little grey dress…

Tags

adapting, dress, pattern, sewing, tunic

… or big purple tunic!

… I fell in love with the design for a this grey fleece dress the minute I saw the pattern on this blog. The only problem – it was a 4 year old child’s size, but surely it couldn’t be that hard to resize?

… I pinned it and soon afterwards I bought some lovely plum fleece, knowing exactly what I was going to use it for – when I got round to it.

… finally some free time, I downloaded the tiny pattern, examined the instructions, and scratched my head, how was I going to go about this? Was there any point in printing out the pattern if I wasn’t going to actually use it? My printer is old and clunky, and kept in the back of a cupboard, I think twice every time I need to print! It saves paper!

… out come my Japanese pattern books, looking for something with a similar shape. I find a likely candidate, trace the pattern for the back and then start thinking about the front. Original pattern at 100% on my screen, ruler in hand, I consider the size of her pleats relative to the size of the dress, decide 4 pleats of 3 cm each will be fine, I add 6 cm to the middle of the front pattern. I cut the patterns out, but leave an extra few centimetres at the top of the front. I draw the lines for the pleats, working out where I want them, then I fold the pattern paper and cut the neck line with the pleats in situ – like that I get the right “waves” at the top of the pattern.

… material folded, front and back cut. I wait to cut the neck strip until I can measure the neck hole. Pleats are sewn following the instructions from the original pattern, shoulder and side seams closed, neck measured, for my top I need a strip of material 70 cm long by 25 cm wide, back to the instructions…

… it is as fabulous as I hoped it would be!

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baby suits and beanies…

Tags

baby, hat, pattern, sewing, snow suit

… walking home from the cinema, late night window shopping with a friend. She is expecting her first child, a baby shop, she is looking for a good winter suit, prices seem high for such a tiny outfit. I tell her it shouldn’t be too complicated to make, she offers to buy the material and pay me for the work if I want to rise to the challenge.

… at the post office, picking up a parcel a few weeks later, I am across the road from a fabric shop, I go in, pick up some fleece and some velvety material for the lining… bright colours for a boy in a northern winter.

… home and surfing the internet, looking for a suitable pattern, there isn’t much out there, maybe a couple I can adapt, they are pinned for later reference.

… sewing school one day, one of my friends can’t make it on our usual evening, she comes over the next morning, accompanied by baby. I have barely greeted her before I am examining what baby is wearing and asking to please use her winter suit to quickly draft a pattern.

… things get busy, material and pattern draft are put away in my sewing cupboard, until finally, Christmas eve, a quiet day to myself. Out comes the rough pattern, I redraft, measure, think, and rush out to buy a zip before the shops close.

… home and I cut the material. It takes me a while to pluck up the courage to make the first cut, what if I got it all wrong, this is something so new, difficult to visualise what I am making, how will it all come together: integral feet, mittens and a hood…

… pieces cut, first stitches sewn, the hood looks like a hood, the feet work out, sleeves onto the body, side seams sewn, it is all coming together. Getting the feet in place is a bit more fiddly, I gather the material at the back a bit, the hood gets gathered too. Wow, it really looks like a snow suit!

… second piece of material, this time it is quicker, I remember to only cut 1 of each side of the front, I repeat the steps, I have a second suit.

… one suit inside the other, toes sewn together, then zipper pinned, tacked and sewn into place, hoods sewn together, cuffs sewn together. I am pretty pleased with it.

… a few remnants, a quick sew and using this pattern I make a little matching hat. I can’t wait for my friend to come back from her holiday break!

… I am going to try and digitalise the pattern, I’ll post a tutorial here if I manage!

   

hidden surprise

Tags

bag, christmas, etsy, neon, sewing, surprise

… I wonder if she likes it?

… I have been making bags over the past months, each one is different, I start off with an idea, but invariably it evolves as I stitch and sew, never quite knowing what the end product is going to look like.

… a couple of months ago, with a friend, in our favourite fabric shop, and some neon orange material jumped off a bottom shelf at me, screaming to be taken home and made into something beautiful. I had to oblige. I found some grey canvas-like-cotton to accompany it, and home we rushed.

… a few days later, out comes the sewing machine, and off we set, with a clear idea of a colour blocked design – mainly grey and just a flash of orange at the bottom. The outside is quickly sewn up, then I start thinking about the lining, there needs to be a pocket, maybe I can use some more of the neon, things take shape and I end up with a hidden pocket in an orange stripe. Straps are added, a reversible bag is finished.

… an iphone snap, posted on instagram, and a friend comments immediately – he wants it, a present for his wife! More photos are sent, the request is confirmed, another friend travelling south who can take it, everything works out.

