Tunic For Frida

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Girl's tunic

I finished a tunic for Frida last night. I actually started it Saturday, when I met up with two good friends for an afternoon of sewing. Surprisingly, I didn’t get any sewing done that day, because we spent hours chatting away. I did look at loads of patterns, though, and when I left in the evening, I had this one traced and cut. The fabric is from Stof og Stil, and the pattern is the Danish SYmagasin from March 2010. The style is very similar to the Forest Dress that I made last year, and Frida loves that dress. This one however is gathered instead of pleated, and it has ties in the front instead of buttons in the back. And it’s a tunic, not a dress – but that could easily be changed, if you want to. I love this one – pattern, fabric, the lot. If I were to make it again, I would make the ties slightly narrower  - tying a bow with these is just a bit tricky, but it’ll be ok.

Girl's tunic - tie detail

Of course it has my label in the back, but I also like the fact that the label holds down the facing a little bit more than the edge stitch would. This picture below also gives you a better view of the pattern of the beautiful fabric. I just might have to get me some more of that…

Girl's tunic - label

My Schoolhouse Tunic

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I did some sewing this weekend. It was weird really, because Saturday morning I stooped to lift up Frida, and as soon as Frida was off the ground, there was a crack in my back, and it hurt like … you don’t wanna know. It went on all Saturday through the night and Sunday as well, but when I started my sewing project it slowly went away. That must be some sort of sign, right? Seeew mooooooore….

As I was saying, I did some sewing. :) I bought the pattern for the Schoolhouse Tunic from Sew Liberated a few months ago, and I just love the design in its simplicity and elegance. I really don’t find much sewing time recently, so it’s been waiting for a spare afternoon, but now I have made my first version of this.

Schoolhouse Tunic

I used linen and a striped linen-cotton blend for the tunic, and I think the combo works well. The reason for using two different fabrics was actually that I thought I wouldn’t have enough linen, but I would have had afterall – I used nowhere near the amount that the pattern calls for. I made a size 10/12 (I’m usually a Scandinavian size 38-40), and I was worried it would be too small, but it could have been just slightly smaller. However, I didn’t prewash the fabric (never quite get around to doing that), so maybe it’ll shrink to a perfect fit – fingers crossed – when I wash it.

I can recommend the pattern – it includes easy-to-follow line drawings, and the tunic came together quickly. It is simple yet with details that give it a wonderfully finished look, so if you have sewn before and are wondering whether or not to give this a go, I would say jump right in – you can do it!

Schoolhouse Tunic - modeled

This is me wearing the tunic with jeans, but it is worth noting that the tunic/dress is quite versatile and can be worn with jeans, leggings, bare legs – and you can add a belt if you wish.

Now that I have you, I can also show you the dress I made for Frida a month ago. To Frida, the only scale that counts at the moment is the twirlyness-scale. I have made her a number of dresses, that she liked initially, but just don’t want to wear right now due to a low score on the twirlyness-scale – therefore my object with this dress was to get my creations well up there on her scale again. This is the result:

Twirly patchwork dress

I used different designs baby corduroy for the outer dress, and quilting cotton for the inside of the bodice. I made up the pattern for the skirt myself, but I was quite inspired by this dress purchased for Ronja from H&M 4 years ago – and loved to pieces by Frida! For the bodice I used an Ottobre-pattern from 3/2008 #15 – the tie-back tunic – I took out a little more than a centimeter from the middle, because it is very wide, and I added an invisible zipper instead of the ties. So back to the scale – does it twirl?

Twirly Dress for Frida

Twirly Dress for Frida

OH yes! :)

Amy’s Mini Dress

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Besides the Simply Stylish Handbag, another thing that has been waiting for me to get on with it, is the Mini Dress from Amy Butler.

It’s rather funny actually, because I first saw it in a friends Flickr-photostream. She made two versions of the dress, and before purchasing the pattern I asked her for some advice on the pattern. She quickly offered to lend the pattern to me, which is so sweet of her – also considering that she lives in Spain. So thank you so much, Eva! :)

Well, this is my version.

