A Little Parisian Twirl Outfit

Here is a little twirl skirt that I think has a cute little story attached to it. While at quilt camp a couple of months ago, a fellow camper was cutting out this fabric to use for a quilt back. She was donating her quilt for an auction at her son's school. I commented to her on how pretty the fabric was. Well Gretchen immediately said "Do you want the rest". I told her that I couldn't take her fabric. She told me that she got it free off the Put-N-Take table at a prior retreat. Lucky Gal! Even though she didn't pay for the fabric, I could not take it.

So I came up with a bartering plan. I told Gretchen that I would make something for her daughter in exchange for the rest of the fabric. I happened to have brought my children's binder of projects. In my binder was the instructions for this twirl skirt. So a couple of hours later, Gretchen had a size three twirl skirt and I still had almost two yards of fabric left. That was now mine. I felt that this was now a fair trade. After two skirts, I still have 3/4 of a yard left.

So here is a duplicate of that skirt only in a size six. The skirt pattern is a freebie off the peanutbutter-n-jelly kids site. The applique is from Planet Applique. I love this design.

Elle est aliénée ?

She's gone mad! What is wrong with her? Look at me! Just look at me! I'm so furious I could spit Cartier bracelets. She is making me wear this petite fille dress. Hmmm, actually, this looks a little flirty on me. Is she trying to ruin my career? I will be the laughing stock of Paris if any pictures make it to the fashion houses in Europe. I won't even be able to land a Victoria Secret's job.

Do you know what this is? Quilting cotton! Mon Dieu! We use this on our beds in Paris, not wear it. Do you think her client is getting upset with the delays? She has a very important function to wear that silk to and this designer keeps dragging her feet. I keep asking her why we can't move this gig along. She tells me that she needs to make something for Kayla. Kayla, Kayla, Kayla. That is all I ever hear. I'd like to, I'd like to, well, I'd like to meet her on the playground and show her who the real diva is! I know that there is Italian silk in the atelier. But what does she do, waste her time on clothing for that little Punky Brewster girl.

What is so amusing is that she has a Vogue magazine sitting around. Like what for? Do you see anything Prada in this place? I think not. Look at the tag in the shirt. You buy this at a place called Wal-Mart. What kind of couture house in Paris sells their clothing next to cantalopes? She should stick to reading American Girl magazines if that's who she is going to design for.

To make matters worse, I think I've gained weight since I moved in three months ago. I can't see my feet. They have these little addicting cheese blobs around here called curds.

À bientôt

Gigi

Books for the Library

Last week, the UPS man dropped off a book order. I had read about Claire Shaeffer's book on couture sewing. I thought that there would be some information in this book while working on Whitney's bridal gown. Once I opened up this book, I was having a hard time putting it down. Claire Shaeffer brings you into the ateliers of London, Paris and Rome. There are pictures of the innards of couture items so you can actually see what is inside a garment. There are many pictures of couture garments from great design houses like Dior, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Givenchy. There is even a picture of an incredible House of Worth ball gown that is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I don't know how many people out there in sewing land recognize the name of Charles Worth. He is one of the great designers of the Victorian age. He is known as the "father" of haute couture.

I wasn't so sure about purchasing this book because I had read a couple of reviews about the book being dated. That is so not true. How could a picture of a 1950's Dior dress be dated? Or a Chanel jacket? The couture techniques presented certainly aren't dated.

I think this is a terrific reference book to keep on hand for anyone interested in sewing high fashion.

The other book that arrived from Amazon that day is brand spanking new. The book is called Sewing Clothes Kids Love. This is written by Nancy Langdon of Studio Tantrum/Fledge fame. I have been dying to sew the Feliz dress from Studio Tantrum. The delay is that I have to go the mail order route. Plus, there are no 99 cent pattern specials when ordering from the independent pattern companies. I believe that the Feliz runs about $15-16 for the pattern. Feliz means "happy" in Spanish. I can't imagine any little girl not feeling dizzily happy wearing a colorful Feliz dress.

I was surfing the sewing boards about a month ago and there was scuttlebutt that there was a new book coming out that included the Feliz. There are actually 10 patterns in this book. So the book cost under $17 I think and I have 10 patterns. The book is hard cover and spiral bound. On the front cover is a very thick envelope that stores the patterns.