… preparing to wrap the bag, get it ready to go on its way, and I decide I could add a matching pouch, a little surprise to tuck into the bag, out comes the sewing machine, material, lining, a zipper, a pouch is made, wrapped, tucked inside the bag before it is wrapped.

… it should have reached its new owner today, I hope she likes it!

counting down…

Tags

christmas sale, cowl, diy, etsy, gifts, handmade, scarf, wallet

… tomorrow is the day…

… my first attempt at a craft fair, with a couple of friends, an opportunity to sell a few of the things I have made – maybe! I hope people will come, it is informal, it is a bit last minute, but I am always the optimist.

… suddenly I wonder if I have enough “stuff” to fill a stall, whether I am going to sell out in the first hours, it would be nice, it strikes me as unlikely, but just in case, I decided I should make a few more things.

… a few more scarf/necklaces as I seem to have given away almost all of the ones I have made to date, a couple more wallets that were made, but needed fasteners, maybe later, if I manage to fuse more plastic I can make some more wallets. And a couple of key rings, to use up scraps…

Finally some paper to wrap them… and I should be set!

fighting the crowds…

Tags

brussels, christmas, crafts, diy, etsy, sale

… the weekend before Christmas, it is going to be madness out there, wherever you are…

… a group of friends (and friends of friends) who decided to avoid the masses – or create their own madness – with a weekend sale for friends (and friends of friends).

… if you are in Brussels this weekend, do come along. And if you can’t make it, you can find a lot of my items in my etsy shop…

last minute gift making…

Tags

cowl, gift, instructions, jersey, necklace, scarf, sewing

… an invitation to a job interview, good news, travel reimbursed, great news, a last minute weekend organised to visit friends while I am there.

… gifts needed for hosts, chocolates purchased that lack the personal touch, something additional would be good. Scotland is cold, a scarf is always welcome, hardly time to knit something, but friends always admire my jersey scarf/necklaces.

…fabric stash visited, a cheerful bright pink jersey chosen, cutting board and rotary cutter gathered, ruler lined up, 10 strips cut. Strips are pulled, causing the material to roll up, ends are sewn together, first at each end then both ends are joined. A few hand stitches will be sturdy enough. An extra strip of fabric cut and curled, tied to the necklace and wrapped to cover the join.

… gift wrapped and ready to go. One down, now I need another idea…

… you can see how to do this in more detail here, but I remembered to take photos today…

Cut jersey material into approximately 2.5 cm wide strips…

pull on the strips causing them to curl – and almost double in length…

sew ends together, and join the 2 ends…

wrap a strip around the ends to hide the join…

wrap once, twice or three times…

collect the compliments…

or give as a gift!

who goes slowly…

Tags

basement, bikes, diy, home, mountain bikes, organisation, wisdom

… bath time. Always a fight to get the kids I babysat years ago into the water, and then again to get them out of the water. One day in a moment of absolute exasperation Salvador, aged 8, turned round to me and told me in all seriousness “who goes slowly goes far”… Perhaps not all together true at bath time, but it seems to apply to me rather too often these days – at least the slowly bit!

… new apartment, new organisational strategies, new homes for the detritus of my years, it is part of the fun and one of the biggest challenges each time I move (rather often). One of the questions is always where to keep the bikes, I am an avid(ish) cyclist with a modest 3 bikes, but they take up space. I have walked away from beautiful apartments that just aren’t bike friendly, and have always found a spot for them in the kitchen, hallway, spare room, living room. In one place they even lived in the garage!

… October 2010 – over 2 years ago – setting up my new home in Brussels, the bikes stored in a corner of the living room until I found a solution for them. Reluctant to leave them in the basement without having some way of securing them, or a better lock on the door, I got used to them, my cleaning lady not so much!

… a short time later, an evening spent in an online bike shop (yes, whole evenings can go that way!), and I found some nifty looking hooks that you could lock your bike to. Three ordered, delivered and left out until I had an opportunity to hang them. At some point they were put away in the storage cupboard, they were never forgotten.

… the lack of power socket in the basement was one of the hurdles that stopped me installing them straight away, but it is a long time since I had to buy an extra long extension cable that reached the basement.

… a new cupboard waiting to be renovated, that is going to lead to a furniture shuffle, suddenly the bikes were in the way. Wall measured, bikes measured, maths done, distances calculated, marks drawn on the wall, holes drilled, hangers hung – with a trip to the hardware store mid-operation to get shorter screws as I couldn’t screw the long ones all the way in – and bikes moved to the basement and safely locked to the wall and each other. It took half a day!

