Week Seventy One

I have been working on a sleeveless dress with a new (to me) pattern.

Butterick B5603. The fabric was bought in a Tessuti sale back in January (Week Fifty One)

Here's the pattern envelope. I cut out the yellow view A.

Here's the dress, still in progress.

Its quite a busy print, which is why I omitted the bands and bow decorations.

Its lined in cream silk. I still have to do the neckline finishing and some hand-stitching in the lining. But otherwise its close to being finished.

Another small craft project this weekend.

My daughter plays violin. Its the most popular instrument in her junior school and it seems that each child has a very similar looking violin case.

I bought some cotton canvas webbing and got my daughter painting.

Then I sewed the new straps on to the existing hooks.

And she has a personalised violin case. Less chance of someone else picking it up by mistake now.

Week Seventy - Update

A good friend had a birthday, I made her this book 'envelope' to accompany the gift of a lovely coffee-table sized fashion book.

The fabric is a screen printed cotton linen blend by Auntie Cookie on Etsy. Cable Knit in grey on white. The design represents knitted cables, which I thought was a nice reference to our shared interests in knitting and sewing.

As it was the fabric was very soft, so I fused a supporting Vilene batting layer to it to give it a firmer plushness. I lined the back in plain white linen.

The owl button was bought from "Buttons Buttons Buttons" in The Rocks, in Sydney. Its an enamelled, metal owl. I bought it shopping with my birthday friend several years ago.

Here is a better picture.

I used one of the very basic machine embroidery stitches to finish the front inside edge.

I have an Elna sewing machine. It is basic but for the most part has been very reliable. I don't even use many of its features, the last time I used this stitch might have been when I bought the machine, twenty five years ago! I was so excited by the novelty of "embroidery" then. Now machines are much more advanced.

The book fitted very well and the fabric envelope is deep enough to be very roomy.

Week Seventy

This weeks post will be a few days late as it includes a little secret crafting.
I can't show until I'm sure the recipient has received their birthday parcel.

Week Sixty Nine

Still working on the sewing queue.
I finished this silk crepe de chine dress. The fabric was bought from Tessuti last summer.

I used  DKNY V1179 and lengthened it to knee. French seamed inside and hand hemming around the armholes and bottom. The cowl is folded in on itself and slip stitched around the neckline.
All in all a very simple pattern.
I've made this several times before, both as sleeveless tops and with my own drafted sleeves. Its very quick to make.

Here's a full view.

I am still adjusting the Anita pant pattern for myself. This is using the leftover Ponti knit from the dress I made in week fifty eight.

The only modification from last week's plain black version is to widen the leg from the knee down. It still has the side split.

I have more Ponti fabric in the stash cupboard. Like the earlier black ponti, my other fabric is 100% wool knit but in navy and charcoal. Because the wool versions are more expensive than this printed synthetic, I wanted an extra trial before I cut more fabric.


I have lost motivation to work on Flo. This week I've been knitting the repetitive rounds on the Blue Gingham colour Lightweight Sweater. It still has a long way to go before I can cast off the body and pick up the sleeve stitches to knit them down.

Week Sixty Eight

I'm still working through the basket of projects-in-progress.

Here is a pair of pyjamas I cut out for my daughter months ago but have only just completed.

 The white cotton is called "Dandelion Circles" (2009) by Saffron Craig. I might have bough this from Zigo Zago.

It is matched with a very short piece of Liberty Tana Lawn in Mitzi Green. I had just enough for the bottoms and a little bit of bias edging. This pyjama top is sewn closed, it is still very easy to get on and off without fussing with multiple ribbon ties. The ribbon bow is purely decorative.

This is the second time I've made this pyjama and it won't be the last. its a perfect loose stye to use up coordinating fabrics. Its McCalls M6239. My pattern size goes from age 7 up to 14, so I will have plenty of use in coming years.

I have been very encouraging of both the kids doing art and craft. On weekends the materials are often left out on the work table.

On Sunday morning artistic inspiration hit my daughter and she got caught up in her painting before breakfast.

Unfortunately this was the first time wearing these pyjamas and artists acrylic is now smudged over her cuff.

