Fabrics...

I love fabrics and I must admit I have lots of them! I love visiting fabric stores and markets to find ( and buy) some more, I can get very excited about a new piece of fabric and dream about all the pretty things I can make of it. Since a few weeks I have my own fabric on the roll and I love looking at it standing there and think of all the things I want to make with it. I already made cushions, tea towels and a bag and plan to make a dress for the girls.... 

Paris Fabrics are here....

I'm so happy and excited to let you know that my Souvenirs de Paris fabrics are here. I have wanted to make fabric by the metre for so long and finally I have done it. Of course my first fabric had to be inspired by my favourite city Paris, I cannot wait to sew all kind of project with these fabrics. 

The fabric comes in two colours, blue and aqua and in two different weights, a soft cotton ( 120 gr) perfect  to make clothes, bedding etc and a heavy weight cotton (210gr) great for making cushion covers, bags, pencils purses.

You can find the fabrics in my Etsy shop.

Sewing for teenagers

I love sewing clothes for my girls and they love the clothes I make (at least they tell me so)

But lately I've been sewing less clothes for them since I find it hard to find nice patterns for their size (158 and up) I used to sew mostly clothes from Japanese sewing books because I like their simple shapes and look but all those patterns are up to size 140 or so. In holland you can find burda or knippie (kids clothes sewing magazines) but I'm not a big fan of their style.

But last saturday in the bookstore I took a look in the new Knippie and saw a pattern I liked of a very simple dress that would be perfect for the girls. I already had this fun Moustache fabric waiting to be made into something so within a few hours I made a new dress for Mila and she looves it and so do I.

Do you have the same trouble of finding nice patterns for your teenagers or do you have some nice tips for great patterns?

Umbrella prints

I love these  screenprinted fabric trimming from the Australian company Umbrellaprints, I ordered them to join their yearly competiotion ( read here how to enter). The challange is to create something with this package of little pieces of their printed fabric. I love all the diffrent colours and prints that the package contained, the pieces are quite small and perfect to make small projects like doll clothes and accesories. Above you can see what I made with all the fabrics. What I liked about this challange was using every single bit of fabric that the package contained!

Making....

Last night I sewed a doll sweater and it turned out quite nice, I have tried sewing sweaters before but failed every time so now that I found the secret of making mini sweaters I could not stop and I made about 15 sweaters ;-) Here are some of my favourites.

Summer clothes

Spring is slowly coming and we have to start thinking about what to wear this summer, the girls have grown a lot lately so new clothes are a must. A great way to start summer sewing is joining the KCW ( kids clothes week)  Sewing clothes for your kids a whole week 1 hour a day! This week is a busy one but yesterday I managed to sew a summer short for Mila, a quick and easy project.

Let's go shopping....

You can never have to many bags, don't you agree? I made this big shopper for the doll with my favourite Echino fabric ( from this lovely shop) and a matching skirt too. The mini backback is made with suedine, makes it look quite real !

Have a lovely weekend with lots of Shopping!

Sewing days...

I'm spending most of my working days behind my sewing machine, sewing dolls, rabbits and Frida's. I always enjoy seeing a whole lot of them finished like on this picture!

Sewing time...

These last few days I have been busy cutting fabric and sewing lots of rabbits, dolls, frida's and flags for some shop orders!

D.I.Y birthday present

This rainy weekend was perfect to stay inside and do some crafting with Mila, we made a birthday present for one of her friends. We found really nice wooden owl pegs/pins (dille & Kamille) that inspired us for the colours and theme for the present. Mila drew a cute owl that we used as a template to cut out of Flock foil and iron on cotton. We sewed a bag and filled it with some nice owl goodies. Of course we had to insert Mila's own label to finish it all of!

I really like the Flock foil, it's such a cool material to work with and make the coolest designs in so little time, great for decorating t-shirts, bags, cushions and much more.... you can find it here

New doll clothes

 Mila and Sofia wanted to sew some new clothes for their dolls, so sewed this weekend some new doll outfits. They did a great job, I had to help them with some details, doll clothes are tiny so quite complicated to sew. I did some sewing too and made these two outfits. The stripy skirt, leggwarmers and crawl are made from an old legging, it took me only five minutes. The coat and bag took some more time. As soon as the girls finish thier doll clothes I'll take some pictures and share. 

