Thursday, June 26, 2014

The Lulu Dress by CINO - Pattern Review



Okay, I am not quite sure what happened but not only have I made matching dresses for the girls....they are also totally appropriate for the upcoming American holiday Independence Day/4th of July. This household might be half British but we are always ready for an excuse to some barbecue and fireworks.....and now apparently also red/white and blue homemade outfits - not on purpose....but still...we are!

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Style That Kid! - eBook Review.

Today I have a fun post on the blog.

The lovely Alida from Alida Makes kindly sent me a copy of her amazing eBook Style That Kid!
A book full of advice on how styling, location and the right light can make all the difference for your photos.

And what better way to show you the difference than by finding the post with some of the worst photos I have ever presented on the blog and retake the photos.


Monday, June 9, 2014

The Soleil Dress by Selvage Designs.



Even though I am cutting heavily down on blogging this summer I was totally up for reviewing the Soleil Dress from Selvage Designs.

Both me and my kids LOVE knit fabric dresses and with the cute details such as pockets and an optional open back I was game.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

$150 gift card to The Ribbon Retreat - Giveaway.



And the giveaways keep coming....this time for a $150 gift card to The Ribbon Retreat.

Personally I love their BIG selection of grosgrain ribbons.


I have a full tutorial to this pleated skirt HERE
I know the post will say for a winter skirt but with thinner fabrics it will work just as well for spring, summer and fall!


And in THIS post I also have a tutorial on how to hide a hem stitch with grosgrain ribbons.

The Ribbon Retreat sells of course tons of other things than grosgrain ribbons....take a look for yourself HERE.

And if you wonder who The Daily Sew is and how I am connected, let me give you a quick introduction.
It is a Facebook page curated by a big group of sewing bloggers plus a lot of awesome guest bloggers that basically spend the whole day serving you with lots of tutorials and inspiration that they find all over blog land. You are welcome :-)

Enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win.

Good luck!

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Organic Cotton Plus - Fabric Review & Giveaway.


Wohoooo, it been a while since I had a giveaway on the blog and THIS is a good one!


A while ago I got contacted by the nice people at Organic Cotton Plus. They asked if I wanted to review some of their fabric?
Duuuh, is rain wet?
In other words I turned them down.....KIDDING, I said yes as fast fast as I could!
But I also asked if they were interested in sharing their loveliness with you? And I told you they were nice, because they said yes!

At the bottom of this post there is a Rafflecopter where you have a chance to win a $50 gift card to their web shop. Open for International participants, yay.

But please don't miss the post itself.


I choose to receive this great organic cotton interlock (color: cornflower) and made a heavily remixed version of a dress from Happy Homemade vol. 5 (Japanese pattern book).

And this ooooooh so lovely organic cotton fleece (color: a dusty coral) which turned out to be a sweatshirt fleece - a pleasant surprise because that was really what I wanted.
I made The Hawthorn Zip-up Sweatshirt from Willow & Co / Titchy Threads with remixed pockets. More about that later.

Let's talk about the dress and the fabric is it made of first, shall we!

The interlock is super soft and with a great drape and yet staple enough to sew with a normal sewing machine (not serger). That means more possibilities for sewing more detailed garments without the need of a overstitch or annoying twin needles (yeah, sorry I am not a fan - I think I am under some sort of twin needles spell).

I pre-washed the fabric of pure habit - even though there are no chemicals to wash out since it is organic, yay. I did not notice any shrinking but there was a tiny bit of peeling - but seriously only a tiny bit and nothing surprising for cotton knit fabric. It would NEVER hold me back from ordering it again.


The dress is a remix of a remix of a simple raglan sleeved, gathered neckline, loose fit dress.
I remixed it the first time for STYLO, vol 1. See it HERE.
For this remix I skipped the button placket, made it even more high-low and changed the sleeves to sort of half-sleeves.


When you do a half-sleeve you have to find a way to finish off the rest of the armscye under the arm. I used home made bias tape. You can find a tutorial on hemming with bias tape HERE on my blog. 
And since I was hemming the armscye with bias tape I decided to do the same with the sleeve hem as well. It turned out pretty neat looking as you can see above.
By the way the neck line is hemmed with bias tape too.



The dress is finished with a flounce (non-gathered ruffle). The more circular you make it the more wavy it will be. You will notice that it is more wavy at the front than the back. 


Let's talk about the coral sweatshirt fleece and the Hawthorn Zip-up Sweatshirt.

I am so so in love with this quality. It has a nice smooth surface and then the MOST soft back side ever - like teddy bear soft. The ultra teddy bear softness disappear in first wash but it turns into a normal and still very lovely soft back side, so it is all good.

Unfortunately this color is sold out since I ordered it and is being discontinued but HERE is a link to the other beautiful colors of fleece and French Terry that they carry.

If you are in love with the color (like me) they have other qualities like THIS thermal and THIS rib (on sale, woohoo) in that color. How stunning is that thermal!?


To sew a Hawthorn Zip-up Sweatshirt in this material is a match made in heaven. Perfect material for a perfect pattern. Wilma could literally not wait for me to finish. And luckily we are not having the usual blasting temperatures every day yet so she has been able to wear it a little bit. It will be so SO perfect for fall.

The Hawthorn is a Willow & Co pattern designed by the lovely Laura from Titchy Threads. And you all know that her patterns are basically perfection. A ton of attention to detail, wonderful finishes and a tutorial that will help you through and maybe even teach you a new thing or two. I know I did, while making the half zip version for the lookbook. Blew my mind!

I did a few changes to the pattern. One was changing the pockets from classic inseam pockets to this ehhhh crescent-opening-with-rib-pockets. What, you never heard of that pocket before? Ahem.
I love that it gave me the chance to add a sneak peek of another fabric. A leftover piece of cotton interlock I found in my stash. There was just enough for facings along the zipper and inside the collar, back neck facing and the pocket facings. 

The second change I did was shortening the length from fitting a 20" zipper to a 18" zipper - which basically just meant that I made it 5 cm / 2" shorter. I wanted it to have more of a short jacket feel.


Now all I have to do is make another one for my youngest daughter because otherwise I predict fist fights over it. It is a VERY popular item in the house at the moment. They love the cosy feel this sweatshirt and fabric gives them. Score!

You can buy the pattern HERE.

And you can buy all the lovely wonderful organic cotton fabrics HERE.

Thank you Organic Cotton Plus for reaching out to me. It was an absolute pleasure to work with your materials and it will certainly not be the last time.
In fact I have already my eye on all the stunning colors of twill they sell.

Okay, NOW you can go enter that Rafflecopter.

Good luck!