Tunic

Hello and goooood morning!

Do you remember this tunic and how it was soo big? This fact sat in the back of my brain, and when I needed (ha-ha-haw!) another tunic I tried one for myself in a size 158/164, and it did fit!

The material is a very sheer greyish green fabric. The only adornments are a few mother of pearl buttons, velvet ribbon around the arms and a bit of last minute in-front-of-the-telly beading. Of the latter, may I recommend that you do not try this yourself, as I already saw a couple of loose sequins after only 2 washes.

The pattern, as mentioned, is the Sammy pattern by Farbenmix. 

The fact that this tunic pattern is usable for adults has made me think I might use other patterns too. What about a nice pair of trackie bottoms à la Maren? The pattern goes up to a size 176, so maybe interesting for even more people?

Have a fun day today!

XOXO

Skirty Scarf

Hello there,

Two years ago, while in Hamburg, I visited a shop called Gudrun Sjöden by a Swedish designer called, yes, you guessed it, Gudrun Sjöden. Although many of the clothes are not of a cut that suits me, I did really like the ethnicy feel of the place. Their clothes are well made, made with respect for those producing them, the environment and those who will wear them later.

So when I saw another shop in the Seven Dials area, we jumped straight in! If you, like me, like to hear some Swedish, go and visit because all personnel speaks Swedish. It sounds so funny and delightfully foreign (no disrespect intended)!

On the sale rail there was a cotton skirt in a gorgeous pink colour that was calling out to me: "buy me, buy me". It was only £15 so, overlooking the fact that it was in a size that would never fit me, I took it off the rail and tried to calm it down a bit, poor thing! Because of the large amount of fabric in the skirt, I started thinking of alternative uses for the material and decided it would make a lovely scarf indeed. Not that I needed another scarf, but I found that I just did not want to let go of the fabric. So that is what I did.

Firstly I cut off the waistband. Because I discovered the pattern did not join at the seam, I also cut both side seams and rejoined one on the pattern. Then I put in a very small roll hem on both the top and the bottom edges which would be the sides of the scarf. At the beginning and end I turned the fabric in about 1 inch or 3 cm, making a nice wide seam. And hey, presto...a very comfy and big scarf for just £15!

As you can see, the scarf isn't scrunched up anymore because of all the ironing I did on the seams. I need to rewash it and scrunch-dry it again.

Have a good day, and remember you are loved!

Renegade Craft Fair, London

 Hiya!

We were very chuffed to be able to visit the second annual Renegade Craft Fair at the Old Truman Brewery last week and we were not disappointed!

Here are a few impressions to illustrate the vibe. The whole area was light and airy, and the spaces were nice and big and the people extremely nice and inspiring.

What about this on your plate? James Ward's sandwich defender.

Lots of interesting graphic work.

This lovely ladygirl is Debby Greenaway. Her work is of the most light hearted and irrisistable kind. Her little teeth, rain clouds and fish are such a joy to look at, it is difficult not to want it all.

Another wonderful artist is Mary Kilvert. Her work is very clean and neat and lots of fun too. She makes the most adorable prints. And look at the schweeeet sheep she made with the Olympics in mind. 

Her caption reads: My new sheep British Betty will be supporting team GB for the Olympics. Her specialty is gymnastics which she began learning soon after she started jumping as a little lamb. She likes cream teas but she dislikes relay races and is now available on my online shop. If only we had known BB was competing we would have watched more of the Olympics!

As you can see from the photos, we were there early, so no crowds, just a bunch of very relaxed and happy people. My idea of heaven.

Enjoy your day to the fullest today!
love,

Patternless skirt

Hello you!

Recently I have seen all sorts of adorable bubble and puffa skirts and thought they would be perfect for our little skirt loving monsta'.

I fell in love with this sweet teal ruffle cardigan; perfect for coming autumn. And I had this Liberty-esque-fabric that I bought many years ago. These two things combined became our first autumn 2012 bubble-skirt-and-versatile-matching-cardigan-set!

Strange fact is that the colours are - again - blues and greens, and subdued colours at that. Sooo very unlike me. But anyway, ...

I'll explain how the skirt is made, super easy!

You measure up the waistline of your model and double the width, plus an inch or so, for side seams. You decide on the desired length of the skirt and add 10 cm or about 3 inches.

If you have lining fabric you want to use, cut one piece of lining fabric and one piece of outer fabric. If you have a different lining fabric than your outer fabric, skip the next steps and simply attach a waistband in the same fabric as your outer one.

Make a side seam to form a tube in both pieces of fabric.

