Wednesday, September 16, 2020

The Ellis from Fibre Mood

This week the new Fibre Mood, issue 11, launched and I was allowed to sew one of the patterns. I picked the Ellis, a unisex sweater with fun details. 


Somewhere, between the lockdown ending and before the start of the summer, our eldest, who is twelve, decided that she was in for a shopping trip and would actually try on clothes. I jumped on the occasion. If I buy something, I usually order it online and when we are on a rare shopping trip she always claimed that she needed nothing. She is the opposite of her two smallest siblings who always need EVERYTHING when we enter a clothing store.  


On this mother-daughter trip (yes, I left the others at home) she bought trousers. I had to practically force them on her because she was sure they would be uncomfortable. She had a bad experience with second-hand jeans just from the washing machine a few years go. They were as uncomfortable to her as a straight jacket, so she swore off jeans for years. Until now. Now she only wants to wear these stretchy jeans that we bought (something about teenagers...). 


Her new found love of jeans, of course, meant that she needed shirts and sweaters. Although I am not a fan of sewing jeans, I do love the simplicity of sewing sweaters. Enter the Ellis pattern from the new Fibre Mood. The asymmetric line on the front and fun details at the neckline and waistband immediately stole my heart. I wanted to color block the first sweater but the teen had her doubts a bit, so I went for safe and made the sweater in one color.  

 


 I made her a size 14 fand the fit is just PERFECT (even though she is just above the table chest wise). It is so perfect that besides sewing her one Ellis according to the pattern, complete with the little splits, I sewed her five plain versions. No splited front, no splited bands. Live is busy here and photo's of extra projects are easily forgotten. All of them are uni-colored French Terry with a screen print. I did manage to shoot one quick snap of this black version. On my Instagram you can also see the print on the red one, that she has to warm up to a bit though.
  


After making the uni-colored version, I of course, also had to make a color blocked one. Fortunately our son is still a fan of printed fabrics, so I made him the black penguin version. The splits are not that visible in black, but trust me they looks awesome. He likes his clothes to be a bit oversized, so I reused the size 14 that I used for the eldest. Kids in the same size must be a joy for any sewist.


The Ellis pattern is now available on the Fibre Mood website and this edition contains, as usual, many other great patterns. Check out the edition here.







Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Hack-stravaganza Pattern Tour

I love pattern hacking so when I heard about the Hack-stravaganza Pattern Tour from Project Run and Play, I immediately applied.  Lately, I have not been sewing much. The tour was the perfect excuse to sew some things my daughter would love. The tour is awesome for you too because it provides explicit tutorials on how to create the hacked looks. Like the others, I wrote a tutorial for my look on the Project Run and Play page.



Our middle daughter's favorite look is a pair of trousers combined with a short top. The skin on her legs usually itches and to avoid scratching it open she prefers to wear long trousers. The wide shape and light weighted fabric makes them very comfortable, even in summer. When I saw the Abby Marigold pants from the Wolf in the tree, I knew they would be the perfect base for her favorite kind of trousers. The only thing they needed were pockets and elastic at the bottom to avoid her from stepping on them and still make them long enough to not outgrow them within weeks.




Because she was not low on short-sleeved tops I made her a Fall sweater. I used the Foliis pattern from Sofilantjes and turned the short jacket into a short sweater. I LOVE that hood.  She herself has no problem with a visible belly button but to avoid a very cool Fall I chose made the high yoga band option on the trousers. This way, she has a short top but still no skin showing. The next sweater that I will make with the hack, yes more will have to follow, will be slightly longer though.




Besides not much sewing, I also have not found much time for blogging. So when I screen printed these awesome shirts with a Project Run and Play digital design last September (has my blogging dip been that long already...) they never made the blog. One thing about screen printing that I love it that you can make it as easy or complicated as you want and an earlier cut stencil gives a print within a few minutes. The plain sweater that I sewed was the perfect canvas to re-use a part of that earlier cut print. I only used the "adventure" part but I think it looks super cool.




