My Creative Space - learning to knit

I have been doing a lot of rather unsuccessful sewing lately so thought I would finally try out knitting again, inspired by the always amazing Casey. I brought the Patons Learn to Knit book as this was what I used to learn crochet. So far I have made this hat, which I think needs a little explanation.

See, while I like the instructions in the book, I am not such a fan of any of the designs in it, plus all the patterns call for the use of Patons Inca wool, which is made with 7mm needles. I was not going to spend money making something I was never going to wear and I had a ball of 8ply wool in my stash that I have never used. So, I brought some 4mm needles and figured I would just make a little hat (it would fit a newborn) just to practise my stitches. And I have to say I think it went quite well, and I really enjoyed it. I have knitted before a long time ago (I made the worlds biggest yellow scarf) and was surprised at how easily I picked it up again.

So I am goingto jump right into a cardigan, I have brought this pattern and am off to get some wool today. I got the pattern from Interweave and it is called the Flutter Sleeve Cardigan. Wish me luck!

Heaps more cleaver people ato Kootoyoo!

A funk

I have been having massive issues with the Parfait dress by Collette, and it is now languishing in the corner. I have talked about the issues with the fit here, but since then about 6 other things have gone wrong. Among these, turns out it is really hard to insert an invisible zip without an invisible zip foot, plus I really struggled to insert the zip when I had already stitched up part of the side seams, as per the instructions. After a long and arduous struggle I managed to get it sewn in, although it is not invisible...

Then, I was doing the buttonholes, four in total, and when I got to the fourth button hole my machine decided to have a grump. It got stuck so instead of making a buttonhole it just stitched a massive lump of thread. So I had to unpick a buttonhole, let me tell you, that is not a fun experience.

Finally, I got all this done, got two buttons sewn on, tried on the dress, and the zip broke, Yep, the actual zip, nothing to do with me but because apparently everything is total crap and zips are now made to last a day. So, I threw the dress done (after needing to use a pair of pliers to get it off!) had a cry and sat down to do some knitting. And immediately dropped a stitch.

So, how do you deal with a bad making day? Soldier on, take a break, go shopping?

Best porridge EVER

Just a very short note to mention the yummiest porridge ever that I made this morning. A tropical porridge can you believe? My husband hates porridge, but I have been making him eat it as it is good for him, and a hell of a lot cheaper then any other cereal out there. But this morning he could not get enough of it, so I know I am on to a winner. Basically it was a total fluke as I made a curry for dinner last night, and had half a can of light coconut milk left over. So this morning I made porridge with half coconut milk, half water, and topped it off with honey and bananas. It was really good and I highly recommend you give it a go.

Happy breakfast everyone!

P.S. I didn't take pictures, so was tempted to find one online to use but being the good citizen that I am thought I would wow you all with my sketching talents instead x

My Creative Space - learning my lessons...slowly

I am still working on this dress, mainly because I ran into an issue with the fit of it (which I stupidly did not photograph sorry!). Basically the fabric was bulging very strangely on one side of my bust, which I only noticed after I had overlocked all the seams, ahem. For some reason, instead of thinking the situation through I got it into my head that I needed to take in more fabric in the side seam, so spent two hours unpicking everything and sewing it all up again, two or three times because it was not fixing the problem. Finally, after much swearing and stamping of feet (yes I can strop with the best of them) I realised that I was trying to fix the wrong problem!!

It occurred to me, in a moment of clarity, that the issue was actually with the strap. See the dress is gathered at the strap, and I had simply not gathered it enough, thus the excess fabric sticking out. It took about 15 minutes to fix.

So, another lesson to add to the rather large list is to assess the situation before jumping in and trying to fix it. I do not know enough about constructing clothes to be able to instantly know what the problem is and how to fix. But, if I spend some time thinking it through I can usually come up with a solution, without the temper tantrums.

Loads more creative spaces here!

My recipe book

This is actually a project I put together a couple of years ago, but as I have run into some annoying fitting issues with my current project (this dress), as a most welcome distraction I decided to share this with you.

I had a brilliant recipe folder, it was hot pink, and had room for everything but it got lost in one of my moves somewhere (I actually suspect perhaps it was kept by an old flatmate...) and I could not find anything similar to it. Now of course there are heaps of recipe folders out there but at the time I could not find a sausage.

As I am something of a stationary geek, I still dream about a particular stationary store in Vancouver, I knew I had to use a moleskine notebook for my recipes. I then found this post which had the very helpful downloadable labels, but I wanted my recipe book to be something special. So I went on the hunt for old food related postcards to use at the start of each section. I found this brilliant website, http://www.ansichtskartenversand.com/ , and managed to find enough food related postcards to fill each section of my recipe book. Their service is really good, all the postcards I received were in perfect condition, and I was very happy. Here are some of my favourites.

This project was really pretty quick and easy to put together and I am still really happy with my little recipe book, which is slowly but surely filling up...

