Wednesday 24 February 2010

Bergen love

No, I haven't become a stay-at-home-mom-seamstress (nothing wrong with them, in fact I envy them all a little, but it's very far away from my life at the moment), and no this will not turn into a blog for kids clothes.

Only very temporarily!

I spent the weekend in Bergen with my brother, sister in law (well, not in law technically, but kind of anyway) and two nieces. It was a bless! I met my new niece Ella for the first time (she's 5 months old), and although I am deeply biased, I must say that they are probably the nicest children I've ever met (oooh, the ties of blood...). Love.

We didn't do much, really, the happening of the weekend was a visit to famous fabric-shop Stoff & Stil (there is also a Swedish verion here), where I bought half the shop's stock of jersey for childrenswear. It was soooo cute, and at such good prices even though us Swedes are poor as church-rats when we are in Norway, I just couldn't stop myself. Especially not with an enthusiatic 3,5-year-old Julia walking behind me telling me what to make from everything; a dress for me, a t-shirt for Ella...

Here are our treasures (I picked all of them but one, can you guess which one?):

If you guessed for the pink one with hearts you were quite right... Julia spotted it from 5 meters away and immidiately said THIS one for me. This is going to be a struggle to incorporate more colours than pink into her wardrobe. I know I will succeed.... (evil auntie me).

I may need these hints and tips on how to incorporate printed fabrics in childrenswear in a good way, it's a busy bunch (but I really, really like them).

The owls will become pants for Ella (she's 5 months old), the elephants a shirt for Ella, the penguins pants for Ella, the monkeys a shirt for Julia and probably pants for Ella, the hearts a dress for Julia and the striped velour will become pants for both of them and maybe a dress for Ella.

I'm not sure I will actually make all these things, but that's the plan... depending on how time-consuming it is. I also plan to make a white shirt for Julia to make good use of the butterfly-badge further down the page. I hope that pants will be a very quick project... if so I will make many pants. And probably a few bibs...


Some cute badges picked out by Julia and me.

Now, I like ladybirds, elephants, owls and frogs, Julia loves flowers and butterflies and is totally uninterested in ladybirds... We both like heart-shaped buttons, at least! But I do like the butterfly and flower too, and it's fun to let her get involved in her clothes. She was very much a part in the decision on what to make from what material... (I constantly find it amazing how much personality can evolve in such a short time, she's not even four years old... children are fun!).

Naturally I had to play with my iPhone; these pictures are photographed with an app called QuadCamera, I recommend it for all picture-geeks (you can also use the images as animated gif's, but I like them this way):

Ella taking a bath in her much loved Tummy-tub.

Julia dancing.


I realise there's been an awful load of sewing for others going on around here lately (I'm also working on a blue dress each for Julia and Ella, from the same cotton that I made my 1940's blouse of).

I even held some gorgeous sandwashed silk that would have been perfect for the Vionnet blouse I made a toile for recently, and didn't buy it.... aaaaah. I was glad to find that Stoff & Stil do mail-order so I can get it later.

I must make up for all this and make something for myself soon, my closet has begun to yell at me in a very loud voice that it needs something new... now! And I am inclined to agree...

10 comments:

  1. The girls look adorable and the fabrics are lovely too. I bet with your overlocker it will be easy to make the things you want to.

    My sister lives in Norway (I'm in the UK) and she had a baby boy yesterday so now I have the same long wait until I can go and visit them. April is when I get to see my new nephew and also the little tiger boy.

    Make sure you sew something for yourself soon.

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  2. Hihi, I see your point with temporarily kids clothes blogging... I've also sewn for my niece and nephew, but I guess I find the challenge lesser than making my own garments, and thus not worth "bragging" about... I support you totally in having to make up for sewing to others, I'm never so pleased with sewing as when it's for myself (me, my, myself...)!

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  3. I adore all the fabrics your niece picked out! so cute!! I am hoping to make a few things for my super cute 5 year old niece as well!

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  4. ...oh, but please brag about the children's clothes result! I'd love to see!

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  5. Beautiful fabrics. I'd use some Ottobre patterns the Farbenmix way, which means you'd have to get some matching fabrics. I know the problem of sewing non-pink garments for girly girls. I know you'll succeed :)

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  6. parakeetpie: Tahnk you, and big congratulations! It's such a bliss to get nieces and nephews, I had never realised you could love kids that much before I got my nieces. And still I've always liked children a lot... And congratulations on having Norwegian nephews, kids speaking norwegian is just about the cutest there is (well, english and french isn't bad either...) in my (biased) opinion. And the tiger-boy looks just adorable... Where in Norway do they live?

    FrkBustad: Hehe, I promise to post ictures and brag well! But I did have in mind to make one post with many of them, not one post for each garment, I do agree that it feels like a much smaller challenge than adultwear. For some reason, I've almost spent a whole day on the blue dress, and its not by far finished.. But then I've almost made a pair of striped velour-baby-pants this evening! Got to love it...

    Debi: Thank you! Ah, you must post pictures, then I can get inspiration for Julia, since she's just a little younger than your niece... ;-) (am I by any chance trying to make the whole internet-sewing community into a kids-clothes-pool? Hehe...)

    lin3arossa: Thank you! I agree, it would be really nice to mix the fabrics with matching but plain fabrics... I probably will to some extent (though I may be too lazy to find the time to but it, hm...) and the Ottobre patterns seem great! I intend to use patterns I made by copying their clothes though (overlooked by a curious Julia who made drawings of little girls on what paper I didn't use, with the same pen that I used, an excellent sharing-excercise!), I found it the easiest since I don't have them near me to measure and to try things on... I wish they lived closer to me (but I'm very glad to have a reason to visit pretty Bergen once in a while)!

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  7. Those fabrics are very cute! I agree with you that making things for others can be rewarding in a pat-yourself-on-the-back kind of way, but making things for yourself is just as good for the soul!!

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  8. Those fabrics are so cute! I kinda agree with Julia, the pink one is lovely. ;-)

    I've been wanting do make a pretty dress for my friend's daughter for a while now. But I'm so not used to sewing for kids I'm not sure I could pull it off.

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  9. Those fabrics are sooo cute, I wish I could get some of those! Sometimes I wish Iceland wasn't an island, because there is no stores that sell fabrics with patterns these days, because of the crisis.
    Your blog is very interesting ;)

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  10. You made a great comment on BurdaStyle yesterday! Very well worded, and I enjoyed it very much! And I'm a native English speaker and I still can't quite see where she was going with her comment ...(fug girls? wt...?!!
    Well done!

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