More prettiness

I've been sewing pouches and small bags like crazy lately. It seems that we did not have any and that we desperately needed them. I just emptied Ikea's fabric section and started sewing. Quite boring stuff and I will not be showing you all of those, even though I've promised to! 

This pouch is really cute but not at all useful. So far I have been using it to store my bras and knickers during our recent weekend trips but it is a bit too big for those. Nevermind, I really like the fabric. It is "Penger" from Finlayson (designed by Anu Kanervo), and I bought 2,5 meters of it. Love it. I guess I need to continue sewing...

Pretty pochette

I found a Japanese crochet pattern site and printed out a few instructions, this pouch or pochette or clutch (cannot decide!) was one of them. There were many really cute patterns, but I cannot find the site anymore -  so frustrating! Anyway, this is not my own crochet pattern but the idea is something that I am going to use with different doilies as well, might even take a few from my doily stash... This doily pattern brought starfish to my mind, I like it a lot.

Edit. Found the Japanese site, this pochette pattern is here.

Baskets

I used some leftover fabric strips that I got from my mother (her closets seem to be bottomless) to make a few baskets. We were at the summer cottage and I had lots of time during a thunder storm - crocheting kept my fears under control, LOL. I like the subtle sheen of the fabric strips, some polyester blend most likely.

Pastels

I have been inspired by pastel colours lately. I don't know why, since usually I like my colours bright. Perhaps the heat has something to do with it. I bought these underwear elactics from a yard sale for 40 cents and I am still kicking myself for not buying all other colours as well. I took only the pretty ones that went well together. There would have been a very nice yellow and a few different blues as well. Sigh. And if you are interested, I have no idea what I will do with these!

I also bought over 10 meters of pastel coloured linen fabric from Eurokangas. I don't know what I was thinking but I love these fabrics a lot. Just need to use them quickly before my mood changes back to brights!

Last night I made this skirt for Emma. The stripe fabric is actually a man's shirt, the purple fabric is linen. More pictures coming after the weekend. I might even write a tutorial, since there's a trick to this skirt which makes it a really simple and quick project.

Linking this again to Tea Rose Home, go and check it out!

Jeans bag

My mom gave me her old jeans (from the 90's! Horrible. Elastic waistband, can you imagine...) and I got to work. There is plenty of material to use, and I have been making skirts from it. One I already made using the said elastic waistband but the other one is still work in progress. I doubt Emma will ever get it, it is so boring to make. Anyway, I used the rest of the fabric for this bag, the middle of this bag is the side seam of the jeans leg. The inside fabric is from Ikea, remnants of the Christmas dress project.

I have a hard time deciding which side I like the best! I'm so happy this bag is reversible!

Daisies and roses - finished

Yes, the squares were made to a bag - I am so predictable! No, actually I was a bit lazy and did not feel like crocheting more squares, so bag was the natural solution. I did not use any pattern, just crocheted the squares together, added straps and a lining and called it a bag. The patterns for the daisy and the rose square came from ET magazine (09/11), Finnish pensioners' magazine that I borrowed from my mom. 

I added a pocket inside the bag and used some ricrac to decorate it.

Emma has not seen it yet, I hope she likes it!

Oh, this weekend we are celebrating midsummer, have a nice weekend everyone!

Tree bag

I don't think these require any explanations. I am still obsessed with making these bags. I have at least one more coming up, just need to get some decent pictures of it. Yep, my camera still isn't my new best friend, but we are slowly getting there. Very slowly.

Ruffle skirt

I had one elastic waist band from my mom's old jeans (from the 90's...) and yellow and lavender coloured flower curtains donated by my mother-in-law. It was destiny - those two needed to be paired. I did not use any pattern but I did take a look at Emma's another ruffle skirt, store-bought, so that I would get the proportions of the ruffles correctly. This became Emma's favourite instantly and she has been twirling and dancing in this skirt the whole day.

 

 Almost forgot, linking this to Tea Rose Home!

Marigold dress

I've been wanting to make this dress for Emma for ages now but I haven't found any fabrics that would inspire me. Then yesterday I was going through my favourite blogs and found this. Amazing. Perfect. Actually all the dresses from that blog are amazing, I'll might just try to copy them all. Too bad the blog is not being updated anymore. 

I had fabrics for that dress in my stash so I started cutting and sewing immediately. Result: Amazing, perfect. Oh, and Emma approves as well, LOL. The pattern is from Good Girls Cute Clothes (ISBN 978-4-579-11194-7), the pattern book where I also took the leggings pattern.

White fabric is some polyester blend from the 80s (mom gave it to me) which I thought to be nice, light-weight 100% cotton but found out otherwise when I tried to iron it with hot steam. It melted. Luckily the melted bit is not shown, it is in the lining. The yellow fabric is just some basic cotton from my stash, I had barely enough to make this dress.

 

Oh, in case you are wondering why I named it the Marigold dress: I shamelessly copied the name from Katie Did. Could not help it, it describes the dress perfectly!

Three bags

I made three bags for Emma's kindergarten teachers - today is her last day in kindergarten. I used once again the pattern from verypurpleperson and this time I let Emma help me in sewing them. Emma has never before been allowed to touch my sewing machine so she was very excited. She sewed the bottom seams (under my very watchful eye) and did a very good job! She was very proud of her work, so we will continue these sewing exercises, perhaps she could make herself a gym sack or something simple as that.

A warning: My photos are really bad and almost all are blurry. I took them this morning, in a hurry and didn't check my camera settings.

The paisley fabric above is actually an old shirt that my husband has never worn. It seemed like a good idea to get some use of it, and it looks quite nice as a bag. The red bird fabric is from Almedahls, stripes and blue fabric from Ikea.The lining of the first bag is orange cotton.

The green lining fabric is an old table cloth and the tree fabric is, once again, from Ikea. I love Ikea fabrics!