Now put the lining into the outer fabric (wrong sides together) and make the lining stick out 3 inches or 9 cm at the top. Check you are even everywhere and tack together.

Fold over the inside fabric to form a waistband. It can be as wide as you like it; mine was 4 centimetres. Tack and stitch. Leave open 2 inches for the elastic. Stitch all the way around the top at 3 mm from the side. This ruffles slightly and gives a nicer waistband, at least, I think so.

Fold in the outer fabric and make another tunnel. Check you are even everywhere and tack together before stitching. Leave open 2 inches for the elastic.

For the waistline I used quite stiff elastic. For the bottom seam I used this very loose webbing elastic, nice and comfortable. It ensures your child can actually move whilst wearing your creation!


To customise the cardigan, I made a little yo-yo and added half a snap on the inside. This way I can take the yo yo off before washing and make different ones to go with different outfits. (yes, there is another skirt coming up!) The other half of the snap is on the cardigan, backed by a little circle of  felt in the same colour as the cardigan.

To be fair, this skirt has pockets, so is slightly more complicated, if such a term can even be used when making a simple skirt like this. Just cut the outer fabric in two and one of those pieces in two again (you will need a slightly wider bit of fabric to do this of course. I'd say 2 or 3 inches or 6 to 8 cm extra). Make a faux fly and nice deep pockets for all those special pebbles, sea shells and other treasures.

Please let me know how you are getting on, or better still, share your results!

Oh, and before I go, do you know this song? Good for days like today!

Talk to you soon,
love,

Sporty dress

Hi there,

How are you today? Sun is up and it looks like it will be another gorgeous day here, yay! Life is so much nicer with a little bit of sun, isn't it?

When our eldest decided she wanted to try playing tennis last week, we were not whooping straight away. I don't know, but it just doesn't seem very exciting to me. Hitting a ball, hmmm, backwards and forwards. What is the fuss all about? But when I saw her and her friends enjoying themselves on the court, it did grow on me a bit. A bit, mind you.

The fun part of it is, is that I got to make a new and sporty outfit!

The pattern for the vest I made for her earlier this summer was adapted into a little dress by adding a bit of extra width on the side seams (about a centimetre or so on each side),  lowering the hem to make the total length about 55 cm and tapering out the sides to make an A-line. I hope this is a clear description, in case you want to give it a try. It is all very simple if you have the pattern in front of you, honestly. Super simple and effective.

And then a print was all that was needed to add a little fun to the otherwise quite sober design. Presto!

When she tried it on she was very chuffed, which is of course, the best reward ever.

TTYL,
XO

New colours

Hello There!

I was like a child in a candy shop when the new colours came in, wow, exiting stuff! Those lovely fluo colours that I have been coveting, and what about the girlie pink that was painfully missing in the shop?

The hardest part is to get the colours to appear sort of ok-ish on the screen. Well, I can tell you, I have failed miserably in that respect. So please treat the colours on your screen as just a general idea of what the colours may be in real life. I.e. 'Red' will not be a green tint (clue: it is red), baby pink won't be yellow. I'm afraid we are in that kind of league. I wish I could make them more realistic and more appealing, but somehow they will not co-operate. Well, what can you do??

I also really wanted to share with you the latest designs that were added to the shop. Aren't they ultra cute? I hope you have a good day today and TTYS!

Joining

Hah! I got you there, didn't I? You must have thought I'd fallen off the side of the Earth or had undergone a similar fate by now, didn't you?

But nothing so dramatic I'm afraid. Just getting carried away with the whole holiday-laze-around-virus. Veeeery dangerously contagious too!

In my defence, I was doing stuff but nothing very worthwhile of a mention here. Better mention the 'lots of eating ice creams' and similar low intensity activity with the family. To make myself feel a bit purposeful and as if I had a plan, we did a dab of shopping once or twice ('twas the sales after all) but that was mostly it. I really, really enjoyed these summery weeks.

But now we are almost back to normal life. The girls have started school again, enjoy seeing their friends and getting back into a routine. So, if all goes well, I should be getting back into my routine as well!

Just a glimpse of what I did do over the holidays

I have started joining my grannies! Riveting stuff like you wouldn't believe! Sorting the various colours is such a lovely thing to do. Little piles of colourful grannies were everywhere on the dining room table for 3 days.

The lovely Lucy provided me with a way of joining them I didn't know before. If you are interested, she has a very clear tutorial with lots of photographs and extremely clear instructions (so people like me can understand them). There are many other tutorials in her list for you to enjoy too.

HTTYS (Hopefully Talk To You Soon)
XO