Blog Voices

Today I came across Blog Voices, a very cool little idea! The fact is that we spend so much time reading blogs and even communicating with other bloggers, but unless they make videos we never hear their voices. As I understand it, Lady Katza has revived a voices meme: bloggers make a video of themselves saying a list of words and answering a few questions, to find out about their accent and specific words they might use in their area or family.

I loved the idea, but thought it would be a bit silly to do a video in English when my first language is Dutch. So I decided to translate the list of words and answer the questions in Dutch! Here it is:

List of Words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

My translation:

Tante, Route, Was, Olie, Theater, Ijzer, Zalm, Caramel, Vuur, Water, Zeker, Data, Ruïne, Potlood, Toilet, New Orleans, Peccanoot, Allebei, Weer, Waarschijnlijk, Identiek, Alabama, Advocaat, Bon, Mayonaise, Siroop, Pyjama, Gevangen

(I love how some of these are very similar, while others are completely different!) 

List of Questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

Toiletpapier op een huis gooien.

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?

Een pissebed!

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?

Spuitwater or Frisdrank

What do you call gym shoes?

Sportschoenen... Or just Sneakers.

What do you say to address a group of people?

Hallo!

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?

Een Hooiwagen!

What do you call your grandparents?

Mine are called Bomma en Bompa, and Grotemoe en Groteva.

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

Winkelkarretje.

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

Duveltjeskermis!

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
  
Afstandsbediening, or 'knopkes'.

So... Here's me moving and speaking. Enjoy! Leila from Three Dresses Project made a little list of all the other bloggers who participated, which you can find here.

The Massively Maxi Dress

I actually have a very soft spot for maxi dresses. They make me feel tall and elegant, and a wide skirt looks awesome when you're walking down the stairs. So when Kollabora sent me a package full of sweet sewing goodies (thanks!) I was excited to find Simplicity 1801 in it!

Look! Maxi length!

I made a quick bodice muslin and barely had to make any changes, except adding about three centimeters to the neckline (and it's still VERY low...), so I got cracking on my final version. Some of you might remember the little teaser I posted earlier, a close-up of some embroidery:

I had decided on a navy blue cotton batiste for the dress, but felt like it could use a little ectra something, so I embroidered the midriff section in colourful running stitches. I love the effect, but it took FOREVER. I had planned to do this around the hem or neckline as well, but quickly abandoned that idea!

So... Without any further ado, here's my first handmade maxi dress:

 I realise you can't really see that much in this shot, but it was getting late and I knew I wouldn't have any other chances for photographing this any time soon (I'm currently working from 9 to 5 at a post office and seriously wondering how you guys with 'normal' jobs ever get ANYTHING done!)

This dress is seriously comfortable. I usually wear it with a top underneath because of the low neckline and all the resulting boobage, but I went without it for the pictures. The cotton batiste is awesome for this style: fine enough to look pretty and floaty, but still opaque without a lining.

The bodice has some nice gathering going on, but posting a picture of that would attract way too many creeps to ths blog, so here's my serious modelling face.

And here's the same face, fed up with my boyfriend taking loads of close-up pictures. I'm still not entirely comfortable getting my picture taken and posing in public, so making funny faces is the way I deal with this... Sadly it renders about 90 % of the pictures taken for this blog hilarious, but useless.

Here you can see how the embroidery works with the midriff. I like the cut of this dress, the waist is a bit higher than I'd usually wear but it's still low enough to avoid getting questions about a possible pregnancy.

Bonus: if you sneak around like you were doing something bad, it looks like you're wearing harem pants.

In conclusion: love the dress, not sure if I'd make it again, I'd rather try a different maxi dress pattern first. The Saltspring is hanging around here, waiting to be cut out!

Giveaway Winners (and a sneak peek)

Phew! I almost forgot to pick the winners for my first blogaversary giveaway! The past few weeks have been pretty busy, I'm working my final summer job at a post office, combined with some other work. This sadly means that I barely have time to finish sewing projects, let alone photograph them! I do have a post planned for the end of the week, so stay tuned...

But first, lucky winners!

I listed all the entries for each fabric in chronological order and used random.org to pick the winners. So... DRUMROLL!

The first winner gets the leaf cotton print, and it's Elenaknits!

Hanne is the lucky bastard who gets the galaxy fabric!

Jeri from My Modern Vintage will get the wax print shipped off to her!

That was fun! I'll get in touch with the winners asap to get shipping information.

To finish up this post, here's a sneak peek at what I've made recently:

First Blogaversary Giveaway!

It's been exactly one year since I wrote my very first post on this blog, with no real idea of how it would go. I've never made the garments I mentioned in the first post (I did make the Ceylon but it turned out to be a wadder), but I ended up making so many others and documenting them. In the course of the year I've met some amazing people through this little blog, and learned tons of new things. So to celebrate, I'm hosting my first ever giveaway!