To celebrate the Hack-stravaganza tour I am allowed to give away two patterns from the Project Run and Play store. The choice of patterns is up to you, so either these two or two very different ones. The only thing that you have to do is follow me and Project Run and Play on Instagram and respond to my Instagram post.

Wednesday, June 17, 2020

Agatha for the teen

Being at home has not led to a lot of sewing time in the previous weeks, but the new Fibre Mood, magazine 10, made me dust off the machines. Today is the official release day of the new magazine, edition 10 already!



 A year ago, I had to make special adjustments for our teen because she was in between child and adult sizes. Those times are already over, adult patterns it is. Today, I am showing you the Agatha size 32 from the new Fibre Mood. A long flowy summer dress. The Agatha has butterfly sleeves and gatherings in the front, giving the whole a romantic vibe. The original pattern has a long skirt, but I think the dress would look great knee length as well.



The new Fibre Mood has many gorgeous summer patterns, but I immediately fell in love with Agatha. It is singing summer evenings. It is suitable for summer weddings, but also for simply going to the store. The example was made in a flowy jersey, so I used viscose jersey. With hindsight, I had better chosen a lighter weight fabric, maybe modal jersey. The long skirt pulls the bodice down a bit.



The original Agatha has a spicy front, a deep V, but I made a slight adjustment for our twelve-year-old. The original dress also looks great with a top underneath, but to make it more modest by itself, I simply ladder-stitched the front a bit. Added bonus, if she changes her dress preferences in two years and she still fits the dress, I can simply remove the extra stitches.


Saturday, March 28, 2020

Festum dress



The Festum dress was released late last year. I made two, the grey one during pre-test and the colorful one with the final pattern because our middle one was so jealous of her younger sibling. When she saw the grey dress that I sewed in October, she was immediately angry. Apparently, she had requested such a dress before and I never delivered.




The Festum dress has partly braided shoulder bands and three skirt layers. You can sew a dress with all three skirts, but it is also possible to make a tunic by omitting the longer layer(s) or a dress with fewer skirts.




The grey dress is made with Lillestoff Modal, which is very lightweight. Since this was the pre-test version, the skirts of the final pattern have a slightly different length. Please look at the tester photos of the pattern to see how the final version looks. The color bomb is made in jersey, so the dress is rather heavy, but she loves it! To complement the look I also sewed a matching Aura bolero.





Sunday, March 22, 2020

Via dress



Last fall, Sofilantjes released the Via top and dress and today, I am showing you the three Via dresses that I sewed for our middle daughter. The pattern was first released as part of the street style capsule of Project Run and Play and the pictures of the animal print version are my attempt to create a street style look.





The Via has plenty of color block options and this first Via that I sewed uses only two different fabrics. The red fabric is the same velvet as the teen dress that I showed last week and the same is true for the animal print fabric. Now that I buy fabric on the bolt, you will see the same fabric more often.




The next Via that I sewed is a much more colorful whole. I used three different fabrics and made the cuffs in a fourth color. The Via comes with cuffs and neckpieces in two lengths, one for ribbing and one for jersey.




The last Via that I sewed is hack. After I sewed the mushroom and bunny panel for our oldest, I still had a mushroom and deer part of the panel left. I glued the front, the middle and side color block pieces together to squeeze as much fabric out of the panel as possible.


Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Nivalis for a teen



I have been busy the last months and my blog shows this. I was busy with my work and drafted the Permeo, but now, as fo many of you my life is forcefully calming down. Over last months I did sew, though, and I want to start showing you my creations again.





My refound motivation to blog might also be induced by our eldest, who somehow did not like the pictures of herself in the previous pajama blog post. I will pick up my blogging in chronological order, starting with the projects that I sewed in October.






To soothe our eldest’s worries, I am starting with her. She is growing very fast these days and outgrew all her dresses from last winter. She still loves to wear dresses, and I sewed three adult Nivalis dresses for her. Three times the same pattern, but very different dresses.





The bunny version is a panel from Stenzo, I will show the other half later because that also got turned into a dress. The bordeaux one is velvet from Nooteboom. It is super soft and stays pretty wash after wash. The animal print version is paper velvet, also from Nooteboom.