Connecting the dots…

The oilcloth project

I have been wanting to try a tutorial from the U-handblog for quite some time now - just had to work up the nerve… She has lots of great tutorials there, but the one I had my mind set on was the oilcloth backpack. I have been preparing for it for a while (you guessed it, this is the project for Ronja I have been mentioning) - purchasing stuff, drawing the simple patterns, and cutting the oilcloth and lining. I ordered the sew-in interfacing from the U-handbag shop, because I couldn’t find it in the local shops here - I didn’t want to risk replacing it with something that wasn’t good enough. It arrived in the mail Monday, and yesterday evening I started sewing - so this is the final product.

Actually, I still need to do one thing. The backpack is for Ronja, and she doesn’t yet know how to tie a bow. Therefore, I want to add a cord stopper, so that she will be able to open and close the bag herself.

The bag did present a few challenges. First of all because sewing oilcloth just isn’t terribly easy. The tutorial recommends that you use a non-stick foot for your sewing machine, but I didn’t have one, and I decided to go ahead and give it a try without it. After making the bag, I would say that it isn’t necessary, but I do see why it would be nice to have. And I didn’t even use the really shiny kind of oilcloth - that would probably make it even more useful.

One of the difficult things about sewing with oilcloth is that you are very limited when it comes to pinning, so you really have to keep an overview while sewing, because the fabric doesn’t always move the way you want it to. It worked out fine, though. The backpack isn’t easy peasy, but it’s not terribly difficult either - it just takes a bit of preparation, and a bit of patience, when doing the tricky parts. To tell you the truth, I was surprised at how quickly it all went, once I started sewing - the tutorial is awesome and very well illustrated.

I didn’t really alter anything - except that I chose to make the pocket 4 cm narrower, and I chose to use purchased cord instead of making a tie - naturally because it has to work with a cord stopper.

Ronja loves her new backpack - and that’s enough to make me happy. As a bonus, I’m really satisfied with the result myself - and I highly recommend this tutorial!

**UPDATE**

Sorry, I left out an important detail. The oilcloth I used for the bag is from Stof og Stil, a Danish fabric store, and for the lining and the straps I used Farmers Market from Sandi Henderson.

The happy girl in her new dress

So here is my tiny model for the Cilla leaf dress. And yep, she is standing on her own!

She doesn’t walk unsupported yet, but she can stand quite well. We have been trying to encourage a bit of walking, by making the traditional “from Dad to Mom”-track (and reversed) - however, crawling works so well for her, even if she does walk, it will not be anywhere near as effective for her, at least not for a while. You should see her crawl, she is incredibly fast, and sometimes she has sort of a race track thing going on around the dinner table.

Frida is always happy. Really - always - she’s a little sunbeam. She’s getting so big, which is good, because Ronja wants her little admirer to be able to do stuff - you know, like sing and dance. And dress up. And play grocery store. Oh yes, Frida still enjoys the attention of a very devoted big sister.

We have no doubt, Frida is going to be a handball player - she throws everything all the time, and it’s literally impossible to put a plate in front of her at the dinner table - at least if you expect it to stay there. For that same reason, eating on her own is progressing rather slowly - put a plate in front of her and it’s on the floor in a split second (the same goes for the food if you put it there without plate), put a cup of milk in front of her, and it’ll hit the wall before you can count to… erhhh - before you can count really… She does eat a piece of bread, a bun, or a rice cracker on her own, though - she seems to like that a lot. Frida has 11 teeth now - didn’t she just yesterday get her first two? Nope - that was June 10th. 11 teeth in less than 6 months - no wonder she keeps drooling…

And then she eats books. I remember Ronja at the same age, she used to read books very carefully, turning each page with her fingertips, and just looking through books for hours. With Frida it’s quite a different story - I have had to put a lot of the baby books away, because I want a few of them to survive their first meeting with her.

Frida’s sleep during the night has been pretty much uninterrupted for a year now, which is amazing! She loves going to bed, and she goes to sleep by herself. We just tuck her in and leave the room - and that’s the way it has been all along!

