Totoro and a new toy

For once the new toy in the house is mine. Not new miniature foods and animals for the girls. Not a new smart phone for Jason. It's an embroidery sewing machine from my Ma. Not something that I'd previously dreamed of buying. But now that I've got one, the possibilities seem endless. Oh how I'd love to make up my own designs. But until then there are plenty of wonderful designs to experiment with.

I happened across this free Totoro machine embroidery design, generously offered by Just tutorials. After enlarging it a little, the finished embroidery made it's way onto a new t-shirt for Hannah. Little Audrey has also requested a Totoro t-shirt. A pink one. Or a purple one. Or a heart one. She likes hearts, so I'm told.

The shirt itself is made from an older Ottobre magazine - #16 from 1/2003. A first go at using size 104 for width and size 116 for height, and then for the skirt also. Seemed to work well, and easy enough to trace the patterns. A good pair of non-baggy-bottomed pants will be the deal sealer. The smalls are going through a skirt/dress fetish at the moment though, so it may be a while.

Then there was the skirt. I'm loving this pleated skirt. It's #14 from Ottobre 4/2007. So fast to make, and also cute on. I consider myself to be a fairly slow sewer. But in under 2 hours I had traced, cut-out and sewn a finished skirt. There was a single pattern piece, cut out twice. No pockets, no fly, no gathers, no buttons. An absolute treat after making the Tulip pants. I'm definitely not complaining about the skirt love in the house, even though winter is really not the best season for skirts.