Sewing on Saturday: Workshop celebrating the launch of "Naaien & Stikken"

Do you have them? Those days that are packed with those favourite things like sewing, having coffees, laughing out loud and learning something new all in the same day? A day you just wish does not end. Last Saturday was a day just like it!

I was invited by publisher De Fontein|Tirion to join a workshop together with 14 other bloggers to celebrate the launch of a new book called "Naaien & Stikken". It is the Dutch translation of that wonderful book accompanying the even more fun BBC series "The Great British Sewing Bee". The new series started last Tuesday, 9.00 pm, and I enjoy watching it so much!

But back to Saturday. The workshop took place at Texielstad in Tilburg. It was like walking into a candy store, so many lovely fabrics, pure happiness! And not only do they sell fabric, also every accessory you will need, zippers, buttons, thread, needles and complete sewing machines.

We could all make something out of "Naaien & Stikken". Most of us made aprons, which was so much fun! And I even brought my own sewing machine, so I could get started immediately.

I learnt a lot and enjoyed meeting the women behind several of the blogs I like to find inspiration such as the one of my friend Maaike from creJJtion. Also the ladies behind some of the web shops I go to, to buy my fabrics and haberdashery like VanMarieke and SewNatural were there. It was like meeting someone you already know, I so love how that works. And to my surprise several of them said that they have read my blog or follow me on Instagram, yay!

At the end of the afternoon we all finished our projects and everyone really loved the results! 

I will post more on the book in a few days, including a more elaborate show & tell of the apron I made. If you want to have a look at "Naaien & Stikken" click here. I can definitely recommend it, even if you don't sew, because the pictures in it are so beautiful!

Thanks again so much to the De Fontein|Tirion team for inviting me. Hope to see you soon!

Xoxo, Maartje

Makes and Bakes for a little girls third birthday!

This weekend was one big celebration. Our little girl L turned 3! Oh how time does go by so fast. It feels like only yesterday when she was born! 

On Saturday we had her birthday party. Our house filled up with family, friends and lots of children and she enjoyed it all so much! My mom baked her famous apple pie, especially requested by our girl. And I did some baking and made her a birthday cake which was delicious and I totally forgot to take pictures of it ~oops~. It was a delicious recipe and I will absolutely bake it another time (and remember to take pictures). To give you an idea, I will try to describe it for you. I started with a biscuit base, cut it into two slices and I filled it with raspberry jelly and butter cream, a red fondant topping and some whipped cream. Hope you can picture it in your minds eye ~smile~.

After a good night's sleep it was time for some Makes and Bakes! Our girl was celebrating her birthday at daycare on Monday, so something had to be made for that.
L really wanted me to Bake Carrot Cupcakes. I had never made them before so after some online studying, I decided to use a straight forward recipe. It basically was just 240 grams of flour, 240 grams of sugar, 200 ml of sunflower oil, 300 grams of finely grated carrots, 2 tsp of cinnamon, 3 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.

I gave it a "Bakes by Maartje" twist by using self raising flour and leaving out the baking powder. And instead of using regular sugar, I used dark brown sugar. And I must say, they turned out to be delicious! I packed them into lovely boxes from Hema and that was that!

And then it was time to do what this blog is all about. Makes!
This time I made little drawstring bags and filled them with a little cake tin, six small crayons and a matching coloring book.
Our kids are both in the same play group at the daycare, so I asked for a list with all the kids names on them. All in all there are 18 kids (11 girls, 7 boys) including ours, so I decided on making separate bags for the boys and the girls.

I chose two canvas type fabrics and used navy blue Hoooked Zpagetti to make the actual drawstring for the girl's bag and a similar type string in grey for the boys' bags (not the one shown in the pictures above).

I used this tutorial (in Dutch) and adjusted it by first ironing the fabric and creating the tunnel for the string to go through. Then I sewed that part, and used a safety pin to pull the string through. Then I folded the fabric, right sides towards each other and sewed it, turned it out and then I was done!

My girl really liked the little presents and she had a great day today! The kids all loved the carrot cupcakes and I will probably make them again next month, when our baby J will turn 1!

Would love to hear what you think of my Makes and Bakes, so if you can, leave a message.

See you again soon!

Love, Maartje

Long time no see!

So... Hello you!