I

A new dress for Mila

So I finished a dress instead of a coat.....but I like it a lot, the fabric designed by Karen from Misha Lulu was waiting for a nice project and since Mila loved this dress I made for her and the fabric it made sence to make a nice winterdress for her. The fabric is a nice soft baby cord and the belt from her other dress fitted perfectly with this one! Next project will be the wintercoat....

Sewing kids clothes

Fall has started and it's time to look in the girls closet to see what they need for fall and winter....The haven't grown that much so luckily they don't need a whole new wardrobe but there are a few things missing. Today is the start of KCWC organized by ElsieMarley and I will try to play along although I have tons of other things to do. The first project will be a new wintercoat for Mila. I have sewn a few coats already for the girls but they where simple coats,  now I want to make a coat with a bit more shape so it will be tricky I think. I haven't found a good pattern so I will try to make my own.....keeping my fingers crossed and hope to show you soon !

*** Have a great week ***

Me time

Already the second week of the summer holiday, the girls are staying at their grandparents and I have had some time to work, I finished almost my whole list of things that I needed to do and now I have some time left to do some sewing.....for me. I need a new bag since my old one is completly worn down. I treated myself on some very pretty Echino fabric, I found it for sale at the lovely shop Monday's milk I will use it for the outside of the bag and will use the blue/green ( from the market) one for the lining. I have no idea what kind of bag I will make.....hope to show you the end result very soon!

Parfume bottles

I got an order for a few  nr. 5 Chanel bottles, they will be used as party favours for a Chanel party an Australian customer will have, sounds like a very nice and stylish party theme don't you think!

I made a few extra bottles and camera's for my shop, they will be availible in the soon!

Flowers and summer clothes...

Today it was a real summer day here, finally warm enough for Sofia to wear her new clothes I made during KCWC. I made the same outfit for her doll as a little suprise for her, even though she is almost 11 she loves her doll and that makes me a happy mum ;-)What also makes me very happy is my garden, it's getting prettier every day, flowers starting to bloom and my roses are full of buds ready to pop open ...

KCWC # day 2

I know day 2 of KCWC is already over but I, but the dress needed some buttons and a belt to get it finished for the picture. I used the same pattern as the dress of mila (also same size ;-) but with this fabric it has a totally different look don't you think? I've also managed to make a short for Sofia too, photo's still have to be taken. I'm having fun sewing all these new clothes and want to sew some more....

fabric: local fabric shop (last year)

belt: Claires

bag:  bought in Arles (south of France)

leggings: DPAM

shoes: dolcis

Dolls and Rabbits

Today I've been busy today packing a big order for a very nice big shop in Baarn ( the Netherlands) rabbits, dolls and diy kits, I could not resist taking a picture seeing them all together like this.

KCWC # day 1

Today is the the first day of the KCWC (kids clothes week challenge) and I cheated, yes I did, I already started yesterday , I was preparing my fabrics and patterns to see what I wanted to sew this week and suddenly I was sewing a dress, just to try out a new pattern I found, once started I could not stop and finished the dress. I was afraid that the pattern would be to difficult but it luckily it was not that hard. Mila (and me) love the end result. I think I will make one for Sofia too!

the pattern is from Stiched by you spring 2012 nr.1 dress nr.9

* the fabric is vintage

* buttons are vinatge too

* shoes & belt ZARA

*legging Hema

*bag H&M

(Mila did her own styling)

KCWC

The sun is starting to shine and the weather is getting warmer...time to make some new clothes for the girls. A great way to get started is joining KCWC organised by Elsie Marley. Commit yourself to sew 1 hour a day for a week. On Elsie's blog and pinterest you will find lots of ideas, tutorials, links and inspiration to get started. Sofia and Mila have grown a lot so they are in need of lots of new clothes, some dresses, shorts, skirts and a summercoat of some sort. I love using the patterns from Japanese sewing books, most of them have patterns up to size 130(cm) the girls are bigger now so I have to add some lenght to the patterns for the arms and legs. Does anybody know a japanese sewing book for teenagers with sizes 140 and up?? The girls still like wearing handmade clothes and even help sewing and cutting them but there are no really nice books and patterns availible for their size and age I think!