School's Out maxi skirt

The teachers are freed tomorrow!

Yes, end-of-year show yesterday, reports today, and then just one more morning to go - with all this week's school-related busyness and pre-summer holiday gift-giving, it's hardly surprising that teachers were on my mind as I photographed this skirt.

Though specifically, actually, it was art teachers.

Perhaps it's the pompom trimmed hem or simply the colourful, swirly swishyness of the whole thing, but yes, I think of this as an art teacher skirt - in a fantastically comfortable, utterly lovely and I-don't-care-how-stylish-anyone-else-thinks-it-is kind of way.  An initial measurements fail led to a lovely, tidy but HUGELY too big waistband with invisible zip, so after some highly frustrating seam ripping it's ended up with a yoga-style knit waistband. FYI guys: yoga-style knit waistband + legs draped in rayon challis = BEST SKIRT EVER.

Yes, rayon challis.  Now I know what the fuss is about - this stuff is pure gorgeousness. It's Sinister Swarm from Anna Maria Horner's Field Study range, which I have long coveted and to my total astonishment managed to WIN in a rather generous giveaway by Jane at Pelly Melly. THANK YOU Jane!!

Which brings me to the other reason that teachers were on my mind this morning. Because as I was taking my photos, I remembered that Jane is a French teacher.  And not only do I owe Jane herself a massive thanks for getting rid of this beautiful fabric, I also owe a huge amount of gratitude, and in fact a great deal more in life too, to French teachers in general.

My secondary school French teacher was Mrs Harrison, a woman with the no doubt generally unrewarding task of getting English girls to learn foreign words, and who was probably therefore rather pleased to recognise both an aptitude and enthusiasm for languages in the incredibly shy 11 year-old that was me. For the next four years, until she went on maternity leave, she kindly, gently encouraged me, and in the process set me up with probably the most useful life-skill I have. (It's also my favourite. Truthfully: French even beats sewing).

One of the things Mrs Harrison told me was that when she was learning, she used to try to think in French, because once you can do that, you know you've got it.  So I spent almost all of my teenage years persistently translating my own thoughts as I was having them (did anyone else notice, I wonder?), all along knowing that at some point I'd "get it" too.  I didn't study languages at university, but I did know that once I'd graduated I'd be going to live in France for a year to become really, truly fluent.  The frenchifying of my thoughts turned into daydreams of a garret flat with shutters in Paris, plus a sexy French boyfriend-with-Vespa and a convenient family home with swimming pool in Provence or the Pyrenees. All soundtracked by Air and Daft Punk, of course.

When it came to the practicalities, it turned out that France was not my destiny. Native English-speaking admin staff were (and still are) in high demand in Brussels, and if my colleagues were ever-so-slightly put out that I refused to speak a word of my mother tongue with them, it never showed. They corrected my blunders until eventually, finally, I got there - and never looked back.

Then I met and later married a Flemish man, and accidentally learned to speak Dutch too. The year in France turned into 15 years (and counting) in Belgium, and to be honest, I don't think a be-stubbled French bloke on a moto would have suited me really anyway.

So, these are the entirely untranslated thoughts in my head when I think about this skirt. A little detour from the sewing - let's call it the scenic route around this post, and my little ode to those here who have one day left until their eight well-deserved weeks of holiday.

Back in the gritty reality, we also have this going on:

My first ever foray into bra-making territory!  Drum roll please - it's a glamorous adjustable strap to make my bras racerback-friendly...

Now, it's exactly the same as the plastic straps I saw in the shop (and didn't buy, because my version is not-plastic). But of course, because of the way it hooks on, it doesn't lie flat across my back. Is this a design fault with all bra-strap adaptors??? I demand to know!

See the floaty flaring...

I think I've found my summer non-school uniform :-)

Follow

Top Five: reflections & goals

I should have written this post last week. There's a momentum, isn't there, to looking backwards and then forwards at the year's end?  With new ideas and projects bursting into my head - the inevitable consequence of a sewing break and a restful holiday - it suddenly isn't easy to reflect much more on 2013.

