deondergangvanmijnouders

Last week the girls at Craft’d Shanghai asked me to host a “Next Step” type sewing a class… they’ve been organising the 'learning to sew' classes for a while, making aprons, pillowcases and totebags… they’ve added zippers to bags and made infinity scarves like absolute legends. But they hadn’t made any other clothing… So, hence the “Next Step”… I was more than happy to host the class, but haven't really taught sewing before, so I emphasized the DIY heavily to all my sewing skills and we talked about lazyseamstressing a bit too! The day was 4 hours of 3 students, and definitely using the blogs of the sewing community world, I came up with the few steps below: - Measure your waist - Measure the length from your waist to where you like the hem to be - Really puffy & full: at least THREE times your waist measurement - Only a little puffy: at least TWO times your waist measurement - The skirt has 2 rectangles: one piece is your waist measurement plus 2.5 cm for ease ...

Xin Nian Kuai Le! It's now the year of the monkey, and I've never felt so overjoyed by the lunar calendar, for I really feel the momentum swinging with this monkey year! Absolutely love being here in China and experiencing the traditions and overall positive vibes. However astonishingly, there were NO fireworks... no loud noises... no crackers! The government decided they were to be banned this year and everyone complied. Outside of Shanghai I believe people still celebrated with a traditional bang (the noise scares away the evil spirits!), but happy new year nonetheless! But after seeing a bunch of the gigantic knots around the city, I wanted to try my own little knots ... and over the new year weekend, I tied a few different knots, and found a gigantic pool of internet knotting resources! So many knots , colour codes but with some Chinese instructions. A big pinterest feed of knots! A Panchang Knot , this is one I tried! Chinese Good Luck Knot , tried this one too! Chinese F...

Before it gets too New Years-y around the internet, I thought I’d quickly post my DIY Christmas Tree, made from cardboard boxes, and perfectly petite for our small apartment living. Being in Shanghai, Christmas is a little Christmassy, but considering that the day is a normal work day some traditions around town are just WESTERN traditions, so while there are Christmas Trees for sale here, they’re the plastic kind or they’re some strange kind of tree that aren’t pine trees, they just look like Christmas Trees do. I’m not sure, but they’re SUPER expensive. SO, throwing my thriftiness around isn’t hard… especially when there’s oodles of cardboard around. Last year, I made the tree with these same strips of cardboard (groceries can arrive in very stable awesome cardboard boxes that you can return, use or recycle) but don’t think I posted it, and it was strung up with rope from a coat hanger, each piece was tied by threads and it looked like a large mobile … and I tried to do the same t...

Today I thought I’d show you how I exaggerated the Bettine Dress sleeve and bodice to put a summery twist on this Tilly & the Buttons Pattern! You might remember this dress I made for wearing to the ever gorgeous & lovely October wedding… it was a cool light (maybe pretend) linen fabric and super soft for the warm sunny weather back in Australia. When I posted the sleeves on Instagram , Abigail asked to see the pattern pieces, so here we go with my behind the scenes photo series! I loved sewing my first Tilly & the Buttons Bettine Dress over summer, it was very light in some rayon cotton fabric and comfortable on those hot days here in Shanghai. (I miss them so, it’s freezing right now!) And after picking up this very light linen (for the above dress) at the local fabric market, I just wanted something that wouldn’t be a full on kaftan but kinda like a kaftan. These gigantic purple & red flowers are just the best, and I didn’t want to cut them up! So, onto some ...

Hi there! This week I've started wearing my winter-y scarves again... it's dropped a whole 10 degrees (celcius!) during the day in the last fortnight... and I'm so not ready for winter yet! Three of our holidays this year has been back to the homeland hemisphere, and the most recent one in October really threw out my weather gauge. Ha Ha. *sigh* So I pulled out this scarf loop I made for one of our little pop up markets in September, and now it's officially mine! It's almost a metre wide, and the width of the fabric long... sewn in the long edge, but I leave space each side to turn it... then right sides together - stitch - pull through your hole and then slipstitch closed with the little Veronica Darling tag sandwiched in. My friend Michell suggests everything I make needs a tag, as people prefer it... making it all a little more polished I suppose! What are you making for winter? I'm super stuck, but have a few things to finish off ... I think with some...

There’s something rewarding about learning a new skill or completing a new project, and while it’s fun to gather up the knowledge & materials yourself and wing it (I do this plenty of times), it’s also great doing it with others face to face. Until I started sewing classes earlier this year … I rarely did face to face classes or workshops. I'd spent years problem solving sewing myself with my vintage patterns, and in sewing the biggest mystery for me was solved when I realised clothing was sewing right sides together! Or inside out! DUR. So here's Mae from Craft'd Shanghai and I grinning about making shoes! Making espadrilles was something I’d wanted to do, to solve the shoe making mystery… I guess! Plus, the classes were with Craft’d Shanghai and I wanted to hear about another group here in Shanghai helping people be creative. And so, here’s another of my ‘Made in China’ series for you today… where I look at the offbeat & creative side of life in China. Handmakin...

A few weeks ago, there was ANOTHER Chinese holiday (it constantly feels like it’s party time/holiYAYs at the moment) and I met up with Mae from Craft’d Shanghai at their new little studio just off Fuxing Lu here in Shanghai for an Espadrille Workshop… and as they’d had a few last minute cancellations, I was the only one for the morning session! So luckily Mae wasn’t shy at telling stories, so we spent the time making and chatting about our lives in Shanghai and before we came here. So the SHOES! They are MUCH easier to make than I’d imagined.. and really quick to make them… as the actual template/pattern is quite small and the sewing part is very minimal… the time is in the stitching it all together. And for me, taking the time to choose the fabric… oh the agony of choosing from someone else’s stash! Craft’d is very equipped with all the woven for this kind of shoe, so I wanted a two tone but once I decided on red for the main colour there were about 10 different options to make up… s...

We made it! Ah! It's a Happy Friday! Here's my second version of the summer dresses I've made recently; for some reason the entire week has flown by due to sickness in our house! *glee* being ill in summer just hits you for six! *gush* love being sick with a toddler around! *squeal* (actually genuinely here) I watched the rest of Orphan Black season 3 and now all of Sense 8. I am officially addicted to Sci Fi TV shows when I'm sick. Learning new things all the time about being me! This fabric was also from Taobao, and while it's not my usual colour, I actually just picked it because it looks weird. I thought it looks like pixels like the flowers are hidden underneath gingham pixels or something. I like it. It also has a little stretch in the fabric, and while I used the same pattern for the bodice pieces as my black dress , this fabric is a lot more floppier, so stretched out a little differently widthwise... I noticed this week after wearing it a bit that I have ...