All sewn up.

We had a nice, relatively quiet weekend (our weekend is Sunday/Monday), puttering and getting a few things done around the house. I pruned the fruit trees that needed pruning (we put in one each of apple, apricot, pear, cherry, peach, plum and fig trees last year), made a batch of Honey Whole Wheat bread, picked out the paint colour for the kitchen cabinets, and did lots of reading, while my husband worked a bit more on getting the wood stove in (I’m picking up the final part this afternoon), and rescued the last of the leaded glass windows from the house that’s being demolished nearby (it actually came down yesterday).
I also flipped through the latest issue of Ottobre Design, which is a gorgeous sewing magazine published in Finland. Each issue has approximately 40 patterns for children’s clothes included inside, and the clothes are amazing!
I learned how to sew at my mother’s side as a kid (making myself a pair of jeans and a bathing suit, among other things), but I haven’t done a lot of sewing in recent years. But I’ve been finding it hard to find nice clothes for my daughter as she gets older (a lot of clothes for girls over 10 seem to get increasingly trampy as the years go by), so I’d like to start sewing her clothes.

There are lots of great things to make: aprons, hats, coats, mittens… …as well as underwear, pajamas, and lots of fun costumes.
The patterns are cute and trendy without being needlessly revealing.

I’m hoping that the magazine will be a source of unique gift ideas for my niece and nephew as well (assuming that I have my wits about me enough to start sewing ahead of time).The company also publishes two issues a year that focus on women’s clothes. I haven’t had a chance to look at one yet, but I’m excited about that too!



12 thoughts on “All sewn up.”

  • I love that magazine! I hopped over to the site for a look around and WOW! loving those fabrics they use too!
    I really need my machine to work.
    Did you buy your issue in the store or is it only available through subscriptions? I know what i will be asking for this spring!

  • We have had the same problem. The nice thing is she’s now able to wear some women’s clothes.

    I too learned how to sew when I was quite young. I don’t have a machine right now so when I want to do something, I have to go to my mother’s.

  • Cheryl, you sewed a pair of jeans? Impressive. I sewed my clothes and my kids clothes for years, then I discovered quilting – where nothing needs to fit! Tee hee. This magazine looks great and it is so inspiring to get ideas from our favorite reads, isn’t it?

  • Trampy is right! It’s astonishing to see what parents allow their young daughters to wear lately!
    I love foreign magazines and books—so many “different” takes and ideas. Wish more of them were more available though. One of my favorite is a british gardening magazine. Hard to get a hold of them sometimes though and subscription rates can be high.
    Good luck sewing!

  • Tammie – Aren’t the fabrics great?
    You should be able to buy the magazine at really big magazine/book stores, but I went for the full subscription. Not cheap, but hopefully with the amount of patterns included, it will be worth it.

    Chelee – Too funny that your daughter has to wear women’s clothes to find something age appropriate!

    Lu – That’s great that you sewed clothes for all of you for so long. My mom made my clothes for years as well (she even made my gorgeous wedding dress), so doing that for my kids really appeals to me.

    Monica – Foreign magazines are great, but you’re right, they’re not cheap. Our library gets many of them in thankfully.

    Carla – Thanks, I’ll probably need it!

  • The magazine “Ottobre” is really nice and I use it since some years.Good pattern you receive in the “Bizzkids” magazine too but itΒ΄s a dutch magazine.Beautiful fabrics which you find in the magazines you find in diffrent onlineshops.The most shops send also to other countries.

    Sorry please about my bad english!

    Bye,Steffi

  • Cheryl, I wrote on my blog some good onlineshops to Shopping- list.There you can buy beautiful fabrics and much more you need to sewing…

    Greetings,Steffi

I would love to hear from you!

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.