This is a first!

Remember, how I told you I had a feeling that more was yet to come as far as the SS15 Nanos dress we got last year on sale?  Well, the winter pull we knitted was undoubtedly too thick, too warm, too big and definetely inadequate for summer. And since we, daughters, never get tired of asking our moms for anything and everything, I pleaded to my mother if she could come up with something to go with it, and here is the beautiful result!

Blue Klein Bolero  (3yo)

Looks familiar? It is a Bolero, knitted with 100% cotton Valeria di Roma, (gauge #2.5, so pretty tight).

Blue electric - part II

So once Baby Bird#2 dress was completed, as it always happens at Casycoso…we felt that we had to make the most of the half a ball of yarn left and went for a boy’s pullover. The nightmare, for us, is always the same:

-        Proportions

-        Size

 

Boy's model

Wintery Wool

I just realized that we never posted pics of the White Wool star Dress we made last AW14 season.

Fabric is 100% wool, machine washable from traetela.es

It is based on the Pool tunic pattern except that we added long sleeves. That was actually significantly more complicated than we anticipated.

Against all odds

Fall season is upon us, and surprisingly enough, my birdies didn't stop growing so we have found that my big girl #2 is too tall now for all those charleston dresses we made last year.

Thankfully, during our summer holiday in London we ad quite some liberty (what else!) fabric to put together some new ensembles.

The sound of music

By the end of this post you would understand the reason for this title.

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Coral Plumeti: the return



And once the Coral Plumeti Baby dress was "copied", having been the results so satisfactory*, we decided to make a coordinated dress for bird#2 (size 2yo). At casycoso we like to dress the siblings coordinated but not entirely marching, to give a bit of personality to each of them. We searched the net for some "likable" patterns. But ended up concocting our own. And this was the result.  

Front of the Dress

Coral Plumeti Frenzie

Granted! It is not an original…we have never denied when a dress or a knit inspiration was outsourced. But one thing is for sure: Man! Can we copy or what?

What do you think...too saturated?

 

Aquamarine Newborn Baby Dress

Last summer, we came across a sweet aquamarine plumeti that we couldn’t resist. It was not the best fabric (100% cotton but so thin that it wrinkles just by looking at it) but the color was so sweet and in vogue that summer, that we went for it! Well, now that baby bird #3 is on her way (and about to get here by the way), we set off to sew a matching newborn dress. And this was the result!

Mint Plumeti Newborn Dress SS15

Truth to be told, we were, as often, “inspired”  by Nanos SS15, but how to resist their collections? Anyhow, when we were putting it together, we were super hesitant about whether or not to add a silk ribbon on the flutter sleeves. It did seem a bit much but it was easier to put it together. So we set up a pool on Instagram (@casycoso) and the result was unanimous, WITHOUT!

Valencienne Trimmed Neckline

Sweet or Oversweetened?

Luckily, we had enough left over scraps to make the diaper cover and a baby cap. For this last two, we did add the ribbon. The diaper cover back is romantically trimmed with Plumeti and Valencienne lace. For the baby cap, just some embroidered lace with the silk ribbon.

Botton up Back

Modestly In Love...truly!

Here is front and back, let us know if you would need any other detail shots or measurements! 

P.S. Fair Warning! we found Ultra Rich Koral Plumeti fabric which goes so espectacularly with the Peppered Liberty of London Fabric I have been dieing to use for some time now...so, something is coming....as soon as the already shop for fabric gets in the mail!

Winter Star

Was it a general trend or was it only in Spain that Winter 2015 children's fashion has all been about  

STARS

I loved the pattern so naturally CasyCoso went for it. Also, my niece (2yo) attended a wedding as a flower girl wearing the cutest Little Charleston style dress. By Charleston, I mean a low cut waist and a pletted skirt dress. She was adorable so, despite our reservations about how flattering that shape might be on a little girl, we went for it, and this is the result!

Needless to say, that I was further encouraged to go for it after I saw that my favorite children fashion brand, NANOS, had presented a couple of models along that line. As a matter of fact, here is the AW15  model We "inspired" ourselves on,  you tell me if you find any resemblance.

The cherry on the cake was to find this awesome wool fabric, soft as a teddy bear, warm as a blanket, machine washable,  and easy to work with, from TraeTela

I loved the silver star print of the fabric. We had liked it better if we could have found a way to highlight it, instead of going for our recurrent adornment of Valencienne lace, but none of the options we contemplated, seemed to measure up to the Nano's solution.

