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Now that the first two patterns are on their way to their rightful owners, once again you have a chance to win one of the following Onion-patterns donated by Maria at ShopOnion.com. The patterns include English translations of the sewing instructions – but of course, you are perfectly welcome to join in, whether you will be using Danish or English intructions.

Onion patterns 

The first pattern is from the Onion collection for women. It’s pattern #2026 – A very nice knit tunic/dress with neckline edge. Sizes XS – XL. There is an example of it here, sewn with Onion’s own fabric.

Second pattern is Onion Kids Wear #20038 – Comfy and cute wellness set, sizes approximately 2-8 years.

So guys – leave your comment to enter the give-away! I will be drawing two winners again – one for each pattern – if only one of the patterns is relevant to you, please let me know in your comment, and I will enter you in that draw only.

Friday 12th at 23:00 p.m. GMT+1 is when you can start checking for that winner’s e-mail!

And the winners are…

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So alright – I’ll admit, I have been busy. With December 1st coming up, I’ve had my hands full – haven’t you?

Evening view 

 Getting ready for December 1st in this house means doing a lot of things. I have been making an Advent wreath (well actually, that was for today), a decoration for the Advent candle, a gift calendar for Ronja – Frida isn’t quite old enough for one with 24 gifts yet, so I made her an Advent calendar, with a small gift for each Advent Sunday. Also this weekend, Ronja attended a princess gala birthday party at a friend’s house – and I accidentally promised her a new dress for the big event. That ate up a few afternoons…

And of course, what’s also special about this year’s December 1st is that it’ll be my first day at work since Frida was born. Still trying to wrap my mind around that one – and I’m pretty sure that Mads feels the same way! He’s going to be taking care of Frida at home for the rest of the time until her surgery to close her cleft palate, which will take place when she’s around 1½ years old. We don’t have the excact date, but he’ll be SAHD (Stay At Home Dad) for probably 5-6 months. Exciting!

However, I have been stretching your patience – I know. Sorry about that! Since Ronja is in bed by now, Mads just played the role of the goddess of fortune – and a very pretty one too, if I may say - and he drew the following lucky names out of the hat:

Winner of the pattern #10015 is Tara at Learning from Chavah

Winner of the pattern #20039 is Jenny

Congratulations to the winners! And to those of you that didn’t win, thank you so much for all your sweet comments – please come back for the next give-away. I’m putting the next two patterns (a kids pattern and an adult pattern) up within the next week. I’ll also need to tell you about all the other stuff – the princess dress, the Advent calendar, the Advent wreath, Ronja’s recent snow experience, our trip to Gisselfeld Christmas market, Frida’s recent breakthrough – gee, I’m behind!

Guys – now December 1st is not coming up anymore – it’s here. I’m off to find my bed!  ;)

Onion patterns Give-Away

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Folks, here we go! As I told you, Maria from ShopOnion.com has donated four Onion sewing patterns including English translations of the sewing instructions to you, my dear readers! Isn’t that just sweet of her? We’re starting with the first two.

Onion sewing patterns 

These patterns are in Danish, and to avoid any misunderstanding, Danes are just as welcome to this draw as those of you who are English-speaking. However, they do come with translated sewing instructions, which I will mail to you if you win. As they are quite new, I haven’t yet been able to try them out, but I will say that Onion patterns are great for beginners as well as experienced seamstresses. They are quite simple in the layout (nothing Ottobre-ish about the pattern sheets), have easy-to-follow instructions, and are perfect for embellishments of your own choice.

Pattern #10015 includes dress, tights, and jump suit in sizes 6 – 18 months. This pattern is directly cutable – no need for tracing!

Pattern #20039 includes tunic, dress, and berber pants in sizes 2-8 years.

All you have to do to be in the draw is leave a comment on this post. There will be two winners – one for each pattern. In order for the patterns to find the right owners, please let me know if only one of the patterns is relevant to you – then I will only include you in that draw. :)

The give-away ends Friday 28th at 23:00 p.m. GMT+1 – I will contact you by e-mail, if you are the lucky winner. Probably not right away, though, as I will be attending an End of the Year Party at that time.  ;)

Dress for the cold season

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A few days ago I made this dress for Ronja.

Dress for the cold season 

I used a pattern that I have used several times before, the Onion 20022, which is the same I used for Ronja’s Kindergarten dress and Frida’s Apple blouse. I used some baby wale corduroy that I bought recently, which was first used for adding a detail to a pair of pants for Frida, but this time I wanted to make it the main fabric in a dress for Ronja. For the sleeves I had some soft pink baby wale corduroy that matched nicely. I didn’t alter anything, I just added a pocket and appliqued some of the pattern from the main fabric to the sleeves as a bubbly detail.

