Showing posts with label sofilantjes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sofilantjes. Show all posts

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.

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Arcus skirt release



Today, we at Sofilantjes are releasing a new pattern, the Arcus skirt! An easy, fun and beginner friendly skirt which is perfect for scraps. I am only showing you three of the prototype versions that I sewed, but if you push the sales link you can see all the amazing versions that our testers made!



In the summer we often have special activities in the Sofilantjes group and this year I thought it would be fun to have a testing experience. Everyone who was interested had 24 hours to sign up and who signed up would be allowed to test. I ended up with over 280 testers! This meant that for five days I got a constant stream of new awesome skirts.



The Arcus is a twirly skirt made from four panels. The idea behind the skirt is to color block the panels, but as a bonus we also added full panel such that if you want one skirt panel in one fabric you can simply use the complete panel without piecing it together.



You can go bold and have a rainbow of fabrics or simple and use only two or even just one fabric. My first versions were the simple two fabric option, but as usual I got inspired by the testers and I am planning some much bolder ones! The Arcus Skirt release sale will run until the end of the weekend. The pattern is on sale for €3,50 - ex taxes (€4,24 incl EU taxes), no code needed. After the sale it will be €6 not incl taxes.



Saturday, August 17, 2019

Dressing the teen: what I learned up to now



Sewing for our eldest has become a little challenging, a very rewarding challenge because it gives me new insights about fitting garments. A few weeks ago, I showed you the shortened Vallis women dresses that I sewed her. Today, I am giving you the teen body take on the Optimum and Litore woman.



After getting such a huge succes with the women Vallis by simply shortening the bottom of the bodice, I tried to do the same with the woman Litore. This was not the same instant success. The finished bodice was gaping a bit at the chest. The fix I did to make it perfect was easy though, I simply shortened the straps at the shoulder about 2 centimeter, one centimeter on each side. This way I did get a perfect fit. I used the A line skirt from the pattern but had to remove the entire hip curve. If you make a woman Litore for your teenage daughter take a good look at the high hip measurement.




The blue dress with flowers is the first Optimum that I made. Because she is between child and women patterns, I dared to see how the dress would fit her. The Risu child version fits her very nicely. The Optimum without adjustments was not a success. Her developed chest was showing too much from the side. I tried to fix it with adding a dart inspired by this hack from the Sofilantjes page. I had done that in the past with a Solis with a similar problem and then it was the perfect solution. At first it seemed to work (it looks great in the pictures) again, but after wearing it for a few hours the Art Gallery fabric that I used seemed to behave differently. It widened a bit, again giving some gaping.




The perfect way to make the Optimum teenage proof is doing the one layer Optimum light hack, the bunny dress with red is my first version. This hack can now also be found on the Sofilantjes page. The band under the arm pulls everything nice and tight but still very comfortable. No gaping what so ever. because of the success with the hacked Optimum I decided to redo the light blue dress. I added a band only around the "armhole". It worked perfectly, no picture though. She had to pull on the dress 5 times before I decided to fix it all with a band and we had already made perfect pictures, so she was not up for that again. Maybe later on Instagram.



What I have learned so far is that bands seem to work very well with developing chests. A small summary regarding Sofilantjes dresses. Risu, and probably all child dresses with sleeves fit fine. The woman Vallis only shortened at the bodice is a winner. The Litore women needs some strap shortening as well, but it is best to test this on your model. Taking in the straps is easy, just cut off the first seam and resew. The Optimum child dress fits best on our teen if I use the Optimum light hack.