Wednesday, February 28, 2018

The Spirited Dress Blog Hop



Today, I am showing you another pattern from One Thimble18, the Spirited Dress! The pattern is designed by Candice, the woman behind Sewing Ambassadors. Candice is clearly a versatile talented lady, the Spirited dress is just the perfect twirly dress. The Queen Ann neckline is a true eye catcher and makes the dress suitable for any occasion, from summer playground to father-daughter dance.



The dress is an easy sew. The neckline does need some interfacing, but this should not slow you down too much. It is best to sew the bodice in a rather stable knit to make the neckline perfect after top stitching. Following Candice's example I top stitched rather far from the edge, and I really like the look. The pattern includes a pair of underpants, which are a perfect addition to a pattern that demands twirling. I sewed one for both dress of today's post.



To celebrate her first pattern, Candice organized a social hop in which she wanted to celebrate kid spirit. I had tested the pattern, but I made another for the blog hop, because although I love the black and grey dress, the dress and the original shoot did not show her spirit. My eldest's spirit is much more colorful and curious.  I considered putting the dresses in two posts, because I had so many lovely pictures, but in the end I decided to go for a picture heavy post.




Our youngest is actually as colorful as our eldest, but I still went for a rather simple fabric. I feel that the neckline is more visible when there are not a thousand unicorns distraction you from it. I bought the fabric as a remnant from Textielstad and I actually have no clue what type of fabric it is. It is clearly knitted but it also resembles double gauze a bit. It is really two layers. The dress for our eldest I sewed with a scrap piece that I got from her.



 Our youngest is a little Miss Perfect, of course she is a curious kid and often defies us, but she really has an urge to be good. In the Netherlands we have a tradition of giving our kids little booklets that they can lend to a friend and the friend (well actually the mother of the friend) answers the questions in the booklet like "what is you favorite food". Very often there is a last question that asks: What do you wish for... (insert name of the friend). Well, our little Miss Perfectly usually wishes that the "bad" boy will start behaving in class... I of course just end up writing that she wished that he becomes Spiderman.



This perfect behavior she usually shows in our photo shoots as well. For this shoot, I told her that she could behave like she wanted. Well, apparently she just wanted to look like a little angel. I than told her that she was allowed to look crazy, tough or angry. Asking your kid to look angry is also a lovely way to let your kids smile by the way. But I was of course doing it wrong, it is her spirit, so she should be allowed to look what ever she wanted, even though it did not give me a similar interesting picture like the first one from this blog post. I think that the twirling pictures show her in her element anyway.



But then, I realized that she loves to be an animal, she can spend hours and hours with her siblings playing baby animals. We are so lucky that our kids love to play with each other. So, I gave her two cats ears, and then she appeared, our little spirit animal. I know that you want to see even more of these dresses, so hop over to the entire overview of the social hop HERE.



You can buy the Spirited sweater as a separate pattern*, but by buying it as part of the magazine* you will receive many more great patterns and articles. Like the ones from this and this earlier post. 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.



Monday, February 26, 2018

Viva la Vivax



The Vivax dress and top* by Sofilantjeshas released, and I made four versions during testing. Although I should be working on a still kind of secret project, the pattern is that good that just had to sew a few. During testing the length of both the top and the dress changed a bit, which means that the final dress pattern is slightly longer and the top pattern is slightly shorter, but these four versions should give you a very good impression of the pattern.





Besides having dress and top length, the Vivax of course has more options. There are long, half, 3/4 and short sleeves and the longer sleeves can be color blocked in different ways (there are a total of five sleeve options). I sewed the long sleeve version with the half sleeve color block, but in the listing you can see several options of the triple color blocked sleeve.



The Vivax has two neckline options, there is a round color block option and a high collar. Both options are open to beginners, the collar is not more difficult than the round color block, the trick is to pin/use clips well. Yes, you read it correct, even I use clips with projects like this. If you use clips it will take you a few minutes to fixate the collar correct and you know that you have to sew only once.



The first version that I sewed is the dress for our eldest daughter, the blue one. Do you remember me telling that I am a occasion fabric sewer? I sew with the fabric that is on the couch. Well before I sewed that fish dress, I sewed this Vivax. Blue is her favorite color so my daughter is happy with all blue additions to her wardrobe. To create diversity, also this dress was screen printed, I used a copper print on this one.



In that earlier mentioned post, I also told you that I had several screen printed fabrics just laying in my stash. Last weekend, I again went on our sewing weekend, and one of my goals was to sew with at least two of those and I succeeded. I will show and tell you more about the weekend in future posts, but for today let's look at the robot print. These robots were designed and printed with my eldest (I positioned the frame and did the last layer because she had lost interest) in June last year. When it was finished I was bothered by the fact that I forgot that the frame has width and that I therefore did not position the robots evenly. But of course, like usual, it turns out fine when you use the fabric. Now that it is finished, I do not understand why it was so hard to find a use for it.



Besides those screen printed fabric, I am trying to sew away my stash in general (which will take years, but a girl can dream of a future when it is actually necessary to buy new fabric). The last two Vivaxes are made with two very different kind of dots fabric, that were both bought because the intrigued me, but eventually never really inspired me. After forcing myself, to just use them, they look awesome and I am actually looking forward to use the rest of these dots.



The collar looks best in stable fabric, it has to stand a bit. The French Terry blue collar on the pink shirt was a piece from her stash. That is one of the lovely things of a sewing weekend, if you do not have the perfect complement to your fabric, someone else might. On the robot top I used the same French Terry as the inside collar, to create stability. On the robot top I pulled the lining of the collar a bit to the front to create a faux piping.



