A-line dress with 3D-pleats

The last project made during KCW winter 2014 is this A-line dress with 3D-pleats.

Inspired by these gorgeous dresses, we immediately put a similar project on our todo-list. The last day of KCW we cut and sew the dress, nevertheless the handwork took way longer than planned.

The dress was dragged along to gymnastics- and swim classes of the children and was completed while cheering on the kids and watching their progression. The dress in the making was already watched and approved by many mothers.

The daughter and me we are pleased with the final result; my contentment is partly related to the fact I am done sewing pinches.

Jade her favorite color, pink, isn’t really my favorite, we found a compromise in fluo pink and so everybody is happy.

The pleats were sewn together with fluo orange thread. Initially I wanted a more contrasting color for making the pinches, but that takes away the attention from the 3D-effect of the pinch itself to the color of the thread and after all the handwork that is not what I wanted.

Pattern: The pattern is drafted by Curl Up, Doguincho inspired us to fold together the pleats.

Fabric: The fluorescent pink cotton is from Riley Blake Designs and was bought @ Hawthorne Threads.

KCW Winter 2014 - Jacob part 3

KCW is the perfect motivator to work double as hard, and today we made Elias smile! A happy boy thanks to this short version of THE Jacob pants.

Perfect fit at the backside.

Perfect fit at the front side.

And again made out of gorgeous ‘Chinese Blue’.

All pants, it looks like this:

The long green legs together with the short blue pants.

The long blue legs together with the short blue version.

Pattern: The third time in a row we use the Jacob pattern designed by Zonen09.

Fabric: The fluorescent piping was homemade from fluorescent trim (bought @ Vermiljoenshop).

KCW Winter 2014 - Jacob part 2

We finished the pants for Elias yesterday evening, and as soon as he saw the pants, he announced to be wearing short pants only!

It is true that Elias always leaves the house with short pants and Omar usually wears long ones, but I thought to be able to change this pattern by giving him his own long pants. I was wrong obviously!

Consequently we have a second pants for Omar (and we already started to cut and sew the short version Elias requested).

This time around the backside fits perfect without having to tighten the elastic excessively and there even is some room for growing.

The blue fabric was purchased in Shanghai, China (just like these gorgeous Chinese Blues). The fabric is supposedly hand dyed and had to be fixed before washing as the color runs. I was told that the fabric is about 50 years old. The sales lady –who looked double as old as the fabric- also explained me that it was made in her family business; but then my Chinese is quasi nihil so it is possible that I got that completely wrong!

The fabric smelled moist but after fixing and washing, she turned out to be really soft and so gorgeous!

I bought a full role but the role was not very long and on top of that only 45 cm wide. I will have to be make this fabric last a long way.

Pattern: Just like the pants posted yesterday this is a Jacob pants designed by Zonen09.

Fabric: The fluorescent piping was homemade from fluorescent trim (bought @ Vermiljoenshop) and some rope.

KCW winter 2014 - Jacob

New pants are –just like our previous project- something we postponed way too long. We assembled and cut the Jacob pattern (this must be the most used pants pattern at the moment in Belgium) and we made a test pants.

Omar and Elias had a lot of catching up to do as a result of being born to early and apparently they did not yet completely catch up. They turn 8 this summer and this size 6 years old is still somewhat too big. We have to tighten the elastic a lot which does not give a perfect result looking from the backside. Besides that the pants fits like a glove.

Jacob approved and we are ready to make one for twin 2.

Pattern: Jacob designed by Zonen09.

Fabric: The pants are made out of a piece of 100% cotton bought in Ajman @ ‘Bengali market’. The fluorescent piping was made from fluorescent trim we bought at Vermiljoenshop when the online shop still had a branch in Ghent.

KCW Winter 2014 - Burnous

Bathrobes for the children are probably the item the longest on my to-do list. It was getting urgent, as some mothers at after school swimming already accosted me about the size of the bathrobes of –especially- the boys.

The label of their bathrobes said ‘size 18 months’ so at the age of 7 years old, it goes without saying that they were (far) too small and (far) too short.

KCW Winter 2014 was the ideal motivator to finally make 5 bathrobes.

Our children don’t like the rope that closes most bathrobes, so I decided to make a burnous – an Arabic style coat amongst others worn by camel herds.

While going through ‘Intemporels pour enfants’ we found exactly what we had in mind, which saved us the process of drawing/testing our own pattern.

We added a wide, decorative band to all openings and to the hood, this is not described in the original pattern.

All children got their own color bathrobe, decorated with a matching Petit Pan trim.

Elias

Louka

Jade

Omar

The burnous are rather large so we can use them hopefully for a couple of years.

As usual Felix boycotted the photo shoot!

We tricked him into it anyway, so –by the time the other kids were tired of taking pictures- we got a scarce picture without tears.

Pattern: The book Intemporels pour enfants from Astrid le Provost was bought @ Kinokuniya in Dubai Mall.

Fabric: Good toweling is hard to get in the UAE and ordering online results in high delivery costs because of its volume so we cut up good quality towels (2 per burnous). The Petit Pan fabric was bought @ the online Petit Pan store.