BREVIS means short

My son needed shorts ... he needed them bad. And I was not ready to face stores with him again. My son is what I call the "butt-less" type. Buying pants usually goes like this: "too wide", "too short", "ugly color" and "do you really expect me to wear that"? He's growing like crazy. His pants last one season if I'm lucky. After that they are too short. I had allready chopped off the legs of a few joggers to help him get through the first days of a heat wave, but that will only get you so far. Time to get in to sewing mode. The universe decided to lend this mom a hand and sent a pattern test for shorts my way: BREVIS by Sofilantjes. That's actually Latin for short, so what name could be better?

I showed him the picture and his response was " that looks kind of ok". That is teenage speak for: "That's great mom, you can make one for me."

I registered for the pretest and Yvette let me help. Usually it's Anne pulling the strings at Sofilantjes  but Yvette from the Droomstoffen webshop teamed up with Sofilantjes as a designer. Her first test, her first release and she was nervous. Who wouldn't be? I think she did an awesome job.

The pattern comes in 2 versions: version B hits above the knee with nice biker shorts knee pieces.
We went for version A: a tad longer without the colorblocking. 

Step two in the testing proces is hitting the fabric stash, especially for a pretest. I stumbled upon a few scraps of Wild Shadows panels and just enough black See You At Six french terry.
I had little to lose with the wolves panel, as the scrap was not wide enough for another sweater anyway. My son helped my to position the wolf just were he wanted it and he was very pleased with the results.

I got assigned to blend the 9y hip with 14y length. Remember the butt-less comment? The pocket were a tad to narrow when blended over 4 sizes in length. That's what tests are for: the blending instructions now clearly state which width to stick to in that case.

My son immediately agreed to make another pair in the full test of the pattern. He even wanted to go to the fabric store to get more black fabric. (You read that part about my son and shops right? That is nothing short of a miracle) Plain black was his plan. And then we passed Wild Shadows remnants: lions? monkeys? We picked up some of both, because you don't argue with shop-allergic teens when they suggest a fabric. You just enjoy the moment they get excited about fabric.

When we got home I saw this print did not have a french terry base, but T-shirt weight knit. The difference in weight was not that big, so I gave it a go. He loved the result. Both the Wolf and the Monkey shorts went from his body to the laundry and back all summer. They did not see the inside of the wardrobe. Definitely a winner!

This story sounds like nothing ever goes wrong with sewing over here. But let me show you that Murphy also walks into this house.
The green shorts were supposed to feature a gorilla. Those little monkeys sure aren't gorilla's, right?
Well, that's because this happened when I put the gorilla where my son wanted it. I should have known. That is one very unlucky pattern placement, right. The bird flying into the fly looking like something else coming out. I could not send my son out into the world with that on his crotch, right? Time for some seam ripping and a new leg front.

I tried to salvage the "oops-leg" by making shorts for my nephew. He's only 5, so the bird did not cause any issues. I made a picture of them twinning on our holiday in Switzerland. They do look cute together, right?

Do you want to make one (or ten) for the boys in your life? Check out the Sofilantjes page for your copy (€7 without VAT)

disclaimer: If you buy it with one of the links, I get a small affiliate commission. You don't have to pay a cent more.

Velocitas : a new hoodie by Sofilantjes

The second test in my work free week, was one for Sofilantjes Patterns: Velocitas Hoodie.
My collection of Sofilantjes patterns is quite large. This was the first designer I ever dared to fill out a tester application for. I tried a few times, but never got picked ...  until now! I was happy I got to test for Anne and my daughter was not objecting to a new hoodie.

We went to the fabric store in search of red fabric and off course we came home with another combination. Stoffen Van Leuven will do that to you ;-)
We ended up with a mintgreen "happy fleece" (or maybe i should call it fleece lined sweater fabric) sprinkled with glitter.

If the fabric has glitter, we might as well go all out on the glitter front, right? We got ribbing and cord with glitter and some silver cord stops.