Like I wrote in the beginning, the length of my tops and dresses is slightly off compared to the final pattern. The dress is a bit longer and the tops are shorter, we really like tunic like this around our house, if you do as well, you can very easily get the same "longer"effect by drawing one extra line in between the top and dress length lines. The Vivax pattern*, is as usual extra cheap for two days only. Now you can buy the Vivax for €5.00 exl tax (€6,05 incl. eu tax).




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.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

OT 18 sewing continued



Last week I showed you the two Origami's that I sewed, one of the patterns from the new One Thimble 18. Today, I am showing you three more patterns. The Footloose leggings by Thread Faction Studio, the Hickory and Spice Henley by Orange Daisy patterns and the Abby's Ballerina tie top by Wolf and the tree.



The leggings are a lovely versatile staple item. The pattern itself includes two options. One with a band under the foot, this option looks like a leggings with legwarmers. The other option is a capri length legging. I sewed both, the grey one is the full version, the purple is the capri length. The fit of the leggings is very good, not too snug, not too loose, just right. It should also be easy to have the full version without the foot option (my personal hypothesis that I have not tested yet). In that case you cut of the "foot" piece at the line for the heel and just hem it. I like the fit so much that I am considering just lengthening the capri version (with the use of the legwarmer piece) to a full legging. This way there is even more variation possible.



The grey top that my daughter is wearing is the the Abby's Ballerina tie top. With those ties you can variate a lot, you could make them only to tie in the back (short ties), to wrap them around the body (longer ties), use one or double layered fabric and if you leave off the ties you have a shirt with five different sleeve options (from long to sleeveless). I went for a double layered tie, this way the ties are neatly finished. After I made the pictures I realized I also could have made one nice big bow at the back or front with those ties. To top it off, the pattern also includes a cowl neck option.



In case you scrolled through the pictures you might be wondering about that Henley named pattern, well yes, I hacked that one. Having a functional placket gives you all kinds of lovely color block combination. There are some very cute examples of straight Henley's at the listing, but I just turned it into a round neck, which was super easy, I only slightly adjusted the neckband. The pattern piece for the neckband has a rounded edge and there is a marking of where the pieces should overlap in the front. Simply cut your pattern piece at that the marker length, and add your regular seam allowance for closing the neckband. The pattern comes with regular hem and ruffled hem, and I chose the girly option for my ten year old. This pattern has a more roomy fit than Abby's tie top which would also make it suitable for thicker fabric in winter because there is a long sleeve option as well.


You can buy these three patterns as seperate patterns, but if you are interested in all three it is best to buy the entire magazine* (that is already cheaper). Because besides these three patterns there are several gems in this issue. Like last weeks Origami and next weeks Spirit dress. 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.



Thursday, February 15, 2018

OT 18 blog tour, the Origami sweater



Today, the new One Thimble, OT 18* is releasing and it is an awesome issue again! I have already made six outfits (consisting of ten clothing pieces in total) and I still have several things on my to do list. Due to the release of OT 18, the Pattern Revolution OT blog tour is also starting today, and I am on it. It was hard to pick which of my sews I would show today, because they are all lovely, but I chose to show you the Origami sweater times two.



The Origami sweater is the newest pattern by Misusu. Misusu makes unique color blocked patterns, I have sewed two before, the Louise (I made two) and the Dia sweater. The new Origami clearly has the Misusu style. It has an eye catching neckline that screams color block and apparently looks very cool with piping as well. I learned when I sewed the Dia that although it looks daunting, it actually sews together rather quick. I did use my sewing machine this time and constructing the neckline (clearly the most challenging part of the sweater) did not take longer than half an hour. I first made the sweater for my son and it seems that I sewed the inner collar pieces reversed, the higher parts are in the front, so double check this when you sew your first.



The sweater comes in short and long sleeves and can be made in either dress and sweater length. The pattern is designed for sweater fabric, but I sewed the dress in jersey. The pattern pieces for the bands some in two versions, one for sweater and one for rib knit. I am expecting a growth spurt on out eldest over the summer, so I went for a rather long length. The pattern itself would have a slightly shorter length if I would have gone with her current length.



My fabric stash is located on the second floor of our house and I sew at the ground floor. I am a rather lazy sewist (which is why I skip pinning for example) and if I take down fabric to cut it,I put it one the corners of the couch and it usually stays there for a few days (to frustration of my husband). If there is a pile downstairs, I will be extra motivated to use the same fabric again. Today's sews are part of such "lazy"sewing. I used the same blue fabrics just because they were there on the couch.



I did not want to make clearly similar outfits, so I screen printed fish on the blue fabric. I spend almost an hour coming up with a perfect print (walking upstairs would have been much quicker, I know), but in the end I apparently was inspired by the color of the fabric, the sea is blue right? This time I printed the cutted pattern pieces and for me that works best. In the past I usually printed and then had to come up with what to make from the fabric. The fabric in that case just went in the closet (because I do sometimes clean up the piles from the couch). I have at least three printed pieces in my stash that still did not get a purpose.



My son clearly likes the sweater, he was actually dancing in it. You can buy the Origami sweater as a separate pattern*, but by buying it as part of the magazine* you will receive many more great patterns and articles. And as a bonus if you sign up for the newsletter you will get a 2 dollar discount code for the magazine which is valuable for four days until February 19 (keep in mind the Australian time zone). Over the next three weeks I will show you my other makes from this issue. One of the things that is still on my to do list is this super cute makeup set.


2/15

2/16

2/17

2/18

2/19

2/20

2/21



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.