Twirly Pearly add-on release

The Pearlie is an adorable pattern for a dress or peplum shirt designed by Peach patterns. It is part of One Thimble issue 16 and for over a year also available as a stand alone pattern on Peach Patterns own web shop. I really love the Pearlie, I made a few already, and today the pattern becomes even better with the Twirly Pearlie add-on. The Add-on contains long sleeves, a waistband and a circle skirt. Circle skirts are always a good idea and what I think of the long sleeves on a Pearlie you can already read in my first ever Pearlie post.

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De Pearlie is een lief patroontje voor een jurk of peplum shirt ontworpen door Peach patronen. Het maakt deel uit van One Thimble issue 16 en is al meer dan een jaar ook verkrijgbaar als een los patroon op de eigen webshop van Peach Patterns. Ik ben echt dol op de Pearlie, ik heb er al een paar gemaakt en vandaag wordt het patroon nog beter met de Twirly Pearlie add-on. De add-on bevat lange mouwen, een tailleband en een cirkelrok. Cirkelrokken zijn altijd een goed idee en wat ik van lange mouwen op een pearlie vind kan je al lezen in mijn allereerste Pearlie-post.

When Marina from Peach Patterns asked me if I wanted to test the add-on, I  did not have to think twice, even though it is totally December madness around here, you can never had too many Pearlie's. I sewed three, but if it would have been up to my girls, I would have sewed at least three more.

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Toen Marina van Peach Patterns me vroeg of ik de add-on wilde testen, hoefde ik niet twee keer na te denken, ook al is het helemaal december gekte hier, je hebt nooit teveel Pearlie's. Ik naaide er drie, maar als het aan mijn meisjes had gelegen, had ik er nog minstens drie genaaid.

Winter truly arrived here, so it was a no-brainer that I would try out the official long sleeve option. It fits perfectly and it is such an easy sew. Our eldest so loves her dress that I immediatly sewed a second and third dress, a twinning set in a Nooteboom fabric (of which I bought 6 meters, so you will see more for sure), I did make the dresses with two different contrast fabrics to show off their individual personality a bit. I used good and stable ribbing for the nekline, pocket and the waistband to create a nice holistic view.

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De winter is hier echt aangekomen, dus het was overduidelijk dat ik de officiële lange mouwen-optie zou maken. de mouwen passen perfect en het is heel gemakkelijk te naaien. Onze oudste houdt zo van haar paarden jurk dat ik meteen een tweede en derde naaide, een tweeling set in een Nooteboom-stof (waarvan ik 6 meter heb gekocht, dus je zal hem nog vaker zien), ik heb de jurken met twee verschillende contraststoffen gemaakt om hun individuele persoonlijkheid toch een beetje te laten zien. Ik gebruikte goede en stabiele boordstof voor de neklijn, zak en de tailleband om een ​​mooi samenkomende geheel.

This digital horses fabric is probably the last of my digital animal buying spree from a  few years ago. My kids grew a lot since then, so it was not possible to cut the circle skirt from it, but it looks great in just the bodice. The skirt of this brownish dress is punte de roma and this makes a nice stable skirt. It has an awesome twirl. With Punte de Roma the pattern is also perfect Christmas dress material.

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De digitaal geprinte paardenstof is waarschijnlijk de laatste van de digitale dieren stoffen die ik een paar jaar geleden ineens moest hebben. Mijn kinderen groeiden veel sindsdien, dus het was niet mogelijk om de cirkelrok daaruit te knippen, maar zo in het lijfje geeft het toch ook een leuk effect. De rok van deze bruinachtige jurk is punti di roma en ditgeeft een mooie stabiele rok. Het heeft een geweldige draai dus in Punti di Roma is het patroon ook perfect als kerstjurkje.

You can add the circle skirt directly to the original Pearlie bodice, but you can also use a waistband. If you directly at it to the bodice, the dress will of course be a bit shorter than if you make it with the waistband. As you know, I love hacking, and making the bodice a bit longer by just taping the waistband to the bodice is a super easy, but useful hack. I was testing the add-on so I did not do it, but I was tempted, very tempted. I did add a pair of inseam pockets though, because I felt that did not really change the pattern, and my girl always need pockets. On the horses dress I slightly changed the pocket finish, I used the neckband ribbing to finish the top and bring some unity.

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Je kunt de cirkelrok direct aan het originele Pearlie-lijfje naaien, maar je kunt ook een tailleband ertussen gebruiken. Als je direct vanuit het lijfje start, zal de jurk natuurlijk iets korter zijn dan als je de rok met de tailleband maakt. Zoals je weet, hou ik van hacken, en het lijfje iets langer maken door alleen maar de tailleband op het lijfje te plakken is een super gemakkelijke, maar nuttige hack. Ik was de add-on aan het testen, dus ik deed het niet zelf, maar ik kwam erg in de verleiding. Ik heb wel een paar extra zakken toegevoegd, want dat veranderde niet echt iets aan het patroon vond ik en mijn meisje heeft altijd zakken nodig. Op de paardenjurk werkte ik ook het zakje een beetje anders af, ik liet de boordstof van de nek terug komen op het zakje.

The Twirly Pearly add-on is now available for 5.75 dollar.You can also buy the original pattern plus the add-on for 10.71 dollar.

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De Twirly Pearly add-on is nu beschikbaar voor 5.75 dollar. Het is ook mogelijk om het patroon zelf en de add-on samen als bundel te kopen, dan kost het 10.71 dollar.

Cyan Lilys

Mandy K designs just released her newest dress pattern, a twirly knit dress, the type that my daughters adore, the Cyan Lily. I was part of the tester team and during the testing period I sewed up three dresses and all three are in heavy rotation in our house already. My eldest immediately declared her red polka dot version to be her favorite dress.