Amy Butler Mini Dress

As you can see, it was made for a different season (and a different skin colour) than the one we have now, but hey, spring is just around the corner, right? Please imagine the following photo with yummy chocolate brown skin (sure, like that’ll ever happen…)

I’m not sure what to think about it. I do like the design, but it has a slight tendency to look like a maternity dress because of the fullness in front. I didn’t press the pleat in front, because I’m still not certain whether that’s what I want. So anyway, even if the dress is quite wide, it has a nice fit in front, but in the back there’s just way too much fabric and nothing to fit it to the curves of my back. I’m working on what to do about that – I may gather it somehow at the waist to underline that there’s actually a female figure under there. No need to sew a dress if I want to look like I’m wearing a bag…

This is what it looks like in the front.

Amy Butler Mini Dress

I didn’t get a photo of the back, which means you’re also missing out on my perfect invisible zipper (love my invisible zipper foot, but I may have mentioned that 1, 2, or 100 times earlier…)

That’s it about this dress. I’ll let you know later in the year if it turns out I get a lot of wear out of it. :)

Light Summer Tunic

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You know already. But I’ll say it again: If you came here today looking for inspiration on children’s garments  – move on. Because I made something for me!

Frida and Mom 

The tunic is from a Danish sewing magazine, called Ingelise – issue #6, 2008. I like the pattern, but to be honest, I guessed my way through the instructions, which does show in the yoke area – but luckily mostly on the inside. Maybe I just need more routine sewing (of course I do), but as I don’t have problems following instructions from Ottobre or Onion, I tend to blame the instructions on this tunic specifically. Not a big deal, though.

Light Summer Tunic 

The fabric I used is a light weight cotton that I purchased online long ago from another sewer – it fitted the purpose beautifully. The yoke, button loops, and buttons are made with white linen. In general, I really love linen – also when it’s just part of a garment, it tends to give such a nice calm look.

Light Summer Tunic

The button loops scared me a bit, and the instructions didn’t give me much to go on, so I turned to the internet for a bit of assistance and found this tutorial. I didn’t do the paper backing, but used the pictures as a guideline, and also a comment below on how to turn the tubing for the loops came in most handy! 

Light Summer Tunic 

I did make a very simple blouse for myself last year, but this is the first garment I made for me, with a little more shape and details to it. And hey, I’m pretty happy with the result!

Easter Holiday

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Easter eggs on Easter branches 

We are so enjoying our Easter break here. It totally popped up at the right time! Yesterday, the first day off, was a day of painting Easter eggs and spending time in the garden. The weather is awesome, and for a few days now, Frida has been almost completely back to being the happy girl we had before her surgery, and it’s just a joy to see. She manages the arm splints brilliantly, and does just about everything she normally does – they really don’t seem to bother her much during the day. They only mess up her sleep a bit, but still, everything is so much better now, and we can only be happy about the way she’s coming round.

Ronja and I painted Easter eggs yesterday. Mads and I blew out the eggs, washed them, and left them to dry – and Ronja just couldn’t wait to get started with the paint! So check it out – before:

Ready for some paint 

During:

Ronja and Mom at work 

And after:

Colourful 

We had a lot of fun, and Ronja was actually a more patient painter, than I would have expected. I love the eggs she made! Afterwards we fetched some branches from the garden to for them to hang on, and I added some of the Easter stuff I have already.

Easter eggs on Easter branches 

We spent the afternoon outside – we still have to keep Frida from colds, but the weather was really warm and not too windy, and she absolutely loves being in the garden – as does Ronja!

 No room for Dad on this motorcycle!

I haven’t been getting around to do any sewing since I made nightgowns for the girls, but yesterday evening, shile Mads was playing with his motorcycle in the garage, I got around to cutting the fabric for a tunic – for me, myself, MOI! Yep, that’s right – it’s kind of a test drive really. The fabric for it comes from my stash, and I really want to check if the pattern is good, before I move on to possibly purchasing fabric for the next version of it. I hope I’ll be able to do some sewing tomorrow.