Ticking some boxes

Posted on 04/09/2015 by atelieroursonne

It has been a busy week and I have been able to finish a few things on my list, for example I managed to finish the cardigan for my auntie…. well, except for the buttons. I did buy some but I am not sure if I like them. I bought them without taking the cardigan which is never a clever idea. We will see. Oh, and baby blanket no 1 is only missing 3 squares. And lots of sewing I guess.

I also made a beautiful knight’s costume but that really deserves its own post. I am not sure if it is a good sign that some mothers attending the best birthday party ever (Really. No fights. No interfering needed.) thought that the fabric of the helmet would make a beautiful skirt.

You’ll soon be able to form your own opinion, as – much to my surprise – the knight was actually wearing the costume for about 5 min! On the same day he got it! Who would have thought?! Certainly not I.

And I have not only finished some of the yoga bags, I have even already sent them on their long journey to Austrian country side.

I have finished two of the waterproof ones, I just looove these fabrics and I so want to make a bag for myself out of the brown one:

On my last trip back home I have also finally realised that the local taste is more subtle, not quite as loud, colour mixing and childish as mine (It only took me about 38 years to realise) so I attempted to create some more tone in tone, maybe slightly more sporty, even manly ones rather than cute flowery playful ones. Oh, well, I did try but see for yourself.

For the next one I used a very special fabric that I have in my treasure box since a few years. It is a precious, very expensive left over Marimekko fabric and I was wondering for years what I could use this rather thin stripe for. It was just enough for two very special yoga bags and I do hope that they will find a lovely and caring new owner 🙂

One of them is on it’s way to Yogastueble in Austria:

And the other one is actually in my etsy shop:

I have also made one “traditional” one, which is on its way to Austria.

It is really interesting, sometimes when I choose the fabrics for a new bag, I might not be too keen on the combination initially (when I try to suit somebody else’s taste rather than making something for me), finding it maybe too “boring”, like the green one, which is the most tone in tone bag I have ever produced. But then, when it is finished, I really like it. The green one is now almost my favourite (but please don’t tell anybody). I say almost because if I had to chose between the Marimekko one and the green one, then I would still go for the Marimekko I guess 🙂

But enough of the yoga bags for now. Tomorrow we will have to attend a Peter Pan themed birthday party where we are asked to come as a pirate and a Tiger Lily. I had to google the latter. And the pirate told me already that he does not want to be a scruffy pirate. Not sure what a smartly dressed pirate looks like but in any case I do not want to spend too much time on costumes for a one off event. I will keep you updated though.

Happy New Year

Posted on 29/08/2015 by atelieroursonne

For me end of August beginning of September has always been the start of a new year, pupil, student, teacher, then a bit of a blurry break where I never new which month we are in, then mother of nursery / school children.

So it would be a good time to look back at what I have been up to last year (especially as this blog is still not up to date, I owe you a few finished projects) but considering the amount of work lying ahead it makes more sense to have a look at the to do list first and do the sentimental look back when I have a bit more time. Which is most likely in…. never.

Some projects I have already started, for example….

+ lots of new yoga bags, deadline sooner rather than later

Not only I seem to be starting into a new year, the Yogastueble will also start its new term soon so lots of yoga bags are needed. I also want to take the opportunity to refill my etsy shop which is currently empty.

I took a rather industrial approach, making them in batches rather one after the other which means that I have a lot of half finished bags and not a single finished one which is somehow depressing so I might just finally finish some off to make sure I could send them off any day.

+ the cardigan for my auntie, deadline not that important but I really want to tick on thing on my list

I got already the missing last ball of yarn and finished the main body. But the sewing together seems to take more time than the knitting.

+ baby blanket for my future nephew, deadline in about 2 months

Knittingwise I am over halfway through but it will take a while to sew those pieces together.

+ baby blanket for my future baby, deadline in about 2 months

Haven’t quite started that one just yet.

And then there is a whole list of things that I haven’t even started yet.

+ knight costume, using a grey cotton with white dots!, chosen by the knight himself. Deadline in 5 more sleeps (panicking already). It should also come with party preparation and about two cakes

+ small bag for my daughter, no deadline but promised since about May.

+ present for a birthday girl, 5yrs, probably a small bag, deadline in about a week

+ jacket for my nephew’s 4th birthday, deadline mid October

+ shirt for my nephew’s (not the same obviously) 10th birthday, deadline beginning of November

+ two to three dolly carriers for big sisters and brothers of future new born babies, deadline end of October

+ coat for myself made of the beautiful woolen fabric I bought last winter. Deadline somewhere between beginning of November and never I guess(I always come last)

+ bag for myself made of the beautiful waterproof fabric you can see in the yoga bag picture. Deadline: definitely never

+ jumper for meeeee, pattern in my ravelry library since roughly 5000 years): deadline baby vomit free time so definitely not this winter 🙂

+ everything I forgot

As you can see, quite a few things need to be done, but school starts soon so I will have more time for work.

For now, I am quite strict in sewing during day time only (I hate the noise of the machine in the evening, once it is finally quiet) and knitting in the evening or in hospital waiting rooms. I guess this is the main reason why it takes me two weeks already to sew the cardigan together.

Ok, back to work for me, back to enjoying the weekend for you.

