Todays outfit in suitlands

I work in IT at a big multinational company. Although IT is probably one of the most dress code liberal departments in the office - we still see a lot of dark suits there. (on occasions see wornout jeans, t-shirts and Birkenstock slippers as well...).This is todays outfit. A jacket I bought in Slovenia when I was there skiing in February. A par a black suit pants. My aweome red-black ankle boots from Hispanitas. And my brand new shirt from my own design.

 

Fabric from Tygaffären. And the pattern is a mix from two patterns. I have a dress that I looove, but that is probably to slim fitting to make a good shirt. And then I had a shirt pattern that had tog big armholes and to wide shoulders to go with my rather petite upper torso. So. I mixed them and got the perfect pattern! Yay!  

 

I am currently sewing some new staples for my wardrobe - so more todays outfit will come

Rainbow afghan

I started this afghan during our summer vacation. My intention was to make the Burberry inspired blanket, but then I realized that I had the wrong color of the yarn that I brought, Forntuately I had brought some random yarn that I could use for minor projects if I got tired to make baby blanket. So, I started making squares, not really knowing what to make from them in the end.

 

I started with the blue-turquoise scale and I was thinking that I was going to make a Mediterranean blanket. But, when I came home I continued with the yellow-red-scale of yarn and the , my son came along and asked if I was making him the rainbow afghan that he had been asking for.  Not really - but since it was a good idea I decided to go with it. So. I ended up with 14 colors all in all, with 9 squares each, since that was what I was able to get out of each ball of yarn.  This left me with a afghan that is something like 105x160cm. A very generous afghan that easily fits two kids underneath.

 

I decided to go with the Svarta Fåret "Tilda", and 50-50 Acrylic Cotton mix. It makes a warm afghan that still let air come through so that it is possible to use during summer as well. Also, since it is a cotton/acrylic-mix it is washable, something  that could come in handy when you make a blanket for kids.

Most of the time I try to crochet the squares together, but this time I aimed for sewing instead. I still had a million threads to fasten, and I really didn't want any more threads than necessary.

I find making afghans is very rewarding. As I get thrilled about every little square I make I tend to forget that I in the end will have made 120 something squares. This is probably why I made four afghans during the last year.

Handball outfit

Our son plays Handball. And he is actually pretty talented on it too. Despite his mums thought about it, he doesn’t have any second thoughts about using brute force trying to get passed any of the opponents. To encourage him I decided to find some special handball items. But, when you look on Etsy.com you find that there really aren’t that many. Soccer, football, basketball and baseball all have plenty of items, but handball… No.

 

I was a little bit frustrated, but gave it no more thought. And then after a couple of days I asked myself “Am I a crafter or am I not?”. How stupid of me, I hadn’t even considered making him something myself. I found patterns in one of the really old Ottobre magazine (No 2004/3 Models 36 and 31). Against better judgment I might add. I generally don’t like zippers and even considering sewing zippers on a knit fabric … whoa… And the last time I made appliques with letters… hmmm.. it really didn’t turn out very well.

I started with the jacket. The back applique is a picture I googled and then transferred to vliesofix and sewed on to the back. The zipper gave me some problem. Mostly because I didn’t realize that the pattern made the front piece 2 cm longer than the zipper. But since it was 2 cm, it was just perfect to just cut away the old seam at the lower ribbing and add a new one there. And after sewing on the zipper I realized that I could have been more generous with the needles. So I had to rip the seam and then I got it all right. On the pants I skipped the seam allowance on the outer hem. Our son is slim, so I knew that he didn’t need those extra centimeters. I sewed the front and back together and left the side seam open so that I could make the applique and attach the pockets.

This time I used the Sulky “Totally stable” on the back and vliesofix in between and the letters actually got pretty good. Not perfect, I can still see the flaws, but good enough.

 

I also sewed on the pockets. I used red foldover elastics as trim, and used red thread, just for a little extra decoration.

 

Our so was thrilled about the outfit and after he tried it on, he didn’t want to wear anything but the outfit for a couple of days. *love*

 

12 step program - New patterns!

