Inspinration: droomstoffen

Showing posts with label droomstoffen. Show all posts

Monday, August 15, 2016

Selfish sewing shirt

****update: I am in the running to become a Project run and Play Participant this season! Check out all the blogs and choose your favorite before the end of the 19th.****

Pre-cutting is a dangerous thing for me. If I will not immediately sew it, loss of interest is very big. Here, I told you I cut a shirt (and sewed a toddler dress from the scraps), and after that, the pieces were just laying there. All those test deadlines came first, but now it was finally time. The fact that we are going away to a warmer country helped (not much chance of wearing the shirt in the Netherlands when we get back due to the weather). I am super happy that I finished the shirt, it is a new favorite one.

The fabric is viscose tricot and it is super soft and stretchy with a great flow. If you haven't sewed with viscose tricot you should give it a try. Sewing it is a bit tricker than with stable bio cotton jersey's but with my serger it still worked like a charm. Also the hems were not much harder on my sewing machine then usual. Last time I already told you I got the fabric from Droomstoffen. This one is not available online, but there are several other pretty ones.

For the pattern I copied my favorite store-bought shirt. The copied shirt is my favorite shirt, so I guesstimated the pattern pieces, I did not deconstructed the actual shirt. I got that particular shirt in a second hand pregnancy clothes package (and it did not leave my closet after I was done with being pregnant). The colors have faded, but I just love the fit. I love the fact that the original shirt actually fits my chest. You can pull the cords to change the fit of the shirt.

I drafted the pattern digitally and it still needs work (the breast line has to be lowered a little, sleeves slightly different), but it is a fun first try. I will probably sew more from it because I think it would also be a great winter shirt. In the next version I will probably drop the cords, or at least put them on the inside. I always wear them pulled up anyway.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Litore and Aura release

Today, Sofilantjes* has released not one, but two patterns. This time a dress and a bolero. The Litore* has an amazingly cool back detail en three different skirt types (all three available in two lengths). My daughters prefer to wear their pretty dresses every day and I let them (I have to enjoy the time that they still love to wear my handmade clothes), but sometimes it is a bit chilly for these dresses. If your country's summers looks like the Dutch's, you regularly need something to cover those shoulders, the Aura* is perfect for that. Here you can read Anne's lovely story about the names of these patterns and why they go so well together.

The dress' bodice has 2 sets of straps and a separate front shoulder piece. These pieces are just perfect for color blocking, or just adding an interesting detail. I made three Litore's and loved playing around with the colors. On two I used colors from the main fabric, on the third I actually used the strap to spice it up (something I had seen other testers do). On the purple one I actually put the wrong straps at the top, wrong when you consider the pattern instructions (and that is what is the bible when you are testing). When not testing you can of course play with whichever order you like best. How well the Litore's back looks depends on your fabric, if your main fabric is very drapy, like the petrol one, it is important that you take a nice firm lining.

The Litore has three skirt options, handkerchief (dress and tunic length), high low circle skirt (dress and tunic length) and A-line (dress and maxi length). I sewed the high low circle one and the hand kerchief. The high low hem circle skirt is my and my girls' favorite for sure. I love how it spins and it is very practical. The shorter front makes it nice and spicy and the longer back avoids it being too spicy when my kids are playing. The best part, these skirts fit the Solis bodice! The Litore en Solis will be the ultimate summer dress combo seeing as the Solis has two great skirt options that fit the Litore.

The Aura bolero is a great staple garment, I have been under estimating cardigans and the like as you can read here, now I am hooked. I only made one because I realized my uni colored jersey pile had shrunk a lot. Yesterday, I bought eleven meter uni colored fabric, so now I can totally go overboard. The bolero has three sleeve lengths making it perfect for the entire year. I read in this post that the Nivalis'* sleeves fit the Aura up until size 7, I presume that means cap sleeves as well!

The grey indian fabric I bought at Droomstoffen. My daughter picked the fabric herself (from behind the pc). I like the fabric for her because from far it looks stylishly grey but from where she is looking she sees all the nice drawings. Last time when we picked fabric from my closet she told me she still prefers fairytale fabric best, so happy drawings it is. The elephant fabric has been in my stash for more than a year already and I bought it at a web shop that went bankrupt. I usually do not make a circle skirt with a direction print, but I just wanted to try it. I feared that I would be bothered by the fabric being sideways on the sides, but it really does not bother me at all. I might even like it in this particular print.

