Showing posts with label boy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label boy. Show all posts

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Velocitas release



Today, the Velocitas, the newest pattern by Sofilantjes got released. It is an unisex hoodie with two different color block options which comes with long and short sleeves. The Velocitas has a three-pieces sleeve and the testers got so creative with the texts that they put on the middle color block piece, that I had to try it myself. I always love the inspired feeling that I get when observing a devoted test force.



Our kids love wearing hoods, and they feel it is totally unfair that they are not allowed to wear them up on school. This Velocitas is the perfect snuggle up type of garment that gets your kids through colder days, but also through cooler summer evenings. Because of the short sleeve option you can also easily sew a warmer weather version.



The color block pieces are begging for nice top stitching. I first sewed the hoodie for our son and I used a decorative stitch from my sewing machine. Although I was careful,  I still stretched the fabric a bit too much, so eventhough I tried to steam the thing in submission, I did not get the end result that I hoped for. Because I ironed my heart out on the color block seams, I was not in the mood for ironing the hood for final pictures. I should have known better, it really does make the garment look better when it id fully ironed. I did now finally buy a coverlock to be able to top stitch my heart out in the future.



On the version for our daughter I used my Bobbinhood maxi kit to add the text. I printed it in metallic gold and it glitters brilliantly, it is the perfect addition to a girly hoodie. I had to cut the print diagonally, but that way it fitted with a little bit room to spare on my huge screen. I again cut by hand, I really started to appreciate this step in my creative process. You can also cut the text in two lines under each other if you need an even longer text.



All fabrics from our son's version are French Terry's that I bought at Nooteboom Textiles. The one for our daughter contains some See you at six remnants that I got from her during our most recent sewing weekend. The instructions call for ties in the hood which look very cool, but I omitted them, I was not officially testing and was lazy. The hood should not have a seam in the front, so also ignore that on the version on our son.



From now through out the weekend, the pattern is only €5,37- ex taxes (6.50 incl EU taxes) and can be bought from the Sofilantjes webshop.




Sunday, March 10, 2019

Boy summer shirts



Two weekends ago, I went on a sewing weekend and I sewed 27 pieces and eight of those were simple shirts for our son. Every year both cooler and warmer weather make me realize that he has nothing decent to wear anymore since he outgrows it all in one year. So, to avoid that unpleasant feeling, I decided to proactively sew him short sleeved shirts in which he can grow a bit. I used the Regem and Cessim patterns for all these shirts.




Finding fabric prints that he likes is hard, and sometimes you have to sell a print a bit. The colorful lama piñata's are therefore the Fortnight lama piñata's. The one with the bears all over it is his favorite shirt. Now that he has new shirts that actually fit him, he already switched his wardrobe and he has been wearing his short sleeves shirts ever since.




He loves everything with bears. These two bear shirts have been his favorite for long, and he asked me to sew him a new one. I was out of that digital bear print, but when I saw a bear panel at the Stoffenstraat I thought he would love it. I was wrong, he thought the fairies were too weird. No problem, the two under him can not wait to wear them in a few years.




I should have known better than asking him to make pictures of all shirts in one sitting. He does not like pictures, but I just wanted to get it done. I chose the best picture of every garment, finding a decent one of each was already hard, let alone showing garments from different angles. He kind a looks like a bunny caught in the head lights of the car in most pictures, but I just tell myself that you are here for the clothes, and totally do not look at his face, right?




He is wearing a Domi that I sewed him last year (and it miraculously still fits), but that never made the blog. The picture with the Fortnight lama contains a sneak peek to a future blog post, the one containing the clothes that I sewed for our littlest.

Saturday, January 12, 2019

Upcycling for the boy times 4



I wrote it in my previous post already, I am not sewing as much anymore as a few years ago. What did not change is my love for quick projects and today, I am showing you four long sleeves that I sewed in less than one hour in total, including cutting. They were, of course that super quick because they are upcycling projects. Sweaters from me and from my husband, that got a second live.



I love "before" pictures,  even though the quality of today's ones is crap, no other way to say so, I still added them. These four upcylces were a spur of the moment project. One evening, I was overwhelmed by the fact that there really was nothing with fitting long sleeves to be found in our son's closet. So, I pulled four garments out of the to-be-upcycled-pile (as big as the new fabric stash now a days), slapped them on my son for fun, made pictures with my phone... and adjusted the sweaters. The idea was that me and our son needed a quick fix (I my sewing kick and he clothes), so in my mind there was no time to take out the good camera and background screen. The modelled shot were made several days later, seeing as the clothes were worn before anyway he was allowed to just wear them before I made final pictures.




