I'd been dying to do the Laguna skirt and leggings by Studio Tantrum. I love Nancy's patterns because they are truly unique. I mean, this is a simple circle skirt but it's made by cutting the circle into spirals and then sewing them together. I don't think I'd be able to come up with something like that in a million years, particularly since it probably requires math and that's really not my strong suit. Anyway, I got the pattern from Banberry Place a while ago and had intended to make it for Maeve but suddenly she grew too big for the pattern. So I left it for a bit and then, this past spring I was going through my fabrics to look for something when I spotted the floral printed poplins next to each other and said to myself, "Hey, those would make a great pairing in a skirt." The Laguna popped into my head and that was it. I wanted to do a shirt with it and knew that Gwyn likes the Farbenmix Antonia quite a bit, but I wasn't sure of the fabrics. Then I got sick, etc. and it got put off.
The fabrics here were all already in my stash, which means I didn't have to buy anything for this particular garment, though I will say that the smaller floral was something that I'd gotten about 5 years ago but didn't have any plans for at the time. The larger floral is a Baby Nay poplin that I got on ebay about 5 years ago, too. I'd already used a good portion of it to make a Farbenmix Sasha dress for Maeve and really had to work hard to squeeze the skirt out of the piece I had left. The waistband is a bit of Stenzo poplin left over from the Delft dresses I made the girls 2 years ago.
I finished the hems with two different colors of ric-rac, which was no mean feat, since I went through 2 packages of each color of rid-rac to do it. I like the effect, though. Of course, I added the label that came with the pattern, because how could I not? Gwyn thought it looked like a mommy owl and her baby, and since she loves owls.... And see the blue flowers? Those are the violets.
On to the shirt - a double-sleeved version of Antonia with the keyhole:
The rose print that makes up the front and back plus the shorter sleeves is a beautiful Stenzo cotton-lycra knit that I got from Yvonne at the now-defunct Bunte Fabrics. Hence the roses in the title. The sleeves are a blue and white gingham-print cotton-lycra knit that I got from The Fabric Fairy during a sale. The neck binding is simply some dark pink ribbing I had on hand.Then, naturally, there are the extras, since this shirt is for Miss Gwyn.
I love freebies, don't you? Well I got the pink decorative elastic as a freebie with a fabric order at some point, and I jumped at the chance to use it on this shirt. The ribbon on the left sleeve came to me as a freebie when I ordered some ribbon from Farbenmix directly. It was basically a leftover from a roll and all I had was enough to use on this sleeve. You can buy it here.
The rest of the left sleeve features a round patch with a rose on it. This one I bought 5 years ago in Germany - it cost me 1 euro, I think, and it goes perfectly with the roses in the ribbon. Finally, the trim at the hem of the long sleeve is a blue and white decorative elastic that was also a freebie.
The right sleeve has the same pink decorative elastic at the short sleeve hem and the same blue at the long sleeve hem. The difference is the red and white dot Farbenmix ribbon and the Farbenmix tag, naturally. Since the weather isn't exactly warm enough to wear the skirt without tights, I also made up a pair of leggings with the Laguna pattern. These are made from a cotton-lycra knit in aqua-blue and raspberry stripe from The Fabric Fairy. I highly recommend this knit - the recovery is great and the fabric is super soft. As a whole, I love this outfit but she can also wear these separately, so that's a bonus. It's currently a favorite in the rotation and she even calls it her "Roses are Red, Violets are Blue outfit".
