Andrea Whitrow, Author at The Design the Stitch and the Wardrobe

Posted on June 9, 2015June 9, 2015 by Andrea Whitrow — Leave a comment

‘Swanlake’ Songbird Challenge – Top Stitchers Season 2

I am so excited that I can finally share these pictures with you. For those of you who have visited and wondered why my house has been covered in feathers and leather for the last few weeks – this is why.

I was asked if I would be interested in taking part in Topstitchers season 2 and that I would be making an OTT couture / avant garde inspired outfit – for a boy! Oh YES, yes I would be very interested in doing that hehe. When the theme came through I was chomping at the bit to get started. This was the promt we were given.

No two birds sing the same song” – just as no two seamstresses will design the same over-the-top look… because YOU will be designing a boy’s “songbird” look. That is, a look inspired by a song about birds (or anything with wings).

Whilst being super duper excited to take part I was a little apprehensive when I discovered who my competitor would be. I know Cassie from Lilyshine Boutique through working with Pattern Revolution. She took part in season 1 of Topstitchers, taking part in another OTT themed contest with the prompt of ‘Cinderella’. Her entry was exquiste, you can find it here and I think you will understand why I was slightly terrified. I did however let my mind creep a couple of times to the fact, that whilst she definitely has the upperhand when it comes to beautiful dresses, I may actually have an advantage with it being ‘boy’ sewing. But what will be will be and win, lose or draw I am so glad I got to take part.

So with no further ado here is my Swanlake inspired story of a young prince catching a glimpse of a beautiful princess whilst playing in the woods.

Prince playing in the forest — A young prince wanders through the forest

Prince spots princess in the forest — A white vision appears behnd a tree

The Prince and swan pr — The prince wanders down to the lake and spots the princess once more (after posing in a dramatic fashion for the camera 😉 )

The sorceror (black swan approaches — The sorceror approaches

The swan is jealous of the prince and turns him into an evil (slightly demented looking) swan

The evil swan curses the princess as he was cursed

Posted on April 24, 2015April 24, 2015 by Andrea Whitrow — Leave a comment

The Thriller Birthday Party

For the last 6 months or so, Mr 7 has been slightly obsessed with all things Michael Jackson. Well not ‘all’ things thank goodness, just the dancing and the music. His 7th Birthday is coming up and seeing as he missed out on a party last year, due to his baby brother having just been born, we thought we would throw him a bit of a shindig.

We decided on a Thriller theme, firstly because it’s his favourite song but also because we could incorporate a bit of a zombie theme – for those who were adverse to wearing sequins. He had a Billy Jean costume from when the lucky monkey got to go to ‘Thriller Live’ with his grandparents, however I figured he should have a Thriller jacket for a Thriller party. Now this was on top of an urgent order for one of my Prince Charming costumes, one of the Joffrey costumes, two pirate costumes, having to ‘unboy’ the house in preparation for the party and organising the party itself. Arghhhh.

Meh! I’m not big on making life easy for myself 🙂

I used http://www.peekaboopatternshop.com/happy-camper-reversible-jacket/ as a base to make the jacket from. I stitched parallel lines into the shoulder panels to recreate the ridged look. Instead of installing a zip (any excuse not to put in a zip) I made rectangluar tabs with snap closures. The ‘V’ was just a strip of leather (well pleather) appliqued on top.

The next thing to organise was the cake ….yeah,….. that’s not my area of expertise. Just mentioning the words ‘helicopter cake’ to any member of my family will result in them dissolving into fits of giggles. Let’s just say it ended up looking more like a certain part of the male anatomy than the airborne vehicle it was supposed to represent. My sister on the other hand has shown a bit of talent in that department in recent years so she got the gig. A quick search of Pintrest (obviously) was all it took and this was the final result.

A few other finds from Pintrest that fit our theme:

Ok so I may stick with sewing, baking is just not my forte - but they tasted good — Ok so I may stick with sewing, baking is just not my forte – but they tasted good

My favourite find for decoration were some printables with some words from Thriller(the two I found were from here http://anightowlblog.com/2013/09/thriller-halloween-printables.html ), so I took those 2 and made some more of my own – added a couple of creepy pictures and made a ‘scary’ bunting of sorts

Thriller bunting — it’s close to midnight and something evil’s lurking in the dark.

The final touches were added – self explanitory really

Michael Jackson's grave — Here Lies the King of Pop

The kids all had a ‘Thrilling’ time (sorry)

Thriller party — We had Michael Jackson’s of all decades and zombies show up to the party

Posted on March 29, 2015April 22, 2015 by Andrea Whitrow — Leave a comment

Boys Can Wear Pink Too

This post was originally seen here: http://patternrevolution.com/blog/2015/2/23/boys-can-wear-pink?rq=andrea

As soon as I heard about the Boys Can Wear Pink series being hosted by Handmade Boy, I knew I had to put in an entry. As Mum to 6 boys – pink is a colour that is rarely seen in my house…..and I guess, right there lies the basis of what this campaign is trying to target. Why can’t they wear pink? Well, as far as I’m concerned they can wear pink, green, yellow, purple or black if they so wish. I knew that 3 of my boys (Mr’s 16, 14 and 4) would point blank refuse to take part, and that’s fine, this is all about boys being able to make the choice without non-existant rules making the decsisions for them. 2 (Mr’s 6 and 3) would easily be talked into it and 1 is too young (10 months) to care either way.

I decided that a blazer and skinny leg jeans would be an awesome combination and seeing as Mr 3 and skinny leg jeans are never going to go together in the same sentence …..well Mr 6 got the gig. I chose the Blank Slate Blazer and the Peek-a-boo skinny jeans, they are both patterns that I had been keen to try out and I wasn’t disappointed, both patterns came together very easily and will definitely be on the favourites pile for future use.

The blazer offers plenty of options to personalise, due to wanting to showcase my fabric though, I kept details to a minimum. I always add pockets to boys handmade clothing when the option is there. I feel it gives garments a more finished and professional look. The jeans are fantastic and definitely an everyday wear item – although in direct contrast to my above comment about Mr 3, Mr 6 is a skinny minny and they were not particularly ‘skinny’ on him. He was so impressed with his outfit that he has asked if he can wear it to the next school casual day…who knows, maybe he will convert some more boys to the cause.