Come back, take two

Posted on 23/09/2018 by atelieroursonne

Ok, my last attempt to restart this blog with something spectacular clearly failed, so lets try again. Remember, when I went fabric shopping for the ~~boring~~ white dress for my daughter’s First Communion?

Let me tell you, ia couple of girls (and one boy) have experienced the best day of their life since then. Because I have made a couple of tops not only out of the rainbow sequins but also out of the more neutral blue/green ones. Am I exaggerating as usual? Possibly. But I did safe at least one girl’s birthday when all the presents were apparently a huge disappointment, until she opened my gift, a top featuring a shiny star.

pattern: Pia by pattydoo and Rock ‘n Roll by Klimperklein

Another, slightly younger girl got a Rainbow Fish…

pattern: Pia by pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff Glueckspaket

I guess the sequins are ideal for a fish, but I also really liked my daughter’s butterfly.

Clearly all these shiny applications seem to be for girls only but as you know, I don’t like these stereotypes and clearly many boys love those interchanging pictures too but they are just a little less into hearts and butterflies and more into cake palette knives.

pattern: Leo by pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff Glueckspaket

To be honest, all these shiny sequins got me slightly infected and I was close to make one for myself but in the end I am too lazy, it is far too much work to prepare the application. I will have to make one last one I guess. For the little one. I will hopefully be able to keep my promise otherwise it will be a severe case of neglected third child syndrome.

Hmm, I have just been proofreading this post and I have to say, as shiny as the pictures are, it is still not very spectacular. I guess, I will have to try harder.

Speaking of cool…

Posted on 30/04/2018 by atelieroursonne

I had totally forgotten to show you the items worn by the one person who I consider to be the coolest (clothwise) in the house.

It is the master of leggings and slim fit trousers.

pattern: Leggings Lilly by pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff (Glueckspaket)

pattern: Canelita by bienvenido colorido, fabric: freezing penguins by Lillestoff

I so wanted to buy this fabric but decided not to as the little one really did not need anything. And then the 6-year-old chose this particular fabric out of a million fabrics online for his new trousers! What good taste.

Not sure, if you can actually recognise it but this time I even made pockets at the back.

The girl has grown, too, so here are her trousers.

pattern: Canelita by bienvenido colorido, fabric: Rebekah by Lillestoff

And last but not least, I made another attempt in being cool by upcycling the carneval costume. She was dressed as a witch and we made a black dress for this purpose, already knowing that it would be altered afterwards.

pattern: Raglankleid by klimperklein, fabric: black sweat, purchased at biostoffe.at

I cut the fringe, made an normal hem, pink cuffs and ironed on some stars that I had cut out of plot foil to add some colour to the plain bl.. bl… it is really hard for me to say that…. black dress.

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To be honest, I don’t think it is cool at all but what do I know! (Nothing, in case you were wondering)

That’s if for now, it looks like Me Made May is around the corner, so I quickly need to get ready and jump on board in an other post.

How to be cool

Posted on 08/04/2018 by atelieroursonne

First, let me just say how happy and proud I am that you came to me to learn about coolness. Clearly, this means that you are, unlike my daughter, convinced that I am a really cool person. I keep telling her that my lack of coolness is the new cool. Well, not everybody seems to agree on that. So I was a bit stressed out, when I made clothes for my nephew and nieces, as some of them are… lets just say…. in a critical age.

Well, I guess, my oldest nephew is actually rather easy to handle. He is fine with stripes and only stripes. Stars? No thank you? Maybe some abstract pattern? No. So, stripes then. Yehes. So since years he gets a stripy hoody but I went out of the pattern comfort zone and went for a sweat Toni by schnittreif rather than the usual jersey Leo by pattydoo.

pattern: Toni by Schnittreif, fabric: Lillestoff

The 6-year-old nephew who is usually only into really manly stuff, like pirates, vikings,… anything armed really, happened to visit when I was about to make something for him. I naively showed him the few fabrics that I considered to be cool. He dismissed them all and chose two fabrics out of my stash and that’s what I made out of them:

pattern: Leo by pattydoo, fabric: bought for myself, years ago

pattern: Leo by Pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff (Glueckspaket)

I guess it was a bit silly to make the short-sleeved shirt with hood and the long version without but I had already cut out the hood when I started to look for a suitable fabric for the sleeves and I simply hadn’t had enough of the black and white for long sleeves.

The hardest coolness problem to solve was certainly my 10-year-old niece. That one really made me nervous.

pattern: Pia by Pattydoo, fabric: “Mannequin” by Lillestoff, design Susalabim

This top needed to be made out of two parts as when I had ordered this fabric, the pattern repeat had been cut wrongly with the girls on top and lots of grey at the bottom. So by making a yoke out of the fabric bottom piece, I have been able to move the girls at the bottom of the shirt.

