All done by hand – Alabama Chanin

In keeping with sewing away from the machine I recently stumbled across Alabama Chanin.

Any thing Natalie Chanin and her Alabama studio are my new obsession.

I think I first came across Alabama Chanin though Stitched in Color (yep the same blog that is running the handstitched class).

I love the Alabama Chanin style. The clothes are unique but not out there, feminine but not pretty and they are very wearable. The best thing is that Natalie Chanin has 3 books that tell you how to make them.

She gives away all of her secrets – from the stencils and the patterns to which fabric, thread and needles to use.

You can make it from scratch yourself using the books. You can also buy supplies from her. I bought the needles and a thread sample pack so I could source some locally. Alternatively you can buy kits (eg. skirt below) of pre cut and stenciled fabric for you to sew. Or if you just love the clothes you can buy them already made!

I think I like this brand because everything Alabama Chanin is hand stitched. I initially thought it was just the added embellishments but even the garment construction is done by hand. For whatever reason this appeals to me.

Also all of her designs are made from knit (jersey) fabrics. In her book she advocates upcycling and making her designs from old t-shirts.

I have made a lot of knit dresses from the mission maxi pattern and can see that making something similar by hand would be achievable. Embellishing it using these appliqué and beading techniques would make it spectacular.

I am going to keep obsessing about these clothes and pouring over these books for a while longer. Something Chanin will be the first project on my list once the handstitching class is done.

I have all 3 books and at some stage will do a review of them as I read them cover to cover. At the moment I just read bits here and there and look at the pictures.

Handstitched

Sheridan and I are doing this handstitched class run by stitched in color.

Even though we live a 1000km apart it is nice to do stuff together. Now we have something new to organise, plan, seek opinion and  chat about.

I am heading away at the and of the week and I have madly been collecting supplies so they are ready to go when I get back.

I bought a selection of fabrics (from etsy store aspen fabrics) from the children at play range by Sarah Jane. This will be for the medallion quilt which will end up on my little girls bed. She choose this range from a few options I that I gave her.

I got frustrated with the last medallion quilt I tried to make from stash (and scrapped it!). I think this one will have a greater chance of success because I am going into it with a range of coordinating fabrics.
I liked the pink and orange fabric combination but she preferred the pink and lilac ones. She won.

I have also picked up some floss for the embroidery round. And some pretty pink solid is on its way for the hand quilting round.

It is not all about quilts though. In part of the class you have to embellish a skirt. For my canvas I made this simple A line one from and old spotlight pattern. It is made from a charcoal suiting fabric which sits nicely.

The only drama I had was with the zip. I think when I pressed the invisible zip prior to sewing, my iron was too hot and I melted it. Then when I did it up it was weak and the zipper fabric just came away from the teeth.

So I waited a few days to calm down and then replaced it.

Inspired by Sheridan I also did an invisible hem.  At the moment it is a pretty boring black skirt (which was really hard to photograph!)

I am really looking forward to doing some hand stitching and getting some sewing done away from the machine.

I did finish it

With only 10g of wool to spare I finally finished my Skipper jumper.

I have been knitting this in occasional spurts since July last year.

The pattern is by Louisa Harding and I used her yarn for the project. It was a dk cotton called Ondine and I think the colour was called nectarine.

It is perfect. It fits well. It is cotton so not too warm for Brisbane weather. And it is finished.

Looking forward to SIT

Sew it Together (SIT) 2012 is getting closer. This time it is going to be held in Canberra on the June long weekend.

This year I wasn’t even going. I had told Sheridan at Christmas time that our planned holiday to Hawaii might conflict. The weekend of SIT was determined by the handmade market and unfortunately I was unable to make it.

However the demise of Air Australia and debacle with recovering our airfares meant that our Hawaii holiday had to be cancelled. In the end it has all sort of worked out and we only lost some $$ on an internal flight in Hawaii.

But our lesson was learnt to always pay for airfares by VISA regardless of travel insurance and booking though a travel agency. Anyway we are now heading to NZ instead on a shorter trip.   My darling husband (the love of my life and reader of my blog) is looking after the kids while I head to Canberra for the weekend.

