Blog Voices

Today I came across Blog Voices, a very cool little idea! The fact is that we spend so much time reading blogs and even communicating with other bloggers, but unless they make videos we never hear their voices. As I understand it, Lady Katza has revived a voices meme: bloggers make a video of themselves saying a list of words and answering a few questions, to find out about their accent and specific words they might use in their area or family.

I loved the idea, but thought it would be a bit silly to do a video in English when my first language is Dutch. So I decided to translate the list of words and answer the questions in Dutch! Here it is:

List of Words:

Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theater, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water, Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again, Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup, Pajamas, Caught

My translation:

Tante, Route, Was, Olie, Theater, Ijzer, Zalm, Caramel, Vuur, Water, Zeker, Data, Ruïne, Potlood, Toilet, New Orleans, Peccanoot, Allebei, Weer, Waarschijnlijk, Identiek, Alabama, Advocaat, Bon, Mayonaise, Siroop, Pyjama, Gevangen

(I love how some of these are very similar, while others are completely different!) 

List of Questions:

What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?

Toiletpapier op een huis gooien.

What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?

Een pissebed!

What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?

Spuitwater or Frisdrank

What do you call gym shoes?

Sportschoenen... Or just Sneakers.

What do you say to address a group of people?

Hallo!

What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?

Een Hooiwagen!

What do you call your grandparents?

Mine are called Bomma en Bompa, and Grotemoe en Groteva.

What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?

Winkelkarretje.

What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?

Duveltjeskermis!

What is the thing you change the TV channel with?
  
Afstandsbediening, or 'knopkes'.

So... Here's me moving and speaking. Enjoy! Leila from Three Dresses Project made a little list of all the other bloggers who participated, which you can find here.

The Massively Maxi Dress

I actually have a very soft spot for maxi dresses. They make me feel tall and elegant, and a wide skirt looks awesome when you're walking down the stairs. So when Kollabora sent me a package full of sweet sewing goodies (thanks!) I was excited to find Simplicity 1801 in it!

Look! Maxi length!

I made a quick bodice muslin and barely had to make any changes, except adding about three centimeters to the neckline (and it's still VERY low...), so I got cracking on my final version. Some of you might remember the little teaser I posted earlier, a close-up of some embroidery:

I had decided on a navy blue cotton batiste for the dress, but felt like it could use a little ectra something, so I embroidered the midriff section in colourful running stitches. I love the effect, but it took FOREVER. I had planned to do this around the hem or neckline as well, but quickly abandoned that idea!

So... Without any further ado, here's my first handmade maxi dress:

 I realise you can't really see that much in this shot, but it was getting late and I knew I wouldn't have any other chances for photographing this any time soon (I'm currently working from 9 to 5 at a post office and seriously wondering how you guys with 'normal' jobs ever get ANYTHING done!)

This dress is seriously comfortable. I usually wear it with a top underneath because of the low neckline and all the resulting boobage, but I went without it for the pictures. The cotton batiste is awesome for this style: fine enough to look pretty and floaty, but still opaque without a lining.

The bodice has some nice gathering going on, but posting a picture of that would attract way too many creeps to ths blog, so here's my serious modelling face.

And here's the same face, fed up with my boyfriend taking loads of close-up pictures. I'm still not entirely comfortable getting my picture taken and posing in public, so making funny faces is the way I deal with this... Sadly it renders about 90 % of the pictures taken for this blog hilarious, but useless.

Here you can see how the embroidery works with the midriff. I like the cut of this dress, the waist is a bit higher than I'd usually wear but it's still low enough to avoid getting questions about a possible pregnancy.

Bonus: if you sneak around like you were doing something bad, it looks like you're wearing harem pants.

In conclusion: love the dress, not sure if I'd make it again, I'd rather try a different maxi dress pattern first. The Saltspring is hanging around here, waiting to be cut out!

Giveaway Winners (and a sneak peek)

Phew! I almost forgot to pick the winners for my first blogaversary giveaway! The past few weeks have been pretty busy, I'm working my final summer job at a post office, combined with some other work. This sadly means that I barely have time to finish sewing projects, let alone photograph them! I do have a post planned for the end of the week, so stay tuned...

But first, lucky winners!

I listed all the entries for each fabric in chronological order and used random.org to pick the winners. So... DRUMROLL!

The first winner gets the leaf cotton print, and it's Elenaknits!

Hanne is the lucky bastard who gets the galaxy fabric!

Jeri from My Modern Vintage will get the wax print shipped off to her!

That was fun! I'll get in touch with the winners asap to get shipping information.

To finish up this post, here's a sneak peek at what I've made recently:

First Blogaversary Giveaway!

It's been exactly one year since I wrote my very first post on this blog, with no real idea of how it would go. I've never made the garments I mentioned in the first post (I did make the Ceylon but it turned out to be a wadder), but I ended up making so many others and documenting them. In the course of the year I've met some amazing people through this little blog, and learned tons of new things. So to celebrate, I'm hosting my first ever giveaway!

I went through my fabric stash and selected three pieces of fabric to give away to three lucky winners. Here they are:

1. Leaf print cotton

This is a three-yard piece of a lovely vintage cotton with a small black and white leaf print. It is very narrow but should be enough for a slim-skirted dress, a blouse or a fuller skirt. It's slightly lighter than a regular quilting cotton, but still not as drapey as a batiste.

2. Galaxy fabric

This is the infamous fabric I used for my Space Oddity dress, and now you get a chance to make it your own! It was a king-size sheet originally, and I used half of it to make a full-skirted dress. It's a poly-cotton blend and fairly stiff; perfect for a garment with a lot of structure! The piece is more or less a square, measuring around 2 x 2 metres.

3. Wax print cotton

The third fabric is a three-yard piece of an African wax print. The photograph doesn't even show the true brightness of the colours, this is a fabric that really stands out! Again, it's pretty stiff, so it would be better for a structured project.

All the fabrics are prewashed and ready to go!

How to enter the giveaway

Entering is easy, just leave me a comment saying what fabric you would like the most and a way to contact you! I will ship worldwide, so don't let physical distance stop you here.

You can earn extra entries by blogging about the giveaway (or mentioning it in a blog post) or tweeting about it, then post a separate comment here.

The giveaway closes on Monday, August 12th. I will randomly pick three winners and contact them for more information.

Good luck!