Scrap Sunday: Travelling again

Posted on 10/09/2017 by atelieroursonne

So that wedding (yes, I am still going on about it, but it really was a nice evening and possibly the highlight of my social life this year).

Obviously we needed a gift. I like giving money and I think this has become the most common wedding gift around here. But I don’t like to just put money in an envelope or handing over vouchers for a department store. I like finding a nice or fun way of hiding the money. This time I went for another travel wallet, slightly more advanced than the first version. I found it suitable as a wedding gift holder as people usually go on a honeymoon after their big day, isn’t it.

Waterproof material this time. It just looks a bit more professional.

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One zip pocket for I don’t know what.

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Lots of different types of pockets…

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… for tickets, cards and pens. And passports. What would a travel wallet be without passports? I made them both big enough to keep at least two passports each (actually I didn’t try more) so 4 (or more) in total.

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I still don’t know if a travel wallet is really a life saver but in any case it is good enough to transport a money gift.

Since it was a wedding plus one, I thought I could use up some of my fabric and make some cute toddler cloths. (I realised toddler sizes are really perfect to use up those left overs of bigger sized hoodies, shirts… – I always end up with a narrow yet longish stripe of fabric)

Now, obviously one might wonder why a woman who only gets married in a normal wedding dress, would actually deserve special handmade clothes for her offspring – clearly she is a hopeless case fashionwise. But then this is the only way, she could possibly develop some kind of fashion sense. Plus, believe it or not, her husband seems to be a male fashionista. He attended the after wedding family breakfast in a fresh and clean fitted shirt. Very elegant, I have to say. He tried to play it down and pretended he had forgotten to bring a normal T-Shirt with him. But he can’t trick me, he was just trying to take the embarrassment of all others, terribly underdressed in T-Shirts and jeans.

So, I am sure, he will appreciate my very tasteful toddler hooded vest and trousers, whereas his (otherwise lovely) wife… well, it was probably a case of casting perls before swine but one should never abandon hope.

pattern: hooded vest “Ryan” by pattydoo, fabric: various left overs

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pattern: Babyhose by klimperklein, Kinderleicht: fabric: sweat Zippy Zebra by poppy

I didn’t make them as a set (I don’t like sets) but they are actually linked by the same cuff material. I bought the Zebras last year on sale and intended to make trousers for Mr No Thank You. But, guess what, the material was to scruffy so this year, I used it to make two pairs of trousers, one for the wedding boy and one for Mr No Thank You’s little brother who can’t decline politely yet.

And guess what, if you have 1m of fabric and make two toddler sized trousers, you have just enough for another scrap project. So watch this space 🙂

Good things always come in pairs

Posted on 31/01/2017 by atelieroursonne

I have no clue if that sentence in the title is true but I finally got hold of the camera with quite a few pictures of things I made ages ago. And I realised that I seem to have made a few things in pairs for whatever reason. (As you clearly can see from those few lines, I am highly motivated, focused and know exactly what I am doing or talking about).

As it is rather a lot, lets just look at the pictures as a sort of resumee.

So there are the octopus trousers (klimperklein pattern). The first ones where too big, so I had to make smaller ones for the small one. But then the big one liked them and wanted to have his own pair. Rather unusual to want the same as the baby but if it happens to be a really cool baby then why not.

The original ones, with aubergine cuffs (which you clearly can’t see in this picture) are my favourite:

They are ready for next season. Still, the aubergine is pretending to be some kind of black, a colour which I clearly don’t even own:

For some reason I did not actually take a picture of the one that gets worn a lot these days. (I guess another sign of overwhelming lack of motivation), so here comes the picture of the big boy version with pockets next to the baby version one (who is officially totally a toddler, sorry)

I made the big version with pockets as big boys clearly need pockets

and I thought it might be a good alternative for leggings, maybe even to be worn to nursery. At least on dress down Friday. But obvi0usly they never got worn, ever. Why “obviously”? Clearly you are new to this blog. I am talking about Mr. No Thank You. I’d like to point out that I am not embittered. Yes, I could have used this huge piece of cute fabric for some other cute baby items for any other cute baby with grateful parents and yes I could have used that time making something for people who would then have been happy about it but no, I am not embittered. Why not? Well, because I kind of knew anyway.

