Ottobre goodies for my girl

I bought the rose print fabric on a recent trip to the fabric store. It is one of the softest woven cottons I have ever felt and that prompted me to use it up straight away.

I chose the romantic dress from Ottobre (issue3/2007, #19). Since J measurements are quite different from the Otto measurements, so while the dress is 116cm for the height, the width is for that of the 104. Jalisa is actually closer to the next size, but I always seem to use the size under their actual height to get the length I like.

Look out for that mushroom

Jalisa loves the dress - the gathered pockets are a hit too.

I have pulled out a laundry basket full of warmer weather clothes that J has been wearing over the last couple of summers. While she won't run out of anything to wear (having a school uniform is great since she only needs clothes for weekends and holidays) I thought it would be nice to refresh her wardrobe with quite a few new pieces. Here is another Otto peasant top and Otto Bert? short. The peasant top is definitely too short - I think I will need to go up to the next height if I want to get some wear out of them.

Once again, the pockets are a hit. I have just finished a blue pair of shorts, with red and darker green to go.

Thank you God for

My darling husband. While he is not perfect, there is not too much to complain about. He is supportive of my hobbies, he is hands-on with the kids, I genuinely think he tries his best and he believes that I try my best. Thank you Lord.

Anthropologie knockoff / dud

 I have lots of pictures of clothes from Anthropologie and I was keen to make a few floaty tops like the ones shown above. I thought it would be really quite simple (and it was). Looks through Burda patterns. Find a pattern to use as the base. Find similar patterns to make the desired changes.

I started with the cute little number on the left. I thought the sleeves and the neckline were similiar enough to the look I was going for. However, I hated the gathers over the bust. Not my thing. Rather than doing my own thing and just extending the bodice peices, I found the peasant pattern to use as a guide for the side seams. I figured it was a sure thing for having enough ease to slip on over my head.

So yeah, there was plenty of ease there... plenty for a baby belly in there too. Late term baby belly.

I actually took these pictures as the before photo as I was going to fix the problem with lots of elastic thread. Just made it looks worse and it was tight and uncomfortable. So I unpicked the elastic thread and hung the top in my wardrobe. It'll work with a belt, if I ever buy myself a belt, or I can just wear it at home lest anyone mistake me for being up the duff at work.

 So my plan for lots of these tops went out the window - I think I will just concentrate on making fitted blouses for work.

Thank you God for...

I forgot all about this meme last week, but I remembered for today.


I want to thank God for the wonderful teachers that my daughter has had. I am so glad I can trust that they will do the right thing by my child. Being a teacher myself, I am aware of what of the best practise is for teaching young children as well as the great programs that teachers have available for spelling and science. I am so pleased that all three of J's teachers have so far employed best practise and implemented quality programs. Lord, I am so thankful to you. Amen

I am loving this red vee neck jumper and red tee here. In fact, I am wearing the tee today in support of the Morcombe family. I sewed this up a few Thursdays ago and took pictures, but never got to a blog post stage with it.

Jumper details

Pattern: Kwik Sew 1381 neckline, KS 742 everything else. Basically I wanted a tried and tested jumper but with a thicker, cross over v-neck.

Fabric: a red poly rayon blend knit. Lovely colour but lousy to sew. Luckily it feels lovely to wear, even if it was painful to sew.

Tee was my tried and true tee pattern, but I tried a sway back adjustment as per lovely Sherry's directions. Unfortunately this did not solve the puddling issue in my lower back, so I won't worry about that in the future.

It seems like an age since I made something for my daughter, just because. I have all this fabric sitting around so I decided to use it to make some shorts, shirts and dresses for my darling. Here is the tester pair of shorts and peasant top.

The peasant top is Ottobre's Singoalla blouse (#16 from issue 1/2007). I did not shirr as high as Ottobre did, because I was concerned it would not fit and Jalisa was at school at the time. I think any others I will not add the elastic thread at the bottom, and actually add a little more to give it a proper hem and not just a rolled  hem from the overlocker.

The shorts are the Ottobre Bert shorts (#23 from 3/2009). I have seen lots of blog with the women wearing short shorts and I thought it would be a much cuter look on her than me. Not a great snap of the pants. I think I will go down the next size in the width, as they are a little baggy on her. I used size 110 for the width with 116 for the length, but I think it needs to be the 104 width still (see, I have almost completed a dress and I used a 104 width and I think it was pushing it, but it may have been just that pattern. She is still wearing 98 width tees fine).

I have some small cuts of lime green and powder blue to use. I really have a lot of work since I have bought 25m of fabric in the last couple of weeks. I can barely resist a bargain, especially when I am encouraged by my husband.