Luckily, however, my reflections tie into my goals for the coming year, so I'm going to wrap up my Top 5 of 2013 with both. I know I said it in my last post, but I have found this such a great process - I am sewing self-aware! I have focus! - that I'll get going with another linky shout out to everyone who's taken part. So many great posts, people! Such fun!

1)  Finding my style, or lack of it

I realised when looking at my top five hits that towards the end of last year, I made a string of things that really suit me. I'm not talking so much about whether the clothes flatter, although I think they do - more just that they're really me. In fact, some of the ideas for my fails were like that too - they might not have turned out how I wanted, but they're clothes that reflect who I am and what I like to wear/look like.

I never have and still don't consider myself to have a particular style. I like to be a bit of a magpie, picking up whatever attracts, and my most uncomfortable style moments have always been when I was trying to wear a trend or an idea a bit too thoroughly. This year, with the slow advancement of my technique along with the habit of showing my clothes off on this here blog, I've found that I'm suddenly comfortable making clothes for me, in very the broadest sense.

In goal-for-2014 format: carry on!


2)  Hitting my blogging groove

Hand-in-hand with the above, as I've eased into my own personal style during the last 6 months, I've also found it easier to blog in a way that feels authentic. I honestly couldn't say what the difference is, I just enjoy the writing more, find it easier and feel better doing it, and am happier with the outcome.

If I have a blogging goal for 2014, it's to find a routine or schedule that helps me blog at a regular rhythm. Finding the time, getting the photos, managing to produce fully-formed ideas - nothing earth-shattering or unusual there! I just want to feel like I've got a manageable pattern to it all.


3)  The joys and perils of sewcialising

Just over a year ago I got on twitter.  I honestly had no idea how it would change my life. Really! Through it I have met a huge number of others who sew, most of them online but some in real life too, at our Brussels meet-up  in July. The sewcialists are a gloriously funny, creative, inspiring and generally lovely bunch to share sewing (and other) stories with - and I'm very very glad I took that deep breath and jumped in.

The downside? Twitter is a time-suck-vortex (or something). Factor in blogs, instagram and Pinterest too, and judiciously reading or ignoring becomes a whole time management issue in itself.  Also, new pattern releases are even more dangerous than before - it's like having all your coolest friends at once shout BUY IT BUY IT BUY IT. Learning to step away from my Paypal account, slowly...

Goal for 2014: more :-)  Seriously, making lots of online friends is actually the best thing about my sewing life to have happened in 2013. And in real life, there's an Antwerp meet-up next Saturday (18 Jan). If you're in the area, please join us - the more the merrier! Go here for details.


4)  Sewing for others

Basically, this post sums it up.

(I'll be honest - this is taking longer to write than planned, and there's a fabric sale I have to get to :-) Priorities, people, priorities!)


5)  E n j o y

I'm allowing myself to get vague here. Basically, 2013 was a really good year for me.  All the things I've mentioned above meant that it was great in terms of sewing, and thinking about sewing, and talking about sewing. but it was also just a really good year.  I actually don't think it's a coincidence that G and the kids and I had the most brilliant summer holiday, where we just sort of connected with who we all are as a little family, and then - speaking on my own behalf, but I think it applies to us all - came back and settled into enjoying being ourselves. That's when my sewing and blogging got that much more satisfactory.

summer holidays - siblings - birthday parties - so much fun

I think that creativity is one of the biggest blessings there is in life. Connecting with it, drawing it out, can bring us so much good - and I have so much I could say about that. So much about the post-natal depression I finally (hopefully), with the help of a sewing machine, knitting needles and, yes, some fantastically good care and attention over the last four years, seem to have escaped. So much about the good it does just to concentrate on fabric and wool, even when you think you don't have time. Especially then. I want to get off to that fabric sale, so I won't go on. But I know you know what I'm talking about :-)

So, of course, I could list a ton of things I want to do in 2014.  Places to go, people to see, patterns to sew. (That last list is already long and specific!)  In the end, though, what it all comes down to, is this:

Oh look - I got all reflective there after all, didn't I?  :-)

Follow

Cherche couturière

Spotted this afternoon:

 

Wanted: seamstress with experience in making ready-to-wear, full time.  Alicia.

