Uncategorized – Creativist

I NEED my coke*.

We are so stuck with our noses in only one way that this crisis can be solved, that it is hard to envision and demand other ways.

I was in two discussions in one day. One made me scared and worried, the other calmed me down and pissed me off at the same time.

They were about the number one discussed subject at this time. So I am not going to get into the details of the discussions, sufficed it to say that I am more determined than ever to make sure that my money and my effort go into the things that I endorse and not into the things that I hate and are a source of suffering for a lot of people.**

What it is going to be about is this; what if we would have done things differently?

What if the focus of this pandemic would have been totally different?

If we don’t do what needs to be done right now, we won’t be able to battle this pandemic. If we do what needs to be done we will all be better and healthier, sooner. The things that we need to do are; -stay home, -take tests, -get vaccinated and we need to do them ASAP. Hurry hurry!

But here is the problem. The one that is causing me to get a headache for 24 hours already.

It starts with a bunch of what ifs…

In Jan 2020 there were a lot of strange long-infections somewhere in China, which probably set a bunch of people off, but for the sake of this discussions, shall we take March 2020, when the WHO declared it a pandemic.

That was 21 months ago.

That was when we started to get these discussions about what we should and shouldn’t do. That is almost two years ago. How come this crisis is still considered as something imminent? The rules and regulations that we should follow, why are they still thought of something that has haste?

I promised you some what ifs, right?

What if from the beginning of this pandemic it would not have been about restricting, but about health?

It takes 2 years for the effects of a contraceptive pill to be out of your system and your risk of breast-cancer to be retuned to “normal”. That sounds long but you would almost be there now.
The healing of your lungs after smoking begins after 3 weeks of quitting and some parts of the lungs will have healed after 9 months. That time has long passed… Your longs would be fit as a baby by now!
It takes 6-12 months to go through a drug-detox treatment.
I could have had 2 babies in this time. If you have ever been pregnant than you know how terribly long a pregnancy takes. IT COULD HAVE BEEN TWO.
If you loose weight and keep it to only 0,5 kilo a month you would have lost 10,5 kilo by now. The physical benefits of loosing that much weight for a lot of people could be huge.

(I am not going to write a negative list about the negative implications the rules to tackle COVID have done to us. I am just not, email me and we can speculate about that!)

Covid is no longer imminent. It is a constant and you are letting your ideas for solutions limit you to only what “they” recommend.

What if we would have focused on health? Sure, you would not have been able to get away with it in the beginning but the same tactics to get these rules and laws into effect that we all follow now, who knows what would have happened if we would have taken “health” into the equation…

Say we double (no quadruple) the cost of unhealthy food. Extra tax alcohol. Say we make people exercise? What if you can earn point for eating healthy, or demand people to follow a program that will make you healthier? Or worse, you are not allowed in a space if you haven’t exercised enough this week? What if people would have been banned from work after 4 so they would be forced to make a healthy meal?

I know this sounds super silly, I do. Of course you are not going to let your freedom be taken away! You have the right to decide if you are or aren’t going to have a drink/binge watch instead of running and/or eat healthy. Right? Freedom of choice and I need my coke!

But bare with me for a minute… On the whole, what would the effects have been for the general population? What if everybody overweigh would now weigh 10 kilos less? (For the record, I probably need to lose about 2 kilo to fall in the healthy category, which I find reasonable.)

How much fewer people would be in a hospital by wealth-related diseases by now, after 21 months? (if you have an answer, or a good article about this, let me know! The title would be something like; hospitals turn empty as less and less people need attention. Or; people are too healthy, doctors losing their jobs… )

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH COCA COLA I DRANK IN THE LAST 21 Months?

About 630 cans.

Shit.

I just did the math. I drink about a can a day. I love it. There is a lot of crap in there. What is all of that wouldn’t have ran through my system? How much healthier would I have been by now.

I certainly would not have been craving that coke now… adding another 250 ml to my already 157 500 ml of coke that I have been drinking during this pandemic. I do not want to count how much cake, chocolate and other stuff I ate to cope with the pandemic. (AKA to cope with sitting home, worrying, doing nothing, loss of oxytocin because of lack-of-physical-touch)

My point is I need to focus of this crisis management team to change.

