Saturday, May 28, 2016

Felicity top and dress release



Bellasunshine*, the designer that made this awesome fitting women's dress pattern, has recently released the Felicity top and dress pattern*. I was among the lucky testers. The pattern contains a top and dress length, optional ruffles, pin tucks or gathered front and either shirred or elastic back. So, quite some options. On a sidenote, I want to congratulate Lauren S. on winning the give away from my 200 followers post. You can email me within 10 days on inspinration(at)gmail.com to claim your prize.



I tested the pin tuck front on a top length with shirred back. You know I have a weak spot for shirring right? I just love how easy it is to do and what an awesome effect it gives. If you are a bit afraid of the process or own a Brother (those machines seem to be the only ones that do not make shirring easy), the elastic back is a great alternative. The shirred back fitted perfectly from the start.



I managed to screw up the pin tucks twice, but both times I managed to safe the situation. In the top that I am showing you first, I somehow pleated the tucks such that the whole thing ended up further from the middle than they should have been. I solved it by ironing the pink tucks inward, instead of outwards. This way the view is very similar. The first mistake I made with the pin tucks, was on an earlier version. There was a slight error in the tutorial, which caused the pin tucks to end up at the inside of the garment. This is where testing is for, now in the final version it is clear as rain.



I did not feel like unpicking the first try of the pin tucks and decided to turn it into a dress. After I realized that the pin tucks had to be on the outside, I went for an uni colored fabric, which shows of the pin tucks best. Initially, I had chosen striped fabric because I felt that fitted the hidden pleats nicely, so I was curious to see how it would look finished. It turned out, I did not have enough fabric to properly finish the dress. I ran out of fabric for the bottom ruffle, so just look at the examples of the website*, how the ruffle version should look. I might remove the bottom ruffle, but even I won't the dress will be worn a lot this summer any way. 



You have to be a patient and precise sewist for those pin tucks, so if you are like me, you will be happy to see that just gathering the front also gives an awesome result. The turquoise fabric was an inexpensive sheet cover that we used as Fatboy cover, before I sewed this new one. The red and white stripes, I bought a long ago to make this type of project. Futures change though. 



The Felicity* is on special release price for $5.95. Due to it being Memorial day coming Monday, all patterns have a 30% discount in the web shop. So, if you were considering buying that women's dress pattern*, this is a very good moment to buy it.


Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian). If you buy anything through my affiliate links (*), I get a small commission (the price stays the same for you), I am very grateful for everything that feeds my fabric addiction.

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Sofilantjes' anniversary blogtour with a blind seam tutorial



This week, Sofilantjes* is celebrating her second anniversary. Looking at the amount of patterns you would never have guessed she only started two years ago. Anne is launching with light speed! Therefore I am very proud to be part of her anniversary blog tour. For the happy occasion I created two tutorials for you. The first one is showing how to mash up the Solis* and the Nivalis*. In the second tutorial I show you how do do a blind seam in jersey without a special blind seam foot. There is also a giveaway, at the very end of this post. If you use the coupon code "CELEBRATE" in the Sofilantjes' web shop you get 25% off at checkout during the blog tour.



Let's start this party with the dress I sewed for this happy occasion. The day the Solis was launched a member of the Sofilantjes Sew and Show Facebook group asked if somebody mashed up the Solis and Nivalis yet. She wrote that she loved the Solis' back, but that her daughter considered herself to big for circle skirts (and she did not want to use the pleated version). I was intrigued, and decided to try it.



The bunny fabric is from Droomstoffen. This particular fabric is no longer available, but there is an amazing big selection of black and white fabrics there. Black and white is the trend, but my kids prefer to have some color in their clothes. Using monochrome fabric with a color splash is the optimal solution in that case. I used yellow jersey from Joyfits for the bodice and the pockets.



Making this mash up was much easier than I anticipated. If you want to make your own you will need to copy/cut the neck strap, the back strap, the front bodice and the back bodice pattern pieces from the Solis. From the Nivalis you will need both skirt pieces and the front bodice. The neck strap and back strap can be used without any alterations. I will now walk you through the mash up steps.



Step 1: Align the front bodices (so one from the Nivalis and one from the Solis) at the shoulder line and such that the fold lines (straight line on the left side) are parallel (the fold lines do not overlap because the Nivalis is slightly wider). If you place the Solis front at the bottom you can simply draw the Nivalis bottom bodice curve on the Solis. Cut off the bottom piece and your front bodice for the mash up is already done. You will end up with the green outline in the picture.

Step 2: To adjust the back bodice, place the bottom cut off (so what used to part of the front Solis bodice) on the back bodice such that the bottom is aligned. Mark the lowest of the two sides and remove the cut off. Draw a straight line (parallel to the bottom) such that the sides of the bodice have the same height.


