Jakov's new pants

Here they are! Jakov's "new" pants. Sadly, while making them I realized that this is the first thing I have ever sewn for my cutie since he was born. Honestly, I am much experienced in sewing for girls and never once had I attempted making something for him. Not even toys!!! And to top my guilt the fabric is not even new - it's daddy's 'old' trousers although daddy had worn them two-or three times and successfully managed to rip them at the side.
To make them more interesting I appliqued a car on one of the hoses.

I couldn't make him sit straight for the photo. On this picture he confirms the universal children's yelp for help "If you can't make something work - ask your tongue to lend a hand".

And to our delight - he still wants to cuddle and hug. This hug is called "crushing daddy's bones"!

Vintage flowers shirt

As I promised the vintage shirt is ready to be shown.
It looks fabulous, don't you agree!

We spent the day at the charming Cherry Orchard where I took the pictures. The place seemed the most appropriate for the photo shoot.

Offering some spectacular rooms and well-preserved old objects and things like this fireplace. Must say it is the first of this kind I've ever seen.

Then there was this room with a wild-west like aura, with lovely old photographs hung on the walls, which ....

...were covered with this beautiful wallpaper.

I was stunned by the appearance of this gorgeous little chair. This picture does not show its beauty.

But this one does.

On this photo here Eva looks just like being in a '7o catalog.

My girl.

Autumn is here!

Well, autumn is officially here! Needless to say that I have started my autumnal sewing and knitting and I have even finished a ruffled scarf and some warmers which are yet to be photographed.

Searching for inspiration I went to my mom's house which is an enormous treasure chest hiding all sorts of beautiful (vintage) things. I consider it my playground. So, while visiting my mom the other day I hunted the house and found this gorgeous vintage fabric! The fabric is actually a curtain which my grandma used to hang on the balcony door. I am so thrilled to have it but I'll leave it aside and make a clear picture of what kind of a project I am going to use it for.

The lovely vintage tablecloth shown below has been in my possession for many years now, presented to me by my aunt, which I decided to put to a good use.
Since it wasn't destined to adorn my table I decided to make a shirt out of it! I am finishing the shirt right now and will post pictures later. It looks great!

Thank you DaWanda!

Oh boy! Did I get a wonderful surprise today! The DaWanda newsletter was in the mail but hardly did I know that the amazing people at DaWanda have chosen to advertise my shop! My heart leapt when I saw my vintage scarf in the Baby+Children category! I really feel flattered and couldn't believe my eyes when I discovered that at the same time the bolero from my other shop was one of the featured products on the front page! Yes, this has really proven to be a great day!

What a hip day!

We decided to spend the day in a village in the nearby mountain which we discovered in early summer but haven't had another opportunity to visit it again - until today. We wanted to spend the last days of summer somewhere in the fresh air and lovely landscapes. What impressed us the most (besides the old ruined 19th and early 20th century houses - which I am saving for another post) were the rose hip bushes that simply spread everywhere. We felt like being in a rose hip kingdom!

Of course, we gathered rose hip to last us for the whole winter. We are certainly going to enjoy rose hip tea! I hope you enjoy the photos!

A Romantic shirt

This cute little shirt was left unmade more than a year ago. Why unmade you may wonder. Simply because I couldn't decide on the appearance of the front part. The idea was the bib to be pleated. However, no matter how hard I tried I just couldn't make the right pleats. They were either too wide or too narrow. So I set it aside. After considering for a few times to get back to it I finally took it out yesterday and instead of meddling with the pleats I reconstructed the bib and made ruffles instead. I like it more now - and I think that the ruffles are a far better solution than the pleats. They add up to its cuteness, don't you agree?

And the fabric is also adorable. I am sorry I didn't buy a lot of it. Just a small piece left for another project.

A shrug that was supposed to be harem pants....

Well, seamstresses' adventures are always so full of surprises and unexpected turns (at least for this seamstress) one would be left gaping in amazement. The title explains it all. I bought this fabric that appeared to be double faced (I still believe it is) shiny at the front and soft cotton -like on the inside. I am making a dress out of it, but since I bought a lot of the fabric I thought I might make Eva harem pants - a pair she has begged me the whole summer to make.

This is the part it all gets curious. I don't know how on earth I thought the pants are going to be flowy and hanging in the center part. I guess the inner side of the fabric had induced me to think in that direction. However I gathered them and even thought of sewing the belt on, but fortunately I saved myself the trouble and made Eva try them on like that (as shown here).

The sight was too frightening for me to take the pictures (lol). She looked like having an enormous diaper! So, we dropped the idea of making harem pants and I tried it on as it was sewn, and what do you know! I got myself a cute shrug.

Now I have an unplanned shrug for the dress! How nice!

Collars

Made these a while ago. These collars are reversible and great for spicing up any garment.

The second one is a bit shorter, hence it cannot overlap. Yet that doesn't diminish its beauty!

Obstrigillate

Meet Obstrigillate!
It's a word I adopted through save the words which is an initiative of Oxford English Dictionary for saving words that are slowly falling into oblivion.
Being a philologist, a teacher, a spinner of tales and a lover of the written word I simply could not ignore the appeal and became a word saviour. They offer adoption of words which I was amazed to find they exist and some I did not know even how to pronounce. However, if you like the idea and would like to join this cause then simply visit save the words and save a word.

Obstrigillate is a verb and it means 'to oppose', 'to resist'.
I also received this cute certificate to witness the adoption.

The certificate states that I 'solemnly promise to use this word as frequently as possible from this day forth in conversation and correspondence and to the best of my ability'.

As you see I respect my part of the deal. This post is the witness of my first use of this word.
P.S. If you try to find this word in the dictionary your efforts will be fruitless. At least mine were - I couldn't find it in any of the popular online dictionaries. If I am wrong, you are welcome to correct me and obstrigillate my statement!

Technique of the week

My ruffle making techniques and Dotted dress made it to the front page of Burdstyle at the same time!

I am sorry for the small picture but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't save it bigger.

Dots and stripes

I found this beautiful cotton fabric with big and small dots and decided to make a dress out of it. I wanted to make a puffy dress by using several layered fabrics but somehow I could not find the right colour of tulle for the underskirt. The colour of the fabric is an interesting hue that cannot be defined as simple blue-ish, so I changed the design and just lined it with taffeta silk. I made ruffled straps, I ruffled the lining and made a border ruffle.



Although I am a bit sad that the end of the summer is nearing I must say that I find this period thrilling because of the wonderful discounts in the shops. On one of our walks around town we saw this tunic in a big girls' shop and Eva immediately fell in love with it. Unfortunately the decollete was too low-cut and too big for her. We conferred and decided to buy it (the price was unbelievably low) after I agreed to redo it with a piece of elastic. Here it is before the insertion of the elastic:

And here it is after. I think she has got herself a nice dress. One she can wear to her heart's content!