Category Archives: children

I didn’t actually say “never”. Or did I?

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It’s the first of December, so time to open the first door of the advent calendar. My children got vouchers for Christmas jumpers, or rather Christmas shirts. Why vouchers only? Because the shirts do not fit into the bags!

I did not mean to make the jumpers myself, but when I discovered the lovely, or rather supercool, Weihnachtstiere by Tante Gisi at biostoffe.at I couldn’t resist.

It features two giant Christmas themed motives, just ideal for the fronts of two shirts. So, you will only need two more fabrics for backs and sleeves. Nothing more.

I know, the clever clogs amongst my readers will feel the urge to remind me of my last post and that I said I would never e v e r again buy fabrics with one big panel. Clearly, I did not really mean never. There is no need to be so pedantic! After all, English is not my first language and minor vocabulary slips can happen to all of us. And anyway, the use of hyperbole is a sign of the highest level of rhetorical style and finesse! If you don’t get that than it is clearly not the fault of the speaker but of the recipient!

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Now, obviously this would look much nicer when worn by three pretty and well-behaved children. But as two-thirds decided not to wear them today and one-third decided to spill blood over it (nothing major, nothing that would justify to ruin a new shirt pre pictures at least, don’t worry), unfortunately this is all we will ever get.

DSC_1205pattern: Paul by pattydoo, fabric: Weihnachtstiere, designed by Tante Gisi for Lillestoff and red Kuller by Stoffonkel

DSC_1206pattern: Paul by pattydoo, fabric: Weihnachtstiere, designed by Tante Gisi for Lillestoff and stripes

DSC_1207pattern: Paul by pattydoo, fabric: I give you my heart, petrol by Stoffonkel and some more stripes

 

 

Never e v e r again

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My daughter likes cats? Why? I do not know? She thinks they are cute. I don’t. I personally only know 2 cats. No 1 was the cat of a flatmate about 20 years ago. She peed in my bed. Twice. Because I had offended her by leaving her alone to attend a lecture at university.

No 2 does worse in our garden. Probably because we have offended her by not letting her in our flat. Let me just point out that I am not the owner of said cat. I just happen to live in the neighbourhood. Why am I telling you this? Oh, yes, we were talking about cats. So my daughter likes them and as the loving and caring mother I am about 50% of my time, I thought I could make a top for her out of Mademoiselle Chat by Lillestoff, designed by Tante Gisi. It is a rapport fabric, featuring a giant cat head rather than a small print pattern. Already it looked giant for my skinny girl so I was looking for pattern for an oversized shirt to make sure that the whole cat fits on her tiny chest. And I found a lovely layered top, Lotty by kibadoo (so lovely that I bought the grown up version, too).

What I did not realise until I opened the folded piece of fabric, there were actually two giant cat heads rather than just one for the front of the top and lots of background for back and sleeves as I had expected it. Now, this is no ones fault obviously, I am not experienced in these kind of fabrics and wasn’t even aware of the different options and that it would be worth to check. The main reason why I do not like these types of fabric is that you can not use them very economically. There are always giant pieces left that are hard to use up. And this has really been my main goal the last couple of weeks. To get more space in my stash cupboard. So, it was just reeeeally annoying, that the one time I was thinking I could use only one piece of fabric and actually use it up, I actually had to buy two more pieces, one for the top layer and one for the top peeking out. Which meant I ended up with three huge pieces of left overs.

Lots of moaning, I know. But if you are living in Vienna you are legally obliged to spend at least 80% of your time being grumpy.

However, without that silly fabric saving background story, I am really pleased with the result. I do love the top, even if there is a cat grinning at me whilst probably secretly planning where to leave her next surprises.

DSC_1044 (2)pattern: Lotty by kibadoo, fabric: Mademoiselle Chat, designed by Tante Gisi for Lillestoff, Rapunzelringel and blue jersey all by Lillestoff

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I am really pleased I have been forced to looking for a new pattern. I have always been a fan of layers but I am not particularly fan of tracing patterns in 50 different sizes.

As I said, I have already bought the grown-up version MaLotty as well and made a lovely top for myself:

stretchy top underneath….

DSC_1111pattern: MaLotty by kibadoo, fabric: Lillestoff, surprise paquet

… plus oversized top layer…

DSC_1122fabric: Botanical by Hamburger Liebe for Albstoffe

…equals…. cool look

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Obviously it looks much cooler when worn but that would mean changing the complete outfit and finding a competent photographer which seems far too much effort at the moment. So, I’ll  leave it to your imagination. Just let me tell you that I find it so cool that I have already cut out the next combination, I simply haven’t got the time to sew it as I want to finish my private charity project first.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Third time lucky

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I’ll have to admit, I did get a bit side tracked last time when I meant to write about the spectacular First communion dress and ended up talking about shimmering sequins. Clearly that would have been very inappropriate for such a dress. Even I know that.

So, after the failure of our first shopping trip we tried again and came back with plain white cotton and some tulle with tiny dots perfect for a Leni by pattydoo, a pattern for a very nice and simple summer dress. Sleeveless. Which seems to be inappropriate for the occasion according to my mum.

By the way, very last-minute we had gotten informed that we would in fact not need a classic First communion dress. Any nice summer dress would do. Great to know, about two weeks before the event (not that I would have even started making it) after spending months and months selling the idea of a plain white dress (without any ANY colour!) to my daughter. And to myself.

I also knitted a cardigan as we couldn’t be sure if it will be 30 degrees or rather – 30 at the end of april. (See, I can still knit)

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Dress: pattern: Leni by pattydoo,fabrics bought at Komolka, Vienna. Cardigan: pattern: Posy by Georgie Nicholson, yarn: Lana Grossa Cool Wool Big (Merino)

Full circle skirts are great for dancing…

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The tulle layer is actually sewn on top of the finished cotton dress, the ribbon at the waist is hiding the ugly truth.

But why would a highly trained and skilled dressmaker with attention to detail do such a thing rather than treating the two skirt layers as one to have a clean finished seam on the outside?  Well, obviously the day of the First Communion was not the final destiny of said dress! So, the next day… ok, about two months later, I removed the ribbon and the tulle which is now serving as veil for dressing up and dyed the cotton layer blue. By the way, I had used cotton thread for the normal seams but I only had polyester thread for the serger. So whilst the seams have turned blue like the fabric, the serged seam on the finished edges has stayed white as anticipated.

Whilst a blue dress is obviously already a step forward, we were still not satisfied. After all, a blue dress is still monochromatic. So we cut some butterflies out of some gum….

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did a few trial prints on a similarly blue piece of fabric…

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and started to print butterflies onto the dress…

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Much better, what a relief.

However, as it is a woven cotton it creases easily and involves an annoying amount of ironing. I clearly hadn’t been thinking this project through.

Ok, what do you think? A project worth being the first post after such a long absence? After looking at it, I have to admit, I imagined it much better…. I guess this is not good enough! Back to the start then!

 

Come back, take two

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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…

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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.

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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.

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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.