Friday, January 27, 2017

Julia cardigan



I confessed on multiple occasion, that I do not have any cardigans. It is not a figure of speech, I really do not have any tops that opens on the front (that is the definition right?). I sometimes borrow a hoodie from my husband when we go cycling, but I do not have one myself. For Project Sew It, this month's theme was "sweaters". Project Sew It is about challenging jourself, so I went for the cardigan direction, so I finally got the push to sew one of the cardigan patterns that I own. I am not really convinced about my version though.


I got the Julia Cardigan pattern over two years ago during a sewing pattern subscription. I immediately liked the pattern, but somehow it did not get sewn. I like the casual front opening, no buttons, lovely. I sewed my cardigan with a drapy viscose (coupon bought at Textielstad). As usual I was too optimistic about my cutting efficiency, and I needed another fabric for lining the front band. Coincidentally, I had some stretchy lace next to my when I was cutting the cardigan and I thought it would be a perfect subtle lining.



I am not sure about the result though, which is likely influenced by my lack of cardigan wearing skills. The lace combi does not make my heart sing the way I expected. I feel the cardigan looks a bit too much like a robe now somehow. With hindsight I should have chosen an uni-fabric, something that combines with many things. I thought blue is great, fits with everything, but it turned out that this summer Desingual dress was the best match from my closet, and the combi of fabrics is too much. I think the cardigan's fabric will be lovely on blue jeans and a white shirt, so I put blue jeans on my sewing list...


I feel the cardigan turned out a bit long for my liking, which is probably also due to the drapy knit. I did not use the wrist cuffs, the sleeves were long enough as they were. As a scientist, I do not give up on cardigans just yet though, one observation is not enough to dismiss an item style that others seem to love. If you do like cardigans, the Julia cardigan is really a nice one.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Bringing home Hermione's redd dress




Today, I am bringing home another post that I wrote for Craftingcon last year, like I did with this post. The pictures are from August last year, so no toddler were harmed (put outside in the freezing cold) to make this post. This time the theme was Harry Potter. I had never sewn anything Harry Potter inspired, but it seems that I am one of the few. There is so much inspiration on the web, that I could not immediately decide, how I was going to add something.




While brainstorming in my head, I got the idea to make the ball gown of Hermione, from when she goes to dance in the Goblet of fire. I prefer the books over the movies, but I of course searched for images of the film. The ball gown did not give me enough inspiration for an every day look (which I was going for). I continued my search for a Hermione dress and then I saw her red dress from the wedding (last book), which won me over instantly.




The dress I made for my three year old is clearly inspired and not a try to copy the original. I made the dress from a left over red thick jersey (probably punto di roma). I did not have enough for a circle skirt (every girls dream). The A line skirt still looks full due to the thickness of the material. I used the selvage of the fabric to finish the arm holes and neckline. The selvage have some frills that reminded me of the lace that in the original design.




The eye catcher of the dress is of course that flower. It looks crazy sophisticated (at least to me), but it was really super easy to make. I used this tutorial, and I made the flower while watching tv (it was finished during one episode of Elementary). I ruffled a long strip for the waist detail. I considered doing the same for the shoulders, but seeing she will wear this the coming months with a cardigan, I decided against it (I did not want the extra bulk).




Last week I posted my SisBoom Jaime and promised you a give away of the pattern. Jo Bee is the lucky winner, could you send me an email on inspinration(at)gmail.com. Than I can forward it to SisBoom.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Handmade gifts part six



December came and passed, but I did not have time to show you the hand made gifts that I made this year. All three hand made gifts that I am showing you today are heavily inspired (or copied) from projects that I found on the web. Some nice Pinterest inspiration this time. I had two other miscellaneous sewed projects that did not get blogged yet (that also would make perfect gifts, but my lucky kids just got them), so I combined it all in one post.


The first gift is an man apron. I saw this awesome one, and just had to make something similar. I was under a strict deadline (of course I did not start in time), so I omitted the pockets. It is far from perfect, but it was the idea that counted anyway. This apron was the original project that I cut out of the canvas coupon and from the scraps I created my Irene dress.


This one was pinned a long long time ago. I took the idea, found myself a knot tutorial and sewed a very long hose (over four meter). Filling the hose was the worst part, really horrible experience. I tried to fill it by pulling thick strips of batting though it, but the batting or my pull thread kept breaking. I experienced a lot of frustration that evening, but somehow in the end I got it somewhat okay. It has been almost two months ago since I sewed this, and my adrenaline levels have returned to normal. The pillow became smaller than I had planned, but again, it was the idea that counted right...



The third hand made gift is clearly not sewed and a shameless copy. I only had black porcelain marker at home,but a fellow Big Bang Theory fan still loved it though,




In my fabric stash buster overview post, I mentioned a project sewn with my daughter. My middle one picked a blanket from an inexpensive store and asked me to sew her a hat. shawl and gloves. I still had the Twig and Tale hooded scarf pattern and thought this was the perfect way to try it. My daughter wanted to help and together we sewed her this lovely fluffy thing that she actually wears every day. When she had our shoot for the Christmas dress, we also quickly made some pictures with this one on,



The last project are these adorable bear shoes. When Twig and Tale released their kid sized shoes I made this lovely pair for my son. Needless to day he loves them. I still owe my middle daughter a pair of lady bug boots, I should get on that.


