Bd girl in a bd dress

Let's continue with the birthday posts of our youngest. As always I wanted to make her a dress. Searching at the local fabric store, the www and even at our local museum with a temporary fashion exhibition and great fabric sale. With no result. So in the end my very own fabric stock was newly explored - what an idea ;) - and with success! These two grey and green all time beauties of Nani Iro I found, but were sadly both to small... So I decided to combine them.


Easier said than done, I took me a lifetime puzzling. But again: with success! Happy to have that upper little bird on the right place on her breast.
Nearly no fabric was left. As a gift, this dress forced me to teach myself how to join patterned fabric.

The pattern 'Sweet' of Remi&Cosette for teens was used, without collar and with added elastic waistband.

10!

Since L is going to be 10 next week, invitations had to be made for her party. L has planned to go jumping with her friends. So she made small matching drawings, that I made even smaller.

Only hope that the weather will be ok...

Like a goose and giveaway

Almost a month ago L turned 9. Our house is perfect suitable for a Ganzenbord (or the Game of Goose or Goose board) birthday party, we thought. We have so many stairs and surprising nooks and crannies. The idea is that all around the house are numbers, from basement till the upper room. We made 63 yellow envelopes, some of which are yellow bags. L helped a lot and loved to write the numbers. Inside the envelopes the kids found an instruction to do or make or guess or play or collect something. Apart from the instruction they found some supplies as well inside the bags, like a tapeline or some goodies. For this birthday party L had to invite eight friends, to be able to make three groups of three kids. With one dice for each group off they went to be occupied for many hours. The kids loved it, it was a big hit! And of course especially our basement filled with clutter was the most popular place to be.

For the Dutch readers among you: nu liggen de tasjes en enveloppen hier en, omdat de voorbereidingen best veel werk kostten, vroeg ik me opeens af of ik misschien iemand met dit feestje blij kan maken. Laat maar even weten in de reacties. Bij meerdere reacties zal ik iemand trekken.

Wanna throw a dice?

Is 'Ganzenbord', or the Game of Goose or Goose board, known all over the world? This game we played with eight friends of L, that she invited on her birthday party. How I will tell you next time (and if you, Dutch speaking blog readers, are interested: I will giveaway this birthday party, so please come back later!).
Together with L we made these invitations, with all we had already around. We even made the yellow dots ourselves. Just because it was raining outside.

Into science

Our youngest is having her 8th birthday in a few days. This week she mentioned nonchalant: 'oh, in two years I will be ten.' Ten! We were quite shocked. Our little one!
Together we made invitations for her kids party next week, based on the invented theme of this year: doing cool science tricks. We were inspired by this beautiful and great booklet, one of her Sinterklaas presents.

The drawings and the crafting she did herself. And F's heart already blossoms. Together with L he's choosing and preparing the tricks.
(Don't worry, she won't invite 10 kids. She always makes invitations for us as well.)

Being together

I must say, Lieve, Gaia, Kika, Jula, Sofia, M and L, you were great! You were playing, swimming, were dropped, were slumbering (a bit short), were swimming again, played again. I really loved to be on tour with you!

Shining M

Last week was dedicated to M, being 12 years old! So I had something (and a lot of other things) on my to-do-list: making this dress, my first jersey project, made from another Fragile sale fabric.

According to a Knippie pattern, but oh! this magazine makes simple things really difficult! You rather skip the guiding text and only use your common sense. The outcome: things were changed the way I preferred them to be. Because I wanted the pattern to be continuous I added the waistband on the inside of the body and let the ribbon run through a button hole in the front. If you might think I made a fake zipper, you're wrong.

M always has been a child that suits everything. And she used to be happy with every dress or whatever I sew for her. Yes, mom, I would love to have balloons and yes, mom, I would love to have a birthday dress. She cherishes traditions, that is.
This dress tastes to more coming-soon jersey clothes. Let's see!

Slumbering

M isn't quite a fan of slumber parties. She normally simply quits these events because she knows what next day will bring for her: not bode well.
Some time ago we started to brainstorm about her birthday party, that will be in two weeks. M totally surprised me by suggesting a slumber party! Ok, I said, and the next moment her idea turned out into a slumber party completely our way: we'll leave the city and pitch our (great!) tent next to a natural swimming pool in the Biesbosch, a lovely nature reserve south of Rotterdam. Six girls will cozily fit in the large tent, while F, L and I will pitch our small trekking tent a little bit further away.

Last weekend I was making the initial plan for the invitations. Of course I had in mind that M had to do the job, but sometimes things are just coming out of one's hands in the evening... Btw till too late, so next day didn't bode well for me!

M agreed with the design, as she did doing an InDesign course with me to make it herself. She finished the paperwork and is delivering them right now!