As for the dress, I love it on her - it’s a little bit big, which is fine because that way it’ll last for a while. I love the pattern - the rounded yoke looks beautiful - I may make a blouse of some kind especially for this dress, though. When she crawls, she gets her knees into the dress, but then my version is longer than the pattern suggests, because I cut it with a seam allowance, and then I hemmed it with bias tape instead of the traditional way. All in all I will definitely recommend this pattern.

Cilla leaf dress

I have been waiting for some materials to arrive from England for the project I told you about that I’ll be making for Ronja. Friday however, my mail man still didn’t bring what I needed, so I thought that I would make something else. Armed with the latest issue of Ottobre, I made the Cilla dress for Frida.

I made a few alterations - and really this dress kind of evolved in the making. I didn’t cut up the skirt section as the instructions tell you to - I cut it in one piece. The fabric I used is baby corduroy instead of wool-knit, and I hemmed it with a wide bias tape made from the same fabric I used for the facing inside the yoke panels. Finally, I lacked something to bring it all together, and I came up with the leaf appliqué which is my own design. Also, inspired by Karen’s beautiful version of the dress, I used snaps for the shoulder closures.

I really like the result, even though initially I didn’t know where I was going with the dress. I thought I was making a dress for every day use, but this doesn’t excactly fit that description - at least not in my opinion. I really like the pattern - it’s wonderfully versatile. I have no idea what she will be wearing this one for, but hopefully we’re going to a Christmas party or two within the next 2 months. 

Meet Mr. Pumpkin

Even though Halloween is not traditionally celebrated in Denmark, it has been gaining ground these past few years, and people have particularly taken in the tradition of carving pumpkins and placing them outside with lit candles to grin at passers-by.

Many would argue that the reason why it’s becoming increasingly popular, is that shops and grocery stores see an opportunity to boost sails (ooops, typo - should’ve been:) sales, but globalisation certainly has its share in it, and really, who cares - carving pumpkins is fun!

Ronja enjoys to eat the pumpkin meat while I handle the sharp knife. We offered Frida some as well, but she didn’t show quite the same enthusiasm. Mads took some pumpkin seeds to the kitchen and came back with the finished result half an hour later.

MMmmmmm - salted pumpkin seeds….. Yummy!

We may not be as creative as some, but we love him all the same - and personally, I think he’s related to the guy we had visiting a few years ago!

In the mail

A few days ago, I had a really good mail-day.

First of all, I was recently lucky enough to win two patterns over at Sarah’s blog. It’s the Feliz dress from Fledge, and the Anna wrap dress from Farbenmix. Both patterns look great and versatile - one is very dressy, and one - could be an every day dress as well as the opposite, I think.  Check out this Feliz dress f.ex., or Sarah’s Halloween-version of it. Also this version of the Anna dress is just fabulous - as is this one. Thank you, Sarah for the patterns - I have read so much about these patterns and seen numerous versions of them, so I can’t wait to try them. 

Secondly, I received the new issue of Ottobre. Lots of delightful stuff in there - especially for Frida, but also some great things for Ronja. More fine corduroy needed!

 And then of course, I received the fairy fabric. Ronja wants me to make a dress immediately - however, I’m wondering what I could use it for, that will be warm enough for winter. I’m thinking maybe a tunic of some kind, but I may have to take that up with Ronja, since she is definitely picturing a fairy dress….!

 I’m working on something else for Ronja right now, so all these projects will have to wait just a bit. Even getting started with the current ‘thing’ is giving me enough trouble, but I think I’ll soon be ready to go. More on that when I get there…

Matryoshka dolls blouse

A week ago, an online shop with a small, but very nice selection - Silassen.dk - had a sale with 50% discount on Japanese fabric and trim. I usually buy Japanese fabric in the US, but with a discount like that, even Denmark was suddenly competitive. The sale is over, but I got myself a few things, and when it arrived two days ago, I just had to make this.