It has been a while. Unintentionally almost nine months passed without any blogging... ~oops!~

That does not mean nothing creative was going on, although I must admit the creative process has been slow in the past few months. Some sewing here and there, some crocheting as well, but nothing special. Did a lot of frogging in the crochet area ~LOL~! Still learning, but there is some progress ~smile~

During the Summer most of my time was spent in taking care of my family. And I love that so much. Adjusting to life with 2 kids has been about finding new balance in everyday things. And there was also my knowing I would not return to my former job which was a blessing on one hand, and a burden on the other. What was great about it, was being able to enjoy my kids so much, especially my baby J. Having him home for over 4 months straight after he was born, was such a joy! And when he started daycare I had some time for myself, which was also very nice.

Simultaneously, my new job and I found each other quite quickly after J was born, so that was such a nice surprise. After lovely summer holidays and after not working for over 6 months (including maternity leave) I started a new job in September. Starting a new job and settling in took more energy than I anticipated and at the same time, I wasn't surprised at all. And I am enjoying it all so much.

That being said, I found myself wanting to get behind my sewing machine again and finding the time to sit down and blog. And all in all the sewing started again when I also took on my new job. Those of you following me on Instagram (@maartjelinnea77) have seen some crafting, creating and crocheting but the blogging was a different ballgame.

So what better way of just starting today. Picking up where I left off. During the next few weeks I will have a show and tell and catch up with you.

Well, I guess that's life for you there and making do with whatever it brings. Have a lovely weekend and hope to see you back here soon!

Love, Maartje

Create 'n Date Late

Hello to you!

Even though it has already been over a week ago (oh how time flies), I wanted to share a little something about the wonderful Sunday I had in Amsterdam at Create 'n Date. This creative event was organized by my dear friend Maaike from creJJtion.

The day started at 10 am and ended at 14 pm. In those 4 hours 45 women (bloggers and Instagrammers (IG'ers)) came together in Amsterdam to enjoy latte's, lovely cakes, fabulous lunch, lovely sunny weather and we were able to partake in 3 different crochet workshops!

One was by Annemarie from Annemarie's Haakblog and her workshop was about making a lovely flower.
The second one also was a flower, by Saskia from Haken Bij Saar en Mien. Biggest difference to Annemarie's flower, was the use of the magic loop.
And last but not least, Claire from Haken en Meer, did a lovely bracelet in her workshop.

As it turned out, the weather was wonderful so we sat outside in the sun all morning and afternoon. It was absolutely amazing to meet a lot of people that I see and read about in cyber world (blogs or through IG). The atmosphere was amazing and it felt like we had been sitting on that Amsterdam terrace every Sunday for the past years, like old friends, crocheting our hearts out.

Result for me was practicing my crochet abilities again as I had sort of neglected them and was afraid to get started again. With help from Claire, Saskia and And I ended up with the cutest bracelet! And I took up my crochet project which I started a long time ago, which is a shawl for my daughter.

As for pictures... I hardly took any as I was so caught up in chatting and crocheting ~smile~ Create 'n Date was fabulous and I will definitely be at the next one!

Love xoxo,
Maartje

Packages and presents - winning the Ladybug & Co Give Away

Hello again!

Picking up where I left you in yesterday's blog post, there was not just 1 present in the envelope I opened, but there were 2!

Not only the lovely blue and white Audrey Pouch with Flower, but also the package contained a present with Annemarie's Give Away in it!

Because it had been a while since I entered her Give Away, and another winner was announced, I did not quite know what was in it anymore. 
But then a while later, the original winner did not claim her prize so she announced a new winner, ME! How great is that!!!

I opened up the package and in it was a lovely fabric envelope! Again a lovely and very stylish creation by Ladybug & Co! On the outside a lovely blue polka dot and on the inside a pretty flowery lining. Inside there were 4 pieces of fabric, 2 of them were used to make the envelope. She also added a bright pink polka dot and a blue flowery fabric. I LOVE all of them. My mind immediately went crazy thinking of things to make with these lovelies!

Here are the pictures of my prize Give Away, I could not be happier with it! So Annemarie, thank you so very much for this double treat! Will keep you and all of my readers posted, so you can see what I will Make with these pretty fabrics.

And to my readers make sure you check out her blog Ladybug & Co (in Dutch, but with a translate button ;-) )

See you again soon and have a lovely weekend!

Love xoxo,
Maartje

Packages and presents!

Yesterday the doorbell kept ringing here. Several packages and parcels were left with us for our neighbors but also there were some for me! How I love getting packages through snail mail ~smile~
I hoped that at least one package would come for me, as Annemarie from Ladybug & Co posted a message on Tuesday that 4 out of 5 parcels from her Pay It Forward (PIF) in April were sent that day. 

