A pincushion

I have been saving my scraps from the hexagon quilt I’m working on. All those weird shapes that come from cutting the hexagon pieces that are too big to throw away, but not big enough to get cut into strips or squares got put into a ziplock bag and tossed into my ‘works-in-progress’ tote along with the other more organised scraps.

I had a specific idea in mind, to use them to create made fabric. A few weekends ago I pulled them out and decided to give the technique a try on a small scale.

I started in the centre and sewed the strips randomly to each other. Every piece in the centre is a scrap from my hexagon quilt.

I then framed it with a border of lovely spots and used the same fabric for the back. This came from The Calico Cat. A few years ago we did a swap, I crocheted a hippo for her and she sent me a bunch of fabulous fabric in return. Shortly after that fabric arrived my sewing mojo left. Now that it has returned I’m having fun using it up.

Kidlet was so taken with this that she claimed it for her own. Stuffed it and sewed it shut herself.

She refused to accept any advice or guidance as to how to sew it closed and she did a pretty good job. She does sew on occasion, so she will make use of this pincushion. Now I need to make another one for myself.

Read Full Post »

A gift

Gorgeous Girl was invited to a birthday party a while ago. We raided the fabric stash to make the gift. Fabric was bought in South Africa, so it’s at least five years old.

Eric Carle fabric.

Gifts weren’t opened at the party, so we have no idea if it was well received or not, but Gorgeous Girl and I liked it. It was actually hard to give this one away…

Read Full Post »

Why I love my stash

On Wednesday last week Gorgeous Girl received an invitation to a birthday party today. There’s not much in the way of kid’s toys to buy in Papua New Guinea, the market is filled with cheap plastic toys from China like imitation Barbie dolls and the like. So Gorgeous Girl and I raided the stash. She found some pink fabric that I was sure that I would never use. I’d received it as part of a friend’s destash when I was living in South Africa. Next we went through the 2.5 inch pre-cut squares and chose the ones she thought her little friend would enjoy the most. Using this pattern as inspiration. I sewed a cushion cover.

Have I mentioned that I’m now gainfully employed? Thesis is finished and I’ve been spending my days writing lectures and marking assessment items.

This means less spare time and I’m falling woefully behind on my blog reading and my own blog posting (sigh).

]

Read Full Post »

Sewing

Our car recently spent some time at the mechanics. It went in for a service and some other repairs. Having one car makes it very difficult to get  Gorgeous Girl to school and back when it is out of action. Fortunately, some friends of ours lent us their car so that we could get to and from school.

So I made them some placemats to say thank you. One thing I love about sewing is the speed at which the projects come together (if I don’t screw up the cutting or sewing…)

I picked up these placemat panels before we left South Africa, so they have been marinating in the stash for a while.

I backed them with traditional African fabric that I was stunned to see one of the local supermarkets here in PNG selling. This is the same brand as the fabric I picked up in Zambia during our holiday there.

Hopefully they like them.

Read Full Post »

A new dress

I made an article of clothing from a pattern and it fits!

As soon as Gorgeous Girl saw it she put it on and then grabbed dolly with the matching dress (same pattern, not the same fabric).

She likes it.

I managed to do french seams on the sides.

I’m quite impressed with myself about that.

Gorgeous Girl found some lace in the stash when we were selecting fabric and insisted that it be added. Thanks to my friend Google I worked out how to add lace to a hem without too much trauma.

While the machine was out I made a pillowcase for a friend of Gorgeous Girl’s who is having a birthday soon.

Gorgeous Girl insisted on giving it a test run.

Funny kid. It’s now all wrapped up and ready to be gifted. I hope the recipient likes it. I’m always worried about giving handmade gifts to other people’s children because I know not all families value handmade as much as ours (and our extended family) does.

Gorgeous Man and Gorgeous Girl went out to one of the National Parks recently. Here is Gorgeous Girl relaxing after a 2 kilometre walk and a leech bite.