It’s a blouse for Frida, and I love that this soft Japanese cotton linen blend is heavy enough to keep her warm, even when it’s a bit chilly. Frida loves it - which is funny, because usually you would think that a 1 year old didn’t care much what she was wearing, but this blouse has her giggling while looking down and touching the small matryoshka dolls all the time. Just a funny side effect.

I actually made it from a size 92, which Frida is nowhere near yet. I took a few inches off the sleeves and cut it with only half a cm seam allowance, and it’s a really nice fit - roomy without being too big, but sure to fit her for a while. And if needed there’s room enough for a long sleeved t-shirt underneath.

 I also got this Japanese ribbon, and I love it. I don’t know what they will be used for, but the possibilities are countless.

By the way, the new Ottobre kids issue is up on the Ottobre website and it should arrive in my mailbox pretty soon. It looks like a great issue, and there are definitely several things that I want to make for the girls. Time is the issue as always - but that’s life!

Lots of fresh air

 This past weekend was spent outside in the very changing weather. Saturday we had a very nice trip to the kite festival by the Eremitage Palace. Below you see a huge bear-kite that someone had in the air. It had a smaller bear behind it, which is seen here. Ronja thought they were funny, but in this picture she is enthusiastically holding one of our own kites.

It was raining on and off while we were there, but it was so fascinating to see hundreds of kites in the air on such a small area. Ronja’s beautiful new butterfly-kite proved to be a bit difficult to keep in the air - it kept moving in one direction and towards the ground, so perhaps some tweaking is needed. However, Frida’s lively miniature clown-kite was lots of fun. I do think even Frida enjoyed looking at all the kites, and the cheerful clown-kite really caught her attention because we were able to fly it quite low.

Many people brought handbuild kites, and it was really amazing to see how much energy and creativity the true enthusiasts that were present put into it. Mads has become so hooked, I believe he may have found himself a new hobby - and the rest of us don’t mind!

Sunday Mads and I participated in a 7.5 km run called Gribskovløbet. The girls came along in the baby joggers, and even though the route through the forest on muddy trails with gnarled tree roots proved not to be all that suitable for the baby joggers, we had a very nice time. I know I mentioned this before, but running with a child in a baby jogger presents a whole new scenario, compared to running by yourself without anything (or anyone) else to worry about. I’m only slowly adjusting to that, and quite frankly, I think it’s hard. Mads is a lot better at it than I am, but I’m determined on improving my running - even with a baby jogger. We’ll see.

A perfect day

I had a wonderful birthday! Did I mention that this past week has been our autumn holiday? It has, so we have all been at home with time to relax - also on my birthday.

Mads and the girls woke me up early (Ronja just couldn’t wait any longer, I think she was more excited than I was) with a birthday song, candles, hot coffee, and presents. One of my presents was a new heart rate monitor for my running - the Polar RS200. It’s so much better than my last one, and of course I had to try it out before lunch - didn’t do my best run ever, though, I guess three cups of coffee is not the best foundation for a good run. But a wonderful new toy!

We didn’t have any plans in particular (or at least that’s what I thought), but I needed some things from “Stof og Stil” (fabric store) for a project I ‘m planning, so we all went, and we had a really nice trip. When we got home, Mads sent Ronja and me to the small train station, which is almost next to our house, to pick up someone. I didn’t know who it was, and frankly I was totally puzzled, because we hadn’t been preparing for guests or anything. So when the train arrived, and my mother appeared, I was totally surprised - she lives at the other end of the country, so she doesn’t just stop by any day, you know. While we were all drinking tea, Mads revealed the great plan; he and I were going out for dinner, while my mother was to be babysitting the girls.

 And we went out. We had a wonderful dinner at Restaurant Elverhøi, followed by a trip to the cinema to see Burn After Reading - the new movie by the Coen-brothers. The movie was really good, brought some great laughs, and it is definitely worth seeing, though I do think it lacked some kind of peak. Anyway, just having a night out alone with Mads was perfect and everything worked out fine with my mother babysitting the girls!

Candlelight dinner, confidential conversation, and Coen at the cinema - what a birthday!