When Annemarie posted her PIF blog post I thought it was a very nice idea! She said the first 5 people to leave a message on her blog would receive a present via snail mail over the course of the year. I saw there were four responses already and immediately left her a message. So yaaayyy, I was no. 5! And yesterday our mailman delivered it to my door, yaaayyy again!

The package in itself was already a present and I was quite surprised to find not one but two presents in the envelope! Not only did she send me the PIF present, but also her give away, which I also won as the primary winner did not respond to her winning (aren't I the luckiest one ~smile~). More about the Give Away package in tomorrows blog post!

So this is what it looked like an what was inside, the cutest little zip bag for make-up or other small stuff. It's an Audrey Pouch and I totally LOVE the colors and style. And most of all, the flower she attached to it, can be taken off and used as a pin to liven up any jacket, shirt or dress!

So Annemarie, thank you SO MUCH for the present! You are truly a very talented woman. I would seriously consider buying the little bag if I saw it in a shop!

And I will also start a PIF, so stay tuned, because more is coming!
Have a lovely day!

Love xoxo,
Maartje

Inspiration for future projects

So hello stranger, how have you been? 
The past three weeks went by so fast, I cannot believe it! When the weather was good, I took our little guy outside and enjoyed the sun while it lasted. So no sewing, a little bit of crocheting, but mostly I spent my time reading, catching up and finally sitting down with a huge pile of magazines and some lovely books I bought myself as well as reading up on my favorite blogs and web shops.

And while reading, making a list of new Makes to be done in the next few weeks/months to come.

So stay tuned for some skirts and dresses for my girl, some pants for the little guy and I want to make a cover for the bouncer chair, so our little boy is totally snug and comfortable.

See you soon!

Love,
Maartje

Happy Hippo: sewing a garland for charity

Hello you! So how was your week? Did you do anything special? Or are you, as I am, looking forward to a long weekend?

Besides enjoying the lovely weather we had for a couple of days this past week, I really wanted to finish up the garland for Happy Hippo Foundation. For the birthday boxes they provide to underprivileged children up to age 12, the lovely Annemarie from Ladybug & Co and one of her friends came up with the idea to start sewing garlands to add as an extra to the birthday boxes, so their birthday could be even more festive! And it's a lasting and reusable item as well, yay!

On her blog you could download the templates to three different patterns and instructions were provided how to make them (all in Dutch). Goal was to gather 300 garlands.

As I do not know if my garland is for a boy or girl, I decided to use a red polka dot and a bright blue starry fabric, and a white bias tape. A fresh and happy looking combination I thought. 

Following the instructions I cut, sorted, sewed, turned inside out, poked, measured, pinned and sewed some more. And then my garland was finished! I took our lil B-boy out for a walk to the postal office yesterday and sent my contribution to Happy Hippo to the provided address.

I knew the goal of 300 garlands was almost complete and thought, would it not be great if mine was the 300th one. And what do you know, today I got word that my garland actually was no. 300 ~smile~

Some 30 more garlands can be sent in for this charity, so if you have some fabric left hanging around your house (scraps are great for this purpose) and feel like some sewing, sign up!

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Love,

Maartje

Spring inspiration!

Hello you! Spring really seems to be here now where I am, so I have been enjoying breakfast in the sun and the outdoors a bit more the past week! Is it as lovely where you are?

I did some weeding in our garden as that was growing with leaps and bounds and the husband put in several new bushes to green up the place, yay for him ~smile~ !!
So there has not been a lot of Making going on here... or blogging for that matter, as I hope you can imagine.

But hey, Spring is here, so I am not complaining! Some of my walks outside had me going to a lovely shop nearby where I treated myself on some lovely and inspiring new things. Several fabrics, a new book on decorating the home and Green Gate wrapping paper which was on sale!
At another store I got some folding paper and paper punches for my daughter to use and very nice washi tape to add to my collection ~smile~

I also went to my fabrics lady where I could not resist the cupcake and macaroon fabric and the blue one with roses on it. With the rosey one I want to make a dress or skirt for my daughter, so that one will be on the blog when it's done.
Any suggestions from you guys for the macaroon one?

So I am headed off outside again with the little B-boy, enjoy your week and see you soon!

Love,
Maartje

Pillowcases... final touches for the nursery

Hi there, so nice to meet you here on my blog!
As you know I have been busy the past few weeks to catch you up on all my Makes for the nursery for our little baby boy.

