the Birthday-boy

Vorig jaar startte ik deze blog omdat mijn zus zwanger was van mijn petekindje en ik een klankbord nodig had voor de spulletjes die ik voor het petekindje maakte. Na een nagelbijtend zenuwslopende tijd werd Simon dan toch nog geboren (we dachten al bijna dat het een grap was) na de volle 42 weken zwangerschap. En hopla, ene keer knipperen met de ogen en hij is alweer een jaar ouder, stukken groter, nog knapper en liever en helemaal Simon. Ik maakte hem zijn verjaardagskroon, die ook nog kan dienen voor zijn tweede en derde (en elke verdere combinatie met 1-2-3) verjaardag, een keerbaar zonnehoedje, uiteraard met geitjes (eendjes) op, en een vlagjeslijn voor op zijn kamertje.

Last year, I started this blog because my sis was pregnant with my godson, and I needed some way to share my crafting for him. After a long, nerve wrecking time,  Simon ended up being born, which was a surprise, since we were almost thinking the whole pregnancy was a joke. My sis carried full term: 42 weeks!!!!
and it seems just one blink of the eyes later, and here he is, our beautiful birthday-boy.  I handmade him his crown, that will serve for his 2nd and 3rd birthday as well, and any combination of 1-2-3..... I also made him a sun hat, which is reversible, but since we are so passionate about Citroën 2cv, i doubt the blue side will be showed that much.

De vlaggetjes, zijn stoel staat er al gelijk van te blinken ;-)
I made some bunting as well, and they suit well with the chair!

Oh, en kijk is hier....................................
oh, and look at this..................................

een meter met een zelfgemaakt kleedje!!!!!!!!! dat is het allereerste kledingstuk dat ik voor mezelf maakte. maatje 52 kleden (of er patronen voor vinden) is niet zo simpel. Ik gebruikte een Ottobre uit 2010 en paste de lengte van het Tshirt aan. eens mijn locker werkte, zat het hele kleedje in 2 uur in elkaar. niet slecht voor een eerste keer............... Er volgen er nog minstens drie. zoveel stof heb ik nog klaarliggen voor mezelf.

it's a godmother in a home made dress.!!!! wow, that's actually the very first thing I made for myself. dressing my size, let alone finding patterns for it proves a bit difficult. I used a pattern for a shirt and made it somewhat longer. the assemblage took me merely 2 hours, not bad for a first time...

you gotta love Petit Pan

mijn kleine meiske wordt groot. ik kocht haar van de week haar eerste paar echte schoenen, nu ze stevig genoeg kan stappen om de te kunnen gebruiken. Staan en stappen, dat betekent ROKJES. Welke stof is nu schoner dan een Petit Panneke?????? Schoonzus kocht dat stofje vorig jaar voor mij in Parijs en ik maakte er gelijk een kleedje van. Biais mislukt, te smal vanboven enzovoort. Ik knipte er dus fluks de bovenkant af en maakte er een reteschattig rokje van (Bloomers volgen nog). En welke gelegenheid beter dan een pre-zomerse barbeque om die hippe stijl te showen?

My little girl is growing up. She got her first pair of real shoes, after practicing on soft leather for a couple of months. But standing and strotting your stuff means urgent need of SKIRTS. There's no nicer fabric than those of Petit Pan, to make them in. My sister in law bought this particular one in Petit Pan headquarters in Paris for me and I instantly turned it into a dress. It looked really bad, it was too small, the seems weren't nice etc. So coming across it again, I just cut of the upper part and magically it became this adorable little skirt. And there's really no better way than showing of the new groovy style than the first summery BBQ?

heaps of yummie fabric!

first off, welcome to all my Swap-bot followers and readers. I noticed a lot of traffic from swap-bot lately, so I decided to start writing in English. just to accommodate you. I'm a very nice lady, you know;-) .
So, I've been rather busy lately. Lotje still does not want to sleep at night, so focussing on knits and stretchy fabrics was not really my cup of tea lately. But I was in a lot of fun swaps, that did not involve large amounts of fabric and good thinking. 

For the Elven Brooch swap, we were supposed to make the Elven Brooch from the LOTR-movie. I made mine out of Fimo, and used wire as a second material. It was a bit tricky, but the outcome was nice. At least, that's what I think. 

In the OTT-group you're meant to make your partner One Tiny Thing. Just one thing (10 cm x 10 cm max), no extra's. I love that idea. I signed myself up for some tags and swaps over there and am having a lot of fun coming up with ideas. For the Tim Burton Movie swap I decided to go with Jack Skellington. He's just so lovely for a creepy guy. A while ago, my sis gave me her old set of carving tools, from back in the days. I finally came around to using it. I hand-carved Jack out of a eraser. and I got the flavor of things, because I couldn't stop myself and made a woodland-bambi-cutey for an OTT-tag and some cupcakes for a giveaway on Swapperdeswap (the Belgium swappersforum).

But we were talking Yummie fabrics in the title of this blogpost, now, weren't we? Well, today was the day we all look forward to for half a year. In the Expo in Antwerp, one hall gets transformed to a really really big fabric store. you'd better go there on a budget, with a list, and even then, you come out with way more fabrics than you originally planned. But it's sooooooooooo much fun, and the ideas keep coming. Thankfully, now and then, you bump into someone sane, that can tell you NOT to buy that certain fabric, and definitely not for a coat (merci hé Gertje). But most of the time, it's grab, grab what you can until the wallet is empty and the smile is as wide as your ehm.... bags. yeah.

Look!!!! it's like heaven. knits for me, stripes for the kids PJ's, flowers for girly skirts and dresses and some felt, buttons and zippers for various crafting-projects on the way.
The faces, o god, those faces. If I were a bit richer, I'd bought like 4 meters of that fabric, and then I had to be a bit bolder, to make a gorgeous trench coat out of it. But for now, I'm settling with a purse.

let's see how much of this will still be in my closets by the next Stoffenspektakel. I hope a lot, but than as a couple of skirts, and 2 tunics.  So off I go, time to draw some patterns.