Scrap Sunday: Neck Sock

Posted on 31/01/2016 by atelieroursonne

Yes, a neck sock. Well, a neck warmer I guess, but when looking for ideas online, I discovered that the Germans call it apparently a “neck sock”.

Anyway, I wanted to make something for my lovely midwife and as she is a cyclist, I thought she might need something to keep her neck warm. Obviously I don’t do a simple neck sock made of a lovely fabric. So, I chose some fabrics that should remind her of all those lovely people around her. All these fabrics are left overs from clothes that I made for my children, her son, the sons of a very dear friend and you might also recognise my maternity shirt 🙂

Even I realised that this combination would not be wearable in some people’s eyes so I combined it with some grey sweat. I joined the squares in two sets of four and cut out four pieces following a pattern of olilu (I made it a few cm higher)

To make it slightly more complicated and the grey side a bit more exciting, I added an orange edge, a bit like piping but without a cord. A little trick: to make sure that I could sew the sides together easily, I only started the piping 2cm from the edge.

And voila: a smart grey neck warmer with a fancy orange edge….

… and a crazy lining with lots of memories …

And obviously you could wear the whole thing inside out as it is reversible.

I made two simpler ones for my children too. They obviously wear the colourful side outside and the boring sweat inside.

They are really practical. Actually, they are great when you have a baby in the sling. It keeps your neck warm without anything too bulky hanging over the baby nose. I always borrow my husband’s one which I had made him for Christmas:

I do wear it grey side out though. I don’t want to be seen with such a boyish fabric fabric 😉

And just for the record, I made him a hat, too. With the fabric that he had requested when he had seen the hat for my nephew…

perfect match, I know 🙂

Scrap Sunday: The doll carrier

Posted on 25/10/2015 by atelieroursonne

I am currently writing this post whilst waiting for a couple of babies joining the family. I am scheduling it (the post, not one of the babies) for Sunday, so when you are reading it, we might not be waiting anymore 🙂

Anyway, I made a doll carrier for the soon-to-be big sister of my future nephew and I am quite pleased with it. And I am not the only one, in fact I have already gotten complaints why ours is not so pretty. For the record, 4 years ago, I was running through all the fabric shops in Shepherds Bush to find the requested “airplane” fabric for the doll carrier of a certain young lady. Which then really wasn’t cheap. But I guess, taste can change, particularly if you are not 2 anymore but 6. And I have to agree, we chose really nice fabrics (you might recognise them from other projects) for this one.

I think this carrier is suitable for slightly younger children, so the straps look a bit out of proportion on the following picture because of the model being a bit taller. Or should the strap be fixed slightly deeper? Maybe.

The carrier can be worn in front or at the back.

I made the straps a bit longer, same for the waist strap as it was already a bit tight on my children, depending on what they are wearing and they actually tend to be on the slimmer side.

I found the ebook initially on Etsy (at the time not even knowing what Etsy was) and whilst I am happy that I found it there, I would do a few things differently next time. Which I would like to point out (to myself) as I am sure that 4 years ago I had already thought the same but didn’t remember it this time round.

When you print out the pattern, the line is actually a couple of mm thick so it is hard to know where to cut to make sure that the straps will match their positions on the main body. Also, I couldn’t read what seam allowance is included, I do think it is meant to be 1/4 in.

The pocket fabric is folded, which is a bit too stiff if you are using a thicker cotton as I did in this case but perfectly fine when using a thinner material.

I struggled quite a bit with the waist. First of all the little curve between waistband and main body but also where the waist thingy joins the strap. In the pattern the waist thingy doesn’t end in a straight line but in a slightly sloped line so I have now an edge in between the main waist thingy and the strap which doesn’t make much sense. So next time, I will have to make sure that I even this out when placing the strap:

The waist strap is closed with a proper side release buckle, but the shoulder ones only by sliding the strap through a bar slide buckle which I find a bit too loose. In the case of the pictured carrier it is actually ok as the material is a bit thicker and I made the straps on purpose a tiny bit wider but the first one was made of a rather thin cotton and the straps just didn’t stay in place. So maybe a proper buckle like for the waist might be better. But then it means that the carrying child needs a lot more help to get it on an off. So the loose version might be the better option anyway.

