Christmas Pull home-made Pattern

I have always wanted to knit a Christmas Pullover. One of those red, white and green, with snowflakes and reindeers all over them. But two things held my horses:

•        Complication
•         Season appropriateness constrains

Such a big effort for just two weeks of rightful public exposure does not seem very effort-effective. 

Winter 2016 Nano's Christmas Pull

That is when I came across a reinterpretation of the garment that we can’t pass on. Of course, it is by NANO’s. I love it and I just spent 2 hours trying to find a free knitting pattern for the elk head. Since I couldn’t, I came up with my own copy, which I leave here in case it might be of interest to any of you.

4yo pattern suggestion

I will let you know how the project turns out. 

TIPS

• The elk head shape could benefit from a bit of a narrower forehead, so if the length of your pull allows it, grant it a couple extra black rows between lines 27-28 (narrowing the forehead)
• The diagram posted fits a 4 year old, upper body length of about 40cm. I also prepared a smaller version, if you need it, drop a comment!

Shawl me Warm

 Shawl we dance?

For I would, endlessly, thanks to this ultra easy very charming pattern for a Baby Shawl.

Shawl pattern (*.xls file if you are interested)

We have knitted it in different sizes from Newborn to 3yo. It is so practical, yet so cute that we always find an outfit or an occasion on severe need of sporting it.

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.

Scrap Ping

Not that I am particularly fond of rompers, which I am...what I really like is to maximize resources and the fact that you can get a diaper cover from a left over scrap of fabric, motivates me to the max!

Last winter, stars were a hit in children’s fashion.

The sound of music

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

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Liberty Love

Considering the many assets of the Liberty of London fabrics, the fact that this summer 2015 we limited our shopping spree to just 7, is praiseworthy.

That our infatuation with them has dragged a very dear friend into getting some as well at the risk of becoming another SIY (sew it yourself) victim, can be left as a side note. 

Summery Colourful Palettes, we had to get one of each patterns (Pepper, Garden Wonderland, Primrose and Watercolor)

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!

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,

2Many

Repeat with me…a project at a time, a project at a time, 

a project at a time!

I have repeatedly told myself to carry just one project at a time...but sometimes the temptation to get just a couple of fabrics is irresistible! 

Handmade Project Overload

This summer we are being the worst of sinners. When I discovered the colorful catalogue of Swiss Plumetis I had to take both the Lavander and the Mint. I could only hold back on the Coral and that is just because

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