Some time ago, I started to sew for our baby on the way. As our baby will arrive in May, I was looking for some comfy baby bubble romper patterns. I spent some time finding THE pattern sparking joy. And believe me, it took some time to find one! I went through countless Etsy pages, saw million Pinterest posts and random blogs until I found it – the Shakalaka baby romper. I really fell in love with this pattern. But I will be honest with you, it’s not a ’20 minutes pattern, including final ironing’. Here is my experience.
Jasmina is my youngest cousin from Slovakia. She is a kind of person who can make anybody laughing. Her sense of humor is her superpower. She was visiting my parents together with my other cousin Noemi and my aunt Grazyna just the days when we arrived. What a perfect timing, couldn’t be better.
After one day we spent together I thought it was time to create something together, so I asked the questions I hardly ever get a negative answer. “Shall we make a sock monkey together?” Without any hesitation, Jasmina was all in. Now, we had to solve practical issues. Where to get some socks in a village that counts altogether 300 inhabitants? And believe or not, in this super tiny village, there is a sock factory! So, problem #1 was solved.
Problem #2 – the stuffing.  Where to get stuffing for three monkeys? Well, we did not have to look too far. Mom, I hope you don’t miss the big pillow in the living room. It did a good job. 🙂
And violĂ , it did not take too long until Jasmina made her first sock monkey.
But the story doesn’t finish here. Jasmina’s dream was actually to learn how to stitch with a sewing machine. And after a quick check, I realized my mom has everything to make a skirt the next morning. Taking into account that Jasmina had to leave before noon, the only moment to make a skirt is 6 AM. What freak would get up at 6 AM? ….Jasmina did! And she showed me, there are no obstacles if you strive to learn something new.
Not long ago, we were honored by a visit of Lena from Germany, living currently in Prague. Lena is Wannes’s old friend back from his Erasmus time in Czechia. They have many memories binding them together.
We’re both looking forward to meeting Lena again. We lined-up a typical tourist-must-see agenda for that weekend. Starting late Friday night we did a Leuven-in-night sightseeing tour and continued on Saturday in Antwerps. But our conversation somehow ended up about sewing and my hobby, which started to interest Lena a lot. The next day she could choose between an artistic trip to Brussels or a sewing workshop at our place. The goal was to  make a personalized skirt.
Well, Lena did not thing too long. The workshop was an ultimate winner. In fact, it was not the first time our visit ended up sewing in my atelier.
Upcycling is fun! Sometimes I have these moments when I don’t see how things look like, but how they could look like. Have you ever tried that? It’s really fun!Â
marli atelier 