I need the gyms to be open. I need healthy food to be cheaper than bad-food. I need it to be easier to say no to crap as I am inspired to eat and drink crap all day long. I need to be inspired to be healthy and have a fantastic lifestyle. And no, this is not a free choice. It is been made difficult to have a healthy lifestyle and I need that to change.

And I need a hug.

* between starting to write this and post about it on my Insta & fb I have stopped drinking coke completely…

** I don’t like how the world works. Never have. When I was a I kid I thought that it that all these things weren’t going to be a problem anymore when I grew up. Surely these things were obvious, clearly spelled out for everyone to see, so it is easy to solve them. Boy was I wrong!

A lot of those things, though, let take a few, war, poverty, discrimination, sexism and euhh.. lets not forget climate change, those are huge problems. You changing what you do doesn’t mean a thing on the big scale. The enormity of the problem works paralyzing.

Except for one thing.

I am not responsible for what everybody else does. I am only responsible for what I do. So my money goes towards things that I believe in. I try not to spend too much money in stores where they hire people for the lowest wages and than turn over the profits to fat-white-men-on-an-island-somewhere-warm. Where the way they have and work with their product, that same thing that made them rich, is polluting the planet. I am no longer happy wearing something from a brand like that. (Did you know that the wealthier people get, the less they can see the people that are poor? They simply drop out of view from the wealthy..)

A lot of how covid is managed means we are up on consuming, and down on the things that we need to do to keep a good mental condition. Sports, getting together, being active, outdoor, walking with alpacas (the farm had to temporary close…) and things like that.

I am happy to spend my money on a brand where I can see the people that have designed the collection. The brands that have a signature style that I like, and the designers know the people that make the clothes. They pay them properly too. Wearing that makes me feel a lot better and I can easily afford them because I do not buy so many items in the fast-fashion stores.

Keeping my consumerism down, my mindset & mental condition healthy also means; keeping my money away from big companies.

So what is it that you stand for? And do you buy accordingly?

Miracle wanted…

I want to believe in miracles. After spending 35 years of my life trying to be something I am not, I am in a space in-between. I am not in the life I used to have, I also haven’t landed yet in the life that is really mine. I am juggling things that are leftovers from the “old-life” and trying to get enough ground under my feet to start walking in the new.

So I need to believe something I never believed in before.

I have no proof yet I can do what I need to do in this life. I have to believe that beautiful and impossible things can happen in my life, and that it won’t go to waste!

What about a small miracle to start with?

According to the “Six degrees of separation” we are supposed to be connected to everybody in the world with a max of 5 people being the links. It means I could connect with anybody in the world, right?

I wrote a letter while coming back from a concert to the front man of Snow Patrol. Somebody showing their art will always inspire, as it did me, so I couldn’t hold myself in… At that time it wasn’t just the concert, the whole of that trip was important to me. (You can find a bit of this in the blogs that I have written, if you must know).

Anyway, back to miracles, what if I want, this time, my words to reach Gary?

I am going to ask a few people to point me in the right direction. They are in music, surely they know people that know people (x5) that can get me, euhm, let’s say an email address?

Would this work? It would certainly be a miracle if 5 peeps I don’t know would all help me. It would be cool if it works, though.

Might make it easier to be optimistic about life and what can happen if you just try…

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Global Fashion Goals

This text is only in Dutch because the Global Fashion Goals that I have been writing are only in Dutch. Sorry guys! While I was writing these Global Fashion Goals I heard news that the Fashion Revolution is going to publish a magazine about what Goals are most important for the Fashion industry. I am looking forward to reading that, and refer you to their website if Dutch is not on your list! Find a link to that here.

De Global Goals zijn veel in het nieuws tegenwoordig en het lijkt nog actueler te worden. Voor iedereen die niet weet wat de Global Goals zijn, ik heb een kort tekst van de website www.sdgnederland.nl hieronder voor je gekopieerd.

“De SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goals of Duurzame Ontwikkelingsdoelen) zijn zeventien doelen om van de wereld een betere plek te maken in 2030. De SDG’s zijn afgesproken door de landen die zijn aangesloten bij de Verenigde Naties (VN), waaronder Nederland. De doelen kwamen er op basis van wereldwijde inbreng van organisaties en individuen. De Duurzame Ontwikkelingsdoelen startten in 2015 en lopen nog tot 2030. Ze zijn een mondiaal kompas voor uitdagingen als armoede, onderwijs en de klimaatcrisis. Het zijn de opvolgers van de Millenniumdoelen, die liepen van 2000 tot 2015.”

