Pom tiddly om pom, pom pom

Ah, so much has gone unblogged or almost blogged. 

And in case that sounds dramatic, let me assure you, it's not at all. In fact it's been entirely humdrum, everyday unblogged. I have indeed been sewing, but I've shared things for me over at The Drapery blog so don't want to double up. Ah, might throw in a photo or two at the end here.

But down to business - oh and sorry, it's more dog business. Ew, not that kind.

I made a pompom for Skylar today. It was such a success I wanted to share, and it seemed like a quick and likely way to get back into the blogging habit.

Skylar loves fuzzy things, and had taken a particular liking to a woollen pompom that I made with the boys some years ago, that's been hanging about the house ever since. We throw it for her out the back, she races at it, snaps it up, flips it in the air and basically goes crazy for the thing. It's looking the worse for wear.

 

 I do rather like the traditional method of pompom making, with two cardboard rings, poking the wool through and around, through and around. However, it's time-consuming. And I came across an adapted method that doesn't really feel like cheating, but is a whole load quicker. Yep, found it on Pinterest.

 I think it made a very satisfactory pompom! I tied it as tightly as I could, knowing now the kind of treatment it was in for. (Those are shreds of the earlier pompom around on the lawn.)

 I didn't manage to capture Skylar doing her full flip-out, which she generally reserves for 7am or earlier. Later in the day she prefers a quick trot and lie down. It's easy to see why racing never suited her. Most of the races are at night. Silly races.

 Your move, pompom.

Below are the cardboard pieces I used for pompom construction, after removal. I think these may be bigger than the templates provided in the Pinterest link. When I printed out the largest one, it looked pretty small so I made up my own. I may have buggered up the printing, or I may just prefer a giant pompom.

And the pompom pieces are sitting on the laptop on which I type my blog posts - grubby old thing! Complete with 'bread tag elves' courtesy of Jasper.

Now, on with random recent photo grabs!

Here's a t-shirt I made for Clem with some awesome cotton/spandex knit with NINJAS!! from Crafty Mamas. I have come to the conclusion that as the sizes get bigger in this, my favourite Ottobre 'Best t-shirts' pattern, the neck bands get a bit tighter, especially if you use spandex knit, and I've ended up with a bit of scrunching up around the neckline. So I should make them a bit longer in future.

 

 

 I blogged about my Grainline Alder dress at The Drapery, but suffice to say I love, love love it and am wearing it again right now, which is at least the 3rd day in the last week (less than?) since I finished it. Yes, it has been washed :)

Lastly, lest this end up in unfinished-draft-land, here are some photos from a weekend that Andy and I had in Melbourne, without children. Yes. I tagged along on a work thing he was there for. We ate a lot, walked a lot, saw some children's theatre (work) and saw this utterly gorgeous 'Golden Mirror Carousel' at the National Gallery of Victoria. It turns super-slowly and silently and the seats gently sway and the whole thing was quite magical.

So there. That's a bit of stuff from lately! If you have read this far, may your week be filled with golden mirror-ness :)

- Jane x

Victory Patterns Hazel - my 'watermelon dress'

As soon as Andy saw this completed he dubbed it my 'watermelon dress' and Clem followed this up by saying I should embroider some black pips along the hemline. I don't mind... I'm quite happy to be a giant watermelon in the gorgeous summer weather we've been having. And I do love this dress - the Hazel by Victory Patterns.

I've been wanting to make this dress for ages and when the samples for these linens came into the shop, I knew I'd found my Hazel fabrics. It's pretty much inspired by the pattern cover but I put my watermelon-pink on the bottom. They're both 100% linens.

I was halfway through making this dress when Victory Patterns designer Kristiann actually popped into The Drapery for a visit! She had let us know she was coming to Adelaide and said she would try to call in. She was utterly and totally lovely, and tall, and effortlessly glamorous... truly a rockstar of sewing pattern design. We were a bit star-struck, teehee! So I was all the more inspired to get this dress finished to wear for Christmas.

ridiculous pose #273

I made a muslin, which was a very quick and easy process because honestly the most complicated part of this pattern is the neck tie, which isn't too hard really anyway, and not necessary for the muslin. I cut a size 10 and the only modification I made was to take out about an inch in the bodice at the 'lengthen or shorten here' line. Oh, and I left off the sleeves and finished the armholes with self-fabric bias. Apart from that it was a nicely cool and loose, yet flatteringly fitted shape. Just perfect for a 33 degree Christmas Day in Adelaide, with plenty of room for a big lunch!