The e-book itself is done very thoroughly, lots of pictures and explanations, I was actually a bit overwhelmed and maybe for me personally, a little less would have been better. I guess this is due to me struggling a bit with many unfamiliar terms on one hand but maybe spreading the whole thing out on more pages would have been good… Which makes me realise that I tend to squeeze things when writing patterns to save paper. So this is another lesson learnt, I hope.

I didn’t mean to criticize the e-book as it helped me make already three wonderful doll carriers but for me personally there are a few things that I would do differently and hopefully these comments will help me or anybody else when using the pattern next time.

Tutorial: Cute little girl’s handbag

Posted on 16/10/2015 by atelieroursonne

A while ago, I was asked to make one of my accidental reversible bags, so it would be suitable both for mother and daughter. In the end, I made one reversible bag in grown up fabrics and a small, slightly simpler version for the little girl.

To make sure that they are a kind of matching pair, I have used the same fabric for both the lining of the small bag and the small pocket of the big bag.

But now, lets go back to the beginning: I have put together a little tutorial to show you how easy it is to make a cute little bag for a little lady. It is definitely also a great way of using up scrap fabrics. As I have already misplaced the measurements of the pictured bag, I will explain how to calculate your measurements plus give you those of the second bag I made, which was a bit more square than this one. In the end these numbers are only a rough guide anyway, I actually cut out how I felt before measuring the pieces)

You will need:

+ two pieces of cotton for the outer bag (width of bag + 2cm x height of bag + 6cm = 24 x 24cm)

+ two pieces of cotton for the lining (2-3cm shorter than outer fabric, alternatively you can cut them all out in one go and shorten the lining later = 24 x 22cm)

+ 2 pieces of fabric for a small pocket, one or both of them in the lining fabric (width of pocket + 2cm x height of pocket + 3cm = 12 x 12cm)

+ 2 pieces of fabric for straps (4 x width of finished straps x desired length + 8cm = 8 x 30cm for a 2cm wide strap)

+ the usual things like sewing machine, thread, scissors,…

Preparation of the straps:

Fold the fabric lengthwise and iron, fold both edges to this middle line and iron again, fold together and iron. Top stitch close to the edge.

Preparation of the pocket:

Sew the two pieces of fabric at the top together, Iron seam flat and turn so the right sides are outside, iron again to get a neat edge and top-stitch about 1 cm from the edge. Zigzag the three open sides of the pocket together.

Fold and iron the edges to the backside (1 cm)

Cut off corners to avoid bulky pocket corners later.

Place and pin the pocket to one of the lining fabrics where you want it to be (at least 4 or 5 cm away from the bottom) and top stitch close to the edges…. ideally leaving the top open….

… alternatively you can go creative 🙂

Put the two lining fabrics right side together and stitch around sides and bottom with 1cm seam allowance and zigzag around it.

To create a fuller shape for the bag, pull the two sides apart at one corner, making sure that the side and bottom seam lie on top of each other. Draw a straight line (in a right angle to the seam), I find 2-3cm away from the corner creating a 5-6cm long line quite good for this size). Stitch on that line.

Cut the excess fabric off, zigzag and do the same on the other side of your bag.

Repeat all steps (apart from the pocket) with your outer fabric.

If you haven’t done it yet, it is now time to shorten the lining bag. Just cut of 2-3cm from the top (depending how wide you want your edge)

Take the outer bag and fold the open top about 1.5 – 2cm to the wrong side. Iron.

Fold it a second time 2cm to the wrong side. Iron.

Turn the whole lining bag inside out (so the outside is now showing) and put the outer bag wrong side to wrong side into the lining bag. The edge of the lining bag should reach the once folded down edge of your outer bag.

Fold now the outer bag down the second time (like you have ironed it before), the lining should now be fully covered.

