Swiss Family Retro

I was recently commissioned to make some hoodies for brothers, and being a woman of impeccable taste and most likely my bosom buddy, the mum picked all retro / geeky fabrics.

This poor lost generation of children we are raising who do not know the true meaning of cassette tapes. And by 'we', I mean 'you'. Because Steven will never give his ever-loving two billionty cassette tapes up.

Confucius said, 'You can never love superheroes too much' and he sure got that one right: we used it for both hoodies.  Poor Jamie was consumed by jealousy* when I was wrapping them up to post, he thought one was for him.

Best customer shot ever.**

*As it's Jamie we're talking about, 'consumed by jealousy' actually looks a bit like quiet wistfulness. And I do have enough of the superhero fabric for precisely one hoodie for his birthday, with the caveat that there will be no more growning for awhile.
**Joint best. I treasure all customer shots equally, although I do not get nearly enough of them. HINT HINT.

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A shirt for the Lego Superfan

Our favourite American-Swedish hybrid family celebrated the birthdays of both their sons recently and kindly asked us over for cake and play. Elder son turned five and to commemorate his overwhelming love for all things Lego, I appliqued him a shirt.

Obviously my esteem for people is directly proportional to my willingness to part with precious hoarded Lego fabric.

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OMG YOU GUISE

Edinburgh's second coolest person

So on Friday night me and Friend Sarah wore our matching dresses and we were treated like celebrities and we didn't even need to do a choreographed dance or anything. That sentence is like two thirds true and one third lie.

Don't worry, I still have 12 inches of hair. I'm not sure where it is.

I was so distracted by our collective awesomeness (and also the awesomeness of Strawberry and Lime Cider) that I even forgot to try on Ruth's new glasses.

See? Nothing to worry about. The hair is back.

Just when I didn't think the 12 year old friendship experience couldn't get any better, it did. After posting our night out pics on Facebook, I only got commissioned by my friend Amber to make her a cowl dress. That's right, Amber. The original coordinating-outfit-friend from when we were twelve years old. I'm thinking we should totally put on our matching dresses and visit her brother, just like we did before. Except now he's not a day old infant, he's at university. And now I'm officially old.

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Some things old, some things new, and lots of blue

One thing I love about making things for my kith and kin (other than the obviously adorable photos), is how often I get to see them modelling. We've only been here for a week but I think at least one child every day has been wearing something I've made! It's super-fulfilling. Here's a round up of some of the Top Secret new stuff I've made mixed in with some old favourites getting their second season of wear.

Peonies peasant top making it's debut

Fishbowl mod dress from last summer is now a cute tunic

Guitar hero orgnaic t-shirt (see, I told you he's even cuter)

Leapfrog pillow case dress, first time worn

The girls in their matching People-y peasant tops

An all new Megatropolis mod dress with red polkadot bias binding

On a whim peasant dress made for both girls, modelled by mine.

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Good news and modelling

Yesterday was a very exciting day as my tutu pettiskirt tutorial was featured on U-Create and on Craft Gossip. Cue lots of extra visitors and some new followers too. *waves at new folk*

This morning we went to Elsie's house to drop off her Lil Kingdom peasant top and pettiskirt. The pettiskirt went on first:

And then the top:

Cue some manic twirling!

Maia is enchanted with the staggering girliness of this fabric... princesses, fairies, castles, unicorns, ballerinas, flowers:

So has claimed the rest of it as her own. What else should I make with it?

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I'm not the only one with a doppelganger

I was very excited to see the modelled pictures of the Pin Up and Pirate Boy hoodies that Soph4Soph posted the other day.


But also alarmed. Because Soph and Maia are basically twins. Scary, no?

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Scotland's Next Top Model

Tyra would be proud, because this girl looks fierce.


I was a little bit scared when I saw it in my blog reader because that face is saying 'I Do Not Like'. But when I clicked through, I breathed a sigh of relief because it's all good:


I know it's hard to tear yourself away from staring at her gorgeous hair, rocking skinnies and snazzy shoes but Manga Girl tunic looks rather nice too. And stop coveting that bookcase, look at the Care Bear Hoodie:


She pulls it off with ablomb. Thanks to Kirsty for letting me post the pics!

