Ballet or Opera anyone?

Although closer on the republican side in the monarchy debate, I happen to love Maxima (don't tell anyone). She is the Dutch crown princess, in case anyone wonders. The sole purpose of making a clutch is to adress my inner Maxima. It would have been in a beautiful Pruissian blue velvet, but I ruined it. Velvet, especially this slightly elastic stuff, is probably the worst kind of fabric to work with. Black and blue dust all over the place.

After the disaster with the blue velvet I tried one in this lovely Lecien cotton. I used a free pattern by Keyka Lou, but I changed the corners. I didn't box them, but made little darts, so it would be a bit more curvy. I like it better that way. This one turned out quite neat, so I took a deep breath and got back to the velvet. But it's official now: it's rotten stuff to sew with, and it's almost impossible, at least for a amateur like myself, to photograph. Why work with velvet anyway?

So, ballet or opera, anyone?

Screenprinted tablecloth #1

"Rondom dezen disch geschaard", kind of old fashioned Dutch for "to be seated at this table", with these words my grandfather started every mealtime prayer. I had no idea at the time what he was talking about. It was just a strange phrase to start dinner with, I guessed.

As I picked up the plan to make my own tablecloth this sentence came up again. I like a well set table. No pots or pans on the table, but proper bowls and dishes, and Wedgwood china  every day. Not only did I inherit the love for fabric and beautiful damask tablecloths, I even have my own heirloom pieces. In early days, days gone by, so to speak (that's what Vervlogen Dagen means in English), almost every woman made her own tablecloths. In my family,  for some reason, there are various hardanger style tablecloths.

My tablecloth is not hardanger, does not even involve needle and thread, sor far. I started to screenprint one. Not as time-consuming maybe, but nevertheless it's quite a process. I drew our cutlery and the Wedgwood print on the back of our plates and handlettered the "rondom dezen disch geschaard". Then I bought some (almost four metres) of white linen and measured it all out on my actual table.

This week I did the first half of the tablecloth and I can't wait to get the rest done. It's just what I had in mind.

Swimming bag

Isa, a friend of Lauren's,  isn't exactly fond of swimming, but she has to, it's in the school's curriculum after all. Maybe a nice bag makes it a little more bearable. The diving girl is inspired by the Jantzen diving girl, from the 1940's. It's a present for her birtday party. The lining is made out of oilcloth, I hope the water isn't leaking through the seams. I mean, have you ever taken out the swimming gear of your kids; it's soaked every time again!

Nani Iro Scarf

Months ago I ordered this Nani Iro fabric, just because I loved it so much. But when I saw this scarf, I knew immediately what I would make out of it. My mother had a perfect shawl for the lining, pure thai silk in a strange skin color, but perfectly matching the plum color of the Nani Iro fabric. The giant ochre ric rac was too cheap not to buy and is now the just the finishing touch it needed.

Nice to wear with my burgundy leather jacket and quite posh with the velvet Edith and Ella one. 

Happy Birthday

A homemade present has become a part of the birthday ritual for Lauren. Last year I made her a butterfly mosquito net, this year a sewing kit. The needlebook and matching pincushion I made of felt.  I couldn't find the time to sew the whole kit, as I originally intended,  but bought a box instead at a hideous store  for almost nothing. I changed the look a bit and added my 'vervlogen dagen' button.
The lady in my favourite fabric store used to say that "there are no people living at the back", when I excused myself for the messy back of a quilt top. In case of the needlebook and pincushion an embellished, people might also live at the back, hence the embellishments. I put also three Kaffe Fasset fat quarters in her kit, for the sake of matching colors.

And for now, let them eat cake! Happy Birthday, lieve Lauren. 

Why small classes are so important...

...when you're making treats for your daughter! Tomorrow's is Lauren's birthday. To stay with the circus theme it seemed a good idea at the time to make this trapeze artist caketoppers. I found a free printable and used that for my own drawing. Attaching them to the little sticks is the less fun part of it.

Silkscreen

My first silkscreen prints! Three weeks ago I started  a silkscreen printing course and what a great joy it is. My main intention was to learn to print fabric, but I love every step of the way. We started with paper templates the first time. Without any preparation of thinking about the result I started and during the process I thought of making a silkscreen print for Lauren's birthday instead of a drawing. Since her birthday party is somewhat circus-themed I came up with the lady on the horse.

The whole idea of printing is to make duplicates, mine are more like  puzzles. Find the differences.

I sewed a skirt and I liked it

For some reason there are a lot of Belgian sewing blogs. I like to read their posts for several reasons. First because they exhibit their fine sewing skills of course, but I like their language just as much. Flemish and Dutch are very much alike, but yet so very different. Everytime I read one of their blogs I reconsider writing in Dutch. It's difficult to be funny or profound if it's not your mother tongue you're communicating in. But then again, I love the fact that people all over the world can understand this, when it's in English. Anyway, a few weeks ago I discovered emma en mona, and I'm a huge fan since. These pretty skirts this mother is making for her twin daughters seemed doable for me too. So here it is,  approved by Lauren, so there will be following some more! I've noticed that a lot of you don't like the color purple. I, on the other hand, love it. This fabric is actually lilac with red and burgundy.