I wish we could post some pics of our birdie#2 sporting the garment, because it is really cute, but to get her to try model for our blog is an absolute mission impossible!

Organza & Plumeti Tulle

What a dream! Last week, back at my mom's house, we visited our fetish fabric store MasTelas and we found a Cream Color Plumeti Tulle to die for, sitting next to some perfectly rose delicate organza. It took us 2secs to concoct the idea of what to make of it. 

Here is the story of our very anticipated, little babybird #3 

      Plumeti+Organza Baby Dress

Newborn Baby #3 Dress Fresh from the oven!

The idea was to make a two layer traditional (aka loooong please!) baby dress. With an organza undercoat and a tulle overlay. We toyed around with the idea of making the tulle layer an apron instead. We even launched an opinion pool in Instagram (@casycoso) but in the end, we opted for a more conservative design, mainly coz the intention was to make it in a newborn size and the apron might not show very well plus it might not have been too practical either. 

I am crazy about that tulle. The only thing I didn't like was the price (19€/m) but I had tons of ideas of things I could do with it and could not (did not want to) resist.

Plumeti Tulle Dream Fabric from MASTELAS

Unfortunately, the only things I have manage to make with the scrap left overs have been the matching  baby cap, and the tulle rose waist detail which I find cute an distinctive and my mom inappropriate...

By the way, I have to give it to my new gathering gadget, how did we do it before it got I I our lives?

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Here are some shots of the process. I cannot presume to help anybody learn how to sew but, if the detail shots are interesting to someone as to how to evolve the creative process into reality, may they be welcome here!

Possibilities

Apron vs Full Dress     Pink vs Cream      Belt vs Bow Detail

What to do?

Getting there

Et voilá!

Do you like it?

I will be sure to post a pic fo the garment on the baby. If you care to get a similar one, contact us at casycoso@gmail.com

Swiss Elegance

Summer at its best

This 2014 summer dress sewing frenzy was all about Plumeti, we admit it, but on one of our visits to the fabric store, my mother who should have been born rich to afford her excellent taste on everything and anything, fell in love with this Swiss Cotton Fabric, to die for!

Liberty Nostalgia

We are self-confessed obsessed with Liberty Fabrics. I recently discovered the hashtag #LibertyOfLondon 

it's awesome!

Nano's Autumn - Winter 2013 Inspired

I know, I know... How can I find about # just now?…We are still getting acquainted with social media...what matters is that we found it! The thing is that to see all those pictures of Liberty Fabric Swatches Stacks made us very nostalgic. I noticed that some of the fabrics we have used in the past were quite popular and I thought maybe someone might enjoy having a look at what we did with them, the same way that I would love to see what they sewed. 

What has everybody created with their Liberty Treasures?

There is one dress in particular whose pattern we loved. We made a winter dress for my birdie two years ago and repeated it last year in another color. Maybe you think Liberty is not appropriate for winter. Granted, it is a very thin cotton fabric, which in my opinion is precisely the beauty of it. But if you line it and wear it with a jacket, it is absolutely fine. Plus, it's got long sleeves, so it is adequate for colder days.

Front 

The pinkish one on the left its a size 12months (A/W 2012) and the green on the right was 2014 (24months).

Back 

I got the fabrics from the my fav London treasure cave, Shaukat. I mentioned them before, their stock is endless and their prices the fairest I know. But their web is not very inviting, because their pictures of the fabrics aren't very good neither in resolution, size or color adjustment. Nevertheless, if you know what fabric you are looking for, that is your site. 

Velvet Ribbon that ties on the back  

The original design included, and we copied, a velvet ribbon and bow on the back. It does not serve to adjust the contour, it is mere decoration. To us that is all for the best because we particularly dislike extra wide garments that require to be belt-up as to confirm that there is an actual person under them and not just a floating head over a blanket.

Plumeti Heamline Trimming

Both the cuffs and the heamline are trimmed with ruffled Plumeti. To us, the end look of the dress is so detailed that it just exudes an “I care about what I do” feeling that makes us proud.

Plumeti and Velvet Cuff Trims 

Both sizes are quite similar but not quite the same. The main difference is the arm seamline.

For the 1yo we overachieved. The raglan sleeve angled to the midpoint of the back rather than all the way up to the neckline. The sleeve was slightly gathered up on the shoulder to puff it up a little (a little we said!). This complicated not only the pattern but also the construction of the dress. Since we started the pattern from scratch, doing it this way, made it quite harder to ascertain the correct measurements for each piece and complicated slightly the sewing of the armpits. In conclusion, it took us a bunch of time to get the sleeves set in place right.

