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.

CentiLong Quilted Vests

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I have two good Danish friends who have joined forces to make sewing patterns, under the name of CentiLong. I have been wanting to try the patterns for a while, but their first e-book with several sweet patterns, was for smaller sizes, so I couldn’t use those for our girls. However, recently they finished two patterns that covered Ronja’s and Frida’s sizes, and the weekend before Frida and I were going to the hospital, I made one of them for her, a quilted vest from this pattern.

Frida modeling her new vest

Quilted vest

You may have noticed it in my previous post about her surgery, because at the times when she wore her own clothes instead of her nightgown, she wanted to wear the vest as well.

Now, after we returned from hospital, Ronja wanted one like it, and I finished her’s a few days ago. I made this bias tape myself – the one for Frida’s vest I found in some American online shop. I used covered buttons for both vests and the same light quality denim/linen blend for the outer fabric. I have to learn to not spend too much fabric when I have to quilt it – I tend to cut out too much before I quilt, and then I have to cut away quite a bit after it is quilted. But then, I don’t really have any experience with that, so I guess, I just need to do it some more. The pattern is great – I love the shape of the vests. The girls are both slightly small for their age, and I made them a size 104 and 116 which both fitted nicely.

11 appliqué

As you can see, it has the number 11 appliqued on the back, which is Ronja’s own choice – don’t ask me why though, apparently it had something to do with 12 being a significant number in fairytales, and the fact that 11 comes just before 12 makes it special. Whatever, 11 it is. :) She looks a little sad in that first picture, but she really wasn’t. I think she is trying to come up with all kinds of looks that she finds model’ish, when I ask her if I can take a few pictures. Doesn’t prohibit her from cracking up, though.

Vest

They wanted their picture taken together afterwards, and this is what I got. Well, well…

The girls

The other pattern from CentiLong that fits the girls, is definitely also one, that I want to try. It’s a quilted jacket, and a bit of a mouthful for me, I think – especially because of the quilting. But I love it, and when I have the time, I’m going to try it. I’ll let you know when I get to that. I know that Lis and Christina are looking into having their patterns translated for all you English-speaking seamstresses, so I’ll keep you posted on that as well.

In the meantime, you can check out my new list of sewing terms translated from Danish to English (and the other way around) that I made for you right here. Let me know if there’s any way I can improve it for your use, or if you are just missing words. And do feel free to share the link – I made it for anyone who could benefit from a list that translates either one or the other way between English and Danish.

Finally, last weekend I made these patchwork pillows. Quick and easy, and I quite like them. After a while without time for the sewing machine, I’m trying to find my way back there – can you tell?

Patchwork pillows

Summer Sunflower Dress

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After a heavy rainfall that lasted a few days during the end of last week, this weekend offered nice weather for the children to play outside.

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.

Sunflower Summer 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…  ;)

Sunflower Summer 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.

Frida with the peonies

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…

Frida with the peonies

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.

Knippie

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!

Wild Nature Top

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Ronja modeling the   

I made this top for Ronja during the weekend. It doesn’t go with the pants she’s wearing, so you’ll have to insert imagination here. But it looks like an easy project, right? Well, I can tell you, that I have never ever made as many errors with a project as I did with this one. It maybe due to the fact that it got rather late Saturday night, and I was tired and watching a movie while I was sewing - but still. When I picked it up to finish it today, everything kept on going wrong..! I did it all – stitched things together in the wrong ways, sewed through layers that weren’t even supposed to be under the needle, serged something off(!) that wasn’t supposed to come off… Yep – I did it all! It’s incredible really, because when you look at it now, it’s not really visible. It is a little bit on the inside, but that’s it. You may be able to tell when you look at me because of the hair I ripped out, though…

  

  

I don’t believe the pattern is to blame, honestly. It’s the “Wild Nature” Babycord Top from Ottobre 06/2008, it has a sweet shape, and there’s nothing very difficult about it. Except, who am I to say after this…

The fabric is wonderful – this too came from Jo-Ann’s and was a part of this parcel. It’ll be great with long sleeved t-shirts under, and for jeans or neutral skirts. I like it – I really do. I just hope my next project will fight me a little less…

Clowns and Angels

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Yesterday, we all went to Fastelavn – you know, the thing I told you about the other day. And Ronja was indeed an angel – here she is on the wings.