 

Okay, so I might overdid my pattern shopping just a bit... But I got really inspired by a Donna Karan tunic I made for New Year that turned out really well (more info on that one in another post). So. Now I have 12 new patterns. And incidently the year has 12 months. See what I am thinking??

 

Yes. I am going to challenge myself to make AT LEAST one new pattern per month. I actually did 6 new patterns last month, and have already made one new-ish pattern this month. So, it really ought to be within reach.

Warm and cozy hats for the kids

 

Yeah, yeah. I know. I always say that making hats are so boring that the clocks stops. And I still think that. But, no rule without an exception, ey?  Both kids have magically lost their hats in school. Go figure! So, both of them needed a warm hat for the winter. And preferable unique enough to make all teachers and students on the school recognize their hats, so that they would be returned if they misplaced them again.

Anyway. It usually takes me less time to sew to hats, than to bring two kids into the store, make them choose a hat (that preferrably isn't to expensive, that matches their coats and they still approve of) and go back again. Okay, these might have taken a little longer time than that to make, but hey, I am really proud of them and they were almost not boring at all to make!

First the hat for my daughter. I bought the "Scandinavian Stitches" book from Kajsa Wikman. Really cute book, with lots of inspiration. And I saw this cute pouch with a mouse applique on it. Well. I don't need a pouch (maybe I do, but not right now), but my daughter likes animals and needs a hat. So.

A hat with a rat it is!

I made the entire hat in velour, and the mouse face is also made in velour and the other details in jersey. I wish I had a lighter gray velour for the mouse, but hey, sometimes you need to use the stuff you've got in stock! Apart from that I think it turned out pretty cute! Really comfy too, and if she's not wearing it, I will!

And for my son. A creeper hat. Creeper is a charachter in the game "Minecraft". I don't have a clue what you are supposed to do, but he's really into it, and loves it. And so are the rest of his friends. So. A creeper hat it is. I actually used a ribbing for the hat, that made it really stretchy. And lined it with black velour for comfyness (does that word actually exist??) and extra warmth.

I do hope that the kids love their new hats!!

Brand new with Dala horses

Brand new fabric from my local fabric shop Tygaffären. It arrived last Thursday, I bought it on Saturday, washed it and cut it on Sunday and finished the first shirt on Monday. I suppose it IS possible to make it even faster, but not very much so....

I really like this fabric. It is a organic cotton knit fabric. And this turquoise is a really good color for my daughter. She has similar skin tone and hair color as her aunt and father and both of them often wear light blue or denim (and look really good in it too). I thought about going lime with the foldover elastic around the neckline and the arms, but decided on the turquoise as the color match was really perfect.

This is a picture I found on the web. I bought the top brown, the turquoise and the bottom purple one. All according to the wishes of my daughter. The bottom purple will be a dress and the other two will be shirts. And she wanted panties in the brown fabric as well.

Some times I have a brilliant idea. And I start with it, and when I just how much work it will mean. Then I am sometimes faced with the feeling that I am so anxious that it should be as perfect as I had imagined it, that I avoid doing it. This is one of those things. A UFO (UnFinishedObject) that ended up in my box forever. The silly thing is that I had done all the boring stuff. So, it was hemmed, had a ribbing around the neck.
It was only the lenght of the arms that needed to be adjusted (fortunately…) and that little detail of sewing all the pieces on to the fabric… Minor detail… Teensy weensy. Pieces that is… When you try to fit the entire world into a child size shirts the pieces get VERY small. I had to give up on large parts of the islands between Australia and Asia. Even UK was to small to even bother. It would have been something like three stitches…

Well. Was is so bad?? Did I really need one year to gather the courage to try to make it?? Not really. It did take a descent amount of time to do it. Draw the pieces, cut them up, and sew them on. All in all I have probably spent 5 hours on it. And that doesn't include trying to find a good map. But, it is all that I wanted and more. My hubby even said "wow!" when he saw it, and I don't think that that has ever happened before…
And no. I won't take custom orders of these…  ;-)