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A whole lot of Random

• Here is Anna super-modelling her coat, which she loved. And she wore it home, which made me very happy.
  
  

• I pinky swear that this photo isn't staged. This is where Steven put our bills yesterday. That's our frying pan:
  
  

• This week, I walked to the shop with a fox for the third time in as many months.

• Yesterday we had a coffee morning at the nursery and one of the other mums has a newborn baby. When she started nursing him, Maia turned to me and said, 'This is so exciting.'

• Oh, and Cool Girls? See the date? It's skirt due day! There's a lot of finished skirts in the Flickr pool but I'll not start blogging about everyone's skirts until tomorrow. Because if everyone else is just a tiny bit like me, there will still be some last minute Top Secret sewing.
  

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Stop staring at me

To give you a break from my relentless posting of pictures of me, how about you check out these pictures of other people:


This is Maxine modelling her asymmetrical jacket. She doesn't like showing pictures of her face because she looks about twenty years younger than her actual age and she doesn't want us all to hate her for it. At least that's what I think.


I love these big buttons.


And this is Rachel's asymmetrical jacket.


Being a very clever lady indeed, it has an inner-lining of fleece for warmth.


A lot of you will recognise this little girl, and indeed, probably these very same pictures as I stole them from Vonnie's blog. This is the dress I made for her to wear to her baby sister's christening.


And the polkadot reverse side.


Isn't this picture beautiful?!


Hands up if you're awesome!

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I know, it's unseemly to beg. But please.

This is supposed to be a post about the little girl from Brighton who received my metro dress, tulip skirt and woodland kimono. But it's really a post about how I want to move in with them and be their second child. Their house is so cool.


Just look at this bookcase. If I was to fall asleep and dream of bookcases, I would dream of this one. And then wake up crying, because it was just a dream.


Yep, nice skirt. Whatever. I can't tear my eyes away from that cool fort in the background. There's a better picture on Mockduck's blog. Which I didn't feel right stealing, because this post is supposed to be about the clothes.


But how can it be about the clothes?! Just look at this wallpaper. As soon as I saw this wallpaper, I immediately wrote a letter to my MP asking that it be legal for me to marry it. I haven't heard anything back yet but I think they're pretty busy trying to figure out if there is a road in Edinburgh that hasn't got a big trench in the middle yet. So they can dig a big trench in it.


While I'm gushing and lobbying to be Mockduck's other child, exactly how cute is my new sister this girl? It's hard to quantify, I thought about making a graph or something but I really should do some work today. But know this, her photo was in the Guardian last weekend and they'll probably be inundated with requests to join their family. I believe I'm the first to blog about it though, so I should get first refusal, right?

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The 'happle dress'

I was so happy this morning to receive a stunning customer appreciation picture courtesy of one of my new Scottish customers. Her little one is wearing a Ginger Blossom peasant top with tile sleeves and her older daughter a blue apple babycord tunic. Or as she refers to it, 'her beautiful new happle dress'. Bless her :)

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The Coolest Gene pool in the World *TM

I hope I'm not disqualified for putting my very own gene pool forward for this award, but beyond my own progeny there are some other very cool kids that share the Kitschy Coo genes (and in some cases 'The Bothering Gene'). You've seen my gorgeous niece Isla before, but here are my other brother's children making their modelling / blog debut:

Liam sporting his five year old birthday t-shirt

And Conor sporting his Third Birthday t-shirt

The only remaining little one in my family not to make his modelling debut yet is my tiny nephew Calvin, because I have been a horrible auntie and haven't sent him anything to wear yet. Hoping to rectify that soon!

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They're not just a myth

I'm sure some of you didn't believe me when I regaled you with tales of The Coolest Family in the World* TM. But it's true, I have pictures to prove it. Not blurry, grainy pictures like those of other mythical creatures a la Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster. These are proper, glorious, luscious-coloured photos of The Coolest Family in the World* TM in their natural habitat...





I might just add that he is playing rock air guitar in this picture. Can everyone join me in a round of applause for Helen's stellar photography (not to mention breeding) skillz?

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