As in my mind

Some weeks ago I was attending a dentist visit with my youngest, and while waiting I was flipping through a magazine. When my eyes fell on the picture above, I knew all of a sudden how L's birthday dress would be. And this idea was there to stay; the egg hàd to come out soon after.

At first I was thinking about the fabric. It had to be cotton and stepped or at least have some embossment. As our fabric shop only sells polyester lining fabrics, I considered to buy and use this coverlet of Ikea. Finally I decided to make the stepped cotton fabric myself, and was able to choose color, thread and topstitch.
A relatively thin fiberfill layer was added between lining and outer fabric. I first cut the pattern pieces, as used before and found in this book, and then topstitched horizontal in the color of the fabric and on 60° with yellow thread.

The circular skirt I turned inside out to avoid a seam at the bottom of the skirt. After finishing the body piece, I measured it's bottom line to be sure about the size of the circle I had to cut out of the skirt. How to make the cap sleeves I found as well on Griet's blog.

For the accent edging I chose yellow and a salmon pink in the color of L's cheeks. As you can see I wanted to avoid a shoulder seam in the yellow part of the edge.

About the topstitching a final note: my head wasn't able to finish this laborious job. I decided to decrease the number of yellow lines of the skirt. And I was happy about that: the handmade look of the fabric is more obvious now and I like the change of embossment, something you might not see at once, but only when you look closely. This kind of perception on different scales is my cup of tea.

Shining M

Last week was dedicated to M, being 12 years old! So I had something (and a lot of other things) on my to-do-list: making this dress, my first jersey project, made from another Fragile sale fabric.

According to a Knippie pattern, but oh! this magazine makes simple things really difficult! You rather skip the guiding text and only use your common sense. The outcome: things were changed the way I preferred them to be. Because I wanted the pattern to be continuous I added the waistband on the inside of the body and let the ribbon run through a button hole in the front. If you might think I made a fake zipper, you're wrong.

M always has been a child that suits everything. And she used to be happy with every dress or whatever I sew for her. Yes, mom, I would love to have balloons and yes, mom, I would love to have a birthday dress. She cherishes traditions, that is.
This dress tastes to more coming-soon jersey clothes. Let's see!

Petit Pan for petite L

L became 7 years old last week! It has been fantastic days. Today the garlands and balloons were cleared away. Last holidays were there for several preparations.
No mama, I do have enough clothes, she made me understand. But, after showing this image, she absolutely wanted to be a birthday girl in such a dress. Two Petit Pan fabrics (wow!) were ordered and, as L couldn't decide, we decided to use both. Now in the end I really love the combination of the fabrics, my first Petit Pans, including the red lining.


Making the dress was like a course for me. The beautiful book of these two sewing genius guided me. But there was a lot of error! I sewed the outer and lining fabric together on the sides and discovered my mistake quite late! Then the making of my first blind zipper. I didn't understand how to attach the lining to the zipper, but after a little more thinking it succeeded finally. But let's be positive: I learned!

And most important: L is so happy, she keeps on swirling. Something she wanted for a long, long time. And looking at this birthday girl makes me happy!

On the bias

Are you still curious after this post? To be honest, this dress was planned for L's birthday! Only the borders to go, I decided to quit this knitting to be continued after those busy days. A good exercise to let go!

Looking at the final result I was afraid L would refuse to wear it, but pfff, she loves it! She's wearing it now three days in a row. She may. It took quite some time to make it and you never know whether my youngest self-assured daughter likes or not, so I'm glad.
Thanks Saskia for the nice stay in your small shop and for inspiring me. Browsing through different kind of knitting books I really fell in love with this dress in this book. I used this affordable yarn. But my bag was filled with more...

Some changes I made: the description for the borders was way too complex, so I decided to do it my good-old-way. And I changed color on an even number of rows to take along the waiting thread and thus to avoid weaving in ends. Here I found the perfect rose pattern...
In my opinion the dress is a tiny bit too long right now, but she'll grow!

Temporary dress

Yesterday morning all school tables in M's class were set with tablecloths, candles and lovely food. To let the breakfast taste even better all kids were asked to dress theirselves in Christmas style.
For me these days before Christmas were crazy busy in the office. Gives me double feelings: exhausting on one hand, but on the other hand I'm grateful, because compared to other architectural firms suffering huge crises in the Netherlands, we must be glad to have such a full portfolio right now. Thursday evening I attended a great Christmas diner in the office (like last year). Late in the evening I suddenly remembered my promise to M: turning a shiny skirt of mine into a dress for her! So back home at midnight the sewing machine quickly did his 5-minute job. Used stitches are long so I'll be able to turn it into a skirt again easily. But not before Christmas is over, M assured me.

Festive

Our eldest daughter M got ten years old this week! We had such wonderful days and weather! Our teenager woke up, surprised by this birthday dress.
Reading blogs can make you enthousiastic. When you mix this incredible Boleo, this wow skirt of Oontje and this horse dress, you can imagine I came to this result. I loved the idea of buying a duvet cover of Ikea to use for sewing cloths. You can wait for some more items, since these's a lot of fabric left.

Thanks Sanne of Eloleo for the great pocket idea! It was great to puzzle how to make it.
Don't you think it's a stylish girl with the matching treats for school? I'll write about that later. Just let me know if you would like to know how to make these treats!

Horse

Actually I tend to buy kids clothes second-hand. This principal of buying, wearing, selling, wearing by other children and so on, feels good to me. I like to discover nice pieces and love to combine them. Second-hand means more clothes in a financial way, another advantage :).
My daughter M loves it when I make her something. This year it's going to be a birthday dress, in the early morning of the big day hanging on her closet. I really haven't got a lot of experience, but just tell myself I can do things like that. That helps. This one is a test dress.

The simple fabric was found on the market, which I combined with an experimental sewed drawing...
It fits fine. M is happy (so me too).

Yes, five fingers!

One last post about L's birthday. Here she is: our five years old little princess, gracefully walking the stairs this weekend. I like to show her to you but not without a story. Little L is like all little ones still that honest (no, not ungrateful!) to let me know she liked the dress and all, but also was a bit disappointed. For in her view it was not a real present. I know now that she expected something to play with. Like the Sinterklaas presents, she explained to me. Plus, she told me when I kissed her goodnight on her birthday, she doesn't like the red color very much. Oh, this is so me! So critical, so confident about what she wants! It reminds me at the very first moment my boyfriend brought me flowers and I didn't like the color. That was long time ago. And do you know, there was a moment I wanted to change the dress, because I knew it. I know her, she's like me...
Plus dear mama -I'm talking to myself right now- for the next time keep in mind that your two daughters are not the same! Not at all.

Being a princess

I told you before about the dress I made for M. Now it's L's turn. She will for sure love to be a five-year-old princess (or lady, or wherever her fantasy will lead her). One thing about L's dress: it had to be blue! So, on an afternoon before Christmas Erika and I sat down together to sew dresses for our daughters. Thanks so much, Erika, you gave me some fruitful sewing lessons!
This week I did some handsewing: for the flower I used this sunny tutorial of genius Mme Zsazsa. And made a simple and matching necklace. Not to be forgotten! And quickly done with organza ribbon.