SALE SALE SALE

The BIG winter sale is now on with reductions of up to 40% on this seasons fabrics!!!

I wish all my blog readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Just in time....

... for the Christmas party at school today I finished Leoni's "Christmas" dress. The pattern is the Duo Tone balloon dress from the OTTOBRE magazine 6/2011 and the fabric is purple fine cord embroidered with a star and reindeer (she insisted on having them on her dress :-) And as she didn't have anything to go with it I made her a jersey turtle neck top in navy jersey.(OTTOBRE pattern issue 4/2007).

Update on the building work

We have reached the messy stage now: the painters sanded the walls this morning and the whole house is now covered in a thin layer of very fine dust!!! Let me tell you, it is EVERYWHERE. But the workers have been so very busy, the first layer of paint is on and next week the floor gets laid and the raidiators will be fixed, so we finally will have a warm house again :-)

Diaries

If you are still looking for a Christmas present, then this might be of interest: I've got three diaries for 2012 for sale, £10 each + £1.50 postage. They are A5 size, one page a day and the covers are handmade. If you would like to buy one, just leave a comment or email me at info@dotsnstripes.co.uk.

The roof is on...

...and the builders are now in the house, making a mess :-)

Baking biscuits....

 

Kneading the dough...

rolling it out...

 on the baking tray...

just out of the oven...

 and decorated with LOVE! 

Happy 1. Advent!

A little bit of sewing ....

... in fact, I've done quite a lot over the past week. My next craft fair is on the 3rd of December and a few more warm clothes were needed:

Pattern Bea in micro fleece hearts, size 98/104

Pattern IMKE (Sewing clothes kids love) in double face fleece, size 86/92

Pattern BEA in double face fleece, size 110/116

PatternVIJONA (Farbenmix) in jaquard knit red, size 122/128

Pattern ANJANA (Farbenmix) in double face fleece, size 92/98

 Pattern ANJANA (Farbenmix) in double face fleece, size 104/110

It's taking shape

Farbenmix patterns

As I have done it in the past, I would like to give you the opportunity again to order Farbenmix patterns that you might be interested in but that I don't stock. I will be placing an order after the 19.11., so if there's anything you would like, just let me know and I will order it for you.

While I went to a craft fair on Saturday, the men were busy at work. The concrete is down, dry and tomorrow they are going to start on the timber frame.

Update

OTTOBRE dress

It doesn't happen very often, but when the last OTTOBRE women came through my letterbox, I fell in love with the pinafor dress Bubble Pocket. It is pretty easy to sew and I'm sure I'll use that pattern again. It only needs a few little changes, the top is a little loose so I think I'll use a size smaller next time and the facing ends right on my bust, so that needs lengthened. This one is made in lime babycord.

Progress...

The winners

First of all a big thank you to all who took part in the OTTOBRE competition! This morning before school Leoni picked three names out of a hat (yes, we did it the old traditional way:-) and here are the lucky winners:

A one-year subscription for 6 issues of the OTTOBRE magazine goes to:

My Mummy Reviews 

and

Zoya Makarova

And the 50Euro voucher for the OTTOBRE etsy shop goes to:  

Claire Safwan  

Congratulations!

And for all those who didn't win this time, there will be more great prizes to be won in January, when Dots n Stripes celebrates it's 5th anniversary.

Fabulous OTTOBRE giveaway!

Your chance to win: OTTOBRE is giving away 2 one-year subscriptions for 6 issues (4 kids + 2 women) and a gift card worth 50EUR to spend at their Etsy shop. All you need to do is leave a comment here on my blog, on my facebook page or just email me by the 31st of October and you will be entered into the prize draw. Good luck!

Our house

You now probably ask why I'm posting a picture of our house, right? Well, firstly so you all know where I live :-), but more important: we are getting an extension build! Yippee! It's been in the planning for over a year and now work has finally started. It is going to be a 2-storey extension, two bedrooms upstairs, a utility room downstairs and the most important room of all: my fabric and sewing room! No more sewing on the kitchen table, I will have a separate room where I can just shut the door behind me. Great!
And to keep you all informed about the building process, I will post some photos every now and then. Fingers crossed the frosty and snowy weather will stay away for a long time!

It's been two weeks already since my last post, I just don't know where the time goes.... Does anyone feel the same? The schools are off AGAIN for the October holidays, which means a slightly different routine to our day just now and not much time for sewing :-(
But I still managed to finish these diaries. I made some last year and they were a great hit with my customers, as they make lovely Christmas presents...

Up until now when going to craft shows I've always been using an ordinary bum bag for the change. Ok, it was leather one, black, but still pretty boring. But that is going to change: I've made sort of an apron, well not the ususal type of apron with ties, but one a bit asymetrical and with poppers. The pattern  MAYTE  from Farbenmix was perfect for the project, I just added a pocket with a zip for the money and a small pocket for pens, scissors, etc. and ready it was: my halfway fashionable, very useful new money-apron-over the trouses-wrap skirt-thingy!

The fabric stash...

...never seems to get any smaller :-) To reduce the enormous bags full of small pieces I made some more scarfs and comforters:

Leoni has grown out of most of her trousers from last year- if it was for her, she would only wear skirts anyway - but nevertheless I made her a new pair. I think children should wear colourful clothes and I really don't like black on them at all. But with this lovely black denim I have in the shop (it might wash out a bit? hopefully:-) I didn't have much choice: and combined with a lot of COLOURFUL ribbons and pink topstitching I think we get away with the black.

The pattern is WANDA from Farbenmix

The Flower and Food Festival was again a very successful event and I had a bit of a breather last week, not "having" to sew anything or finishing something under time pressure. But as you can see from the photos, I just can't do without any sewing for more than three days :-)) My mum sent a new winter coat for Leoni and we needed something new for the head, so I tried out this balloon cap made from pink cotton and grey babycord.