Thursday, October 6, 2016

Näh Connection Shop Blog Tour, my kind of twinning



I love the international sewing community. I started to sew, inspired by English language blogs. It wasn't until a few years later, that I realized there are many, many great Dutch language blogs as well. The fact that I myself love to read blogs from all over the world, made me want to have a blog in English.  Annika from Näh Connection had a similar story. She writes a blog both in English and German as a way to connect the German and English sewing world. This was not enough for her though. Therefore, she opened a digital pattern shop for which she translated English patterns to German. This still was not entrepreneurial enough, she now has also created the reverse. She has translated several German patterns to English. The English shop opened this week, and I was invited to be an ambassador. Today, I am showing you my first sews from the shop. The Bethioua from Elle Puls.


Although it had been a German pattern up until now, I knew it. I had seen it already at a few bloggers, like her, and I longed for it. I even made this shirt inspired by it. When Annika invited me to sew from the translated patterns, I immediately jumped on this one. I just love the back. The pattern comes both in woman and child version, so I decided to sew both.



I am not a huge fan of twinning, but sometimes it can be fun, this is one of those occasions. I sewed the two of us a blue Bethouia, with the same striped sleeve fabric, but different main fabrics. The fabric from my shirt was a Punti di Roma coupon that I bought at Textielstad. My son is wearing a Lillestoff sweat that I bought at Cas and Nina.



The Bethouia kids has been available for free in the mini size (86-98) in German, now the English version is available for size 104 up until 134. The woman pattern is available in a wide size range from 34-54. From size 44 and upward the pattern has darts. After measuring myself, I  turned out to have a 44 chest and 42 lower part. I therefore blended between the sizes.The sizes up until 42 are in another file than the ones of 44 and up. With a bit of glue, it worked out fine and. I really love my new shirt.



So if you also were dying to make a Bethioua, but did not dare to do it German. Or maybe you kind a missed the pattern, go and have a look at Annika's shop. Besides the Bethouia there are many more translated women, kids and bag patterns. Due to the shop opening, there's a discount. The more patterns you buy, the more you save, just use the following coupon codes:
buy1save10naehconnection for a 10% discount
buy2save20naehconnection for a 20% discount
buy3ormoresave30naehconnection for a 30% discount

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Skippy skirt, (free) pattern release



I keep coming back to my sewing weekend group, but with very good reason. Now, the one that organized the weekend actually released her first FREE pattern, the Skippy skirt. So Popo made a pattern for a jersey skirt and even has different options. For the ones that know me, I of course was sold on the pockets, fully functional big pockets, every girl's dream.



The first option in the pattern is a skirt with kangaroo front pocket. I am usually from the unconventional fabric combi's but for this skirt I went for a rather plain one. The skirt has to be paired with something right, and that will usually be a more colorful top situation. The instructions ask you to iron the seam allowance inward before sewing the pocket on the front piece. I am not such good friends with my iron, so I serged the seam allowances. This way it was very easy to push them under (or iron them in place).




The second option is one with a hidden pocket. I have seen many versions with vertical piping and they looked great. Be sure to check out all the examples that will decorate So Popo's blog the coming days for the blog tour. The tour started yesterday en will last a few days. This skirt will really be a great combiner in her closet, dots go with everything right ;)




We had a lovely location for the shoot. I shot them the same day as the ones from my previous post, so I just realized you already got a super tiny sneak picture from the skirt earlier this week. While posing together, they remembered what they did last time, when they had pockets. Lately, I have been more efficient in my shoots, if I know I am going somewhere nice, I just redress them quickly.



To summarize, this lovely FREE skirt pattern is now available through the blog of So Popo. It is her first pattern, so let's all show how much we love it, by sewing a bunch. She has many more ideas in that creative head, and I am already looking forward to the next pattern.



Blog tour: 

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Upton dress



Besides on the Vivie, I also did a re-test for the Upton from Blaverry. The Upton is a jersey dress with a color blocked front and a back pleat on the back. Both the split front and back pleated back are perfect to experiment with different fabrics. Due to the pleat the dress is very roomy and has a high playability and the dress sews up very quick.



I bought the main fabric over a year ago at Stoffenelf. It was in the period that I totally went for animal photo prints. I had stayed away from them for a while, but then finally did fall head over heals. As can be expected, I kind of jumped on the next fabric trend, and this cute fabric just stayed on my pile. I think the colors are perfect for fall, and I really love how it looks with the mustard yellow.