Ik ben vrijwilliger in mijn woonplaats van de lokale Global Goals organisatie. Wij werken dus als een team aan deze Goals. Een link naar de Global Goals Oss is hier dus wel op zijn plaats! Door de Goals leer ik interessante mensen kennen die ook allemaal op hun eigen persoonlijke en bijzondere manier met de Goals verbonden zijn. Met hun hulp ben ik begonnen met de Global Goals te vertalen naar de Global Fashion Goals. Ik ben ervan overtuigd dat hoe beter we ons met de Goals kunnen identificeren, hoe meer ze deel uit gaan maken van ons leven. En dat op zijn beurt zorgt er weer voor dat ze ook haalbaar worden.

Persoonlijk voel ik me door mijn kledingstukken verbonden met de mensen die mijn kleding maken ook al wonen ze op plekken waar ik nog nooit ben geweest. De mensen die mijn kleding maken raken mijn kleding aan en bepalen hoe het er uit komt te zien. Ze verven de stoffen, ze naaien de kleding. Wanneer de artikelen afgemaakt zijn naaien ze er labels in of verpakken ze het in dozen om te verschepen. Dan worden ze in grote containers geladen op nog grotere schepen. Aan de andere kant van die reis worden ze weer op vrachtwagens geladen, nu herkenbaarder. Dan zou het zo maar eens kunnen zijn dat ze eerst nog in een groot distributie centrum terecht komen. Alwaar iemand met een vorkheftruck ze weer in vrachtwagens laadt, samen met andere artikelen van andere plekken van de wereld om in de winkel de collectie te vormen. In de winkel worden ze mooi uitgestald zoals iemand op het hoofdkantoor voor ogen had. Afhankelijk van de verkoopcijfers zullen er weer orders gemaakt worden voor de fabrieken van artikelen die er op lijken. Wat je koopt heeft dus effect op de volgende collecties!

De productie van kleding is niet transparant. Dus wanneer ik kleding gemaakt zie worden in een fabriek zal ik er van uitgaan dat die kleding ook mijn kleding zou kunnen zijn. (Een mooie lijst aan films kun je hier vinden.) De gezichten die ik zie zijn de gezichten van de dames die mijn kleding naaien. Helemaal wanneer ik bijvoobeeld in India zie dat er dames in sari’s typische Europesche mode naaien. Ze maken geen kleding voor India!

Het directe lijntje met onze kleding stopt dus niet in de winkels. Het gaat eigenlijk de wereld rond. De Global Goals zijn ook voor iedereen. Fashion heeft betrekking op iedereen. Maar iedereen heeft zijn eigen gewoontes. Zijn eigen oplossingen en zijn eigen manier om informatie te verzamelen. Met z’n allen weten we meer dan ik alleen. Daarom wil ik graag nu al het document, de Global Fashion Goals, openbaar maken. En wanneer je het doorleest en je het gevoel hebt dat ik iets mis zou ik graag willen dat je mij een berichtje stuurt. Dan stuur ik je de link zodat je het er zelf in kunt zetten, of ik pas het voor je aan. Zo hoop ik dat het document volledig kan worden. Zowel in de bronnen, waar de informatie vandaan komt, als in de creatieve oplossingen die ik zie gebeuren om me heen. Zodat het ook een manier is voor jou om ideeën op te doen over aanpassingen die je zou willen maken aan je consumentenpatroon.

Hier vind je de Global Fashion Goals….

Patched together

Voor Nederlands scroll maar naar beneden…

It is so super cool that, right now, there are more and more people reusing what they have and creating new things with it. In the creative scene I see more and more people sharing their creations. The best material, in my humble opinion, is denim. Because the fabric on old pants is alive! It is not a flat blue…

Already from the making, you can see through the top layer into the bottom layer. It means you can see the warp through the weft, it has depth. But particular for this kind of fabric is that how it is stitched together, and than washed, is unique to every pair of pants. Every leg even!
Than the wear, ohhhh, depending on what and where you tuck your phone or your keys the fabric over time will change. They are like fingerprints. Did I mention a robber was partly put in jail because they recognized his jeans? The link is here…

Using your pants as source fabric for new items mean they increase in importance. Using your friends old pants or gathered old pants through your community also has this effect.

