while i’m fixing a bug in the stylesheet explorer users should click here to view the site in the default style. not quite as pretty but at least it works.

or even better why not switch to firefox

made this up out of a beach towel, working out the pattern by drawing around a mix of a hooded top and a dress she already had, after lusting after something similar in the boden catalogue and missing out in the sale. i have to say now that this is waaay cuter than anything i’ve seen rtw (plus well cheap).

being blissfully ignorant of the basics of garment construction i cut the front/back and sleeves as single pieces, so i only had to join along the side seams, back of hood, then hood to neck.

had already cut the pieces when i remembered my machine was broken, so is all hand sewn (very badly, lol). was quite cunning and managed to use the towel selvedge for all the hems - sleeves, hood and bottom. although this means it’s straight rather than curved along the bottom edge it’s not at all obvious when worn. the seams are all tucked under inside (i’m sure there’s a proper term for that…), so they’re lovely and smooth against the skin. hadn’t accounted for the stretch in the hooded top i adapted it from and once it was made found it wouldn’t go over her head. hastily added a slash in the neckline.

this has given brilliant service over the last 6 months as a beach dress, post-swim wrap and dressing gown, hoping it will still fit for another 6 months at least (cropped sleeves are trendy i tell you :)).

these are bound to make the page slow to load - sorry about that. will sort out thumbnails/pop-ups soon.

button detail from back of ottobre dress. they’re curved, in a purple mother-of-pearl type finish and nicely oversized. fab. (will post the bad and the ugly later when the camera battery’s recharged.

age 2-3 again, in the same bargain (well, comparatively ;)) discontinued matchmaker dk. image shows the purple darker than it looks in rl. this fits perfectly too, though the buttons are a tight squeeze. i might see if i can find anything a bit smaller at crafty sew n sew, maybe in cream, though the purple looks fine. think it was very wise to follow nanny’s suggestion not to use the cream on the sleeves…

photo’s a bit blurred but show the colours quite well.

in (if i remember right) jaeger matchmaker DK, on special at kangaroo.uk.com. didn’t have a huge choice of colours so i picked the dusky purple, dark purple and cream and decided to work out colour combinations when they arrived. we were worried there wouldn’t be enough contrast between the two purples for this, but it’s turned out perfect, with a similar contrast to the greys used in the original.

(again, if i remember right) the yarn is 100% merino wool, machine washable. it’s really light, smooth and soft.

it fits perfectly (age 2-3), with just a little growing room in the arms, though it wouldn’t have hurt to have an extra inch or so to grow into in the body. there’s nearly a ball of each left so nanny’s going to make up a multi-stripe version of this, maybe adding some pink to lift it a little.

first ottobre project came together gratifyingly quickly. took a couple of short evenings plus about 3 hours today, going carefully.

pale grey sweatshirt fleece (from valleyglengoods.com) dyed with dylon “ultra violet”. fleece-side-out on the dress. i’m particularly pleased with the buttons on the back (from crafty sew and sew round the corner) and the iron-on appliques. size-wise it just fits (did an 86 in both to see how they came out), the trousers are spot-on, with a little growing room, but the dress is really a bit short. didn’t have much choice though as i was squeezed for fabric and had to cut across the grain to fit the dress pieces on. will see how that turns out after the wash…

preliminary photo still shows iron marks from pressing appliques.