Thursday, June 28, 2018

Plushie siblings



I presume we all have sewing plans that somehow never make it into reality. One of such plans that I had was making plush animals. When I started this blog, I was crocheting and making stuffed animals was the top one thing that I made with my yarn. When I discovered sewing, I quickly fell in love with making clothes from jersey, and my stuffed animal days seemed behind me. But sometimes the soft cuteness factor still pulls me in the toy direction. When I first saw her animal pattern line I immediate was intrigued. I wanted to make them, I wanted to make them all.


What I actually made were clothes. The stuffed toy plans remained on my Pinterest boards and then she showed this beaver, and I could not resist anymore. I tried, but the middle daughter that has a beaver obsession and that I showed the cutie to, reminded  me every week. So a few weeks ago I decided to finally use that super soft fabric that I bought and cut myself a beaver. I bought the fabric at Textielstad and it is called flex soft fleece. It is super soft and fluffy, the only problem is that it comes in just three colors.


As you might have read in the beaver blog post, the beaver is not out yet, but she reassures her readers that you can make the adjustments yourself, and so I did. I actually used this awesome free version and hacked myself a beaver. I printed the pattern half the size of the original pattern pieces to make the beaver about the same size as our daughter's own beaver that has been at her side since her birth. That beaver has a little cross on his belly, so of course her new beaver had to have one to. This is not my first beaver inspired sew, this coat was also modeled after her best friend.


The "original" beaver has more actual beaver inspired back feet, but our daughter preferred "regular" feet like her own stuffie. The most surprising thing (at least for me) about this beaver is that I sewed the whole thing by hand. I sewed once before with this lovely fluffy stuff and I noticed that the serged seams tend to open afterwards. After resewing the sixth splitted seam by hand I wondered if sewing the whole thing by hand was maybe a better idea, and it was. It sews up surprisingly quick. From cutting to finish it took me about 4 hours and hand sewing can be done behind the tv.



As you can imagine, our new family member was a huge hit and I immediately received three more orders. Our son was first and of course he wanted a bear, to match his best friend. Last week we went by train to a museum and were sitting in the train for more than three hours in total and I managed to sew almost  the entire thing (by hand again). These cuties really sew up quickly. This one is a little bit less obvious a bear than the other  is a beaver, but he is loved anyway.



Thursday, June 14, 2018

Solis for women



I assume that I do not have to introduce the Solis dress by Sofilantjes. But just in case you have not seen it, you can check out my versions here, here, here and here. What might be  new information is the fact that Sofilantjes now released a women version of the Solis. The dress is just as quick and cute as the girl version, but now you can wear it yourself! Compared to the girl version there are even some extra options. There are three skirts instead of two and besides a regular bodice there is also an empire waist bodice. This empire waist option, is awesome in general but also makes the dress perfect for pregnancy.



The pregnancies are long behind me, so I went a different route, I went for twinning. So, besides the pleated Solis dress that I sewed myself, I sewed our middle daughter a pleated tunic. The girl version has four pleats (two on the left and two on the right), the women version has six pleats, three on the left and three on the right). The pattern of course also comes with the twirly circle skirt which is probably the most loved option for the girl dress. I wanted to squeeze two outfits out of the coupon that I had, so I went for the fabric friendly pleated skirt. Our middle one still prefers tunics over dresses, so she is wearing her Solis with a very short pair of jeans.



The fabric is an oldie from Lillestoff and it has a dandelion print with golden elements in it. We have seen in the Sofilantjes sew and show group that the Solis looks perfect in any kind of print. But I am really pleased with my version of the little black dress. Some people in the Sofilantjes group asked what kind of bra to wear under the dress. I have seen some very fancy bra's that would be perfect, I just used two paperclips, but I am frugal like that.



As always there is a very good release sale. For three days, until Sunday evening, the Solis pattern will be just  €5.60 exl tax. For the people that like paper pattern, there is more good news, the Solis for Women will also be available as a paper pattern.




Friday, June 8, 2018

Hacked Foras, times 2



Weeks ago I showed you the two Foras dresses that I sewed according to the instructions. Today, I show you the two that my hacker brain forced me to sew. You know I love pockets, and the Foras has them, but I wanted more and I saw even more potential.




