Warm and easy fingerless gloves, with great colours

This is an very easy pattern to learn  to knit cables in your project and to knit in the round. Both the pattern as the merino-wool is from "zevenkatten.nl" which means : "seven cats" and leads to a warm, soft and colourful result. I did use two balls of wool. I use these gloves a lot, on the bike, while walking etc. When it becomes very cold, I use my gloves with fingers, but till then, I prefer these to use; they are very warm, practical and breathable.

Self-drafted and designed jeans skirt

Because of the August issue of Knipmode (Dutch sewing magazine), which has a denim theme and because my soft spot for denim; I show you this skirt I have made previous year. I'm still very happy with it, although the print is a little childish. I put a lot of features in this project so I could experiment with a lot of different things.






For drafting the skirt, I used an other skirt, that fitted very good, to take over the measurements. Unfortunately, this skirt was made from a synthetic fabric which has different material characteristics than denim; next time while drafting a skirt, I should take that into account.


Another thing I have discovered, is that hand embroidering on denim can be very difficult, so it took a little patient to finish the job. But in the end, i'm very pleased with the result.
The skirt is fully lined and has a invisible zipper ad the back. Between the yoke and the skirt part, I have ad a colourful piece of ribbon. Next to this I have ad blue top-stitching. For the top-stitching, I have used a special thread. This thread is slightly more bold than normal and is something what is used a lot used by       denim garments. It is important to use this thread only on the top, so not on the spool in your sewing machine, there it will stuck.

As a colourful finish, I have used an exposed zipper to function as split.

In the end I think it turns out as a good experiment with lots of learning.

Lacey motorbike jacket

For this jacket I was inspired by this pin from Burberry.

Sonja Style: Lace & Denim;
Red & Blue

I love the sweet, romantic sense of lace in combination with the asymmetrical shape and the tough character of motor jackets. To enhance the contrast of the sturdiness of a motor jacket with the beautiful structure of lace, I chose for a jacket made out of stretch denim and lace. Furthermore to enhance the contrasts between the inside and outside I chose for red colours at the inside and blue colours with red details at the outside.

Sonja Style: Lace & Denim;
Red Details

The pattern I have used for the basis comes from Knipmode, yet I have changed a lot of things. I have ad the yoke below, for example, to make it a little longer. I also narrowed the fit.

I had a lot of problems to place the sleeves and solved them in the end, by decreasing the sleeves two sizes.



You can see the result below.

Sonja Style: Lace & Denim

Sonja Style: Lace & Denim

Sheep Suus (Suze)

Sonja Style: Sheep Suus

This is my third crochet project, and after I had unravel the Popcorn stitch, it was easy to make. The pattern comes from a dutch book: "Haakparty op de boederij", from Christel Krukkert. I do not know if there is an English version of it.














Normally the sheep is made with crochet needle 2,5 mm, yet I have used nr. 10 resulting in an enormous sheep of about 60 cm in length. I made it for a friend of mine and I had difficulties to wrap it in nicely to give it as a present; luckily she has a large house ;).

Sonja Style: Mr. Hairy & Suus

Sonja Style: Sheep Suus

Whether you want to know more information about the materials I have used or you need some help with the Popcorn stitch, do not hesitate to leave a reaction.

My first knit dress: Burda 7828

Sonja Style: Burda 7828

Since I start with sewing, I had always dreamed of making a knit dress, yet I was underestimating my own skills or overestimated the challenge. Which I thought to be a hell of a job, turns out to be a lot of fun. So whether you hesitate to make your own knit dress, just start today and enjoy!

Sonja Style: Serger

I just wanted a very light breathable summer dress with a nice fit and hence I choose for a very straightforward and famous pattern: Burda 7828. It has only two stars and goes with a very clear instruction. A lot of people have made this pattern and a a lot of versions and alternations can be found on the internet. On Pinternet, I have made a board with the very genius name "Burda 7828" where you can find some examples; from maternity dress till wrap shirt.

Sonja Style: Burda 7828

I also bought an old, yet good Lewestein serger, via marktplaats.nl, a dutch trading site for new and secondhand stuff, like Ebay. I think it's a very fantastic machine, it provides a nice and professional finish to your garment. So this was a perfect occasion to use this machine too!

I copied the pattern one size smaller than was recommend by the sizing table, which turned out to be a 34 for the upper part and 36 for the skirt part and made the original version of the pattern (version B). The only alternation was to decrease the length and wide (with respectively 15cm, and 5cm at both sides) of the under part of the skirt, creating a better fit; like you can see on the pictures.