Gorgeous Man really does take the most beautiful photos of Gorgeous Girl. This really captures her. She wasn’t too fazed by the leech bite. She told me that she “wasn’t happy” because she got bitten by a leech, but it was OK because Daddy had picked it off.

 

Read Full Post »

Sewing

I finished the dress for Gorgeous Girl’s doll. I’m pleased with how it turned out. This doll belonged to me as a child but she lives with Gorgeous Girl now.

The pattern is a free one from from Oliver + S. I am a sewing pattern novice and this was easy to follow. I’d pay money for some of their other patterns it was so well written.

I think Gorgeous Girl is happy with the dress.

Dress, sewn by me, fabrics chosen by Gorgeous Girl.

(As an aside, you can see the neighbour’s house in the background of the photo. Ours is identical.  We park our car underneath).

While hunting through the stash to find the fabric for Gorgeous Girl’s dress I came across a few test blocks from a quilt I decided not to go ahead with (test blocks revealed some serious flaws in the pattern instructions). I decided to whip them together quickly and make a coaster for Gorgeous Girl to keep on the coffee table. Not my best work, but out of the stash and put to use…

This is my picture. Not content with that, Gorgeous Girl asked for the camera so she could style the shot.

Her dress is in progress, but I’ve learned not to sew when tired, so instead of finishing it off tonight I’m going to crash on the couch with some knitting for about 20 minutes and then head to bed. Hopefully I’ll be able to sneak a few minutes at the machine tomorrow.

 

Read Full Post »

A micro-mini finish and trying something new

When I lived in South Africa I belonged to a number of yarn and fibre clubs run by the fabulous Carle at Nurturing Fibres.   Last year I used one of the yarn clubs to make this shawlette.

Each yarn club came with the main ball of yarn and then a small ball of luxury yarn dyed in the same colourway. I needed to break into my luxury yarn to finish this off and I had a tiny ball left over. I didn’t want to just throw it out, but there really wasn’t enough to do much with. Anyway, a few minutes with my crochet hook and I had made this.

A new bookmark, and there was only one inch of yarn left at the end.

Recently I decided that it might be time to cut into the fabric that I bought to make Gorgeous Girl a dress with far too many a few years ago. This free pattern,  the popover sundress by Oliver+S caught my eye.

I decided to make the doll sized dress first to make sure I understood all the instructions in the pattern before cutting into the good stuff. (Also Gorgeous Girl is unwell and is not willing to stand still for measurements etc). Gorgeous Girl picked two fabrics from her fabric stash. I enlarged the pattern. Her vintage doll (used to be mine) is the same length as the doll the dress is designed for, but is a little bit wider.

Several hours later I have a half finished dress.

I think Gorgeous Girl has put really nice fabrics together. The sense of accomplishment I felt when I realised I had successfully added the bias strip to the sleeve was ridiculous.

You have to remember that the last time I made a garment from a pattern was 22 years ago and I did it with lots of help from a friend’s mother. You are also reading the blog of a woman who failed sewing in Year 8 (back in the days when F’s still appeared on report cards) and only managed to scrape a C- in Year 10 (the last time I took the subject…)

Gorgeous Girl is on holidays at the moment, and she’s got a nasty chest infection. So the school hours when I usually work on my thesis are otherwise occupied at the moment. This means I need to start using my evening crafting time as writing time instead. So I don’t expect to see this finished until next weekend.

It’s currently sitting on the ironing board and I pat it every time I go past.

 

Read Full Post »

Gorgeous Girl Designs

One of our neighbours is turning one next week. (I promise this next bit is related) Yesterday Gorgeous Man and Gorgeous Girl and her new carpooling friend set off for school. Traffic was so bad that they moved 100 metres in an hour. At 8.45 am (an hour and a half after they had set off) Gorgeous Man made the executive decision to turn the car around and bring them home for the day.

In the morning Gorgeous Girl and her friend did some maths and English worksheets and books I had in the house. They also did some painting and played outside. After her friend went home at lunch time. We decided to use the rest of our school free day sewing. (I also have to stop studying if Gorgeous Girl is home for the day, so it was ‘school free’ for both of us).  Gorgeous Girl asked if she could make a birthday present for the neighbour.