I went through my fabric stash and selected three pieces of fabric to give away to three lucky winners. Here they are:

1. Leaf print cotton

This is a three-yard piece of a lovely vintage cotton with a small black and white leaf print. It is very narrow but should be enough for a slim-skirted dress, a blouse or a fuller skirt. It's slightly lighter than a regular quilting cotton, but still not as drapey as a batiste.

2. Galaxy fabric

This is the infamous fabric I used for my Space Oddity dress, and now you get a chance to make it your own! It was a king-size sheet originally, and I used half of it to make a full-skirted dress. It's a poly-cotton blend and fairly stiff; perfect for a garment with a lot of structure! The piece is more or less a square, measuring around 2 x 2 metres.

3. Wax print cotton

The third fabric is a three-yard piece of an African wax print. The photograph doesn't even show the true brightness of the colours, this is a fabric that really stands out! Again, it's pretty stiff, so it would be better for a structured project.

All the fabrics are prewashed and ready to go!

How to enter the giveaway

Entering is easy, just leave me a comment saying what fabric you would like the most and a way to contact you! I will ship worldwide, so don't let physical distance stop you here.

You can earn extra entries by blogging about the giveaway (or mentioning it in a blog post) or tweeting about it, then post a separate comment here.

The giveaway closes on Monday, August 12th. I will randomly pick three winners and contact them for more information.

Good luck!

Belgian Blogger Meet!

Yesterday was the day of the Belgian Blogger Meet I wrote about before. I was amazed at the response it got, and at how many people turned up! Quite a few interested people couldn't make it, but I definitely think there will be a next time...

We decided upon Brussels as a meeting place, and Jo from Jo Sews did an excellent job in planning a great day for all. I met up beforehand with Joost and Stephanie on a very crowded train, And we were joined by Lieke and Ilse (who were in a different part of the train). At the South Station we met all the others: Jo, Louize, Beata, Kamila, Sigrid and Margot (did I forget anyone?). I didn't take a lot of pictures so this will mostly be text... Sorry!

Our first stop was Berger, basically two floors packed with pretty cheap fabrics! I went for a surprisingly basic purchase (which would turn out to be a trend during this day) and bought a nice navy linen. Most blue linens I found before tend to look a bit faded, so I was happy to find this deep colour! I'll probably use this to experiment with fabric stamping...

That's Jo, looking through the fabrics in her awesome Tania culottes. If I didn't know better I would have thought she was wearing a skirt!

After this we went to snoop around the fleamarket at the Vossenplein. I didn't really find anything there, so me and Stephanie sat down for a drink until the rest joined us. We all had something and then headed for lunch at Houtsiplou. I ordered a sandwich which turned out to be massive, and surprised myself (along with some others) by eating it all. Right before eating we realised that some people were leaving early and would miss the planned swap, so everyone got out their fabrics and patterns and went for it. A cheery chaos ensued:

I got rid of almost everything I brought, and got some nice pretties in return! After lunch we said goodbye to a few people and started making our way to Le Chien Vert. I had only been there once before and enjoyed that visit, but didn't find anything during this one. Maybe it was the heat, or the fact that there were sales going on and a large part of the stores were coupons of things in various shades of brown and black... Or maybe there just weren't enough prints. Nothing that really blew my mind anyway!

After this we headed back to the train station and home. I was absolutely exhausted, but it was such a lovely day!

Now, what did I drag to my cave with me?

On the left is the linen I mentioned earlier, on the right a knit I swapped with Margot (who doesn't have a blog, sadly enough). It's a slightly heavier knit and there's quite a lot of it, not sure yet what I'll use it for!

Kamila seems to have a habit of buying things in bulk, and I releived her of some of the massive amounts of this lace she had. Again, I don't know what I'll use it for, but I'm curious to see what it will become!

This vintage cutie came from Jo. I can totally see myself making this in a sleeveless version, maybe with a slightly toned down collar? I just bought this fabric and think it could work pretty well:

So, that was a day well spent in great company! I truly hope we can do this again. I don't really know any people who are seriously into sewing in my own circle of friends, so it's nice to be able to geek out about hems and mathing patterns in real life for once!

The Confetti Factory Dress (and my first tutorial!)

This is going to be a long post! I took these pictures on an incredibly tiring day. It was quite hot, I went for a pretty intense swim, and then my boyfriend picked me up for a long bike ride, some cooking and a photo shoot. Phew!

Our first stop was this strange place:

It's a light sculpture currently open for visitors in front of Antwerp central station. The whole thing was really cool, but I loved finding this dragon! It sort of feels like walking inside a very strange bouncy castle, and the shapes make for a surreal atmosphere.

I started to get very hungry (and cranky) after this, so we quickly got food at the store and proceeded to stuff our faces:

Home-assembled veggie burgers and chips. Ow yeah.