Nancy Langdon's business, Studio Tantrum/Fledge eventually became associated with the German company Farbenmix.

Nancy's book will take you thru how to measure children, adjusting for plus-size children, embellishing, sewing for boys and even how to make a duct tape dummy for children. This book falls under the category of Fun!

A Superb Mail Day

I've been putting off ordering an Ottobre magazine for over a year now. The price was kind of a turnoff. A whopping $18.00. I finally bit the bullet and so excited to have this little treasure under my roof. Ottobre is a pattern company out of Finland. The children's issue is published four times a year and the adult issue is published two times a year. Ottobre is similar to other European patterns. You will need to trace the size that you want onto Swedish Tracing paper or paper of your choice. Also, the seam allowances aren't included.

I had seen some kids clothes on the internet that were from the Summer 2006 issue. I decided to start with a back issue because I really liked the patterns and didn't want to loose out with this being a back issue. I love the designs in this magazine even though I ordered one that was four years old. I guess that gives you a clue on the trendiness of the European designers. They are setting the bar for the rest of us.

I would say that the magazine has more patterns for girls than for boys. This issue didn't really trip my trigger so much for boys but I've been impressed with other issues so I feel confident enough to recommend the magazine to other people who sew for boys.

Don't you agree that these designs are just too Euro-Cute! I don't think that I'll be making anything anytime soon. My cutting table is full and begging me to get into production mode so it can be cleaned off. Hopefully soon, I get to experience the true delight of stitching up one of these designs. Oh, and by the way, even though the price of the magazine seems a little stiff, there are 40 patterns included in this magazine.

A Pink Sparkly Fix

Sewing for little girls is so much fun. I had been wanting to make a little crayon tote for a while now. I made Kayla a little crayon roll up but how many crayon holders does one child need? So I decided to make a couple of little bag for a co-workers peanuts. The girls are ages 2 and 3. Cathy said that Sadie needed a little bag to carry around her Barney dvd's in. I originally drafted AND cut out all the pieces of a complicated dvd carrier. Finally sanity set in and decided not to invent this wheel. I had purchased a Lazy Girl purse pattern in Minnesota and decided it would be the right size for a 2 year old and should be able to hold her two inches of Barney dvd's. Cathy requested that it be safe for Sadie to sleep with so I changed up the purse strap and put two short handles on instead of one long strap. The font used for Sadie's name is called Walt. The tiny purse pattern was a pattern I got from my friend Pat. She has a Quilting Arts subscription and every now and then will show Ann and I fun little, quick projects. This was the perfect little accessory to use up some left over fabric. The purse is quilted with a flower pattern and her name is also quilted into the design. If you think my cursive handwriting is bad, you should see me quilt in cursive style. My "S" doesn't quite look like an "S".

Now for Emily, I made an ultra-deluxe crayon tote. Sometimes, improvements are such a great thing but on this project it was not. I wanted the tote to be durable enough for a 3 year old. I put iron-on interfacing on the crayon pockets. The end result was that it is hard to get the crayons in and out of. I also decided to put some iron on vinyl behind the crayon pockets so the crayons wouldn't get on the fabric. Then I had to put rick rack to hide the end of the vinyl. You can see where this is going, one thing leads to another and the project starts to snowball. I was proud of myself for sticking with the mission of having a fun, functional tote. Another mistake I made was to not really think about the measurements for the crayon pocket. In the design process, I guess I was only thinking about the measurements for a coloring book so that was the width measurement that I was thinking about. It should have been a little wider to give more ease for the crayons. The font used for Emily is called Fairytale which I thought appropriately went with the whole pink princess theme.

To finish the project, I took card stock and used some Wonder-under and ironed on leftover fabric to the card stock. The most time consuming part of the project was deciding what decorative stitches I wanted to use to embellish the card. Pretty easy. I can't wait to try some more cards. Oh, I forgot to tell you that all the fabric was sparkly. Perfect for a couple of little girls. So I was able to get my pink sparkly, girly fix for the last couple of weeks.

Music used for this project: U2 (well that's a given) and The Dresden Dolls. I had Coin-Operated Boy playing over and over. I needed a fun song while to listen to while sewing this fun project.