Screw waistlines, I'm on vacation.

The final stop in our short trip was Bristol, another entirely new city to us. We stayed with Edward Cheverton and Aisling Marray, and had loads of fun exploring the city (and eating places and pubs) with them!

I had bought this graphic french terry sweater fabric from the Sew it Up shop before we left, and thought it would be perfect for a dress to wear on a trip like this. The wrong side of the fabric is super soft, so more secret pyjamas were in order:

This is another version of the Magena fringe jumper by Named patterns, and it's a dress version again! I made this before in a way drapier fabric, so this time I narrowed the skirt part a bit (and also traced a smaller size all over). Making this any more of an a-line would make me look like a trumpet. No no no.

We found this wall on our first day in the city. This is what happens when I try to take blog pictures with people watching.

I cut and sewed this dress in one afternoon and evening. It looks pretty impressive but apart from the pointed yoke insertion it's really straightforward.

I used a black cotton jersey for the yoke and omitted the fringe since the print was already busy enough. Tracing a smaller size was a good idea as well: the previous one is quite roomy by now but it doesn't bother me because of the drapiness. This fabric is way stiffer so it would have looked like a potato sack.

I used the cuff pattern pieces on the sleeves but decided not to use a hem band, just folding the fabric over and topstitching with a zig-zag stitch instead. This makes for less of a cocoon shape.

This dress turned out super cozy, and I'm secretly hoping it will stay cold for a little while longer so I can get a few more wears out of it! It's also perfect for eating lots, which we did. All the cake.

Here's a bonus shot of what our photoshoots look like to an outsider:

Not entirely true: Ed was telling us to 'go full fashion' or something.

One Birthday Surprise, coming up!

My week-long vacation is (sadly) over, and in spite of the dreadful news from Brussels, we had a good time. We were in London for the boyfriend's birthday, and I got to give him the present I'd secretly been working on: a flannel shirt!

I had bought this fabric during our first trip to New York, which was ages ago, to make him a shirt; which never happened. I guess it was a combination of not having the right pattern or trust about my own skill set, combined with being a selfish ass. So this year I finally got my act together!

The biggest problem was making this without him knowing what was going on. So after I finished my own flannel check shirt I decided to just lie to his face and tell him I didn't have enough fabric to cut a shirt for him, and that I'd just make a second shirt for me. He took it pretty well, even telling me he was 'getting over plaid shirts anyway'. Crap. (I have since been told that he only said this so I wouldn't feel bad about using the fabric for me. Awww.)

The only sneaking around needed for this present was tracing one of his existing shirts while he was out one day. After this I just cut and sewed the entire thing right in front of him, and he had no idea. Muahahaha!

It's a pretty basic shirt, collar with stand, yoke, two pleats in the back, you name it. I did my best with the plaid matching but somehow the sleeves came out a bit off!

I managed to finish the shirt before we left on our trip, and we're both pretty happy with the outcome! It fits him well since I based it on one of his actual shirts, and he still likes the fabric after all this time.

He was also more than eager to pose for pictures. I would make him more stuff just to get shots like this.

We spent the first two days of our trip in London with our friends Steven Kraan and Willemien Rust, and had a blast wandering around new neighbourhoods, seeing new museums and playing sille boardgames in pubs. Steven was assistent supervisor during our little photoshoot:

He later decided to intervene and make everything more interesting:

I think it worked.

I'll be doing a tiny part of a trip around the world

Hello people!

Just to let you know that I'll be on a one-week vacation to London, Bristol and Cardiff! If anyone wants to meet up or has recommendations (fabric or general fun stuff), feel free to let me know!

I've been sewing up a storm in the past few weeks, so here's a sneak peek of some things I'm packing to photograph while we're away:

See you soon!

Bye bitches I'm off to cut trees or like whatever

Remember how I went to Seattle in September? And even brought some fabric back? I used it to make something!

I found some really nice plaid flannel (pretty sure it's the Robert Kaufman mammoth flannel) and thought a flannel shirt would be the perfect souvenir from Seattle. So I bought a yard and a half. Of 44" wide fabric. Because that sounds like a rational thing to do.

 GUESS WHAT IT WORKED

I traced a smaller size of the Archer (the first and so far only one I had ever made was roomy to start with and I've gotten a bit smaller since then) and cut everything on a single layer, paying really close attention.

