Tulip sweater for men

My brother has a clearly outlined clothing style. He likes simple but refined: no prints or flashy colors, but patterns with special details.

Since he is more than two metres long, finding clothes in store for him is rather difficult. Most of his sweaters are a little short. But for his birthday, I wanted to sew him a long and perfectly fitting sweater! I drew a pattern based on one of his store-bought sweaters and added a Tulip back.

Drawing a pattern for a sweater yourself is really not that hard. I took pictures while making it and I am planning to write a tutorial!

The fabric is a super soft elastic wool mix. I bought it at the stocksale of children's clothing brand Strass last year. Blue with a subtle grey stripe in it, totally his kind of thing!

For the collar (extra wide, since my personal trendwatcher told me this is the new fashion for men's clothing) and the little triangle I used the wrong side of the fabric.

The back side got its Tulip part. I wrote a tutorial on how to draw this HERE. The original Tulip has curves, but to achieve a more man-like shape I just drew straight lines instead of curved ones.

Happy brother, mission accomplished!

Tulip T-shirt #2

My January make for Project Sew It was a self drafted T-shirt pattern in a beautiful snow tiger fabric. I named it Tulip T-shirt, after it's tulip like shaped back. On the Dutch blog I got lot's of requests for a tutorial, so I made a second version and took pictures while drafting the pattern and sewing it. The tutorial is written in Dutch but comes with clear pictures, and I am always willing to help if you don't understand! The free tutorial can be found HERE.

Today I present you the second version, with it's special tulip-like back piece.

This time I opted for medium length sleeves, since spring has finally arrived in Belgium. I added a decorative cap sleeve, for which I used the ruffle pattern piece of the Cocoon Dress but skipped the gathering.

The piping used in the back piece returns in the shoulder parts.

The fabric is a super soft one by Nosh Organics, won at the Compagnie M. - contest. The colors are not my favorites and I wouldn't buy this myself, but I really like the way it turned out!  (the rest of the knit fabric will become the lining of the Berlin Coat I'm working on)

My best friend Jan was in charge of taking pictures. He is very artistic, and so are his photos!

Are you planning a Tulip T-shirt too? My next version will be one for men!

Fabric: Mini stripes aqua-pink, Nosh Organics
Pattern: free tutorial Tulip T-shirt (in Dutch) 

How to make your seven-year-old feel like a princess

She loves everything I sew for her. Little Liv, the seven-year-old that I babysit. As soon as she saw this skirt, it became her favourite.

No frogs were needed, a few layers of tulle were enough to make her feel like a princess.

I bought two types of white tulle. The 'hard' version, which feels a little rough and plastic-like, for a voluminous circle skirt, and the 'soft' version for a gathered skirt on top. Some white cotton fabric for the waistband and the lining and my princess skirt was done!

Princes, beware, this beautiful princess is waiting for you! And hurry, because today she gives free hugs :-)

Project Sew it! - March

My March contribution to Project Sew It was to be a sweater for my brother, or a dress for myself, or even a jacket. But it turned out to be a blouse. My goal for the project was to sew one garment of a self-drafted pattern a month and I hadn't planned to draft a blouse pattern at all. Actually, I had planned this blouse as a quick project. But it turned out a little different.

I flipped through my collection of pattern magazines and chose a blouse pattern in Knipmode's June 2012 edition. According to my measurements I had to cut a size 36 so that's what I did. I sewed it up rather quickly, but it didn't fit at all! It was too big one me, the darts were in the wrong place, and I had chosen the wrong fabric for the collar. As you might have seen on Instagram: a big fiasco! So I tore al pieces apart again and drafted my own blouse pattern. Here it is!

The blouse has bust darts and vertical waist darts to make it fit perfectly. I drew an open Peter Pan collar and added golden piping to it. The puff sleeves are made of an elastic lycra which is a little shine through. I finished them with some elastic bias tape.

The blouse matches perfectly with my new blazer, bought during sales at Hilfiger!

The original blouse was sewn in the beginning of February, but it took me a little time to find the courage to start over again. I finished my final version two weeks ago and had it photographed last weekend, so it was ready for blogging on Tuesday. That day Brussels got hit by two ISIS bombs and the whole country was mourning for a few days. It didn't feel right to publish a blog post then, that's why I'm posting it with a little delay.

I am so lucky that all my friends and family are allright, although some of them were near the airport when the explosions happened. We pray for the families who lost someone, we light candles for peace, we lay flowers, and we keep smiling, because love always wins.

Bird fabric: Atori Black - Echino - @ De Stoffenkamer
Pattern: self drafted, based on model 22 - Knipmode June 2012 

Sister twinning

You've got lovers and you've got haters. Some people always dress their kids in matching outfits, others never do. I'm not a tremendous fan of twinning, but I made an exception for my little sister!