In any case, I found those baby trousers extremely useful so I made another pair

for my nephew, using the fox fabric of the reversibble jacket.

And since I still had some of this fabric left – a rather thin sweat by the way – I made another little jumper for another baby

And I made hats for these two babies, stupidly I only took a picture of one of them:

These hats not only come in pairs here but rather in bulk. I don’t even know how many I have made over the last few months, I love the pattern (klimperklein, Wendebindemuetze) and I love the fabrics (Boo and Zoo by Hamburger Liebe)

As I realised that these hats are actually not made for Austrian winter, I quickly had to knit (yes, I am still doing that too) a hat for Mr I Am Not A Baby Anymore.

(Ok, technically it does not fit into this post as it is not part of a pair and as it is really made of the tiniest left overs you could possibly imagine, it obviously belongs in the Sunday Scrap posts but once again, motivational issues make it unlikely that I will sit down again and write a whole post about a silly knitted hat so lets just enjoy it here.)

But enough of these old pictures, I have more recently produced proper pairs:

Two pull over scarf thingies (“neck socks”) with a soft and thick cotton fleece as a lining, much better than long knitted scarfs that might dangerously get caught somewhere.

A set of hats for twins (klimperklein, Minutenmuetze)

Please check out the pattern of the lining. I really love it. Tiny balls are the new stripes.

Technically the hats are reversible. But that makes the animals stand on their head. Clearly someone hasn’t been thinking this through.

Phew, that was quite a lot, wasn’t it. But that happens when you do not write your blog posts on a regular basis. To be honest, we are not quite done yet but I am jsut as tired as you are so I’ll leave the cutest pair for another post, especially as the colour combination deserves your full attention. I think after years of pink-orange-teal I have finally found my new trio….

Scrap Sunday: Slightly bigger tissue issue

Posted on 24/07/2016 by atelieroursonne

I know you are waiting for the big one, but let me tell you one thing: moving houses, actually moving countries with three children takes up slightly more time than one would have thought. Especially at the end of term with all those extra activities to attend.

Sure, they all help a lot, sorting out toys, peeling down wall stickers,…

Especially the little one. He kindly wakes me up at 5 o’clock in the morning, so I can make the most of my day and then goes and searches for all those small pieces on the floor that my old eye can’t even spot and examines them carefully if they needed to be processed any further. In which case he takes care of them and kindly hands them to me after a day or two.

He is actually a big fan of tissues hence the big tissue issue you are all waiting for. But back to the small one for now.

Initially I thought that there won’t be any teachers’ presents this year but very last minute (we are speaking of the eve of the last nursery day) I decided they should get something. It just wouldn’t have been fair.When my daughter had left her nursery, I had made bags and badge holders using fabrics I had used for her clothes.

So I quickly cut out lots of squares for tissue covers.

I had found the pattern when I was looking for my knitted one from last week. Funnily enough this one by Two Brown Birds features also contrasting edges (through the lining fabric)

At 7 am the next morning (I’m sure the neighbours appreciated I hadn’t started using the sewing machine at 5am) I quickly made the 4 I needed for nursery. The other ones followed later that day and the next morning. I have to say, this project is really quick. Basically 4 seams with a little bit of ironing in between (ideally). However, it annoys me to know that there are ugly seams inside which can potentially be seen. I zigzagged them as well as I found it not secure enough with raw edges. And I do wonder how much more time it would cost to make a reversible version. But enough talking, lets have a look. I guess you’ll recognize some of the fabrics.

