Little Pinky Dotted Girls!

My favorite color has always been a cross between green and blue, to the point that my wardrobe choices have also been these 2 colors. I thank my precious Shasha for introducing me to PINK! Everything to her must be in pink, I really wonder whether this is a girly phase or a permanent addiction :) Truth be told, I am starting to fall for pink myself :) late bloomer I guess. My aunt requested a simple tunic for her Aika, something comfy but ala Pumpkin Patch. And here are the results. I made matching capri pants, with frills for Aika and a doubled hem for Shasha. This adorable tunic is from CUCITO spring 2010. It was Shasha's idea to make her a matching tunic , clever girl, she got a new suit in the process :)

This pose looks like it came out of the pages of a Japanese pattern book! I so love the simplicity of it.

Best of friends forever, Shasha & Aika ! Can you notice those spots on their legs? What a spoiler, tsk tsk.

Summer Garden

At long last I completed this smocked summer dress. Was sidetracked discovering gorgeous stuff on blogshops and trying out non smocking patterns. Needed to give thine eyes a break from smocking those little pleats. I'm really happy with how this turned out. I wanted an easy relax dress that Shasha could wear anywhere. Most of the smocked ones I've been making were more formal party ones.

Its a halterneck style, pattern for the dress taken from Australian Smocking issue 79. I kept it simple using lace flowers in the smocking rather than embroidered. I love how the bright pink corded piping on the armband and neck gave the dress a splash. I added a 2inch tuck which I can let down as she grows taller and pink grossgrain ribbon at the hem. The same white lace flowers are stitched on the ribboned hem.

A close up of the front smocked panel

The pretty butterflies are from Yee's Button, simply gorgeous albeit a bit expensive. The whole panel is backsmocked to make sure the pleats stay together.

A gorgeous summer dress would not be complete without a summer hat :)

The patterns from Aust Smocking magazines are simply perfect. Comes with detailed instruction on how to construct a garment. MPH Malaysia is currently carrying multiple back issues in their stores at only RM36. Do go take a look, I always look forward to their next issue, just so pretty.

Pants Made By Mommy

Its fun being a girl, that goes without question, especially when it comes to clothes! Just look at the stores, rows and rows of girls clothes all sorts of designs and colors, mommys, you feel like you want them all. But boys, alas, t-shirt, shirt and pants. Its lucky I guess that by nature boys do not go mad by fashion :) After churning out so many girls clothes, I began to feel guilty about my 2 boys. Both of them have even come to the point of flipping through my pattern books and asking if a particular shirt or pants are for boys. Which mother’s heart would not feel that twitch? So I went to my local fabric store nagoya and asked for denim fabric, and they just happened to be on sale, 1mtr only costs me RM18, and I only needed 1.75mtrs for both the boys. So here they are, ta-da! saturday at KLCC.

I’ve been searching for elasticated long pants for Danny (5yr old) everywhere and its funny that when it comes to boys, all pants are zippered. I did find one that went for rm80! I prefer elastic waists cos its much more comfy and easier to pull off and on. I made extra long hem which I can let down as they grow. Adam, my number 1 is going to be 10 but he’s just growing by leaps and bounds! Already 137cm tall and I end up buying new pants for him every 6 months, phew, tough on the wallet! I added a felt patch of a baseball on Danny’s knee, he loved it, he asked “where’s the bat”? Adam was just too macho, didn’t want any embelishments! They were just so happy and I felt proud to see them strutting about town in their pants! Shasha’s pants is cute too right? Used the same pattern as Danny’s. Her’s is from stretch cotton that I had bought from Cairo aeons ago. Adam’s pants I had to draft myself since Jap patterns rarely go above 130cm, but Danny’s and Shasha’s are from the Spring 2010 CUCITO. Perfect I must say and only took me a day. Examples of the pictoral instructions are like this :

And here are some patterns from the book to entice you :) Too flipping cute, makes me go oooh and aaah!

You can find further write-up of Japanese Pattern Books from Zura’s post here. Oh and I did get a new pattern book from Kino while I was there, but lets save that for next time :) Till next time, take care.