My little sister celebrated her 16th birthday (Huh? 16 already? When did that happen?) She is the sweetest sister I can imagine, check the Christmas present she gave me! So lovely! As a birthday present I wanted to sew her a sweater since she wears sweaters all the time.

After cutting all pattern pieces for one sweater I realized I had just enough fabric left to sew to! Sister twinning it would be!

The pattern is self drafted, based on a sweater hanging in my closet. Very simple: a square piece for the bodice, two sleeves and some cuffs. Most teenagers wear sweaters with quotes on them so I adde two quotes that fit us!

"She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes". Perfect for my little sister who can make everyone laugh just by being their. To add a little more sparkle to the sparkle, I cut this one word out of glitter flex foil. The other words are cut out of flock foil.

For myself I chose a quote from the Annie-movie. "Never fully dressed without a smile". Have you seen the video clip of the song? It always makes me smile!

The word "smile" also has glitters on it. With a little imagination you can see that the last two letters form a wink-emoticon!



We took pictures on a rainy day, but at least the sun shone on our faces!

Two sweaters, alike yet different. Two sisters, alike yet different. Happy birthday, my sweet little sissie!



Fabric: striped sweater fabric bought from her
Pattern: self drafted

Sew It! challenge: January

**I am not a native speaker, but I try my best to translate my blog posts into English. The original Dutch version can be found here **

Have you heard about Project Sew It yet? I feel so lucky to be part of it. Celina Bailey, blogging at Petit à Petit +family, challenges everyone to set themselves a sewing goal which is slightly out of their comfort zone. Most of the participants have planned to do some more selfish sewing, but since most of my sewing is for myself, I decided to set my aim a little different. My goal is to sew at least one item from a self drafted or self modified pattern. I am not at all a skilled pattern designer, but I love to experiment with sewing patterns.

For my January contribution, I decided to start with an easy project. My closet was in need of some T-shirts, and the beautiful new fabric collection at Bambiblauw inspired me for this one!

I bought one panel of the Snowtiger knit, and I combined it with a plain grey knit for the sleeves.

Drafting a T-shirt pattern wasn't that hard, so I opted for some "special effects". I added some piping at the shoulders. The color of the piping is almost the same as the color of the tiger's nose.

For the back, I cut the pattern in three pieces and combined both fabrics and some more piping. For the shape of the pieces, I was inspired by a volleyball shirt of my sister's. Inspiration is hidden everywhere ;-)

Although it is a very simple garment, I am so happy with it! It is just so comfortable.

What I like most about this shirt, is the tiger fabric. It is so soft and qualitative and the print is beautiful. Unlike most knits, it was really nice to sew with.  The Happy Nature 3 line has four animals (a cat, a fox, a dog and a tiger) who each come in a poplin, a knit and a sweater version. An from StraightGrain made a gorgeous dress for her daughter in the poplin version of this snow tiger panel. And best of all: I heard they also ship to the USA!

Doing a good exam = little present for myself! @bambiblauw @lanalotta #happynature3 #bambiblauw #lanalotta #fabric #sewing

Een foto die door withlovebyeva is geplaatst op 23 Jan 2016 om 1:24 PST

Tiger knit fabric: Happy Nature 3 - Bambiblauw @ LanaLotta

Grey knit fabric: Swafing bij LanaLotta
Piping: LanaLotta

Little black dress revisited

** Uitgebreide Nederlandstalige versie hier **

On New Year's Eve, I wore this new dress in fabrics I received from the Belgian fabric shop Liesellove. She is having a huge sale right now, check it out!

The pattern was completely self drafted. I designed it together with my best friend Jan. Ready for a little journey around the details?

The front bodice has an asymmetric neckline and consists out of two fabrics: a plain black Ponte di Roma and a printed linen by Echino.

I added a black leather waistband which is asymmetrical as well.

The skirt is a tulip skirt with two box pleats.

The sleeves are just normal short sleeves to which I added a special 'touch' by cutting out two triangles in the front- and the back side. The sleeve on the left is completely black, the sleeve on the right is made up of two different halves (one in black, one printed) to make the print continue.



The back side of the dress is fully black. It consists out of two crescent shaped side panels and closes with two little black buttons. No zipper needed!



The back side of the skirt is the same as the front side. With the pleats, I wanted to create the illusion of a curvy shape.

Sadly, the illusion doesn't work from the side view ;-) Inspired by the Cocoon Dress, I lenghtened the back of the skirt and shortened it in the front.

Combined with the handbag I received from Khadetjes, I was ready for the party!

I wish you all the best for 2016!

Black fabric: Punta di Roma - Liesellove

Waistband fabric: black skai leather - Liesellove

Printed fabric: cotton-linen-blend Black and Natural Geometric Triangles and Birds by Echino (Kokka) - Liesellove

Buttons: Veritas

Pattern: self drafted