A Nani Iro blouse

** Deze post lezen in het Nederlands? Klik hier **

I bet you all know Nani Iro. If you don't, definitely check out their website, because their fabrics are not only beautiful in colors and prints, but also the softest you have ever felt. They even get softer with every wash, isn't that amazing?

I have several Nani Iro double gauze fabrics in my stash (hadn't used any of them up to now, though. Way too precious to use!)

For this blouse I combined one of their linens (Bed Grass cozy white) with a double gauze (Ori Some blue). Although the linen is less soft than the double gauze, it is so finely woven that I immediately loved it. The blue border that I used for the bottom of my top was printed at both selvages, the white part in between has fine black lines and tiny white flowers printed on it.

The pattern is blouse 129 from Burda 4/2015. It is a very simple model with only three pattern pieces: a front piece, a back piece, and a sleeve insert. 

Both fabrics were ordered online at Julija's shop, a Belgian webshop and brick-and-mortar store with a large selection of Nani Iro and Liberty fabrics. If you happen to be in Antwerp once, it's definitely worth a visit!

My best friend Jan made me these cute little earrings for my birthday. He broke some teacups into pieces, softened the edges and made a little hole in them so that he could pull a ring through. They match my blouse perfectly!

This is the first crop top I have ever made. A few years ago I would have never dared to wear something like this, but being ill for 1.5 years I lost so much weight that I thought it was appropriate to wear a crop top now. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, right? 

Main fabric: Bed Grass Cozy linnen - Nani Iro - bij Julija's shop

Sleeve insert fabric: Ori Some double gauze - Nani Iro - bij Julija's shop

Pattern: blouse 29 - Burda 4/2015

Christmas Tulips (and a discount code!)

When Katrien and I designed our Tulip pattern, we had summery dresses and tops in mind. Those of you living down under are very lucky to have warm days right now, but here in Belgium it's way too cold for summer dresses. Time to prove that the Tulip pattern also works well for winter dresses!

Due to my health problems, I haven't been sewing anything for over a month now. My mind is full of ideas but my body needs rest... I felt sorry for neglecting the blog for this long, so I'm very happy to finally post something again! I sewed these dresses on a sewing weekend with some blogging friends back in October. The fabrics used are all by the Belgian textile designer Lotte Martens. She designs and handprints each panel herself which makes them all unique. I simply love the brightness of the prints and the quality of the fabric, so good!

I sewed the dresses for Lottes daughters, just like I did here. She spends so much time printing the fabrics that she hardly has time left to sew for her own girls! When hearing that I immediately proposed to sew for them and that was such a pleasure. The girls were so happy with their new dresses and kept twirling and dancing.

The blue dress with birds in copper is a size 7. Mona is five but with a longsleeve underneath the size 7 fits her perfectly. Isn't she super cute?

The fabric is so beautiful in itself that I didn't add any "special touches". Just some copper-colored piping at the tulip petals, that's all. This way all attention goes to the bird print!

For Suse, Mona's bigger sister, I did change something to the pattern. I simply omitted one tulip petal, which gives the dress a completely different look.

The last one was sewn for Jutta, a friend of the girls. However, on the day we planned to take pictures Jutta turned out to be ill so Suse had to be the stand-in model. Jutta is a little smaller than Suse, that's why the fit is a little tight on her. I promise it's better on Jutta!

 

Critical readers might have noticed that I made a mistake here. I accidentally changed the order of the tulip petals! I guess sewing and talking at the same time is not always a good idea ;) 

The matching long sleeves and leggings were sewn by Veerle, a friend of Lotte's. The knits are super soft and also designed by Lotte!

The cotton fabric comes in panels of 60cm high (about 24 inches). For each of the dresses I used one panel.

We did a photoshoot after the girls came home from school and it was already dark outside, which explains their tired faces and the poor quality of the pictures. But oh well, we had fun!

Did these dresses inspire you to sew a New Yaer's dress for your own girls? The discount code "TULIPPARTY" gives you a 10% discount, valid for both the Dutch and the English version of the pattern until December 31.  Buy it here!

Blue dress for Mona

Pattern: Tulip dress in size 122

Dress fabric: Buteo 038, Lotte Martens

Knit fabric used for longsleeve and legging: Corax 02, Lotte Martens

Shoes: Eli, bought at Hippe Schoentjes

Grey-greenish dress for Suse

Pattern: Tulip dress in size 134

Dress fabric: Buteo 019, Lotte Martens

Knit fabric used for longsleeve and legging: Corax 05, Lotte Martens

Shoes:  Eli and Angulus bought at Hippe Schoentjes

Kneesocks: Condor bought at Hippe Schoentjes

Lichtroze bolletjesjurkje voor Jutta

Pattern: Tulip dress in size 128

Dress fabric: Tur Tur 08, Lotte Martens

Knit fabric used for longsleeve and legging: Corax 03, Lotte Martens

Schoentjes: Eli and JFF bought at  Hippe Schoentjes

Kneesocks: Collégien bought at Hippe Schoentjes

BewarenBewaren

Launching tomorrow: the Tulip Dress and Top in English!

