stuff we've been up to

Busy, busy. Getting the hang of running a shop. Usual family wrangling. Still holding down a part time office job. Husband bouncing from one time-consuming work project to the next. Something might have to give soon but we're all holding up for now!

It's important to me to keep adding to this space as a personal archive of our family's day-to-day and my sewing, and to keep in touch with lovely bloggy friends :) I do so love reading the same kinds of things on the blogs of others so it's up to me to contribute too! And so, on with a bunch of photos - 'random' as Jasper is so fond of calling everything.

That Charlie - not only does he cut his own fingernails, he can now make my lemon poppyseed cake recipe better than I can, and put together Ikea furniture all by himself. Practically a fully-formed human being! 

What else do we have up there... Clem has some new lights on his bedhead thanks to the theatre show Andy has just finished working on. 

Clem built his first real improvised Lego thing, which I was excited about because none of my kids have ever been huge Lego fans, which I admit I find a little disappointing. 

I made a small whole cloth quilt/throw from some gorgeous Nani Iro double gauze, pure wool batting, linen/cotton on the back and perle cotton hand quilting, as a sample for the shop. The cat, and Clem, really rather wanted it to stay at home.

The dress above was made as a sort of shop sample, and also to wear to the opening of Andy's show. I was really pleased with it. My first fully lined dress! Pattern from Ottobre 5/2012, and if you look carefully at the muslin version you can see how I made sure I avoided awkward placement of the dots on the 'proper' fabric (Anna Maria Horner Field Study velveteen). Texta drawn on 'danger spots' while wearing muslin! The only fitting adjustment I made to the pattern was to make the back darts a little deeper and longer. Oh and I omitted the back zip since the muslin went on and off just fine while all sewn up. Win! 

No photo of me wearing the dress... but this post may never happen if I wait for that. Maybe later. I wore it with a skinny black belt on which I attached an old sparkly buckle of my Granny's. Very swish.

Alright, nuff for now. (Crap, with this sort of photos and shorthand commentary seems like I should take up Instagram instead doesn't it! Fortunately I do not possess the technology. I really don't need another internet time vortex in my life. Do you Instagram? Do you like it?)

- Jane x

little and big

For sweet little Winter, daughter of my friend Han. Winter's turning one, and the weather here is turning cold, so I made this little vest from Ottobre Winter (appropriately) 6/2009.

 Here's the pic from the magazine: they suggest fur but I used felted wool from an old cardigan of mine that had a couple of moth holes.

I made it fully reversible with a button on the inside and outside. 

This side is velour left over from my dress. With two thick fabrics and such a tiny garment, I stitched embroidery thread around the edges to help the seams sit flatter.

During construction I inadvertently invented 'the Infinity Vest', oops. Unpick, unpick.

This was my first experience sewing from an Ottobre magazine. There are no diagrams really and the instructions are fairly brief, but made sense once I got stuck into it. This mistake was just me not looking properly at what I was doing.

Next in the Velour Series, which I can't promise is entirely finished yet, was Andy's hoodie. Typically, he wanted black. Wisely, I agreed, and made him something he'll actually wear. 

Black velour is not cooperative to sew or photograph. So please excuse the quality of these images and instead, enjoy the fact that Andy is writing a shopping list and about to head off with a 4y.o. in a Witchard cape to the supermarket.

Fabrics: black bamboo and organic cotton velour from here, organic cotton knit hood lining from Spoonflower.
Pattern: Farbenmix Yorik, largest size with a little added width and length (please bear in mind for the sake of Andy's body image this is actually a children's pattern!).

Lastly I wanted to add a couple more pictures of our gloop painting, which progressed from the gate to the driveway. I highly recommend this for kid-friendly fun!

Lion, a joint effort by Clem and me.

Fox, by Clem.

- Jane x