Purple girls

For Audrey's birthday, way back in September, she requested a birthday skirt and t-shirt. The skirt had to use the butterfly fabric she'd picked from Spotlight not long ago. And on the t-shirt she wanted a number four ... no, a cake ... no, a number ... no, a cake with four candles on it.

Fortunately she was more decisive about the skirt. After spying the "Misty" skirt in Ottobre 1/2008 (#13) her mind was made up. Thank goodness.

It is supposed to have a fitted waistband with side zipper. We're not ready for zippered clothing quite yet. This version has an elasticised waistband instead for ease of self-dressing.

The t-shirt is from Ottobre's basic t-shirt pattern, with bonus puff sleeve added on. I used the puff sleeve pattern from a similar shirt, shirred close to the edge, and sewed it on together with the long sleeve.

The big girl is modeling the knit dress made using The Train To Crazy's free dress pattern. This is size 5 and it fits well. I added pockets. Good for carrying things in I thought. Silly me! Little did I know that two hands in low-ish pockets make stretching out and lifting up your dress irresistable! Sigh ....

Instead of the casing inside for elastic, I opted to use a 3-step zigzag to unevenly sew the elastic straight to the inside of the dress.

It's the current favourite for long-sleeve days. The dress has been washed several times already and worn straight off the clothes line.

Big Boy

We once bought a giant plush dog from the local trash 'n' treasure market for a small girl. He was dubbed 'Big Boy' and the name stuck (unusual for the soft friends living here). Big Boy is still much beloved a couple of years on, keeping Hannah company in bed almost every night.

Now he's made it onto a t-shirt as part of a new set of much-needed pyjamas. First there was a brief photo shoot. He's the perfect model. Still. Quiet. Consistent. Much easier to photograph than children, who suddenly insist on keeping their head tilted back strangely once the camera is pointed at them. After printing onto transfer paper, the cut-out image was ironed onto white knit fabric, then stitched onto the shirt. Hopefully the washing machine is kind to him! I've been a bit slow to take photos of crafting projects lately, but made a point of snapping this one before the first wash - just in case.

The t-shirt is a plain one from Ottobre Spring 1/2003 which I've made before. I've also made these pants before (from NewLook 6641) with added ribbed cuffs at the bottom this time. The checkered flannelette is the not-quite-enough left-overs from her Dad's pj pants. Cuffs were an easy solution, with the added benefit of keeping her legs a bit warmer.

Powder puff

Not sure how they are decided upon, but I like that most of Ottobre's patterns have names. Hannah is modeling the "Powder Puff" raglan-sleeve t-shirt I made for her back in June. It's from 6/2008 (#20). The few small rows of shirring on the front were ditched in favour of some less complicated gathering.

Not that I have a problem with shirring. Although I did once have a problem with it. In the slight chance it might help someone with a similar problem I'm going to blah blah about it. Here goes. The elastic thread was feeding out of the bobbin casing easily and not getting enough tension to do those cute little gathers. After a fruitless Google search, I eventually realised that the bobbin elastic needed a firmer tug down into place so that the little arms could grab onto the thread better. When loaded correctly the thread mostly stretches when pulled on, instead of unravelling easily. Problem solved. Clear as mud?

Oh and there's the first machine embroidery I did! It's a curious kitty from here.

Hertta skirt and a pinafore dress

There's new 'girlish' winter wear for the smalls, as per their requests. It was mid-Barbie-musical-statues-dance-game when I thought to get photos. Hence any blurriness and scantily clad fashion dolls you might spy.

Miss Hannah is wearing her 'Hertta' skirt from Ottobre 1/2009 (#19). I also made the 'Anemone stripes' tunic from Ottobre 4/2009 (#21) to go with it. Not the best choice unfortunately. When it's untucked, i.e. always, the tunic is a bit too long and hides the top half of the hearts.

Then there's the instigator of all this girlishness. I think Hannah would have quite happily gone on indefinitely wearing mostly pants, if it wasn't for her little sister constantly requesting skirts and dresses and more skirts. Come summer we'll all be happy. The girls because they'll not have to wear tights/leggings/socks. And me too because skirts are far quicker to sew than pants.

Miss Audrey is wearing her beloved pinafore dress from Ottobre 1/2007 (#6) along with a t-shirt from their 'Creative Workshop 301 - Best T-shirts' pack. There's an experimental needle felting on the pinafore bodice. I thought it would be faster than appliqueing, although in hindsight I'm not so sure. Kitty is nice and furry, and she's held up perfectly to one spin through the washing machine so far.

The sizing is weird for this outfit. She wears a size 98, and measures really closely to the size chart in the magazine for this size. But the pinafore will probably fit her better next year as it's a bit too roomy this winter. On the other hand, the shirt seems a size too small! Audrey loves them both though. I predict that she'll keep making me squeeze her head through the too-small neck opening all winter.

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.

Tulip pants

There was a bit of duck spotting at Wilson Botanic Park. The big girl was clad in her new pink pants. Made from an Ottobre pattern, the 'Tulip pants' from 4/2009 (#12).

There are 12 individual pattern pieces that make up these pants! Quite some work to construct. But worth it I think. The result is very cute and girly. My only issue is that they're a bit baggy in the bottom region.

