It definitely makes me want to sew summer clothing, so yesterday I made another dress from the latest Ottobre – this time for Frida. I picked out 5 or 6 fabrics that I would be happy to sew it up in, and Frida made the final decision, which is a beautiful design from Heather Bailey’s Nicey Jane collection.

The dress is #18 (design B) from Ottobre 3/2011, and in spite of the simplicity of the design, it has the piping at the neckline and the bias tape at the hem to add a few nice details. I traced a 98 length and a 92 width, and it’s a perfect fit. The bias tape I used for the hem is Michael Miller gingham, and I used it for the piping as well, cut in halves. I even managed to find som matching daisy buttons for the dress – it could not be any more summery, and Frida loves it.

I haven’t made piping before, and it’s not perfect, but it’s not bad either – I found it a little hard to work around the strap roundings, I probably should have stretched it a little more through the curve. Anyway, this is the perfect summer dress!

Meanwhile, it’s always hard to predict what will happen to the stuff you sew, isn’t it. Take the tulip dress – I almost had to bribe Ronja into modeling the tulip dress… Why? Apparently, it’s scratchy. If any of you guys have a quick fix for scratchy linen, let me know, because I’m afraid otherwise there is no rescue for the dress. But here she is wearing it – at least she looks content.

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.

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.

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!

I could tell you long stories about my pneumonia that went on all through Christmas and New Years, or how I can’t seem to quite get rid of my cold and get back on top – but I won’t. (Just did, didn’t I – that’s because I’m still just slightly bitter about it…)

Instead I’ll show you what I’ve been sewing since we finished my new sewing room. Which I entirely love, by the way. Every time I’m in there, one of the girls comes along and wants to sit next to me at the wonderfully long table, doing something creative. Sort buttons, draw drawings, or play with boxes of sewing equipment. I have no doubt I will be spending many hours in there with the girls, enjoying some nice times and cups of tea.

The first one is a fleece sweater that I made once before – #11 from Ottobre Design 04/2007. Ronja outgrew it and passed it on to Frida, so I wanted to make a new one for her. This below is the first one I made almost 3 years ago – don’t think I ever posted it on the blog, so here it is:

And this is the new one that I finished this past weekend. I used polar fleece from Stof & Stil, which is really thick and soft – more so than the ordinary fleece which I used for the first one.

I chose the green colour, and then I appliqued a tree on the back to just give it a bit of a girly twist. Ronja seems to love it, and it is heavenly soft and warm, so I think it’ll be just as loved as the first one.

Then I made a couple of night gowns for Frida. The first one was made in a desperate attempt to make use of my Christmas vacation even if I was sick all the time. I wouldn’t recommend that kind of sewing, though – I had to undo quite a few seams, after joining the pieces wrong. Anyway – it turned out ok.

And this is the other one – much less troublesome. The pattern for both night gowns is Onion 20021.

My new woven label from MinaNamnBand.se is attached on the back:

I sketched the ballerina from a picture on the internet, and sewed it on with a short straight stitch. That way it will fray slightly on the outside of the stitches, but that will be part of the “look”. I used the same technique for my matryoshka appliqué, and that worked just fine – actually that blouse has been in use for a year now.

The pattern is #7 from Ottobre 6/2009, and I shortened it a bit to make it give it more of a girly shape. Still considering whether to add a tie in front – it might work well even if it’s fine the way it is.

Yesterday we had a very nice afternoon after we all got home. The girls spent a while jumping and playing on the trampoline, and it was a joy to watch how Ronja took good care of little sister – doesn’t always go that way, but they were just great together.

Mads went to pick up another bargain for the kitchen – a brand new induction cooktop that someone didn’t find use for anyway. At a great price of course!

I finished an overall for a tiny baby that has just arrived in the family – we’re going to visit on Sunday, so I wanted to make something. The little girl was born 3 weeks early, so she is rather small, and I chose to make the #3 from Ottobre 03/2007 in a size 50. It is SO small – I really hope it will be the right size, because I wanted to make something that they can dress her in right away. I’m pretty confident that they’re not following my blog, so I dare post the pictures even if we’re not giving the gift until Sunday. Actually I think that half the pleasure of making a present like this for someone, is that you spend the entire time thinking of that someone.

I used twill instead of a knit, and I didn’t add cuffs to the legs, because I like the look of adding elastics better for these. If you think you’ve seen something similar from my sewing machine before, you aren’t entirely wrong – see here. It was one of our favourite garments at the time, and I just love the look and quality of the twill. Now my little niece Marlinde is the very pretty keeper.

Earlier in the week, I made a pair of velour pants for Frida – they came about in a bit of a dispair because I hadn’t sewn for so long! (Yes, I actually had my sewing machine out twice this week, can you believe it?)

