Ottobre "Lingonberry" Dress

Romy wanted a "fancy" dress for Christmas and I really liked the Lingonberry dress (design 21 in the newest issue of Ottobre) and gave it a try. I used Stenzo Velvet and simple brown corduroy. She likes it a lot, definitely fancy enough for her (thank goodness she isn't very much into ruffles) and I didn't have too many troubles with it. Somehow though, I never manage to sew 100% perfect though. There is always a seam that is crooked or a fold here, that shouldn't be there and hopefully nobody will take a closer look at my "invisible" zipper in the back.. But someone told me, the little mistakes make a home sewn garment extra special and show the love... She is right.

Hello! Ella waved (see last post), so I wave as well!

Btw... we let the children decorate the tree this year. All in all they did pretty good! But some things became decorations that one usually does not find on your decorated tree. I imagine they were inspired by either Eloise at Christmastime or by Findus warted auf Weihnachten

Can you spot one unusual object? Free buttons for the finder of......

INSA one of my favorite skirt patterns

During the week of Thanksgiving I fell (very gracefully to be sure) down the stairs and broke a rib or two. The pain was too great to sit and sew and now that I am feeling better, I decided on another INSA skirt for Ella to get back into the swing of sewing. I used Stenzo cord for the upper layer and used this Westfalen bias tape along the hem. The ribbon and the rickrack trim really complete the whole thing and oh! A little deer decided to join the fun as well.



Today we also woke up to our first snow of the season. The kids were SO excited.

CPSIA

Or, Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act is a new law that will go in effect February 10th, a day that the Fashion-Incubator calls "National bankruptcy day" and with good reason. If you go and read up on it you will see.
At first I got and e-mail alerting me to this law and I thought it was a joke. But sadly it is not and small cottage industries are facing a dark future if any future, hundreds of artisans will not be able to sell their creations and beyond that we may face a shortage on children's clothing and toys in a short time. The act itself is there to protect our children and of course we are all for that. Unfortunately this law was written in a way, that it has too many very bad implications and it needs to be rewritten.

Here are some YouTube videos that explain the crazy legislation:

Part 1 of 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUlY6zOMPqQ
Part 2 of 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlMh7MJiodY
Part 3 of 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk0Vr0yDrXc

Nancy has written a long letter, Nancy style (meaning really well ;o) ) to her Congress woman and I will try to write one to mine, but I will need the help of my trusty Husband.

Please try to make as many people aware of CPSIA as possible and help in the grass roots efforts to let Congress know that it cannot stand the way it is.

Kathleen opened the forum to guests on the Fashion-incubator. Here is the link for a lot of information on CPSIA.

MAMU Design patterns

ELIA, NIKE, EMILY and KATRIN are now in stock! Come check them out :o)