The petrol combi is made with two different petrol fabrics from Lillestoff. The dress fabric was already featured here and here. I bought four meter and my mother also made dress from it, but you will see more of it for sure. The bolero is made with vintage jersey. I had no clue what is was when I ordered it. It is a relatively thick jersey, which looks like from an old sweater (that is why it is called vintage I presume, I thought it had to do with the color). I bought half a meter and had not found a project for it yet. For this bolero it was perfect. It is nice and warm and clearly has some structure. Because the bolero is rather short, I could easily cut one from my half a meter. The flower fabric, I once bought as a coupon on a market. My mother actually used 80% of the fabric already, but it was just enough for this bolero and dress.

Both patterns are on release sale for two days. The Litore* will we €5.50 (excluding EU tax normally the Litore would be €8.85 excl EU tax) and the Aura* will be €4.50 (also without EU tax, normal price is €6.85 excl tax ). You can find the patterns here, no special code is needed.

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, June 20, 2016

Handmade gifts: Solis and tulle circle skirt

Two years ago I sewed two dresses for the twins of a colleague. My colleague has twin girls of the same age as my eldest. I regularly get clothes the twins grew out of, so I sewed the dresses to give something back. Those two dresses came back home a few months ago (because they had become too small). Today I am showing you a new set that I sewed them as replacement.

Both girls will have a dance recital and they needed black and white clothes and I was allowed to (partly) dress them. Black and white clothes are totally the trend right now, so I wanted to make them something they would be willing to wear as every day clothing. After some back and forth questions, taking the girls' preferences as our guide, we decided that I would make a Solis* and a tulle skirt. My daughter is just slightly smaller so she could model them for you. Seeing circle skirts in action is much better than on a hanger.

There is not much more about the Solis that I can tell you which I did not wrote in the release post. It is a lovely pattern and your girl should have at least one. I hemmed the circle skirt again with the blind stitch. You can find the tutorial I wrote for it here. Did you see the heart placement at the back strap, my girl loved that detail (and so do I). You can find the lovely black and white fabric at Droomstoffen.

The twins have very similar measurements, so I used the Solis' skirt piece to make the tulle skirt. I cut the main skirt from black jersey (bought at Droomstoffen) and gathered 4.50 meter black tulle to get an awesome second layer effect. I made the waistband based on the free Liv skirt*. The tulle is super light weighted and the jersey circle skirt lifts it up easily. Her hands are behind her back, and not in pockets. I autmatically had cut and already sewn three of the four pocket parts when I realised there was no way that a tulle skirt could have pockets. I just kept them in though.

I was debating what kind of top I would put on the skirt for the shoot. My daughter suggested just pulling it over the dress. I thought it was worth a try. It looks so great that I might actually make such a dress. Just sewing an extra layer of tulle between the bodice and main skirt. My daughter also was the one that suggested the picture location. She is a true asset to my blog, thanks honey.

Thursday, May 5, 2016

Eryn's dress in jersey

Two weeks ago, I promised you an Eryn's dress in jersey, and today I am making good on that promise. This dress was not part of the testing, so I allowed myself to freewheel a bit. I used the pattern pieces of the 4Y version (the pieces I had cut for my middle daughter's dress) and simply lengthened the pieces to make one for my eight year old.

I decided to make the dress slightly more modest and went for a higher back. With hindsight I should have used the stretch capabilities of my fabric, and not cut the back as wide as the pattern prescribes for a woven fabric. I should just have taken the width of the front for the back as well. I used uni-colored pink jersey for both the contrasting pockets and the backside of the straps.

My regular readers know that, like every sewist, I am trying to decrease my fabric stash. I of course bought some fabric this year, but really not that much as in the past years. With my new fabrics, I now use her tactics and try to use it quickly, to avoid creating another lost love. I bought this fabric from Droomstoffen, at the end of February. So not a super quick turn around period but not that bad either. The fabric is designed by Bloome Copenhagen.

My middle daughter got very excited when she saw I was going to make pics of her eldest sister in the same dress pattern as one of her dresses. She went upstairs and put on her own. My youngest followed her and she also came down in her Eryn's dress. My middle daughter somehow lost interest during the shoot but my youngest was happy when she was allowed to join the fun.

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).

Monday, April 11, 2016

Blake in scuba

I do not know where I saw the Blake dress from Mingo and Grace first, but this, this and this version really made me want to sew one. The Blake dress that is featured on the pattern's cover page is made with scuba/neoprene, which gives the dress a very pronounced shape. Scuba is a rather new fabric type, I tried to find a nice definition, but failed. It is a bit foamy and the origin is probably wetsuit (scuba diving) related. I had never sewed with scuba, so when Droomstoffen gave me the opportunity to do so, I jumped on it.

I have been (digitally) across two types of scuba, a very thick foamy (usually uni colored) one and a bit thinner, flexible one, which more often has a print. The fabric I got is from the second category, I believe this one was a similar type. The fabric has a nice stretch and I decided to omit the back zipper, it worked out great. The dress officially did not come in the size for my eight year old (max size is 6), but fortunately she has a skinny chest (she even fitted in a size 5) and I winged the length.

