Glimpse of our last week #28

This is where I show you bits and parts of our week behind the scenes.

With both kids sick, we spent this week mainly in doors. G. made me a neckless out of my tape and took the photo. My mother made her doll a new outfit and sent it through my dad. she missed grandma. A dear friend sent G. some pink tulle through mail, I made something out of it already. G. loves to cut paper, she can spend hours doing that. I am so glad that I can see the sea through my wondow, it's not much, but enough to enjoy the place I live in. S. has had fever, but he's much better now, firth tooth is out. I shoot my cats, I didn't for so long. And, there's been a few new items in the sewing table... three of them will be revealed tomorrow. 

Refashioned Girl Briefs |take 1|

These are part of the items I made last year but haven't blogged about yet. I will try to post everything still, because I really want to document everything I make (for myself mostly). After these, I've been wanting to make a few briefs for my daughter. This time though, I really wanted to draft a pattern from a pair of rtw briefs she had. We both loved them so much, and besides, the pattern I used the first time, is still big on her; so I did. 

I drafted a new pattern out of those rtw and refashioned clothes that no longer fit her into new briefs. I used an elastic I saved from something else, and turns out it wasn't as good as I thought anymore. After I attached it, it stretched more than it should and miss G. didn't wear this more than once. I used the sleeves from a hoodie for this one. I saved the rest of the piece to turn it into a vest, I only need to hem where I cut, or maybe add some bias. The sleeves were too short already, but the body still fits. 

 

For the second pair I used a preloved top from her as well. I loved loved loved the fabric in this and was so terrible sad when she grew out of it. I saved it into my refashion pile, my first though was "I can use it for cuffs", but I am happy I made something cuter than cuffs. For the waist band I used leftovers from the fabric I used in another project (for myself). 

Glimpse of our last week #27

This is where I show you bits and parts of our week behind the scenes.

A lovely week I'd say. Even though it is way too cold over here, we have enjoyed a few family moments, which warms up my heart. We spent a morning in the beach - how I love to be close to it and visit it in winter, even more than in summer. G. enjoyed being allowed to step into the water. She has also skipped school on dad's free day and we visited Portimão. We did some shopping too, and we got to see the rainbow on our way back. G. loves rainbows, she was just amazed to see a real one. V. has a, eye infection and had to go to the ER because of it, it's lasting too long and was getting worst. He's on new meds now and finally feeling better. I used Aloe Vera to style my babies hair... we had some fun that day! When G. saw her fruit that day she told me "MOM, that fruit is so cute!", then she ate it all. She loves to draw following dots. I found MY Barbie dolls and was devastated because my favourite one had a broken arm =(

And just in case you've missed it... there was something fun in the blog too.

Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5

click the link to each day to see what my guests refashioned!

Refashion Week |day 5|

It is here. The last day of this mini series. I feel sad about it, I'd like it to last for longer. I hope you liked to follow along with my guests creations, not bad right? Especially when you think about it: for some was their first time, and others don't often do it. I love to challenge everyone into refashion and I am always so happy when they are up to the challenge! Closing the series I have not two but three wonderful friends to introduce to you. 

Ladies: thank you all so much!!! Muito obrigado por terem entrado nesta brincadeira!!!

Let's start with Ana Sofia from S. is for Sewing. Ana and I have completely different styles, but that doesn't stop me from loving what she does. She's delicate, her sewing is always perfect and she loves Liberty fabrics. Just by looking at a picture I can tell it is one of her works, even if I didn't know that before. And I think that's wonderful when you have your own identity while sewing.

She has participated in Refashion Month before, back then, it was her first time, you can see what she did this time, in here. 

Inês |Cabanita| is a super mom of 4, with a new baby on the way. She blogs about her daily life with the kids and several other things as cooking, sewing, crafting and organizing. And the thing I love the most about her, is that she's constantly trying to improve those things she cares for. The blog is written in portuguese (apart from today's post, though there is always google translate anyway), and refashioning isn't new for her. 

Read all about her refashion here

Last but not least, Sara. I am sure you already know her, from Made by Sara. She discovered me through this series, a couple editions ago, and I was so happy that she did because she easily and quickly became one of my favourite bloggers. Sara is like a busy bee, pattern testing, pattern tours, reviews... you name it! She's always working on something and she always knows all the right answers to our sewing doubts. 

Just like Ana, it is not her first time as a guest here at House of Estrela, and you can see what she created this time, in here. 

Refashion Week |day 4| & a tribute!

I can't believe tomorrow is our last stop for this mini version of the Refashion Month Series. And of course I couldn't be out of all the fun and will join with a refashion of my own as well... just scroll down after checking today's guest project. 