Now it is time to place the straps. Slide the open ends in between the two bag fabrics, making sure the ends reach the very top of the bag. For my bag I placed them about 4.5cm from the side seams. For now the straps look downwards.

Now you can carefully fold them up again (without pulling them out of the slot) and pin them in place. Do the same with the second handle on the other side, making sure that they are in the matching position.

Top stitch close to the edge all around your bag, securing all 4 ends of the strap at the same time.

Then secure all 4 ends with a little X. I seam to have forgotten to take a picture of this step. But here is a picture of an other bag and at the bottom of my tutorial for a very similar cotton bag you will actually find a more accurate description the sewing directions.

And we are done 🙂

And another version, where I used a lovely corduroy for the outside:

Scrap Sunday: dressing up made easy… if not a little too easy

Posted on 27/09/2015 by atelieroursonne

When I posted my to do list a couple of weeks ago, I might have mentioned two costumes for a party where my children were asked to turn up as Tiger Lily and pirate.

I wasn’t too keen to be honest. I guess it is just my natural dislike of doing something that wasn’t my own choice but someone else telling me what to do (Believe it or not, a part of me (qualified teacher) doesn’t want my children to do their homework properly 🙂 )

Anyway, I didn’t want to spend too much time on the costumes plus I actually like the simple ones that leave enough room for imagination much more than those sets that make every little girl look like a certain princess and every little boy as a certain super hero. Considering that I have made quite a few costumes in the last few years, I guess I should at some point put them all together in one post put for now let me just remind you of the Room on the Broom witch and her dragon. I think the latter is one of my favourites.

But back to the Peter Pan party.

For the pirate, I decided that an eye patch (shop bought and plastic, was better than the one I had made a few posts ago), a triangular pirate head scarf made of two scrap pieces of a shark themed cotton and a belt together with a stripy T-Shirt and some shortish leggings would be enough.

I was once again convinced that the red and white stripes used for the knight costume would make an ideal pirate belt and I decided to do a double sided belt as I did suddenly feel a bit guilty about my negative approach, I guess any scarf wrapped around the belly would have been just fine.

To save on the precious stripes I chose the blue dots for the other side – also to give the pirate a choice, depending on the mood and the rest of the outfit.

I then put in some kam snaps as, once again, they seemed perfect for this occasion.

I decided on two rows of snaps to make sure that the belt can be worn for longer, or by different children. I guess, that was a bit unrealistic, but if there is already a choice of designs then surely there should also be a choice of sizes to make this the ultimate pirate belt.

Unfortunately I can’t really show you of the belt worn by a pirate, first of all he refused to wear a suitable T-shirt and put it over a jumper which did not really make him look like a pirate at all and secondly I do not have any pictures of the worn outfit which would pass my “no faces online” policy.

For the Tiger Lily, I took a left over light yellow cotton and cut two rectangles (length: shoulder to knee-ish, width: shoulders plus a few cm)

On one of the shorter sides, I created the shoulders, leaving the middle of the edge open for the neck, then I cut out a neckline. With the serger I just went around all the edges and made a rolled hem and then I closed the middle of the longer edges, creating armholes but leaving it open at the bottom to make sure that the “dress” has enough room to move around and climb on pirate ships.

As I had known that the Tiger Lily was particularly unhappy about her forced costume, I wanted to make up for it with fancy trims and so I had, already on my last shopping trip, bought some leather fringe and put it on the hem and also across the chest, rather than just cutting a fringe into the hem which would have been my initial idea.

And for the headdress I had chosen a pretty blue trimming, closed it with a piece of elastic to make sure it would fit and just sew on a red feather.

I am afraid that is the best picture I can offer you but at least you can see that it is really a perfect costume to play and climb.

So just like the simplicity of the costumes should inspire the children’s imagination, I am hoping that the lack of quality of the pictures will inspire the imagination of my dear readers 🙂

Atelier Oursonne

handmade for you

Tag Archives: sewing

Scrap Sunday: Neck Sock

Scrap Sunday: The doll carrier

Tutorial: Cute little girl’s handbag

Scrap Sunday: dressing up made easy… if not a little too easy