The Secret Squirrel series is a year-long sewing journey created by
An from Straight-grain (http://www.straight-grain.blogspot.com/) and
Suz from sewpony(http://www.sewpony.blogspot.com/).
Read all about it here (http://sewpony.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/introducingsecret-squirrel.html).
Secret Squirrel contacted me via Annika from Näh-connection and gave me these five acorns of inspiration....
 |
| Neuschwanstein Castle, Elephants, Spring, Jersey, Astrid Lindgren |
Secret squirrel made a small journey this time. He simply crossed the
border from Germany to the
Netherlands.
Annika sent him on his way with five fun acorns. I must admit
that I did lose some sleep, pondering how to incorporate all of them in one
outfit, but in the end, they came together wonderfully.
Let’s start with the last acorn, because that one formed the
main source of inspiration of this outfit. Swedish children's book author
Astrid
Lindgren is one of my favorite authors. I devoured her books when I was a child, and I’m looking forward to the time that my kids are old enough to
read the books together. My all-time favorite was
The Brothers Lionheart, about
the adventures of two brothers; Karl and Jonatan.
I remember reading it when I
was about nine, and thinking, “If I ever have a son, I’ll name him Jonatan”. The
name stuck, and 25 years later I still loved it. I even managed to convince my
husband, so in April 2013, our Jonatan Nils was born.
So that was obvious: the outfit had to be for Jonatan,
inspired by this book. And once I had decided that, I realized that three of
the four remaining acorns could be added seamlessly! The book is staged in Nangijala,
an ancient land of the “days of campfires and storytelling”. And castles, of course. Check acorn number 2: Neuschwanstein castle! The two brothers
live in a little farmhouse in the “Cherry Blossom Valley”, and the book is
filled with beautiful blossom drawings by. Check acorn number 3: spring! And since knit fabric is my
go-to fabric, acorn number 4 was also easily incorporated: jersey!
Based on these four acorns, I made a little medieval-looking
tunic in blue jersey.
It was inspired by the colors of the book, and lined with
this fun
castle fabric (Lizzy House Peeps series) that happened
to be in my stash.
For the spring acorn, I originally wanted to use
some blossom fabric, but couldn’t find what I was looking
for. So
spring was reflected in this
wooden button that vaguely looks like a blossom.
However, then I
discovered sun printing, and managed to create a piece of fabric that really matched the cover of the book. So obviously, it had to be used as well. But how? My outfit
was already completed, and I couldn’t make up my mind what to do with it.
Sticking
with the theme, it became a shield, eh bib, eh, shield-shaped bib! To protect Jonatan
from fire-spitting dragons, swords and arrows, and above all, flying food! He
needs it!
That left only one acorn remaining. Those poor
elephants really didn’t fit in the medieval
theme. So they got their own piece: grey sweatpants with two protective
elephants on the knees.
A little blue side tag (not shown) links it to the rest of the
costume colorwise. And hey, there are even elephants on the inside!
So that’s it! Five acorns incorporated into this outfit for
my little Jonatan.
I loved hosting the secret squirrel. Who’s next?
I’m sending the secret squirrel off with the following five acorns:
 |
| Pineapple, Alhambra, Denim, Ombre, Upcycling |
If you would like and join Secret Squirrel on his journey, leave a comment on this post and check your inbox in a week’s time… you may be the chosen one to pass on the baton of creativity that is SECRET SQUIRREL!!!
If you don't receive a message from Secret squirrel, you can still sew along
http://www.flickr.com/groups/secretsquirrelsewalong/
There are some amazing prizes to be won.