I have been thinking about pants that I made as a young adult. It was a pair of pants made out of two old ones. I missed those pants. Sometimes I think it was almost a pity that I got enough money that I was able to buy new garments. The new clothes were not from the right stores with the right ethical values, so they were relatively cheap. But it meant, when you have plenty of garments you start throwing out. You start to choose. And my new garments always won at the expense the older ones. Even if the older ones, in hindsight, were more unique!

Anyway, I just had to do it. I went into my the pile of pants that I had, selected a few of them together and started cutting them up. If you want to do something similar, make sure you select a specific pair that has the right shape in the crotch. That part is the most difficult to make for a inexperienced seamster.

cutting up the pants but retaining the shape for the crotch…

As you go along cutting up parts I recommend to stitch them together one at a time before cutting new parts. That way it is easier to even the seams out. Small in discrepancies in the panels do not matter that way.

My cut-‘n-sew on top, an older one for the shape on the bottom.

It helps if you, like me, take a garment that has the shape that you like as a sort of pattern. Try your new project on as much as you can to make sure it is a perfect fit for you. Do not be afraid. With this kind of project you can screw up a thing or two, fix it, and it will still look like that was exactly what you had in mind when it is finished. Really!

Here is my finished garment, with a three window view. I am very happy with the result. A few things that I was going for seemed to have really worked. Do you see how I took dark long patches for the side of the garment? It makes me look taller… And can you see that I used the 2 pairs of the same brand for the back? It makes the pockets on the back seem very intentional. And last but not least I tried to put in some detailing on the waistband and the loops, from the same pants that I used in the legs. That way the colors from the legs came back in the waistband. I also like the look of the loops from the worn pants over newly shaped loops.

Lekker stuk!

Ik zie meer en meer mensen die het leuk en betekenisvol vinden om van oude kledingstukken nieuwe projecten te maken. Daar wordt mijn hart blij van!! Behalve dat dit vaak beter is voor het milieu en leuk is om te doen zijn de uiteindelijke dingen die je er mee maakt betekenisvoller dan iets gewoon maar in de winkel kopen.

Mijn favorite items om nieuwe dingen van te maken zijn denim broeken. Ik vind het materiaal geweldig. Allereerste omdat het zelf al “diep” is. Je kunt door de schering de inslag zien. Maar zodra het eenmaal gestikt is en gewassen begint het echt te leven. Geen denim broek is hetzelfde. Wist jij dat er mede door de broek die hij droeg een overvaller is veroordeerld? De link is hier… (Het is wel in het Engels) Geen broek is hetzelfde, afhankelijk van jouw vorm, en waar je je telefoon of sleutels wegsteekt zal de broek gaan slijten en dus leven.

Vroeger heb ik een broek gemaakt van twee andere broeken. Dit was tijdens de middelbare school. Ik heb de laatste tijd veel aan die broek moeten denken. Hij is gesneuveld toen ik moest kiezen tussen mijn nieuwe aankopen en oude, bij het opruimen van mijn kast. Soms is het echt jammer om me te realiseren dat ik op een gegeven moment voldoende geld had om kleding te kopen uit winkels (geen ethisch verantwoorde winkels…) en dat mijn voorheen opgebouwde unieke stukken het daarom moesten ontgelden. Ik heb het gewoon weggegooid bij het uitzoeken van een overvolle kledingkast!

Maar op een regenachtige zaterdag heb ik vol goede moed een stapel oude denims uit de kast getrokken. De juiste kleuren wilde ik combineren, om dan met een 3 tal kapotte broeken 1 nieuwe te maken.

De broek gaat in stukken maar de vorm van het kruis wil ik behouden.

Ik heb een goede combinatie gevonden, waarna ik de schaar er in zette. Als jij zin hebt om dit te doen is het aan te raden om een broek te kiezen voor het kruis waarvan je weet dat die zeker weten goed en mooi past. Dat stuk is het moeilijkst om echt goed te maken.

