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!

Dress success

This post is a while overdue, because I finished this project several weeks ago. And for once, I've been happily wearing it ever since! That never happens! Here I am posing in my father in law's luscious garden:

I'm particularly pleased because - third time lucky - I finally adapted this pattern in a way that works. It's a variation on the Anda dress, which I stumbled on over a year ago while looking for free/very cheap patterns to download off the interweb. It's extremely easy and only has two pattern pieces, but the concept is deceptively straightforward - although it's loose fitting, the fit still matters. And on my first two versions of this, it really really hung wrong.

This picture was an attempt to show the back view, for the sole reason that I adjusted not only for a full bust but also for a small back (like that would actually have been visible in a photo...). Tada! It works! Commercial dress/top patterns suddenly get a lot less daunting! It seems have finally figured out my fit problems with all clothes ever!

Here is a blurred photo of it hanging up - you can still see the overall structure of the thing:

I added the pockets for some visual interest in all that grey, because I didn't want to include the drawstring from the pattern or have to wear a belt with it. The shape of them comes from the pattern for L's ikea dress - I just sized them up on a photocopier.

I find it interesting how the positioning of the pockets just sort of evens out my top-heavy figure. It's an optical illusion but it works: I got them in the wrong place the first time round and it didn't 'balance' at all (fortunately, I love a good opportunity to spend some quality time with my seam ripper).

All said and done, I really LOVE this dress. It's comfy (and particularly forgving around the post-childbearing waist and hips), it's versatile, and oh my aren't big pockets useful! I doubt I'll be making tons of them, as there's too many other things eagerly awaiting my attention. But I'm very glad I've got the adapted pattern just waiting there for next time and some slightly more interesting fabric than the cheap, plain grey cotton.

Finally, dress success! I really can't wear this one enough.

P.S. Nice post-holiday tan, no?

cake+tea

With thanks (especially from my lucky, cake-loving colleagues) to J for the book of French vocab-increasing recipe fabulousness, and to L for the pretty silicone cupcake cases.

Yum yum yum!

More things made out of towels

#TipOfTheWeek:

Cutting up towels to make stuff will result in zillions of tiny bits of fabric fluff all over your house which will stick to the floor just as stubbornly as wet couscous* and keep reappearing even after you have swept and hoovered several times.

 

We're off on holiday soon to a campsite in a warm sunny place with a swimming pool, splash pool and riverside beach.

I'm thinking that throwing these little robes over swimming costumes will mean that we hardly even need to get the kids dressed for the whole two weeks!

In fact I like that idea so much, I'm plotting one for myself too. A final burst of activity before lots of lazy days, poolside...

Tutorial here.

* #BonusTipOfTheWeek:  only feed your toddlers couscous after sealing them in a ziploc bag or something. The bloody stuff gets everywhere and sticks there.

UPDATE!

Robes in action!

How's that for cute AND practical!