Howling at the Moon

 I think I told you this before, but my daughter's favorite brand of clothes is Brandy Melville. Unfortunately there's only one store in The Netherlands and every time we go there, long, long lines of people (young girls and their mothers actually) are waiting to go inside. It may be my daughter's favorite brand, but it's not my favorite store. Not in the least because Brandy Melville clothes are just one size and made for the petites in this world, so most girls that don't fit in the clothes automatically feel big. Not exactly how you want your girl to feel. Anyway, my daughter has some Brandy Melville pieces, one of them a little dress, and asked if I could make an imitation. I thought I could, so we went for fabric. I thought it would take a while before she would find the perfect color and pattern, but no, just five minutes of looking and considering and we could go for the register.  And here it is. One happy daughter again!   ~*~ My Orange Creamsicle Smoothie ...

My teen daughter had a request once again. More than one, actually. She had found a tutorial for a really nice skirt on YouTube and asked me to make one for her. And because I really like it that my daughter wants to wear clothes that are made by her mother, off we went again to buy the fabrics of preference. The tutorial didn't seem difficult, not as if it would take days to make one skirt, so we bought three different designs. Instead of making a little production line, I made one skirt at the same time. Fortunately, because after making the first skirt, I found it to be a bit short. Also the skirt fell open with every slight lift of the leg. With a legging underneath my daughter saw no problem in wearing it, but my idea was to make the other two skirts just a tiny bit longer. Not only did I give the two other skirts a bit more length, but I also made one of both sides of the skirt straight instead of rounded, so it wouldn't fall open. My daugther loves all three of them, but...

Last week my daughter, twelve years old, asked me if I could teach her to sew. I really, really loved that question. We went to buy fabrics right away and started with the principles: pattern drawing and cutting fabric. After that we practiced a bit with the sewing machine. My daughter wanted to bring the new clothes to a sleep over party at her friend's house, to celebrate the end of the school year, so for now I did the rest and sewed all pieces together, but the next step will be for her to learn the actual sewing. We made a tube top and two gym shorts. For this top my daughter cut a rectangle of fabric, which I folded in two and stitched together at the bottom. After that I sewed a couple of tunnels and threaded elastic straps through the tunnels. Very simple, but just what my daughter wanted. The shorts I made before, a couple of years ago. It's a free pattern by Purl Soho, for all ages. Not very difficult to make, so perfect if you want to learn sewing your own clothes. P...

A couple of weeks ago a friend asked me to make two cushions for her. The cushions had to be hexagons. Of course I said yes. Why not? Cut the fabric, stitch together, ready.  It was only now that I had time after a couple of Parties & Celebrations-weekends. I thought the cushions would be ready in less than an hour. They were, but that's without the time I needed to refresh my math knowledge to calculate the measurements of the six sides of the hexagon. I knew the simplest way was to draw a circle, measure six parts with equal angles from the center and then connect the points where the lines crossed the circle, but I didn't have the tools to measure six equal angles. I tried a couple of other calculations, involving trapeziums, angles, Pythagoras and such, and slowly a headache started to develop.  After a couple of attempts my husband came along and asked what I was doing, not seeing me very often with mathematical formulas all around me. He tried to help me out...

My  almost eleven year old daughter is showing signs of teenagership more  and more by the day and this week that meant I had to make a Bandana Top. And it had to be cropped. She goes on holiday with her two best friends (and, don't worry, the mom of one of them) and she's busy deciding what to bring with her from the clothes she already has, what she absolutely has to buy and what I must make. So far it's only the Bandana Top. That was only ten minutes of sewing, so it's a quiet year for me, sew wise. I cheated a bit on the amount of cropping, of course.

Do you know Gretchen Hirsch? She is a internation sewing starlet, as her blog says. She has written several books about vintage sewing, with lots of tips and trick in it about sewing and about adjusting patterns for a perfect fit. About a month ago she started a sew along. I didn't sew anything for a long time, but after reading about this sew along, I suddenly had some appetite to get my sewing machine from underneath the dust and sew along. This weekend I finished the dress and I'm quite happy about it. There are some improvements that I need to remember for the next dress I will be making, but overall I'm quite content.  Want to make your own? Sew along, too! Gertie's Dress Sew Along ~*~ My French Knitted Flamingo as well as my Market Bag were featured by Creative Jewish Mom this week! Thank you very much, Sara!

One of the blogs I follow is The Purl Bee , where you can find anything on sewing, crocheting, knitting and other things involving yarn and/or thread. Most of the time the posts are very inspiring and come with nice patterns. And every now and then I make something I found at The Purl Bee. After a spring clean up of my cabinets I found this Hawaiian fabric, that I  bought a while ago. So long ago actually, that I had totally forgotten all about it. Don't even remember where I bought it. I haven't seen my sewing machine for quite some time either, but the combination of the fabric found and the inspiration I found on The Purl Bee, made me want to make this short.  I made the biggest size, because I like wide leg pants on shorts. The taille is elastic.   www.betweennapsontheporch.net You can check out the (very easy) pattern at The Purl Bee . There's one for girls and one for women. ~*~ This week the Pink Unicorn I made for my youngest daughter was featu...

