Frida saw a picture of a patchwork blanket for a teddy bear in one of my sewing magazines a few days ago. She was quick to order a blanket for her Hello Kitty build-a-bear, and I didn’t put up much of a fight. A year ago or so when I last wanted to try making quilt, I ordered a few charm packs from Fat Quarter Shop. I broke open one of those for the picnic blanket – one from Moda called Patisserie.

So I got everything aligned nicely and sewed up all the little squares, and then I thought: “Well, this didn’t take too long, and I’m almost done!” And then I got started quilting, and found out that I was not nearly done.

I struggled a bit with the quilting foot, and I’m learning from the beginning how to control pace, movement, pattern and everything.

As usual, I have been using different sources for instructions: I found help for many things on YouTube, and especially Leah Day has gathered what seems like a year of quilting lessons there, and she is quite pedagogical. Check out for instance her thoughts on basic quilting designs here. And I used her tutorial on how to bind the quilt here and then for the final. She has loads of detailed and really great videos on how to make different quilting designs, which is really inspiring.

All in all – including watching lots of videos on YouTube, learning new techniques, using a new presser foot etc. then for the final closing of the binding after I had attached it all the way round, I used this tutorial from Heather Bailey, which shows clearly how to join the two ends.

To the right here, you see Frida just after she made Hello Kitty at the Build-a-Bear shop following her birthday last year. The cat is almost as big as Frida is, and it takes up just as much space in her heart.

Now Hello Kitty will definitely be able to go picnicing with Frida – which she has been today actually.  So here’s the result:

I’m fairly happy with it, although I acknowledge, that I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to quilting. Anyway, while I was attaching the binding yesterday evening, Ronja was watching. And now she wants one. And that is what I’ve been working on today, but it isn’t done yet, so you’ll have to wait. See ya!

I had a very nice weekend! Most of my Saturday was spent with a very good friend of mine, walking the streets of central Copenhagen, checking out some of the wonderful fabric shops, and just talking, talking, and talking. This doesn’t happen too often, and we could have kept talking for days, no problem. We didn’t have quite as much time before the shops closed as we would have liked to, but we definitely saw some shops that I will be returning to. We went to Stof 2000, City Sycenter, Handler Textiler, and Skipper Stoffer, and I think that out of these my favourite was City Sycenter – they had a large selection of different quality fabric, as well as a great variety of buttons, ribbon, bias tape, etc. I didn’t buy anything, because I just wasn’t sure, what I needed – however, I know exactly where to go when I come back.

***UPDATE*** I have had a lot of questions asking about online fabric shopping, so I have gathered some of the shops I like the best here. There should be some yummy fabric for everyone as well as some tips for fabric shopping abroad.

Yesterday, I made myself something. I have been wanting to do something with smock for a while, and upon returning to this smock tutorial (which is in Danish) I just decided to go for it. I wasn’t sure how it would work out, given that I haven’ done any smock before – only a few rows of it in this blouse. Therefore, I found some fabric in my stash that I haven’t been able to find a purpose for yet. It’s by the colour-loving designer Kaffe Fassett, purchased at Fabric.com.

The construction is so simple – it’s really all about cutting a square of fabric, sewing a side seam, and then making rows and rows of smock. I finalised it with straps, and that was that. I quite like it, and what’s more, so does Ronja. Which brings us to the versatility…

That’s right – it fits her beautifully as a dress, so I’m thinking every second time I put it back after washing it goes to my closet – every second time to her closet. Take a look for yourself:

Isn’t it funny that the same measurements I use for a top for me, can be used to make a perfect dress for Ronja? Anyway, I love smock dresses for children, so I’ll probably be making more summer dresses for the girls after this!

The tutorial is great, and I would definitely use it again. I used a Japanese linen-cotton blend with circus elephants that I found at a Danish fabric shop, Malika&Rosa.dk. I can totally recommend it, by the way – even though we all know fabric’s pricy in this country, she really has my kind of sewing shop with a pretty delicious selection!

For the lining I found some white fabric with little green dots, and for the soles I used two layers of baby cord. The little guy is a newborn, so obviously there’s no need for reinforcement for crawling or walking, and I don’t think there will be while they fit him. They looked so tiny when they were done – you forget how small newborn babies are, don’t you? I made a drooling bib to go with it (that was a first, but I drew the pattern myself, and it came out pretty nice, I think) - you can see the ensemble here.

I was supposed to visit during this week, but as I mentioned I’m down with a soar throat, so no visiting newborn babies for me. Therefore, I shipped off a small parcel yesterday – hope I get to see him soon, though!

That being said, Frida needed some new pants, so I digged up the Vilkas pattern from Ottobre, that I used a few times before, and this time I went with a soft and warm, pink velour. I made them the same size as before, except slightly longer than earlier – and they fit fine. If anything, they’re a little bit big. I think I proved, that this is a versatile pattern, right?

I’m happy with the result, and more importantly – I did some sewing, and it felt pretty good!

 **UPDATE**

I’m getting several questions on the waistband, so I want to share the source for the instructions. Charlene from the Ottobre Group did a photo tutorial on the subject a while ago. It explains how to serge on the elastic, and I wanted to give it a try, even though I normally use my sewing machine for that. It worked really well, so this is definitely a recommendation!

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.

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.