All a bit poo

Life has thrown a few curve balls at me this year and it has been quite a while since I have really had time to sit in an evening and have some me time, or to have blocks of time in a day to find a crafting head space.

I have needed friends more than craft in many ways, and I have discovered even more than I already knew how many wonderful friends I have.

There have been moments of creativity though and these little folk sum up quite well what I think of 2016 so far. I know some others going through a tough time too and they have all appreciated the funny side of having a smiling poo sitting on the desk!

Hopeful though, and believe that maybe this will all be a bit like manure, and better things will come from all the crap 2016 has delivered thus far!!

Another shower cap

The shower cap I made about 18 months ago has run its course - a new one was required and luckily for me I found a fabric I really liked to make a new one last weekend.

This is how it turned out. Tigger didn't oblige with a photo shoot like last time, so here is the shower cap sitting on the lavender bush!

I did attach the elastic using a different technique  than I used for the last few caps I made. I marked the elastic (19" for my head) and circle of the shower cap into eighths. Then I basted around the perimeter of the fabric circle once, and then again next to the first basted circle around the perimeter. Then I gathered the fabric using the basted stitches (pulling up one set of loose threads to gather half way in one direction & then did the same with the other 2 loose threads to gather in the other direction until the cap pretty much fitted my head. Only then did I attach the elastic using a zig zag stitch (next time use a wider zig zag stitch and/or make sure to keep to the right side of the elastic so that it isn't visible when wearing the cap).
Worked much better.

A Sally Dress

I finally bought the Sally Dress pattern & made one for Little Imp. The pattern was super easy to follow, but the fabric estimations were far beyond what I ended up needing. That was a good thing in a way as it meant I had enough of some of the gorgeous print I bought years ago to use for the bodice outer & sleeves.

Paired up with a pink fabric with a tiny olive green and dark brown spot and a green fabric with a small leaf design.

 A little bit of whimsy added with these cute wooden buttons on the pockets, bought in a narrow lane way store in Chiang Mai with Little Imp a few years ago.

  

Size 5. Elbow length sleeves. 

Washi Washi Washi. Washi 3 ways.

2015 was the year that I gained confidence in sewing clothes. It started with a few more kiddy clothes, and then a lovely colleague at work gifted me the Washi dress pattern. I realised I can do this, I can make clothes!

Here is Washi 3 ways.
My first take - a short top in rayon. I really struggled with the shirring on my sewing machine. It was hard work. No amount of playing around with the tension of the shirring elastic on the bobbin worked. Frustrating!

After loads of searching I found a way to do shirring on my machine (husqvarna Viking) that didn't require me buying a special presser foot. Thank you kbenco. This blogger gave me the technique of using the bridging zig-zag stitch and presser foot C to sew over the separate pieces of a looped piece of shirring elastic while keeping them slightly separated. Pull to gather and then repeat enough times to get the width of shirring needed.  No shirring elastic in the bobbin, just sew over shirring elastic laid on top of the fabric.  I wish I had found this site sooner - I could have saved a whole lot of frustration!

The next 2 versions were a whole lot easier with the shirring sorted. I adjusted the neckline slightly (a little higher and created a tunic length in lawn and then a dress length one too.

The dress is my favourite just for the fabric.

Lawn again, a bit too sheer not to line, so ended up doing a fully lined  version. Lining finishes at tunic length.

Details on the shirring on my Husqvarna Designer II:

Cut shirring elastic 40" long, fold in half and lay over marked line. Hook loop of elastic onto little section on back of presser foot C, Set stitch to bridge stitch (stitch #31) and sew. Elastic on right side slips into groove under presser foot and the stitch works right & left to catch both pieces of elastic.

           

                     

Once all lines are sewn (I did 4 double rows), pull up and gather from each end until width is about 10"

Tie off each end to secure elastic.

Thanks again kblenco!

Raglan sleeve Bubble dress for Christmas

A bit past Christmas I know, but LittleImp did get this Raglan Sleeve Bubble Dress (Kwik Sew K3935) in time for Christmas 2015.

Didn't quite have enough of the Christmas fabric I wanted to use, so improvised and used plain red for the back and also a band along the waist at the front.

Ta Da!

Can't forget the  naughty Christmas Elves. Tears when they headed back after Christmas, and even this weekend Little Imp asked after them.

A matching hair clip obligatory of course.

Some Little Boy shorts...or trousers as they turned out, and a skirt

Part of our holiday last year was to Melbourne to stay with some friends. I made some little clothes to take as gifts. The shorts definitely were a bit more trouser like! The skirt was sized much better.

Lots of super easy and fun clothes patterns in this book Making Children's Clothes by Emma Hardy

Another baby quilt

Another request for a quilt towards the end of last year. Same pattern as the last little elephant quilt I made, and some of the same fabrics. Reds, blues and yellows.

