Some more skirts....

It's been so long since I have posted anything here, I have been too busy with work, house building and family life. But, I have had some time here and there to sew. I have had a lot of fun recently making all sorts of things from dresses, skirts to a baby sleeping bag and hot-water-bottle covers (posts to follow).  

Here are the skirts I made. I used a really good free patten from StraightGrain.  It's super simple, easy and really nice.  The first one I made was for  my Big girl and she couldn't decide which fabric to have for the outside and the lining so I made it  reversible. She loves being able to wear it on both sides. 
The fabric in the photo above is organic fabric from Cloud9 fabrics,  This was meant to be the main outside fabric, but then I bought 25cm of the star fabric below and she was torn between the two.  

 The reversible skirt idea worked really well, I just made the lining the same length as the outside, and now she has a new skirt every day. 

 The second skirt I made was for a friends little girl who is one and a half years old but I wanted it to be a bit bigger.  My little girl is modelling it here, it's a bit too small for her.  She really liked it and asked if she could have one too but she already has so many skirts.....

 for this one I used a nice girly fabric and a green lining and edging.  

 The third skirt I made was for the girls cousin's 11th birthday.  I  used a heavy weight fabric with blue elephants and blue edging and lining. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to get any other photos of it.  It was very happily received and she loved the fabric.  
This is a really great patten and so easy, it takes less then two hours to make a skirt and they are just great.  

Summer shorts

  

 Oh Dear, it has really been too long this time! We have been so busy building our house that I haven't had time for anything else.  Last week I had a few spear moments and as promised, I made my big girl some shorts for her birthday. When I say big girl I really mean BIG, she has just turned 9. I can't believe how fast they grow sometimes.

I used the Oliver+S patten: class picnic blouse + shorts. It's a really good patten, easy to follow and understand and everything fit together perfectly at the end.  There were some moments where I did wonder how on earth it would all fit together and look like the picture,  but in the end it did.  I am now a big fan of these pattens and I will definitely get some more (when I have time). 

My big girl is so happy with them she hasn't taken them off since I sawed the last stitch.



I bought some light weight denim for the main part and I used some leftover liberty print fabric for the edging.  I made a size 10 which is a little big, but the back has an adjustable elastic that pulls then together nicely. 
I hope she doesn't grow too fast so that these shorts will fit her for a while. 

The Kitten just had to be in the photo as well!

A New Dress

I got the sewing bug again.  A while back I started following a blog about sewing called Straight Grain and it has really inspired me to dust off my sewing machine and get busy making a dress for little girl.  This dress had a few firsts for me; first pattern I bought, first time I bought fabric on the internet, first invisible zip and first time I have ever made something without having to unpick at some point.  The pattern I used was the Hanami top and dress from Straight Grain.  It is such a great pattern and I can't recommend it enough. It comes with a few different options; with or without the collar, two different sleeve types and an option for a zip back or a cross back with buttons.  I asked little girl how she wanted it and she choose to have the zip back with a collar and flutter sleeves. 





















I bought the fabric from a lovely online shop selling beautiful organic fabrics called Georgette.   I bought two different fabrics, the one for the main part of the dress, it was blue with 'passing clouds' and one for the lining which is called 'up in the air', it has little swallows with light blue dots.  When the fabric arrived in the post I realised that the one I chose for the main part of the dress really was not suitable and didn't really go with the bird fabric. I loved the birds and really wanted to use it for the lining, so the challenge was to find something to go with it. I decided not to get something from the internet as it is so hard matching colour from photos, so I paid a visit to a little shop in town that also sells organic fabrics.  It wasn't too difficult to find something and I ended up buying some lovely vintage looking flower fabric that looks lovely with the birds.  They are both from a company called Cloud 9, they have some really gorgeous pattens and prints. 

The pockets weren't in the pattern, I added them on at the end and I wanted to turn them the other way around with the bird fabric on the outside but little girl was not too pleased with my idea and so the birds became the lining again. 

We have had some really lovely weather in the past few weeks and this is just the perfect spring/summer dress.  

Bears need clothes too!

 These little teddy bears belong to my girls, (big bear belongs to big girl and little bear to little girl).   The girls asked me a while ago if I could buy some clothes for the bears,  but I decided instead to make them a little outfit for Christmas. I used the left over fabric from the skirts I made in the summer, so big bear got the purple floral liberty fabric and little bear got the pink and red roses.    