I had to cut the inside yoke and collar stand from some black cotton but managed to squeeze all other pieces out of the flannel. And match my plaid! The button band, cuffs, yoke, pocket and sleeve plackets were all cut on the bias to avoid having to match the plaid there.

The finished shirt is super comfy, and still the right amount of slouchy, even with the smaller size. The sleeves are maybe a bit too generous, even though my boyfriend had an explanation for that... Apparently I'll need those big sleeves for my lumberjack muscles. My theory is that this shirt was supposed to be for this guy:

But I digress.

Here's a picture of me from the back! There's some pooling up there but it doesn't bother me enough to do something about it. I like the fit throughout the shoulders a lot more on this shirt, they were definitely too wide on the previous one!

Have some details. I always find the super precise stitching on shirts to be a bit daunting, but I did a pretty good job on this one! It might be my finest collar and collar stand to date. I did use the Alder pocket instead of the Archer one because I like the pointy bits more than the rectangle things.

"Do something" he said.

I wore this shirt to work today and it definitely passed the test: super comfortable, nice and snug, makes me feel like I'm actually in pyjamas and forgot to put on proper clothes. Big win.

I will leave you with one more picture of proud plaid matching because 1,5 yards!!!

(If you want to know about the title of this post, go read this comic and then read everything this woman has ever drawn)

Valentine's Day with Dead Animals

Talk about an unexpected blogging break! I had a couple of weeks with mostly half-finished projects, or things made for friends who aren't supposed to see the result yet, combined with some sickness and no time to take pictures. But I'm back! With an outfit that was made for an occasion that never happened!

A few friends and me wanted to visit an exhibit on taxidermy at the natural history museum in Brussels, and since the only day everyone could make it was February 14th we quickly decided the dresscode should be 'Valentine's Day and Dead Animals'. It wasn't serious, but you know I never let a chance to make a themed outfit pass me by...

I'm proud to say that this entire outfit was made from stash materials. The red lace was sent to me by Knipmode after winning Sew it Up, but it was a pretty small piece so I wasn't sure what to do with it (I also really liked it and didn't want to mess up!). I decided to make a sort of 1960s - 1970s mini shift dress with massive sleeves. And a vest. Don't ask.

The pattern is from a recent Burda issue. It was a top but I just cut it a little longer and called it a dress. I didn't make a muslin (omg!) but cut the red linen underlining first, basted that together and checked the fit, which was pretty spot on. I had to cut all my lace on a single layer to get everything out, with some truly scary moments (a cat on my fabric! with claws!), but it worked out in the end.

The vest was super easy. I started from the dress pattern, deepened the armscyes a bit and drew a rounded front. I then embroidered a dead rabbit on the back and added some gold trim (also from deep stash!). My boyfriend saw it and said 'Awesome! You look like that monkey!'

'Monkey?'

'Yeah, the one from Alladin!'

...

Thanks... I guess

The dress itself is my favourite part of the outfit though. It's pretty wide but also super short, so that kind of balances out the possibility of frumpiness. I'm not sure if I'd wear it without tights, but ask me again when the weather gets warmer...

I did a sort of lining-underlining hybrid in red linen. I didn't want the lace to get too stiff so I sewed the darts, side and shoulder seams and then basted everything together before inserting the sleeves and finishing the neckline (with a bias facing, which then got handstitched to the lining. Totes invisible you guys).

The sleeves are my favourite of everything. Drapey and see-through and wide enough to hide my lunch inside if I'd want to. I'd add these to all my clothes from now on if it wasn't so hard to stuff them into a coat or jacket.

Our trip to the museum never happened, but this dress will definitely get worn! I met up with Lieke to take pictures before going out to a lovely lunch (cheeeese) and a rummage through a costume shop's stock sale with more lovely friends. Most of the good stuff was gone by the time we finally made it there but I found a jacket that makes me look like a ringmaster in a dodgy circus so all is well.

Blast from the Past

I used to do a lot of concert photography. I loved taking pictures and loved going to concerts, and the combination of the two seemed a logical next step. And then I stopped!

The Black Box Revelation

I started taking pictures at concerts because I was taking pictures all the time anyway. It turned out to be fun so I did some research on the technical side and just went at it (this sounds extremely similar to the way I taught myself how to sew. Or knit. Or... Most things really). My first pictures were pretty terrible, but I got some lucky shots sometimes and that was very encouraging.

