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.

The oilcloth project

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I have been wanting to try a tutorial from the U-handblog for quite some time now – just had to work up the nerve… She has lots of great tutorials there, but the one I had my mind set on was the oilcloth backpack. I have been preparing for it for a while (you guessed it, this is the project for Ronja I have been mentioning) - purchasing stuff, drawing the simple patterns, and cutting the oilcloth and lining. I ordered the sew-in interfacing from the U-handbag shop, because I couldn’t find it in the local shops here – I didn’t want to risk replacing it with something that wasn’t good enough. It arrived in the mail Monday, and yesterday evening I started sewing – so this is the final product.

Flowers and stripes backpack - mosaic 

Actually, I still need to do one thing. The backpack is for Ronja, and she doesn’t yet know how to tie a bow. Therefore, I want to add a cord stopper, so that she will be able to open and close the bag herself.

The bag did present a few challenges. First of all because sewing oilcloth just isn’t terribly easy. The tutorial recommends that you use a non-stick foot for your sewing machine, but I didn’t have one, and I decided to go ahead and give it a try without it. After making the bag, I would say that it isn’t necessary, but I do see why it would be nice to have. And I didn’t even use the really shiny kind of oilcloth – that would probably make it even more useful.

Flowers and stripes backpack - open flap 

One of the difficult things about sewing with oilcloth is that you are very limited when it comes to pinning, so you really have to keep an overview while sewing, because the fabric doesn’t always move the way you want it to. It worked out fine, though. The backpack isn’t easy peasy, but it’s not terribly difficult either – it just takes a bit of preparation, and a bit of patience, when doing the tricky parts. To tell you the truth, I was surprised at how quickly it all went, once I started sewing - the tutorial is awesome and very well illustrated.

I didn’t really alter anything – except that I chose to make the pocket 4 cm narrower, and I chose to use purchased cord instead of making a tie - naturally because it has to work with a cord stopper.

Ronja loves her new backpack – and that’s enough to make me happy. As a bonus, I’m really satisfied with the result myself – and I highly recommend this tutorial!

**UPDATE**

Sorry, I left out an important detail. The oilcloth I used for the bag is from Stof og Stil, a Danish fabric store, and for the lining and the straps I used Farmers Market from Sandi Henderson.

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.

Take 2: “Vilkas” pants

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Today I made another pair of pants for Frida from the “Vilkas” pants pattern.

 

This time I used fine corduroy only, which has no stretch at all. They fit fine, but I may make them slightly higher at the waist next time. As I did last time, I cut up the pattern for these as well (you should see my pattern – it looks like a jigsaw puzzle by now…) – only differently. I wanted to spice up the plain corduroy with some fabulous printed corduroy - also found in the new line from “Stof og Stil”. I think I’ll use that same fabric for making Ronja a pinafore dress – but that’ll be some time soon.

I went a little crazy with the topstiching… I don’t know if it shows above, otherwise maybe you can see it more clearly here:

 

Maybe it’s too much? Maybe I should’ve used a contrasting thread? You be the judge. :)

Look Mom – no training wheels!

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 Flower

I had a wonderful weekend! Beautiful surroundings, good food, and great company. We stayed up too late of course, but then again, what’s too late, when you get the chance of chatting the night away with a bunch of inspirational girls? I think Karen had a great birthday, definitely an example for others to follow!

When I got back home Sunday, Ronja was dying for me to see what she could do! So after we finished lunch, we all went out to the parking lot near the house, and this is what she showed me.

Without training wheels!!!

As you can probably tell, she was shining in competition with the sun, while showing me that she could ride her bike

without the training wheels!

Or maybe she was shining in competition with her very proud Dad – I’m telling you, even though the weather was wonderful, the sun had a mighty tough day getting through to anyone… What a family to come home to!
By the way, these pot holders are the first thing I made with the fabric, I showed you last week.

Pot holders 

They were a gift for Karen, and though they were actually part of a joke, and the real gift was something else, I quite like the way they turned out. I didn’t have a pattern or anything for them, so I googled a bit, and found these that I like, and then I tried imitating the style – not the fabric, though, that had already been chosen.