She wore the dress to a baptism and we made pictures in front of the church, and my youngest photo bombed the shoot a bit. Seeing all of us where dressed well, we even made group picture to replace the one on my husband's desk at work. In the current one, our youngest was just born, so we really needed a new one. This is not the picture that will decorate his desk, but the one that shows off the Upton dress best.



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).

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Finch Fabric: Candy Monster release



As you know, I love jersey and I love border prints. Finch Fabrics brings those two loves together in many of their fabrics. I have bought several prints in the past and I made this dress, this set and this shirt. This time, I was allowed to test one of the new fabrics! I got a large piece (well over a meter after washing) to make into whatever. Until now, I always used relatively small pieces, so this time, with such a big amount of fabric, I actually made five pieces.



Although I made five pieces, the main and first plan was a dress for my youngest. The dress is a mix between the Nivalis* and Solis*. I made a mix between these two patterns before, and even wrote a tutorial. For this mix you have to adjust the width of the Nivalis bodice to the width of the Solis bodice (or else the skirt will not fit). I also used the height of the (front) Solis bodice to determine the length I had to cut the Nivalis, to create a bodice. I made soft pleats, to show off the print of the skirt better. This is my first Nivalis with collar and I am over the moon that my daughter is not bothered by it. I love the look.




For my son I made a Semper*, shockingly without alterations. For my middle one I made a Hibernis*, also straight by the pattern, I know I am still amazed myself. I wanted to show off how well the main fabric goes with different colors and prints. I went through my fabric closet and found several combinations that I wanted to try. My middle daughter got a sweet style by pairing the fabric with pastel prints. My son a cooler version, combined with red stripes. I fell in love with the selvages of this fabric, I just had to use them. In my son's shirt you can see them on the front piece and on the sleeve bindings. I did not use ribbing, but jersey for the neckline of the Semper, the neckline is a standing up because of it.



For my eldest, I made a Liv skirt (free pattern) and a hacked the ADVT*. I had to adjust the Liv skirt patterns a bit. I wanted as much of the Monster print on it as possible (the pockets where the bottle neck), and I only wanted one Monster. I think it worked out rather well. From the last remnants I squeezed out an ADVT front, but I added a diagonal on the front. On one hand I did not have enough fabric, on the other hand because I liked these shirts a lot. The back of the skirt is made from the stripes fabric only.




The fabric is now available through the Finch Fabrics website, but it might also become soon available through your favorite fabric shop.




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.


Friday, September 16, 2016

Sewing challenge



Challenges, you know I love them. When Davina, came with the idea of the Sew Challenge, I of course wanted to join. The idea of the Sew Challenge is that you get three challenges from one blogger and you give three challenges to another. This way everyone gets a challenge on her own level. I got my challenges from So Popo Sew,and they were great. She challenged me to sew something for myself, from La Maison Victor and use uni color(s), three things I do not often (or never) do, but that I should do more often.



Although I have only sewed the Candy and several Martini dresses from La Maison Victor, I actually own all magazines. So, I curled up on the coach and went through all of them. After much internal debate, I chose for the Heriette dress from edition 6, 2015. I googled which bloggers already made the dress, to get some extra tips about sizing etc. Like a sign, I saw So Popo had actually was one of ones that posted about the dress!



Like So Popo, I went for longer sleeves. I did a full bust adjustment (explained in the same La Maison Victor issue). The Hariette officially has many pieces, and all seams are top stitched. I went a different direction. I did not get any restrictions on hacking (which I had feared), so I dropped the waistband and cut the bodice and skirt in one pieces (while keeping the princess seams). I decided not to top stitch.



I did not have any uni fabric coupon in my closet that was big enough to turn into a dress for myself. I considered doing a color block, but in the end I just went to the store. I am a careful cutter, so I usually ignore fabric requirements. I bought 1.75 meter of Punti di Roma at Textielstad and started cutting without a clear plan. I had so much fabric, I assumed I did not have to be very careful. I was wrong. In the end I had to add a seam to the front side panels. They do not bother me though, they are actually a nice detail.


