Lotta Jansdotter

I have been a fan of Lotta Jansdotter's designs for quite some time, but I didn't know she had a line of fabric untill a couple weeks ago.

I was at the Corn Wagon Quilt Co. with my daughter and told her she could pick out any fabric she wanted for a shirt I wanted to make her. Out of thousands to choose from, she chose this. I didn't know it was by Lotta Jansdotter until I got home and ironed it after washing. It was a great find.

Here is the shirt I made out of the fabric that only kind of fits Alex, which I tried to pattern off a shirt I saw on Jcrew.com. The sleeves are too wide and I'm having sewing machine issues. I bought a Singer Brilliance last year to replace my $20 and 20 year old thrift store sewing machine...and I think I had more luck with my old one. I have such thread tension problems it is driving me up the wall and I'm going to have to call Singer and see if I have a defect. All my online searches only temporarily fixed my problem. So sad. But once I get that fixed, I can make the sleeves thinner and maybe do a little puckering on them.

It took all the brain power I have to figure out how to sew some of these elements, but I enjoy it. I learned a few things too, which I always do when I try to sew something (with or without a pattern). My favorite parts are the buttons, those are always my favorite parts. My least favorite part is how the left side looks shorter than the right. I don't think it is (although the shirt is slightly crooked in the picture), but the bottom part under the seam with the puckering (very technical term I know) is shorter on the left side so now the whole shirt looks shorter. Live and learn! At least you can't tell when she is wearing it (which she won't do for more than just trying it on until I "make the sleeves not so fat").

I love this fabric, I'm going to go buy some more Lotta Jansdotter and make something else. Maybe just frame some...that takes no sewing at all!