Bicycle Shorts for Willem, Lucas and Felix

My husband has been asking me to sew him some new shorts for the summer. In the past few years I have sewn him a pair every summer, but last year he lost quite a bit of weight, so now none of them fit. He chose the fabric himself at Fairy Tailors in Tervuren, and I took the only pattern for men's pants I could find, from the Knipmode of July 2011.

I'm especially proud of the detailed finishing.

I reinforced the buttonhole with cordonnet thread.

Thighten, ...

... and knot ...

... and done!

I even added some jeans nails.

Neat topstitching.

Made with love!

Top stitching on the butt pockets.

Very proud of the fully functional fly (only the second fly I made that I am really pleased with).

I lined the pockets with a leftover from a pair of summer pants that I made for myself (from a coupon, no less, how's that for frugal sewing?)

Tadaa! It's done! And it fits, too!

 I made some shorts for Lucas and Felix from the leftover fabric (I bought about 85 cm too much).

My beautiful boys, in beautiful shorts.

Tuba Shirts for Pieter and Lucas

I made my two eldest sons a tuba shirt. Actually neither of them plays the tuba, Pieter plays euphonium and Lucas baritone, but the instruments look very alike, so tuba shirts it was.

I got the fabric from Lana Lotta in Leuven, with part of a coupon.

I really like how they turned out. The boys like their shirts too, but getting them to pose is not easy!

Made with love!

Look proud!

Play something.

Hold your instruments to the side, so I can see the shirts.

Stop goofing around!

I said: stop goofing around!

They wore their shirts to a music recital, which means they do like them. Willem and I weren't at the recital, because we were in Bilbao.

Good inspiration for an abstract quilt?

A pillow case for Marian and a first-day-of-school outfit for Felix

I did some more sewing with Marieke last week. It was her idea, to sew something for her cousin, Marian, who turned 6. So we got out the fabric stash and made a big mess, and Marieke decided to make a pillow case, using mostly fabric I bought on Spoonflower, adding in some Backyard Baby by Michael Miller, which was a perfect match in colors and theme and Acorn Trail by Taegan White for the backing.

Don't you agree the fabrics look perfect together.

I really don't have a huge collection of fabrics, and really very little designer fabric just lying around, so we were lucky to find everything in stock. Or maybe my taste in fabric is pretty constant, so things are bound to go together more or less.

With stuffing.

Marieke pieced the top, using the interfacing method of joining squares (or rectangles, in this case), and I did the finishing. I didn't have a matching zipper, so I did a simple envelope in the back. I'm thinking I should order some labels for Marieke to mark her sewing projects, like I do.

My tiny label, for a finishing touch.

The back makes for pretty wrapping, tied with some left-over bias tape.

The birthday girl didn't have a lot to say about this present, she was too busy unwrapping the next one and welcoming new guests, but her mother was charmed. The pillow goes perfectly with the woodland theme of Marian's bedroom, and it's in the same color scheme.

It wouldn't look bad in our sofa, either.

Although my stash is by no means huge, I'm still imposing a temporary no-new-fabric rule on myself, because my cupboard is full of really pretty fabric. And of course there's always more pretty fabric in stores and online, but it would be a waste to just hang on to all the pretty stuff in my cupboard and not experience the joy (and slight dread) of cutting into a cute fabric and making something lovely which becomes a joy for me to give and someone else to use. Plus, I have quite a few novelty fabrics, which my kids love now, but probably won't in 10 years time!

Simple quilting in straight lines.

Still, I did buy some new fabric in 2016. I saw this bunny fabric in a store I almost never pass, and just had to buy it for Felix, since he's always singing 'Ooooh, konijneneten!'. I bought just half a meter and made a little shirt that very same weekend. So it only added a few scraps to my stash. I then cut up some old pants of mine to make a matching pair of trousers.

Ready for first day

I bought these the first winter after Felix was born, took them in a few cm for the second winter, but found that I can't take them in any more to wear them this season. But the fabric was far from worn, so this way I found a new use for them. I call it 'eco-sewing'!

Wardrobe capsule - day 1 - bright and cheery summer day.

It's the first day of my self imposed wardrobe capsule challenge: to only wear clothes from my capsule for a whole month. It promises to be a warm summer day, and I'm at home with my youngest, doing laundry and administration, so I chose something casual and light.

My 7 year old daughter is taking the pictures. Can you tell I'm giving her instructions? I love the huge pockets on these pants.

I made the top and pants myself. The vest was bought in a second hand store. I like wearing capri pants when it's nice weather, but it's often just a little bit too cold here in Belgium, even in summer.
So I made only long pants for my wardrobe capsule, but I built in the option of wearing them short. On these fuchsia pants I added a little tab with button hole on the inside, and a button on the outside. When I roll my pants up, the tab holds the fabric in place. When I wear them down, the button makes a nice detail.

