A striped bethioua

Ouch... it's June already and this is my second post of 2016. At this rate, I'll have four posts up by the end of this year.

The past months have been extremely busy with other activities and my sewing machine was left untouched the whole time. But last week, I suddenly felt the urge to create something again.

 Since I was feeling a bit rusty, I started with a simple shirt; the free bethioua mini from the German pattern designer Ellepuls. This is the free version (size 86-98) of a pattern that's also available as a  kids' and women's pattern. 

It's a really fun pattern: the front looks like a regular raglan...

 But at the back the sleeves continue to form a curved yoke. A fun detail that allows for many variations: stripe matching, adding piping.

It's always fun to play with stripes.... 

 So I used two matching striped knits from my stash, found at the local fabric market years ago. To add some color, I used red ribbing for the neckline and cuffs.

Fast, simple and fun. The best way to get back into it. 

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...

Simple stripes

Sometimes, simple stripes are the best!

This sweater is actually one of my first creations. It was sewn before I started blogging and J is finally old enough to wear it.  It's just a simple raglan sweater, but I really love it.

Don't you agree???

Not much more to add. Just some more pics of the boy and his bear...

sail away...

Hi there! Wanna see my latest creation?

Yes! Another dip-dyed sailor sweater. 

A while ago, I pinned this hoodie from Scotch and Soda. I love their clothes, but their prices? Not so much. The sweater shown here costs a whopping 89,95 Euros! 

My inspiration: a Scotch Shrunk hoodie

I figured I could create something similar myself, for a fraction of the price! So I bought a yard of navy striped knit, and dipped it into a dye bath. It took some experimenting to get it right, but in the end, I'm satisfied with the result. 

Then it was just a matter of sewing up the sweater. I used a basic shirt pattern from Ottobre (size 122), and added an overlapping, shawl-like collar.

To create this collar, I cut the neckline about two centimeter (1 inch) wider than the pattern prescribed. The collar was a strip of approximately 70 cm (28 inch) long and 8 cm (3 inch) wide, tapering off at the ends, which I then sewed to the neckline. 

The bright orange drawstring gives a nice pop of color.

So does the topstitching on the elbow pads.

So, there it is. A real Scotch and Soda knockoff for about 10% of their price!

In total, this sweater cost me no more than € 9.00:

Navy striped fabric: €4.50 (9.00 per meter)

Blue fabric: from my stash

Dye: €2.75 (I used only half a sachet)

Orange drawstring: €1

I'm linking to:

Scandinavian style

It's week 2 of Project Run and Play. This week's assignment is to design an outfit inspired by your favorite vacation spot. Choosing my favorite spot (or area, actually) is easy. I love Scandinavia. The beautiful, rugged nature. The brightly colored houses, the soft light, the sing-songing language. And the design of course. 

Inspired by the color palette of Scandinavia, I made a color-blocked t-shirt for my daughter.  

The striped fabric is an upcycled shirt, the yellow is a nice high-quality knit (used in a very different color combination before), and the puffin fabric was a gift from Sinterklaas. It's a bit too busy to be used for large areas, but perfect for a fun pocket.

I hope this shirt will become a favorite this summer!

 By the way, the light balls are cotton balls, named Happy Lights. You can buy them in many different colors. They've brightened up our home all winter long.

Upcycled with love

One of the things I love most about sewing, is recycling (or better; upcycling) clothes. It is so satisfying to take an old item that is no longer worn, and give it a second life by turning it into something new.  Especially when the old item has some significance to you, because it once was a favorite piece of clothing from someone you love.

This baby shirt for example. It may not look very special, but it's made from two pieces of clothing that were once worn by two people very dear to me. The blue fabric origally was a pair of jogging pants of my mom. It's this kind of eighties fabric, very soft and a bit shiny (I think in Belgium it's called 'spons').

The striped cuffs are made from an old sweater of one of my moms best friends. Unfortunately, none of them was able to meet the new wearer of their clothes, because they both died a couple of years ago. 

So you can imagine how special it feels to cuddle this cutie in his new sweater, upcycled with love for him and for those two remarkable women.

And check out this beautiful quilt. My very talented aunt upcycled it from my mom's old sweaters (who owned a dozen differently colored St James striped sweaters).

Beautiful, isn't it? It feels special that my kids get to play on the sweaters that were worn with love by their grandma Vera.

Linking to:

PR&P - Men's shirt challenge

This week of Project Run and Play, the Men's dress shirt challenge was indeed a real challenge for me. Not only to create something, but even more to photograph it. After several trips to the thrift store and considering various options, I finally decided upon this simple white shirt, with some fine stitched lines on the collar and sleeves. 

Sewing the shirt itself was not too difficult, since I could reuse the collar and sleeves completely. And after having been struggling with knits for my last projects, it was great to work with cotton again.

But then came the most difficult part: photographing the result. It turns out that a white shirt with fine details is hard to capture on photos. Moreover, I wasn't helped much by the grey drizzly weather, and an unwilling model who didn't want to wear her new shirt for more than five minutes.

O well, it's supposed to be a challenge, isn't it?