Happy Hippo

During summer, I started to crochet Heidi Bears’ Happy Hippo. Initially, it puzzled me to get the African Flowers as beautiful as Heidi’s. I struggled because I am left-handed, I argued… It had nothing to do with the pattern, because that was crystal clear. Once I understood how to get the beautiful African Flower, the crocheting of the Happy Hippo took me two hours a day for two weeks.

Pattern

Heide Bears’ Happypotamus: http://heidibearscreative.blogspot.nl/2013/04/happypotamus-happy-hippo-crochet.html

Yarn

Happy left-overs

Mind the moose… ehh… cow

Once a British colleague explained to me that discussing the weather is a typical Dutch habit. Too cold, too hot, too much rain… But truly, we didn’t have much of a summer this year, did we? So I started prepping for autumn and the start of the new year at school and sewed my daughter a Benetton-style dress and a legging.

The pattern I used, was funnily enough called Falling Leaves (Ottobre 4/2016, number 30) - my daughter insisted on it because of its simplicity (bravo!). The fabric, a French Terry with glitter I bought a couple of months ago at Droomstoffen.

The Slim Girl legging (also from Ottobre 4/2016, number 34) was too slim for my girl, so I added 1,5 cm seam allowance and shortened it 5 cm. The fabric is from Megan Blue Fabrics, which I bought on a market.

While taking photos, we draw the attention of a hugh cow. To avoid a Pamplona-like scene, we made the pictures in only 10 seconds!

Pattern

Dress - Ottobre 4/2016, number 30

Legging - Ottobre 4/2016, number 34

Fabric

Dress - French Terry from Droomstoffen

Legging - Megan Blue Fabrics

Shorts...

Although we’ve had a couple of shiny days, today it was – again – brrrr... in the Netherlands. I decided it was it was best to simply enforce the sunny weather, so I sewed shorts! Not just any shorts, the Sofilantjes Domi shorts. And since my girl in not the girly type, I made them in camouflage!

To make the pants a little bit baggier, I used one size larger than the chart recommended, but I kept the original length. I adjusted the overlying pockets into ordinary pockets and added the silver piping.

Let the summer be with us! Soon!

Pattern

Sofilantjes Domi pants*: https://www.sofilantjes.com/product/domi-sweat-pants-unisex-en/?affiliates=118

Fabric

Camouflage Olive – Stenzo

Silver piping

*This is an affiliated link, which means for you the purchase price stays the same, while I will receive a small percentage of the purchase price to feed my fabric addiction.

Testing Litore dress and Aura bolero for Sofilantjes

Last week, I have been testing the Litore high / low dress and Aura bolero for Sofilantjes, a Dutch designer for PDF patterns. As you can see on the photo’s, the results are amazing! I only started sewing last January (no kidding!) and the Sofilantjes patterns are very easy to follow and gave me the confidence I needed to sew.

Testing both patterns was a pleasure. My daughter chose both fabrics: sunny yellow jersey for the bolero and a yellow-with-blue-flowers jersey for the dress. I started with the Aura bolero pattern: taping the pattern, cutting the fabric and sewing – within no time the vest was assembled. The Aura pattern includes three sleeve lengths: short, ¾ and long. I was assigned to test the short version and made – due to the typical Dutch summer weather – another one with long sleeves immediately after the testing period.

The Litore dress was just a little more work. Turning the straps puzzled me initially, but a darning needle came to the rescue. An online tutorial showed me how to make a hem in a circle skirt and the result was stunning! Litore has two other skirt options: handkerchief and A-line maxi. All three skirt options also fit the Sofilantjes Solis dress!

Pattern

Sofilantjes Litore dress*

Sofilantjes Aura bolero*

Fabric

Yellow jersey – Stenzo

Yellow-with-blue-flowers jersey – Dapper Collections

 *This is a so-called affiliated link, which means for you the purchase price stays the same, while I will receive a small percentage of the purchase price to feed my fabric addiction.