The last Xmas present

It is my sister her birthday, so the ideal day to show the Xmas present we made for her eldest son, my godchild.

He already got another present but as godchild he got a little bonus.

Cousin J is a hockey player, which explains the image on the front ‘from-monkey-to-hockey-player’, we got inspired for this on the internet.

In contrast to the previous versions we made of this jumper, we did not make any changes to the pattern this time around.

The hoody is a size 10 years for our very tall cousin. He is exactly the same age as Omar but the hoody is too big for Omar and looks on the small side for cousin J. Luckily he has two smaller brothers.

Pattern: Stof voor Durf-het-Zelvers.

Fabric: The teddy fleece was bought @Sammtex in Ronse, the brown interlock and rib was bought @ stoffennet.

And now ... part 2

Cousin J received a gymnastics bag. 

I can’t get enough of this pattern; it is such a pleasure to make this cute bag.

His sister, niece M, got the same thing … 

… but different, as it is made with a different fabric and off course we printed her own name and not her brother’s.

The BBF of Louka, where she spent a couple of nights during her stay in Belgium, also got a little gymnastics bag.

She is somewhat older than the two others so we choose a slightly more sophisticated fabric, but the fluorescent pink details make it girly enough.

Pattern: Stof voor Durf-het-Zelvers again!

Fabric: The lion fabric I bought at Noeks, ages ago. Some nostalgia, I think it must have been more or less my first online item I ever bought!

The red retro fabric I purchased online at Fifi Jolipois.

The grey fabric with the geometric print was bought overseas at HawthorneThreads.

And now ...

And now ... we can finally present you the homemade gifts for the cousins!

The three sons of my youngest sister received a jumper; we adapted the pattern of the hoody from the book Stof-voor-durf-het-zelvers and made a hoodie without a hood!

Her eldest son, cousin J, got a Viking jumper, Louka poses with a jumper just a little too small for her, but perfect for her 7 year old cousin. As I am the godmother of cousin J, he also got another gift which we will show later.

Her second son, cousin L, got a jumper with elephants. According to Omar the jumper fits like a glove! He actually wants to keep it for himself!

The third son in the row, cousin A, got a dragon-jumper! Jade shows off a jumper that fits her perfectly; nevertheless the jumper is on the short side for her cousin. A cousin who is 18 months younger than her! He is about to turn 4 but looks like a 6 year old!

The eldest son of my elder sister also got a jumper. Cousin O got an elephant jumper in a different color combination than cousin L.

Luckily we more or less have at least one child to pose with every jumper that was made!

Pattern: The hoodie pattern from Stof-voor-Durf-het-Zelvers.

Fabric: The elephant fabric is from Nosh Organics bought @ Roos en Violet. The dragon fabric is from Znok and the Vikings are from Bora for Lillestof, both bought @ Bambiblauw.

Hoody: the boys’ version

The last two pieces in the 'hoody-series' were created. So now also the boys have their own hoody.

They each choose a different color Viking fabric, but since the hoodies are finished they both claim they choose the blue fabric.

Anyway we temporary solved that issue and they proudly present you their new hoodies.

Handstand is the preferred pose of all our kids at the moment!

I used the same pattern and procedure to make the hoodies as described in the previous hoody posts. In answer to the questions we got, adding a zipper to the pattern does not complicate the sewing process it makes it even easier to make the hoody reversible.

Enjoy the pictures.

More hoodies

For our summer vacation in Belgium we urgently need to expand our amount of long sleeve clothes. We already showcased the hoody for Felix.

Meanwhile also the girls got their version of the hoody from Stof-voor-Doe-het-Zelvers.

We added a zipper by cutting the front panel in two parts and made some small changes to the pattern, this to adjust the hood a little.

To avoid unhappy kids who never want to wear their hoody –like Felix- the girls choose the fabric their selves.

It was my job to find a reversible zipper in a flashy color. I know I can’t find them on the local market so searched the internet. Nevertheless we didn’t find what we wanted online either, until we found this web shop. Custom made zippers! I sometimes get seduced to do inordinate sewing related purchases; nevertheless I stayed in my right mind this time, 10,75 US$ for a single zipper exclusive of shipment costs is over the edge even for me!

