Various exciting developments

It's a random roundup post! No specific projects to show off, but I have not been inactive...

1) I went to Ikea and bought boxes and sorted out all my fabric and all my clothes for recycling and all my sewing supplies. It was a MESS. Now it's not. No pictures because I am still in denial about exactly HOW MUCH fabric there turned out to be hiding in the pile.

2) This was partly in anticipation of getting a sewing corner once we have 3 new bedrooms (attic renovation in progress!). But also in preparation for this:

Which starts today and which I am utterly signed up for. It's the excuse I've been needing to dive into ...

3) This book. I ordered it a few weeks ago and have been humming and hawing over what to do first ever since. I am particularly pleased about the fact that it contains a lot of intermediate and advanced things, so I can push my limits a bit without getting too fussy about it.

4) However, I'm also going back to the most basic of basics with a (very) beginners sewing course. I'm doing it for the fun - I've been wishing I could find a sewing club in Brussels (there seem to be many, funky ones in Flanders), and then found out about this from a friendly parent at the school gates. So I get to sew with other people and chat and make new friends at the same time! And at the end of it I will have a nice apron.

5) And finally, you might correctly think that I'm not lacking in ideas or inspiration. However, I was getting very frustrated by the bottomless chasm of folders and sub-folders in which my "favourites" were organised. Utterly impossible to remember what I'd bookmarked half of it for, and totally not user friendly. So now I have this instead:

I had heard about Pinterest on various blogs over this spring/summer but decided it was a blogland fad and ignored it. Turns out everyone was right and actually it's great. Instead of bookmarking text, you bookmark pictures, and the internet being a visual kind of thing, it's a MUCH easier way to organise one's creative thoughts.

Upcoming project ideas are here, my list of useful resources for tutorials etc is here, random other ideas are here - all accessible at a glance. I've put the link to my boards in the right hand column in case anyone fancies clicking through to my link treasure trove.

~

And that's it for now. My sewing energy was a bit depleted after September's burst of productivity, but after a good bit of organising I'm ready to go again. I intend to be back soon with lot's of kids' clothes made this week!

Ik recykleer!

I've recently been discovering that there's a whole world of sewing bloggers right on my doorstep. The crafts blogosphere sometimes seems overwhelmingly American - frustratingly so when you discover that their beautiful fabrics are hardly available in Europe, let along affordable. So imagine my joy on finding - through a throwaway comment by Dana from MADE - first of all polkadotjes and then a whole little gang of Flemish craftsters, plenty of them with blogs of their own.

They make beautiful things - but then I am always easily distracted by beautiful handmade stuff. What really caught my attention was this little button cropping up over and over:

For those who don't speak Dutch, allow me to explain this genius little pun:

recycleren [v]: recycle, reprocess, reuse

kleren [n]: clothing, clothes, apparel

Thus:

recykleren [v]: to recycle clothes

The symbol speaks for itself but I love the play on words (possibly disporportionately so as it's not my mother tongue, but you know, so what? I'm a langauge geek too).  And it  gets even better. Because the creative lady who dreamt this little sign up - she goes by the name of Boomie - is holding a recykleren fortnight in September, with round-ups, tutorials, guest posts, the whole shebang  - all about the things one can do with recycled clothes. I am very excited about this!

I have been stashing away old clothing for well over a year now. Those barely-worn "what was I thinking" purchases are now eagerly purged from my wardrobe, and I almost encourage G to tear or stain his shirts just so I can have them. But so far the pile of old clothing far exceeds what I've actually done with it. And with the children growing out of their clothes every few months or so - before my very eyes! - I constantly need new ideas.  I'm bookmarking Boomie's blog right this very instant. Have a look at her Pinterest page to see what she's collected so far.

OK, here are a couple of photos. Firstly, L wearing a skirt I made for her out of an H&M tunic that wasn't getting much wear any more:
 

And this... well it's a taster photo, because my pictures of the thing this t-shirt became are on my other computer. Have a guess! I'll update the post later.

Apart from that, this, this and this are my recycling efforts so far. There WILL be more soon!

Simple pleasures

~  SIMPLY  ~

using the kitchen

eating Mexican salad

children absorbed

city summers

everyday favourite colours

red bugs in the park

a happy (birthday) two-year old



~  some recent simple pleasures  ~

FRESH



fresh rain in May



   

 fresh herbs in the kitchen



.... and growth in the garden




fresh goat's cheese



fresh bread

 


fresh enthusiasm