handmade style by a designer
One of the extras i love adding to the Mini Briar sewing pattern, is leather appliques and slogans. A lot of people have mentioned to me that they find this really intimidating, but i’m here today to share with you my failsafe trick for sewing leather to almost any fabric, stretch or woven.
This technique obviously lends itself beautifully to my Mini Briar sewing pattern, but you can give this a try with any garment that you’d like to add leather patches to.
The problem with Bunny, is that she is growing up too quickly. Wasn’t she three yesterday? Yes i’m sure that was actually yesterday. I basically cannot get over what a big kid she is lately, 7 is so much more grown up than i ever imagined.
One of the things i really enjoyed during the development process for my kids patterns was finding out what Bunny thought of things. So often our kids wear what we want, but i really enjoyed seeing what she requested. Lately i’m letting her choose what she likes wearing, rather than just putting her in whatever the grownups in her life decide. More pinks. More tutus. Wearing ballet flats 24/7.
This is a pretty good example of my girl wearing all the things she likes at once hehe. The sweater is one of the first samples of the Mini Briar – the length is somewhere between the long length and the cropped length. The fabric is from Knitwit in Perth – and as always, i love shopping there. They keep a great selection of sweatshirt fleece in tonnes of colours WITH matching ribbing. Be still my beating heart! I love a good matching ribbing! The leggings are a re-creation her favourite leggings, which she wore until they were way too small and looked like cropped leggings. I had just enough fabric to squeeze in a new pair, and i’m so glad we managed it! She has loved them. The tutu is the one which i made for the kids pattern release lookbook – and it’s gotten a lot of a love. I don’t usually put her in see through things, but topped over leggings it always looks really cute and has turned out to be one of her favourite layering pieces.
Check out all the moodiness. There are so many deep thoughts in that pretty little head. yup. 7 is apparently quite grown up. I’m going to go cry in a corner.
[ Bunny Wears ]
Sweater: Megan Nielsen Mini Briar // Get the pattern + fabric + ribbing in dusty pink
Leggings: Megan Nielsen Mini Virginia // Get the pattern + similar fabric
Tutu: Megan Nielsen
Ballet flats: Zara girl
I can’t really express enough the value of fit models. As I was developing my kids patterns, which was uncharted territory for me, I knew i would need to make sure the patterns worked for lots of different kids, not just my own darlings.
So I asked many of my friends and our neighbors if their little ones would be willing to help out as fit models. I’m so grateful to all of these friends as trying the designs on a range of different girls was absolutely vital to ensuring that the patterns fit properly and were also comfortable and appropriate.
Once the patterns were finalised i wanted to give them all a little thank you and memento, so i made something special for each little girl. I’m hoping to share the rest soon, but today i wanted to show you these three pieces which were created for three sisters. They are such gorgeous girls and i loved creating these pretty garments for them!
This little Briar crop top has a copper leather heart applique – and the little girl i gave it to chose to wear it as part of her Christmas outfit, so that basically made my whole life hehe.
I’m seriously in love with these Mini Virginia‘s and i think i need to recreate them for myself. I used the copper leather again, and made the kitty knee patches from the pattern. The fabric is one of my very favourites – it’s twigs and bokeh and galaxy all mixed together, and i adore it!
This pair of Mini Tania’s was made using the left over fabric from one of the lookbook samples. I love this crushed linen because it’s just so perfectly fuss free for a 3 year old! Also i really enjoyed the opportunity to try out my new size labels. Sewing nerd am i right?!
Anyway, I’m really thrilled with how these little gifts have turned out – and it gives me endless joy everytime i see these little girls wearing the things i’ve made for them. That’s really the best part of all, and it makes all the sweatshop style sewing totally worth it!
Hi! This is Shivika and I’m an avid maker of children’s clothing and occasional blogger over at A Little Bit Indian. I’m here today to share a pattern variation for Megan’s Mini Virginia Leggings pattern. It was perfect timing because my 9 yr old daughter was complaining about not being able to wear her tennis skirt at her lessons, now that the weather has gotten colder, so I thought it would be great to add a tennis skirt to the leggings.
My dears I’m so excited to share with you our last pattern tester roundup! Today we have some of the gorgeous pieces created by our Mini Virginia pattern testers. My goodness me, so much cuteness!