She is Carla, and she blogs at Rita Pirolita. I will tell you a secret, when I discovered Carla's blog, I called her Rita for longer than I should, until I realised that wasn't her name. She sews for her kids, and when I look at things she created, I am not sure about how to describe her style, but I like it. Actually, as much as I like her girl's outfits, I have to say I really like what she sews for the boy. Carla is probably the funniest of us all, and I love her for this, we need more people like her. 

She's got me really curious about her project, because when asked for a teaser photo, she nailed it. If you can't wait to know what she made with the jeans above, just click here.

--- my own refashion now --- which is also a tribute --- 

And now that my guest is introduced it is time for me, and see what I did. I joined the ladies that sewed for the boys in their lives, and made a new shirt for my baby boy. But before I get into any details, let me tell you that this shirt is a small tribute to one of my favourite actors. He passed away, this exact day, seven years ago. His name? 

Heath Ledger. 

I wanted to sew something inspired in one of his characters and let me tell you, this wasn't easy. My favourites (and I haven't seen them all) were A Knight's Tale and Casanova, but I wanted to sew something practical, something that my kids needed (in this case, what my boy needed). I also kept going back and forth with the Joker character in Batman, but after all, I picked the very first movie I saw staring H. Ledger... 10 Things I Hate About You. I know, I know... he's got so many good movies and I am sewing from this one. It is a movie made for teens, and it is from the 90's, so, guess who was a teen back then?! Besides, the main characters, oh, they were the rebels!!! It had to be this one. 

Inspiration selected, I had to find something in my pile that would fit the challenge. Luckily for me, I had a-not-so-old-but-stained shirt from V. - sometimes I hate that I can't part with some pieces, sometimes I love it! It was the case this time. The shirt was stained with bleach on the front, but because S. is still so little, I was able to use the button plackets as they were. There's a little spot still, but oh well, it's fashion!

I re-used the top of the front and back (original) shirt and cut the sleeves from the lower part of the back, which means I was able to save the sleeves for a future project. I used a pattern from a Patrones magazine, and made a size 12, there were only 3 options (6 - 12 - 24M). It was so easy and quick to put together and I feel like I need this projects, that I can whip up when the baby sleeps or stays quiet beside me.

Refashion Week |day 3|

I don't know about you, but I've been enjoying my guests posts so much, and I am still excited to see all the ones that are yet to come until friday. And just like yesterday, today's bloggers have two things in common, they both live abroad too, and they did a refashion for their boys! So far, boys are winning here!

Let me introduce you Rita, from Conversas de Hermanas. Living in Spain, she shares her blog with her friend Fatima. I am pretty sure I discovered Rita through Project Run & Play too. What can I say about her? She's funny, friendly and very generous. I love everything she sews for her kids and her fabric choices are always perfect. 

Check her refashion here. 

An ocean away from Portugal, Soraia from the blog Sew Happy is now living in the USA with her family. Soraia doesn't blog for too long, but we're all glad she finally decided to share her stuff with the world. I'd say she is a perfeccionist sewist and she's got an eye for quality materials. Her style is rather classic and personal. 

Isn't her son just the cutest here? Go read all about her refashion, over her blog. 

Refashion Week |day 2|

We had a great start yesterday. I was happy to see both my first guests did something for themselves. But I also love to see refashions for kids - is what I do most, of course. Today's guests have two things in commom, even though they are portuguese (as all the rest of the ladies in this edition - just in case you're still not aware), they are both living abroad, and they have both used men shirts to make new pieces for their kids. 

Maria, blogs over Fairies, Bubbles & Co, and she is currently living in the UK with her family, she's got twin girls to sew for. How great is that?! I don't know her for more than just a couple of months, but I truly believe she's one of the sweetest bloggers from this line up. For the challenge, with one shirt she was able to make a skirt and a pair of shorts for the girls. 

Visit Fairies, Bubbles& Co and read more about the skirt and shorts she made for the twins. 

(isn't this picture too adorable?!)

Constança from Saídos da Concha doesn't need an introdution, she is the sewing rock star from this group, yet, I can tell you her blog is one of the most inspiring blogs for people that appreciate the DIY life style. It was one of the very first blogs I started following, when I discovered they existed. Living in New Zealand, after 3 years in the UK, she has recently published her first book "Mãos à Obra" (that I have reviewed here). She's got two boys, and she's sharing today, not one but four refashioned items for her eldest. 

Check out the rest, over here. 

