Ottobre i love you

As I was surfing the web one day I discovered these sewing magazines from Finland called Ottobre. Each issue has a bunch of patterns in many sizes. Even more exciting they have a version in English.
So I had order a few to try them out.
I bought one kids one and one adult one. They release four kids mags every year and two adult ones.

This is the cute dutch girl skirt that I made for my little cousin.
Doesn't she look absolutely darling in it. The moment I saw this blue and white fabric it reminded me of dutch ceramic that my husband has shown me before.

The bottom layer is a thin woven linen material, and the top layer is a stretchy sheer that I found on clearance at walmart.
The pattern is from Ottobre 6/2008 Pattern #33
"Double-layer" skirt in size 146

I loved this pattern. It was pretty easy to put together and I finished it in an evening. She loves the skirt and says it's very flirty. I did decide to leave off the second layer casing with tie because the material was so sheer. I would definitely recommend the pattern and plan to sew it again.
This magazine is super cool. The tracing of the pattern looks daunting at first but I found it pretty easy to find the lines I needed. Now I want more Ottobre's!

Ruffled summer skirt!

This summer I have my cute younger cousin staying with me.
We will call her Bubbles.
between cooking and crafts we decided to try out some sewing.

I've always had a blockage or wall in my head about sewing clothes. I've been afraid to try it, telling myself I'm too ignorant about sewing.
Well my friends, the wall has been knocked over smashed and sunk into a bog.
This ruffle skirt was made with the legs off a pair of old jeans that i cut up and bleached. I soaked them in the bleach for about half an hour.
Then added to the levi was this cute blue and white checkered material.

It twirls quite nicely and Bubbles loves how it fluffs out. I'm going to make a matching hat for it, and maybe myself a jean skirt with added checkered pleats for the bottom.

A very happy Bubbles showing off the fluff on her booty. LOL

If you want to make a skirt like this as well go check out this tutorial on the xox skirt.
I used it and modified it some but it gives you the basics and shows you how to figure out how much fabric to cut.