Sewing again

You may remember the summer dress I made for my friend's daughter back in March?

Well, it was my two gorgeous nieces' birthday a few weeks ago and while on holidays I managed to find a sewing machine and some beautiful fabric to make another one of those summer dresses and the short top version of it. Being sisters of such close age (10 and 8) they really do not like dressing like twins, so making a dress and a top with slightly different colours for the bow seemed like a good idea.

Here are the girls, happy with their present. (again, apologies for the bad quality of the photo, but you should get the idea of what the end projects looked like).

Comments? Thanks!

Summer Dress

As I have probably mentioned before, I am trying to get back to sewing and other crafts I learnt as a child. This is a summer dress, the pattern for which I found on the internet a while back - check it out here (thank you, Amy Finlayson).
It is easy to make and with this colourful fabric from Ikea I think it is ideal for a little girl to wear on a hot summer day. Initially I was not sure about the reds and pinks and oranges and stripes, but I like how it turned out - do you find it too colourful? I am planning another 3 of this to make as presents - nieces, friends' daughters, etc. But since summer is not quite here yet :-( I reckon I still have plenty of time to finish them all :-)

Shoulder bag

Over the last year I have been practising with small sewing projects, trying to improve my sewing skills in order to be able to incorporate fabric in my designs. Last October I found a beautiful pattern for a shoulder bag and decided to give my rusty sewing skills a go. I learnt to sew as a child, but hadn't touched a needle or a machine for years. My sewing skills are still far from great now, but I must admit that this was a fairly straight forward pattern, lovely to work with, and I am delighted with the result.
Now, I only need good weather to go with the flowery bag! :-)
Let me know what you think.

Bag pattern and design by Elizabeth Hartman from http://www.ohfransson.com/