Preparations...

It's time to head off on Craft Camp again.
Our usual pad has been booked.
Transport and meals have been coordinated.
And, as per usual, I have grand dreams of what I might make- some clear, some still quite unformed- but certainly way more than is humanly possible to make in one weekend.

The overall intention this time is to revamp my wardrobe for the season ahead. I'm going to be working from my stash (including the most recent additions, which were bought with summer wardrobe and craft weekend in mind) and have been contemplating the options for a month or so now. It's a matter of finding a balance between the fabrics and the garments they're suited for, with my practical wardrobe needs, fashion sense and the patterns I have or think I can create. And then of course make it integrate with my existing wardrobe, and coordinate in a clever mix and match way.

I've been gathering inspiration from a range of sources- revisiting my pattern stash, people watching as I walk down the street, window shopping- and doodling away. Today I stocked up on thread, zips and other supplies, so I will head off tomorrow with a range of possibilities and plenty of sewing to do.
Wish me luck.

be seated

I've been keeping my eye out for some decent toddler furniture for a very long time now. I've seen some classic, beautiful and well crafted items, but sadly such things usually have a high price tag (sometimes quite justifiably so). We can't really afford to pay as much as we paid for our entire vintage dining suite, for a single small child's chair, which will only be used (by us at least) for a few years. We considered cheaper options but they were too much of a compromise as far as quality and aesthetics go. I've been receiving daily eBay search emails for months now (for children's chairs within pick-up distance) and last week we finally scored.



These were being sold by a pre-school who had just upgraded their furniture. They sold some to parents, but still had about 20 that they sold on eBay in small lots. The funds are going back to the pre-school, so it's a winners all round. The chairs are super sturdy (although a couple of screws needed replacing on one, and I've put some new stoppers on most of the legs) and after we're done with them, I'm sure that we'll be able to pass them on to someone else to enjoy.

Now we just need to sort out a table to go with them...

minimal pleat T

When summer weather hits and you realise that all your summer T's are looking very tired:



Take one very simple two piece T-shirt pattern;

Retrive a short length of good quality cotton knit from the depths of the stash (in this case some cheap and bright cotton lycra I picked up at Carmels Braeside Warehouse last summer);

Cut it out, allowing for a good sized wedge of extra fabric at the centre front fold line;

Sew together side seams and shoulder seams;

Try it, with pins in hand, and pin a pleat in the front as desired;

Stitch pleat in place;

Wear to your heart's content;

Snap some photos in the bathroom mirror so you can share the pleasure.



ps: I decided not to bother with hems to keep the whole effect totally minimal. And perhaps also because I was feeling a bit lazy.

pps: If you feel you need some support to help you get into sewing with knits, I do recommend Sooz's excellent post on the topic. That said, I will say that sewing with knits, in my experience, presents plenty of opportunity for frustrations for those with perfectionist tendancies. However, knit fabrics are amazingly forgiving, and for less than $5 cost outlay, and a little bit of time, what have you got to loose?

swirling around

This is a hat I've just finished knitting for my brother. He's heading over to Moscow for Christmas this year with his fiance, so I thought perhaps he could do with a little extra layer to help keep him cosy. The pattern is Vortex from Knitty, knitted up with more from my stash of 4ply Pear Tree yarns. More details on Ravelry



I think it's good to do a bit of challenging knitting every now and then, but this seriously did my head in. I suppose if you don't think about it too much (as I did), and just follow the instructions, it's not so hard. Just keep moving the stitch markers as directed, and double check the stitch numbers if necessary. It produces a strangely waved wedge of fabric, but after you graft the cast on and last rows together a miraculous hat results. Ultimately it's pretty high on the "work to glory" ratio (which I read about in this great post about personal knitting motivations).



I tend to find as I knit (or read, or listen, or do pretty much anything that involves engaging with the work of others) that I find myself wondering how the designer (writer, inventor, creator) came up with the design in the first place. Where did it orignate from and how did they figure it out? Sometimes I feel amazed: Gosh it must have been so hard/time consuming/complicated/arduous. Sometimes I feel envy: Wish I could think that way, or had the dedication to play with the idea enough to understand it and manipulate it. Often, I ultimately feel gratitude that someone else did do it, did play and experiment and document and design and finally share. I'm sure my brother will be grateful too.

More shorts

My husband sarcastically asked me last night if I was going to stop at 18 or 19 pairs of these shorts. Well, it would mean I don't need to deal with the laundry so often...

More likely I'll stop when I run out of fabrics that are begging to be made into shorts.

And then maybe I'll move on to making some hats with the scraps.

HOLD IT!

A bit of holding going on here at the moment.

An adventure up North to stay with a wonderful friend and her lovely family is on hold, due to an untimely injury to my husband's back. It is righting itself, with some care and attention, but not quite quickly enough to go galavanting around the country.



And I finally sat down and made a neat and tidy little pouch for nappy change supplies on the run. I've been meaning to do this for a couple of years now. Better late than never. After such a long wait it was pretty quick to make, and all the materials were leftovers and offcasts from other projects (outer fabric left over from this skirt), which was quite pleasing.

Short stuff

Well it seems like summer has arrived, although being Melbourne, it will probably disappear again next week. But in the interim my son needs some larger shorts right now.

I turned to a Japanese pattern book I bought a couple of years ago. It's by Makie design, and I think of it as a kind of follow on from another book that they did for infants to toddlers. Between the two of them you can dress your child (boy or girl) from infancy to mid-chilhood. (I've posted some more pics from both books here).

At the time that I got this book I was actually a bit disappointed. The patterns all seemed a bit same/same or uninteresting, and I found myself pondering the design of boys clothes, wondering where to get inspiration for something that was interesting or different without being silly. In looking around, trying to find things I liked, I noticed that the boys clothes I really liked were often fairly conventional garment styles, but with something special in the textiles used (colour, texture, pattern), the detailing (contrast stitching, buttons, seaming), or the proportions (seam locations, pocket placement, subtle shaping) that set them apart.

In revisiting the book this week, to find a pants pattern for our growing lad, I decided I really like it. The garments fit the bill in terms of proportions and details, so really it's just up to me to make some good choices on the textiles side of things, and have a good look at the diagrams to get some of the finer points on the details (like a neat way to finish the waistband facing that I hadn't tried before).

For this green pair, I used a $2 remnant cotton/lycra drill, with some Prints Charming striped cotton facing on the waistband and tab feature (both from the stash), and contrast orange buttons. Pleasingly, they fit C, and he seems to like his Lovely Shorts as he called them (Ahhh, he knows how to make his mum happy!). There will be more pairs running around here soon.

Winnings

What do you do when you win the office Cup sweep?

I enhanced my stash.
More details on Flickr.

In the garden

Spring is definitely here, and this week we've been spending plenty of time outside.

According to the guys from Dirty Deeds, Cup Day is the traditional day to plant your tomatoes in Melbourne. I was a couple of days late, but near enough.

Fingers crossed in a few months we'll be able to harvest some Sweetbite cherry tomatoes, low acid yellow tomatoes, Burke's Italian Tomatoes, and some trussed cherry tomatoes.
Also perhaps, if we're lucky, we'll be able to harvest the unidentified variety that popped up from the worm castings I dug in when we planted some beans a few weeks ago, along with the similarly unidentified bonus cucurbits that have appeared (cucumber, zuchini or pumpkin?).

We've also been mulching, planting some more seeds, removing caterpillars (yick) and more excitingly, eating. Snow peas and broad beans so far, but soon some cabbages too.

Although our gardening exploits this year haven't all been successful, it's been a wonderful learning process, and incredibly rewarding to see it growing and developing so far.