Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Beestyle tunic



Due to my testing frenzy from the previous month, some projects remained unblogged (I did not want to bore you with too many posts). This week was free of deadline posts, so I am blogging about something that I sewed months ago (during my sewing weekend), the Beestyle tunic from Beekiddi. This morning my daughter wore one of the two tunics that I made, which was a good reminder of my blogging backlog.



I came across the Beestyle pattern in the International knit sew-along group. In that group, many cool creations turn up and many of them have a jersey strip sewing in-between the seam. I love the look and used the Beestyle pattern to experiment with it.  I bought the pattern in my search for patterns perfect for scraps, and this indeed turned out to be a winner. From all the different fabrics that I used in these two tunics, only the foxes had not come from my own collection. Sofie was the original owner but did not blog about her project, but you can see and buy the lovely dress she made with it here.



I presume you would have expected that my daughter would be over the moon with this huge pocket! I really like the lines on this pattern. I only made the girl version, but there is a boy version as well. The pattern is German, but I did not really use the instructions so I can not tell you if they are good. There are a lot of pictures though, so that should be enough explanation. The pattern is without seam allowance, so do not forget to add them. There are several hood options for the pattern, but I went for a plain round neckline. Unfortunately, there is no size table, so I simply measure across the chest to determine the size I needed.



I really love how all these bolt prints together still works (in my mind at least). I will not bore you with links to all the posts that I used these fabrics in (because these were all leftovers from when I made something else), but that would be a nice scavenger hunt if you are bored. I took pictures months ago as well, so although new shoot would be outside now, these were still taken inside.  For the pictures we paired the tunics with jeans, they would be perfect with capri leggings as well. Note to self, finally start those capri leggings you have been planning for months!



Sunday, May 28, 2017

Continued celebration



A few weeks ago, Evi asked me if I would like to take part in a surprise tour for Anne from Sofilantjes*. A small token of our appreciation for her hard work and creative ideas. In my previous post, the official Sofilantjes anniversary blog tour, I wrote that I always get a lot of joy from sewing Sofilantjes's patterns, so of course, I was game for another tour. Like in my previous Sofilantjes post, I again used very special fabric, this time it is fabric that I printed myself.



This time I indulged myself on jersey fabric and made a Mantica* and a Hibernis*/ ADVT* mash. The basis of the shirt is the ADVT, I wanted to "frame" the white based fabric, so I added bands on the sleeves and the bottom like with the Hibernis. I redrew the V neck into a circle neckline. On the Mantica I hacked the pocket a bit. Instead of having the entire front as one pocket, I made a hidden kangaroo pocket. I wrote a short tutorial on how I did it, and you can find it here.



I printed this dragon fabric during my first Bobbinhood workshop at de Stoffenmadam in the end of April. Earlier, I showed you a shirt made with my first screen workshop on a chemical screen, this dragon was made with a stencil print that I cut with my Silhouette. Silhouette and stencil printing are a killer combi. Here you can see the print in more detail and how I build it.



I knew I wanted to make a print that would work for my son and went for a dragon. I did not want to copy something from the web. I wanted something without possible copyrights and tried drawing something myself. Let's say that the next week I went to the library to get a book about drawing. I clearly miss some basic skills there, but I have hope for the future. I did need a print though, so I asked my sister in law who draws, if she could make a dragon. She actually had a dragon just laying around and with some Photoshop, a skill that I do possess, I turned that one into a cute print.



The workshop was great, it gave me the confidence that I needed to try this at home as well. I got several tips, like printing with a blanket underneath your fabric and that you do not need to be too afraid of a little-wet ink. I had no clue what my fabric would become, and because I wanted to have as many options as possible, I printed a double direction print. I placed the odd rows upside down, this way I would be able to turn my pattern piece whichever way I needed.



For the Mantica, I used golden contrasting glitter fabric that I bought at Textielstad. I squeezed all that was possible from the dragon fabric, but had to cut half of the dress from the golden fabric. I really liked the effect though and I because of it, I felt my son's shirt needed one last finishing touch. There were a few small spots in the fabric anyway and I decided to use some flex foil to cover them. I used the same scraps as when I made this dress. Really, never throw away flex, even when it is peeled, is is perfect for small projects.



I, of course, was not the only one that was asked to surprise Anne. These lovely ladies also sewed something with Sofilantjes's patterns to join the fun. Due to the third anniversary, there is an anniversary short sale going on at the moment at the Sofilantjes web shop. You can get 20 % off the entire cart (excluding bundles, paper patterns, and gift cards) with the code WEARE3 until May 29 11:59 pm EST.




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.

Thursday, May 25, 2017

Sofilantjes anniversary tour



Three years ago, Sofilantjes* released her first pattern. Today, I celebrate that in style with a double Sofilantjes hack in fabric from Lotte Martens's Let's party collection. Sofilantjes is possibly best known because of her patterns for knit fabrics, but Sofilantjes also has patterns for wovens. The Brueram*, one of those patterns for wovens, might actually be the Sofilantjes' pattern that I love the most. This will be my fourth post on that pattern (1, 2, and 3) and my fourth hack (although the first two were only minor adjustments). Party's are not only on warm days, so I also made my daughter a jacket, a hacked Cicero* to wear this festive dress to any party during the year.




