Another shirt transformation

 

I got this shirt from a relative and at first I tried to wear it as is. However, it was way too big for me and since the colour was not good for my skin tone either, I decided to transform it to a shirt for Emma. I tried to keep the original idea and just make it smaller, a LOT smaller, but it did not work out that well. I had some problems with the collar, even though it really does not show well in this picture. It is still wearable, though.

Oh, by the way, she is also wearing the capri pants I made her earlier.

More nightwear

I know, too many pyjamas and such, but these I have been making lately, since Emma needs new ones. This one I actually made before Christmas already, but since I was not blogging at that time, I could not show this then : ) The fabric is again leftovers from bead linen set my mother made Emma, but this time there was not enough fabric to make full lenght pants. I did not like the Moomin fabric, or actually the colour, but it seems that lace can do wonders. I actually liked the end result very much! The tee is store bought, I just added some ruffles to the front.

The pictures are a bit dark, but I took the pictures after dark (Emma's bedtime...) and my camera is not the greatest. Emma's poses are once again her own, I really don't understand where she gets those!

Giddy-up!

I made this hobby horse for Emma over a year ago and she still likes it. I guess a princess needs her horse : ) I just wish that the horse sounds she makes would be a bit more subdued...

My husband drew the horse head ( he is better at drawing) and I came up with the ears and mane. and drew the patterns. Emma actually had found the stick from nearby woods earlier and was quite happy to let me use it for the hobby horse. I used quite thick wool yarn for the mane, so that it would not get tangled easily. Sewing the head was a bit difficult because of the thick wool yarn, but in the end I managed to sew it without breaking my sewing machine.

A tutu lamp

One day I was cleaning Emma's room and found her tutu in the middle of the floor. I picked it up and it reminded me of something... A lamp shade! I immeadiately realized that I needed a tutu lamp in our bedroom. My husband was a bit hesitant at first, since he is very safety-concious and wanted to make sure I was not going to burn our home down. Haha, very funny. Naturally burning down anyone's home was not my plan here, so I asked for his help in figuring out the fire safety issues. He then helped me to find a suitable lamp frame to use as a base for the tutu lamp and naturally we bought energy-efficient light bulbs for the lamp itself. In addition to being environmentally friendly, those light bulbs do not heat so much, so the risk of setting some tulle alight was even lower. I know, boring... But ever so safety-concious!

Anyway. Here is the lamp.

It was quite difficult to take pictures of it, but I can assure you that we all love it very much. It adds some fun and romance to our bedroom and I think everyone could always use a bit more of those :)

Ruffles - my entry to Disney's lovely competition!

I got very excited a few weeks ago: Disney at the Ruffles And Stuff is hosting a competition with amazing prizes and I knew I just had to take part. My head has been buzzing with ideas, but unfortunately, I have not had so much time to create anything. Finally I decided on making a simple ruffle top for Emma. The competition is all about ruffles, so to make the top a bit more ruffly, I also made a ruffle brooch to go with the top. I have seen some entries in Disney's blog and there are some really amazing stuff being created. So, what do you think? Is this ruffly enough?

I had a hard time choosing what picture to post here, so I added all I took (minus one with a big cheesy fake smile...). I know the outfit is a bit ridiculous at this time of the year, but Emma refused to take off the tights, and the shorts were the only item in her wardrobe I could think of matching with the top, and I do realize they are not the best combinaison.  I think I must sew something a bit nicer to wear with the top!

Oh, and could someone please tell my four-year-old that she does not need to try look so grown up in photos??  Her only reply to me was that she is not four but four and a half! Right.

Nightgown for Emma

Time for a book review again :) This time I grabbed one of my newest finds, Happy homemade wardrobe vol. 2 Kids, since I think it has all the basic clothes a child needs for a summer.  As all the other books I have, this one is mainly concentrated on girls' clothes, but it does have some unisex clothes in it.

 

Happy homemade wardrobe, vol. 2

ISBN 978-4-579-11243-2

Paperback: 55 pages
Publisher: Bunka Shuppan Kyoku (May 2009)
Language: Japanese
Clothes for sizes 100-130cm

There are dresses, shirts, pants and shorts, and the patterns are very simple and instructive pictures are very clear. As always, the pictures in this Japanese sewing book are lovely. I decided to make a dress for Emma, but since we are still in the middle of the winter, I decided to use flannel and make it a night gown instead. The dress looks a bit like a night gown, so just changing the fabric was enough.