Here you can find the earlier posts of this series: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

SisBoom just for me January tour



Today, I am part of the SisBoom "Just for me January" blog tour. The title of the tour is rather self explanatory. We are all sewing something just for ourselves. I picked something I have been planning for a while but just did not get around to. A bit over a year ago I was part of a SisBoom pattern tour for which I made this dress and during the tour I came across somebody sewing a Jaime, and I was immediately sold on the pattern. I know that it is too cold to wear it now, but now I had a great reason to sew one, and I somehow have the tendency to forget sewing myself summer clothes, now I am prepared.


We were allowed to play with the pattern and fabrics, so of course I did. I decided to do another knitification trick and sewed a pattern for woven fabrics in jersey. I therefore picked one size smaller than I should have, according to the measurement table and it worked out great. I used a very drapey fabric, because for me that fits best with a nice summer day. We are in the midst of winter at the moment, so no way that I could have taken outside pictures, but inside it was nice and warm during the shoot. The dress gave me an instant summer feel.


I decided not to make pleats in the waistband, but to just gather the sides of the waistband. The fabric turned out a bit too drapey for that though, the gatherings would have looked better in a bit sturdier fabric but you get the idea. The pattern actually tells you to secure the pleats through a few vertical seams, that also might have been a good idea for this knit gathered dress. I really like the width of the shoulder bands, they nicely cover my bra.


A Jaime can be dressed up or down, great for the beach but in some black fabric it would be a nice cocktail dress as well. I bought this blue fabric last year at Textielstad. Through the first post of the tour I actually  realized that the color is very similar to the trendy Pantome color Niagara, so if spring is going to tread us on some nice warm weather, I will totally trendy.  


To celebrate the tour I am allowed to give away a Jaime pattern. If you would like to be the lucky winner just leave a comment in which you explicitly tell me you would like a chance to win the pattern. No Rafflecopter this time, because I felt some people might be a bit afraid of them. I will pick the lucky winner on the evening of the 18th.


Friday, January 6, 2017

Twinning in Lotte Martens



If you read Flemish blogs (or just look at the beautiful pics), you will know about the fabrics from Lotte Martens. Since 2007, she has her own textile line and her hand printed fabrics would make every sewist drool. I know I have been swooning over her fabrics ever since I saw this, and this, and this dress. Making one of those dresses for myself did not happen though. I am not comfortable yet in making myself woven dresses (on my to do list for 2017). I prefer jersey, it is so much more forgiving. I suppose you can Imagine how happy I was when I found out that Lotte Martens was releasing an organic jersey line in the same email in which I was invited to be in the Lotte Martens winter tour!



For the new fabric line, Lotte designed two prints, one with geometrical shapes and one with spots/dots. They were digitally printed in different color combinations on ether crepe or jersey. It should not surprise you that I chose for the jersey. I picked the geometric rust/blue combi for some selfish sewing. The quality is great, it is nice and heavy and very comfortable to wear. I pre-washed it before sewing and it came as new from my machine.



I knew that it was sewing a dress for me, but I was debating on the pattern. For long I thought about a LMV Lora, then about a LMV Gerda. When I kind a started to lean toward the Gerda she showed her beautiful Gerda version. Yes, I was indeed a true deadline sewer again, I had not cut my fabric on Wednesday afternoon. Than, I decided to make a dress that had a very low likelihood to be used on the tour. I therefore made myself another Kathryn. This dress is one of my most often worn wears. I am like a kid, when it is out of the washing machine I will wear it immediately (no ironing needed). I am super happy with my choice. The fabric print and the pleats work so well together. I again went for long sleeves and I drew my own A line skirt to fit the fabric that I had.



When the package arrived, I turned out to be even luckier than I thought. Besides the Corax fabric that I picked, Lotte added some extra's. One of those was a small piece of this beautiful birds fabric. I wanted to use it to the fullest. I thought about a small bag or wallet, but let's face it, I prefer to sew clothes. So I spend a few weeks, thinking about how I could use it optimally.



The dress I made for my youngest was clearly inspired by the Annaliese that I made last year. I love the style of that dress. Because of the jersey, I drafted my own version of the dress though. Due to time pressure (we are talking Thursday afternoon 15:00, just a few hours before sunset) I omitted playing with a tab (over the middle seam between the gathered and chest piece). I drafted the dress such that I used the entire width of the small fabric pieces that I got. Only a small piece of the uni blue (and one bird did not make the cut). The blue from both fabrics are almost identical and the bronze print from the birds makes the rust colered lines (which resemble the copper perfectly) on the jersey stand out even more. I literally pieced the jersey part of the dress together from the leftover after seeing my dress. Due to the print, the (extra) seams are almost invisible though.



Like her, I went for a mother-daughter shoot. During the shoot, I was struggling with my flash. Batteries turned out to be empty, so some pictures are far from ideal lightning setting, but I feel it still shows off the beautiful fabrics (although they seem a bit more black than blue). The fabrics are at the moment available in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, a full list of sale points can be found here. The organic jersey is 1.90 wide and the crepe 1.40 m, due to the digital printing, the fabrics are significantly cheaper than the hand printed ones.