I top-stitched the neck tie, which wasn't in the instructions but I felt would make life easier when ironing this linen after a wash. The linen makes a somewhat pouffier (if that is even a word) bow than the fabric on the pattern cover but I am mad for linen so I rather love its creased bunchiness.

The skirt is lined, and I used an organic cotton cambric which is super-soft (excuse the creases). I hand-stitched the hem on the outer skirt and also hand-stitched down the bias on the armholes. I'm learning to enjoy some of these slow-but-satisfying hand-finishing touches that make a garment feel a little more special in the end.

That's a friendship bracelet on my arm. Jasper made it for me, which kind of melts my heart.

I love this Victory Hazel dress to bits and I would love to make it again. Totally recommended.



- Jane x

pictures of lately

I've been trying to get around to blogging without a lot of success lately - school holidays and general, you know, stuff. So here's a bunch of pictures with a few words. No particular order, just how they came out of iPhoto.

This one turned six. He insists that overnight he became unable to fit into quite a few of his clothes.

I've been learning the basics of grading patterns up in size, because my sister-in-law wanted a Washi Dress and we sure owe her big time for loads of boy-looking-after lately.

Clem had a party with a bunch of little school friends at home. He wanted me to make him a Miffy cake, which I think he may have had every year since he turned one. Dear boy, I would make you a Miffy cake every year as long as I live, if you asked for it.

The party was very, very noisy, except when we offered large bowls of strawberries and blueberries. Seriously. Quieter than cake or honey crackles. Impressive.

Big boys had fun with party balloons.

The baby chicks hatched on the day of Clem's party. Even when this one was just fresh out of the egg I thought something was not right with its eyes.

I am fairly certain it was blind, poor dear. It got along okay huddling under the mamas for a couple of days. Andy gave it a name - Jerome - which was probably asking for trouble. As the other chicks became more adventurous and the mothers walked around with them more, they sensed Jerome was not robust. They turned on him. It was very sad, but quick. I picked him up, held him, Andy made sure he was not suffering and we buried him. Luckily this was when the boys were all at school. We told them what happened but I am glad they did not see it. Life and death in the backyard.

I made this 'Gathering Apron' by Sew Liberated, essentially as a sample for the shop but also because I think it's adorable and I totally want it for myself. It's in natural linen, which really this pattern just begs for. I had plans to do a really corny photoshoot with me wearing it and a bunch of baby chicks peeping out of the big pocket, but it never happened.

The rest of the chicks are thriving. Out of twelve eggs there are six surviving chicks which isn't a great hatch rate, but never mind. We are suspecting we have two roosters and three hens here, and the one that my mum and dad's chook hatched is also a girl (fingers crossed). These photos were taken about a week ago. The chicks are already a whole lot bigger again and have a lot more feather development.

Jumping to grab food from its mum.

Plomp. Look at that little wing! I could watch the chicks just about all day.

This scary, dangerous gum tree that has been overhanging out backyard is in the process of being removed. At long last. Yay. Will think no more of difficult process it has taken to get there.

I found a skink in our laundry. The laundry skink. I love the way they shape themselves to a surface: a rock, a hand. Smooth and slinky, now a garden skink.

Well. That was random, as Jasper would say.

- Jane x

Linen Esme

Another Sew Liberated Esme Top!

I have been wearing my first one so much - it's so handy for this transitional autumn weather - that I thought I should sew up another. This time in more of the lovely natural linen that my parents brought me back from Lithuania, and that I used for my Washi Dress. (I think there was four metres, and there's still probably a metre left!)

I made the bib lining and back neck facing out of some leftover Anna Maria Horner voile. The only alteration I made was to raise the back neckline a bit.

More mismatched buttons as solution to indecision. I was intending on adding a little embroidery to the bib in a running or cross stitch around the edge but I'm not sure now. Best left plain or could it use a little more decoration?

And on a real person. Hmm there's a bit of front gaping there. I think it's more to do with my button placement than anything. I might fix that with just a little hand-tacking, since I think the buttons will always be done up. The linen is slightly stiff and scratchy right now but I know from my Washi Dress that it will soften up beautifully with a few more washes.

In the interests of reality-checking, here's a different view of that terribly picturesque rustic background:

It's the door of our falling-down shed. And I was standing in possum poo. Glamorous, non?

During last week, the boys had sports day (across two days) at school. It's always rather delightful and for some reason I even get a little choked up when the teams all do their chants and cheers at the end.

Guess what colour our team is :)  And we won!

- 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