I’ve tried to use some of the fabrics the teachers might now (difficult due to uniform, so it is all about the sunhats) so they would actually be reminded of my children,

or fabric to match their personal style:

or cute fabric (you know because my children are cute)

or because a pretty piece of fabric had about the right size

or simply because it was the manliest and scariest fabric I found (for the male deputy head teacher 🙂 ) – which happens to be a hopefully good reminder of my son too (not because he is scary)

Which one do you like best? I find it really hard to decide.

Oh, and in case you were expecting another post about tissue issues soon, forget it. The packers are coming tomorrow and the whole week will be about getting to Vienna, settling in and unpacking some of those boxes.

So, enjoy the blog free time as long as you can – I’ll be back

Scrap Sunday or the “commitment to commissioned work” problem

Posted on 03/04/2016 by atelieroursonne

There is this romantic image of the poor artist sitting in his freezing atelier, trying to hold his brush in his clammy hands to finish that magnificent painting before dying from pneumonia. Or the composer writing down the most wonderful music with the last tiny bit of his pencil before dying from hunger. Only the hope that one’s artistic genius will finally be recognised by coming generations keeps them going.

Other artists or artisans have a more pragmatic approach. They produce what the paying customer wants.

Now, I do not even dream of putting my name in the same sentence with Van Gogh or Mozart (Ok, I just found out that he wasn’t actually that poor, that is just a myth!!!!) but so far I am happy to say that I usually like what I make and that I am fully committed to it. So far, I never had to question the things that I made for others, be it a present or be it a custom order. I had been wondering in the past, if I would ever come in a situation where I would have to say: “No, I am not going to make this, it does not reflect any of my values” or “that is beneath me”. Or even worse, where I actually had to make something that would not reflect any of my values or that would be beneath me. Not because I would fall for a huge fee but because the safety or emotional well being of a close person would be threatened. Have you ever asked yourself where you would draw the line?

By now you might be wondering why I am going on about this problem, after all it is “only” Scrap Sunday. Well, you will see.

Last week, one of my friends took her children to a fun fair and for reasons that are not to be discussed here she convinced her daughter to have a go at the “catch a duck” game. The girl overcame her objections and caught a duck (obviously). She chose a toy set which included some plastic high heels and was incredibly pleased as she knew her mother would have never ever agreed on buying her high heels. She is that sort of humourless kill-joy who wants her children to play with a few stones and a jute bag to develop their creativity. (I believe I have shown you the results of their creativity on here already.)

So already the educational persuasion to catch a duck had backfired slightly. But things got worse.

At home the little girl realised that the shoes didn’t fit. A bit like Cinderella’s step sisters. Which is why the mother suggested to cut off those toes with a knife* (correction: the woman has clearly a brilliant sense of humour) . After this fabulous joke which was not really appreciated by the girl with the big toes, she promised to somehow fix the problem so the girl could enjoy her beautiful price.

And this is where finally my Scrap Sunday comes in. As I actually had to sacrifice some of my pink stripy jersey to make the little shoe big enough for the not so little girl. I removed the plastic top of the shoe and replaced it with a stripe of stretchy jersey which I crossed over to give a bit more security.

Toes are still big but get through.

I never thought that I would actively be involved in saving toy high heels but considering that I my friend had started the whole thing with the duck catching, it would have been too cruel to add the educational lesson of “see how these cheap plastic toys are of poor quality and have no value whatsoever, they even lead to negative feelings.”

And luckily after a day with the toy set and the fixed shoes the girl realised the latter all by herself :

* The German version by the Grimm brothers features two step sisters, who cut off their toe respectively heel in order to fit into the tiny glass shoe.

Atelier Oursonne

handmade for you

Tag Archives: left over fabric

Scrap Sunday: Travelling again

Good things always come in pairs

Scrap Sunday: Slightly bigger tissue issue

Scrap Sunday or the “commitment to commissioned work” problem