Step 3: The Nivalis is slightly wider so you will have to make the skirt pieces a bit narrower, to make the connection between the skirt and bodice possible. My girl does no longer have a toddler belly, so I simply cut of the difference in width between the two bodice. I hope the picture speaks more than a 1000 words. If not please ask. Use your newly formed pattern pieces to cut your fabric and follow the instructions of the Solis for the construction.

Now for the second tutorial, the blind seam in jersey. In the last few weeks this has become my favorite jersey hemming method. I use it for all kind of hems, but the method is especially great for  curves which are usually hard in Jersey.





Step 1: Folding the fabric. Follow the steps in the pictures, I have no better way to explain this. She succeeded with them, so I hope this means that they clearly show the folding method. I fold such that the end is just 1 cm wide. You could choose to give yourself some more work space and cut off close to stitches in the end. I take a width of the double layer of about 1.5 to 2 cm. This means that in the end my entire seam will be about 2.5 to 3 cm high. I advice to practice and you will quickly see how much working space you need/like.



Step 2: Sewing. Find the stretch blind seam stitch on your machine. The idea behind it is a small zigzag combined with a big zigzag. Your machine will do a few small zigzag stitches on the narrow single layer and one big zigzag that catches the double layer, then it goes back to small zigzag stitches again.  the easiest way to understand it is looking at this picture of the finished stitches.

For this tutorial I used the default setting of my Pfaff 3.0 which resulted in a relatively big visible stitch. For the mash up dress I changed the settings such that the difference between the big and small zigzag was less. The stitches are much more hidden this way. I advice you to play around a bit. My Pfaff makes a small extra stitch just before the big zigzag comes, which is great for preparing for the big stitch.



Step 3: Turning the fabric. You really have to push out your stitches a bit, or else the result will look weird. A good steaming always helps.  Please let me know if you get lost somewhere.

Okay now for the give away! On the picture you can see all the sponsors of the tour and you can fill in the rafflecopter to win both patterns and fabric (you can scroll through all the gifts by pressing the dots at the top of the rafflecopter. In the Sofilantjes Sew and Show Facebook group there are even more options to win patterns and fabric, check out the scavenger hunt instructions there. My own give away from last week is still active for two days, so you might also want to try your luck for two meter of jersey fabric. Like I said at the beginning of the post you can use the coupon code "CELEBRATE" in the Sofilantjes' web shop* to get 25% off at checkout during the blog tour.



a Rafflecopter giveaway
From a Box - Paisley Roots - Pattern Revolution - SewSophieLynn - Beri Bee Designs - Sprouting Jube Jube - Coral and Co. - Create 3.5 - Jennifer for Sofilantjes - Bellevi - Vaahtokarkkimonsteri - Sew Journers - Inspinration - MoonStar - Lucky Mie - Nononsonsmoms - Pienkel - Tales of a Tester - Adventures with Bubba and Bug - All things Katy - Candice Ayala - Rebel and Malice - Liesellove

Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian). If you buy anything through my affiliate links (*), I get a small commission (the price stays the same for you), I am very grateful for everything that feeds my fabric addiction.

Friday, May 20, 2016

200 followers + 200 posts celebration and give away



The title speaks for itself right? Last week, I realized that I was almost at 200 posts the 200th Bloglovin follower was coming close. I have a few projects photographed and ready to be blogged, but for such a special occasion I wanted something a bit more special. In my earlier two happy occasions here and here I made a Bruearam* dress from Sofilantjes* (who has her own big celebration at the moment use code CELEBRATE for 25% off your cart excluding bundles). Let's make that a tradition for all my future celebrations, I just love that pattern!



So, today's Bueram is a hacked version (as could have been expected). I could have stopped at one hack, leaving the rest of my current ideas for future celebrations, but well, that is not like me. So, I repositioned the straps, added a flutter and made a circle skirt. The strap replacement is suboptimal, the idea is nice, but the position is not ideal. Guessing the right position on a shirred back is hard. This explains why designers usually sew up several pre- pre- versions before the pattern goes into testing. My daughter loves the dress and the shirring keeps the dress in place anyway, so I will not loose sleep over the wide straps, I just have to try again.



The flutter sleeves totally fit the flutter trend that is going around. She and she, are regularly treating us on them and the seems to be addictive. The shape of this flutter is based on the flutter sleeve in the Zoo collection. I still have a very full post to write about my Flossstyle sews, but I did not get to it since February! Maybe next week.


That circle skirt is the thing that fills me with pride. I actually had to use several math skills to figure out the shape. The problem is the shirred back. The back piece is much wider unshirred than the front, so the top of the skirt part had to be wider than the front skirt part, but I wanted the bottom of the piece to be just as wide as the front skirt. The sides of course also had to have the same length. It doesn't matter if you totally lost me, just believe me that it took me time to figure out that I had to take 1/19 piece of a circle with a diameter of 2.30 meter!



