The Sew What Club: Cocoon Dress for girls

I guess I'm on a girls dress sewing binge these days - or maybe just procratinating on the black wool pants I'm working on for myself?

Anyways, these cocoon dresses were the reasons why I signed up to The Sew What Club. The pattern is drafted by the famous and ever cool Groovybabyandmama. And who doesn't crave just a bit of Trine's effortless style? As you see, I do - I even used the same fabric as Trine, since I already had the grey terry in my stash. I'm such a pathetic fangirl!

I guess effortless photography is not a thing around our house. These were the best photos of hundreds.. Sigrid never misses an opportunity of making funny faces.

Here you get a better glimpse of the pattern. The patterns features a simple cocoon shape, elbowlength sleeves and shoulder ruffle. The dress hemline is shorter in the front.

I made a few changes to the pattern:
- lengthend the sleeves to 3/4 length
- finished the grey dress with ribbing in the neckline, since the neckline was a bit big for Sigrid.
- finished the shoulder ruffle on the grey dress with my overlocker
- made the shoulder ruffle of the blue dress in double layer, since the fabric I was using was white on the backside. This makes the ruffle a bit stiffer
- For the blue version I used a cotton jersey instead of the recommended heavier fabric.

It took me about 1,5 hour to make a dress like these. If you leave out the shoulder ruffle you could make it even quicker. I'm sure this will be my go to pattern for everyday dresses for my girls. I'm a bit hesitant to use too much time on childrens clothes since their span of life is often so short. The children grow and they wear their clothes hard.

I have one more girls dress coming up. I'm working on a shirtdress for Selma in a lovely Atelie Brunette Cotton. I bought the cotton to make a shirtdress for me, but she pursuaded me to make it for her instead... I must teach her to sew her own soon!

How about you - are you hesitant using time on childrens clothes?

Happy sewing

Mette

Cuteness overload

A cute kid and pandas in the same picture - it doesn't get any cuter than that!

I'm on a kids sewing binge and I finished this little outfit during my easter break.

The fabric for the dress is of course from Stofdepotet - no surprise here. This particular fabric is not available online anymore, but this is the same quality and really cute too. The fabric is a summer sweatshirt knit and maybe best for sweatshirts and Hudson Pants. Now, in our house there is not a great need for another pair of Hudson Pants at the moment so instead I made a dress and received the mommy of the year award - pink, pandas and spots will qualify you if you are interested:)

The pattern is Onion 20045. It gives you a few variations - among these ruffles. I'm planning to use this pattern again, but next time, I'll use a more drapy jersey instead. The pattern is really simple so don't stir away because of the danish language.

The fabric for the leggings is a remnant from a non-blogged Plantain T-shirt for me. Also from Stofdepotet. You can still buy the fabric here. The fabric is a drapy viscose knit with small dots and a really nice quality. I have been wearing my Plantain T-shirt every week for the last two month and the fabric still looks great. I hope Stofdepotet bans me from their website sometime soon - it's just too tempting...

Here is a flat shot sans kid so you can really enjoy the pandas:)

The good:
The sweatshirt knit was a bit expensive but it's a really lovely quality. The pattern is easy - would be perfect for summerdresses too with short sleeves.

The bad:
I haven't photographed the clothes I have made for myself recently. Why is it such a hazard to get decent pictures? - perhaps a new camera will do the trick? If you will like to follow my journey in clothesmaking more closely, you can find me on Instagram - my username is "sewbluedresses". I hope, you stop by and say hi!

Have you started planning your summer sewing projects yet?


Happy sewing

Mette

Cardigan and boring - but necessary tools

I finished this snuggly cardigan in the weekend. It had been hanging in my livingroom aka my sewingroom for weeks - just needing two buttonholes. Why oh why does some simple things take so long? The cardigan was really straight forward and finished in an hour.

Jeg syede denne hyggelige cardigan færdig i weekenden. Den har hængt i stuen aka mit syrum i flere uger og afventet, at jeg fik taget mig sammen til at sy to knaphuller. Det tog så 10 minutter, da jeg først kom igang. Hvorfor tager nogle meget simple ting så lang tid at få gjort? Selve cardiganen var meget hurtig at sy. Den består af to forstykker, rygstykke og to ærmer. Forstykkerne er kantet med en gennemgående ribkant.

The only thing that makes this cardi stand out a bit is the cool print and the unusual pockets. The fabric is from Stofdepotet (of cause:)) and the fabric is a sweater knit remnant from Little Marc Jacobs. The fabric is so soft and seems to be a very good quality. My girl loves her new cardi and wore it again today - third day en a row..

Det eneste som gør denne cardigan lidt anderledes er det fine print og de usædvanlige lommer. Lommerne er huller kantet med en ribkant syet i en cirkel. Stoffet er den blødeste isoli fra Stofdepotet og er en rest fra Little Marc Jacobs. Stoffet er superblødt og virker til at være en rigtig god kvalitet. Min datter elsker allerede den nye cardigan og tog den på igen idag - for 3. dag i træk. Det er vist ikke kun for at være høflig:)

And now for another make - a bit boring, but I'm so proud of my self that I finally got around to make it. When I'm sewing clothes for myself it often involves darts, sleeves and a lot of pressing to get a good result. Everytime I have cursed myself for not having the proper tools to make this a bit easier. But I do now - drumroll please! - pressing roll and taylors ham! The advantage of renovating an old house is that it's easy to find the sawdust you need for the filling. I didn't have a pattern for these, but just winged it.

Og nu til noget lidt andet. Ret kedeligt, men meget nødvendigt. Jeg er så glad for, at jeg endelig fik taget mig sammen til at få lavet disse.. presseskinker? Gad vide hvad de hedder på dansk? De er fantastiske, når man skal presse et indlæg eller en kurvet søm med strygejernet. De er meget simple at lave - jeg klippede dem frihånds, syede sammen men efterlod en lille åbning til fyldet. Fordelen ved at bo i byggerod er, at man aldrig skal lede længe efter savsmuld. Disse skinker og pølser skal nemlig fyldes med savsmuld for at gøre dem så faste som muligt, så det er muligt at presse rigtig hårdt med strygejernet. Når de ikke anvendes ved strygejernet er især pølsen også rigtig god til at jagte sine søskende rundt i huset med og slå dem i bagdelen.. Det er ren ikea med den slags multifunktionsværktøj:)

Pattern for the cardigan: Ottobre 4/2011
Fabric for the cardigan: Stofdepotet

Pattern for the pressing tools: selfdrafted
Fabric for the pressing tools: From stash