Blue, white and red

Or is it red, white and blue? Hazel's school had a mini-Olympics on Friday - her class chose Great Britain as the country they would represent, and they were meant to wear blue, white or red clothes. I realised on Tuesday that she didn't have anything in those colours at all. I've had an old red cardigan of mine waiting to be repurposed for her for ages, so I offered to make that and a skirt and amazingly she accepted! I went through all my Ottobre books, and some of Cat's that I had borrowed, to find a cardigan pattern I could use when cutting down my old one. I ended up using the Daytime Dreamer pattern from the Spring 2011 issue...

and then did the skirt and the leggings as well! For the skirt I used some old fabric I had started making a dress out of years ago for my cousin's wedding, only to discover part way through that it was shrinking when ironed and was much too small! It's pretty awful fabric really, very stiff with no drape at all, but it works ok in a layered skirt like this. Alright, it sort of works, it's really too stiff and the skirt sticks out oddly sometimes but she doesn't care! If I were to do it again I'd use a knit fabric.

It looks cute on and she was really pleased with the whole outfit. When it came time to finish the bottom edge of the cardigan she asked if I had to hem it up because it might be too short, so I suggested putting ribbon around it instead. She chose this one from Stitchbird and personally kissed every single animal on it. The sleeves were a bit too short in the end, even though I'd cut them longer than the pattern, so I re-attached the cuffs to them and it actually looks really good instead of a make-do situation! The cardigan fits beautifully, much better than I'd anticipated given the sometimes rather odd Ottobre sizing. Hazel usually comes out at least two sizes smaller for chest/waist/hips than her height which is what the pattern sizes are based on. Anticipating that, I cut a 116cm pattern but 122cm in length. The 116cm should have been on the large size given the measurements, but it's just right and in terms of length 122cm is a bit short. I think I should have cut 122cm wide (her height) and 128cm long. So who knows where she's at with Ottobre sizing at the moment!

I'm feeling a little bleary this morning, having stayed up until 1am the last two nights watching the Olympics. I don't know what it is with them and me - every time the summer ones roll around I'm all "ho-hum" (I do get excited about the winter it has to be said) because I'm really not interested in watching sports on tv. But every time I get sucked in and find myself watching sports like weight-lifting or dressage (pretty ponies!) and really enjoying it. At 1am. The time difference between London and here couldn't be much worse it has to be said!