Industrious

Well, I haven’t picked up a book in days, so I’ve actually been getting some stuff done around the place. The other day, I got into that stash busting and made Scarlett this t-shirt:

I was on a roll, so I cut out 3 more t’s in the same size, and I’ve spent the last couple days sewing them up. I chose a leaf applique, nice and simple, using bits from my scrap basket, which, like my fabric stash, is overflowing. I really need to find more uses for those bits, as I can’t bear to chuck them out. Anyway, here’s a couple of the shirts.

More pics of the shirts on my flickr account.

The fabrics I used are all either from my mothers extensive stash that I acquired some time ago, or some of my op-shop finds. Some of the fabrics have been sitting there for some time as they were not appealing to me by themselves, the sort of thing I describe as ‘naff’ – polycottons, not my fave colors, waffley type textures etc. But once I put them together with the contrasting ribbing and applique fabrics, I really rather like them now, and once I get my patterns sorted, the kids are both destined to have a leaf shirt each for the winter.

The three t-shirts are for sale at $12 incl postage in my felt shop. All three are size 2. My next project is to draft the pattern up and down and I’ll do sizes 1 – 4.

It was a good stash-busting exercise, but I’ll still need to make more to make a decent dent in the stash

Anyway, apart from the sewing, I made bread first thing this morning so we had lovely fresh bread for lunch. I really should make bread more often, as it’s as easy as pie (how easy is pie? I’ve never made a pie ) and I think I make good bread, cos it’s really yummy!

I made a loaf of cheese and herb bread, some plain buns and some cheese buns, and some teeny tiny little finger? buns for Dominik to hold and munch on. Actually, it must be good bread, cos he wolfed it down – that doesn’t happen with the store bought stuff.

Here’s what was left over after lunch:

Of course Scarlett wanted to make her own bread while it was rising, so we got out the playdough, and we had fun finding out what happened when you mix yellow and blue playdough together

A very productive day

Takes a long time to get a decent post these days…

Had to make myself a needle book of course – I can never find a needle when I need one, so this is already showing it’s usefulness. I definately need another tho – one for darning/tapestry needles and one for handsewing needles. At the moment I am having to hunt for the book all the time

When I tried to add to the fabric stash the other day, the cupboard wouldn’t close, so I’ve hauled out several of the larger pieces of knit fabrics, and I’ll be making some long sleeved t-shirts and hoodies for both the kids in a stash-busting exercise. Got a whole ONE hoodie made so far

My reluctant model:

So we had visitors last weekend, my SIL and BIL, and my SIL was reading my copy of Breaking Dawn (4th book in the Twilight Saga), which I would never begrudge her and our hubbies where playing games, and Scarlett was going stir crazy and sending everyone spare, so I took her up the road for a walk. We are real lucky where we live, this is 5 mins walk up the road:

And this is 20min walk up from there:

Jealous?

My tomato plants all died on me this year, so when I got given a couple bags of tomatoes, I skinned them, chucked them uncooked in jars, and then chucked them in the freezer. It’s the cheats (or the I-have-no-clue-how-to-bottle-tomatoes) way of bottling tomatoes

I made my grape jelly properly tho Except I forgot to skim the scum off the first batch, so some have scum on top, but oh well.

There is still a ton of grapes on the vines, wasps are having a field day. What else can you do with grapes?

Twilight related knitting! OMG!

I’ve been wishing there was something Twilight related I could knit, and I just found this pattern for fingerless gloves - http://stitchnsnitch.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/bellas-fingerless-gloves/

I’m loving the concept.

Right.  Now I’ll have to put the books down long enough to knit them

It’s been a while!

Scarlett wearing a cute wee top I bought for her from Bonnie over at Lone Moose. She’s sold her kids clothing line now, and I’m so glad we got this top, cos it’s gorgeous and I love it. We do know it’s not a dress, but my wee girl has an aversion to pants lately

A couple more notebook covers. The black and white went to a friend, and the red and black is still sitting here waiting for me to decide what I’m going to do with it.

And I’ve finally finished my 365 pay it forward giveaways! I went around a week or so over I’m so unreliable…

A covered notepad, needle book, and a wee lined pouch for stitch markers for Jenny over at Pimp My Longies.