De cut-‘n-sew boven, de vorm van de broek die ik wilde ligt er onder.

Daarnaast is het makkelijk om een voorbeeld te nemen van een broek die je graag draagt en waar je de vorm dus mooi van vindt zitten. Weet met alles wat je maakt dat kleiner maken makkelijker is dan groter maken! Daar kun je dus ook rekening mee houden wanneer je je stukken knipt en aan elkaar stikt. Stik een voor een stukken er aan. Wanneer je wat er af is van de broek tussentijds doorpast kun je het makkelijk precies aanpassen aan jou lijf. Daarna kun je veel verder gaan en de volgende stukken er weer aan maken.

Ik laat het materiaal steeds weer terugkomen op andere plekken.

Hieronder zie je mijn uiteindelijke broek. Ik ben er erg blij mee. Hij mag eigenlijk nog wel strakker zitten. Ik hoop dat ik daar nog tijd voor ga kunnen maken in de toekomst. Voor nu draag ik een riem er in. Dat zou natuurlijk eigenlijk niet nodig moeten zijn met een broek die exact op je eigen maten is gemaakt!

Ik vind de binnenbeen het mooiste gelukt qua compositie van de materialen. Maar mijn poging om, met het lange donkere stuk aan de buitenkant van de broek, me wat langer te laten lijken en niet te veel doorsnijdingen te hebben is wel degelijk gelukt! Verder wilde ik ook per se de oude lussen waar de riem door moet gebruiken, omdat die de broek het meeste een “af” effect gaan geven. Bovendien komt zo de kleur van stukken van de benen goed terug in het heupdeel van de broek.

Just because denim always works in pictures…

Wil je nu ook zoiets gaan doen maar durf je niet zo goed, weet dan dat een project als dit bijna niet te verknallen is. Wanneer je een keertje verkeerd knipt dan zet je er gewoon een stukje extra aan. Doe dat aan allebei de pijpen hetzelfde (of misschien express niet?) en dan zal dat eruit zien alsof je het eigenlijk precies zo bedoelde!

Making a Moodchanger as scarf.

Mijn favorite zwangerschapskleding weer actief!

Pregnancy was not fantastic for me. But it still is a most interesting time. Worth remembering. Even if it wasn’t the best time of your life, it is still worth to remind yourself how your body was fantastic coping with the strain, how it bounced back. The clothing you wore during your pregnancy is an important, albeit dusty, reminder.

Nu ik van mijn leven niet meer zwanger ga worden, (schijnt in dit zinnetje een beetje door hoeveel lol ik er in had?) heb ik een paar tops die ik erg graag heb gedragen nog liggen. Ze liggen wel in de kast te verstoffen… Dat wil ik niet, ik wil er iets van maken waardoor ik eraan herinnert wordt dat ik die zwangerschappen gehaald heb! Bovendien zijn die tops gewoon mooi. Niet voor een ander, daarvoor zijn ze te vaak gedragen, maar de kleuren passen nogsteeds goed bij mij. Het was moeilijk genoeg leuke zwangerschaps-kleding te vinden. Laat ik de topstukken dan eren en er wat goeds mee doen!

Ill briefly tell you about these articles. (see next picture) First up, two articles that I wore for at leased three pregnancies. Trying to reduce my impact by trying to own not too much I wore them a thousand times!! Mixed with a legging from my baby girl, (ahhh, really was she that small once?) and a body that they all wore in there first year. It is combined with a scrap part from something I made and dead-stock from a project that I used to do. I am sure this combination will give me a happy feeling every time I see it!

De materialen die ik gebruik voor deze sjaal zijn twee tops die ik ontzettend vaak aan heb gehad. Dan een rompie dat al mijn kids in hun eerste jaar gedragen hebben. Een legging van mijn meisie in haar eerste jaar. Dan nog een stukje stof wat over was van een ander project. Die print heb ik nog zelf laten drukken!

the most important ingredients of my Moodchanger!

Just to make things easier for me I took a scarf that me and my partner wear from time to time. I will keep to the sizes of this one just to make it easier for me. I will start cutting the most important garments, because I want to give them to biggest audience in the brand-new-Moodchanger.