Refashion Week |day 1|

Hello! How was your weekend? I spent mine really excited to know we would kick off today with this special edition of my/our series. Today,  am having two guests. I don't always know how or when I discovered and started following my favourite blogs, but I know exactly how I discovered my two guests today. 

Let me introduce to you Patrícia from Pequeno Mundo a 3. She's a mom to a little girl (and this little world of theirs is changing to 4 pretty soon), and sews for her daughter and for herself too. She was the one to first reach me, not so long ago, and I adored this lady from the start. She has been a constant presence in ly life since that first e-mail she sent me, and I couldn't be happier about it. 

For this series, she has refashioned a shirt for herself. Visit her here to check it out. 

My second guest today is probably someone you already know: Marta from DoGuincho. I discovered Marta through Project Run & Play, a few seasons ago. She was the first portuguese blogger I discovered moving through the same places I did, and I already had the pleasure to have her participating in a previous edition of Refashion Month. Marta sews for her daughters and for herself, and she's the designer of the Bubble Shorts Pattern that you might have been eyeing for.  She did a shirt for herself, read it all here. 

Surprise Refashion Week |Jan. 19-23|

I've been keeping a secret! I skipped the January (Winter for me) edition of the Refashion Month, however, something else has been on the works: a special edition Refashion Week. What's so special about it? It is a special edition with Portuguese Sewing Bloggers only. 2014 was a great blog year for me. I was always starving to find friends from my own country, that were ineterested in the same things that I was. Bit by bit, I discovered the blogs from each of the ladies that will be part of this edition of the series (and a few more). I challenged them to refashion and they have accepted to do it. I can't wait to share them with you. So, starting monday through friday, visit us for a lot of refashioning inspiration. 

Maybe you already know them...

Glimpse of our last week #26

This is where I show you bits and parts of our week behind the scenes.

Another week into 2015. Is it just me or week after week, time seems to fly by quicker and quicker?!

Anyway... I didn't do much sewing... just two little items requested by my daughter. It was more about my family, and my house, which makes me happy. S. was on a swing for the first time, and all he could do was staring at his sister by his side. It was my dad's birthday so we headed to Spain to surprise him, had dinner and came back the same night. 

Sew Geeky Episode 9 TIM BURTON

Have you hear of Sew Geeky already? An idea brought to live by two super creative and talented ladies: Kat from Sew Chibi and Ari from Max California. If you need to know more about it read it over here. I can't consider myself a geek, but when those ladies allowed us to sew along to Tim Burton's inspired episode, I couldn't resist, because I just  L o v e  l o v e  l o v e  Burton's stuff. Besides, I had been wanting to use Sweeney Todd's beach outfits as an inspiration for a long, long time ago. This was just perfect!

And I knew just what to do. Let's start with the girl. Just a little disclaimer first: a couple of months ago I was offered a free pattern of the Peachy Dress & Playsuit from Felicity Sewing Patterns to review. All opinions are my own! That said, the girl's dress then. 

ok, Jack is in the wrong movie here, but he's perfect to host this post, right?! RIGHT?!!!

Would you like to take a closer look?!

I didn't want to do a dress just like the one in the movie, instead I wanted to get inspired by its colours. I also wanted a fresh dress and so the Peachy Dress & Playsuit pattern was just an obvious choice. This is the perfect dress (or playsuit) for the warmer days, too bad it's freaky cold outside and we couldn't do our own photoshoot in the beach too. Anyway, this pattern comes with six styling options (Basic Dress; Basic Playsuit with long or short pants; Dress, Playsuit or Romper with shoulder frills & elastic neckline; Dress, Playsuit or Romper with neck frill; Pillowcase Dress or Top; & Separate Shorts). Besides, it includes 2 cute pocket options, with a total of 4 tutorials on how to sew all possible combinations, with detailed photos and easy to follow instructions. I had zero problems sewing this up so I think it is a begginers good choice too. I am not a very ruffle person, but I'll admit these frills look just too cute on my little miss. She wasn't so happy about me pulling one of the shoulders down for the photo. 

I did the shoulder frills and elastic neckline option for the top, and the patch pockets option for the skirt. The skirt twirls beautifully because it is made out of 4 panels. Besides the elastic on the shoulders, it has a waist elastic too, which makes the top a little puffy and just adorable. I can't tell if I did size 2 or 3 anymore, but I followed the chart and it fits just great. Not to mention this little lady adored her new dress. Even though it was so cold when we did a very quick photoshoot indoors, she didn't want to take it out after all. She covered herself up with a blanket and said it'd be fine like that. The pattern comes sizes 2-14y and I've got the bug, I believe this is one of those patterns I could sew for myself and match my daughter! I love being small... at times!

