Ottobre Design Kids Autumn 2014

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Its been a very busy and hectic few weeks for me with a lot of stuff going on and that’s meant my sewing and blogging have suffered ;-(. Hopefully things will get back to full swing in the new year but for now my sewing machine and accouterments are all packed away. I actually had fun packing it up – got a really good idea of how many WIPS I have and my fabric stash…oh the stash (need a post just for that).

Anyway I am blogging today about theses little lovelies I made over a month ago. Basically after lurking on the Ottobre Design website for over a year contemplating buying the magazine, I took the plunge and ordered the Autumn 2014 kids book. It arrived 4 days later (seriously impressed by super fast delivery since it was coming from Finland). I waited till the little ones were all having their afternoon nap before sitting down and delicately browsing through the magazine. It has so many lovely designs. I had decided that when I make clothes for my twinnage , I would make whole outfits. Taking my time deciding on which outfit to make I landed on this one; a pinafore dress with a jersey top and leggings.

The next stage was gathering the fabrics. I had the jersey top (interlock knit) and dress fabric (quilting cotton) from my stash while for the leggings I bought a stretch velour in gold (think christmassy)

Now I had never done Ottobre before and they have a pattern sheet that has so many lines it gave me an astigmatism! Normally I trace at night but I really could not separate out the lines so it had to be natural light day time tracing which was done during nap times. The instructions are a bit sparse so had I attempted this a year ago I would have given up but with a few makes under my belt I was able to keep at it.

What I love about the construction is that it creates such a neat finish. These are the neatest garments I have made to date. The sizing is good as well; the girls can zoom, bend, squat, stretch with ease plus I can get a few layers under the pinafore dress comfortably. The leggings were also good sized, length was just right for the them. For Ottobre patterns, you have to measure the child in order to determine the size to cut out. For me , so far, that’s been more accurate than going by age ranges.

I did not want to do buttons and buttonholes so I bought some snapper tape which was a nigthmare to put in. I am lazy when it comes to handstitching and the dresses were waiting for almost a week to get the snapper tape in. I definitely need to to either (a) Get down with buttonholes or (b) get a snapper pliers tool thingimajik (does that work or am I idealizing? Has anyone used it I would love to hear from you).

The applique was soooo much fun. it was the best bit. The Ottobre instructions were actually quite good for applique. The way it came to life as I satin stitched around the eyes was fun. Definitely an applique convert !!! and me thinks you will be seeing a lot more applique here.

The jersey tops look OK but I still need more practice when working with knits and using ribbing. Although I am proud of the stripe matching on the raglan sleeve 😉

Verdict. I love Ottobre and will be making more stuff (have already traced out some more things but they will be made in the new year. And making outfits is the way forward for twinnage sewing! Do you plan outfit when sewing as well (i get the feeling I am slow and everyone else probably do that already 😉