Aan de hand van een sjaal die ik al lang heb ben ik in de belangrijkste tops gaan knippen. Vooral van de print op het witte tshirt wilde ik veel terug laten komen. Ik probeer tijdens het knippen zo veel mogelijk van de stoffen te gebruiken. Waste is a waste!

After cutting the most important garments.

As you can see I have sometimes turned the fabric 90 degrees for the smaller parts, you shouldn’t always do this but I think it will be fine since I am making a flat panel . Just to make sure I can mix and match properly but also to make sure I just get as much as I can out of these garments.

De eerste geknipte stukken bepalen meteen de breedte van de banen van de sjaal. Die puzzel ik vervolgens aan elkaar. Ik zorg dat de verschillende kleurvlakken zich zo goed mogelijk verspreiden over de Moodchanger.

After cutting as much parts as I can whilst comparing size with the previous cut pieces I can start connecting them. It turned out to be a bit of a puzzle keeping the different colors balanced thinking about the big picture.

De afwerking komt aan de binnenkant niet zo nauw; aangezien ik dit soort sjaals vaak dubbel-vouw voordat ik ze om m’n nek draai ga ik deze mooi dichtstikken. Dan valt er niets te zien aan de buitenkant!

Trying to keep the balance of the colors while sewing them together

Sewing the lanes, and after that, the lanes together can be done with a normal sewing machine and zig-zag stitching. As you can imagine the multitude of panes makes for a multitude of seams on the back. I decided to stitch the scarf as a double layer so that is no problem.

Nu is het alleen nog maar zoeken naar een mooie accent-kleur voor de franjes. Wanneer ik deze sjaal 10 jaar geleden had gemaakt was ik waarschijnlijk voor een tonale variant gegaan. Maar nu wilde ik liever een accent kleur die voor een beetje spanning gaat zorgen. Het is prettig voor jezelf om dit soort mechanismes in de mode in de gaten te houden wanneer je oude dingen in iets nieuws verandert. Dat zorgt er voor dat je het gevoel hebt weer helemaal up-to-date te zijn met je “nieuwe” Moodchanger.

same size but totally different outfit-choice to wear them with…

Now the scarf is finished I want to find a nice accent color for the fringes. A few years ago I would have probably gone with tonal, but now I recognize I am influenced by contemporary trends. I am determined however to take something from my pile of fabrics, not buy something new. The combination of the two will determine if this Moodchanger is going to fit in with the times or not.

Ik heb mijn favo kleur gevonden in een rib stof, wat me wel erg goed uit komt omdat ik de franjes dan wat beter recht kan knippen, ik kan immers gewoon de rib volgen met mijn schaar. Daarnaast een speels stukje leer dat over is van iemand, dat ik niet in een vorm knip maar in de vorm laat die het had toen ik het kreeg.

The fringes will be cut from a rib fabric which is going to help me cutting them properly. Apart from the fringes I have added a leather part from somebody that I keep in the shape in which it got to me. It is more playful and natural that way.

Het mooie van de franjes is dat ik ze precies zo lang en dik kan maken als ik zelf wil. Op sommige stukken stik ik een dubbele lap in de naad, (dus dubbele franjes) zodat ze goed opvallen wanneer ik de sjaal aan heb.

I have doubled up the fringe (two layer rib) for the most part. The rib fabric worked as well as I was hoping. It really helped me cutting the fringes straight and at the same size. Note, do not start cutting, first sew in the fabric and after finishing the seam start cutting the fringes.

Ik ben echt heel blij met het definitieve resultaat. De kleuren zijn helemaal leuk gewonden en de franjes zijn mooi overtuigend geworden. Ik ben er van overtuigd dat ik hier erg lang plezier van ga hebben. Ik betwijfel zelfs of hij ooit weg gaat, een sjaal gaat mij namelijk altijd blijven passen. De kleuren horen bij mij en deze sjaal zou qua materiaal niet belangrijker kunnen zijn voor me!

Definitely a moodchanger! Even if it just changes my chilly to comfortable mood!

This moodchanger is certainly doing its work for me. I love it! And if you don’t? That is fine, moodchangers are super personal. It has a few upsides apart from just being beautifull, I will never outgrow it. The fabric makes the scarf pretty important too.