After this feast we decided to find a nice spot to photograph my latest make. The Chantilly dress by Colette Patterns was on my list for a very long time, but when I made a muslin it turned out I didn't like the bodice on me. Boo! It looks lovely on so many others, but I just don't like having so many gathers all over. So after pouting for a bit I decided to skip the top gathers and draft a simpler bodice. Here is the result:

I kept the skirt and the midriff piece exactly as-is, but drafted an overlapping bodice to replace the gathered pieces. Sewing this up required a bit of extra thinking since I wanted to line the bodice and I had no instructions whatsoever! Making it up as I went turned out to work pretty well.

I gave the back a low scoop, a feature I love in summer dresses. And if it gets colder I can still cover up. Yay! And how great is this location? It's right underneath a highway just outside of Antwerp. I love how the environment contrasts with the sugary sweetness of the dress.

Speaking of sweetness, this is probably the girliest garment I've made in a while. The fabric is a double gauze by Nani Iro, and it's just perfect for summer. It looks and feels pretty luxurious, but makes you feel like you're wearing pyjamas. Love love love.

The dots are scattered over the fabric, and sort of fade out near the borders. I cut the entire dress on the cross grain to play with this, and love the effect it has on the hem. The Chantilly skirt is proving to be one of my favourite ones: it has the poufiness of a dirndl skirt, but drapes a bit nicer and twirls a lot better because of the curved hem.

See that face? That's a happy face. I like this dress. A LOT.

It's even suitable for awful modelling. (My boyfriend insisted on using at least one of the shots of me horsing around)

Now! I though some of you might be interested in how exactly I made this variation, so I made a really quick tutorial. It's not very difficult, but having someone else do the thinking for you is nice, no?

COLETTE CHANTILLY VARIATION

SUPPLIES
- a basic bodice pattern without seam allowances, preferably with just one dart at the waist. If your pattern has a bust dart, rotate it to the waist as well.
- pattern piece C (the midriff front), also without seam allowances
- tracing paper, weights, pens, a ruler, scissors, tape,...

 STEP 1

Mirror your pattern pieces so they are a full piece (as if you would cut them out of a single layer of fabric). Make sure to indicate the center front.

Fold and tape the darts on the bodice front as they would be sewn, and place the midriff front on top. Adjust the width of the pattern pieces to fit your waist, and trace the curved line of the midriff front on the bodice front pattern piece. Cut away the bottom part and discard this.

Open the darts again. You can now draw a new neckline. I simply marked the point where I wanted my neckline to be at the center front, sketched until it looked ok and drew the final neckline with the help of a french curve. Make sure the overlap isn't too big, to avoid pulling!

Now turn the darts into gathers. I used this method, and found it worked pretty well. Measure 1,5 cm alongside each dart leg and make two new notches. That's all! The fabric is going to be gathered between these two notches.

The final step is to make corresponding notches on the midriff front piece. Make a notch at the center front, and measure the distance from the center front to the first dart leg (which is where the dart would be if it still existed. Now measure 1,5 alongside this mark again, and make notches there. This is where the extra fabric will get gathered into. Make a notch indicating the center front on your bodice pattern piece, check if the shoulders and sides of the back bodice still match up, add seam allowances everywhere and you're done!

I'm not that good at explaining things, so if there are any questions, feel free to ask!

Super Sweet Blogging Award

The amazing Hanne from Een nieuwe Jurk nominated me for the Super Sweet Blogging Award! Thank you Hanne! I had a speech prepared but I'm a bit too nervous!

THE RULES: Copy & Paste This Whole Post and Replace All Your Information — who awarded you, for example.



1. Thank the Super Sweet Blogger that nominated you. (See above!)
2. Answer 5 Super Sweet questions.
3. Include the Super Sweet Blogging Award in your blog post.
4. Nominate a baker’s dozen (13) of other deserving bloggers.
5. Notify your Super Sweet nominees on their blog.

THE 5 SUPER SWEET QUESTIONS:

1 – Cookies or Cake? That's a very though first question. I really can't choose. I love cookies for the instant gratification they give (without leaving you feeling like you inhaled a buffet) but I can thoroughly enjoy a well-made cake. Damn!
2 – Chocolate or Vanilla? Duh, I'm Belgian. Chocolate. All the way.
3 – Favourite Sweet Treat? It might not be the sweetest, but I have a bit of an addiction to peppermint. Seriously, I'll eat an entire bag of mints in a day if you don't stop me.
4 – When Do You Crave Sweet Things The Most? Around the afternoon, or very late at night.
5 – Sweet Nick Name? If I have one, it's a well-kept secret!


MY NOMINEES:

Oh, this is so hard... I never know if people have been nominated already or not! I will nominate Sewciopathic, A Bouquet of Buttons, Delfinelise, Jo Sews and Rêves Mecanique!