I measured the bears up and made a little pattern, then cut out the fabric, sewed up the side and legs. After that I sewed around the waist with a lose stitch so that I could pull it together to make pleating.  

 I cut out a bit of purple fabric to make straps and edging, I made the edging piece longer then the waist so it can be tied in bow at the back.

The last thing I did was sew some pipers onto the straps and it was done.  
I made the same for little bear, only smaller and I bought some edging as I didn't have any red fabric.  Little girl can't tie bows yet so her bear got a button instead.  




I made them both a matching head band by sewing up a long peace of fabric to tie in a bow around the head.   

Happy smiley bears….. 

and happy smily girls in their matching skirts.  

Girls and Skirts

My girls love skirts and I was inspired to make them both a new one.  I thought it would be good to follow a pattern  and try something new. There are so many different patterns for different shapes and styles, I found it hard to choose. Finally I found a good one and ask my little girl if she liked it, and it was a winner.  After starting, I realised that it is not easy to follow a pattern in Dutch.  I asked for help with translating it, but it was just too difficult to understand what to do. So I abandoned the pattern and tried to work it out on my own.  
I got there in the end but it was not what I really wanted.  The waistband was too big and the skirt kept falling down.  I decided to take it apart and started again.  This time I used  big red elastic for the waistband and just sewed on the fabric.  It was very easy and it looks really nice.   

My big girl wanted to have the same but I couldn't find the right colour elastic. Instead, I copied a skirt she already has. It has an elastic in the waistband and it also has a petticoat with a bit of lace sawn on.  She loves it so much and they are both very happy to have a nice new summer skirt for this lovely hot weather.

   

A new tunic top

 My Big girl just turned 7 and for her birthday I wanted to make her something spacial.  I was given this very lovely, soft fabric from liberty which I used to make her a tunic.  I wanted to keep it as a surprise, this meant I could not measure her without her getting suspicious.  So instead I used one of her tops to get the measurements and made it a little bigger, just to be sure. Luckily it fitted and she is very happy with it.  

Sheepskin Gilet

Today is my little Girl's birthday, and yesterday I still didn't have a present for her, so last night I was in a bit of a stress.  I try to always make something for the girls for their birthdays but this year I was stuck as what to make.  Last night I was looking through all my bits and bobs and found some leftover sheepskin from an old coat that I made in to a gilet for myself.  I was going to use it to make slippers but it is too soft.  So I had an idea to make a little gilet for her birthday. She was very happy this morning with her new gilet and her new hat and scarf that she got from her auntie. 

A Birthday Dress

Finally after a few months I have made the big sister a dress as promised.   She just had her birthday and so it became her birthday present from me.  I bought two different types of materiel, I got silk for the main part of the dress and some cotton for the lining.  I also got two buttons for the back and some lace to use as a trim at the bottom. 

A Little Blue flower Dress

Today I made a Dress for my daughter.  I got the idea from a dress she already has but is now too small for her. It's fun and simple to make.  This is how I made it.

•    I used 1/2 a meter of fabric for this dress and it was just enough.  This dress is made to fit a 2 to 3 years old, so if you are making one a bit bigger then buy 1 meter, you can make a sash or something with the leftovers. 

• First cut out the shape to make the straps that go over the shoulder making sure they are long enough to tie (see photo).  Cut out 2 straps going to the right and 2 going to the left for front and back + cut out the same for lining (this can be a different color) Then sew lining straps to the outer straps with right sides facing. Then turn right sides out and top stitch around 3mm from the edge. You should then have 4 pieces, 2 with straps to the right and 2 to the left.  Pin 1 right strap to a the left in the center with about 5 cm cross over, this can be adjusted  to get the right size, do the same for the back. Then sew the 2 under arms together.  

•  Cut out 2 pieces of fabric twice the size as the top and sew up the sides with right side facing.  Then pin and fold to the top part of the dress, this will give a pleating effect.  Sew together with right sides facing. Then sew on the edging to the bottom and trim around the middle were the seam is. I bought my edging but you can make your own its just a lot more work.

 

This little girl is very happy with her new dress and now her big sister wants one as well.