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. 

Glimpse of our last week #25

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

I had a couple weeks break on our weekly glimpses, but I am back again. I haven't been taking a lot of photos because my camera is getting worse and worse each day. It doesn't really focus anymore unless I use the flash light =( 

S. is already wearing the bigger clothes I made for him while pregnant. G. skipped school for a day and we did a lot of activities on our own. Drawing, painting a piggy, shoot some photos for a review, put our christmas tree down. S. can't drink water on his own. G. loves tulicreme. I went thrift shopping, which I didn't for a while. And, I just finished another pattern test (actually starting on a second test for this one). 

Bowling Pin & Ball Game

Not long ago, I was able to test a different kind of pattern. It wasn't something for the kids wardrobe, but it was still, something for the kids: a bowling game! And oh boy, did I enjoy making something different?! I definately did. This was a rather a quick and easy sew project, to which I was able to use scraps from my stash. To start there are only two pages to print and no need to piece anything together - which is something really cool, when you're used to print just too many to test anything like kids clothes. Instructions are clear and detailed. with step by step pictures all through the process. And, you get some very usuful tips through the tutorial. I swear there was nearly nothing to note while testing. This came out really easy. The pin ball measures 24 cm (9.5") tall and the ball is 29cm (11.5") round. This pattern, also includes 2 extra pages with reversed numbers on them. You can do some appliqué numbers to your pins if you wish to. 

Because the test happened to be so close to my friends little boy's birthday, this, of course, made the perfect gift for him - or so I thought. However, it took me a while to meet them, and since my friend reads this blog, I didn't want to ruin the surprise and have been postponing this over and over. If you're looking for a cool gift to sew for a little one in your life (or an adult, who knows?!), you can get your pattern over Nittens & Patches Shop. 

TOP 5 of 2014 |day 5: Goals|

Welcome 2015! 

To close the top 5 (posts) of 2014, I chose to do a post about the future. The future things I want to do in this new year. I am pretty bad following goals, but I promise I will do my best to get them done. 

#1 - Sew more of what my kids need, and less of what I am tempted to.

#2 - Sew more for myself. Because I am the mom and I deserve it.

#3 - Sew for the husband. Well, I guess that if you sew for everyone around you, the man in your life might feel a little out of equation, right?

#4 - Sew presents ahead. And I mean, birthdays, special days and X-mas gifts should be sewn with weeks ahead.

#5 - Sewing for my house. Pillows, baskets, rugs, covers, bags, etc...

|Can I add just one more thing?! Now that I am done with pregnancies and breastfeeding, I want to get a 6th tattoo: A SEWING related one!!!|