Kids’ Clothes Belgian Style week 15: Sewpony

In this series, we’ve had bloggers from the US, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Denmark, and Canada, but today, we go aaaaall the way south. Our guest is Australia’s finest, Suz from Sewpony, with whom I’ve been long-distance friends for quite some time now. Suz has supercute daughters, Isabella, Juliette, and Emily, and these girls have an amazing wardrobe! Apart from our taste in children’s clothing, Suz and I share something else: our love for Tiny/Martine/Debbie/… books. Keep an eye on Suz’ blog, because in a few weeks, she will be releasing her own patterns inspired by this lovely series – the Debbie. Judging by her previous (free!) pattern, the Perennial Dress, the Debbie will be a must-buy.
Suz is also hosting a great new series, When we were young, which starts in two days. 
And, starting today, she’s giving away a great package for making your own Belgian-style dress: the Tinny pattern, and 1.5 meters of the vintage fabric she used for Juliette’s dress! Check out the detials here.

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I am very excited to be guest posting today here for An’s Kid’s Clothes Belgian Style series.  I have loved watching the series over the past couple of months and have been introduced to lots of great blogs I had not yet discovered.  When I started ‘researching’ the Belgian aesthetic, I found that I loved it – clashing prints and colours, layers (including lots of cardigans – I do love cardigans) and basically no rules, but mostly lots of fun.

I had so much fun making these outfits for two of my daughters, Isabella and Juliette.  Except for a few details, the garments were made from vintage or recycled materials.
I think Belgian style seems to have a definite vintage feel to it, so going down this avenue seemed to fit the style well.

Isabella wears:  Vintage orange floral cotton (sheet piece purchased on ebay) made up in the Rollerskate dress  by Oliver & S.  Bodice lined with a 1930’s reproduction print (ok, this was new).
Dress is trimmed with blue cross-grain ribbon, two rows of blue ric rac along the hemline and a vintage blue button at the back.  Her cardigan is a recycled cardigan of mine that I chopped and resized.  I changed the buttons to pearl (thrifted) and added a cut doily (also thrifted) as a collar. 

 

Juliette wears:  Vintage cotton (thrifted) made up in An’s wonderful Tinny pattern!  The collar and tulip sleeves are plain blue cotton. I was actually looking for brown cotton for the collar and sleeves, but can you believe I could not match the colour?I was then opting for cream, but thought that would not do the dress any Belgian style favours.  I lay the blue cotton against the bodice pieces and thought “why not? This is Belgian style – it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t match!” Don’t you love how your second choice (made from necessity) often ends up better than what you first intended? I find that happens to me a lot!!   

I chose the peter-pan collar, tulip sleeves and gathered skirt.  An was very kind by letting me have a sneak peak at her pattern and gifted it to me prior to it’s ‘official release’, since I had my heart set on making Juliette a Belgian Tinny!  This pattern is totally awesome and I can only begin to imagine how many hours An must have poured into making it.  There are so many options – four collars, two sleeves and three skirts!

Juliette’s cardigan is a recycled turtle neck of mine that I hardly wore. I cut it into a cardigan, preserving the ribbed bottom for the bottom of the cardi and also the bottom of the sleeves. I decided to make this one a little more fun with an assortment of colourful vintage buttons from my (huge) button stash.

Best invisible zipper I’ve done – thanks for your detailed instructions An!

The girls were very compliant for our little photo shoot in my sister’s ‘Europeanesque’ lounge room…mainly because there was the promise of (unauthentic) Belgian hot chocolates and (authentic) Belgian waffles!!

They were looking ‘oh so civilised’ sipping from their (thrifted) cups and curling up on their comfy
Danish armchairs.   Note – the story books on the table are Belgian.  After contacting An to ask if she would take part in my new series, a conversation began about the blog button I had created for the series – which features a gorgeous illustration taken from my favourite children’s book (link is below).  Serendipity, coincidence or something along the lines of “great minds think alike”(?!!)… An’s pattern ‘Tinny’ is named after ‘Tiny’ from another series by the same author and illustrator,
whilst the books on the table above are the inspiration for my first (yet to be completed and released) pattern – view 1 and view 2.

I was looking for something to serve the waffles on and I pulled out this little plate from my thrifted plate stash, which happens to be made in ‘Nunspeet’ in Holland.  I googled ‘Nunspeet’ and found that it is a little town less than two hours away from Antwerp – An’s home.  Talk about all coming together!!

My treat after all that sewing and photo taking!  Well, it wasn’t exactly hard work – I had way too much fun!  And the waffles were delicious!! 

Thanks so much for having me An and for hosting this great series!
I think my girls will be wearing ‘Belgian style’ all year long!