If I Blog It, I will Finish It

The Brief: A picnic rug (quilt). Simple construction, darkish prints, not too girly. More aesthetically pleasing and less prone to collecting dead grass than the entirely synthetic, water-proof-backed picnic rug that has been hanging out in the back of our car for years and is currently in a heap in our driveway, possibly growing mould. It's done great service but it's hardly inspiring.

So. I bought my first ever 'fat quarter pack' when Sew Mama Sew was having a big ol' sale not long ago. It's called Splendor 1920, by Bari J for Art Gallery Fabrics. Along the selvedge it says 'feel the difference' and in fact I did; these are quilting cottons of particular soft silkiness. I also bought a couple of other yards to work in. The criss-cross middle bits are Kate Spain's Cuzco. What's his name?

CUZ-CO-OOOO!

(I cannot help mentally yelping out the song from Emperor's New Groove.)

Cut it up last night. Sewed it together this morning. I make that sound quick and easy but you know? Even the most basic of quilts is still a quilt. There are quite a few hours in this baby already. Hence my blog-it-to-keep-up-the-momentum.

Must. Make. Quilt. Back. Rah, rah, go me!

- Jane x

Painted Portrait Dress in linen

Do you love a crumpled sack cool linen smock-dress as much as I do?

This is Anna Maria Horner's beautiful Painted Portrait Dress pattern made in a fabulous washed linen, which is an amazing crossweave of orange, purple and light blue.

The pattern gives a number of options, including sleeves and a pieced yoke. I chose the plain yoke to let this gorgeous fabric shine. The button is an old one from my stash and the button loop, as per instructions, is from perle cotton.

I'm afraid all the pictures make it look particularly crumpled and sack-like... the ones above are after its first wash and iron. I think there's a lesson there to grab it straight out of the washing machine as soon as it finishes spinning, and hang it out before the wrinkles have time to set. Or... embrace the wrinkles. The latter is more likely.

And below, taken earlier at the end of the second day of wear, so crumpled in new and interesting ways. (A few extra unnecessary photos because I thought you might enjoy my little helper.)

The colours uploaded strangely in a couple of the pics. Odd.

So - I love this pattern. It has the Anna Maria Horner trademark of interesting, thoughtful construction, and awesome pockets. What peeves me a bit is the sizing, and I've had this problem with her other patterns too. By my measurements I was at the upper end of a Size L. I was wary so I whipped up a quick muslin. It was way too big. I made a straight size M which is a perfect fit. What's with that? There also seems to be an error in the instructions for applying the bias binding on the armholes. Using a 1-inch bias strip, it says to sew it first right sides together with a 5/8" seam allowance, which would leave only 3/8" for wrapping around, which obviously doesn't work. The hem is bound with bias as well, which is a lovely touch, but even sewing it on at 3/8" as instructed, I had to trim the seam allowances to get it to wrap around properly. Solutions: either use slightly wider bias strips or sew the first seam at 1/4".

***Correction! The incredible Anna Maria herself (eep!) dropped by here to help and pointed out that I missed a cutting instruction under 'sleeveless' which says to cut 1&3/4" bias strips for the armholes. MY BAD! Honestly I went just about cross-eyed looking for something I'd missed in the instructions but clearly I still missed it. Ms Horner, you are even more of a goddess than I previously thought :D

Anyhow, these are minor quibbles really and I would certainly love to make this pattern again.

If you are taller than my 5'3" then you may wish to lengthen the dress a bit.

There's a little bit of hand-sewing, to finish the yoke lining. I find this kind of soothing and prefer to think of it as 'couture' rather than 'tiresome'. Yes, I used more of that Alexander Henry lawn for the lining. How much of that did I buy? Will it ever run out?

Do you love a good crumply sack too?

- Jane x

"What do you need, a fat yard?"

Just wanted to share that, from Andy, about how much to order from Spoonflower so I can make him more t-shirts :D

- Jane x

T for A

When you're onto a good thing, hey?

Andy's 'Pronghorn' t-shirt has become quite a favourite. I ordered this great yarnbombing fabric from Spoonflower along with the latest ones for the boys' t-shirts and it got the thumbs up from Andy. 

I used the same slightly-sized-up version of my Ottobre t-shirt pattern as before, adding an extra couple of inches at the bottom because the Pronghorn tee has a tendency to creep upwards as it stretches horizontally with wear.

'Nuff said... here is my dear lovely husband agreeing to pose for some pics!

Not going to blend into a crowd in this one, is he? :D

- Jane x

tees and shorts for boys

 (ouch)

 "butt five!"

 

In case you hadn't guessed, that's more Spoonflower organic cotton jersey made into Ottobre t-shirts. A surefire winner around these parts.

Actually this Spoonflower knit has been sitting in my stash for some months. I wasn't totally sure how it would sew up because it seemed a lighter weight than examples I'd ordered previously. I was a little disappointed when I received it. I am pleased to report however that so far it has been lovely to work with and the boys have exclaimed about how soft and comfy it is. No doubt it will fade as usual but that has never stopped these boys loving these t-shirts.

