NEW! OceansMoon Society6 Shop

Visit my new exciting Society 6 shop here !

Girl's Cropped Jacket and A Square Dress

I made the neck line boat shape so it can be worn zipper back or front.

A very simple pattern made by tracing her best fitting T-shirt. 

Same neckline for front and back. Additional width is calculated for the side without the zipper.

This fabric is now available at my etsy shop

Spring Outfit 2016 - sewing project

Spring twinset, a set of slightly cropped top with a Peter-Pan collar and pleated shorts.

100% cotton sateen originally printed for this :)

African Print Love ♥ Vol.2

A happy new year to everyone.
So the love continues.....

Happy crafting 2016, too!

African Print Love ♥

I am loving the recent african-print fever! I always admired the african batiks ever since I was first introduced to them from a friend from Nigeria. Their colours and patterns are so unique and they are usually made with medium thick 100% cotton fabric, a great material to work with for most of the sewing projects. It was rare to find in market until recently. Learning from designers like <<Stella Jean>> whose juxtaposition is refreshing and modern. I made my own for this summer’s african-print outfit with a much more casual touch :) 3 pairs of relaxed fit pants for kids and me! For the most part I followed a tutorial found on <<YouTube>>. I added pockets and other details like side panels or waist parts with different patterns. I’m sure these pairs will be heavily worn this summer as they are very comfortable and cheerful :) 

DIY Sleeveless Shirt-Dress

My little sewing projects began from the last mini project <doodling with kids>. The first one I made with it, is a little shirt-dress. Well, the insert part of it. :) 

And here is how I did it. First I altered men's shirt by cutting away the sleeves and the excessive side parts of the shirt.

As you can also see in the picture, in order to shrink the size of the armhole and make the shirt more fitting to a girl's shape, I have pinched a little around the 3rd button with pins. 

I made the cut in the middle of the pinched fabric and switched the upper chest-shoulder part with the doodled fabric. I've shortened and cut away excessive part along the way. I've remeasured the dress at the back side, and created a pleat to adjust the length. Only thing left now is just sew the sides back and done!  Simple sewing and minimum pattern needed to complete this dress. It was quick and a good sized project for a busy mom :)

Doodling with Kids

Snowy day and kids are already bored. Yes, it snows in Greece, too :) But it rarely accumulates. So it's not enough for them to release their energy outside making and throwing snow balls. Now we have decided to sit in and engage with an indoor activity, my favourite, doodling! But this time, we upgrade it by doing so on a fabric.


We need:

-Pretreated Cotton Fabric (you can find how to do that <here>)
-Felt tip markers for fabrics
-Sponges or Brushes
-Waterbased non-toxic fabric paints
-Plastic cups for diluting paints 

We started by just making any shape we like with the markers, then connected lines from one to another. There were 3 of us, so we took 1 corner each and rotated the canvas as we went. When we were done, we air dried it, then splashed (more like bombing!) diluted fabric paints with the sponges on it. But I wished if I had heat fastened the first ink before the fabric paints rather than just air-dried. Some of the marker ink ran and left a dark smear. 

Nevertheless, the results were more delightful than we anticipated. But I was more surprised with the kids who engaged throughout the whole process for hours without even a break. 
This was definitely a great indoor activity. It gives you a bonus to go on for another day because now we are sewing these :) So to be <continued>....