The final bits were some pillowcases to finish off the look. I found a great pilow cover tutorial on the lovely blog of MiekK, which you can find here (in Dutch).
Even for me, with only a bit of sewing experience, it was very easy and it turned out very well, if you don't mind me saying so ~smile~

I made two pillow covers, one measuring 50 x 50 cm and the other slightly bigger at 60 x 60 cm. 
Following the instructions step by step, I measured, cut and sewed both pillowcases, using a navy canvas and some left over fabric I used to reupholster the roman blind (blogpost can be found here) for the 50 x 50 pillow.
The second one I made from the same navy canvas and another left over piece of the postal bag fabric I used to make the memo board (blogged about that one here) and I only finished that one last Friday. Therefore you get to see the results now and not last week as I had planned ;-)

As you can see, the white Ikea chair got a completely new look and feel. By adding the postal bag fabric, it really lifted the color scheme of the room with the little bits of red and the sandy color of the pillowcase.

So here's a little peek into the nursery. Since the nursery is on the Northeastern side of our house, light is a challenge when taking pictures. So hope you can see how it all combines so well.

See you next time!

Love,
Maartje

Wall Art for a little boy's nursery

Oops, over a week has passed without posting a thing on my blog! I suppose I could say, life happened ~smile~
I have been enjoying our little boy a lot, getting to know him, which is so wonderful. His big sister is very loving towards him, I love how she has totally accepted him as part of our family! Since I am recovering well, I can spend more and more time out of bed and around our house. And that feels great!

I wanted to share a great and easy make with you today, the wall art I made for the nursery. Here goes!

So with the nursery almost turned around from a girly girl nursery to a baby boy one, I wanted to add some final touches to complete the look.

I wanted to make some wall art, using a blank canvas, some fabric and flock foil (grey and navy). I ordered the flocking material here and two days later it arrived in the mail, yay for fast deliveries! 

Since the birth announcement card had elephants on them, I wanted to include them in the nursery as well. A couple of weeks before J was born, I bought a lovely blackboard garland at Leen Bakker, shaped like elephants.

I used one of the elephants to outline the shape and cut out the pattern.

Then I placed the pattern on the flock material and using scissors, I cut out the elephants, one in grey and one in navy.

Then, using my iron and two pieces of fabric cut to fit the canvasses I wanted to use, I ironed the flock elephant onto the fabric. The grey elephant was ironed onto plain white fabric, and the navy elephant was combined with a grey and white gingham fabric. Make sure you use a tea towel between the flock and the iron when ironing the flock onto the fabric of your choice.

I let the fabric cool for about 15 minutes, before stapling them onto the canvasses. Finally I placed the canvasses onto the console in the nursery, where they will sit temporarily until I decide how and where to hang them on the grey wall ~smile~

This make was a lot of fun to do and not hard at all. Everyone can do this, so why don’t you give it a try. I would love to hear about your flocking projects!

Love,

Maartje

Reupholstering a roman blind

Hello again,

Has spring sprung where you are? Here, 15 days after Joppe was born, it is still very chilly. With a fierce wind blowing from the East, I have not taken our little boy outside yet. Hoping it will get better next week... 

On the upside, it gives me some time to catch up on blogging. I still promised you a post on the reupholstering of the roman blind, so here goes...

So, before Joppe was born, I wanted to make sure the nursery was suitable for the arrival of a little boy. Therefore I wanted to redo the roman blind, which was in the room. It was fuchsia pink and at first I decided to dye it a lovely navy blue, but unfortunately, as it was 100% polyester, the dye did not take at all.

So I had to think of something else to do. As the lampshade in the nursery was a navy and white-checkered fabric, I went to my favorite fabric shop and bought a few meters of matching fabric. Using fabric glue and my sewing machine, I reupholstered the roman blind.

The curtain has four stiffeners at the back of the curtain, so folding over the fabric where the tunneling is and using the fabric glue, was not an option. I cut into the fabric and sewed the seams.

Then I folded the fabric around the original curtain and using glue, I attached the seams to the back of the blind. That way I could secure the fabric before stitching it with my sewing machine. Using my crochet hook, I stuffed the fabric into the tunnels.

Then I turned curtain with the back facing forward and using the original stitching, I sewed the curtain so the horizontal panels were visible. If I did not do that, the fabric would look very weird when I would hang it back up in front of the window. It was a tricky job, because I was sewing with the back of the curtain facing up and it was 120 cm of straight sewing, it was quite hard to keep it straight. In the end, I am very happy with the result, even though the stitches are not perfectly straight.

And when hanging them, the nursery immediately turned into a boy’s room!

Have you ever done anything like this? Would love to hear from you!

Thanx for stopping by today!

Xoxo,

Maartje