My pocket hack has two different versions. On the rainbow dress I added a set of pockets, behind the color block. This therefore means that there are now four pockets in the dress. This method would be perfect if you combine it with the hack that Anne herself did by not adding pockets to the skirt. This hack is also a good option if you decide to hack the bodice into a top. Just put a waistband on it and you have shirt with cool pockets.




In the other dress, the grey one, I made one huge pocket. The Foras is a dropped waist and because I was sewing for summer and lengthened it a bit, she can not reach the pockets in the dress easily. It could also be that she has short arms.  Either way, I solved it by also having the pockets start in the bodice. This gives her the possibility to put her hands somewhere. This hack is more a fun hack than a really useful one, when it comes to taking treasures. The huge pocket is not that deep and if you put a handkerchief in, it could fall out (we experienced it first hand). But, our kids love quirky clothes, and this is definitely one of them.




The unicorn fabric I as a scrap from her a year ago. I was waiting for the perfect project, and this was it for sure! It paired beautifully with the rainbow fabric that I once bought at Joyfits. The grey fabric is from Lillestoff, and I bought it at Cas and Nina in the sale, but they unfortunately do not exist anymore.



Thursday, May 31, 2018

Cessim release



Today, the Sofilantjes' Cessim shirt is releasing, and this release is an extra special one for me, because I worked together with Anne in creating the pattern! I always love a Sofilantjes release, but now that I actively participated in the creation of the pattern, I am of course extra excited. The Cessim is a relaxed fitted boy shirt with many options. There are multiple color block options, sleeve lengths and necklines.


Over the course of the last months, I created many different version of the pattern. Not all the options that we considered actually made it into the pattern, but to avoid confusion about what is in the pattern, today I am only showing you some shirts that were sewn with the final options (okay one has something extra that we still want to make an instructions for, did you spot it). There are many examples of the long sleeve option in the release post that I wrote for the Sofilantjes website.



The Cessim was designed with panel fabrics and/or scraps in mind. There are four main options for color blocking the body. The first option is cutting the body in one piece and having only one seam at the back. The dark blue fabric with white print is an example of that this option. I screenprinted the fabric last year on her bachelorette party, the print is drawn by our son.



The second color block option has an asymmetrical split in the body, there is one big part and a narrow side piece. The yellow/white shirt is an example of that option. The sharp line is perfect for strong contrasted fabrics. The third color block option has a curved upper insert. The pattern is designed such that you can flip that upper color block in mirror image and have the body seam on the front. Both for the half sleeve and the long sleeve there is the option to color block it such that the line of the curved insert is continued onto the sleeve. The beetle shirt is an example of that.



The fourth color block option is the full Monty, it has both the narrow side panel and the curved color block. This option is also great with the color blocked sleeve. In all today's shirt I used the rounded neckline. It is a round neck fitted in a V neck hole. I really love the extra color showing in the front of the neck where the ribbing is higher. The pattern also includes a V neck and a color block V neck.



The relaxed fit also makes the pattern very suitable for using thicker knitted fabrics like jogging during the winter months. The Cessim is on sale in the Sofilantjes webshop for three days for just 5 euro excluding VAT. I really hope you will like the pattern as much as we do, especially because I very much enjoyed the making process and already have ideas for more! Did you by the way spot the three new Domi's?



Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Candice Ayala’s Upcycling Challenge



I am a huge fan of upcyling and I have done several upcycling projects in the past. I also love challenges, and sewing competitions, I have done several from those in the past as well. Not because I think that I would have a chance to win ( I usually drop out after the first round), but simply because they inspire me. The Candice Ayala’s Upcycling Challenge functioned exactly like that. I had all the materials that I need already in my stock, but somehow had not come around to using them yet. I am so happy I did now!


