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

A Briar Top, and probably the cutest t-shirt I have ever made or will ever make again

Charlie and Jasper were using fabric markers to decorate a couple of white t-shirts and of course Clem wanted in on the action. I didn't have a white t-shirt in his size and I asked him what he wanted to draw. "Miffy on one side and Pillow on the other" he said with certainty. His two most beloved toys who share his bed every night and are sought out for comfort often during the day.

Well... I had to try to make that work for him, didn't I?

I cut out a t-shirt front and back from some plain cream cotton jersey and taped them to some cardboard, and let him go with the markers and a bit of acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium, when the markers didn't provide the right colours.

See below - pretty good likenesses, don't you think? (Minus the ingrained dirt/love.)

Pillow, made by Charlie for Clem some years back.

Watch out, he's coming at ya in his Miffy and Pillow t-shirt!

Here are the t-shirts that Jasper and Charlie drew:

(Ahem... proving it's not all organic-earthy-home-baked goodness around here. But he's happy with it.)

And this is a little seal character Charlie has been working on, drawing cartoons of.

And here's me in the Megan Nielsen Briar Top I whipped up during quiet moments at the shop, in a hemp/organic cotton jersey which is a rather striking but hard-to-photograph tangerine colour. I made up a size L because I wanted it nice and loose, chose the cropped version, the bound neckline and lengthened the sleeves, just for fun. I really, really like this pattern and I think I may be another bloggy sewist who makes more than one!

 Andy said 'now walk like an Egyptian'...

(I feel like I ought to offer up some sort of apology to Megan Nielsen for this shot, for making her Briar look dorky!)

- Jane x

The last few weeks in photos

I have to touch on the horrible violent event of last week, just to acknowledge it as I post my daily normal-ness here. Sigh. Surely some things must really change? We can't just become numb or put it in the too hard basket can we? It's been occupying my mind a lot. Anyhow. That's not why I'm here right now. Moving on (here, now).

For twelve years in this house we managed with a bathroom that was horribly ugly and became more broken and leaky and damp and nasty until we had about four plumbers standing around looking at pipes and saying it was, really, not worth investigating and mending any further. Hello, dear bank lender....

Now we have a nearly-finished bathroom that is just so luxurious in comparison, despite being only 2.1 x 2.1 metres square, and sure beats the heck out of 'washing' ourselves in the laundry sink as we did for several weeks. It's fabulous. And I have wanted one of those telephone-shower things in the bath for as long as I can remember.

We've picked strawberries and made jam. Clem's drawing and writing has taken off like a rocket since he's been at school. Um, including a lovely picture of 'farmers' on the wall by his bed. And spelling Jasper 'JasB'. He has been running a shop out of his bedroom for a couple of weeks, selling us back our wine collection and his toys and books in exchange for handfuls of buttons. Cute as that may sound, he has been driving us all nuts on the behaviour front at home. We have researched more strategies that include a lot of clear, consistent (and firmly enforced) rules, calm in the face of tantrums, encouragement in self-help skills and chores/responsibilities. It's coming along.

I have sewed a bit, including the 'shorts' (longs) for Clem from Cloud 9 organic Ed Emberley lions and tigers, which I have loved for ages. Also, a dress for me that you can hardly see in the pic above and I really should devote an actual post to because although it's incredibly simple it has been in high, high rotation in our speedily warming summer.

Charlie's been sewing. We have Wanderer caterpillars. A friend and I have been working very hard to set up a new business (more on that, I hope, soon!). You know. Life. 

I hope yours has been safe and happy.

- Jane x

plans to reality

There's been a lot of making going on so far these school holidays!

We watched a fabulous documentary called 'Being Elmo', about Kevin Clash who is Elmo's, you know, very close friend. He was devoted to puppetry from a young age and eventually went to work with his hero Jim Henson.

Charlie and Jasper were inspired to make their own puppets. Charlie's fox was 99.9% made by himself. I helped him unpick something at one point and he said to me "don't do too much!" so I made sure to step back and let him go!

While Jasper needed a bit more help, I prodded him to just give it a try and he gained more confidence. As I write, one octopus leg has just fallen off, so he's learning more about patience and hand sewing technique right now, heheh.

It's exciting watching them now at an age when they have accomplished basic skills and can now use them to make their visions come to life.

Hmm, what with all this facilitation of boy-creativity, there hasn't been a lot of room for my own. I did make some shorts for Jasper though. To my scaled-up Oliver + S Sketchbook Shorts pattern, in hemp & organic cotton left over from my Poppy Tunic, with a bit of topstitching interest.

Oh yes and here's another little puppet Jasper made before the more ambitious ones began. It's a dragon called Alistair:

Those little sticks to work his arms are sparklers! I'm not too sure about the toxicity of handling those a lot. Hmm.

One week of school holidays down, one to go. Then I will have three boys at school!

- Jane x

a little creepy but seasonally appropriate

Is there something a little more Halloween than Valentine about this bunny?

Today Clem said "I want to make something with you". After Jasper offered a couple of his 'making' books for inspiration, he decided on a pink bunny. Never mind that the instructions were for creating a little paint-and-ink picture out of fingerprints. He wanted a soft toy. Honestly it could be a full-time job facilitating all the making that goes on here these days. Not that I'm complaining.

We took a walk to the fabric-shop-around-the-corner because guess what, with three boys I don't have much pink in my stash. Clem tried to talk me into some expensive-looking hot pink silk embroidered with flowers. While I was looking for alternatives, he found the red heart buttons and decided they would be a heart, and the eyes. We agreed upon some pink linen and escaped before he could find any more garish embellishments. Bless his little red plastic heart.

He told me the size he wanted, gave his approval of the design, did some cutting of paper pattern pieces and stuffed the limbs and ears. I simply could not (gently) talk him out of the heart eyes on their button shank stalks so there it is.

He called this funny, wonky thing Isla, after a sweet little friend from Kindy. He's a bit fixated on her so I guess it's all fairly appropriate around Valentine's Day. Not that we really celebrate it or Clem would have any idea about it but, anyway. Maybe it's just in the air.

And then he hung it on a string of bells. Hmm.

There has been more making by the big boys from their Microcrafts book.

dog reads bedtime story to cat from micro-book

Charlie made his tiny cat a bed from a matchbox and actually knitted it a miniature blanket without any help except some instructions in a book. Then he followed some very intricate instructions to make a micro-book, traditionally bound with thread, end papers and hard cover, and very little help. He's really becoming confident of his own abilities and it's marvellous to watch.

Jasper made the little dog (Clem called it a 'little cow') and wants to make it a bowl and bone that are in the book, too. One of the best things about these Microcrafts is they use tiny scraps that we already have. They make my fingers feel all big and fumbly though!

Happy weekend.

- Jane x