Friday 31 January 2014

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:

SonjaStyle.blogspot.com: Wooden shoes, Pretty PinkSonjaStyle.blogspot.com: Wooden shoes, Pretty Pink


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:

SonjaStyle.blogspot.com: Bike, Pretty PinkSonjaStyle.blogspot.com: Bike, Pretty Pink






  

Thursday 23 January 2014

Mister Hairy


SonjaStyle.blogspot.com: 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.

SonjaStyle.blogspot.com: Mister Hairy
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.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

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.

SonjaStyle.blogspot.com: buttercup bag made by me
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