This part of the project was really adjust-as-you-go. I made what I thought was going to be a minor adjustment, but it proved to be a bit more complicated than I thought: adding pockets. Well, it mostly became complicated because I kept changing my mind... Anyway. I'm happy with the progress, but I'm not soo convinced by the shape. What do you think?

Babies, babies! There has been a real baby boom in my life lately. I've gotten two adorable new nephews, some of my friends and colleagues became new parents last year and there are some more on the way! Not to get emotional about it, but it's funny to see how we're all growing up :) 
 

The summer trousers are finished! After I put everything together, I had my friend try it on. It's important to have a first fitting like this, because even if you are really exact  in your measurements you can still have different results with different fabrics and you'll often need to make more adjustments. This one was no exception! The pant legs were too wide and had to be taken in a bit. But now it looks great! I'm really happy with the final result and luckily so was she :) She even offered to bake me some cookies for Christmas and I'm stoked because her cookies are amazing!

This week I have a new challenge: trousers! I've actually never attempted to make trousers from scratch (dreaded it to be honest). But when a friend of mine saw me wearing these light summer trousers she loved them. One thing led to another and now this is officially my first commissioned piece! Very cool :D It's an extra challenge because I've never made pants before. I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to learn making the pattern as well. This time I'm using an existing pair of pants to create the pattern. 
 
Part 1: The Pattern

Part 1
 
To be honest, I have always been a bit afraid of pattern making. My mother used to make dresses using patterns from DIY clothes magazine (mainly Burda :) ), but I've always had a hard time understanding just how to build a pattern based on your own measurements. Cause come on, if you're gonna make the effort to sew your own clothes you want it to fit like a glove! Right? Right! And on top of that I want it to be EXACTLY the way I want. So not an A-line, but a pencil skirt for example. Oh, and add pockets while you're at it.
 

This tiny project was born out of neseccity, smack in the middle of another one. I embarked on a big adventure of pattern making this week (something that has always frustrated me!). My first attempt was a pattern for a cocktail dress. Using a Burda pattern as a starting point I had to copy the patterns onto paper and I like to recycle old newspapers for this instead of using tracing paper. I've been doing this for years.

I finally got around to finishing the recylced shopper. This project is my first attempt at giving week to week updates on projects and the ups and downs that go with that. This weeks take home message: it's ok to leave a project alone for a few weeks if you're just not feeling it... But now, with the Netherlands latest win agains Mexico and advancing to the next round, new inspiration! This is the final post about the 'King's day shopper' now renamed 'Hup Holland WK shopper!' 

A few weeks ago we lost one of our close friends. It has been a difficult time, but being together with friends and family is helping us through this. I send all my love and support to her family, to her parents, her sisters, her nieces and to her friends. Together we will get through this and keep her memory alive. 

This project all started so simple... My uncle had some t-shirts lying around that he wanted to get rid of. They were some promotional shirts for a kid's camp that my niece was involved in. Being bright orange, I thought: hey, great for King's day next weekend. King's day, folmerly Queens day, is the day when we celebrate the birthday of our Queen en since this year birthday of our new King.