As it happens that is totally my fault. Up until this week, I've been sewing for the girls based only on height. But after a couple of baggy pants recently I took the trouble the measure them against the sizing charts in the Ottobre magazine. Little Audrey is almost spot on for the size 98 that I've been making her. But Hannah .... although the size 116 I've been using is perfect for her height, her width measures up as a size 104. Some experimenting is underway with merging two different sizes.

Bedhair again

More pyjamas. Same Ottobre issue (6/2009). This time the ones with pants. And just for the biggest girl.

Pants are the clear winners in our household for winter. Nighties have been put away until the distant spring. The smallest girl (3.5 years) still insists on kicking all her blankets off while she's sleeping. She's then a little frozen girl-cicle with bare legs and a nightgown bunched up around her torso.

She got to choose the applique. It didn't take her long to decided. This was what she wanted:

Fortunately not all of it. Just the funny little car down the bottom.

The delightful image is from the Meomi 'Color Cloud Seeding' artwork book. We love Meomi. The monthly desktop images were used quite a while ago, with a much smaller Hannah always excited to see a new one up on our Mac. And many giggles ensued when we moved our mouse over all the interactive critters on their website.

So there it is. They are now her beloved 'car jarmies'. Such a rewarding audience to sew for.

Nighties x 2

What do I do with the littlest child? She adores her summery, ruffly 'princess nightie' which sadly has several licensed characters on it. It was great a couple months ago on those hot sticky nights, but the approaching winter is making it's presence felt. Plus it's a bit on the small side now and barely covers her little backside. What I did was make a winter nightie. Which then became two winter nighties. The eldest girl really needed new pj's for those legs that have suddenly shot out of her long pants.

I had two silly monkeys on my hands that morning. But you get the gist of what they look like. It's an Ottobre pattern from the 6/2009 issue. So quick to make as several of the seams are sewn only once, instead of the normal topstitching as well. The pattern asked for lapped seams (something like this), but I couldn't make that work on my overlocker and ended up using flatlocked seams for the first time. As I'm pulling on the two sides of fabric to make the seam lay flat I was not so sure how sturdy those seams would be. They've now held up to several nights of restless sleeping and a couple of trips in the washing machine. So far, so good.

Orvokki

Winter sewing has begun, and just in time if today's weather is any indication.

This one is the Orvokki jersey blouse from Ottobre 1/2009 (#18). Worn with the pants I made last winter from Girly Style Wardrobe. Not the most stylish pants, but they're super comfy and have withstood many washes. And so so quick to make.

I'm really happy with how the shirt turned out. The fabrics are slightly different weights and textures, but luckily that doesn't seem to matter. It came together really easily. The only trouble I had was with the shirring. It's a little wonky if you look closely, and I need to learn how to secure the ends. Also the instructions only mention shirring the front, but based on the pattern pieces it was needed in the back also.

And doesn't she look happy with it? That's because I snuck out the camera while they were re-enacting Totoro in the back yard. A round of loud roaring makes two small girls very happy. What you can't tell is that she was in tears 60 seconds later. There was a minor sisterly dispute over a swing. Aaahhh ... the highs and lows of a pre-schooler's life.

The Ottobre's will be getting a workout over the next couple of weeks. Pyjamas, hoodies, a winter coat and a cap. They're all on the list. The very long to-sew list.

Dolly girl

My girls aren't doll girls. It's animals they love. Most of the time they treat their plush pets respectfully. They're much rowdier than our real pets though. Always meowing, or woofing, or howling or yowling. Occasionally the poor critters get babied, especially since their littlest cousin came along late last year. I sometimes wish they did prefer dolls. In the eyes (and voices) of a three and five-year-old, babies are a lot quieter than pets.

Our little friend likes dolls, so for her birthday I made matching clothes. I hope that orange is still a favoured colour!

My old Cabbage Patch doll, Sally, is modeling the outfit made from Ottobre 1/2003. Sally was very excited by this as she spends her days under Audrey's bed waiting oh so patiently for some attention. If I was to make this pattern for a Cabbage Patch doll again I'd take the width in on the dress. And take some wonkiness out of the strap placement.

My lovely model is wearing tunic 'k' from Girly Style Wardrobe. These patterns make up big. I thought this would be a little on the large size, but not swimmingly large. I've previously made dress 't' from the same book and had the same problem. Next summer it should fit perfectly!

Buttons and a hedgehog

I've been Ottobre-ing again. This red buttony t-shirt is from the Summer 3/2009 issue. It's the 'Rosalind' t-shirt. I love how they all have names. Audrey is destined to get a pair of 'Audrey' capri pants. Very, very happy with how this one turned out. An eager pair of helpers materialised when the buttons were brought out. This little monkey decided she wanted a 'firework' of buttons. Not quite sure what she meant, but she was content with this arrangement.

I also made the 'Strawberry' tunic from the Summer 3/2008 issue. This has been dubbed the 'hedgehog top' after the little critter I embroidered for one of the pockets. The hedgehog design comes from a Japanese embroidery book called 'EMBROIDERY animals & insects 380' (ISBN 9784021904288). Such a cute book! There's several pictures from the book that have been kindly uploaded here. And there are heaps of pics on Etsy here.