Twins Dresses

When the twins were younger my daughter bought a little dress from a charity shop which had a two layered skirt. They loved this dress and wore it until they could no longer squeeze into it. So my daughter asked if I could make them bigger dresses in the same style. 

I had found this pattern some time back in a charity shop and had used part of it to make their princess dresses for Christmas. I knew the pattern was a little too big for them and as I said in my last post,  I often find it hard to make them clothes being so far away and not being able to try them for size as I go along. The beauty of making two identical items is that second time round You can learn from the mistakes of the first!

So I used this pattern and added extra layers of skirts as requested. The girls are very precise about what colours and style fabrics they would like, Primrose wanted narrow pink stripes going vertically down the dress, Maggie wanted wider pink stripes going horizontal across the dress! 

I decided that horizontal stripes just wouldn't look right and so made them both vertical. 

I completed them and mailed them down to Devon, apparently the girls love them...phew :) I think they probably could do with some darts being put in them and so maybe on my next trip down to see them I could add these to make them fit better around the top. 

                              

                                      

                                       

Laura Ashley

In our town we have a hospice which also has some shops...a charity shop, a gift shop and a 'pre-loved' furniture and fabric warehouse. I bought 4 metres of this new Laura Ashley fabric...£2 per metre :)... with the plan to make the twins a summer dress each using a pattern I have used before http://finelinenandpurple.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/christmas-dresses.html 

However, their Mummy says they aren't really 'into' dresses at the moment and could I make a skirt and shorts instead? I'm happy about that as it means no zips :)

Christmas Dresses

I managed to get the girls dresses finished. The fabric is a very fine needle cord which I bought from http://www.dotsnstripes.co.uk/index.cfm I am really please with the fabric and it was great to sew with. The dress on the left is for Maggie and the  other one for Primrose. They have different tastes in clothing, Primrose likes the bright pinks and Maggie like blues and is a little more of a tomboy :) Hopefully they will fit and the girls will be happy with them

Getting Ready

If you visit my blog regularly you will know that every now and again I receive requests from my daughters for items to be made for my grandchildren. I have just made Gilby's trousers, I have finished one hat for the twins and am working on another one, same but different coloured buttons and I have cut out the fabric for their dresses, the cord that I am using is below. I have added photos of them going to choose and cut down their tree for Christmas, each year they go to the same place, romp around till they find the perfect tree.

Coats

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of a little coat I made from some left over fabric from the twins dresses. I knew that the hood would probably be a little short but I didn't have enough fabric to make it bigger. Anyway the coat fits but the hood isn't quite big enough to wear it up comfortably so I am going to make two bigger coats that will last until next winter. I bought some chocolate brown cord and will line the body with fleece. I mentioned in my last 'London' post that I had bought some fabric and buttons from Liberty and I am using the fabric to line the hoods and putting three odd buttons on each coat, using pink velvet ribbon hoops on one coat and turquoise on the other . No sooner have I a new project on the go, I have more requests coming in...apparently my grandsons are really enjoying the 'Where the Wild Things Are' story book and would like a 'Max' costume each!

Primrose Noelle

Because I felt a bit funny posting a photo of Maggie and not one of Primrose, here is one of her too. She is also wearing a dress that Mummy used to wear!

For part of my Christmas gift my daughter and son in law gave me these lovely hand designed notelets from Rifle Paper Co. They also bought me the frames from Habitat so I could frame one of each design.

I made this little coat from the fabric I had left from making the twins birthday dresses. Using fleece to line it.

Birthday Dresses

Years ago when my children were young someone gave me a copy of this book, Little Clothes for Little People. Igot it out again to make some dresses for the twins. I used a fine needle cord fabric (see earlier post) I am really please how they have turned out, my daughter asked if I would make some waistcoats too so I decided to make these reversable, putting buttons on each side and making loops out of velvet ribbon. I used very old glass buttons on the black side that I had in my button jar. They are coming to stay tomorrow on their way to visit our other daughter and her family in South Africa. We can have a fitting and if any adjustments are required I have time to do them before their birthday in February.

Grandchildren

I thought I would post a few photo's of the grandchildren, Joseph will be 4 at the end of October, Jesse turned 3 in September and Primrose & Maggie will be 2 in November. I have just started making some dresses and waistcoats for the girls birthday. I bought some lovely fine cord material from the local Oxfam shop and I have used patterns from an old book I had when my children were young, its called Little Clothes for Little People.