A tiger in the jungle

 

I spotted a tiger in the jungle....

(After earlier sightings of panthers in the woods)

Prawling through the tall grass...

Wild and gracious

With fierce and focused eyes....

and soft and sensitive ears...

Glowing in the late sunlight

Pattern: Adapted Bethioua mini from Ellepuls (free pattern)

Fabric: jersey from local fabric market

Boy Sewing Week - raccoon tee

Hi all, you can find me over at Our Chez Nous, where I'm guest posting for Boy Sewing Week. 

If you're curious about the creation of this tee, or want to get inspired about boy sewing, hop on over to Our Chez Nous...  

Pattern: Hacked Bethioua Mini (free pattern)

Fabric: Heathered knit from local fabric market

Raccoon painted with fabric paint

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. 

City gym shorts

I almost missed Kids Clothes Week last week, but I managed to squeeze in an hour of sewing yesterday. Just enough time to complete these cute City Gym Shorts.

This is a free pattern from Purl Soho. The perfect pattern for a quick summer sew.

Testing the Morocco shorts

A while ago I tested the Morocco shorts, the latest pattern from Petit à Petit & Family. This is a slim fit, unisex pattern for pants or shorts with several fun details, such as a cool tuxedo stripe and double welt pockets with pocket flap. The pattern offers lots of opportunities for color-blocking.

I made the tuxedo shorts, size 7, for my tall and slender girl who will turn 7 this summer. And as you see, the fit is spot on.

STYLO - her outfit

Today I’m sharing the details of the little girl’s outfit I sewed for STYLO.

When I started brainstorming about my contribution for STYLO, I thought it would be fun to sew outfits for my 4-year old boy and his girlfriend M.

They are such a cute pair, and they always have a lot of fun together. And they would make a photogenic combination, my tall dark boy next to this small blonde girl (would you tell that they only differ one month in age?)

STYLO - his outfit

Have you already taken a look at the fabulous new issue of STYLO magazine?

I contributed to the 1 Fabric/5 Ways spread. Five people were sent a piece of Alison Glass' PLUS fabric from the Handcrafted line and asked to create something inspired by this fabric. With this fabric as starting point, I created two outfits. Let's take a closer look at my boy's outfit.

STYLO!

Today the 4th issue of STYLO Magazine is released, and guess who is contributing?

Unbelievable right?

I was so surprised and honored when Jess and Celina emailed me to contribute to this issue and didn't need to think long before answering with a very big YESSSS. Especially after seeing the inspirational Pinterest board for this issue. Bright, bold, colorful, geometric, that was just right up my alley!

I was assigned to the 1 Fabric/5 Ways spread, which meant that I was sent a yard of surprise fabric, and had to create something inspired by it. So after the first excitement of being invited, some looong weeks of eager anticipation followed. My package was the last one to arrive, and I was really getting anxious that it had gotten lost in the mail. You can imagine my relief when it finally arrived.

The package contained a yard of Alison Glass' Handcrafted PLUS fabric. I must confess that it wasn't love at first sight, and I had a hard time coming up with a plan. Many hours of browsing Pinterest and the local fabric market followed. Finally, I found a nice combination of fabrics, and I could start sewing two outfits; one for my boy, and one for his girl friend.

As I was sewing the outfits, the fabric grew on me, even though I used it predominantly as a contrast fabric. My husband kept teasing me about how I was hiding it, but I really like it more as an accent fabric than as a main fabric.

The photoshoot took place early spring, on a very cold and grey day. The kids were troopers though, and had so much fun together. They are such a cute pair.

In the coming days, I will share more details of both outfits separately. Right now, I encourage you to go straight to STYLO Magazine and feast on all the great content that this issue has to offer.
Or visit Maartje at Huisje Boompje Boefjes, Holli at Hello Holli, Monica at Adirondack Inspired or Erin at Brooklyn Patterns to see what they made with this fabric.

Tropical tee

We have a mini heatwave here in the Netherlands, so time for a tropical post.

Indeed, a pineapple again!

Hot summer days like this are rare, and definitely shouldn't be spent in a sweltering sewing room...

So I got a store-bought tee, my old faithful pineapple stencil, and some fabric paint

Quick, easy, and very summery...

By the way, those cute striped shorts are another hand-made item that was once sewn by my mother for my siblings or me, stored for years and years and now finally gets worn again...

Prism shorts

A while ago, I was trying out some freezer paper stenciling and ended up with this fun triangle print. My daughter found the stenciled fabric, loved it, and asked me to make her a pair of shorts with it.

Yes, ma'am, your wish is my command!

So I created yet another pair of side-panel shorts. I love this pattern; it is so versatile and lends itself for endless variations: use bold contrasting fabric for the side panels (as in these puffin shorts) or a more subtle combination (last year's pineapple shorts), add piping, do something different on each leg (I made a pair of stars and stripes shorts that I never blogged), or anything you can think of.

I used a self-drafted pattern, but you could easily modify an existing pattern: cut off a rectangle from the front and back panel and add these two rectangles together to form the side panel (see instructions below). The side panels of these shorts (size 5-7) were 12 cm wide.

Once you've cut out the panels, just sew the shorts together as you would normally do, just make two extra seams, and ad piping if you like.