For the 2yo size we simplified it and we just cut regular fitted sleeves. We kept them, however, slightly puffed up at the shoulders. We promise you the difference went unnoticed. 

Valencienne Trimming and Arm Seam Details 

We included a  shirt-like piece for the chest front and back in Plumeti and trimmed it with delicate Valencienne Lace which is another weakness of us. The materials were expensive and it was hard to sew. We finished it by hand to cover up the seams, but it was well worth it! (in our modest opinion, of course).

I wish I could show you pictures of how it looks on, but unless I happen to catch my little model unaware, she thinks differently than to let me dress her in and out of several outfits more than once a day and to pose for the camera. It is an ultra cute dress, believe me and not too formal either.  

Disclaimer: as often the CasyCoso Case, this dress is based on a Nano’s 2013 Winter model.

Pool Tunic Tutorial

This dress is so wearable and so delivering, that we truly super recommend it for anytime summer time. We love it so much and we believe that it can really be so practical for any of your darling doves that we have even dare to try to put together a tutorial to incentivize you to make it.

This is all you need

 Please keep in mind that we barely know what are we doing, so we are most probably not the best example to follow..but somehow, the end result of what we make ends up looking cool. It must be all the love we put into it, or the cuteness of our little model. Either way, mysteriously enough, the dress turned out to be pretty neat, to the point of making us believe that somebody might want to follow on our steps…hence:

Tutorial for a Summer Dress 2014

Plumeti Pool Passion – executed

The second round of our Plumeti Passionate Summer is completed

We finished our Lavander Lovely Pool Tunic

Blue Birdie in Lavander Love

We finished it, and we believe we will be using this tunic daily. It might actually be a pattern to repeat with some of our other treasure fabric swatches. 

Plumeti Pool Passion

Lavender Love

Continuing with the Plumeti Passion that has won our summer heart, now it is time to cut into the Lavender Swiss Dotted Cotton.Turns out that a breezie short sleeve sweet dress was hiding into the Mint Swatch, you can read about it here.

Visual for the Lavender Love Pool Dress

So maybe, this is could be the fabric to make an easy wear swimming pool tunic! It will have to

Mint Plumeti Dress - copied!

It is not as easy as it seems

Why am I wearing wings? I wonder..

Reading along the notes we have been posting recently, it might look like copying a dress just from a pic is a super easy task. And it might just be so if you are skilled in the art of dress making, which sadly enough, is not the CasyCoso case. On the contrary,

Mint Plumeti Dress

2014 Mint Parole

The hardest next thing to hold back from buying the same fabric on every color available is, to me, to decide on the pattern. It is often the CasyCoso Case, to find inspiration on the broads of reality and commercial brand’s talents. We humbly acknowledge this and pay tribute to their creativity. So, for this particular light, breeze, extremely classy fabric, we wanted something original, cute and girly yet apt for everyday wear. We didn’t want a dress that ought to sit in the closet till Sunday coz it looks too formal or bow-ish. 

We found this!

Nanos 2013 Spring Summer Catalogue

Once again, it is by Nanos…we just like it so much…we want to know if we can mimic it!

Here is the visual for the pattern and the progress so far, we think we got it!

Visual for the Mint Dress

The lace details are done with a very delicate yet modern pattern of Valencienne Lace, our other confessed weakness. And the silk ribbon over the shoulder just makes it as cute as it can get...in our opinion of course.

Dress Details

Dotted Swiss Cotton Frenzie

Admittedly, I love that type of fabric. Not as irrationally as I love Liberty cottons, which is obviously an infatuated passion, but enough. And this summer we are going crazy about it.

Freshest Mint 

Blue Marine - Girl Dress Completed!

Done

Meet my BirdyGirl

Project complete! How gratifying it is to finish a project in which you embark without any warranty of success and to do it well?

Blue Marine Girl Dress

“Originality is undetected plagiarism” William Ralph Inge

I never claimed to be a great creator and I humbly accept my limitations, one of which is to come up with new (good) ideas, at least, not every time. Disclaimer out of the way...we have decided on the pattern for my 1yo dress to match my son’s blue marine jacket.

Casilda&Jimena 2014 Winter Collection

It is based on Casilda&Jimena’s 2014 Winter collection which