Souvenir Giveaway

So far my giveaways always had a reason, something to celebrate. This time it's very simple: I went to Portugal and brought you something :) I found this tiny shop full of cute quilting fabrics and buttons and a very sweet girl who spoke very softly. This is where I found the tools below. I also visited a few fabric shops that House of Pinheiro recommended. There was only one I actually entered because some had men in suits patrolling the stores. I wouldn't have dared to touch a thing when there's men in suits looking over your shoulder! In the end I went regular tourist and bought a gorgeous maxi dress at Kookai. Call it inspirational shopping. Anyway here's something for you to win if you leave a comment!



FLTR: a pair of tiny scissors with a little eye that would make a cute necklace, a pair of thread snippers (I got one myself, very handy!), a thimble and a dragonfly safety pin.

If you'd like to win these goodies, leave a comment below stating your favourite sewing tool. Giveaway ships anywhere, winner will be randomly chosen, and ends on friday May 24th. Boa sorte!

Design Review: Giveaway!

NOTE: This giveaway is now closed!

Before I do a recap of your answers, I wanted to give huge thanks for your input on the Design Review surveys! To express my gratitude I've set up a little giveaway. I want to encourage you all to try an Indie pattern in case you haven't yet, so I'm giving away...

One Indie pattern of your choice!

Maybe one of these? Negroni shirt, Josephine tee, Thurlow Trousers, Briar Sweater, Robe Bleuet

And a bonus birthday prize: This lovely cat jersey!





You can choose any indie pattern company, any pattern, it's not limited to the ones I've mentioned here. So if you'd like Tilly's Mathilde blouse, or the Elisalex Dress of By Hand London, it's all good. My birthday was Feb 18th, hence the bonus prize :). The fabric is a medium weight jersey of good quality, 1.5 by 1.5 meters (1.5 yards, 60" wide). Also seen here and here. I got it a few months ago but it's too patterny for me.

All I ask of you in return is to fill out one of the surveys. They're anonymous so I won't be able to check, but it would be nice if you'd do it anyway :) You can choose from these three:

Paper Goods
Style & Size
Instructions

And then let me know in your comment:

• which pattern you'd pick
• how to contact you

You're automatically in for both prizes, if you don't like the fabric let me know, then I'll exclude you in the bonus draw. Extra entries:

• Tweet about it 
• Blog about it

Leave a separate comment for each entry. Entries are accepted until March 12th. This giveaway is open internationally. You can only win either one of the prizes, I'll draw first prize winner first. I am not sponsored by any indie pattern designer, this truly is a gift from me to you!

Good luck!

Giveaway Follow-up

Both the giveaway packages have arrived at their new owners, and it makes me very happy they were recieved with love! Me.anna did a post about it, and Kate has already used the fabric! I really didn't know what to do with this fabric, but she knew immediately and got not one, but two projects out of it.



You might recognize this skirt pattern: it's Tilly's Picknick Blanket Skirt. An excellent choice! Kate used this tutorial for gathering fabric.

She even managed to squeeze another project out of it: a loop scarf. Seeing how well she used the fabric that had been in my stash for over a year, I'm thinking I should give away fabric more often! A dangerous thought, because this could justify buying more fabric without having any plans for it...

Winner x 2!

We have two winners! Chosen by mr. Random Generator. I would've picked all of you, but this cold hearted, unbiased machine picked only two.

The winner of Package #1 is... Me.Anna!

The winner of Package #2 is... Kate Price!

Congratulations!

Thank you all for participating and for reading my blog. You can't imagine how happy it makes me to see that people read my blog and leave such kind and encouraging comments. I started it because I was inspired by Rensz and it's absolutely wonderfull that you now tell me you are inspired my me.

AWESOME.

Giveaway x 2!

To celebrate my 2 year Blogoversaire , I've prepared two packages for you to win! In accordance with the 15:60 challenge they're all made out of scraps. The giveaway is open internationally, and ends on Sunday, August 12th 0:00 CEST.

Both packages contain a matching tote and pincushion and some fabric!

Package #1

Package #2

The totes are lined with unbleached cotton so they can hold heavy things. These scraps are among the oldest ones I have. The dark blue ribbed bottom of pincushion #1 is the first fabric I ever bought. I hand sewed a top with it when I was 15! You might recognize the blue fabric too from Tilly's Loire Valley skirt. I once made a dress out of it. The bottom of pincushion #2 is a leftover piece from my yellow hoodie. The purple flowered and dotted fabrics are quilting cottons.

One is a yard by 60" of orange polka dot fabric with a light sheen. It's beautiful but white and orange do not go well with my pale skintone. The other one is a 45 inch by 1,5 yard fabric with golden threads woven through. I meant to make a button down shirt with this, but it's not really my style. Could be perfect for Fall!

If you'd like to win one of these packages, leave a comment stating:

1. which one you'd like
2. which garment from last year is your favourite (choose here)
3. and a way for me to contact you!