Last weekend we went to a food festival, where a lot of things were sold that didn't have anything to do with food actually. There was a stand, for example, that only had things that had cats on it; mugs, rings, shirts, key rings, bags, even underwear. And skirts. Of course my daughters wanted the skirts the first moment they laid eyes on it, but for what they cost, I knew I could make them for half the money. So here they are. Also nice for Halloween (although what's looking like purple in the picture is actually dark blue).  And a little cat paw for more detail, that I made from left over polymer clay. www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ My Mummy , who's living in the Haunted Doll House you can see in earlier posts, was featured by Creative Crochet Workshop and by The Crafting Nook ! Thank you, Joanita and Cami! The Skull Cookie Lollipops my daughters made, were featured by Scrapality !

For some reason in The Netherlands there's not just one day of Easter, but two. The second day, a lot of families go shopping (but mostly looking) for funiture, for especially furniture malls are open. Normally I try to avoid these crowds and stay inside, but we needed a new coffee table and thought that it would be relatively quiet if we went before all brunches and lunches (another tradition here for lots of families) were finished. Luckily we were right about that, so before we left we not only had a table but had lunch in the same mall, too. And while we were carrying our table to the car, hoards of shoppers came towards us. Just in time.    From a cushion of our old couch and a piece of cloth I made a small bench to fit with the new table. You can lift the cushion and store stuff underneath (like games and toys of my daughters, that would lie around the living room otherwise). Just a new table and a new little bench and your whole living room looks comple...

We didn't have much of a winter here, in The Netherlands, but I'm happy that it's over and spring is in the air. I love a good winter, especially when we're able to ice skate, but the last three winters it's just... well, no word I can think of. It isn't cold, it isn't warm either, days are gray, everything looks dull, no skating, no snow, just rain and an occasional hail shower.  But last week I noticed some light at the horizon when I reached the hospital where I work. Operations start at eight, so I have to be their far earlier. For me the coming of spring is always marked with light appearing at the horizon when I arrive at work. So, it's coming!  And with spring, there's Easter. For my daughters I made an Easter bag to collect eggs in when the day is there. www.betweennapsontheporch.net I used this pattern before and then made these little bags. You can find it here . The inspiration for the crocheted Easter Bunny I found h...

After making a Flamingo Skirt a couple of weeks ago for my daughter's birthday, I got in the mood for doing more sewing projects, but I just didn't really have time for it. This weekend I had some free hours and made this double layered skirt with heart pockets for my oldest daughter. It was on my ever growing to do-list for quite some time (with LOTS of other projects, for that matter) and I'm glad I can scratch one off. www.betweennapsontheporch.net I found inspiration here .

Due to an broken arm because she fell of the little ladder of her bed, we had to postpone the birthday party for my littlest one. She wanted to go to the zoo with her school friends, which doesn't mean watching animals, as you may think, but climbing in climbing racks and stuff, in which the zoo is also providing.  The good side was, that I had a little longer to make decorations and such. Like this bunting.  www.betweennapsontheporch.net

It's tradition, after several years I can say, that I make a dress or skirt every year for the birthday of my daughters. Even here I had to keep to the flamingo theme, so I bought thin pink fabric, dipped it in black fabric paint and sewed a double layered skirt from it. Even for a try out, I'm not discontented with the result. www.betweennapsontheporch.net

My husband is renovating the bedroom of our daughters. They now sleep together in a large room, but when this project is finally finished, they will both have their own room (and my husband and I will have a slightly smaller room).  And when you're moving to a new room, you have to sort things out and throw or give some of your stuff away. Not so easy for my youngest, who rather wants to keep everything. Shirts, for example, that don't fit her anymore for some years now, but she really ('Really, momma!!') needs because the print is so nice.  Some things I just throw away when she's in school (evil, mean mother that I am), and she doesn't even miss them, but there are some shirts that I like myself and now I have found a good solution: I just cut out the prints and applicate them to a new shirt. www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~ My Flower Dream Catcher was featured this week by A Crafter DX and by A Round Tuit ! Thanks, Maz Kwoz ...

In augustus we celebrate my daughters birthday, as always. I haven't thought about a theme yet, but after seeing a doily in different colors, I got the idea to make just half doilies and make a garland of them. Not very humble to say this myself, but I love the result! www.betweennapsontheporch.net ~*~  My Make a Wish Hoop was feastured by Creative Jewish Mom ! Thanks, Sara!