Sunday, May 26, 2019

Capsule pieces



During our sewing weekend, I sewed most pieces for our eldest. She had requested a capsule wardrobe, something similar as our middle daughter got a year ago. Our eldest prefers to wear dresses though, so I had a surprisingly hard time envisioning a capsule wardrobe that would fit her personality. Tunics are not really her style and shirts with trousers neither are her first choice. I have to admit, in the end it became more quantity than quality, but in my defense, she almost had no summer clothes since she is growing extremely quickly, so a perfect balanced wardrobe will have to wait, maybe next winter.



The first piece that I sewed was a short blue crop top with long sleeves. Last winter, I sewed half a Nivalis, to let her wear her favorite summer pieces in colder weather. This crop top has a similar idea, one extra layer if the Dutch summer is not behaving like we would like it to. I used the Foliis pattern, omitted the hood and simply sewed down the neckline. The dress that she is wearing is a Solis that  sewed last year, one of the two summer dresses from last year that still fit her. The fabric is a light weight knit sweater fabric, it is super soft.




Like I wrote before, I went for quantity and I simply sewed her three tops with the same pattern, the Sylva. Two shirts with straight necklines and a tunic with the V neckline. I tried to use a lot of rather plain and uni colored fabrics in the capsule to make it easy to mix and match. To add a bit of extra fun I sewed on an application that I made years ago when I made this entire ensemble with monster fabric.  With hinesight, I feel I still used to many prints and  added to much color accents to for example the Sylva tunic. Creating a capsule wardrobe with prints is a skill that I have to develop more.




The light blue bottom are my first attempt at designing a skort. I prefer the designs with a skirt on the front and simple short view from the back. Far from perfect, but fine for a first try. The capri trousers, I blogged before when I showed my Advena's.




Next time I will show the rest.

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Advena summer dresses



Usually, our middle daughter does NOT asks for a dress. She prefers shirts and tunics combined with bottoms. But, now that the temperatures are rising, she has developed a renewed love for dresses, because a dress can be worn as a stand alone garment. No bottoms needed. In the winter you need leggings or tights, so then she does not see the value of dresses, but now, that her legs can be bare, she requested dresses.



The Advena dress that I sewed a few weeks ago is a huge hit at the moment, so I decided to sew two more. She prefers short dresses (she would easily wear a tunic as dress), which is not in line with my sewing style. I like to sew a rather long dress, easily under the knee, such that it will fit for two years. But because of her love for tunics, I know these dresses will simply be worn as tunics next year, which is why I agreed to sewing, in my book, rather short dresses.



On Friday a huge order from Joyfits arrived. She was having a kilo sale and I bought 10 kilo fabric. On my Instagram you can see how that looks. The arrival of the new fabric prompted me to rearrange my fabric stash a bit, including my fabric scraps. Rearranging the fabric and the inflow of new inspiration was apparently just what I needed because I sewed five dresses this weekend.



Among the fabrics that I bought, I also bought a panel with four different (baby) prints on it. The panels are the perfect size for the Advena middle body piece. She picked this astronaut tiger and then pulled the planet fabric from the fabrics that I recently bought for our son. Planets and astronauts go very well together according to her. I picked the striped magic fabric myself because they reminded me of tiger stripes. Inside they are only tiger stripes, but outsides the colored splashes combine very well with the plant spots. I finished the dress with a golden lycra nekband which matches perfectly with the golden elements in the planet fabric.



The other Advena was sewn from fabric remnants only. Her sister recently got a dress with the flower fabric and she told me she also waned something with that fabric. I had a hard time coming up with another interesting matching print besides the stripes. Finally, I went with uni pink but sewed three butterflies from the flower fabric on it. I had first sewed some flowers on it as well, but she told me I embellished too much, so those I removed again. She was right of course, this is better. She has a good designer eye.




Saturday, May 11, 2019

Regina times two



Let's continue the dress cuteness that I started last time with the two Solisses that I sewed for our youngest. Today, I will show you the two Regina's that she gained during our sewing weekend. One, regular Regina bodice combined with the circle skirt from the Solis ( I love the mix and match options) and one Regina with a color blocked bodice.


A few months ago, I ordered a few of those magical applications. Our youngest expressed her love for them on a regular basis, but seeing as I do not buy much retail, she did not have any of those in her wardrobe. The striped Regina is the first project with one of those applications. The Regina patterns is perfect for fabrics with not so much recovery because the fit is more relaxed than the Solis. I therefore could use the magical sun coloring fabric again. Double magic in one dress.




The second Regina is  a hacked tunic. I had to add a color block in the bodice due to fabric constraints. The Regina has the same bodice front and back, and because I put the neckline ribbing seam at the shoulder, she can decide how she wants to wear the tunic, either with the color block at the front or at the back. She regularly changes her mind about which option she likes more.