She raided her stash and drew a design on a piece of paper. (She traced one of our wooden figurines from South Africa). I helped by pinning the two bits of fabric together, cutting out, and sewing around the curves.

Presenting “Hornbill”

Side B

I also stuffed and sewed the eyes. I think it’s a great design. She’s very clear on her design vision, shape and fabric wise, just needs a little bit of help in the execution of it.

Hopefully her little friend will like his Gorgeous Girl Original.

Read Full Post »

Feeling rather pleased with myself

I have a mental block when it comes to sewing. Not the sewing that involves making quilts. That’s not a problem. But the sewing that involves making other things gives me pause.

Perhaps it comes from failing sewing in Year 8 at high school. I avoided it altogether in Year 9, opting to do woodwork and then in Year 10 scraped a C-. After that I chose all the academic subjects and my schooling in sewing was over.

So when it comes to sewing things I tend to procrastinate a little, and then I’m always amazed when they work out. Today I finished some sewing projects for Gorgeous Girl.

My MIL worked in China for a while and brought back a significant amount of novelty cotton yardage for me that she had found in the markets. I turned most of it into a top sheet last year. Last weekend I cut out part of the fabric and today cut out the rest, and sewed it to make a pillowcase.

I used a tutorial from an Australian magazine (either Handmade or Australian Patchwork and Stitching can’t remember off hand and it’s been put away already) that I picked up last time I was in Australia. I was very pleased with myself when this fitted the pillow.

Buoyed on by this success I turned my attention to a drawstring bag for Gorgeous Girl’s marble collection.

I used an online tutorial and in retrospect should probably have reduced the size of fabric they started with. My bag turned out huge. I also had problems squaring off the corners. Need to play around with that a little more I think.

Gorgeous Girl choose this fabric when we were still living in South Africa. It’s been used in a soft toy for her and now this bag and there is a little bit left to find its way into quilts. She chose the sheer purple ribbon for the closure. I have my doubts as to how that will hold up. But we will replace it if necessary…

Time to go and crash on the couch with my crocheting for an hour or so before tackling a new-to-me recipe for dinner.

What did you get up to this weekend?

Read Full Post »

Some knitting and some sewing

I finished two pieces of knitting recently. They are currently sitting on  a shelf waiting to be put into a ziplock bag and packed away for when we are in a colder place…

Firstly a linen stitch scarf from two balls of left over sock yarn. I love how this turned out. I keep eyeing the stash to see what other combinations I can put together.

Secondly, I finished a beaded silk cowl from handspun yarn. This was also left over from another project. It seems I’m all about using up the scraps at the moment.

I had the urge to sew this weekend. I added another two borders to the Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt. No photos. My design floor is currently occupied with train tracks… and then because I didn’t want to do the maths required to add another border I played with some scraps.

Here’s the scrap block before trimming.

It looks like a bit of a dog’s breakfast. There’s some left over fabric from my quilt in there, some scraps Kate sent me a while ago, some Saffron Craig fabric I found in an Op Shop (thrift store) and some fabric that I received from retiring quilters. I don’t foundation piece these. I just have a template next to my sewing machine that I measure against – it’s slightly larger than the size I trim to.

Then the block is trimmed.

And at some point they will be sewn together.

I find it amazing how well such a random selection of fabrics go together. I have piles of fabric set up and take the first one that fits in the space. The only proviso is that I don’t use the same fabric twice in a block.

I also made some cards, but sealed up the envelopes before I remembered to take a picture. I’m a bad blogger.

In other news we finally got insurance approval last week (for the car accident I had on the 14th of May). Our next door neighbour actually used photos of our car at a presentation he was giving at a conference on insurance in developing nations. We were his example of bad practice since it had taken so long to be processed. Anyway, we dropped the car off this morning to be repaired. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get done.

Read Full Post »