Tab + button. I'm getting more confident sewing button holes. For these, I didn't even do a trial first, and they turned out fine!

Hold the camera straight, Marieke!

The top is pattern A from the Stylish Dress Book: simple smocks, dresses and tops by Yoshiko Tsukiori. I made the largest size (L), even though my measurements put me off the size chart. I should really have an XL, but that's not in the book, although it would be easy to grade the pattern up one size. However, the top is a bit too wide in size L, and I would make a M next time. I had read on other blogs that the sizes are quite a loose fit, and found this to be very true!

Feeling relaxed and summery!

Bare toes in my sandals with thin straps: summer!

I also did some sewing for Marieke, making her a straight skirt and a cap sleeved T-shirt from knit fabrics. I've gotten a lot more confident working with knits, since I got good polyester sewing thread and special needles for my sewing machine. I can sew a knit collar thanks to this tutorial at Coletterie.

She's very proud of her new outfit. The T-shirt has cap sleeves trimmed with orange, and a loose fit.

Strong girl, showing the contrasting waistband. The skirt is just a straight tube of knit fabric.

Marieke loves the badge, because it makes the outfit more "matchy matchy".

"What are you doing, big sister? Oh, posing! Me too!"

"You're showing your back? Me too!"

Creative vibe!

I've been on a bit of a creative high lately. I'm super-inspired AND I have a lot of energy, so I'm getting things done!

Lucas' swimming bag.

For the start of the school year everyone needs bags, lots and lots of bags. I'm not over-ambitious, so we bought the school bags from the store.

Neat drawstring tunnel.

Pieter is simply using the same bag we bought 2 years ago, when he started primary school. But the need for PE bags, and ballet and karate and swimming bags gave me a good excuse to buy some pretty novelty fabric and get sewing.

Bright orange cord.

So I went by my favorite fabric stores in Leuven last week.

Love the piping!

We used to have just two left: Pauli and Het Wolwinkeltje, but because sewing and knitting is hot again, new stores are popping up all over the place. They all have their own vibe, so I like to scout them all. They might see each other as rivals, but I think it's nice to have the different vibes.

Neat and simple finish with hardware.

Pauli carries only fabric, lots of it, in all qualities and price ranges. There are always a few fabrics I like, and when there is a coupon I like, I buy it, to have some stock for improvised, guilt-free little projects.

Happy robots by Kaufman.

Het Wolwinkeltje has everything for traditional patchwork and quilt, including batting by the yard and good quality sewing thread. They are also the only store I know to carry such a large collection of good quality knitting yarn.

The polka dot fabric is from Pauli.

Habiba is the place to be for funky novelty fabrics, and a small but high quality collection of haberdashery.

Marieke's ballet bag.

I buy my piping there, even though it's twice as expensive as in Veritas. It's simply more beautiful. It's more tightly woven and the cord is white, whereas in the Veritas piping the dark cord shines through the loose weave of the biais ribbon. I want piping to give my work a fine finish, and if the product itself screams 'cheap', I don't see that happening.

All fabrics and piping from Habiba.

I'm not a frequent shopper at Studio Adjectif yet. It's a bit out of the center, although very close to my work.

It's like I'm dreaming...

I generally like the small selection of ecological fabric, but the prices are quite high. It's a very small store, so I can't browse like I can in the other stores. I'm almost always the only customer, so I tend to feel a bit watched. That being said I do like the feel of the store, and I bought the very pretty robot fabric for Lucas' swimming bag there.

Bright pink cord, matches our brigt pink chair cushions.

Veritas is the large chain store, where I go for eyelets, some buttons, zippers, sewing needles and other basic sewing necessities.

Pretty finish.

Afdragertje voor Ludwina

Marieke haar rokje viel echt niet meer te redden: meer gat dan rok eigenlijk. Maar ze kon er geen afscheid van nemen, dus .... maakten we samen een kleedje voor Ludwina. De flodder-mouwtjes zijn een idee van Marie, ze zijn gemaakt van de stukjes stof die overbleven door de armsgaten uit te knippen.

Een oud, versleten rokje ...

... en een geliefde pop ...

... maken samen een geliefde pop met een nieuw kleedje!

Ludwina haar kleedje heeft ook gaatjes, want ik vond geen enkel stuk stof groot genoeg om een kleedje zonder gaatjes te kunnen knippen ... en vorige week had Marieke dat rokje nog aan...

En een blije poppenmoeder!

Kleedje goedleggen voor de foto!