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.

30 comments:

  1. Oh, zo'n leuke graphics in je post! Is toch wel duidelijker dan foto's ;)
    Je Solis-Nivalis jurk is ook heel erg leuk geworden. De combinatie met het felle geel is super.

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    1. Dank je, ik hoopte dat het beter over zou komen, ik ben niet zo heel sterk qua makkelijk uitleggen ;)

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  2. Ziet er super uit!!! Mooi gedaan zeg!

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  3. Helemaal fan van de combinatie met het geel!

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  4. Super jurk! Eindelijk een project voor de Nijntje stof, hij past mooi.

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  5. Super combi! Ik vind die kleur geel prachtig, en echt fan van de nijntje stof!

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  6. Hele mooie kleurencombinatie!! weer prachtig gemaakt!

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  7. kei tof! dat ga ik ook eens uitproberen :)

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  8. Hele mooie jurk en inderdaad duidelijke foto's en instructies! :)

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    1. Ik hoop het echt, ik ben zo blij met deze methode, je had geen verdere aanvullingen? Ik heb dus naar aanleiding van ons gesprek toegevoegd dat je het geheel moet uitduwen :)

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  9. Fijne zomerjurk en extra zomers door het geel!

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  10. Mooi gecombineerd... ik heb de 2 patronen hier liggen dus deze ga ik ook eens proberen. https://stokstaartjedoethetzo.wordpress.com/

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  11. Coole jurk en bedankt voor de heldere tutorial!

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  12. Mooi gecombineerd... ik heb de 2 patronen hier liggen dus deze ga ik ook eens proberen. https://stokstaartjedoethetzo.wordpress.com/

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  13. Heel mooi, het geel springt er gewoon uit. Heerlijk zomers.

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  14. Zo tof zeg! De stofjes zijn super mooi samen en je foto's zijn weer top! x

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  15. Superleuke jurk! Die komt op mijn to-do!

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  16. Prachtige jurk, echt een droomstofje ;-)

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  17. Geweldig mooi gedaan. Respect.

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  18. The dress is very beautiful and comfortable, and I love how clear and precise the tutorial is. One might make some summer tops with this hack as well.

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  19. The dress is very beautiful and comfortable, and I love how clear and precise the tutorial is. One might make some summer tops with this hack as well.

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  20. Love your fabric combination. Looks great.

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  21. Oh super geslaagde mash up!!! Die ga ik ook proberen denk ik!

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  22. Oh super geslaagde mash up!!! Die ga ik ook proberen denk ik!

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  23. I really like how you took the black and white trend and made it work for your kids with a pop of color. I can see it working for myself in the same way! Thanks for the inspiration.

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