(15:60 #7)

Giveaway Winner

So, out of the 200+ followers, an astonishing amount of two people wanted my skirt :) Was it the measurements? Or the fact that I admitted that this was not the best skirt I've made? Anyway, I'm glad there were actually two people because that means it'll make someone else happy. Besides the one comment I got, someone else entered the competition through facebook. I assigned her the nr. 2 because she commented after Alice, and then used the random generator. Tada! Congratulations Judith! She commented that the skirt would be a gift for her niece. I hope she'll give it a ton of wear!

Refashioned Summer Skirt Giveaway

Remember the Summer Green Skirt I made exactly one year ago? Well, I never wore it. This was due to a couple of issues: 1) I did not like the length 2) I did not like the shape 3) I had nothing to combine it with. The first two problems were fixed last summer. I detached the waistband, cut about 10 cm off the top of the skirt, unpicked the pleats and used shirring elastic to make gathers. And this also gave me an opportunity to redo the not so blind zipper. I found the magic word to do this: blind zipper foot. Major aha-erlebnis! I kept wondering why other people seemed to get such a good result with their zipper foot, until I saw that I had just read it too quickly and it actually said blind zipper foot. So I got myself one, and can make invisible zippers now too! I have to be honest though: it is not the best skirt I ever made. The lining is a bit short and not very neatly hemmed. But I did use french seams, and the outside is fine. I should have ironed it before taking a picture though, it looks a bit messy.

The third problem with this skirt was combining it. I thought I was going to make something to go with it, but when I was sorting out my closet yesterday I thought: No. It's a nice skirt, but it's just not my style. So I'm wondering: is it yours? If it is, leave a comment and I'll send it to you! If you're the only one, you're lucky, but if not I'll randomly select a winner on thursday at 00:00 +1 GMT. Oh, and it measures 52 cm total length, the waistband 38 cm. The fabric is cotton and poplin, and has little green dots. I hope I can make someone happy with it!

Nette's giveaway

A few weeks ago, I participated in Nette's Summer Giveaway, and I won! I got this pretty package in the mail:

She made a shrug and a hand-printed tote for two lucky winners. I can't tell you how nice it is to have something made by a fellow blogger. She was one of the first people I followed, and although our styles are a bit different, I really like her craftyness and the details she puts in her garments. 

This is the little tote with hand-stamped catprint. I have it with me all the time, to use for unplanned shopping. It has a little bag on the inside so you can fold it into a tiny package. I also took it with my on a hike up in the Norwegian mountains, and even though it's not very big, it held everything I needed.


This is my third shrug! Casually styled with my 'sunday at the campsite' outfit: chill-pants, longsleeved merino shirt and Allstars :) I'm sorry, this is the best I can do at the moment. I am going to wear it tonight in a better combination, I promise! As you can see this one is bigger and better fitting than the shrugs I made. Lesson learned: use the pattern!

And a last photo of the view from my tent, overlooking the mountains and the fjord... Not bad, eh?

Giveaway winner!

I'm sorry for the delay, I know the giveaway ended two days ago! I do have a good excuse though: I was on a glacier excursion! It was awesome and beautiful, but let's see who won first:

The winner is Crystal! Congratulations! I'm especially pleased with this, as she was one of my first followers. I'll be sending you an email very shortly!

Now, some photo's of truly astonishing nature! I'm posting these here because I wore something self made: a hat. I knitted it on wednesday evening. I did not bring a hat to Norway, and I needed one for this excursion. I had very little time, but I still did not want to spend money on something I could so easily make myself.

I had no pattern, and if I had had more time I'd have made it a bit bigger. It needed needles nr. 8, but I had only nr. 6. It worked out fine though, the tightness of the stitches makes it even warmer. I like the colours and it was nice and warm on top of that glacier! It's merino wool, and I'll tell you more about where I found it later. 

P.S. Giveaway!

I know I should stop blogging and start packing, but I wanted to announce the Giveaway first! I managed to lay my hands on the materials I was looking for this morning, so here we go!

The winner of this giveaway will recieve:

One meter of striped mustard jersey! I got so much reactions to my mustard mini, I thought I'd give you the opportunity to make your own version. It's 1.4 meter wide, which is more than enough for the mini skirt. I will try to work on the tutorial, but I'm not sure when it will be ready (related to the challenge of sewing while camping). I hope you can wait 'till then, otherwise I'd be curious to see what you make with it!

Here's the rules:

1. To enter, you must be a follower. Either by RSS, email subscription, google follower. Doesn't really matter which way.

2. Leave a comment saying what way you follow me, and what way to contact you.

3. I'll send it anywhere in the world. Anyone can participate!

4. You'll have until next wednesday (16th of august), 00:00 CET. I'll let the random generator choose a winner.

That's it! I hope you like it!

P.S. Next Giveaway will be something handmade by me, so non-sewists can participate too!