Herons: Destashing with Sofilantjes

Patricia thought of a great idea for her Summer Of Sofilantjes-week:  SOS destash.

I did not go throw my entire stash, but I did take a closer look at the knits in the closet. And what do you know: there was a nice piece of See You At Six Herons just waiting to be found in there!

I had bought the French Terry at launch for a vague plan involving a sweater/hoodie for my daughter. Mix that with the high popularity scores she's giving to her Cicero and you get a brand new Sofilantjes plan!

Her beloved Tracks-Cicero still fits, so there was no need to assemble pattern pieces or trace anything. Just being able to pull a ready-to-use pattern from an enveloppe is bliss.

Let's Stitch Together: the summer edition

For the July challenge of Let's Stitch Together,  Marjolein at Flaflinko gave us an easy theme to work with: Summer Holiday!

My daughter needed some breezy dresses for our trip to Switzerland. I did not need to think very long about the pattern to use: a simple Nivalis it would be! I made this dress by Sofilantjes in a longsleeved fall version before, but I had not tried the summer version with cap sleeves.
We had a plan!

The plan even came with fabric from the stash. I bought a panel for a summer dress a few months ago. But then my daughter joined me on a fabric run and we saw some UV-reactive fabric which totally blew her mind. So I just had to make the first Nivalis in this UV - reactive fabric!

I admit: it is COOL. 

When we are inside the house it's just plain white fabric with black line drawings. But when you go outside those drawings are magically colored.

And it has unicorns.
And rainbows.
I rest my case.

Unfortunately I did not have the yardage chart on me when I bought the fabric. I came up a bit short to get the whole width of the A-line. So I folded the A-line curve inward until it fit. Still breezy, but a little less volume than the original Nivalis.

She wanted to wear the dress for her last day of school. We made a few shots while testing the magic was necessary. After the school test, the dress went to the suitcase and we made more shots in Switzerland.

Nivalis cap sleeves (mini- tutorial)

I am a member of the Sofilantjes Sew & Show group on facebook.
I have seen the same kind of post pop up every summer:
It goes a bit like this:

Nivalis help needed!

Cap sleeves: it doesn't fit?

What side goes where?

HELP!

The helpful people at the group draw pictures and try to explain how the pattern works. 

But we don't have unfinished Nivalis dresses lying around just to answer those questions.

So when I finally made a cap sleeved version for an upcoming blog tour, I decided to make some pictures. My 2 cents in solving the cap sleeves mystery.

Smiling Cicero

No, this blogpost is not about the Roman orator.

I'm pretty sure that serious man was not known for smiling.

It's about an terrible injustice that was done to my son.

His sister already has a Cicero cardigan.

And he asked it first!

And the fabric he picked had been in the stash over a year!

It was about time I started that project ;-)

The twinning fight

I bought the pattern Cicero by Sofilantjes last year. I even assembled the pattern pieces and got fabric. But the next step ...

A divided zipper? Never done that
A zipper in knits? Never done that
Shortening a zipper? Never done that
Zipperphobia! I chickened out.

Nivalis with squirrels

I have seen them hopping over my screen so many times: pretty little Nivalis dresses.

There are so many variations in this pattern: with or without colorblocking, with or without a collar, even a hood is included! I just had to try at least on of them.

I bought the pattern from Sofilantjes a long time ago. It got back on top of the to sew list when the ladies version launched last year. I haven't tried that one yet, but who knows. This may be the year I dare to make a dress for myself!

S.O.S.

Don't panic:
Bambi was not harmed during the creation of this blogpost.

In sewing circles, SOS also stands for "Summer Of Sofilantjes".

Challenge Accepted: Sun, Sea & Beaches

I usually don't get a lot of time to sew in June.
This year I just had to make time for a great project:

I accepted the "Let's Sti(c)k Together" challenge from Marjolein at Flaflinko.
The wordplay is pretty obvious in Dutch. It's the equivalent of "Let's Stitch Together" in English.

No need to thank me for the earworm.
Bryan Ferry took care of that part before I was born.