Last summer I spent hours and hours behind my computer and behind my sewing machine, alone or with my companion Katrien. On the 3rd of August we could finally share the result of our hard work with the world: we launched our first sewing pattern! The Tulip Dress and Top is a pdf sewing pattern  in sizes 1 YO to 10 YO.  It was a great success in Belgium and soon we got the question whether the pattern would be released in English too. Today I've got the exciting task to tell you it is! 

Woopwoop! After working on the English translation of our #tulipdressandtop pattern for weeks, it's almost ready to be launched! Just one more reading to filter all mistakes out. Tomorrow (monday October 3 at 12 am GMT), the English pattern will be available in @kaatjenaaisels 's shop! 😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

Een foto die is geplaatst door Eva (@withlovebyeva) op 2 Okt 2016 om 7:22 PDT

I attended an international school for several years so I feel quite comfortable reading and writing in English, but I hadn't expected "sewing English" to be so difficult! It took me lots of time and effort to figure everything out, but after the last proofreading I can say that I'm happy with the result!

This result could have never been achieved without the help of our great proofreading team. Thank you so much Emi, An, Olga, Jenya, Sara, Maria, Suz and Maria! Your feedback was so helpful!

Tulip is a pattern that stands out because of its special design: two tulip-shaped petals that overlap on the chest and a gathered skirt that peeps from underneath them. The pattern gives you the option to choose between a top or a dress version and a closure with a hidden zipper or buttons. It comes in sizes 1 YO to 10 YO. Detailed instructions and step-by-step pictures guide both beginners and experienced seamstresses smoothly through the sewing process.  

The Tulip I'm showing today is actually the first Tulip I ever sewed. I sewed it up in June when Katrien and I were still working on the fit of the pattern. The fabric is very lightweight and roughly woven, with a feel somewhere between linen and crepe. This is the size 10 for Mila who turned 10 in January. At first the dress was too long, and while shortening it I suddenly decided to make a high-low-hem out of it. I love the way this turned out. It is not an option included in the pattern, but not that hard to add yourself ;-) One of our international testers was planning to do the same, I'm very curious to see what she did with it!

What can you expect when buying the Tulip pattern?
- a pdf file, to be printed in A4 / A0 / letter size
- the pattern in 12 sizes, from 1 YO to 10 YO
- option to only print the desired size
- detailed instructions with clear pictures, both for the zippered and the buttoned version
- basic sewing techniques like stitching piping or adding a hidden zipper are explained, so the instructions are easy to follow for beginners
- short instructions for experienced seamstresses

Tomorrow at 10 am GMT the pattern will be launched in the Kaatjenaaisels-shop! The launch of the pattern also marks the start of the blog tour. A team of international seamstresses will show you their interpretations of our Tulip pattern. At first I felt a little uncomfortable to contact them, since most of them are ladies I secretly admire. But they were all so kind and helpful! The coming days you'll find Tulips on the blogs of these talented ladies:

3/10⎮StraightGrain ▲ The Itinerant Seamstress 

4/10⎮Fairies, Bubbles & Co. ▲ Liivi & Liivi

5/10⎮Leven met Liv ▲ Coffee + Thread ▲ Sisko by Mieke

6/10⎮Just Add Fabric ▲ Sewpony

7/10⎮While she was sleeping ▲ Made by Sara ▲ Le labo d'Isa

Katrien and I will provide an overview of the participants on our blogs each day to make sure you won't miss any of their beautiful Tulips. One more night until we start, I'm so excited! Mila and I are already looking forward to the tour and to your reactions :-)

My first pair of ladies pants

Being busy launching my Tulip pattern, first in Dutch and in a few days in English as well, I somehow neglected Project Sew It. The challenge I set for myself was sewing one garment with a self drafted or modified pattern each month. My last entries can be found here. Since June I've added nothing new to the list, except of course my own Tulip Dress & Top pattern, but now I'm starting again!

My contribution for today is a special one, since I've feared sewing pants over over 6 years now. But when I received this extremely soft chambray from Georgette, I wanted to cover as much of my body  as possible with it. My eye fell on this high waisted trousers pattern from Burda 04/15 (model 129).

I didn't make any adjustments to the fit of the pattern, I just added details. I like the overall fit of the pattern although next time I'd make some changes to the back since there is a little too much fabric there.

Concering details, I added a strip of leather on the side of one leg.

Also I made piped pockets. One for real...

And one fake one! I added a scrap of the leather behind it for a special touch.

The waistband, not foreseen in the pattern, consists out of different tunnel parts with a piece of glitter elastic that runs through them. The elastic I bought is not from great quality, so I only attached it to the fabric at the zipper part. This way I can easily replace it when it stretches out. Although I hope it won't because the color is just perfect!

This make is actually a guest post for the Belgian fabric shop Georgette. She sells this extremely soft chambray by Les Trouvailles d'Amandine, alongside with lots of other GOTS-certified biological fabrics. So if you'd like more pictures, hop over to the Georgette-blog! The guest post is only in Dutch, that's why I wanted to do some translation here, but I'm sure the pics will speak for themselves. Go see them here!