The Blake dress talks about soft pleats. That was a new one, I never heard of it, soft pleats are not sewed closed at the top, but they are sewed slightly overlapping. Soft pleats give more volume in the skirt than regular pleats. My daughter totally got the princess vibe from this dress, in most of the pictures she is holding the skirt like it is a huge ballroom dress. The smartly placed pockets were of course a hit. The width of the front and back skirt is different and the pockets are very well hidden because of it.

One of the biggest advantages of scuba has to be the fact that it does not fray. Not even a little bit. I pre-washed this piece to test it, and the sides are still perfect. They are so perfect that I decided not to hem. I did not finish the neckline, nor the arm holes and also the bottom still has its raw edge. You can imagine what a satisfactory sew this dress was. In case you get inspired, this fabric is currently on sale at Droomstoffen for just 6.50 euro per meter. I asked for 90 centimetre and managed to also cut a matching hear band and a dress bodice for my youngest, so even if I would have bought the fabric, this would have been a crazy inexpensive dress.

Making pictures of this dress was the hardest part of this project. I love the colors, and I thought that the forest would be the ideal place to capture them. Looking at my camera screen, I felt that the dress was behaving like a chameleon, so I tried a greener background, that was fail. A grey industrial background also did not give me what I wanted. Finally I tried a blue sky one, because I was very inspired by her pics, none of them gave me the effect I hoped for. I am still learning a lot when it comes to photography, so what do you think, which surrounding would have worked best with this dress? It has been a while, but this dress got a twirl test, and it passed!

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Scrap Liv, KCW #3

I love this skirt, made from the free Liv pattern and left over scraps of making four garments from four fat quarter jersery's that I got from Droomstoffen (here are garment one and two). Logically, I would blog about this skirt last, but I just wanted to show you this one so much.

I had several small scraps, and I started with putting those small scraps together by the quilt-as-you-go method. The idea behind the method is that you start with two small pieces, take your rotary cutter and cut two straight sides (one on each piece). Sew those two straight sides together, re-cut the combined piece such that it has a straight edge (and the two previously sewed pieces are both are a part of that straight edge), and sew that to a third piece (with a straight cut edge).

Creating the first side of the skirt (which ended up as the front) was the easy part, I just sewed small pieces together, and went with it. For the second part, I was out of really small scraps and actually had to cut tiny pieces myself (which was surprisingly more difficult than just using small pieces). When I had two sizeable pieces, I just cut the two Liv pattern pieces and sewed them together. I decided against adding pockets (I know, I was surprised too). I feared pockets would be too much.

I had planned to make the waistband in one color, I managed to cut a piece just big enough. But, I lost track of the piece and ended up cutting a piece from the waistband to add to the skirt. This led me to re-puzzle a waistband together. I am very satisfied with the patched waist band, it is even better.

You can find all four fabrics, and many more black and white versions at Droomstoffen! I am in love with those penguins, I had only a few tiny pieces left (after making this garment, and the one that will blogged about later), but I really wanted to use them, so they actually inspired me to go for a quilted look. The free Liv pattern is available both in Dutch and English.

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).

Friday, February 26, 2016

Zozo tunic, KCW #2

Yesterday, I told you about the black and white fabric I got from Droomstoffen, and today I am showing you another sew I made with one of those small pieces. I made a Zozo, it is a free pattern from Blaverry. Of course, I hacked it slightly.

The Zozo has a triangular shape, giving a nice drape on both sides. I foresaw that the drape on my 80 cm tall girls would not be ideal, so I went for a high-low tunic look. The front is still a horizontal line, but the back is curved.

It was a challenge to cut the dress from the small piece, but by turning the fabric 90 degrees (so actually cutting in the wrong direction) and splitting the back in two, I succeeded. The fabric has a great four way stretch, so cutting the fabric in the other direction was no problem. I turned the fabric, because this way the triangles were facing the same way (to the side) both on the front and back. If I would have cut the fabric in its normal direction, the triangles would have been up on the front and down on the back.

The back seam is not perfect, but it is pretty close to being invisible, only at the top the triangles became trapezes. I had not thought about an invisible back seam while cutting, I had made sure the triangles were on the same height, but the other dimension I did not think about well enough.

I had cut the dress a bit short, even for a tunic (the pattern piece looked so long to me that I had cut it shorter), so I decided to add a visible black line at the bottom. This way I even added a bit of length, instead of loosing some by hemming. I think it really nicely frames the garment.

She had been wearing that pink necklace all day, and it really was the perfect accessory to the dress. She was also the one who decided it would be a great belt too. This black and white fabric is totally in line with the typical Blaverry style. You can buy the fabric here and the free pattern can be downloaded here.

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