A Sketchy Post

I kind of disappeared lately, for various reasons! I was working on a few different things I either couldn't show you or aren't finished yet, and it was way too hot to do anything apart from the things I absolutely had to do! There's a sundress waiting to be photographed, but in the meantime I'll show you some of the recent scribbles from my sketchbook. If you follow me on Instagram you might have already seen some (most) of these, I apologise for what is essentially a very lazy blog post!

This was a sort of diary sketch from something that happened in London the last time I was there. We were hanging out in a park on a Monday morning, enjoying the sunshine, slowly waking up and watching all the other accomplished people jog and do yoga. This one shirtless young man seemed to be doing really well with his sun salutations when a very drunk shirtless man walked over and tried to join him. It looked really funny from a distance, but the poor guy seemed so confused!

I released a new postcard a while ago (get it here) and have been thinking about the next one. It's going to be an apology card and it will probably involve bird poop.

When I visited my parents a few weeks ago my mother gave me an old book about the space race and moon landing that I loved as a kid, and I spent an afternoon scribbling astronauts for shits & giggles. It's very different from what I usually draw and I really need to learn how to draw smooth shiny things (fur is easy guys!) but it was a lot of fun. I like tiny details (sometimes).

There has also been some fabric printing lately, and of course I needed stamps for that! These were supposed to go onto the summer dress I recently made but the print did not show up well on the fabric so I used a black sweatshirt jersey instead. This means you'll have to wait a while before it will make an appearance, because black sweatshirts are really low on my list of priorities now.

And lastly I've been drawing these little guys because they were in my head and made me smile. Not sure what will happen with them!

Summer In The Front, Drama In The Back

I've been making a lot of basics lately, to replace things that have gotten too big or just too worn out. All very nice and good, but sometimes I just want to sew something special and a bit more challenging than a t-shirt! I had bought the Centaurée pattern a while ago because it really intrigued me, but had not gotten around to making it yet. Well, it finally happened!

Deer and Doe patterns tend to fit me quite well without adjustments, but because of the unusual style lines on this I did make a quick muslin. I ended up taking a little bit out of the waist and not much else! The pattern itself is unlined but a few tips are given for a cleaner finish inside. I went for a bodice underlining in a black cotton voile. After sewing all those front seams and the side seams I basted the two bodices together and treated them as one from that point. Easy!

The main feature that attracted me to this pattern are of course those style lines on the front bodice. They make for some really interesting looking pattern pieces and it's a bit of a puzzle to get everything to fit together, but the result is worth it! The only thing I'm peeved about is how my points don't line up exactly at the center- I unpicked and resewed it a few times but this was the best I could do without the fabric fraying too much.

About that fabric: I bought it at a Dries Van Noten stocksale last year, mostly for the colour and without a specific plan in mind. I'm not sure what it is, my guess is some kind of heavy brushed viscose twill... It didn't melt after I set it on fire, so that's something. It's hard to tell in photos but the colour is great in real life- a very deep burgundy with hints of black in the background. I had enough fabric to cut the high-low skirt so just went for that, even though that makes the dress a bit dramatic for daily wear!

 I really like the shape of the skirt. The fabric is a bit heavier than what was recommended, but I kind of like the body it gives! My only gripe is the lack of pockets. I know it is possible to do inseam pockets with an invisible side zip, but I was afraid it would get too bulky.

Another thing I liked about this pattern was the use of bias tape to create the straps and finish the edges of the bodice at once. I had just enough fabric left to cut a few longer strips, and carefully positioned them so the seams would be in inconspicuous places. I ended up basting the tape in place before topstitching the straps, which made that process a lot smoother than I expected! The fiddliest part was the little v at the front, but that turned out really nice.

My bra band isn't usually visible in this, and the boyfriend didn't notice. Bummer.

I think it's due to my bulkier fabric, but the straps did not want to lie as shown by the pattern, so I let them do what they wanted, which was crossing over and doing something else in the back. I hand sewed them to the inside of the bias edging and the lining, which looks clean on the outside and sort of clean on the inside!

I'm not sure if I need many of these in my life, but it was a really fun pattern to put together and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Money Can Be Exchanged For Goods And Services

One of the things I wanted to do this year was to get more serious about my drawing, and selling my work. I've been trying to create a lot more and opened an Etsy store in February! Since then I've been updating it regularly, but never really posted about the things I've listed in there so far. So yeah, this post is sort of an ad. For my own work.

(I also want to mention that I am available for commissioned work, so if you want a custom illustration you can always e-mail me and we can work something out!)

So far I have a few larger prints and posters available, which you might have seen on this blog before:

I'm also trying to print a new postcard every once in a while! So far I have listed two and they're both (sort of) jokes in Dutch, but the next one will make sense to a wider audience, I swear!

And lastly, I have a few hand embroidered brooches for sale. These are fun to make, but take a lot of time, so I'm not sure how often they will be available!

I'm currently working on some new ideas and things, so keep an eye out! If you want to see more in-progress pictures you can always follow me on Instagram by the way, it's where I post smaller things that don't always warrant a blog post!