Have you ever had those dreams where you are trying to get somewhere and no matter how much you hurry up everything is taking longer than planned? You just cannot seem to get there? I remember having these dreams as far back as childhood. Me running late no matter how hard I tried to hurry up. There was always something working against me so I couldn’t get where I was supposed to be going. I have always hated those dreams as I would wake up stressed and frustrated.

Sadly this is what parenthood feels like most of the time. You are always running late, everything takes twice the time planned and most of the time you don’t manage to do one tenth of the things you intend to do.

The only thing that is running somewhat at normal speed is the planning part of your brain. You plan and plan endlessly while doing all the mundane daily choirs. By the time you actually get a half an hour to execute any of these plans you have so many that you feel overwhelmed and often end up doing none of it.

The last half-year has been hectic. Not that there is anything new about it. I seem to be one of these people that always has too many things to do (or maybe I am just slow as my inner critical voice keeps asking me). Work has been crazy to the point of my jaw getting stiff from tension. My little toddler seems to have his activity level dialed up 300% so he and his already quite active bigger sister pretty much keep me busy the rest of the time.

It has taken me more than half of a year blogging the Christmas clothes I made for my active and sweet kids. This is the last piece of advanced sewing I did. I have a strong urge to show it off because right now it feels like it might be my last. Since these pictures were taken my little one has grown quite a bit and now has cute curly hair. My daughter has also stretched into a little young lady but memories and accomplishments are important to document despite them being old. Better late then never!

I made the Oliver and S Art Museum Vest and Trouser for my little boy. Not a pattern for the faint at heart. The velt pockets were impossible to decipher without the help of this online tutorial. Even then they were a pain in the butt to get nice but it turned out ok in the end. My biggest gripe is not to trust my instinct that the placement of the buttons didn’t feel right and following the pattern. The buttons are simply too close to each other and feel wrong. I used fabric that I bought at Lillestrøm sysenter (which is btw a wonderful store). Unfortunately I didn’t pay enough attention to the type of fabric it was but some kind of cotton and the lining I have really no idea.

The dress is the Tinny dress pattern from Straight Grain. Nice easy pattern but felt a bit on the wider side compared to her Hanami dress. It also felt a bit short at first but the length grew on me. The main fabric is Petal in Eggplant from the Handcrafted series by Alison Glass bought at Hawthorne Threads. Took me a bit of planning on how to cut it but I am quite happy with the final result. The triangle overlay that I laid on top of a piece without patterns in the front is Tulle in color “Lyng” from Stoff og Stil. The lining I bought from Rainbow Textil.

Our friends were nice enough to help us with taking some family photos right after Christmas. I think I took all the photos of the kids myself so I hope I am not stealing any credit here 🙂 .

Gentleman

Back of vest

My sweethearts

Vest