Right, three more posts to go to have sort of caught up and I am actually already staring at the next completed project – a set of … oh well, lets not spoil the surprise about something that I will most likely be ready to post about in 4 months or so.

Todays project is about sequins. Yes sequins. I don’t know if you know reversible sequins (I am only guessing the English name here) but they are a big hit around here. At least if you are under the age of 10 I guess. Sorry, if I have just offended anyone.

If you don’t know them: They are like magic. if you gently stroke them in one direction they show one side – therefore one colour, if you stroke them the other way, they will flip and change colour. You can spend hours and hours going over and over again with your little hand. It allows you to dream, the little rustling noise will take you to the windy sea or to the top of a high mountain. Sure the teacher will call you absent-minded but she is just jealous because those T-Shirts don’t come in her size. (That’s what I would assume at least)

Apparently everybody, I mean everybody has got a shirt with reversible sequins. So we finally had to get one for the girl. With some kind of unidentifiable animal on it from one of the high street fashion brands. I am rather pleased with the motif as it is not too girly or inappropriate agewise.

And as there is at least one high street brand that has a wide range of reversible sequins on boys clothes, the big boy got one, too.

And I finally started to get intrigued. Because there is a rather big difference in quality of sequins. Who would have thought. In the girl’s one, each sequin has one colour per side so if you flip them you get a neat picture (but not many different colours). The boys motif seem to have been painted once they were mounted so each sequin has a white / non painted part where it was covered by the next layer. And obviously if you flip them, you will never be able to position them perfectly so the whole picture is interspersed with white dots. So, while the motif might be more interesting, it actually gives you a headache to look at it.

It obviously ended with me thinking that I should do it myself. Before you start getting worried, I do not mean that I ever had in mind to stitch every single sequin on by myself. There are ready-made application patches or rolls of fabric. Both seemed hard to get in Austria and I even called the fabric shops in Vienna and eventually found some at Komolka, the big shop in one of the high streets.

I felt really good after this very succesful shopping trip and was also very pleased with the final garment.

The fabric is a simple stripy sweat by Lillestoff, so it is actually organic and ethically produced in Europe. I do wonder if that is the right fabric to put sequins on or if I should be in a moral dilemma. I can only hope that these days they are stitched on by machines and not by little children.

I have used the klimperklein Traegerkleid pattern with hood and I really like this combination in its simplicity. But back to the shiny sequins.

So, there is a black heart …

and the most amazing iridescent green-purple side.

And by the way, I made such good use of the fabric that I actually had to cheat a bit, but don’t tell anybody.

So, one might think, a huge success – we have already been thinking about manly applications for the boy, maybe a shark or some kind of big machine, like a digger. But even before the first wash, quite a few sequins came off and in the first wash we lost a couple more. I am not sure why, if it is the fabric or if I did something wrong. She can still wear it, one could even read some meaning into the broken or bleeding heart but I am a very disappointed. Obviously this dress comes easily in the top 3 of my daughter’s favourite mum-made items.

I would be more than willing to replace the heart with a new one, I have still a big piece of the sequin-fabric left but only if I knew that it didn’t happen again.  I am currently heartbroken! so I haven’t tried yet. I guess I need a break but I will definitely do a few tests on the sequin fabric to see if it is worth to give it another go.

PS: And in case if you wonder about the mess in the background of the pictures:

If you know me personally: Why are you wondering?

If you do not know me personally: These pictures are carefully designed and each and single item is placed there carefully to add a natural and likable personal touch to professional fashion photos.

If you are my mum: Yes, I know I should tidy up, at least before taking pictures to put online but there was no time before the dress gets worn to school and comes back covered in all sorts of colours.