My Creative Space

There is not much crafting going on today (surprising as I brought myself a new sewing machine yesterday, yay!!!!) as I have had the dreaded lurgies and now that I am feeling better I desperately need to clean the house and buy groceries so that is my day all wrapped up. But I did manage to finish the bag a wrote about last week so am sharing the finished product.

It mostly went very smoothly, I found the instructions a little confusing, they seemed to be very convoluted, but I managed to muddle my way through. I added a zip to the pocket for a little extra security, this bag does not close so I wanted somewhere safeish to put my phone, wallet etc.

I did make it expandable, but I am a bit worried about the holes for the magnetic buttons fraying as they wear. One blog recommended using a sort of anti-fray glue called Fray Check but I don't think I have ever seen anything like that here is oz. Anyone know anything about this product?

I am pretty pleased with it in the end, though it is very much a summer bag so I am not sure how much action it will see over the next couple of months.

Lots more lovely creative people over at Kootoyoo.

The hats...finally!

So here are the two hats I made at my millinery class weeks ago. I have to admit that I am pretty happy with both of them. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted for the hat, but I am not a huge fan of fascinators so found that piece something of a struggle. In the end I was inspired by this hat by Philip Treacy.

But as I am no Isabella Blow it needed to be toned down somewhat. So, with much less feathers, and some trims I created this:

We had to make the fascinators from scratch, so using sinamay we blocked the base of the fascinator, creating the shape we wanted and then had to add all of the trims and feathers ourselves. I have no idea where I will ever wear this but it is on display in my work room and I feel pretty proud of myself when I look at it.

Here, is the hat.

This was much easier to design as I have very clear ideas about the sort of hats I wear and the styles that suit me. This hat started life as an unformed piece of felt, that vaguely looked like a hat. Again it had to be steamed and blocked, the brim took two weeks to get it into that shape. Once the crown and brim were done they needed to be sewn together, stiffened, and beautified. I even made the flower, using french silk flower tools that I now really want but can't afford :-( The only major issue with this hat is that I over stiffened it so it could now pass as a helmet, but apparently the more I wear it the more it will soften.

So those are my hats, I really enjoyed this course, and would be happy to carry on making hats, just need to figure out how to fund such an expensive hobby...

My Creative Space

I am now working on this Heather Bailey bag, I had had my eye on the pattern for a while but due to the fact that I have the worlds smallest letter box, and a post man whose solution to tiny letter box is to fold things in half, I was reluctant to order it online. So when I found it at the Kelani stall at the Sydney Quilt and Craft fair I decided totake it as a sign.

I am pretty happy with my fabric, The Remnant Warehouse here is Sydney is pretty good for fabric, especially if you are a quilter. They actually had the pink and red Heather Bailey fabric pictured on the back of the cover of the pattern, but tempted as I was, I went for this beautiful blue and green.

I have already fallen into a rather annoying trap with it, there are two pattern pieces that were meant to be taped together before cutting out the fabric...which I discovered after cutting out my expensive fabric. I can improvise a fix but it is still annoying. If anyone out there decidesto make this bag, pattern pieces A and B need to be taped together so that the fabric is cut out in one piece, not two...

I am also going to try a cotton interfacing that was suggested to me at the Remnant Warehouse to stiffen it. The pattern recommends using canvas but I am hoping that two layers of interfacing will give it the structure I am after. If not I am hoping a layer of calico will do the trick, its all a bit of an experiment really.

Lots more lovely creative folk over at Kootoyoo, enjoy!

Making pictures with stitches

I have been trying my hand at embroidery, well, making pictures with stitches anyway. I have just been playing and have not tried to do any "proper" stitches. My first attempt was a copy of an old Golden Books book, as I love them and think the old ones are beautiful. But the last three have all been my very own designs. I have really enjoyed working in a little bit of sketching into my craft, and I think it suits my style.

I really like these on little bags, the turtle has become a pencil case and I made a little bag for sunglasses for my husband.

I am vaguely thinking of making some more and setting up a madeit shop, I think I need a few more prototypes though. I certainly have enough ideas! Plus I am not averse to spending a lot more time with my sketch book and pencils... :-)

My Creative Space - recycling!

First up, to be honest, I made this yesterday but I think it turned out so well I wanted to post about it today. I picked up a pile of sea glass on the holiday my husband proposed (4 years ago now!), and held on to it for sentimental reasons without having a clear idea what I was going to do with it. Then a year ago I stumbled across this blog post and knew it would be perfect and FINALLY I sat down yesterday and got it made.

I think it was quite successful? Makes me wish I had hoarded a lot more sea glass from my travels, is there any rubbish that is prettier then sea glass? I'm also a bit of a romantic so like to make up stories about where the glass came from, a pirate ship, a message in a bottle??

I was expecting this project to be quite fiddly, but it turned out really easy. I ended up using a copper based wire that was super malleable. I only have two concerns, one is that the end of the wire on each piece of glass is a little scratchy, I'm thinking of maybe dropping a little wax on the ends, anyone out there have any other suggestions? I'm also not sure how long it will last, I have never used this technique before so will just have to wear it continually to see how it lasts.

As always heaps more lovely creative spaces here!