The mood is grey

Not grim, just grey. It's been showering buckets non-stop for the last two weeks. And my mood has leached out onto the blog. Apologies, peeps. Never in my life before have I let the weather affect my disposition, but it appears I reached some kind of "saturation" point.


Anyhow, thank you for your concern.....because some of you have been so nice to ask. I lifted myself out of the doldrums with some cute sewing for the wee one. This one just happened to be grey, too. A beautiful light grey wool flannel, to be exact. Aussie peeps, I sourced the fabric (and buttons) from Tessuti.


The pattern (garment "w") is from this japanese craft book. Again, with lots of additions....I had to lengthen it past the kid's hips, added the crochet lace trim and of course, inserted the lining. This winter jacket is fully lined to the sleeve cuffs.


I know! Very ambitious of me. (I love these buttons!) You probably know by now, I'm always up for a jump in the deep end. Cos I get bored with repetition. And I'm always wanting to prove to myself that I can do the scary, difficult kind of sewing, too. Of course, this kind of "throwing caution to the winds" stitching action does come with the occasional blunder.


This one's boo-boo is not too obvious. In all my caution at cutting generous seam allowances, its ended up a size too big. She's swimming in it. But I'm hoping it will fit before the end of winter.....and if she grows slowly, it might even get a wear next year. Yippee!

Okeydokes! The sun finally made an appearance this weekend, so we're taking full advantage of the nicer weather.

Cheerio!

Jewel fluffs

It's all over the sewing table, the floor and the ironing board. Gah! The fricking fabric frays (say that out loud ten times, he he he) like there's no tomorrow. Who would've thought I'd be attempting to sew with swishy fabric this soon....and polyester, no less. But then again, who among you would even try to pull away from this pile? No, Jim. Not as we know it.


That's right. Polyester comes in woven jacquards, except I've never seen their ilk in fabric shops. Just on finished garments. This lot was unearthed from my mum's stash to add some zing into some sewing.

I'm cutting my teeth into some meaty sewing. This isn't my usual whip-it-up-in-no-time project. Hence, the absence from blog-land. I reckon I've got another week of daytime naps to finish this one. Here's a sneak peek.


Hope your week is good. Cheerio!

A matter of time

You know, bloggy peeps, its only a matter of time before I start putting all the pieces together. After all, why would I want to keep them apart?!


When in reality, they're all clamoring to play together.


Just practicing with the crochet edging, but next time I'll try that nice shiny mercerised cotton.


I do like the old-fashiony look of this cotton yarn I picked up (reminds me of crochet lace, my favourite embellishment).....and ta da! One light blue linen tea towel with tree stamps and a crochet edge.


Although, even the geezer says who would want to make this tea towel grubby? Maybe it'll just be for show when guests come over (and sticky-beak in the kitchen).

Anyhow, here's another finished yarn-y thing, the floppy blue version of this beret. I can't help it anymore. This kid's a goof!


Hope everyone's having a great weekend! I still have another tea towel to finish off.

Cheerio!

Strike a pose

I told her to pose.....and she obliged. She's showing off the beautiful new cardigan we got from my swap with Claudine. Actually when I pointed the pic snapper her way, she started doing a jig of sorts. This is the kiddo mid-jig. (Claudine, that's just some spilled water on the front)


I'm seriously gushing over the perfect workmanship on this piece. Everything from the yarn colour, the pattern, the fit and the tiny flower shell buttons. It is impeccably made, and so much better than anything store-bought.


We had a gorgeous sunny day out yesterday to meet up with some old and some new crafty gals. It's so nice to meet other crafty types who get the blog-thing. We're still a seldomly seen breed here in Sydney town.

Changing topics to that lamentable linen couch quilt.......I promised my gal pal Laura an artwork which she can use for a good cause some months back. When she offered to take the quilt instead of the painting, I was elated and relieved (cos I hadn't started yet and she's doing the event in a month). I lost my dad to a long battle with cancer some years ago, so this cause touches a chord with me.

Anyhow, Laura is requesting donations of scarves or beanies which she'll then use to raise money for the Cancer Council. You can read more about it here or here. If you do feel up to speed-knitting or speed-crocheting either a scarf or a beanie to donate for this cause, drop her a line at laura(dot)boere(at)tpg(dot)com(dot)au. Or you can just surf over to her blog and say hello. She's still kinda new to this blogging thing.

Cheerio!

Accidental couch quilt

I went into the kiddo's room the other day and noticed that she was getting bigger. So much that the cot quilt I made her (my first quilt!) was getting far too small to tuck down the sides. Cue new project!


It needed to be a quick, almost lazy quilt project. I had a pack of charm squares lying about the craft table....didn't really want to spend too much time cutting fabric, since its cooling down fast in the evening nowadays. The charm squares are from the Wee Play range of American Jane.


For the backing, I used fabric from Look and Learn. And the binding is the last of the red ruler fabric from Building Blocks. Amazing how they all look good together.


But my undoing is the use of the linen. Argh! See what I mean??? It kinda "adultifies" the quilt. And it didn't really gel with the colour scheme in her room.


So this quilt is going to live on the couch for now, until we move house later this year. Then it can live with me in the craft room. In the mean time, the kiddo still needs a new quilt. *big sigh*

Lesson to me - don't hurry the projects! Fortunately, this wasn't too much of a dud. I kinda like the meshing of the linen with the other prints. I would hate to take this to the vinnies bin.

Anyhow back to the drawing board I go....cheerio!