And a tote bag for Lauren in Oz. I’ve appliqued an op-shopped doily onto it, and it’s lined in one of my op-shopped vintage sheets.

My sister in law has ordered one just like it

Not much sewing going on round here lately…

I did make a notebook cover for my sister in law, as I promised I’d make her one, but other than that, there is some serious lack of creativity going on round here. Too much reading instead

Here’s the notebook cover – it’s black velveteen and a tiny piece of paisley print corduroy that I’m totally in love with and have been hoarding for the last 18 months – I can only bring myself to use a tiny bit at a time. Ridiculous!

I’ve got so much sewing in my queue to do, and at least once per week I promise something new to someone else Not to mention all the things I want to make for me and the kids. And my sewing machine is sitting unused on the windowsill where it has been sitting since the weekend!

Red velveteen again, and some tie-dyeing experiments

I decided I needed a new coin purse. Actually, it’s mostly cards in here, as I don’t use a wallet, just a few silver coins floating around in this one. I have a bit of a penchant for that red velveteen at the moment, and I teamed it with some vintage lace from my stash. Scrummy! Once again, not photographing terribly well.

And just some silly wee bits of tie dying, I was dying some nappies black, and decided to chuck some wee tied up things in with them. Here’s the before (well, tied/stitched up):

And the after. Just some different ways of tie dying. I used procion dyes.

So excited I could just die!

Ok, so as random titles go, that’s not really one of them. Cos it’s true! I’ve not only just heard that Tim Burton is doing Alice in Wonderland, but Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Michael Sheen will be in it. NICE! And after that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp MIGHT be doing Dark Shadows! It was only recently that I was telling myself that if only Tim Burton and Johnny Depp would make a vampire flick I would just die happy – I mean, my fave director, my fave actor, and my fave genre all in one movie – I’m almost too excited for words!!

We now return to our regularly scheduled craftyness

Latest bits

This notebook cover and bookmark for Sarah Bean.

It’s my 365 Pay It Forward gift to her. No where near as cool as the one she sent us months ago Anyway, 2 more pay it forwards to go, and not much time to do it in

Retro fuchsia fabric notebook cover and a bookmark. Just some random things I did when bored and procrastinating. I gave them to my mother in law and sister in law respectively.

A notebook cover for myself – this one is a little more ‘me’ than most of the things I make – red velveteen and lace (with a ribbon tie). I can’t seem to photograph red things at all with my camera. Strange. Anyway, I love it, it’s scrummy and luxurious and indulgent.

And then my first attempt at Plum Jam.

What an experience I burnt it, and overcooked it, so you almost have to slice the jam onto your toast rather than spreading it But, it tastes good, so that’s the main thing

Finally, I made the ring sling that I’ve had the rings and fabric sitting around for, for ages.  Of course I made it way too long, but it was easy to shorten the tail.  And I’m really pleased with how it came out.

 

Yuck pic of me, I hate photos, so it’s a big deal putting one on the internet :p And check out the hairy child

The sling is a double layer, so next time I want to make a really lightweight single layer one.

Anyway, off to The Mount with the kids for a couple days, I’m not taking my knitting this time, I’m taking a book. Next on my reading list is Pride and Prejudice – it’ll be my first time reading it.

Stroller Seat

This one is for a swap with Gabes.  I had a chance to improve on the one I made for Scarlett’s stroller, so this one fits the stroller better, and I actually made straps this time where I was too lazy to do them for the first one

I hope your girls like it Gabes!

Bias Binding Giveaway

I’ve been making bias binding today, in various prints and plains (made some for a swap project, and enjoyed it, so rummaged in my stash for some more fabric to make more binding, not even with a project in mind). I forgot just how much binding you get out of a small piece of fabric, so I have tons more in this print than I’ll ever use, so I’m giving away a piece.

This binding is recycled from a poly/cotton vintage sheet, and is approximately (because my pressing is sometimes wonky!) 1cm wide (5mm when folded over). I’m giving away a 3 meter length of binding. Just be the first to comment and I’ll send it to you

ETA: completely forgot to post the pic of the binding so even tho the freebee is gone, here’s what it looked like