The Sew Challenge was not the only thing Davina had come up with. She also organized a blog meet, connected to the Sew Challenge to it. This way we would meet the other bloggers in person, and come up with the perfect set of chalenges. So, in the last weekend of August we had a great meeting with 20 bloggers (with me being the only Dutch). The evening was filled with good conversation and goodies! Davina had gathered an amazing amount of gifts, and I took home some of the best ones. I won a gift card from Madaline for 50 euro, a Compagnie M paper pattern, two pieces of fabric from Droomstoffen, and several haberdasheries.


Curious to see what the other blogs came up? I am one of the last ones to publish this week, so you can check out most entries already. I actually came up with the challenges for Margot, and she made something truly amazing. There will be two more weeks of challenges, so it is far from over, check out Davina's blog next week, for even more great outfits.

ikmaakhetzelfnu - piekewieke - naaiz - c'est saar - mamadammeke - mumendemiekes - inspinration - sopoposew - 196  - girlsinuniformblog (Margot) - Ma Petite Etoile

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

PRP week one: Pokémon inspired



The first week of Project Run and Play season 12 has arrived, and I am a contestant! Today, six bloggers are presenting you their take on Pokémon inspired clothing. We love Pokémon in our house. I played the game when I was a teenager (almost in my twenties actually) and was impressed with how fun and still accessible to small kids the game was. I did not really watched the series, but I did have a poster with the first 150 Pokémon in my room. Our kids do watch the show. They had started just before the Pokémon Go app was launched and have been binge watching ever since (they are only allowed to watch tv after 5 pm until dinner). I did not realize that they are still making the show. Officially there are over 900 episodes, but Netflix only has the first and last seasons. The human team members of the latest show where unknown to me until a few weeks ago, but I have grown to love them (because I follow the show with one ear while cooking).



This week's assignment was to make a Pokémon inspired outfit, so not just copying the outfit as a costume. First, I wanted to make clothing inspired by a Pokémon. For all our favorite Pokémon there was already great inspiration available, so I went a different direction, and chose one of the human characters. Serena is the first character ever to not be shocked by Pikachu during their first meeting (totally got that one from Wikipedia), she does not want to become a Pokémon Master and she drastically changed her appearance during the series. The new look is really awesome. It is both sweet and cool, and has many elements that fit my middle daughter's style (she already has the messy hair style), Serena therefore became the inspiration for my outfit.



Let's start with the dress. The pink dress Serena is wearing has a white collar (or I think it has, I spend hours looking through pictures, but I could not really determine how the white part looks like) and the dress is very revealing (which is why she is wearing a black top underneath). Either the dress or the collar seems to close with a blue ribbon. My inspired version is a pink (with print) dress which has an asymmetrical white yoke. My daughter isn't a collar kind of girl, so that is why the white got incorporated in the dress itself. I wanted the dress to open on the front, such that she can dress herself. I did not wanted visible buttons though, so I went for a blind button placket. This way there is a separation in the front, like with the original dress, but it is not revealing. I went for a circle skirt, which is much longer than the original. Instead of a blue ribbon, I went for a light blue button.



Serena wears a halter cardigan which only true function seems to be that it has pockets. I am curious if a garment like this would work in real life. I went a different direction. I kept the color, and the fact that it has a different length than the dress, but I actually went shorter, instead of longer. To make the bolero an actual practical garment, I went for long sleeves. There is no way my daughter would wear a hat, so I went for hoodie. I finished the bolero with black bias. I chose black due to the black stripe on Serena's hat and the black top. The pockets where transferred to the dress.



In the series Serena wears over the knee socks, but with the fall coming, I thought tights would be more practical. The last piece of the outfit is therefore a pair of Wild and Free lounge pants, from Coffee and Thread. I slightly adjusted the knee parts, such that it could feature one of Serena's Pokémon. Pancham is a panda like animal, with a spike mohawk and apparently always has a leave in his mouth. My kids told me he has to have that leave or else he is not that powerful (missed that apparently with my one ear).



For the dress, I used the pink version of See You at Six Dandelion (last week I showed you the blue version). For the white yoke, I upcycled a sleeve from a silk suit. The bolero is made from a large sweater that I bought cheaply with the goal to upcycle. The leggings where made with black jersey (bought at Joyfits). I drafted the dress as a mix/hack of a dress from her book and the Theo. The base for the bolero was the Aura*, which I drastically hacked.



Be sure to check out all the entries from this week on the Project Run and Play page and do not forget to vote which outfit you like best. I of course hope that I convinced you to try to keep me in the game.