Winter dress - detail 

I like this pattern a lot, because the dress is easy for Ronja to put on, nice and warm to wear and stays where it’s supposed to. And of course, because of the loose design it fits for a long time – which is also an important bonus. I didn’t do quite as good a job at the appliques as I would have liked to, but overall I’m happy with the dress, and I know Ronja is, which is the most important thing.

I wanted to show you…

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…something I made for me. I haven’t been sewing much for myself – I’m kind of hesitant because of the fitting-issue. Whatever you make for an adult needs to be fitted to some degree, and also the sizing just isn’t as simple as it is for kids.

However, I made something simple.

Ginger blossom top 

Or at least, it should have been. It has been in the category of unfinished stuff for quite some time – basically it didn’t turn out the way it should have. First I didn’t like the neckline from the original pattern, so I redrew the neckline while wearing the top and looking in a mirror. Then I wanted to finish the neckline and the sleeves with bias tape, but it just didn’t work out – I think I may need some practice in that department. The neckline kind of stood up in a funny way, so I undid the seam, and didn’t get any further.

A while ago, when my mother was visiting, she gave me the idea to make a facing instead. For a while I still didn’t get around to it, but this weekend, I did. I drew the pattern for the facing with the top as my template. Cut the facing in a different fabric to add a bit of contrast. And for something that initially didn’t turn out the way I wanted it, I’m pretty happy with it. This is me wearing my Ginger Blossom top. The pattern is an Onion pattern – 5005, however heavily modified.

And this is Frida – she knows where I keep my sewing machine…  :) Also, she models the “Vilkas” pants - already a favourite.

So this is where Mom keeps her sewing machine...

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!

Frida below the apple tree

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At the last part of my running route, I always see two horses – well, there are quite a few horses on the trip, but these two are different. They are standing close to the road, having their grassy dinner, and looking very peaceful. There are not many people around in that area, so I always go “Hi horses” when I run by. And they turn their heads and nod kindly (well maybe that last bit is my imagination, but you get the point), and they’re probably thinking “There’s that crazy lady again – whatever is she trying to catch?”. Anyway, I like our little rendezvous. My run yesterday evening was tough, so the friendly nod from the two horses was very welcome!

Got a few shots of Frida in the shade of the apple tree, wearing her apples yesterday.

Frida wearing her apples

I was amused that Jeannine in my comments on the last post tried to guess what Frida would be wearing with the blouse for the modeled pic. Could’ve been both red pants and blue jeans, Jeannine – however with the heat we’re having, I went with the more natural look.  ;)

Looking up through the leaves

As always, I was considering several combinations of fabric for this blouse, and I’m so glad I chose to leave the fabric alone.

By the way – Frida is soooo crawling now! Not just experimenting – really crawling!

And then one final thing: We just ordered our vacation, so we’re leaving tomorrow for a week in Greece! :)

Apple blouse for Frida

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I received some wonderful fabric earlier this week – some of the designs from Sandi Henderson‘s new line “Farmer’s Market”. And today I could not help myself – while Mads was out cycling, I made a little blouse for Frida. There’s nothing to it – it’s so simple. But you just gotta love it, because of the fabric. It’s such a cheerful, lively and sweet design, and yet so simple.

Apple blouse for Frida 

I serged it together which went really easily, though I must say I find it a bit harder to be accurate when I’m using a serger compared to my beloved sewing macine. The blouse went together quickly, and the only difficult thing about it was that I didn’t have a pattern for it – or actually I did have a pattern, but it was nowhere near Frida’s size. So I used an Onion-pattern for a size 92 and downsized it to something like a 68/74 - taking into consideration that a baby’s proportions are not the same as those of a 2-3 year old. That went well – initially the sleeves were too long, but luckily that’s one of the easy things to fix. I was thinking about adding elastics to the sleeves, but I decided that I like the loose look for a summer blouse, so I’m going with this. If I change my mind, the hems on the sleeves still have room for adding the elastic.

Apple blouse for Frida 

Now that the work is done, another great thing is I can use the pattern I drafted for the similar peasant blouse I wanted to make for Frida’s pants. However, that’s gonna have to wait a bit.

While I was sewing, Ronja was sitting next to me, writing!

Writing her name  

She now only needs a reminder here and there to write her own name, which I think is so cool – and she’s totally doing it for fun, which is even more cool. When I’m sewing, I also allow her to play with the pins – it does get out of hand once in a while, but as long as it doesn’t, we’re just having a really nice time together.

This is the 2nd day of our vacation, and given that maternity leave is not the quickest way to fortune, and since we still need to get away for a while, we’re looking at last minute travel deals. At the moment it looks like we may be going to Greece in a few days – but we’ll see… In the meantime the weather here is marvellous!