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!!!!!!

The unsolved mystery of the missing leggings

Posted on 04/04/2018 by atelieroursonne

I haven’t had the time to write elaborate posts because I was so busy hunting for easter eggs and also sewing up the huge pile of fabric. I made all sorts of clothes for nephew and nieces and sent them of with a special private courrier who got the two cotton bags mixed up and delivered the right things to the wrong grand children. So I got them back and tried the Austrian mail service this time. I packed two lovely jumpers, two pairs of simple, stripey nothing special leggings (3/4 length to be precise) and a wrapped birthday present containing an amazing dress and a cute skirt plus some necessities for a three year old (fancy tape and stickers) into a box, labelled it and brought it to the local post office. A day later! it already arrived at the other end of the country and as it turns out, it only contained two lovely jumpers and a wrapped birthday present containing an amazing dress and a cute skirt plus some necessities for a three year old (fancy tape and stickers). But no leggings. Isn’t that weird? Where have they gone? I know, people who have ever seen my study will suggest that I have simply forgotten to pack them and that they will be under one of the piles of fabric, clothes or paper work sitting in said study. Well, I am actually preeetty sure that I put them into the box. Sure, I did take them out again because I needed to put another little necessity into the wrapped present but I did put them back. Most likely I guess. In any case, they had been in the first packing round.

Then there is also the possibility that my sister-in-law found them so horrific that she pretended they never arrived whilst secretly burning them. But she is the sort of polite person who would have forced her daughter to wear them first to be able to send me a picture of her wearing them before actually burning them.

Which leaves us with the possibility that someone has actually stolen them out of the box. Seems unlikely, I know, considering that there were actually much prettier things in the box, like the two lovely jumpers and the wrapped birthday present containing the amazing dress and the cute skirt plus some necessities for the three-year old (fancy tape and stickers). However, around the same time, we had ordered stilts for our training-to-be-a-circus-artist-child. And the package arrived but with the foot rests missing!!!!! Obviously there is person out there with serious hight issues, stealing tiny leggings (and probably wearing them) and tall-making-devices! So if you see someone jumping around on wooden blocks and wearing these leggings, please call the police.

pattern: leggings Lilly by pattydoo, fabrics from my stash

To prove my point (not sure which one), these are the things that have not been stolen:

pattern: Latzkleid from Babyleicht by Pauline Dohmen (klimperklein), fabric: Rumble in the jungle, Lillestoff

… and a cute skirt

pattern: Rock’ n roll from Kinderleicht by Pauline Dohmen (klimperklein), fabric: Lillestoff Glueckspaket

And may I just draw your attention to the hem of the skirt:

made with my brand new sewing machine. In one go. Would be really quick to make if I had the courage to actually go over the slowest possible speed.

It is a really fancy machine. Lots of buttons and a shiny display. And a working light bulb that hasn’t fallen out yet. A real change to the old one. And you don’t need a foot pedal anymore. You just press a button to make it work. Which apparently my foot doesn’t know yet. I have observed it standing up at 45 degree without a pedal in sight on several sewing occasions.

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When you go to bed with Captain Kirk, dream about Jean-Luc and wake up with Data (or even worse Worf) or How I lost an interesting blog title

Posted on 02/03/2018 by atelieroursonne

In one of my many Glueckspakete (Glueck meaning luck and happiness at the same time) by Lillestoff I had found the perfect fabric for pyjamas for the young man who only owns one piece that actually fits and has no holes in it). Except that it was about 5cm too short. So, I angrily through it into a corner but then I thought, no, there needs to be a way around it. I meant to make a onesie and after considering a second fabric for the lower legs or some kind of belt-like stripe of contrasting fabric around the waist, I decided to go for a contrasting yoke and once it was finished, I really liked the look of it. I will definitely make more of these.

pattern: Babyanzug mit Knopfleiste vorne in Kinderleicht by Pauline Dohmen (klimperklein), fabric: Lillestoff

I hadn’t planned it but I immediately thought, this was probably what Captain Kirk was wearing at night.

and I was already planning a funny blog post about it. Only to realise that actually the Original crew was wearing plain coloured uniforms, the yoke was in the Next Generation. So Jean-Luc Picard, even better! But no! He had been wearing red. Who had the mustard uniform then? Right. Data. And Worf. Not great to fantasize about. So lets just forget about the whole thing and talk about something else.

Oh yes, I meant to show you another piece made of a Gluecksfabric. Again something, I would never have chosen in the shop. Dark blue with a little bit of grey and silver. But then I took the opportunity to make a grown-up hoody in grown-up colours. I actually went and bought some grey sweat for the sleeves as there wasn’t enough of the main fabric. Imagine, I stood in the shop and compared forty-eight shades of grey (with a second of considering mustard or cinnamon – I guess I was hungry at the time)! And voila a totally grown-up hoody in grown-up subtle colours. No sillyness to be seen. Honestly.

pattern: Frau Toni by fritzi & schnittreif, fabric: Natthimmel by Lillestoff and grey sweat bought at biostoffe.at

What? Oh, just leave me alone! I did try my best.

Atelier Oursonne

handmade for you

Tag Archives: glueckspakete

How to be cool

The unsolved mystery of the missing leggings

When you go to bed with Captain Kirk, dream about Jean-Luc and wake up with Data (or even worse Worf) or How I lost an interesting blog title