Twirling, that is what my kids love. If they get a dress they first check if it twirls and then search for pockets (which I added in these dresses), they are predictable around here. Circle skirts are daughter pleasers, but as a sew fanatic, I also like the dresses that I sew to have more than just twirl. This dress has that, it has a very exiting back. The dress was inspired by Audrey Hepburn’s iconic look from Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

The dress pattern evolved over the course of the pattern test and the red dress is made with the final version. The first dress I sewed was the blue one, after that, the neckline became lower and the back higher. The dress can be sewn with a knit or woven skirt. Some of the testers even sewed the entire dress from woven, but then you have to adjust the size of the bodice yourself (the bodice is made for knit fabrics).

My middle daughter loved her blue dress that much that she immediately requested a new one, one for her birthday (she just turned four) and she picked the fabric herself. I didn't come around to sewing it before, so on the morning of her birthday (those are low key here), I sewed up the dress. It really is a quick sew, the longest step is hemming (the circle skirt has a very long hem). I hemmed it with a blue contrasting knit strip, which gives a great effect during the twirl sessions.

For the blue dress, which is my favorite, I cut the circle skirt in six pieces, this way all elephants could just stand on their feet. Due to this pieced circle skirt the dress took up an entire meter of fabric. I managed to cut the pink flower version from a 70cm coupon that I bought for 3 euros.

My experience is that using a heavy knit gives the best results. Both the blue and red dress are from Hilco jersey (for the red one I also used interfacing for knits on the neck) and the neck holds up very nice for those two.

A circle skirt is also great for climbing. My daughters prefer to wear dresses all day, every day, but I realized that they have too many dresses. I rearranged their closets and they have multiple piles of dresses. I will have to come up with a sewing plan for the coming months that is focused on a different type of garment.

The Cyan Lily dress pattern is on sale until August 1.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. 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).  

Lillestoff contest output part 3: Boy hoodie and skirt

This is my third and last post on the fabrics I won in the Lillestoff contest. This time I am showing you the results of the hoodie and skirt idea that helped me win the fabric. The earlier posts on these fabrics are here and here.

Both the garments I am showing today have a large portion of self drafting in them. I do not know when you can say you drafted a pattern yourself. Is it important that you didn't use any pre-existing pattern or is it enough if you significantly altered a pattern? I am curious to hear your opinions.

The hoodie I cut based on three already cut patterns I had laying around. These were two Ottobre patterns, from one I used the armholes, neckline and hood. From another I used the width and length and from the Julia pattern I used the idea and height of the kangaroo pocket.

The width of the kangaroo pocket was determined by the fabric's print. I took four columns of faces and cut two times one column of faces for each side panel. I first sewed the kangeroo pocket and side panels before I cut the armholes. I had to do this because the main panel ended very close to the armholes.

I lined the hood with the black and white striped fabric. The combination with the faces fabric is lovely. I forgot to take a picture showing the inside of the hood, but you can see how well they math here.

I finished the hood with the same technique as I used for the Theo polo, only with a much narrower strip. I cut straight down at the centre of the panel. I used my serger to attach the bias strip beginning a centimeter from the bottom of the cut, all along the hood and down the cut again. I sewed the bias in place with my twin needle. Although I used white matching bobbin thread the small zigzag on the inside of the hood bothers me a bit.

The fit is perfect, my son can totally lift his arms without his belly showing. He loves the kangaroo pocket, especially putting is arms through totally.

For my daughter's skirt I eyeballed a waistband and cut a A-line skirt. The uni-colored orange is a very stretchy interlock with great recovery, perfect for waistbands. I added double bias pockets to create an nice transistion between the different fabrics.The pockets were inspired by the swing skirt (the shape) and the princess castle dress (one layer pockets sewn to the outer jersey fabric).

The suns fabric and both striped fabrics are almost totally used. From the interlock I still have a good piece left and will come in handy for future skirts, I love orange. I also have a good deal left from the faces fabrics but decided to give it to a friend who also loves Lillestoff.

This series therefore has come to an end. I managed to sewed up five garments from the fabric, thanks Lillestoff!

I love to hear what you think of my creations. 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).

Theo polo

Last month I finally made and posted my first Theo from Zonen09. I had been procrastinating for months. I was very happy with the result and even my husband and mother consider it to be one of the most successful sewing projects I have done. Now I got the taste, I wanted more. I had seen several Theo's from knit fabric like hers or hers and I wanted some of that for my son.

I have a few fabric coupons that are half a meter long (and 145 wide) which is not enough for a full fledged Theo. She and she solved this by making a Liam polo instead. I decided to make a Theo polo. A Theo hack so to say. I simply cut the front piece as one (take the middle point as indicated on the pattern on the fold) and added a partial placket.

The fabric I used has a big print and if I would make the traditional type of polo a rhino would be looking a bit weird. For a traditional polo you always need a bit of seam allowance, even if it is just 2 mm. This would have distorted the print. Therefore I chose to use a contrasting placket. I used this extensive tutorial and all went well.

The rhino fabric is from Lillestoff, I bought it last year, but fell out of love with the print in the meantime (like usual). I really felt I needed to use it now, because it is kind a young boyish print and was afraid my (only) son would grow out of liking these prints. I chose for a contrasting yellow striped fabric to match with the little bees on the rhino fabric.

I used the pattern I had already cut for the previous Theo. Because I didn't make any extra details, except for the empty piping at the back, I could sew the shirt in one evening.

Earlier this week I posted another contributor post on the Kids Clothes Week blog, did you see it? I write about my typical sewing mistakes.

I love to hear what you think of my creations. 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).