My first Ottobre project

This week I sewed my very first item from the Ottobre magazine. My girlfriend and I bought a subscription between us and we're going to share them (we agreed beforehand that in the unlikely event of a separation - we'd split them 50/50 :))

I started simple, and made my 2 year old daughter the Cocos ruffle skirt from the 2011 Spring kids magazine.  I bought the fabric from Lincraft.

I tried really hard to follow the instructions - but I'm not entirely confident with 'sewing lingo' so I struggled somewhat with the minimal direction. And I have made a skirt before that is similar to the design of this one - so I ended up going off on my own and piecing it together. It worked out ok - but I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get it perfect. I am going to ask the next experienced sewer who enters my house to please explain for me the instructions that I couldn't quite grasp.  And also - the smallest size in the pattern was a bigger than my daughters measurements - so the skirt is gathered a fair bit more than it would be on a bigger child (and I tell myself that's why it looks different to the picture in the magazine!). But I think the extra ruffles look really cute - and Lola does love to spin..