Making girls happy

If you want to know some tricks to make nice sparkling boxes as a party favor, go ahead reading. These 'L 7' boxes we made as a treat for L's birthday and are a mix of this and this. Here and here you can read more on my blog about these boxes. In my case the pattern paper was made using these books. I did some photoshopping to achieve the desired colors, printed the paper and cut it into squares of 17 and 18 cm. But of course you could use any paper you want or even buy these kind of little boxes.

Because I wanted L (of 7) to be able to make her own treat, the tutorial can be used as a kids craft as well. We first made the bottoms of the boxes following this tutorial, using the 17 cm paper squares.

Home bakery

This year we really had no idea for L's birthday party. Maybe it's because she's kind of more allround compared to M. But M had a proposal: why not baking cookies with her friends? So that's what happened last Wednesday afternoon. The very same morning (!) I hardly managed to sew these baker hats, and quickly taped them to the wall as a decoration before the girls arrived. I'm talking about the usual time-management that I seem to learn never...

The fabrics I had laying around and finally I was happy with the adjustability, see the velcro detail. And yes, there was a big mess so we can say it was a big success. And a good idea indeed, M! The girls so loved to knead!

The girls baked colorful cookies and took them home in a self-folded cookie box, explained by little teacher L.

More and more

We made up this 'L 7' treat for school because L loves origami even more than M. She made quite a few of these boxes without any complain but wanted to play outside as well after a while ;) She was allowed. She joined again for the glitter topping. We made some photo's during the process, so I'll show you soon a how to.

The pattern paper I made with a Sinterklaas present. This and this book and two cd's full of nice patterns. Oh, there will be more pattern paper crafts!

We added a nut mix for her classmates and cookies after this afterlasting recipe (with the half of the sugar), found via Kristel, for the visitors at home. Inside I added a box of baking paper, which appeared to be a challenge to fold. Yes, I'm crazy, making about 50 boxes... But it worked like therapy for me, so it's fine.

Petit Pan for petite L

L became 7 years old last week! It has been fantastic days. Today the garlands and balloons were cleared away. Last holidays were there for several preparations.
No mama, I do have enough clothes, she made me understand. But, after showing this image, she absolutely wanted to be a birthday girl in such a dress. Two Petit Pan fabrics (wow!) were ordered and, as L couldn't decide, we decided to use both. Now in the end I really love the combination of the fabrics, my first Petit Pans, including the red lining.


Making the dress was like a course for me. The beautiful book of these two sewing genius guided me. But there was a lot of error! I sewed the outer and lining fabric together on the sides and discovered my mistake quite late! Then the making of my first blind zipper. I didn't understand how to attach the lining to the zipper, but after a little more thinking it succeeded finally. But let's be positive: I learned!

And most important: L is so happy, she keeps on swirling. Something she wanted for a long, long time. And looking at this birthday girl makes me happy!

A dear friend

L's friend Gaia is only three days younger than L. This is what L did bring along to her birthday party a week ago.

Let's knead

Next week our house will turn into a bakery: eight little bakers will put their little fingers into the dough, as L is giving a baking cookies party.

This is the invitation we made together. Making it improved my Photoshop skills. I made a picture of L at the table and separate photo's of the supplies. Some are Google images. The tablecloth is a pattern I made with my new books (read about it later). In the end a lace was added between the folded card with double sided tape and corners were punched.

Her own Penny

Let's unwrap the small present on the left! M is still a horse lover, very much, even more. And like all girls like her she is fond of the Penny, a Dutch kids magazine for horse lovers. She can't wait for a new one; every second Tuesday our postman makes her very happy.
Now her mother: I don't like the Penny. Don't like the kitschy style, the level, the fact that she's no longer reading a normal book... And I can't stop telling her that once in a while. Poor girl.
To compensate my complaining I made her a special edition of the Penny: a mini photo album full of pictures of her, hugging 10 horses in the Schwarzwald last Mai. A little surprise for her birthday, that made her more happy than the chair she got as well.

Update: the posted animation doesn't work anymore.... I'll repair it after holidays.

Masu

Look what M treated her classmates on her birthday this morning: paper sheets printed by mama, folded into boxes by the two of us (we used squares of 18 and 17 cm)...

... filled with mmmm cookies (based on this recipe, without coffee and with or without chocolate), homemade by papa.

Dots everywhere

Yeah, my first result on my brand new sewing machine. Funny that I first was a bit scared to touch it, at the same time knowing that after touching I wouldn't let go anymore. Wow, sewing was never this easy. 
I couldn't test my new toy better than with this super cheap market buy, a thin jersey of which colors and dessin attracted me. What is the header of my blog doing to me again ;)?

This comfi jumpsuit is M's birthday outfit. She loves it! As she does love her accessories. And her fresh haircut. She feels 11!

This weekend she already was in the spotlight of family and neighbours. Now I'm washing her jumpsuit to be clean next Tuesday.

For those who think the trousers are short...