New maternity shirt - flamingoes

I've wanted to make this shirt from the beginning of my pregnancy and I've finally made it (like two months ago, I'm just slow at publishing things). It's easy to make and great to wear. I think that the fabric is just great for this pattern. It's a bit whimsical. I bought it in Svet metraže in Slovenia.

 I really don't want to show my double chin so I prefer to cut off my face and neck.

It's taken from Burda 8/ 2005, mod. 123, size: 40.

Pink squirrel costume

Again a year has passed and our annual carnival holiday is here - PUST (in Slovene) (this year on 9th February 2016). I gave my daughter three choices for a costume: a squirrel, a chicken or a kitty. Well, she wanted to be a horse. Absolutely not. Finally we agreed on a pink squirrel.

Tinkara 3 y 10 m

So I decide to go fully pink, a pink plush tail, a pink tull skirt, pink ears and a pink vest. Obnoxiously pink. Too much pink for my taste. I don't even like pink colour. But I guess little girls can stand a lot of pink. So here it is. So far I have done just the tail and the ears, the skirt is waiting to be finished.

How is it made?

1. I made the tail from old bed sheet and then stuffed it with soft polyester filling. 

2. Then I made the tail from pink plush material. And stuffed the white tail into the pink one.

3. I have sewed white elastic on top of the tail and somewhere in the middle like it's a rucksack. That's the best way to carry this tail everything else makes it floppy because it is quite heavy.

Children's squirrel tail and ears - download

4. Then I attached a kind of belt in the waist - made of plush material and white elastic band. I hope the pictures are clear enough.

5. Then the ears: I used a head piece which I encased/ covered in jersey fabric.

6. Then I made the ears and stuffed them with polyester filling, but a flat one. Then I folded them and attached triangular pieces of fabric to make the ears more squirrel-like. The ears were easy to sew on the head piece because it had holes in the head piece (I bought it just for 1 eur in KIK).

That's it!

Maternity jeans - upgraded

Again I had to transform my regular jeans into maternity jeans. Yes, that means I'm going to have a baby. I'm really happy about that. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to shopping. I really don't like wasting time looking for clothes in shops because many of those things don't appeal to me and because I'm also a very thrifty person. Anyway, 3.5 years ago (before my daughter was born) I had more time and more enthusiasm and I went to look for some maternity clothes and I was disappointed. 
Let's cut the long story short. If you know how to sew it's really easy to make yourself some nice and comfortable maternity trousers. I'll try to demonstrate my version in some quick steps.

1. I take the jeans that I like and that I can still put on with the zipper closed but leaving the big button open. I carefully rip the waist/ belt off (carefully - after giving birth I actually changed back the jeans and sewed the belt back on).

2. I cut the front and back pieces for the belly out of nice, soft, stretchy jersey. Here is the pattern taken from a magazine La Mia Boutique - Febbraio 2009 (Italian). I just hope I won't get sued because of that. (I once made my own pattern but lost it in a huge pile of patterns that I have.) (Before I cut anything out of fabric I put the paper pieces on my jeans and I imagine how the whole thing will look like. You can make the paper pieces bigger or smaller according to your jeans size. So don't rush, take your time, measure everything, use pins and pin everything in place. I always do that before I make any final cuts or stitches and it pays off.)

Belly part - download

3. I usually use an over lock machine to keep the seams neat. I also keep the zipper (even though you don't actually need it anymore) because there's less work and like I mentioned before if you have too much time after you give birth you can always quickly change the jeans back to normal.

4. I sew the two jersey pieces together on the side seams. !!! But on one side I leave 2.5 cm of open space on two places: right below the fold (on top but on the inner side) and close to the bottom seam again on the inner side. That's leaving space for inserting the elastic band. I mean the elastic band can be optional but it's better to leave room to use it. In my opinion it's good to have it because otherwise I have a feeling that jeans are slowly moving down my body especially when I squat or bend - jersey is just not enough tight.

5. Then you sew the jersey (belly) piece on the top part of your jeans all around the opening.

6. Here I actually inserted the elastic band only on the top part, not yet at the bottom. For now it's OK. I sewed with double needle before I could put in the elastic band, of course. So that's really the final thing. You insert the elastic band and sew it together.

I hope this wasn't too confusing. It wasn't exactly short but I hope the pictures help. And the bold print. 

New clothes for Anika

Anika has been lying around naked for some time. It wasn't a pretty sight even though she is just a doll. An opportunity to make her new clothes showed up when I had to shorten and hem my husband's pyjamas. The piece was perfect for a gathered doll's skirt. It was hemmed, so I just had to put in an elastic band.

For the top I used a pattern from Burda , She's a 35 cm high doll.

Anika is a nice reminder of the old times. My mum bought it when I was a young girl, so she is probably over 25 years old. Now I let my daughter play with her. At that time I think Slovenia was still a part of Yugoslavia and nice things were bought abroad, in Austria, Italy, Hungary and Czech Republic. If I remember correctly Anika came from Czech Republic, even though she was made in China.

I would love to make more doll's clothes (and Barbie clothes). That's why I started sewing as a little girl. However, it drives me crazy sewing them on sewing machine because they are so tiny. It's a lot easier to do this by hand. But that's something I just hate nowadays. Sounds like a vicious circle of want and hate at the same time. Anyway, there's another piece waiting to become, hmm, let's say, a dress?