However, I like to reuse this pattern in the future, probably with a few alternations, since it turns out to be a very nice pattern.

Let the summer start!

Three of a kind (nr 2 of 3)

This bag is made from Zpagetti from Hooked. I did get the yarn, with a crochet needle nr 10, from a friend as a gift and made this bag from it. I had just enough to make also the flower and kept 10 cm of yarn left over. pretty good job don't you think?

To make the bag was very easy, fun and quick; it took me only one day. I have crocheted a little bit strong, giving the bag a solid shape, so I didn't have to make a lining.

                                                     The Zpagetti bag:

Sonja Style: Zpagetti Bag

I bought the wooden handles on a market, yet I have seen them in more stores. The bag exists out of one squared patch which is folded double and crocheted together in the end. Last, the handles were crocheted on the bag.

Another scarf

When I begun with knitting, I started making a scarf and an other scarf and an other one etc. Suddenly I had tons of scarfs, for each outfit one. There are a few which I wear at a regular basis and I will show you one of these here.

It all begun with a nice pink beanie which I found with a incredible silly discount. I think that I have payed 1 or 2 euro for it and it colour-coordinated fantasticly with my new pink jacket. Imagine how I have to look in my pink jacket, wearing a pink beanie while riding on my pink bike ;) .

The only thing I was still missing was a pink scarf. So when I found this yarn, of the same material, the same thickness and approaching almost the same colour, I had to make a scarf of it that should match with the beanie. I chose to use a squared pattern, based on the beanie and start knitting. The knitting was very easy and because of the squares the shawl did not curl up, like my previous scarfs sometimes did. The shawl is made of acrylic and hence easy to wash.

It became a long, warm and nice shawl which I use a lot:
The scarf:                                                                      The beanie:

Sonja Style: Made by me                                 

Beanie: Protest

             

Pretty Pink

A lot of people, when they are thinking about the Nederlands, think mostly about wooden shoes, wind mills, cows, tulips, cheese and bicycles. Now I have to admit that we have all those things, yet most people have nothing to do with wooden shoes, wind mills or cows.

Except for me; I love animals, herbivores and thus also cows and I own wooden shoes. Unfortunately, a cow does not fit in my garden, but I have a small vegetable garden and wooden shoes are very practical for that. Of course I have custom handmade wooden shoes in Sonja Style.

I began with a plain wooden shoe, which was handmade by a man from Veenendaal, (The Nederlands) and varnish them with paint and draw some butterflies and flowers on it.

Here are some pictures of them:




I also have a bicycle. It is a very strong and 'old' city model. It is made to cycle comfortable on flat ground and have therefore only three gear. It has a basket and bags for carrying instant shopping with me. First it was a dark blue coloured bike, but due to the overcrowded cycling parking places at the train station, I could hardly find it back.

Therefore, and because you already might have noticed that I like pink a lot, I decided to paint it pink. I took the bicycle apart and cleaned it very well. Then I sprayed the components with a primer, before I put on the pink colour, to dim the dark background and  to enhance the effect of the paint. After that I had to put everything back in the right place. Fortunately I had very good help from my housemate J. :). Since then, I have had never got the problem of finding it again.

This was the result:








  

Mister Hairy

Sonja Style: Mister Hairy

Let me introduce me my best friend Zwabber, also well known as Mister Hairy. He just loves sewing and knitting as much as I do and he likes to join me when I'm busy with any project. His favorite is the cover bag of my sewing machine and it does not matter to him if the machine is in it or not, although he prefers the space for his own.

Sonja Style: Mister Hairy

Other things he loves are my pattern paper, pin cushion and projects. For the latter ones means the softer the better.

Three of a Kind (nr 1 of 3)

I love bags and I have to admit that I have a lot of them. My first sewing project was a bag. I thought that it would be easy, because you do not have to take fitting and sizing into account. Yet it was a lot more work than expected.

Still I really like to make bags and now I have even more due to my hobby ;). I would say a win-win situation.

Sonja Style: Buttercup bag made by me

Three of the bags I have made, are my favorites. The first one is the famous Buttercup from 'Made By Rae'. When you google on "Buttercup + bag", you can find a lot of inspiration about this free pattern, or go to the website of Rae: www.made-by-rae.com to find the pattern and more information about it.

I did some alternations at the pattern, to make it more functional and to give it a touch of myself ;)

- the strap is placed between the interior and exterior fabric
- lined the fabrics with iron-on interfacing
- added a zipper
- added the felt flower
- used  heavy canvas for a less floppy result.
- added the blue bias tape