… my living room seems huge!

cranberries and white chocolate

Tags

chocolate, cookies, cooking, cranberries

… temperatures have dropped, winter is here…

… after a couple of weeks of heads down on job applications and studying and preparing for an interview (fingers crossed), I decided to take an afternoon off. The house was cold, but my heating bills quickly become horrendous so I try not to turn up the heating until the evening. I decided some baking would warm me, the apartment and give me something yummy to eat.

… cupboards examined, I had sugar! Clearly I needed to go shopping before I could make anything. Recipe chosen – cookies. I remember seeing mention of cranberry and white chocolate cookies somewhere recently. I love dried fruit, especially tart, sharp cranberries. I decided to improvise them using a basic cookie recipe and just adding the extras.

… home from the shop, sugar lined up with butter and flour, cranberries and a bar of chocolate – I couldn’t find chocolate chips on my quick excursion out in the country of chocolate. Oven switched on to preheat (the chef, the home and for cooking), equipment assembled, bowl on the scales to measure the first ingredients, and I am met with the message “Batt”? A couple of restarts and I realise the battery is flat, and no amount of switching on and off is going to provide enough energy for me to weigh out my 3 ingredients. With recipes I know I am usually happy to wing it, but when I am making something for the first time I tend to err on the side of precision.

… scales opened up and it is one of those really obscure shaped batteries that you don’t have lying around. I was going to have to go out to the shops again to get another battery. And once I did that it would be too late to make cookies as I was then going out for the evening.

… fast forward 24 hours, battery bought and installed, ingredients reassembled, equipment lined up, cookies made under the watchful eye of the dog, hoping something might fall on the floor. Into the oven and about 15 minutes later the golden cookies are removed from the oven, put out to cool, and then tested. Recipe approved!

Cranberry and white chocolate cookies
(apologies north Americans you are going to have to do the same gymnastics I always end up doing with your recipes to convert to non-metric – google works well!)

225g butter
110g sugar
275g plain flour
100g white chocolate – chopped to look something like chips
100g dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 170C
Cream the butter until soft
Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy
Add flour, chocolate and cranberries, mix gently until you have a dough
Take small (walnut sized) balls of dough and place directly on a baking tray (you don’t need to grease or line the tray), leave space for them to spread
Flatten cookies with a fork and bake for around 15 mins until golden brown and slightly firm on top
Taste, enjoy and share…

how to knit a basket – kind of…

Tags

basket, diy, knitting, string

… a trend seemed to be appearing on my “things to make” pinterest board – knitted baskets. I have a weakness for stylish storage solutions, the knitted baskets I kept bumping into on the interweb looked good, and surely they couldn’t be that hard to make?

… I like knitting – quick and easy projects – I soon get bored when I start losing count of slipped stitches and pssos and k2togs, but I probably need to move on from my favourite cowl pattern which I made 5 times last winter. My friends all seem to be wearing similar neckwear to me.

… I had been on the lookout for the perfect material to knit a basket with for a while. I had thought old fashioned cotton washing line, I couldn’t find old fashioned washing line. I was curtly told in the local drugstore that they had been selling plastified washing line for several decades already. That really wasn’t going to give me the look I was going for. I kept looking…

… in the craft shop to buy material paint for my tea towels, and I spotted some rolls of twine, 4€ for 25m… that would do. At home, out came the circular knitting needle, 35 stitches cast on, work joint to knit in the round paying due attention it wasn’t twisted. I have done that once, and it wasn’t even a little bit useable, I had thought it might make an interesting cowl. It made a froggeable project (I love that expression!).
… knit, knit, knit… round and round I went for about 12 rows, until I had a decent depth basket, then I had to make it go in at the bottom. I seemed to remember some pattern I had looked at a while back mentioning k2togging (knitting 2 together) every few stitches… I did every 4. At some point I had to transfer to my double ended needles (DPNs – knitting has almost as many acronyms as working for an NGO!). I didn’t use them from the start as last time I used them I struggled to stop the stitches falling off the ends until I decided to hold them all on with clothes pegs, which was hardly an elegant solution! I kept k2togging until I only had 4 stitches left, then I bound off, tied a knot in the end of the string and pulled it through to the inside of the basket…

… it isn’t perfect, but it looks pretty cute when it is full… I think I might look for a better pattern next time though 🙂

Instructions for a string knitted basket
Materials:
ball of string
European no 10 circular needle

cast on 35 stitches
join to knit in the round making sure the work isn’t twisted.
knit, knit, knit to desired height (I did 12 rows)
k2tog, k4, repeat until it gets awkward – at some point you may want to transfer to DPN
when you have 10 stitches left k2tog, k3, then k2tog, k2
to finish bind off, tie a knot in the end of the string and pull it to the inside of the work.