Here you can read more about the actual upcycling assignment, but quickly summerized, you had to upcycle and use new fabric as well. The piece that I upcycled, I received from my sister in law, she thrifted it for me, it consisted of natural materials, cotton and silk and had three very interesting textures, drapey silk, knitted cotton that was super soft an fluffy and cotton lace, plus the skirt part included a knitted lining). Candice gave some great tips in her kick off post. When I upcycle I always try to use as much as possible from the garment, so of course I worked according to Candice's tip of really dissecting the garment with a seam ripper. The shape of the individual fabric pieces usually inspire me like the shape of a rock can inspire a sculptor. I also like to to use original details, like the tailored finishes that Candice mentions. The original garment contained two straps to fixate rolled up sleeves, those I turned into shoulder straps on the sundress, including the original button hole and button.



I used one meter Michael Miller Mermaid Magic Blossom and turned the fabric and the garments into four pieces to create three outfits. I always make before pictures, but this time it was also a requirement. Full disclosure, I did line the bodice of our eldest daughter with a remnant fabric from my stash and I used an earlier made bias to finish the arm and neck holes on the top of our youngest, but those were the only extra pieces of fabric that I used. I lined the lace middle piece on the smallest top with a piece of excess silk that I had to cut off and I used the original lining of the tunic to both line the dress of our eldest and to back the lace on the sun dress of our middle one.



The dress that I made for our eldest is a hacked Brueram dress by Sofilantjes. I have already sewn so many of those, I keep getting warm feelings every time that I see the back of that pattern. Our eldest has started to develop, so I crated two small darts inspired by this blog post. The resulting fit is perfect. The skirt part is simply the skirt part from the original garment, but now I used the back of the skirt as the front, I just loved that flutter detail.



The dress on our middle daughter was totally free styled.  That lace on the back of the original garment had a bit strange shape, but when I but in a triangle of the knitted fabric from the original garment, it totally looked like bodice. Like I wrote before, I lined this bodice with a piece that I had cut of from the skirt knitted lining. I gathered a rectangle of the Mermaid Magic Blossom fabric that was as wide as the fabric as a skirt. It is not a full skirt, but the pretty fabric which includes golden details more than makes up for that.



Our smallest is wearing Scuttle shorts. They are designed for knit fabric, but I felt that the color blocked pocket should work in woven, and it totally did. From the sleeves and front of the original garment I had enough fabric to cut those cute trousers from. I managed to squeeze out a woven top to finish her outfit. I used the other half of the lace as a center piece, I really needed that piece, I would not have been able to create a top out of the Mermaid Magic Blossom fabric that I had left. I used the Sally dress pattern as a base. I tested it a few years back and I remembered that it fits over the head without closure.


Sunday, May 27, 2018

Amelia sunshine sale



During our latest sewing weekend she made an Amelia*, a pattern from Bella Sunshine. I had tested and made many jersey patterns from Bella Sunshine, but not the Amelia. Seeing her dress come alive and looking at the adorably cute pictures in the blog post, gave me pattern envy. The Amelia therefore made a quick entry to my long sewing to-do list. Today's Amelia sunshine sale was the perfect opportunity to move the pattern to the top of the sewing list.



The Amelia can be sewn with long sleeves, 3/4 sleeves, short sleeves or sleeveless and in either top, dress or maxi length. I made the sleeveless, considering that our eldest is in need of summer dresses. The Amelia has a cross over front and a V back neckline. The gathered empire waistband is a lovely play full feature that is perfect for color blocking. I personally really like the contrast with the red dot fabric in the waistband. In my eyes it gives a sophisticated look.


I am very happy with the fact that our ten year old loves wearing colors and bold prints. She will have a guitar recital next week where she has to wear black and when she told me the rolled her eyes and says she "hates" dark clothes. Bunnies are her favorite animals, so I knew this fabric would be perfect for her. With this fabric I have made two dresses before, this one and this one. The two meter that I bought at Joyfits is now starting to near the end.


During the sewing weekend end stress, my sewing partner in crime sewed up two wrong bodice parts. This happens relatively easily when you rush because in the official version there are four different bodice parts (which leads to eight different cutted fabric pieces due to having to mirror the bodice pieces). The lining is slightly smaller to avoid having a peeping lining and a perfect finish. But, you know me, I am lazy, so I again just cut the lining pieces and serged the dress with a slightly narrower seam allowance to keep the intended fit.



Due to the Sunshine Sale, the Amelia* pattern is now just 5 dollar for twenty four hours and you can buy the pattern here with the code “sunshinesale”. 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.