For a moodchanging-workshop – just contact me!

One more, just because I like it so so much!

Wil je zelf moodchangers; ga dan gewoon aan de slag, oefening baart kunst! Wil je hulp van mij zoek dan contact met me op!

Updating rocks!

This t-shirt was ordered online a few years ago. I still like it, especially now with my newish high-waist pants, creating more shape in the total outfit as I wear it! But, I still think it is a bit boring hence an update to an existing garment!

As well as its appeal, its shape has been lost a bit…

I started to experiment. I wanted to create something I could do by hand. Cutting the T in strips and than see what I can do with that.

So, after a short time of trying I selected a method. I want to make plaits and plait through strips of fabric as I go along. I like that method better than the other tries you see, where you pick up sort of knit strips through and through each other. Maybe because fringes are common in fashion right now?

First I cut the fabric in strips around the sleeve area determining a new shoulder line, fixing one of the biggest issues I had with the shape of the shirt. With the use of three strips of fabric of another old shirt I started to braid. If you look closely you are able to see I braided a few strokes and than pulled trough one of the strips. The aim was not to have the strips of fabric be much tighter around the shoulders, but it it should lay loose around my shoulders as the original fabric.

Fixing the shoulder line and also braiding

In the end I had to cut off a bit of the length at the sleeves because the strips of fabric were much too long. The braid was placed exactly at the seam of the old shoulder seam. I am happy with the result and contemplating if I should do something similar with the neckline, although I am not sure what at the moment. What do you think?

Baby-doll carrier.

My girl has her b-day. She is fond of dolls and fond of backpacks. So, I am making her a baby-doll carrier. She has got to like that!

One of my friends’ kids has one, and it is handmade. First time I saw it I thought it was from a store, that’s how great it looked. I like to learn from the best and I got a head-start because I got her pattern and some advice on how to go about it.

So, as I set out to make this I wanted to make it from materials that I already owned. If you look closely to the original, this is the purple with yellow one, you will see that this fabric is more heavy/sturdy. It looks more like the grown-up baby-carriers. I want to work with my scraps but if you have more thick material go for the thicker version.

For the closures and straps, I found out I had a few from a suitcase that I had to throw away a while ago. I do not have enough for the entire length but with the pattern of the fabric that I have chosen I think it works well enough.

With this carrier the difficult part is just to establish the order in which to sew everything. You could do the following. Start by making the straps. After the straps you should make the fabric parts, first the shoulder part than the back part and lower back part.

Try to make the straps in such a way that both close in the same way. Pull the straps through the closures and fix them as much as possible, which makes it easier to attach later.

After that you can start with the shoulder parts. It looks great if you line them with something that is a bit thicker. No need to have stuffing or anything like that. I used some sweat, you could probably also use some towelling. After you made these parts pin them on one part of the back panel, so you can sew them directly into the fabric when you are ready to start making that part.

At this time I forgot to pin the straps that come from the side of the back panel. It was no big problem to attach them later, but off course it is easier if you do it the right way.

At the moment you still have a top and a bottom part of the baby-doll-carrier, you should consider to do some topstitching. This will make the backpack look nicely finished. Just a few millimetres from the edge. If your machine can handle it, try thicker tread!

Now, please note a difference between the two backpacks. Where the original has two darts in the “bum-area” to give the sack a bit of shape, I created 2 holes. The reason is a tip given by the original maker. Real babies will be put in the backpack with their legs wide. But many dolls have rigid legs. They can’t rotate freely from the hip or bend at the knee.

My friend has made a bit of fun attaching a plastic ring to the back of the doll-carrier. I had a bit of reflective tape that I attached in the final seam. Sorry kiddo, safety first!

Hope you liked what I had to share, but it actually doesn’t matter because Jenna sure loved it!

In the beginning…

Soon I will start posting on this blog. I have had some time between potty-training and browsing Spoonflower (http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/lijlijlijntje) to write descriptions on how to customize/repair broken kids clothes and the reasons why you should repair and customize, rather than buy, as well.

I will also let you know how my new baby collection came to be, and why it looks the way it does. It will be available on etsy, soon.

Don’t worry, I will give detailed descriptions and pictures on how to fix and upgrade your kids garments! Stay tuned!