The bodice fabric is from Soft Cactus and the flowers have been in my stash from the beginning (of my sewing) time. I still have enough fabric to sew with for the coming two years (especially if I take into account my upycle piles), even if I would not buy anything, but I am nicely tackling the ones that have been there the longest. Did you that perfect shirring top line. I used the same trick, as here. I learned it from the Dear Prudence pattern from Sewpony. After shirring, you take a narrow piece of elastic and thread it trough the top casting you created. Just pull the elastic such that the top is nice and tight as the rest of your shirring.



Okay, now, that give away that you have been waiting for. I love to get fabric, especially if I am on a self imposed buying ban, so let's give away some fabric. The last three months you have read a few times about Droomstoffen, a Dutch fabric store with a web shop full with goodies. She was open to sponsor this give away, and after scrolling trough all her fabric, a few times (it is like an candy store, and you should not choose to quickly), I chose to give away one meter of both these fabrics. If you want to get a change of winning these beauties, fill in the rafflecopter and make sure you are around when I announce the winner. If you have problems with filling in the rafflecopter, or do not understand how it works, just leave a comment to this post. I would love to know if there are people not participating because of those issues. The give away is open internationally, but if you live outside of Western Europe, you will be asked to pay postage.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In case you have a different taste, or simply like to choose your own fabrics, you can instead choose a 25 euro discount on your order. I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian). If you buy anything through my affiliate links (*), I get a small commission (the price stays the same for you), I am very grateful for everything that feeds my fabric addiction.

Friday, May 13, 2016

Wild Things all over!



You know I love animal inspired clothing, so I was over the moon when I heard that Big Little is releasing two Wild Things foot wear patterns. One of them, the baby shoe version is part of the new One Thimble magazine*. One Thimble is a digital sewing magazine which contains twelve patterns and 26 articles/tutorials. Besides the Wild Things Baby shoes*, I also tested the Poly Roly Critters* by Swoonson Says for this One Thimble issue.The other Wild Things foot wear pattern I am showing you today, is the Wild Things Boot in kid's and youth's sizes.


Let's start of with those cute shoes.  I was part of the design testing group (fit and sizing were already thoroughly tested. None of my kids have baby feet, so no modelled version shoot. These little pairs will all get gifted to new borns, arn't they great gifts? There are seven different animals and they are all crazy cute. Check out the pattern* to see all the different animals. I sewed all these shoes from scrap fabrics. There were scraps from this coat, this coat and pieces of upcycled trousers.



The Poly Roly Critters ball* from Swoonson Says has four different versions, panda, fox, raccoon and sloth. I decided to go for the raccoon. I thought the raccoon shoes and ball combined would make an even better baby gift, but my middle daughter did not agree. Even before the ball was finished she confiscated it. She was treating it like a true Wilson from the movie Cast away. The ball actually slept next to her for a few days. I made the ball from upcycled denim (old trousers), so the fabric is indeed very soft. I filled the ball with small fabric scraps, so the ball is relatively heavy. Also a great scrap buster this ball!



I adjusted the ear construction slightly. The instructions call for a two layered felt ear. I wanted to use denim, but denim frays. So, to solve the problem I used a blanket stitch in white thread. This way the ear has two colors and it does not fray. For the shoe ears I had used Fray check, to avoid fraying. I did not have a official safety nose, so I just embroidered one. Coincidentally I did have eyes, I think it would have been cute with embroidered eyes as well though.


The first two projects were not made with my kids in mind, the third definitely was. My kids had been drooling over the baby shoes, and really wanted their own Wild Things feet. I made this cute tiger pair for my eldest daughter. I upcycled a fleece baby blanket and used some grey denim for the sole. This time I embroidered the face by hand, for the shoes I did it all with my sewing machine. I am very satisfied with my handy work, great thing to do outside on a summer evening.



The boot pattern has (mostly) different animals than the shoes, and there are some very cool ones. There is a snail, ladybug, frog, dino, dragon, deer, bat, shark, lion, tiger, cat, fox and giraffe. Again, you just have to check out the link to get an overview. The drawings are already so pretty. The rest of my kids were understandably jealous and they already ordered a ladybug and dragon. I have seen kids walking outside on leather soles, does anyone have experience with that, I know my kids would love to take them for a walk.



You can buy the entire One Thimble magazine* here for about 18 US dollar (site prices are in Australian dollars), and you can buy the individual patterns here*. The boots are available on the Big Little site, they are discounted over the weekend and available for just 8.40 US dollars.



I love to hear what you think of my creations. Feel free to leave a comment in the language you prefer (although Google translate might have to assist me if you choose something different than English, German, Dutch or Hungarian). If you buy anything through my affiliate links (*), I get a small commission (the price stays the same for you), I am very grateful for everything that feeds my fabric addiction.