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Back … online! No blog posts since July, we enjoyed some well-earned time off this summer. Nevertheless it is almost end of September so time to get back in our normal daily routine.

Back … into sports! The fractured collarbone did not heal properly and almost 3 months after breaking it we had surgery to fix the collarbone with a plate and six screws. Some weeks of hard work and a couple of buckets of sweet later and we are getting fit again. Can’t wait till the Asian Rugby Championships next weekend, followed by the kick-off of our local league championship.

But above all Back … to school! So time to show off our new school bags!

Elias picked a fantastic fabric from Jessica Jones. He is so ready to learn to read (Jessica Jones “Dawn Picket” - Noeks).

Omar choose HIS robots –since he had a pencil case made of this fabric he claimed the rest of the piece of robot fabric to be his! The inside of his bag had to be finished off with plane green. I would have used royal blue, but to be honest the green goes perfectly with the robot fabric (Kokka - Vermiljoenshop).

The missy does not actually really need a big school bag as such, but she did not want to start school without a homemade bag. Her choice of fabric: yellow and orange apples and the little bag on the inside same fabric but green and teal apples (by Graziela - Vermiljoenshop). 

Louka shows of the bag I made for myself.

We bought this delightful fabric @ Van Katoen; as it is canvas and the print is rather big I did not immediately have an idea on what to make with it, until I saw this picture! (Prints Charming “Daisy Chain” - Bambiblauw).

Not too many words, no tutorials but pictures that say it all.

Just maybe this: I like buying fabric online and do not mind not seeing the fabric when I buy. Nevertheless I hardly ever buy haberdashery such as bias binding, piping or webbing online. It is hard to find a perfect match if you can only see the items on the screen of your computer; besides some webbing is very expensive.

So we made the webbing for our schoolbags ourselves. We bought a very big role of nature colour cotton ribbon. The ribbon itself was not strong enough to serve as webbing and it was way too wide (10cm); so we folded the ribbon twice widthways and we stitched several fluorescent lines all along the length of the ribbon. This resulted in webbing that looks just perfect for the purpose being. The fluorescent details give the bags –especially the blue one we made for Elias- more cachet.

The working room

Lets take you on a virtual sewing-room-tour, 360° of fabric, sewing machines and haberdashery:

A computer corner to stay tuned with the world.

Next to the computer, we installed the ‘normal sewing machine’.

At the opposite side of the room, there is a table with a serger, a cover stitch machine and a cutting mat.

Next to it you can find an embroidery machine.

As you can see fabrics are not the only things we like from Sweden; we also love their storage systems and tables; I am one of the favorite customers in the local Ikea branch.

All the walls in the room are ‘decorated’ with shelves filled with kilometers of fabric, lace, rope, as well as containers filled with buttons, labels, and pins.

Even the drawers under the guest bed are filled with sewing room supplies.

It might look chaotic, as I do not tend to lock anything behind closet doors. Nevertheless, I prefer it this way, as I only take full advantage of all my fabric and haberdashery when I can properly see the material I have; the colors and the prints give me the necessary inspiration.

Fabric scraps

Sadly enough my broken collar bone still does not allow me to handle big pieces of fabric. So besides a number of eleventh-hour pencil cases and Louka her crow costume, I did not really cut, let alone stitch anything noteworthy the last couple of weeks. The advantage: my workspace is as tidy as can be and ready for our summer break.

This spring-cleaning revealed some fabric scraps that are really worthwhile doing something with –I hardly ever throw anything away- and luckily I can handle small scraps even with an immobilized arm.

I preferably make magnets with them and exceptionally buttons.

Buttons I prefer less as the kids hurt themselves with them and as they tend to get lost when they get removed from the garment for washing.

There are 4 different ways to make nice magnets; but in any case you need a button machine.

Canvas kind of fabrics you can transform into a magnet just by cutting a perfect round and placing in the button maker.

Thinner fabrics you will need to do an extra step as otherwise you risk the fabric to come of the metal part of the magnet or the fabric might tear while making the magnet.

Thinner fabrics you can cover with a lamination sheet -usually delivered with the magnet parts- I never do this as the nice textured effect of the fabric gets lost.

Another solution is to strengthen the fabric at the front side with iron-on-vinyl; resulting in a vinyl version of the initial fabric. A nice but expensive solution if you ask me.

Alternate you can iron fusible interfacing on the back of your fabric scrap, this is not very expensive and I also always have small leftover pieces I consequently can get rid of.

These two last methods guarantee that the fabric does not tear and makes it a lot easier to cut the circles.

This is how these 2 piles of nicely cut rounds were transformed in a whole collection of magnets.

And now… what with the fabric scraps after cutting out the rounds? I will tell you that another time.

Crow

Our eldest daughter got the role of crow in the ‘end-of-the-year’ school performance; and so mummy is supposed to supply the costume. Inspired by these wings, we started working on our own version.

We cut 30-some bands shaped as feathers and attached them to two triangular pieces of fabric.

To make the black bird wings a little more cheerful we added a single string of golden feathers!

Both wings were finished with biasband to make sure the wings survive the performance and maybe some dress up parties afterwards. We attached the wings to the backside of a black T-shirt; and finally added an elastic on both sides of the wings, so she can just put her hands through them to hold the wings in place.

Abbaya Shampoo

Djamila spilled some yoghurt on her Abbaya during breakfast and that made her sad. Her best Abbaya ruined and will she be able to remove these nasty stains?

  

Omar noticed how miserable Djamila looked and he decided to go to the supermarket.

He was filled with joy when he found a special Abbaya Shampoo and quickly grabbed some bottles.

Since that day onwards Djamila uses Abbaya Shampoo for her favorite Abbayas.

Presents: Part 3

The 14th of April this year, I escaped my family duties for a day to visit Van Katoen in Belgium.

The MIAT was packed with a lot of sewing freaks. I liked what I saw: inventive people -little and big- working together for the better cause, beautiful creations, lots of people wearing lots of beautiful clothes, but I also saw fabric and a massive amount of buttons.

A great initiative; set up by 8 innovative sewing bloggers.

That day I promised a genuine Van Katoen bag to everybody of the organizing team, and promise is dept: ladies your bags are decorated, sewed together and ready to use.

Thanks for organizing Van Katoen!

Presents: Part 2

Today we distribute some more presents. The end of the school year lingers around the corner, so time to thank some teachers. The kids choose pencil cases for their teachers and the parents of Elias his class asked to make an apron with all the names of the kids of the class embroidered on it. Speaking of remembering all the little monsters.

Two party garlands were made, one for her. She gave us the idea and the fabric!

Genius fabric: Chalkcloth! You write a text for one party and wipe it off: ready for the next party, same garland, different text.

The other party garland is for M, because … I promised her.