It was International Day at Preschool last week, and it got me thinking about the Old World European style that I love so much. Not dark, heavy furniture and velvet curtains — but more like Heidi, Swiss Miss and Hansel & Gretel. Painted furniture, flowered ribbons, window boxes and bright colors. Swiss, Dutch, German. My girls represented Germany and the Portuguese island of Madeira. When researching Madeira, I came across this lovely image of a traditional cottage (above) that has been in my mind since I saw it (perhaps because it’s just my size). I love the shape, colors and thatched roof.
Below is a detail of the trim on Laura’s costume, which belonged to me as a child and was a gift from my aunt while she was living in Germany. I was so happy that Laura was able to wear it. I have been buying lots of flowered trims lately and love the look with the wide ribbon and the ric rac together. Really sweet and cheerful. I also made the girls some fall capes that are reminiscent of this style. Burda pattern 9674. Burda, a German company, offers some cool European patterns for women and kids. You can order online or find them at the larger craft stores. For the capes, instead of the prescribed fleece (which would have been much easier) I used brown suiting wool lined with colored flannel and added some embroidery (also below) to play up the European style. Eva seems to like her cape, but Laura won’t wear hers. This is the trouble with sewing for kids!
So thinking about ribbon and trim now, here are a few sites that seem to have a wide selection of decorative ribbon:
And I’d be interested in any other sites out there!