Kangaroo

Garments are the main reason I sew. They can be both creative and practical. So satisfying. But sometimes a completely impractical project comes along that makes me all
I AM SO HAPPY I CAN SEW!
SEWING ROCKS!
FABRIC IS AWESOME!
I LOVE MY STASH!
and so on.

This Sunday morning just past found me pottering around at the sewing machine, when Clem approached.
"Mama, I want to make something with you."
"Mmmhmm... what?"
"A toy."
"Okay, well you go and design something and we'll see." (Put ball in his court and be non-committal.)
And then he came back with this.

"It's a mummy kangaroo, and those are the two babies sliding down her back, and that's her patch (pouch)."
And if, as his indulgent mother, I may say aaagh! CUTE! you will understand I was rendered helpless, and it looked like I was helping make a toy.

YAY SEWING! etc.

I cut and sewed and Clem stuffed. We agreed that the pouch and babies might be a little difficult for now. And, voila. Corduroy-and-felt kangaroo.

(I'm afraid Clem's panda hoodie is a bit small on him now, but he still loves it. 

Might have to make a new one.)

He might stay there if I tie these leaves really tightly around his neck....

Kangaroo had a nice day outside.

- Jane x

the cat pyjamas

Back at the beginning of summer, my pyjama options were in a state remarkably similar to my ironing board cover. (By the way, thanks for all the lovely comments on that post. I'm so glad to know I'm not the only one who puts off these very very simple but yawn-worthy projects.)

I made a wearable muslin with some stash fabric (majorly adjusted commercial pattern), made a couple more adjustments and then moved on to The Chosen Fabric.

 I am 43 years old and I reserve the right to sew and wear pyjama pants with flowers and kitties and ruffles. Because seriously, look at those kitties. This fabric reminds me of my 70s childhood.

 I became acquainted with my sewing machine's mysterious-looking ruffler attachment, which I was quite pleased with. I dare say if I played around with it some more and looked up some actual instructions, I could eventually get a far more even, neat result. If, you know, I wanted to put ruffles on more stuff.

I also used, with reasonable success, the narrow hem foot. Go me!
And three cheers to my husband who didn't bat an eyelid at the idea of me wearing such pyjamas. Although mind you, he hasn't seen the end product yet since he's overseas for a week. Boy is he in for a treat :D

- 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

purple

Clem has recently declared purple his favourite colour. And I have pounced on the opportunity to sew him some colourful clothes.

Purple velour is not easy to photograph! It sort of soaks up the light. Anyhow, this is the Farbenmix Yorik Hoodie pattern in Nicky velour. I probably should have made the next size up but I thought that the purple phase might be over by the time he grew into something huge. The velour is just gorgeous and 90% cotton as opposed to the completely synthetic and inexplicably expensive stuff in my local fabric shop.

The pattern instructions were in German?/Danish? but there's a visual step-by-step on the Farbenmix website and with a bit of concentration it wasn't too hard to work out.

The hood is lined, what fun! I chose - what else - some leftover Spoonflower organic cotton knit.

I bought one metre of the velour and had enough leftovers to make a couple of silly hats (based roughly on one bought for our big boys years ago), which are very soft, stretchy and cosy.

Actually before the purple hoodie came the purple tracky dacks.
I'd had some bamboo fleece in my stash forever but it was a natural cream colour. I winged it with my standard Clem-shorts-and-trousers pattern and added a ribbed waistband that contains wide elastic.

Then I dyed them using the stovetop method with regular Rit purple dye.

Result: great colour, saggy crotch! I didn't take enough off the top of the pants (which is normally a fold-over-to-make-elastic-casing type) before adding the waistband. Plus, the fabric is stretchy.

A bit of unpicking, chopping and re-sewing and the purple trackies are in business. Perfect for Easter-egg hunting:

 And jumping in a muddy pond.

Not sure if the colour is fading or if they just look paler next to the vivid hoodie.

I'm all excited about sewing with velour now. Just got a bunch of bamboo/organic cotton velour samples in the mail from here... only all conflicted about the enviro aspects of bamboo fabric production. Easy plant to grow but apparently not so easy to turn into fabric fibre. Never simple, is it?

I am currently struggling with another Farbenmix pattern for myself. Will. Make. It. Work.

- Jane x

new handbag

Yay, I made myself a new handbag, which is from Grand Revival's Flea Market Bag pattern, below. I made the small size with shoulder bag length straps and the optional petal ties.

It replaces this sad old grubby thing made from the same pattern probably about three years ago, using fabric left over from blinds that were made for our bedroom window. Dear bag, what a good bag you have been. Time to rest.

zzzzzzzzzz

Fabrics are an Anna Maria Horner quilting cotton remnant I bought with this in mind maybe a year ago, and some Heather Ross moons which I adore and had left over from my quilt last year. I used some sturdy iron-on interfacing on the outer fabric which is making it feel a little crisp now but I'm sure will soften up with use. 

Button is a single beauty from my stash acquired during a brief eBay-old-button-frenzy.

I made the inner pocket larger and put a zip in, so that I don't have, you know, Ladies' Things falling out all over the place.

I've never done a zip pocket before and just improvised, sewing the zip into a cutout I made like this:

  And here are those petal ties which is something I particularly love about this pattern.

look at those happy little moons

 Ah, new handbag. A simple daily pleasure.
New handbag came to school sports day today. I particularly like this photo of Charlie.

Doesn't it look like he is quietly summoning strength as the only red team member in view? Ommmmm....   

(We didn't win but much fun was had by all.)

- Jane x

more from the haphazard dyepot

Experimenting with the theory that an aluminium pot can act as a mordant. Same sad old (formerly) white cotton top as before.

 Once again, lacked time and patience to pre-soak or really follow the instructions in the lovely book, like soaking overnight in aluminium-pot-water.

 Dumped loads of coffee grounds in with cotton top and water and brought to the boil for half an hour or so. Partway through, thought hey, maybe I have a source of iron-as-mordant too.

 Who knows? Worth a shot. Normally used in the garden on things like my yellowish macadamia tree.

So yeah, cooked it up for a while, let it sit for a bit. It looked to be going a fair bit darker than the first time. Then I went to rinse it out. Which is where I found...

 Our source of mordant-rich water! Yes, the rusty old rainwater tap in the laundry. The orange-tinted water that comes through the rusty pipe is exactly what was called for! I could actually see colour processes happening as I rinsed: the rust-coloured water became quite a dark grey.

 I will spare you any further gruesome underarm shots - suffice to say that the aluminium content is still working away and the top is no more wearable than before.

 But what a cool experiment!

Um, here's our pretty cat Elodie, and some weeds. Happy Thursday.

- Jane x