Santa's little helpers - Ottobre's PJs

For this year's Christmas show Andrei needed an elf costume. There were plenty of options to buy but I hate so much the fabrics that all this costumes are made of and the complete waste they are after. I also loved the idea of making his costumes so I decided to make our own. I found this red and white stripes knit fabric. I decided I could make PJs out of it and it received such a strong approval from my son and a sad look from Eva that I made her a pair as well. It was a pain to work with but I really think they are cute PJs.
   Now that Andrei had something nice to wear on the skin I went on and used velveteen for the overall. Simple knee pants and some sort of a shirt over, a hat and shoes cover.

 I used a pattern that could have cone with color blocking the pants but after putting my fabrics together decided that simple stripes would be better.

 I am quite disappointed with the kindergarten staff  that let him wear his pants with one leg up and one down but over all I liked my little elf... it looked a little different then the commercial ones. I think mine looked prankish and more childish. I didn't put to much effort in the velvet staff since it was a one time garment, but I think it looked decent on the stage. And I am quite proud of not using a RTW one. What do you think?

 Turned into X-mas PJs.

A Christmas toy - DIYFluffies turtle

Earlier this month I wanted to enter a challenge in sewing a Christmas decoration. It was not easy to decide what to do since I didn't want a tee decoration. I started myself in making a toy. I didn't managed to finish it in time for that deadline but I managed to finish it later. I had a bundle of 3 pasterns from DIYFluffies and I had already made 2 octopuses - here and here. For this project I choose the turtle. I still have the whale to try out.
   At 1st I tied go get together different fabrics and craps that would work in the holiday theme.

    I ended up using the velvet from the Eleonore jeans I made last Christmas and the star fabric from the reversible vintage apron and 2 new fabrics.   I just love using the last scraps and pulling back memories from past projects.
   The turtle pattern was marked advanced and I agree with that. It didn't look like much to me once I had the pattern pieces cut out but it was really tricky to get all those seams together...

That are a lots of curvy seams that are hard to sew together. You also have to cut your own seam allowance and the sew inner curves to outer curves... The pattern says that any fabric will work for it but I think some would be easier then others. Most of my fabrics were quilting cottons and those are very unforgiving to any small mistake. It might be easier with a flannel slightly stretchy..

   I ended up attaching the head by hand. My pattern pieces didn't exactly lined up there... but that was probably my bad. I also hand sew the small legs to get from under the shell. When I finished it they were turned towards inside... One other thing that I used is that I put in plastic green eyes and skipping 2 other small pattern pieces and steps...

  It didn't turned out that great and I can see a lot of mistakes in it but I think the turtle is warm and friendly. It looks like and interesting pattern but I think it takes some practice to master. Not sure if I will try it again. It takes time...

Folk Costumes for the little ones

I like garments inspired by traditional folk outfits. I did one for my son a while ago and he grew out of it. I keep meaning to make more. On the 1st December is the day of Romania and we are celebrating the reunion of Romanian territories under the same state. It seamed like a good time to make those outfits. I also was inspired by the make your own fabric contest on PR but even if I did finish in time the sewing we left for a small holiday on 30 and had no time for proper photos and review.

   The masterpiece is Andrei's shirt. I used the latest Ottobre shirt - 6/2016 #23 as the starting point and just skipped the front opening and did a placket instead and large collar.

I love the hem of this shirt. I need to do more like that. I have been embroidering on it for hours and hours... I have a 5x7 inch loop and now I would have loved a bigger one. It is the 1st time when I try to embellish such a big surface and I did quite a few mistakes. I have to unpick and hand repair some and there are still plenty left... but over all I love how it turned out.

   I have used the free Children'S Embroidered Shirt design pack :

One of the snowflakes here:

And the birds Art Deco Set from artisticthreadworks:

   For Eva I used the same Pocahontas to pattern... how predictable is that!?!... but I altered it a lot so it is not really recognizable:

For Eva the fabric is different and is an embroidered batiste- very light and beautiful. Sadly after the 1st washing the blue color in the center of the applique flowers faded significantly. I may fave to bring it back somehow.

For both of them I used the softer batiste fabric to fully line them and make them more pleasant on the body:

Eva's apron is cut from an authentic handmade towel. I used crochet work trims and other lace appliques for Eva's dress. I didn't had the time and patience to do some elaborate embroidery for her as well. Next time...

We used this outfits for the Romanian night party and for the tree decorating on the eve of St Nicholas:

 The sweet winter holidays are already here for us: