Farbenmix Fano

Yesterday I received a scrummy parcel from Crafty Mama's. Best of all, it contained 3 patterns just for me! One of those patterns was the lovely Farbenmix Fano. I had it traced and completely sewn and was wearing it out the door within 24 hours! New record for me.

As the pattern is in german, I just picked the pieces I wanted for the long sleeve version, minus the pocket (no point adding extra bulk to the old baby storage area lol) After that I abandoned the instructions and it went together just like a t-shirt.

Excuse the pj pants ;)

I am super impressed by this pattern, I did no modifications anywhere - other than adding the seam allowances, and it fits beautifully! The sleeves are slightly long, perfect to keep your fingers warm, and the hem is adequately long, but next I will add a little extra (I like my tops just a touch longer). The fabric is very similar to Stella, but isn't - it was hiding in my stash.


It is comfortable, red (one of my favourite colours) and I want to make more. Shame my twin needle played havoc again......galloping horse, galloping horse lol

Cheers!

Farbenmix meets LoveChirp

And a very nice meeting it was!

I had two new baby girls to make gifts for, so I pulled out my copy of the Farbenmix Baby pattern pack (it has a very long, unpronounceable name I can't remember) from the CM Shop. I decided to do the jacket, as it is coming into winter here and I had some gorgeous cotton velour I wanted to use (stash busting and all that).



LoveChirp was the very first embroidery I bought from Huups - and wow! It is just so gorgeous :)



The jackets are identical apart from the colours I used in the embroideries. A slight mishap with my placement meant that I ended up making them into badges to sew on - but that also allowed me to position them exactly where I wanted.


I used a size 62/68, so the bubs can grow into them, and they should be light enough to wear through spring.

Cheers!

Keyka Lou Pouches

The kids had a Mother's Day stall at school this week - they both needed to take a gift to the value $3. Well as I despise shopping so much, and trying to find a lovely gift for $3 to take - I gave up, stayed home and sewed one instead lol

I used one of my new Keyka Lou patterns - The Pyramid Pouch. Small yet useful and cute too. I did modify the flap slightly, as I wanted it to have a button closure like the Boxy Wallet - as I had no small snaps on hand.


I used some lovely mushroom fabric and some spots (love them spots).



The kids came home from school today - where they bought something for Mother's Day from the stall - and they were both a little disappointed that the pouches weren't there when it was their turn to buy - as they wanted to buy one for me! :)

Hope all the mums out there have a lovely Mother's Day!

Cheers!

Ottobre Saves The Day

It is dress up day at school tomorrow for the letter I. I forgot this until I got to school yesterday morning. So after shopping I sat down and went through my Otto's. DD was going as an Indian (so much simpler for me). There had to be something I could use.
I was also limited with my fabric, so had to choose carefully.

I settled on a simple elastic waisted skirt, #11, from 4/2004, and modified the bottom to make a V-shape, and also chose the girls t-shirt from the same issue, #38. Now I just needed a vest.
There was a perfect one in 3/2006, #15 - but it only went to a size 104! I needed a 110. Never mind that it was a boys - we can ignore that fact. So I up-sized it one size when tracing (fingers tightly crossed that it would fit). When it came to cutting out though, I didn't have enough fabric, so I took about 10cms off the bottom - I didn't really want it anyway.

As I sewed it together, I didn't like how sharp the front was (it was meant to be button up), so I shaped it for a softer look. I used some of my previously made bias binding for the facings - it isn't perfect, but this is dress-ups!



The t-shirt I made from an old t-shirt. Now whilst the pattern states to use a firm knit, this fabric has no give at all. So I should've used a bigger size, but it will fit for tomorrow.
The fringing is fantastic (from CM Shop) - easy to sew on and completes the look.


Everything is from the stash, and the embroidery is one that came with my machine.

Cheers!

A Birthday

Was celebrated last week. My boy turned 7! I still don't know where all those years went. One moment he is a baby, wanting constant feeding, next he is at school, can read by himself and needs a bigger bike! (Which luckily was a birthday present).

As seems to be the tradition since I began sewing, my kids get a new outfit for their birthdays. DS actually checked to make sure I was making one :) And when I handed him a present to unwrap, he said "Ohhh it's from Mummy. Must be new clothes". Well then, no surprises there.

I had fun picking the patterns, as he is now a size 128 (euro sizing for those thinking he is a giant lol). So that means for a lot of the Ottobre patterns, he is in the next/bigger size range, and there is some seriously cool boys wear for older boys.

Some influence for choosing patterns came from a piece of fabric I received in a Crafty Mama's swap from the lovely Lissy of handmade - homegrown. It was a woven in black with awesome dragons on it. I knew immediately that I wanted to make a button up shirt. But heading into winter and with only just enough fabric to scrape a short sleeve shirt from, also taking into account the fact that DS really didn't like button up, collared shirts, I was in for a challenge. The pants fabric was some widewale cord that I had been hoarding for years! The t-shirt fabric was a remnant of a stretchy knit - probably a cotton/elastane blend - beautiful to sew.

1/2007 had exactly what I was looking for! A button up shirt, combined with a long sleeve t-shirt (#31). Perfect. Even better, the pants paired with it in the magazine (#32), were just what I was looking for. DS loved it!






I also realised after beginning to sew the t-shirt part, that it was navy blue not black like the shirt. But it works well. I had to fussy cut the sleeves in the dragon fabric, and didn't notice that the blue dragons were different sizes at each selvedge. But these are unimportant details - it looks great overall - and I am finally getting to the point of "blind man....galloping horse" about my sewing (ie: it is perfect to my hubby, it is only me that notices the fiddly bits).

Little boast for the binding - look how great it went on with the twin needle :) Though the stupid needle decided to skip when I did the hem and I had no more, so I won't show you that.



Oh, and a sugar laden cake :) The Treasure Island cake from the Womens Weekly Kids Cake Book.


Cheers!