 

Five minutes from my house in one direction, 30 seconds from our local playground in the other. I'd apply myself, were it not for liking my current job which also happens to come with good fringe benefits. (My inner teenage self is cringing that I even thought that, let alone wrote it out loud. So unacceptably bourgeois have I become, and I don't even care).

Would you do it?

Follow

Shop till you drop: Leuven

What a wonderful day I had last Saturday! Not in Leuven - we'll get there in a minute - but in Brussels, for the first (probably?) Belgian sewing bloggers meet! Prepare for some text...

The day began at 10.30 and led us on a pretty thorough tour of central Brussels' best fabric stops and shops. We started with Berger, went on to Atchoum and the flea market at place Jeu de Balle, stopped for some epic lunching and swapping at Houstiplou, then, via craft shop De Banier, finally ended up at the city's most well-known fabric emporium: the Chien Vert. By going home time at 5.30pm, we were down to a weary but happy hardcore!

The group was surprisingly large - I'd had no idea so many people would come! : Anneke, Beata (who drove 3 hours from Holland, what dedication), Ilse and her gorgeous little daughter Lola, Joost, Kamila, Lelie, Louize, blogless Margot, Sigrid and Stéphanie. What really struck me all day was how laid back and lovely everyone was. Nothing got hectic, we just did just plenty of chatting about sewing under the pleasantly warm sun. I came away with some fabric bought, some swapped, and a great big smile on my face. Thank you so much, dear ladies and Joost!

My only regret of the whole day is that I failed to take a single photo. Which is a sign of a good time, but a shame nonetheless. Anneke, Louize and Sigrid have also blogged about the meet and have a few pictures on their blogs. Go check them out!

So while I was thinking about this little write up, I realised that although I have no photos of a sewists' day out in Brussels, I did have some sitting in the camera of a recent trip to the nearby town of Leuven. So, you know, I'll just show you around there instead.

Well, what I mean is - I'll show you the fabric shops :-) .This is Pauli, which, having walked past on several occasions, I'd been meaning to visit for ages.

I've learned to manage expectations by now: you never know if a fabric shop will be full of ugly duds or woven wonders. To my amazement, Pauli is chock full of knits.

It's an absolute treasure. It can be so hard to find decent knits either in store or online (where there's the added disadvantage of not being able to see or feel it properly), that I was rendered almost speechless by the stock here. All different colours and weights of jersey, sweatshirting, ribbing, sweater knit and stretch wovens - and the shelves in this window below are all stacked with knit prints:

I was incredibly disciplined and only came out with the two small pieces of skirt lining I had on my shopping list. Insert smug self-satisfaction here.  But I now know where I will be heading for all my stretch-related fabric needs from now on!

And then I went to Hexagoon.

It's a very little shop, piled high with every imaginable kind of trim, craft supplies, and - of course - fabric. A well-picked selection of the lovely stuff, mainly Liberty and Petit Pan.

I got some Petit Pan fat quarters and a button in here, hoping to turn them into a birthday dress for L (we'll see if I can eke the whole thing out of such little bits of fabric).

And then, I got on the train and went home. G had kindly let me have the day 'off' while he took the kids to see his grandmother and then to the swimming pool - it was the end of a full-on few weeks at work during which he'd been out a lot in the evenings, and I really needed it. That evening, we got the babysitter over and went out in Brussels.

A day with my favourite pastime and an evening in my favourite city. The cure for just about everything :-)

Clockwise from top left: café Flamingo, café Walvis, view over festival Couleur Café, the canal.

Follow

The little old lady who mends the King's clothes

As promised! What a lost art mending is: to get a letter from the King expressing his amazement at hardly being able to even see her patching up. I'm in awe. But then to be honest, I'm in awe of most spirited little old ladies. I hope I get to be at least half as wrinkled with character as this one, and still sewing all day aged 88.

(I'm afraid I could only find it in Dutch - the English-subtitled reports don't go online individually. But you get the picture, no? :-)

Follow