This heavy knitted sweater I bought for myself several years ago, I still love the style, but it just is not for me. When you upcyle such knitted fabric, a serger comes in extra handy. Jersey fabrics do not fray, but this knitted fabric will disintegrate into loose threads if not handled correctly. In the before-picture you see that the sweater's neckline is super big on our son and the whole thing is of course too long, I took off the neckline, cut a new body and sleeve pieces keeping the bottom intact and sewed back the neckline (that I had made smaller). No hemming for me on this one.



The white/blue sweater was one of my husbands favorites, but there was a  tiny hole near he bottom of the button placket. I closed the hole with a thread, but my husband did not deem the garment suitable for work anymore. He is a star in spotting small imperfections (not in me fortunately). I added four golden triangles at the bottom to the button placket. One was enough to cover the stitching of the tiny hole, but I wanted to give it an intentional look. For this sweater I actually kept the entire original neckline and just narrowed the body and made a new hem. This did of course result in a non-stripe matching between sleeves and body.



The other two sweaters got the same recipe as the white/blue striped one. I re-cut a sweater by keeping the neckline, and shoulder seams intact.The grey/black sweater was mine and by pulling up the neckline and two small hand stitched pleats keep the rather strange neckline perfectly in place. I could not save the entire text from the black sweater, the "S" from Shipyard lost it's top, in the sleeve cycle, but I think he looks fancy even with an incomplete 'S'.



Friday, January 4, 2019

On repeat, two times Orbis, two times cessim



Happy new year! I am not really one for making new years resolutions, I regularly make plans to stop doing certain things or do other things more, but I do not really connect them to a date. So looking back over the last five years, I see that I managed to change my fabric buying behavior. Looking at my actually decreased stash, there are now many uni fabrics in there that more easily combines or can be screen printed.



Another thing that changed, but not really intentionally, is that compared to the beginning years, I now regularly sew the same patterns. In the beginning, I could not imagine re-using the patterns more often, because I wanted something new everytime. I now sew less hours in a week than I did in the past, especially since I took up designing, which means that when our kids need clothes, I just take a patterns that I know will fit perfectly and will give me instant satisfaction.




Although I did not sew the Orbis as often as the Domi yet, I do think that the Orbis will take over the top spot of "my most often sewn pattern" in a few years. This fall I sewed two more and they are in such heavy rotation that I actually should sew a few more...




This year the long sleeve Fall wardrobe of our son contains several upcycles, but more about those in a later blog post. I also sewed him two fluffy Cessims. He loves being covered in soft fabric, which is also why I sew him so many Orbis and Domi pants. This time, I also made him extremly soft tops. I used the easiest Cessim options with one seam at the back.



Friday, September 21, 2018

One Thimble 20 continued



The nice weather that we had the last few days made me remember that I still have two summer sews from one Thimble 20* to show you. I already showed you these two outfits made from issue and today I am showing you a beach cover and a romper. Both got a different use than what they originally were for though, but both have already been worn a lot.



Let's start with the beach cover designed by The Eli Monster. The pattern is designed for woven fabrics, but as you might know, I do not own that much woven. I do have plenty of jersey and this striped Lillestoff jersey was begging to become a colorful beach cover. The fabric that I had was slightly too narrow, but I solved it by adding a wide jersey strip instead of a hem. Added bonus, it did make finishing this garment very quick and easy.



Seeing as we are clearly moving towards fall, this beach cover will probably never see the beach. Although it work would great as a pool coverup, my daughter loves using it as a bath robe (without actually using it after taking a bath). It is super comfortable to wear and easy to put on, which makes this one a true winner for my at-least-3-times-per-day-changing-clothes 7 year old.



The Retro Romper is designed by Thread Faction for girls, but I made one for our son. It was somehow really breathing vintage boy sport outfit to me. With hindsight I should have made the legs a bit longer, now his boxer sometimes shows at the legs, but that does not stop him from wearing it two days a week during school gym. He really likes it. He is growing quickly though, so I assume I will have to make him a new one in a few months.



The plain green is a clear contrast to the screaming beach cover fabric, but I felt it was very suitable for this romper, especially combined with the muster yellow. The combination in my eyes is truly unisex, and because our 7 year old daughter loves rompers, I know that this one will get a lot of wear in our house.