 

Here is the end result. Pink flannel was very nice to work with and I think this gown is warm enough to use in winter time. Emma was not very cooperative (putting on sleepwear in the daytime, what was I thinking?), but I managed to take one picture. I bribed her with liquorice :)

Two from one

Initially, I was only planning to make capri pants to Emma from a grey shirt that I got from my mother-in-law. I made the pants from the body of the shirt and since there was so much fabric left in the sleeves, I decided to make a mini skirt as well. Boring shirt, not so boring skirt! I appliqued both the pants and the skirt, since otherwise Emma would not have worn them. The apliquees are from an Ikea fabric, that I bought when Emma was a baby and made some sheets for her crib from it. Apologies for the bad pictures, Emma wanted to wear the skirt immediately and I got to take a picture of it only after a whole day's use. I could have ironed it, though... Sorry!

Oh, one more thing. I did not use any pattern for the skirt and the pattern for the pants is the same that I used to make Emma's pyjama pants (basicly an old pair of Emma's pants cut to pieces..).

Crocheted necklace

Marche Special Crochet Goods

Paperback: 79 pages

Publisher: Nihon Vogue Sha (October 2009)

Language: Japanese

24 Crochet projects (brooches, hair accessories, bags, collars, etc)

I bought this Japanese crochet book, Marche Special Crochet Goods, in a whim and when I received it, found it a bit boring. It did not have that many ideas and the crochet patterns were a bit difficult to grasp. At least the pictures were pretty and inspirational, as always, and I decided to try making something from it. I settled to the easiest project: making a necklace from crocheted beads. I used leftover yarns from Hello Kitty bag and dishcloths so I did not have a lot of colours to choose from. I did okay anyway, didn't I? :)

Next time I will use a bit more stuffing in the beads. Now the are a bit too soft and don't hold their shape that well. Making crocheted beads was so easy that I might just have to make several necklaces!

Tutus everywhere

The blogospshere is full of tutus and Emma loves ballet. Therefore, I needed to make her a tutu. Simple as that :) I found simple instructions and nice pictures from ambrosialove's Flickr photostream and bought a lot of tulle to make the tutu.

I involved Emma in the project and let her choose colours. She was so happy! Surprisingly, she did not pick pinks and reds, but instead opted for mint green, lilac and white. Nice combinaison of colours! She also decided that the tutu would be a part of her fairy costume, so she also wanted mint green fairy wings. I could not find mint green wings anywhere, but luckily lilac ones were easier to find and I bought those. Actually, I probably should have made those mint green wings myself, but I felt a bit lazy...

Here she is, very happy with her new fairy costume!

 

 

Once upon a time...

My daughter has been asking me to buy her a princess dress. Since I absolutely hate spending any money on those shiny polyester dresses that are available in stores, I decided to make one myself. I mean, how hard can it be? Some tulle, some fabric and probably some lace and sparkly bits, that's what princess dresses are made of.

Since the dress was for my lovely Princess Emma, I involved her in the design process. We borrowed some books from the library for inspiration and set to work. We especially liked this book by Lenée Grue and Line Watt, Prinsessakirja.

Emma definitely knew what she wanted. She wanted puff sleeves, a flowing skirt and some sparkly bits, preferably in pink. That was the easy part. I also had my own vision of the dress in my mind and selfishly chose the fabrics. I chose green fabric for the bottom part of the dress and Emma protested. Pink, pink, pink she argued. Then I remembered that her favourite princess of all times is Princess Fiona from Shrek and that helped: Princess Fiona wears green! She also IS green, but I did not want to give Emma any ideas and did not mention that :)

Here she is, Princess Emma!

 

The dress in made entirely of repurposed fabrics. The green skirt is an old sheet, the pink fabric is from an 80's shirt my mother gave me and the white crown is made from leftovers of a shirt I used to make Emma a shirt dress. Oh, and the waist is made from an old linen napkin. I did not use any particular pattern for the dress, but I did use some different top patterns to make the sleeves and the body. I bought the crown from a craft fair, but I cannot remember the name of the maker and there is no label on the crown.