Week Thirty Six

School holidays have begun! We spend a fun few days out of the city and lots of crafting.

I pulled out this fabric for my boy's bed. I first mentioned it in Week 18. It's a screenprinted linen made by Auntie Cookie. For obvious reasons the design is called "Cheater".

I cut off the selvedges, seamed up two lengths to make a wider quilt size. Then I sandwiched it with a batting and backed it with plain white linen.

I'm not a quilter, and my poor old machine doesn't have a lot of space under its arm, but with my daughter's help we got parallel lines stitched.

I then ran the overlocker around the edges to trim and neaten them.
I still have to apply a binding, probably navy blue. But that will have to wait for a week or two.
I will do a full reveal when its all finished.

In the meantime I quickly stitched up some pillow cases using fabrics from the stash.

Two of this Swedish linen Mello in a pale blue.
I stitched a secondary line around the edge to give a neat tailored finish.

I also added offwhite grosgrain ribbon closures.

Then this fabric remnant, also from Kelani Fabrics. I can't remember what its called but the colourway is a Kaffe Fassett one.

I dug the fabric boxes and found this blue stitched ribbon for the closure.

Then my daughter and I had the inspiration to do some fabric painting.
I cut this pale blue cotton knit into a short sleeved tunic top. The pattern came from one of my favourite Japanese sewing books.

Unfortunately we spilled paint on a sleeve piece, which is why it turned into a ribbon-tied sun top!

I did the first painted daisy and she completed the rest.
It was a day to dry and then I ironed the reverse to fix the paint.

I then used the overlocker to quickly assemble it. Elastic gathers the top and yellow ribbon is stitched to the shoulders.

 

Here she is modeling it with the white GAP shorts, she said were "too boyish" in Week 5, until we gave them a butterfly sequn embellishment.

One note to remember for next time. She wanted to do a sun on her right shoulder. But such a lot of paint applied made the fabric quite stiff and hard to gather. Next time I think it would be better to keep the applied designs to flat fabric sections.

And finally, I finished the Polly cardigan to go with the sundress from Week 6. The yarn is Madelinetosh Vintage in colour Lepidotera.

This coming week we have plans to try tie-dyeing with a  some organic white cotton knit fabric. Hopefully it will become t-shirts.

I have also been knitting on the Madelinetosh pashmina yarn to make Emelie cardigan. I've made good progress on the back but as its plain stockinette its not that interesting to see.
I'll photograph it once I start the front lace panels.

Week Thirty Five

Almost at the end of school term and crafting time is limited.

I am almost finished with my daughters Polly cardigan. Its in Madelinetosh Vintage. I have a simple plastic button to go on once I've finished the front ribbed edging.

I continued knitting my second Annabelle cardigan in Sundara Aran Silky Merino in the colour Somewhere Out There. The photograph doesn't do this yarn justice. It is gorgeous. Very soft and with lots of silky drape.

I made a quick pair of pyjamas for my boy in this red organic stretch cotton. I am planning a few more plain tops for both kids and then to let them loose with fabric paints in the forthcoming school holidays.

I slipped it onto my dress form (even though its for a nine year old boy) and took a couple of quick iphone pictures.

Finally, I received this sublime Sundara Sport Silky Cashmere yarn in the mail. It was a yarn club issue and came with a scarf/wrap pattern. The colour is called Driftwood. I have bought more however and I'm thinking about making an Emelie cardigan.

School holidays will have started next week. I will be posting my update on Wednesday instead because we're taking a few extra days away from the city.

Week Thirty Four

Its been a very busy week, but most of my crafting has been set painting for my kids school musical.
At home though, I managed to finish a silk dress for summer.

Its my regular Vogue pattern number 8683. which I see is now on clearance.
The fabric is a digitally printed stretch silk from Tessuti Fabrics called Under The Microscope. This dress drapes so much better in a knit fabric.

I cast on a multicoloured sweater using Noro Kureyon yarn. Four different colourways, each strongly variegated. It was either going to be fabulous or a total disaster!
Unfortunately - not so wonderful. I wasn't pleased how the colours were coming out. So I've set the small amount aside for a little craft experiment down the track and I'm selling my unused yarn on ravelry.

I picked up an unfinished knit instead. This is Polly, which I cast on in Week 8. Its a cropped, shortsleeved cardigan I've made several times already. the yarn is madelinetosh Vintage in the colour Lepidotera. I'm hoping to have this substantially finished within a week. I think it will be a good spring cardigan to extend the wear of her sleeveless dresses. Especially the sundress I made in Week 6.

I also knit a little more on my boy's sweater which I cast on two weeks ago. This is in Sundara's merino. The colour is called The Hours With You. I'm about half way down the yoke.

There are only two weeks left of this school term. Its a busy period so I'm hoping just to keep working on the few in-progress knits. I don't think there'll be time for sewing until school holidays start.

Week Thirty Three

My sweater is finished! Its Hannah Fettig's Lightweight Sweater with modifications to change the stitch count and remove the ribbing in place of a curling stockinette edge.

Its made with a lot of positive ease because i wanted a softly draping slouchy sweater.

 

The yarn is gorgeous. It is a special club issue of Worsted Silky Alpaca (70% baby alpaca & 30% tussah silk) and hand dyed. This colour is called Rhythm of the Saints.

I also finished some sewing projects.

This grey tee shirt had been assembled with my overlocker but needed its hems finishing. I whizzed through on the machine with a double stitched edge. As a teeshirt its nothing to get exited about, but it will be a useful basic in the wardrobe. The fabric was bought some time ago from Tessuti Fabrics.

 

Then I quickly made up a pair of pyjamas for my daugter with the same fabric.

I added some organic cotton lace to the bottom hems. Its a very pretty lace from Ecoyarns. (side bar link) Not brilliant white (the manufacturing process) but a soft cream and very soft.

Here she is modelling.

Then a very simple pair of stretch black pants for her. These are for a school musical.
I traced a pair she already had and added a flare.

And then finally I finished a silk top for myself.

This 100% silk is called stretched roses and came from Tessuti. Its Vogue Pattern 8581 and view C. I didn't gather the bottom edge.

Oops! The top right sleeve is very wrinkled. Only noticed now as I'm uploading photographs. Its fine in 'real life'.

In the coming week, I'm hoping to make progress on my boy's brown sweater.

I have some teeshirts to cut for him too. I have lots of organic cotton knit fabric.