Kids’ Clothes Belgian Style week 16: Petit à Petit and family

 

With just a couple of amazing bloggers left in our series, we’re entering the last couple of weeks of Kids’ Clothes Belgian Style. Today’s guest is Montréal-based Celina from the blog Petit à Petit and Family. I actually got acquainted with Celina’s blog via Pinterest; as one of the medium’s most influential children’s fashion pinners (over 3.000.000 followers – have you been counting yours, lately?) she is THE person to follow if you’re looking for sewing inspiration. Celina has an amazing eye for gorgeous children’s clothing, and ironically, I learned about quite a few Belgian brands via her! Everytime she pins one of my creations, my harts jumps – and so do my blog’s statistics ;-p

Back when I met Celina via Pinterest, her blog focused almost entirely on new collections from hip brands. But then, a few months ago, Celina, who is a (former) children’s fashion designer, also started blogging about her own sewing adventures. As I hoped and expected, her creations turned out fabulous, and even more inspiring than her pins. So, Celina is now not only the pinner to follow, but also the blogger to follow!

 

 

Hello! I’m Celina from Petit a Petit +family and I am so very excited to be here today. I have been a fan of Belgian children designers for a long time now and I am constantly inspired by them. I’ve put a round up of my favourite Belgian designer on my blog today and is basically what got me inspired. You’ll probably notice the vintage styling, the lovely mix of unexpected colours and patterns, the layering, we could add peter pan collars, piping and the cardigan! All of which, in my opinion, would describes Belgian style.  It’s no wonder I tried to incorporate most of these elements in my designs. 

I have to say, what took me the longest was picking out my fabrics and putting my colours together, I then opted for some simpler style and silhouettes. I was very inspired by Bellerose, American Outifitters, Maan & Simple Kids, their collections are vibrant and very urban. I love their use of accessories as well, such as scarfs, bags and brooches. 

For my son, I wanted to create an outfit that could be mix and matched with the rest of his wardrobe. I made a striped tee with a contrast back and a fun coloured pocket. The cardigan is partly up cycled, the yellow is from an old sweater and the grey is some stretchy french fleece. I still have a lot of practice to do with buttonholes, but I get better every time! I really like the way the shorts came out, I think I’ve had this khaki fabric for 10 years! I had just enough to make these little shorts. I added some neon pink (it looks orange in the photos!) gros grain ribbon, in reality I wanted to put some piping but what I had on hand was just not the right colour. I also made the waistband from the same stretchy grey tee-shirt material for extra comfort. I had all the fabric already and the patterns are my own. 

Now I’m not sure if the sticker guitar tattoos are very Belgian, nor do they make for a great photo-shoot, but sometimes there is nothing a mother can do! 

For my daughter I also wanted something she could mix and match, something she could wear for a while as well. The skirt was a quick sew- I used the entire length of the fabric, cut 2 pieces sewed them together, hemmed and added a foldable elastic waistband- I love that is a very full almost circular skirt. I got the fabric not too long ago at my local fabric shop, it is slightly textured and makes be believe it’s a polyester cotton mix. I was just attracted by the pattern and new I would make something with it eventually- I also made my son’s scarf with the remainder. The Cardigan is made from some vintage knit fabric I found a long time ago- the green rib detailing at the cuff and hem was also thrifted.

 The colour block blouse is made with a cotton silk blend, it is light weight, sheer and ever so soft. This top will be perfect for the hot summer days ahead. I officially hate my sewing machine, I had so many problems with it while sewing this- what was supposed to be a simple- top. At least the kids and I had fun making fabric pompoms which I then turned into a brooch. I thinks it’s a little bigger and heavier than I hoped for, not great to put on that delicate silky top- but it makes for a cute headband too!

I cannot thank An enough for inviting me to be part of her super fun series. It has gotten me to think outside the box, to go beyond my comfort zone and made me do not 1 but 2 little outfits which my kids love and I had such fun to create and sew. Thank you!!!