Thursday, August 24, 2017

Brueram with circle skirt



The Rugam skirt was not the only sized thing that I drew at the beginning of the summer. At the beginning of the summer, I also drafted a circle skirt for the Brueram*. The Brueram is one of my most favorite Sofilantjes' patterns, and I felt it needed some more love. Over the course of the entire summer we had all kind of admin organized fun stuff in the Sofilantjes Facebook group, and my event was encouraging people to sew more Brueram. I got the idea of a circle skirt over a year ago, but now I finally drew it for all the sizes and it now is a file included in the listing when you buy (or bought) the pattern.




I sewed two circle skirted Bruerams and I hacked one of them. The first one that I sewed for my week was sewn with fabric that I got from Griet during the sewing weekend in February. My little one turned four that week, and this became the perfect party dress. This skirt can twirl! She likes rather long skirts and because the Brueram is so flexible in the back, I know she will be able to wear this dress for her fifth birthday as well. We are celebrating life everyday in our household, so fear not, this is not a strict birthday dress. She has worn this dress at least 7 times since I made it.




When I posted pictures from the first dress, and encouraged others to follow my example, I heard that some people did not like the smocked back of the dress. For me the back is a true eye catcher. But because some did not like the back and others just feared it, I hacked the smocked back out if it. I replaced the back with simple ribbing fabric. You can use the table for elastic in the pattern to determine the width that you need.

 


The back of this dress, either smocked or in ribbing fabric is perfect for color blocking. On the first dress I used exactly the same back fabric as on the dress from this post. That fabric and purple just go so well together and the small print is perfect for shirring. If you fear shirring, you can always read the blog post on the Sofilantjes site that I wrote during that week. The fabric from the second Brueram was from the goodie bag from the sewing weekend. I know the hearts on the bodice are sideways, but this was the only way how I cut the entire dress from my fabric and my daughter does not care. It are hearts anyway you turn them.




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.



Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Back to school with Made It patterns



In two weeks, school will start again. This time all four of our kids will go because my little one turned four this summer. The beginning of the new school year always gives a double feeling. It is the end of the summer holiday, the moment we again have to use alarm clocks, but also the moment my kids see their friends again. New teacher, new class room and new things to learn usually equals excitement. This newness is best celebrated with some more new stuff. New lunch box, new drinking bottle, new bag and new clothes. In our house I of course make the latter two and today I am showing you a back to school outfit of my eldest in Made It Patterns.



In the Netherlands the kids do not wear uniforms to school. The Netherlands is very liberal in the clothes that are allowed to school and I would say there are pretty much no rules. If my kid would go in a bikini it might be a bit weird, but I am not sure if it would be against the "rules".  I know that there are bloggers on the tour that will have to stick to grey colors on their outfits, so we went overboard (pun intended) with a very colorful knit boat fabric. My daughter picked it herself from my stash.



I made her a Groove dress. A dress that for me symbolizing freedom, although it does not twirl like a circle skirt, its wide skirt is definitely approved by my kids. This is the second Groove dress that I made, and like the first time, I slightly hacked it. Like I said, the Groove has a wide skirt, so wide that I actually could not cut it from my one meter directional print fabric. I never read fabric requirements and am a cut-first-solve-later kind a girl. So, only after cutting the front, I realized that there was no way I was going to cut a full back from this fabric. I decided to simply color block a contrasting fabric into it. To make it seem predetermined, I also added a strip to the front. Also one of the sleeves needed a color block. As usual, I really like my fix, and might like it better than if I would have been able to cut the entire dress from the boat fabric.



To take her new bottle and lunch box, I also made her a Sling Bag. I made medium size and I am totally in love with this bag! When I made this dress, I had a long and narrow leftover. No clue what I would be able to make from it, I just put it back in my stash. I was over the moon when I found out that this bag actually needed almost the entire piece! This bag and the remnant seemed to be made for each other. I really like this fabric it made gorgeous dress, but also an awesome bag and the black is perfect because this bag will see a lot of floor. To did not wanted an upside down bird so some pieces were not cut on the fold. I simply cut two and added a seam allowance.




I used two rather lightweight fabrics for this bag, so I cut a third layer, from some fluffy fabric to give the bag more body. This bag pattern is really awesome, it has two small pockets, a key chain and sews up surprisingly fast. Instead of making a key chain loop, I used a piece of elastic.



To celebrate the back to school tour, there is a 20% discount store wide with the code "btsins" until the end of August. I strongly advise to visit the shop and especially check out the Fold collection. I really stole my heart. Here you can see a mash-up that I made from two of those patterns.

CONTRIBUTORS
 TRUDY - Fox and Me
BROOKE - Idle Sunshine

MARIA - My Cozy Co
EMILY - Enjoyful Makes
THAO - Little Cumquat
SASKIA - She Who Sews
MIRANDA - Inspinration
ANN - Atelier In ‘t Leerke
TOYA - Made by Toya
OLU - Needle and Ted
Back to school graphic6

Friday, August 4, 2017

Misusu's Dia



So, right after I discovered the awesome Misusu patterns, I started on a Dia Sweater. After cutting the pattern I tested their Louise and somehow the Dia just remained where it was. It might be because of my preferred relationship with my serger (my sewing machine is clearly my lesser loved machine) or I was simply intimidated by all the small pieces of the diamond. It probably was a combination of both.


For me it is a "self preservation thing" (Love Actually movie reference) to only have one sewing project cut and ready to go. I tend to loose interest quickly, and a cut project becomes a UFO (unfinished project), but this Dia sweater just kept begging me to be finished. My procrastination was finally stopped when I decided to just go for it on my serger. I settled for potential imperfect and just sewed all those tiny triangles together.



If you look closely the diamond is indeed not perfect, but I LOVE it. With my serger the whole front probably did not take more than 20 minutes and it is good enough for me. The biggest issue creating imperfectness is probably that I did manage to sew two seams in the wrong direction. To create a perfectly flat diamond, you seams have to all lay flat and sewing one in the opposite direction as a previous one forces you to "clip"it.



Although the diamond is clearly the eye catcher, I love the puffed sleeves as well. With regular sleeves (included in the pattern), the pattern is more suitable for boys. My short sleeves are by the way a small hack, the pattern only contains long sleeves. The designer of Misusu is at the moment enjoying time with her newborn, but drawing the Dia sweater in bigger sizes is on her to do list. When sewing a bigger one for my eldest, I will again use my serger, if you are like me, than that is totally a viable option.