This is how it turned out.

 A little crinkly tag toy thrown in for fun

All rolled up and ready to pass on to the new owner.

Finished Dimensions:
Quilt size 41.5" square
Individual blocks (finished): 7,5"
Blue sashing between blocks (finished): 1.5"
Blue sashing border (finished): 2"
Elephant border (finished): 3"

Crazy Monkey Softie

It has been an awfully long time between posts. A great family holiday, Christmas and a computer breakdown all have come in between doing & uploading. Because there has been quite a bit of doing. So here comes a whole lot of pictures of what has been happening in the last 6 months.

Another creature created from the Sew Cute to Cuddle book by Mariska Vos-Bolman. This one for a new addition to the family. Another cousin for the Little Imp.

Half Square Triangle quilt complete

It is done. This light dark HST quilt has taken a while to eventuate, but I am definitely happy with the result. The perfectionist in me can spy a few not-quite-perfect intersections. I have realised though that even quilts in fancy quilting books are not perfect and it is the overall impression that is what makes a quilt.

A plain teeny weeny dotty back shows the quilting lines

The detail on the HST Quilt in the making is here.

Finished size with binding about 41x57" (104x155). Backing - single piece. 

10 columns x 14 rows of HST (140 squares once made up = 70 light & 70 dark 5"charm squares).

Finished size of each square in quilt = 4",

More clothes for dolly

After her quiet play time a few months ago, LittleImp had written me a list of what dolly needed:
"Nite Nape" (night time nappy)
and
"Top" (for the day time)
I said if she was dolly's mummy she would need to pay this seamstress to make more clothes. Ten cents apiece was the agreed price and so off this seamstress went to work. For pittance!

The "Nite Nape" was cut from felt, with velcro added top and bottom (on opposite sides):

The daytime top was from some stretch knit scraps. A side plate used as a circle template.

Once the circle was cut out, I folded it in half and snipped out a small circle for the head (the fabric stretches so start small rather than big with the cut out). I then straight stitched from the outer curve up towards the neck line where the black lines are shown in the picture. This created the arm holes and sleeves.

Done

 Because this seamstress is generous (and she was having fun) she added a dress free of charge.
Using the same technique with a larger plate I cut out a big circle, folded in half and made the head hole. Becuase I was using cotton I cut the neck hole a bit bigger (no stretch) and also stitched around it with a zig zag stitch to stop heaps of fraying.
I took a long thin strip of fabric, found the centre and placed this centrally across the back of the dress as shown, attaching it to the dress with zig zag stitch over the section highlighted with the red line below.

Over her head, brought the strip ends around to the front and tied a bow. A very easy circle dress!

 Dolly is still scary.

Half square triangle quilt in the making

 Piles of 5 inch charm squares from a whole lot of different packs. Autumnal shades, with some brighter blues and greens to lift it. My idea is to make these into a light/dark half square triangle quilt.

This quilt has been forming and storming for a long time.
Playing around on my board with different light/dark half square triangle combinations.
This was one idea...

 But this was where it began heading instead. My ideas board wasn't big enough for the planning of this layout, so I used an existing quilt as the 'board' on the floor so I could still move it out of the way.

Eventually I was happy with the design.

This is how I went about making the light/dark HSTs.
One dark fabric charm square and one light fabric charm square placed right sides together, edges well aligned. Pin to secure. Draw a line with fabric pen corner to corner using a 45' ruler to get the angle correct.

Sew 1/4" to either side of the drawn line. You can chain stitch all the pieces to move the process along.

 Then use some slave labour to speed up the process of removing pins and cutting the threads if you have chain pieced...

Next use your rotary cutter & cut along the drawn line to end up with 2 triangles. Open up the triangles and press. I decided to press seams open for this quilt rather than to one side.

One pressed open square

 Trim the square to size (4.5"), using the 45' angle to line up and ensure the triangles are of equal size.

BEWARE - this step can lead to confusion and frustration if you turn any of the squares the wrong way or mismatch any pairs! Lots of photos and lots of checking.

Match pairs, pin along side to be stitched together. I added a diagonal pin to help prevent any shifting of the fabric.

 Chain piece pairs together, remove pins & press open. You will now have rectangles made up of 2 squares each (4 triangles).

 

Pair, pin & sew the rectangles in a similar way to end up with blocks made up of 2x2 squares (8 triangles). Before opening clip corners off to help reduce bulk at seam.

 

Then press seams open. 

 

Continue in a similar way to slowly piece larger and larger blocks together. This is where I am up to so far. A bit of unpicking today to make sure that the seams are meeting where they should. A pin at 90' to the fabric at each intersection seems to be the best method for me, and then plenty more pins in between to keep the top & bottom layers nice and even.