So our completely reversible jackets are finished with normal open end nylon coil zippers.

The girls are ready for a Belgian summer and are looking forward to cooler weather.

Outside fabric Louka: Bought @ De Stoffenkamer

Outside fabric Jade: Blue violet fabric from Znok, bought @ Vermiljoenshop

Lining: Bought in Ajman @ Bengali Market

Gymnastics outfit: part I

Our four eldest children do gymnastics. So they have to wear a gymnastics leotard; an item that is not easily purchased around here.

As Tahir imported perfect leotard fabric I decided to make their gymnastics outfit myself.

I will not disclose the results just yet, the leotard pictures are for later this week...

First I present you the gymnastics bag that goes with it.

A cute little bag for our ‘star’ gymnasts. Just the right size to store two small bottles of water and a snack for during the break.

I prefer a round gymnastics bag instead of a flat one; besides following the guidelines of THE book it was very easy to make. We chose to make the version with the pocket on the inside, to tuck money aside.

This macho bronze fellow (A Askalany) could wrap it around its neck before the kids got hold of it.

The beautiful blue fabric (Melody Sketch – Nani Iro) was bought at Mondaysmilk, an online fabric shop with a superefficient and friendly service.

The website noted that the fabric is DOUBLE GAUZED, I did not notice this mention when I ordered the fabric and anyway I would not have known what it meant. I do now!

Double gauzed means that the fabric consists of two different layers attached to each other by means of small invisible stitches. It might seem difficult to stitch with, the way I describe the fabric. Nothing is further from the truth, I did not hamper me in any way, long life Japanese perfection.

I bought the cotton yellow biais binding at Vermiljoenshop.

The pictures are made in ArtSawa Gallery in Al Quoz.

Do not forget to join this blog if you want to give it a try to win this fabric.

Reversible hoody with a zipper

A whole week we had no access to the internet! The construction workers who are building a new house further down the street, snipped our cable in two, to provide internet for the new house?! 

No internet, that means: more time to stitch. So we finally finished the reversible hoody, maybe better called the jacket for Felix.

The pattern is from Stof voor Durf-Het-Zelvers a stylish dutch sewing book. We slightly changed the pattern; we made the hoody reversible and added a zipper. A jumper with a jacket is more convenient for us, as the weather is never really cold, and the zipper makes it a light jumper.

One side of the hoody is made from Liandlo fabric, bought at KitschyCoo. The other side is a kind of cotton knit fabric in red and white. I bought this fabric at Bengali Market in Ajman for a ridiculous 1.2 euro per meter.

The backside of the fabric is very nice, so we used the backside as the visual part for this hoody.

I am pretty happy with the result although it was supposed to look slightly different. First of all, I planned to use yellow knit cuff fabric, but I accidently cut red trimming. I only realized when it was largely too late.

Secondly, the hoody was sewn together a couple of weeks ago but I could not find a reversible zipper. A reversible hoody without a reversible zipper can no longer be called a reversible hoody, so I kept on searching and found one reversible zipper; a blue one –I actually wanted a red zipper. Luckily the blue matches well with the red side of the hoody.

Lastly something else most be wrong with the hoody; because as soon as my son saw me walk towards him with the hoody, he ran away crying out loud. He kept on crying and running away from the camera until we took the hoody off. More snot and tears all over the pictures than anything else.

Therefore we asked Felix his sister for help, she is not that much bigger than our little man so the hoody fits her as well.

Also Jade was not really in to pose for the camera, but she was easily blackmailed with the promise of some chocolate in exchange for her nicest smile.

So the initial I-do-not-want-to-pose-face …

was followed by the toothpaste smile …

the spontaneous smile …

the passport photo pose …

and also a picture where she clearly spells the word cho-co-laaaa!

I hope we face a good summer in Belgium, otherwise we risk Felix runs around crying the whole summer.