Kids’ Clothes Belgian Style week 5: Elegance and Elephants

Today’s guest is Heidi from Elegance & Elephants, a wonderful Canadian sewing blog. I first heard about E&E when Heidi and I were featured together at a link party over at Shwin and Shwin, and I haven’t stopped admiring her work since. Heidi does not only make breath-takingly beautiful classic children’s clothing, she’s also one of the kindest and most modest bloggers I know. 

Last week, Heidi released her first pattern, the gorgeous Ruffle Top – go check it out! And in a couple of weeks, Heidi and I will have a little joint surprise for you in store…

But today is all about Heidi’s gorgeous Belgian-style outfit!

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Hello Straightgrain Readers!  I’m Heidi from Elegance & Elephants, a Canadian stay-at-home mom, former music teacher, who sews her children’s clothing and loves to blog about it.

I was really excited when An invited me to take part in this series.  I am a big admirer of Belgian kids’ fashion – the colours, the shapes, the prints…all very intriguing and inspiring to me.  Given the challenge to create something with this style in mind, I wanted to go a little out of my personal aesthetic box, so to speak.  I spent some time researching Belgian clothing design and textiles and came across the Cloud 9 Maman collection and read the story of Anne-Marie Bossaert, the Belgian-French grandmother of the company’s co-owner.  It was her illustrations that became the theme for this collection.  I loved her story and when I saw Menagerie, I knew this was the fabric for my Belgian look.  I typically choose solid fabrics, or ones with small prints or geometric shapes, but my daughter adores animals, and she had to have this!

                 

The A line dress design is a remix of the Ruffle Top, my very first pdf pattern, which was released only a week ago today.  I omitted the ruffles, added piping instead, and lengthened the ties.  I also changed the neckline from bias tape to facings, and topstitched them.  Other then that, it’s the same dress.  And Anja absolutely loves it!

To complete the look, I self-drafted a spring coat.  I chose the saffron yellow specifically to accent the turquoise in the dress and decided to keep the design very simple because of the texture of the fabric.  The lining is from the Meet the Gang collection, and adds some nice colour pop and contrast to the overall look of the coat. 

Putting it all together, and I think my little girl is ready for Spring, and maybe a trip to Belgium?  

Thank you so much for having here today, An.  It is pleasure to share with you and your readers. 

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