On the wings 

On the wings  

Saturday I had been making an outfit for Frida as well – a clown costume to be exact. I based the costume on the Onion pattern 10009 that includes a pair of basic loose pants, and a blouse that buttons on one shoulder. I modified them a bit – the pants are meant for rib at the lining and at the ancles, but I decided that elastics in dotted casings would work better for my tiny clown. The blouse pattern is meant for a knit, and has a rib at the neckline – I switched it and went with wovens and a clown collar at the neckline. I covered the collar edge with bias tape, made from the same fabric as the collar. Then I embellished it with a tiny pocket and two flower-buttons.

A colourful clown 

I threw all kinds of colourful fabric in the pool; Michael Miller, Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, and a bunch of other stuff - and above you can see how it all turned out. Below, you can see the caring big sister holding hands with the little clown, while they’re having their picture taken together with Ronja’s friends Emma and Ida.

Fastelavn 

The Fastelavn-party took place in a gym, and all the kids lined up in different lines according to their age, to beat the cat out of the barrel (this very traditional event at Fastelavn has got to make no sense to many of you – read more about it here - about halfway down). Ronja had fun with her friends, and although I think the experience was a little overwhelming to Frida, she found it exciting as well.

Afterwards, Frida and I went to meet with my mothers group. It has been quite a while since the last time, because we’re all working now – but we had such a nice time, and the kids are just growing up so quickly. It was great to see them all again, and to watch the children play! Frida was exceptionally tired when we went home, so she had herself a good long afternoon nap.

Ottilia angel

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Yesterday evening, I finished Ronja’s angel costume, which is based on the Ottilia dress from Ottobre winter, 2007.

Angel costume with wings and headband 

It’s made up of a dress, an underdress, a headband (as a halo), and a pair of wings. For most of the dress, I used white cotton and baby cord, which was pretty cheap. For the hem panel of the underdress, I added a layer of silverish net fabric over the fine cord to make it glisten a little, and for the dress itself, I ironed on rhinestones, edged the sleeves with feather boa, and added two types of silver ribbon. I left out all the frills, because I don’t find frills particularly angelic – angels are more into serenity, if y’all know what I mean… For the headband I found some silver elastic, and as for the wings – well, I went and got those from a toy shop… Sorry! Pretty much everything except the wings came from Stof og Stil – a Danish fabric store.

Ronja has a pair of slightly silverish sandals, which she will be wearing with the costume.

Ottilia angel mosaic 

The dress came together easily enough, actually. I really don’t feel the need to gather anything anytime soon, but then at the same time, I’m totally in practice! The silver ribbons were a bit stiff, which made the curve on the edge of the dress kind of tricky, but that went fine as well. I used elastic tape for gathering the sleeves in the middle, like the instructions say, and I must say, that is just brilliant – so easy! I used blanket stitches to edge the sleeves, to have something to pull the boa through. The boa can then be taken out, when the dress needs washing – which believe me, it will! Thanks to my invisible zipper foot, the zipper didn’t cause me any trouble either, so really – everything just went together quite nicely.

Feather boa edging the sleeves 

Need I say that Ronja loves this costume? And need I say, that I wonder how our 4-year old will look after a few hours in an all white dress, when she isn’t quite as angelic as she starts out?  ;)

Nevertheless – I really like this one! Good thing we have two girls!

**UPDATE**

Rikki just mentioned the fact that she has no clue what this costume is for. Of course, Rikki – that didn’t even cross my mind. Most readers of my blog won’t know, so that’s a pretty good point! Thanks!

In Denmark we celebrate Fastelavn at the end of February. I believe a common translation is shrovetide. In Denmark we don’t usually dress up for Halloween the way other parts of the world are known to, so fastelavn is basically our carnival. You can read a bit more about it here.