Ahh well.. its the price to be paid for art and crafts at home.

I continued on Flo. I'm a little further on than this picture shows. It is now sewn up and only missing the buttonhole band.

I have chosen the buttons. They are hand carved resin from All Buttons (my favourite shop in Newtown). They were bought a year or so ago with this yarn in mind, but not this cardigan design.

In the photograph they are just loosely held with safety pins whilst I contemplated their size and colour. And I thought about how they will look with the addition of the pale blue ruffle detail. 

I have seven buttons in stash but I think I'll only use five.

Here they are in more detail.

This coming week I hope to be finished Flo and I might cast on a new project.

I bought some new fabric and hope to quickly make up a sleeveless dress for our overseas holiday in June. I am starting to think about travel wardrobe and what I should be packing in order to have plenty of suitcase space (for purchases) but not be so limited as to be thinking about repeated laundering.

Week Sixty Seven

School holidays are over.
I finished my son's jumper. Its in Sundara Worsted Merino in a colour called "The Hours With You" a mix of cool chocolate and caramel browns.

I didn't use a pattern but knitted from the top down, measuring as I went. I left one raglan seam open and picked up a ribbing band afterwards. Wooden buttons.

Its shown here on my dress form, its sized very generously for a ten year old boy.

I made a plain wool, weekday dress.
This is my usual pattern made up in 100% wool ponti knit.

Nothing dramatic but a good basic for wearing under jackets and cardigans.

Then a made a pair of pants with the same wool. This is the Anita Pant recently bought from Tessuti Fabrics. I made a small split at the ankle.
They fit well through the hips. Now that I've thought about it, I'd like a pant a little looser in the lower leg. My next version I'll made a slight adjustment. I'd like them to look more like a pencil pant than a legging.

Hard to photograph these.

I'm on a mission to sew through my stash and thin out some of the remnants and odd lengths bought on a whim.
Apologies for the shocking photographs. Its a complete rush to get everything done today.

I made two pillowcases for my eight year old daughter. Paris is her dream.

I bought this cotton thinking about a dress for her, but my online purchase, when it arrived turned out to be a heavier polished cotton. (I really ought to read the fabric description and not get carried away by pink and the Eiffel Tower. i'm as bad as she is!). But it makes a great addition to her bedroom.

Then I made two square cushion covers with remnants. (Also for her but for a different place).
This is an Alexander Henry 2011 fabric called "Love City"

and this is made up from two fat quarters.

Finally our Family Room sofa has a new cushion. Second from the left. This is a Kristen Doran screen print called Eva and Kit crochet squares. 

(I didn't make the cute bulldog cushion, but since we have the real one, this was a nice addition.)

Week Sixty Six

I have finished Twigs and Willows. I'm happy with the way it turned out.

I love the design and will be reknitting this with a different yarn. The yoke is so pretty.

The sleeves went in pretty well too. (Although I redid the numbers because I was working to a different gauge)

My reservations are all connected with my yarn choice.
I used Swans Island Worsted in Vintage Lilac. A hand dyed yarn from natural dyes.
All five skeins had the same dyelot but even so they had a lot of variation. I had to alternate using three strands in order to get a blend. Also, the sleeves aren't a good match to the body since they were blended from a different skein combination.

However now I've assembled this cardigan it's not as obvious as it was when I was closely inspecting each piece. There is a teeny bit of 'striping' on the back but overall its not too bad.

My second comment is that I think I could have gone up a size. (Although I have a tendency to always oversize my knits and sewn garments). I also chose a very tight gauge to work this yarn and the yoke detail really pulls in.
As its shown here it has been steam blocked. I'm going to wash the cardigan and more aggressively block it to see what happens.

Finally, I was very fortunate with the buttons. They're 1960s (?) vintage bought from All Buttons Great and Small in Sydney (sidebar link). I bought them back in 2008 for a kid mohair cardigan.

Here is the former cardigan. The yarn was GGH Soft Kid in Bright Lilac. The pattern is Cabled Cardigan by Hannah Fettig from her book "Closely Knit".

That was a lovely cardigan to wear, but sadly the years stretched and pilled it. Before getting rid of it I removed the buttons (6 as one was lost).