From a jumper to a dress

That's the journey I took a few weeks ago when I decided to transform two of my old jumpers into a dress for my baby girl. Maybe you are wondering how this idea came to my mind and whether I am not running out of fabric to resort to that. Well, not really. I still have dressmaking fabrics to be made into something.
What else could I do with two old jumpers (not so old in fact, I think I bought them about 7 years ago when I was feeling comfortable wearing short and tight jumpers). Anyway I don't feel comfortable in them anymore and as one of them had a bit of fading near the neckline and the other one had a few tiny stains I could neither give them to charity, nor sell them. And throwing them into the bin also wasn't a good option. So that is how I started toying with the idea to make something out of them.
And since I had a baby girl I found that thoughts of lovely girly dresses and accessories were circling my mind more than ever. Not that I still don't imagine sewing a fabulous dress or top for myself, but not that often.
Here you can see how the two jumpers looked before cutting them. Nice green colours!

It's very challenging to make something from another garment as it's very restricting in terms of fabric and you have to adjust the pattern pieces according to the grainline.

For that dress I drew a pattern only for the bodice. The rest of the dress was made just by draping the fabric until I got the a look that appealed to me. It's one of these projects that you don't really know what the final look would be until you get there.

 Here I have experimented with different stitches and some lace. The lace detail wasn't planned at first, but it somehow gives the dress a fresh look. And I felt really happy using it, as I had bought it together with four more laces without being sure what I was going to use them for.

And here is the final look of the dress. In fact there is just a tiny bit more to go - to accessorize it with a fabric flower, but I still haven't quite decided where exactly to place it, so I have left this aside for a while.

Christmas time

Christmas has always been special time for me. There is something very exciting about the whole preparation for it- taking out the decorations, choosing the dominant colour to decorate around the house, buying presents and wrapping them..
Then it comes Christmas Eve and it's time to set the table. In my native country of Bulgaria certain traditions are followed when setting the table. The number of dishes on the table should be uneven number, ideally seven or nine. There are foods like cooked beans and rice, dried fruits, nuts, garlic, honey, wine and bread which should be present on the table as it is believed that this would bring health,  luck and profusion in the home. The bread should be with round shape and a coin is hidden inside it. The person who gets the chunk of bread with the coin would be the luckiest in the house.
When the meal comes to an end, the whole family should leave the table at the same time, which is believed to keep them united and close in the new year. The table shouldn't be cleaned but left like this for the whole night. I especially like that part as all you have to do is toss down the last of the wine and head straight to bed for a well-earned rest. Of course the next morning you wouldn't want to get out of bed knowing what a mess you have left.

                          
But let me get back to Christmas decorations and gifts.
Last year I decided to make some felt ornaments for my parents' Christmas tree. My mom has always loved everything I have handmade, so i love making things for her. Here you can see some of them. The funny thing was that once they were ready, I put them aside, ready to be sent (unfortunately we couldn't spend the festive days with my parents so I had to send them by post). Half an hour later they were nowhere to be seen. After spending almost half an hour looking for them, I finnaly spotted them crammed in one of my son's trucks, ready to be "delivered" to his granny (at that time he was 2 years and 8 months).