Scrap Sunday: The legging project

Posted on 23/08/2015 by atelieroursonne

I have this lovely, pretty and witty friend whose son decided a couple of months ago that he is not wearing trousers anymore. Ever. Under no circumstances. He wants to wear leggings just like his big sister. As these feelings seemed to be very strong, I my lovely friend went and bought leggings, sets of two to make sure that she wouldn’t get into trouble with the big one if the small one had suddenly nicer ones. As it turns out, pink or grey leggings are ok, black leggings aren’t, leggings with butterflies are ok, leggings with teeny tiny pleats at the hem aren’t. It is all rather complicated.

Suddenly it seemed like a good idea to give this pattydoo leggings pattern a go. Up until then I found it slightly pointless to make leggings myself. I did consider to make some out of a thicker material like sweat for the colder season as I know another person who things that trousers are not an option for girls whereas I think that at some point it gets too cold for leggings only. Even in England. I did adapt a fair bit to the English way of not dressing properly when it gets wet and cold but not all the way! If you put your feet under my table, you will wear trousers AND tights when you go outside in winter. And boots. And a hat… But ok, I live here since 8ish years, so I don’t have strong feelings about scarfs or gloves. But definitely trousers! Even if you are a girl! Ok, I am getting side-tracked. So back to leggings.

I still had a rather big piece of the dragon and knight fabric from the lovely shirt I made for the little boy and thought it would look rather interesting as leggings. Certainly something you don’t see very often. I was only a bit worried he might combine the two, which I think, would look a bit silly.

Rather cool, isn’t it.

Now, how about a picture of the boy wearing these? When wearing leggings he generally looks a bit like a 70s rock star. (I quote a friend here, sadly I did not come up with it myself, but it is true).

Well, as it turns out, there is no need for me to worry that he might go for the silly combination of dragon shirt and dragon leggings as obviously he doesn’t wear them at all. So no picture of them in action, sorry.

I also made a pair for my daughter. And they look rather cool too. At least that is what I think.

You might find them not tight enough for leggings. Well that was done on purpose. She is very skinny so I would have had to adapt the pattern but I decided to just go for the right size lengthwise as I thought the fabric might just last longer if it is not constantly stretched over the knees. And as it is a relatively expensive fabric, I would prefer if they last longer as the shop bought leggings.

So, I will definitely make a few more leggings in the future but I guess, it will be limited on the warmer versions which you can hardly find in shops. In that case, I guess it is worth the money.

Maternity Monday: Pleated skirt

Posted on 10/08/2015 by atelieroursonne

Since I am keeping up so well with Scrap Sunday, I thought I could introduce another type of themed posts: Maternity Monday where I want to show you all the lovely maternity items I have made for myself. (as of today: 2)

For all those of you who are now rolling their eyes or even laughing because they aren’t quite as impressed by my blogging consistency as I am myself, I would like to point out that your behaviour is rather rude and lacks any basis. Definitely. And besides, I never said, I would post every Sunday.

Back to Maternity Monday. Considering that I am already 28 weeks and that there might not be that many more pregnancies, I want to make garments that can easily be changed into normal clothes later.

You might remember the sleeveless top I made a few weeks ago. The neckline and the armholes weren’t great, I have since improved the neckline by stretching the band more but I am afraid, I will only redo the armholes once I open the side seams to alter it to a non maternity shirt.

Still thinking of making another one with narrower shoulder straps but not sure. After all, British summer doesn’t require a huge number of sleeveless tops. I just think they will be more easily changed back to normal than anything with sleeves.

So much for the update, but today I wanted to show you a skirt that I made for the baptism.

I had this lovely fabric that just called for bold pleats. I am normally not too much into orange (maybe lately a bit) or blue but I think this colour combination is just perfect to bring out my varicose veins in their full beauty.

So I ~~mis~~measured my “waistline” (somewhere under the bump), multiplied it by three, calculated how many 4cm pleats I could make out of it, added seam allowance, realised that I would just need twice the whole width of the fabric, cut the 1m fabric in half to get a 50cm long skirt and sew the two pieces on one side together.

I then started folding the fabric into boxed pleats and closed the second side up to almost the top. I finished off those 5cm of open edges by folding them in twice and top stitching. Then I tried it on again and realised that it was actually too wide. So I had to cut some excess fabric off and made just a normal pleat on the side rather than a full boxed one. I was a bit under time pressure as I made it a day before leaving.

I added a dark blue, rather wide “waist”band and decided then that I would prefer an elastic for extra security. Some people might find it slightly inappropriate if I lost the skirt half way through the baptism. So I added an extra wide elastic band and used three hooks for the closure. I wanted to use buttons at first but I was worried that the button holes would tear as I made the elastic rather tight.

I had also bought some orange satin bias binding to put on the hem, or maybe just a bit above. I think that would look lovely. But I asked the colour expert and she said – much to my surprise – “no”. This might have just been the usual contradiction to whatever I suggest but it did leave me so insecure and confused that I decided to leave it for now 🙂

Just look at that beautiful colour matching with the nails, sandals and varicose veins!

Perfect look for swing dancing.

When it comes to altering the skirt for a post pregnancy body I will definitely take it fully apart. That wrong pleat at the side wouldn’t do the quality of the fabric any justice.

I guess, it will go up to my real waist, get a proper zip, probably still a wide waist band to make it look a bit like a big belt and maybe, just maybe an orange line just above the hem. Oh, and i got the tip to do the pleats only in the front and back but leave them out on the side to avoid huge hips. Not that I would need that. And I seriously doubt that I will still remember that when the time comes 🙂

Atelier Oursonne

handmade for you

Category Archives: Uncategorized

Ticking some boxes

Happy New Year

Scrap Sunday: The legging project

Maternity Monday: Pleated skirt