I have also made a Pia for my daughter, out of the left over of a correctly cut repeat, so no need for a yoke:

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but for a different back fabric (it looks like this post actually qualifies for Scrap Sunday, doesn’t it)

Once finished with those two cool T-shirts, I started doubting again. Will a 10-year old find this cool? Especially if actually an 8-year old finds it cool? (Yes, my daughter did find it cool)

Nevertheless, I made another one. Mainly because I had already cut out the main pieces. And because I so wanted to try out a thing that seems to be called “destroyed negativ applikation”. In German though. It is cool to use English terms, you know.

pattern: Pia by Pattydoo, fabric: Lillestoff (Glueckspaket)

How cooooool is that?!

My daughter found it silly. I took it as a good sign.

So, when my nice came to visit, I was really nervous. Because up until now she thought I was some kind of super hero thanks to my sewing skills. And I didn’t want to lose this position.

And before the suspense is killing you, I can reveal that she found it coooool!!!!!!

Lets focus on the highlights

Posted on 02/01/2018 by atelieroursonne

I don’t know about you but in my universe today is December 2nd. Because I really meant to write the next blog post straight after the last one.

Speaking of it, I am clearly really good at time management and also keeping on track… Not sure, if I have mentioned it already but I am currently very concerned about the fact that I will soonish go back to proper work and if a career change might be an option. With my skills I should definitely look into something like a management position where you have to work to deadlines. Any suggestions?

Anyway, as I am realising that some of you might insist it is already January 2nd, let me just wish those crazy people a happy and healthy new year. To all the other reasonable and believing in my universe, enjoy a peaceful December full of relaxed evenings with mulled wine and ginger bread.

And since we will never agree on this issue, I might just focus on the more exciting projects lately rather than trying to post every single item I have ever made. Because I did have a very good few weeks sewingwise. I was working like mad to reduce my stash to have an excuse to get a Lillestoff Glueckspaket (or 3 to make the shipping costs more reasonable). Lillestoff, the organic fabric company sometimes has 1kg of fabric for 18 Euro which corresponds to 4-5 pieces of surprise fabric which really is a bargain. And exciting. But back on track.

I think I have mentioned before that some of my friends have finally reached an age where they could safely think of having a baby. So I can finally make some cute little things for cute little babies. Plus they have the right size to use up some tiny pieces of scrap fabric. But before doing that, I had to buy some of the cutest fabric ever: Zwergenwelt (world of dwarfs) by Susalabim. Before said babies had even been born.

I will still be able to use up plenty of fabric at a later stage. I am sure. One of the new borns is a girl and luckily, I will be able to make cute dresses and tunics …. Even in the extended family I am just about running out of cute girls with the youngest girl turning 3 already in March.

The other baby is a poor little boy who keeps getting dressed in 48 shades of blue and grey. His mum has already started to send me artsy fartsy black and white pictures only to hide that he is wearing another blue and grey outfit. She can’t hide it though as I can see it anyway in his disapproving and begging-for-colour look.

For this extended cuteness project, I have even invested in new patterns, especially designed for small baby items as I am planning to sew a lot for them (and you know how determined I usually am to turn my plans into reality)

The perfect newborn present seemed to be the Wickelshirt by klimperklein which can be opened at the front so no need to pull anything over the head.

So this is the girls version in 62:

20171204_141244 pattern: Wickelshirt by klimperklein, fabric: Zwergenwelt by Lillestoff, design Susalabim

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And the boys version in 68:

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I have also used this pattern for another new-born who needed a “partner look” with his older brother

20171204_141135 pattern: Leo by pattydoo and Wickelshirt by klimperklein, fabric by Hamburger Liebe

For me that is perfect partner look as the fabrics are individual enough but still visibly connected.

Lately, I had also spotted a few super cute baby garments online using the book Babyleicht by klimperklein. A book that I so not wanted to buy as it has only patterns up to size 98. So almost too late for my children. But there was a super cute tunic and also a super cute pinafore dress in it so I finally decided to buy it and I do not regret it.

Initially, I meant to use the Zwergenwelt for a tunic in 62 as well but it would have destroyed the very large pattern, so I went for a different fabric.

pattern: Knopftunika out of Babyleicht by klimperklein, fabric: left overs

I thought I needed some trousers to go with it and enthusiastically made these…

pattern: trousers out of Babyleicht by Klimperklein, fabric: left overs

I made superlong cuffs so they can initially be folded and then grow with the baby.

To be honest, I think it is a bad match but they can still be worn separately.

My last project for today is the little pinafore which I made for my god child. I used the left overs of a fabric that my daughters friend chose for her birthday present dress. A rather unusual choice (not sure if I showed it here already) but in any case perfect style for a pinafore I think.

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pattern: Latzkleid out of Babyleicht by Klimperklein, fabric: left overs

I find this sooo cool, unfortunately my daughter is far too old and uncute for this style. But if the little one comes after his brother, I might still be able to make another one at some point 🙂

Enough for today, Part 2 of the highlights produced lately will follow soon, probably on the 3rd, I would assume.

Atelier Oursonne

handmade for you

Category Archives: patterns written by others

Come back, take two

Speaking of cool…

How to be cool

Lets focus on the highlights