This time it was the Litore*, another pattern by Sofilantjes, that inspired my hack. I love the look of the double set of straps on the back. To get that look, I narrowed the straps towards the shoulder and cut off the entire strap at the shoulder. With hindsight, I should have gone for a bit wider strap to have it more closely resemble the Litore. I determined the position of the straps pre-shirring at about 1/3 and 2/5 from the sides. I sewed them in between the lining and main fabric (as explained in the Brueram instructions) and gathered the back. Then, I attached the top of the straps to the shoulder following the Litore instructions. The skirt part is inspired by the Mantica*. I love how playing with these patterns actually could occupy all my sewing time.




That beautiful shiny lace is Lunari Aqua, one of the gorgeous Lotte Martens fabrics from the Let's Party collection. When I received it, I immediately knew why I had not seen it one the web yet. It is so pretty that people will have cut-fear for sure. It took me three weeks to settle on a plan to optimally use it. I used it for both pieces today and already cut a third project, an Aura* from it. If you use it as a beautiful detail like I did, you can actually make a lot from one panel. Two other ladies went a different route and used more of the panel in one garment. She used a different lace from the same collection as a breathtaking back on a woman's dress and she made a jacket consisting a 100% out of  Let's party lace. Lotte Martens is having a sewing competition at the moment. If I inspired you to cut your treasured Lotte Martens fabric or buy some, be quick because the competition is only for a few more days and the prizes are amazing!




For the Cicero jacket, I used the same color blocking option as the pink/brown one in this post. I wanted the jacket to look as classy as possible, and I, therefore, omitted the ribbing (I did not have any fancy ribbing). I did not want to cover the lace with a hood or collar, so I also omitted those. I went for clean lines. To omit the ribbing at the bottom of the jacket and sleeves, I added a bit to the length to both the jacket itself and the sleeves. I hemmed by folding the hem allowance inwards. This time I made some pictures while I shortened the zipper, and I will use them to make a tutorial on how to melt a new stop. Nothing fancy, but some asked for more details. I bought the rayon of the dress and the faux jersey at Textielstad.




I am so happy and honored to be part of the Sofilantjes family. Anne was the first designer that let me test something and I will always love her for that. All her patterns give me instant joy while sewing them and I am very much looking forward to all the other things she will make us sew. Due to the anniversary celebration, you can win fabric spending money by entering this Rafflecopter. These lovely brands are sponsoring the prize.




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.




Monday – Tales of a Tester
Tuesday – Kreatita
Wednesday – Ronda B. Handmade
Thursday – TurtleBirdies, Inspiration

Saturday, May 20, 2017

Nena dress and top



Last year, Katrien from Kaatjenaaisels designed the Tulip dress with Eva and earlier this year she drew the Vienna together with Isabel. Both those patterns had a lovely unique front and now Kartien has released a dress on her own, Nena. The Nena has several lovely design details and has a perfect finish. The pattern includes a top and dress length. It is for woven fabrics and does not have a zipper, so perfect for those with zipper fear.




I tried both versions, the top and the dress. I first sewed the top and I made a small adjustment to the pattern. The fabric that I wanted to use was a bit too small to cut the entire top from. I solved this by color blocking the back in such a way that the back pleat is a contrasting color. I always like to make fixes (a mistake or alack of fabric) look intentional. During this phase of the pattern the back split had to deepened a bit, there was no new version yet and  I did it myself. I decided not to cut a once-piece back. During sewing I realized why Katrien designed it as one piece (it created a beautiful finish), so I followed the pattern for the dress.




When looking at the pattern pieces, I saw a perfect opportunity to use my first screen printed fabric. I gifted myself a Bobbinhood kit over Christmas but somehow did not dare to use it. I therefore wanted to follow screen printing workshop. I was so intended to do at least one that I ended up doing three in a period of two months. This blue fabric was the result of the first one. During her bachelorette party, we had a screen printing workshop with chemical screens (that were prepared for us in advance). I designed a screen with drawings from my kids and this fabric was actually my test cloth. It was a remnant of a white sheet earlier this year, that I dropped it in the blue paint that was left after making this dress. I used it to "test" my screen and I thought it had become too pretty to throw away. On my second workshop I printed this dragon and on the third this Harry Potter combi (both Bobbinhood workshops).




Let's talk about all the small details in this pattern. The pattern has elastic in the waist for both the dress and top version to create a nice fit while not using a zipper. The pattern explains how to add a small tie to make a bow on the waist of the dress, but I omitted that one. The pattern has a small pleat on the front at the shoulder which is best visible in my top version. The front has a v neck with a small horizontal ribbon/elastic in it. It is up to you what you sew in between, I twice used elastic to make dressing as easy as possible. The garment closes with a hook and eye, I actually upcycled those from a bra that I stopped wearing.




The dress was sewn with the final version of the pattern. I sewed the dress in a fabric that I took from our sewing weekend. I asked who I could thank, but nobody was sure it had been their fabric so I can not tell you anything about this mystery fabric. With the dress, I followed all the french seam instruction, so the inside is almost as beautiful as the outside. Except for the edge of the facing, there are no visible seams on the inside. Of course, I ran into a small obstacle that I had created for myself. I wanted to add pockets, but I also wanted to have a french seam finish. Fortunately, the web can usually tell you the solution, so I found a tutorial here. The picture is a bit obscure, but you see the inside of the dress with the pocket.




Due to the release of Nena, the entire shop is now on 10% sale with the code HAPPYNENA. I also sewed the Tulip and here you can find my version.