The pattern is Onion 10009, and I made them a size 86, which turned out to be a bit too big for Frida yet. I even narrowed them a lot around the bottom, because they were sooo wide! This velour is from Stof og Stil, and it is wonderfully soft. I may just make myself a pair of pants like this.

Right now we’re on our way to Legoland, and then we’re headed up to visit my mother. Have a wonderful weekend everybody!

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.

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.

Last night we celebrated Midsummer Evening. The weather was beautiful, so we had invited good friends over for barbecue in the garden, followed by walking to the big bonfire just on the outskirts of the town, behind the church, by the fields and the woods.

I love the warm atmosphere that is so unique for this particular evening! We had a wonderful time, walked back, and stopped by a new playground that’s been built not too far from our house. The kids went to bed waaay too late, and I was grateful that both girls were tired, yet happy this morning when I went to wake them up (which I never usually need to do).

As our friends were visiting, I had a chance to give them this.

Three and half weeks ago they had a little baby boy, and I wanted to make him something nice. Since Frida practically lived in the two rompers I made her last year for summer, I decided I would make him the same romper from Ottobre 3/2007 in the boys version. I used one of my OttoBear tags to embellish it, and while I was sewing it on, I realized it was a perfect match – the boy’s name being Otto. The romper looked huge next to that tiny baby, but I hope he will grow into it over summer – they do tend to grow quicker than you anticipate.

When I came home with the girls this afternoon, it was windy, but still very nice weather. It may not have been quite warm enough for Ronja’s new summer dress, but she really wanted to try it on, and I didn’t put up much of a fight.

It’s getting more difficult to take good pictures of her. I don’t mean that she’s growing to be less beautiful, but she’s becoming increasingly conscious, meaning that the second I get out the camera, she starts to pose. Now, I may be difficult that way, but I don’t want children to be posing in pictures. I’d much rather get a shot of our girls quietly (or loudly – I did say our girls) playing by themselves, totally consumed in whatever role they’re into at the time. The nature of modeled shots definitely makes this challenging, but with Ronja’s present conscious modeling-mode, that’s just plain impossible. She makes funny movements with arms and legs, that are supposed to resemble a cross between what she has seen in magazines and the neverending grace of the princesses of “Barbie and the 12 Dancing Princesses”. Ehhmmm – hopefully that’ll all get better with age.

I like this one, though – and there she is wearing her new sunflower dress.

There’s nothing pink about it – and she loves it all the same! There’s another one here where it’s a bit easier to actually see the dress.

I myself have done a little bit of sewing – I made Ronja a summer dress from the latest Ottobre. It’s called the three-way dress.

Actually in my version, it’s going to be a two-way dress, because I’m not too much into the third version that has unattached sleeves, but I am going to make the little wing-like sleeves in the second version to attach to the ribbon. However, I ran out of the kid check fabric from Michael Miller, so now I’ve ordered some more here – I’ll finish when it arrives. In the meantime it’ll be a one-way dress… 

I have to tell you about the fabric, because I think it’s gorgeous – I got it from Fabric.com on sale, it’s designed by Jane Sassaman, and comes from a line called Prairie Gothic. There are several colourways, but this is my favourite – no question. I hope Ronja will find it girly enough.

Also I promised you pictures of Frida wearing her chicken-pants, so I got some yesterday. They have been washed and sun-dried already, and this must be the fourth day of wear for these pants.

The peonies didn’t take the rain very well – the flowers are way too heavy to endure an attack like that, so they are almost flat on the ground now. I’m sure Frida is trying to make them better here…

A few days ago, I received a package from a very dear blogging friend of mine. She had seen the most recent issue of the Dutch children’s pattern magazine Knippie, and thought that I would like it.

And I do – it has some wonderful patterns, and I will definitely be making some of the stuff in there. I’ll probably need her help for a bit of translating, and perhaps my Dutch sister-in-law will be able to help me too. Also the card and the little tissue holder that came with the magazine are greatly appreciated. Thank you so much, Mirre!

I altered them slightly from the pattern which is from Ottobre 2/2003. The smallest size was an 86, and normally I would make Frida an 8, so I made them slightly narrower in the legs, and the fit is really good. I thought about having square pockets instead of heart pockets, but I decided it would look cute – and I think it does.

I tried the pants on Frida before I closed the casing for the elastic, and finished the hemming – and they look so cute on her. I’ll get a modeled shot soon, so you can see for yourself.

Frida is already quite enthusiastic about the chickens…

Oh, and then I just think this goes perfectly with the colour of the pants – we have more peonies in bloom now, and I just love them!