Andrew Bird

Taking pictures also gave me something to do: I was super shy at the time and since I couldn't always find people to join me to a concert the camera gave me a reason to go by myself, something I never would have done otherwise. It gets easier if you have something in your hands and a clear purpose.

Grizzly Bear

I was also attracted to the technical challenges. Concert photography is hard: you have a combination of very low light and potentially lots of movement, which can make things tricky. I always took loads of pictures and was stoked if I had five good ones.

Dez Mona

I posted my photos on my previous blog, and after a while I was contacted by a group of young concert photographers in Antwerp. They had a deal with a local concert venue: free entrance in exchange for pictures, and they asked me to join them. I didn't even think about it!

Absynthe Minded

It was pretty fun for a while. I saw at least one concert a week and got to see a lot of bands I wouldn't have seen otherwise. But then I realised I had another hobby that was slowly turning into work, like drawing.

Vivian Girls

After a while, I just got a bit fed up with it. Sure, I was seeing a lot of concerts, but I had to go home right after the end to edit my pictures. I had deadlines. And if things just didn't work and none of the photographs turned out any good, I just felt bad instead of shrugging it off.

Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele

I didn't enjoy my hobby anymore. I wanted to listen to the music and watch the bands play without thinking about light and composition all the time. So I stopped taking pictures at concerts.

Mauro Pawlowski

This whole story is the main reason why I'm wary of turning sewing or knitting into more than a hobby. What if the same thing happens? What if pressure and deadlines make me not like it anymore?

Dez Mona

So, there it is. I used to take pictures at concerts, and I don't anymore. They do make for some nice memories!

like this one!

My mother calls my decorating style 'Interesting'

... And I'm totally taking that as a compliment.

So, remember how I started a huge hand-quilting project last spring and then abandoned it because it got too hot? Yeah, logic. I picked it up again a few weeks ago and was determined to finish it this time. My boyfriend and I have been slowly filling our walls with pretty things but I kept reserving this one particular piece of wall for this quilt. Now it's up there!

Woohoo! This is the small constellation quilt kit by Haptic Lab. They have released a large version since this one, but the sheer size of that thing makes me want to lie down. This one already took ages! But fun ages. And with a very satisfying result.

The basic idea is super simple: the quilt template has been printed on a kind of tear-away stabilizer. All you have to do is layer your fabric and batting layers, baste the template on top and go to town. Since this was always destined to be a wall hanging (fancy blankets are a no-no if you have a cat with claws he likes to use) I didn't bother to make the back of it look nice. So no pictures of that, haha!

The top fabric is a lovely soft double gauze, and it's backed in a dark blue cotton. I used four colours of embroidery thread for the quilting: dark blue and light grey for the map lines and dashed lines between the stars, and two colours of metallic thread for the stars and milky way. Metallic thread can be a bit tricky to work with since it frays and splits like crazy, so here are a few things I found helped: an embroidery needle with a larger eye so there's not as much stress on the thread and shorter lengths of thread than you'd usually take.

I didn't have enough fabric left to do matching binding, so I used some black linen from my stash. I made hanging loops from the same linen and just handstitched them to the back. The stick is a broomstick with a bit sawed off. I used this tutorial for the binding and it worked like a charm! I also added a little bit of extra embroidery after the sad events of last week. It seemed fitting.

Both the boyfriend and me love the outcome, and I've been eyeing the World Map... Even though another project like this might give me even more grey hairs. Encouraged by this success I immediately embarked on another decorating project: more personalised IKEA furniture!

I painted a little side table last year and loved the result, so when we were thinking about putting a little chest of drawers next to our front door to keep hats, scarves, keys and all the other junk that just ended up on our dinner table I decided to go that route again. I dragged this thing home one day (along with a shark) and got painting earlier this week. The base colour is a lovely gold that has a really subtle shine in the daylight, and I added a big running hare because I could!

At first I had painted the original wooden knobs black but it looked a bit cheap, so I switched them for these cut glass knobs. Wayyyy better! I'm really happy with how this turned out, and so is the boyfriend! It suits our appartment pretty well.

I'll be back soon with some sewing! There's an Inkodye workshop at Pauwels Stoffen next week and I'm already excited about the possibilities!