Mirror Monday: Holidays!

Holidays are here, two weeks of holidays and no major plans! How good is that! What are you doing these holidays? I'm going to the Koninginnedag evening shopping this evening. And tomorrow we are going to the children's market. For a big thrift shop fan, these are the best days of the year ;).

Mirror Monday: make that skirt you love on Pinterest

I saw a skirt on Pinterest, and wanted something just like that. But I'm a bit scared to try something like that. So I made a trial skirt first. The proper material is ready to go! How to make this easy peasy skirt?

Take your superdress and trace the skirt part on some tracing paper. Add some length at the bottom, and some length at the top. Then the scary bit: draw a curved line about 15cm to 20cm from the top and cut it off (I did as well at the front as the back). Sew the back parts back together. Sew the front parts back together, but add some double folded biais for a nice touch. I also sewed the fake straps at the front, and super tightly sewed on the buttons (Elke loves buttons). Close the sides of the skirt and sew at the top and bottom to make it look nice. I used a weird kind of super stretchy cotton like fabric. This way there was no need to make a zip. I like not having to make a zip. I think I'm ready for the real deal. Martijn is away for work this week, so I might have some time in the evening :D.

Skirts are perfect for hiding under too :D.

Knitting with chopsticks

I made some knitting needles, but two people asked me about making them from chopsticks. And... yes you can! I hardly buy any take out. But I still had a lonely pair of chopsticks lying around.

I used sanding paper to smooth the points. I didn't have to use a pencil sharpener, easy!

I used some olive oil to finish them

They work! But... you really shouldn't knit too tight. They are a lot thinner at the pointed side than on the end. So when you knit too tight, you can't slide your work much further along your needle. On the plus side: the chopsticks aren't exactly rounded, so they feel nice to hold and your work doesn't slide off too quickly.

Elke's knit dress/tunic

I found a great, free and easy pattern to knit a dress/tunic for Elke, love Pinterest! I should know by now that I knit too tight and too small ;). But lucky me, Elke still fits it. But if I want her to have a proper dress, I might need to buy a larger gauge circular needle, buy thicker yarn, adapt the pattern a bit and start again ;). For now, this is very cute.

Bloglovin

Like many others, I moved all my google reader blogs to Bloglovin (they import if you like, easy and quick!). So please start following me through Bloglovin :). The button is on the right!


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Mirror Monday: the great Utrecht sewing bee

A friend invited me to a day of sewing. In the morning we went to a fabric market. And in the afternoon we sewed and sewed and sewed, had dinner and then sewed and sewed some more. I made two skirts, new clothes for Elke's doll and started a new pair of pants for Sietse. In the picture you can see the toadstool skirt I made.

Tutorial for skirt pattern: measure waist, measure hips, measure length hips to waist. Measure total length of desired skirt.  

Make your own knitting needles

It started with the idea of teaching the children at school how to knit. But we didn't have any needles (nor any money). I really wanted them to have wooden needles, but they are quite expensive. Then I found a tutorial on Pinterest. It was simple and sweet. So this is how you make your own knitting needles. Low budget, but very nice!

1) Buy a beech dowel. Mine was a meter long and 5mm. I bought two, so I could make 5 complete sets of 20cm long needles (perfect for children).

2) Cut in 20cm pieces.

3) Use a pencil sharpener to make the start of a pointed side.

4) Use sand paper to make the point nice and soft (aka safe to use in a class room ;)).

5) Take a wooden bead and use a 5mm drill to widen the hole. Then slide it over the other end of the needle. Use some wood glue to fasten it.

6) Write the gauge on the needle.

7) Take some oil and rub it on the needle to make it lovely and soft.

8) Start knitting!

I had no idea it was so simple and so cheap! I left the needles slightly rough to the knitting won't slide off so quickly. They are simply perfect! Total cost: 1,50 euro for the wood. Beads were some leftovers from an old necklace... done!