KCW day 7 - forest sweater

On the last day of KCW I squeezed out this little number. A nice contrast with all the pink that I sewed before. I love this sweater. The colors are gorgeous, and the photo's really don't do justice to them.

I must confess that the majority of this sweater was made with newly bought fabric, but I did upcycle the leather triangle and the lime green bottom band.

He looks like a little ranger, ready for the woods!

By the way, never had such smooth sewing. Everything went just perfectly, so no seam ripper was needed. Love such quick projects.

KCW day 3-5:pink for the boy

B recently declared that his new favorite color is pink, so my goal for this Kids Clothes Week was to introduce some pink into his wardrobe. This sweater was made with a nice heathered pink-red knit and an upcycled burgundy red tee.  

To tie the colors together and spice it up a bit, I added a striped pattern to the sleeves with a fabric marker. Drawing the stripes took me at least an hour of precious KCW time, but it was really worth the effort. 

A little mustard colored tag gives a pop of unexpected color.

The second project was a quick upcycle of an old thrifted polo. I could reuse the original neckline, so it was really a super quick project. 

I used the Charlie pattern for the tee, and the fit is perfect. Love these colors on him.

I foresee a lot more pink sewing in the future. 

KCW to the rescue!

Next week it's Kids Clothes Week, and I've decided that this will be the week when I'm going to inaugurate my new sewing space. I've dusted off my sewing machines, unpacked the box with sewing equipment, and gone through my stash in search of fabric to upcycle. Ready to go!

Or, that's how it should feel. To be honest, I don't feel very inspired right now. Is it because I have taken such a long sewing break? Or because my kids don't really need any new clothes? The latter was never an obstacle for me, so why is it now...? Is it because I've been crazy busy with work and other commitments? I don't know.

Before...

Anyway, I realized that the purpose of KCW is exactly to help me over this hurdle, by committing myself to sew a little bit every day. So that's what I'm going to do, and hope for the sewing mojo to return.

Cutting out the Charlie pattern from Zonen09

I've decided to start off with some simple things, like patching pants and upcycling a t shirt for my son. Since he has recently declared that his favorite color is pink, I'm sure that he will love this polo with pink, blue, grey and tan stripes. And I'm sure that I will love the fact that it requires only four seams and one hem. It won't get any easier than this...

Lion applique

Today my second guest post at the Kids Clothes Week blog appears. It's all about embellishing shirts and sweaters, using a wide variety of techniques. Go take a look! I promise you that it's full of inspiration...

In line with my post over there, I'm showing an old project here. This lion applique was made a few years ago for B, using an old bath towel and an old yellow tee. I sewed it onto a long-sleeved H&M shirt. Simple, but cute! 

B wore it a lot, and now J loves it. He keeps pointing proudly to the lion on his chest, while making the cutest roar and saying something that vaguely sounds like 'leeuw' (lion). You should hear him, he's adorable...

I'm ending this post with two photos taken in our new attic. The renovation is done and we're currently moving everything back into place. Soon, my sewing room will be reinstalled! Yeah!

I've given up some space, but got something better in return... Lots of white walls and beautiful light. This will make taking good pictures a lot easier, as these examples attest...

Allright, that's it for today. I used all my words and inspiration of this week for the KCW post, so hop over and check it out...

8 ways to upcycle jeans

Today I’m contributing to the Kids Clothes Week blog with an inspiration post about upcycling jeans. So I thought it would be fun to give an overview of my own denim creations here.

1. One of the very first items I ever sewed was this cute denim dress for my daughter. Of course, I made a lot of beginner’s errors; for example using some very sturdy jeans, which made the dress rather stiff. Nevertheless, it is still one of my favorite creations. If only because my little girl looked so incredibly cute in it.

2. Next, I upcycled jeans into some colorful skirts (before my life as a blogger).

3. I used denim to create fun knee patches

And more patches

4. A knight’s tunic

5. Surfer shorts

6. Bubble pocket shorts

7. A biker jacket

8. And a sweater with denim details

(Love to see how my little girl has grown in the past five years...)

Need more inspiration? I collected a lot of ideas on this Pinterest board. Or hop over to the Kids Clothes Week blog to read more.

2014 - an overview

2014 was my second year of blogging at Vera Luna! What a fruitful year it was! Time for a recap. It was so much fun to look back at all the posts, and be remembered of all the items I made during this year. It was also good to realize that most of these clothes were well worn and loved by my kids.

Here's a selection, in random order...

Shades of blue

Clockwise, from top left: Whale patch; Zigzag tee; Frozen hat; Snowy trees

Spring

Top: birch shirt, bottom: Secret squirrel outfit

Stripes

Clockwise, from top-left: Scandinavian style; Sail Away; Simple stripes; Ahoy

Summer

Clockwise, from top left: Ole Guacamole; Puffin shorts; Pineapple tee; Space Race shirt

A tiny bit of pink

Left and bottom: Denim details; top right: Luuk hat

Autumn

Left: Tuxedo pants; Right: Owl sweater

Warm stuff

Top: Fall hoodie, bottom left: Winterland, bottom right: Aviatrix

Yes, it was a good year! Thanks for reading along. I wish you all the best for 2015!

Tutorial - string ornaments

When collecting paper for the recycle bin, I found some nice red cardboard, I was reminded of this tutorial, and decided to make some string ornaments together with my kids.

A quick and easy project, but the result is really nice. 

We hung our ornaments in the tree, but you could also use them as gift tags or other decoration.

Here's a small tutorial:

1. Cut out small circles from thin cardboard. Cut eight or sixteen slits into the circles.

2. Take some yarn (or twine as I did) and tape it to the backside.

3. Thread the string forward through the slit at the top and bring it down to the slit at the bottom. Then, bring the yarn up and forward through the slit next to the top one, and backward through the slit next to the bottom one. Continue in the same way, until you have completed two rounds.

4. Once completed, weave the yarn underneath one of the strings, make a loop and knot it.

5. You're done!