The green is Aztec Armor (I thought it looked like dragon scales) and the blue, personally picked by Jasper, is Monsters on the Loose. Bands and the back of Clem's tee are from the several yards of unprinted jersey I got from Spoonflower a while back.

Charlie's shorts are some hemp/organic cotton stripe from Kelani, made up to a basic pattern I traced off a favourite pair of RTW shorts he has. Jasper's are a super-soft washed linen that happened to coordinate brilliantly with his t-shirt, made in my self-graded-up Oliver + S Sketchbook Shorts pattern. Clem's shorts are not me-made, but actually some baby shorts that used to have elastic in the hems, bloomer-style. I removed the elastic when he got past crawling age and he is still managing to wear them, now as pyjamas!

Charlie and Jasper's t-shirts are pretty large, as are Jasper's shorts. Sizing can be tricky when these boys are shooting towards the sky at a frightening pace. But better a bit of room to grow, I guess.

Right at the end here is Clem with the latest harvest from our garden. That's a butternut pumpkin (squash), reduced to bonsai size by the special magic powers of our soil. Pumpkin soup for fairies, perhaps?

- Jane x

Stylish Dress Book style A

I briefly mentioned one of these dresses a couple of posts back. The pattern is Style A from the popular Japanese Stylish Dress Book. My first one, in an Alexander Henry cotton lawn - see further below - was getting so much wear that I made another. This absolutely gorgeous Anna Maria Horner voile has been in my stash for about a year waiting for just the 'right' project. 

Check out our seven day forecast and you'll understand why this is the best thing to wear right now (degrees Celcius): 35, 41, 42, 31, 36, 41, 41.  (42 being 107.6 Fahrenheit.)

Apparently I was never going to be able to get any photos of me that did not also contain a fairy-bread-munching five year old.

I should note here that I have the translated version of this book which is also graded up into 'Western-style' sizing. I haven't tried any of the other patterns yet but I can say that this one is certainly generous. By my measurements I made a muslin of size 14 which was so immensely vast, I went straight down to a size 10, which as you can see still has plenty of room.

I added simple gathered-top pockets to this first version to match the gathering at the front neckline. I also gave both dresses pintucks around the bottom above the hem because they ended up too long and I thought they could use a little more visual interest.

Then on the voile version I decided to use four small pleats instead of gathering at the neckline, and repeated the pleating on the pockets. Uh, sorry this is the creased-up version after wearing it all day yesterday!

Yes, it's probably a bit see-through in certain lights. And the style is loose and not the most slimming and flattering thing I've ever worn. But the supreme comfort factor and fabrics I adore are certainly winning in this heat!

- Jane x

Sunny days, sweeping the clouds away

Another fairly random update, including a little sewing and a lot of sunshine.

Last-minute Christmas gift sewing for two nephews. (I eeked out these lion/tiger pants and Clem's, almost identical, from just one metre of fabric. How satisfying.)

 The junior albino Ugandan soccer team. The shirts were Christmas gifts from Andy's sister Sharon who lives in Uganda. Cousin Ori, far left, was recipient of the lion/tiger pants.

That, friends, would be a grass-seed caterpillar. You might have believed me if I'd said it was a real live haggis or something, mightn't you? It was a gift to Clem from my sister, and is the wonky-cute combo of grass seeds and potting soil in a piece of pantyhose, with a face. Clem added gravel and dirt embellishment in its water, to help it feel at home.

 Boxing Day at the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens with friends.

 Much, much swimming in my parents' pool. Clem is becoming very confident without floaties.

 Apricot and peach.

 Proof I was there, pool-hair and all.

This dinner-plate size sunflower is growing in my parents' garden. They gave us seedlings from the same batch and ours grew about 30cm high with flowers about the size of the palm of my hand. The unintentional bonsai garden strikes again.

 Summer freckles.

Sibling relations have been mostly positive but school holidays bring our fair share of frustrations and squabbles. It's not all pretty pictures around here. But this is still a really beautiful and mostly relaxing time of year.

This is my last sewing project of 2012, a scrap-tastic quilted cushion cover. Even the batting was pieced from scraps. I've never quilted a cushion cover before but it was rather satisfying, like a really useful mini-quilt. I know my fabric combinations are a bit odd. I don't always have the best eye for these things but I don't like to over-think them. As with all cushions around here it was unceremoniously slumped on the floor within about fifteen minutes of hitting the couch.

It's a pity you can't see the bug better but on Clem's hand is a Christmas Beetle, on Christmas day. Andy and I call them 'the ubiquitous' because many years back we looked up the meaning of 'ubiquitous' and in the definition was the example 'the ubiquitous Christmas Beetle'. Really? Are they everywhere, or seeming to be? Do tell, people, please! Do you have Christmas Beetles and do they - like these - only appear around Christmas?

Happy new year! (Charlie and Jasper just saw in their first ever midnight turn-of-the-year!)

- Jane x