Thursday, June 28, 2018

Plushie siblings



I presume we all have sewing plans that somehow never make it into reality. One of such plans that I had was making plush animals. When I started this blog, I was crocheting and making stuffed animals was the top one thing that I made with my yarn. When I discovered sewing, I quickly fell in love with making clothes from jersey, and my stuffed animal days seemed behind me. But sometimes the soft cuteness factor still pulls me in the toy direction. When I first saw her animal pattern line I immediate was intrigued. I wanted to make them, I wanted to make them all.


What I actually made were clothes. The stuffed toy plans remained on my Pinterest boards and then she showed this beaver, and I could not resist anymore. I tried, but the middle daughter that has a beaver obsession and that I showed the cutie to, reminded  me every week. So a few weeks ago I decided to finally use that super soft fabric that I bought and cut myself a beaver. I bought the fabric at Textielstad and it is called flex soft fleece. It is super soft and fluffy, the only problem is that it comes in just three colors.


As you might have read in the beaver blog post, the beaver is not out yet, but she reassures her readers that you can make the adjustments yourself, and so I did. I actually used this awesome free version and hacked myself a beaver. I printed the pattern half the size of the original pattern pieces to make the beaver about the same size as our daughter's own beaver that has been at her side since her birth. That beaver has a little cross on his belly, so of course her new beaver had to have one to. This is not my first beaver inspired sew, this coat was also modeled after her best friend.


The "original" beaver has more actual beaver inspired back feet, but our daughter preferred "regular" feet like her own stuffie. The most surprising thing (at least for me) about this beaver is that I sewed the whole thing by hand. I sewed once before with this lovely fluffy stuff and I noticed that the serged seams tend to open afterwards. After resewing the sixth splitted seam by hand I wondered if sewing the whole thing by hand was maybe a better idea, and it was. It sews up surprisingly quick. From cutting to finish it took me about 4 hours and hand sewing can be done behind the tv.



As you can imagine, our new family member was a huge hit and I immediately received three more orders. Our son was first and of course he wanted a bear, to match his best friend. Last week we went by train to a museum and were sitting in the train for more than three hours in total and I managed to sew almost  the entire thing (by hand again). These cuties really sew up quickly. This one is a little bit less obvious a bear than the other  is a beaver, but he is loved anyway.



Thursday, June 14, 2018

Solis for women



I assume that I do not have to introduce the Solis dress by Sofilantjes. But just in case you have not seen it, you can check out my versions here, here, here and here. What might be  new information is the fact that Sofilantjes now released a women version of the Solis. The dress is just as quick and cute as the girl version, but now you can wear it yourself! Compared to the girl version there are even some extra options. There are three skirts instead of two and besides a regular bodice there is also an empire waist bodice. This empire waist option, is awesome in general but also makes the dress perfect for pregnancy.



The pregnancies are long behind me, so I went a different route, I went for twinning. So, besides the pleated Solis dress that I sewed myself, I sewed our middle daughter a pleated tunic. The girl version has four pleats (two on the left and two on the right), the women version has six pleats, three on the left and three on the right). The pattern of course also comes with the twirly circle skirt which is probably the most loved option for the girl dress. I wanted to squeeze two outfits out of the coupon that I had, so I went for the fabric friendly pleated skirt. Our middle one still prefers tunics over dresses, so she is wearing her Solis with a very short pair of jeans.



The fabric is an oldie from Lillestoff and it has a dandelion print with golden elements in it. We have seen in the Sofilantjes sew and show group that the Solis looks perfect in any kind of print. But I am really pleased with my version of the little black dress. Some people in the Sofilantjes group asked what kind of bra to wear under the dress. I have seen some very fancy bra's that would be perfect, I just used two paperclips, but I am frugal like that.



As always there is a very good release sale. For three days, until Sunday evening, the Solis pattern will be just  €5.60 exl tax. For the people that like paper pattern, there is more good news, the Solis for Women will also be available as a paper pattern.




Friday, June 8, 2018

Hacked Foras, times 2



Weeks ago I showed you the two Foras dresses that I sewed according to the instructions. Today, I show you the two that my hacker brain forced me to sew. You know I love pockets, and the Foras has them, but I wanted more and I saw even more potential.




My pocket hack has two different versions. On the rainbow dress I added a set of pockets, behind the color block. This therefore means that there are now four pockets in the dress. This method would be perfect if you combine it with the hack that Anne herself did by not adding pockets to the skirt. This hack is also a good option if you decide to hack the bodice into a top. Just put a waistband on it and you have shirt with cool pockets.




In the other dress, the grey one, I made one huge pocket. The Foras is a dropped waist and because I was sewing for summer and lengthened it a bit, she can not reach the pockets in the dress easily. It could also be that she has short arms.  Either way, I solved it by also having the pockets start in the bodice. This gives her the possibility to put her hands somewhere. This hack is more a fun hack than a really useful one, when it comes to taking treasures. The huge pocket is not that deep and if you put a handkerchief in, it could fall out (we experienced it first hand). But, our kids love quirky clothes, and this is definitely one of them.




The unicorn fabric I as a scrap from her a year ago. I was waiting for the perfect project, and this was it for sure! It paired beautifully with the rainbow fabric that I once bought at Joyfits. The grey fabric is from Lillestoff, and I bought it at Cas and Nina in the sale, but they unfortunately do not exist anymore.