I love it when I am surprised by a pattern. I was afraid I would end up doing something I didn't like because of the ruffles in this, but when picking carefully from the pattern pieces, and with your right choice of fabric, this became girly enough and pretty much satisfying for me. Having the girl's approval makes it even better. I believe this is the kind of dress every little girl loves. The blue fabric was in my stash. I made 2 dresses with it before, one for me and one for G. when she was only 1 year old. I can't believe there's still a piece of it left. The polka dots fabric was just a scrap, just enough for the pockets and to make the exact amount of bias that I needed. The small white flowers on black fabric, is actually a refashion from an old romper that was hanging in my piles for too long. 

So, what about the boy?! His was a very quick project. I looked through my stash, and I had a women sized striped t-shirt. The stripes were thinner than the inspiration, but the model was much smaller too, so it's porpotional. I didn't use a pattern for this one. I just used one of his 9M shirts (he's 6m now) to trace and cut the armholes. 

I kept the original hem, and only made a round shaped cut to turn it into a romper. I hemmed the seams of this cut and closed with metalic snaps (sewn to it). They were bad quality though and keep opening when my baby boy wears the romper. I will have to change it. Because I reused most of this shirt, and I kept the original neckline, I figured it'd be too wide for S. That was simple to solve though, I picked the neckline from another (white) shirt and sewn a patch inside, so it could cover the wide neckline and make it appropriate for my son. It turned out perfect. To match, I finished the armholes with bias made out of the same shirt. 

For the five minute photoshoot, I layered his romper with a white long sleeve shirt and tights He was looking so cute, but he kept on crying all along. I believe I've got like one or two photos where he's not crying. I also thought the romper would be bigger on him, because I was planning this to be a spring/summer piece, but I am not sure it'll fit 'till then. 

My balance |Fabrics, Refashioning & Thrifting|

It wasn't on my top 5 goals for 2015, but really, I don't need to add that anymore. Sewing from my stash and my refashion clothes pile has just become part of who I am and how I sew. I realised over the last couple of years that sewing doesn't have to be expansive. In fact, I can save a lot while sewing. Last year I tried to keep track of how much I was paying for the supplies I bought, but I got lost somewhere in between and I couldn't keep up with it. This year, I am planning to get a bit more organized, I have a folder on my computer, where I add photos of supplies, fabric, thrift clothes I buy with the information of how much I spent for each item. 

Even though I commited to not buying new fabrics last year, I did get a few new ones. I didn't buy them all, I got a couple from my grandma's friend, as birthday gifts from hubby and also from online sewing friends. In the list of the ones I bought there are more knits than wovens, for the simple fact that those weren't much in my stash before, so I needed these more than the other. When I look at my fabric piles right now, these new in 2014 included, I realise I lack on boys appropriate fabric. I have a few that are gender neutral, but most of them are really for girls. Because of that, I will allow myself buying new fabrics anytime I need it, even though I will always try to go for refashioning. There's all sorts of fabric prints and types in that pile. Some of the fabrics on the photos are already leftovers from pieces I made last year, which is a good sign, I bought them, but I have used them too. I haven't used a lot of them for the simple fact that most of them were bought after S. was born, which was also when I decreased my sewing projects for lack of time or mood. 

I was donated so many clothes last year. Closer to the end of the year I chose through it again and have donated a few of them myself too, there's just too much in my stash already and every now and then I have to do this. It was all getting too messy. I have used some of the pieces from the first photo below as they were, they were given to me by my own who got a little extra weight, and gave it all to me. 

Go ahead. Have fun trying to figure the pieces I have used from these piles already. There are a few. Anyway, a few were donated, and the pile is slightly shorter. I still have too many pieces to go through, and still, it always seems like enough is never enough when you are an addict. Last week I went thrifting in my favourite charity shop. And it is my favourite because all adult clothes and shoes cost 1€ and all kids clothes and shoes cost 0,50€, which is the closest to nothing. I usually thrift for refashioning, but often I fall in love with a piece and buy it to use as is. This was the case this last time. I didn't fall in love, but I was looking for specific warm shirts for both my kids, knitted ones because I don't knit. I eneded up bringing that and more, much more, but all costed me 9,50€, so, why should I complain. 

The butterfly are pieces for G. Ladybug for me (even though the blue skirt was going into my stash until I tried it on and realised I loved it, i just have to fix the waist at 1" less probably), those shoes were NEW, never used before. Snail goes into refashion and the bee is for S. They had so little to his size for boys.