It sounds like there are lots of great things planned while we are there. There is a shopping trip on Friday , finishing at shop handmade. On Saturday morning I am going to try organise a run/walk for the SIT 12wbt girls (and anyone else who is interested). Then I think we go to the handmade markets followed by a day of crafting, dinner and then more crafting. There is a couple of workshops though out the day and some crafting stalls. I am even planning on selling the last of my craftjunk stock.
And on Sunday Sheridan has organised a printing workshop.
It will be a full weekend of fun, laughs and good friends. I am very excited.

I joined in the name tag swap and have already made and sent my name tag to Caroline of sew together.

I have also made some goodies for the sample swap organised by Cass (which is a highlight of SIT for me!)

If you are going to SIT too, make sure you stop me to chat for a while.

optomistic but not confident

I am so close to finishing this jumper and I am determined to get it done before next weekend.

The only thing that will stop me is if  I run out of wool. I am optimistic that it will be ok but I am not confident. The pattern said 9 balls and I bought 9 balls.

I am most of the way through the sleeves (knitting 2 at a time on circulars). Those little piles of yarn and the partial ball is all I have left.

.

I can’t just duck to the store and buy more if I run out. I bought it from the UK almost a year ago, but luckily they still have that dye lot in stock. I think it is sheer stubbornness that I haven’t already ordered it.
I just have to cross my fingers and keep knitting and see how I go.

Gertie’s crinoline

Susie put me on to this fabric store at Springwood (near Ikea) called East Coast fabrics.  It isn’t the flashiest store but they carry a decent range of sewing and quilting fabrics.  Prices are reasonable and the bargain racks are always worth a decent look.  I have only been there a few times and it is very hard to go past fabric that is $1 or $2 a metre.

On my last visit I found this blue check sheer organza.  Not something that I was particularly looking for but it seemed perfect for a crinoline that I remembered Gertie reposting.

A crinoline is basically a petticoat that gives your skirts that little bit of flair.  I have had a look at buying one on ebay or etsy

but never committed because I knew that it might just not get worn.  There are also a few patterns on etsy that I have been interested in too.

But these skirts are a little too full for my liking.  Gerties tutorial seemed perfect and even though the blue organza is a strange colour choice for me, it does (kind of) go with a few of my dresses.

The fabric for the top part is something that I got at spotlight to match. It is soft, shiny and slightly stretchy.

The crinoline came together with a few small dramas.  Firstly I measured the elastic too loose.  Then when sewing it down stretched it even more – to the point of being useless.  So after I cut that off and redid the elastic I caught a piece of the fabric in the overlocker.  AGGGHH!! Lucky I hadn’t cut a big chunk out of the fabric.  It was more like a slash.  And with a bit f hand stitching it now just looks like an ugly scar.  I guess I could remake it but this will always be an undergarment so I didn’t see the point.

I wore it today to Mothers Day lunch for the first time under my denim dress.

To be honest in this dress it didn’t make that much of a difference.  The skirt is so full anyway and even though it is a lightweight denim, it is quite heavy.

But it was kind of fun to wear (though a little scratchy).

duffle bag

I came across this duffle bag pattern a while ago.  It looked like it had potential  to be a good pattern to make for presents.  And I wanted something big that I could carry my craft gear in when I go to SIT.

The bag is made from quilted fabric parts.  One long one for the top and sides of the bag and two smaller squares for the ends.  There is a pocket between the straps and another zippered pocket on one end.

The ends had markings in the corners that were supposed to match up with lines on the main bag UGGGHH.  Too hard.  I marked the centre of the end squares and then divided the bag end opening into 4.  Matching up the 4 markings I eased the two pieces together.  Not sure if this was the best way to do it, but it made more sense to me.

The bag was so fidley to make. I seemed to fuss over lots of parts of the construction.  Cutting the larger pieces of the pattern were from measurements.  I found it a little difficult to measure and cut these square on the floor.  Too big for my cutting mat and rotary cutter too.

Placing the straps is all based on measurements as well and it got all a bit too much for me.  I am pretty sure the bag sat on my sewing table for a couple of months patiently waiting for my attention.

Today I decided to just knuckle down and finish it.  It was still fidley and fussy, but I got it done.

Not sure how much I like it, but it will probably grow on me as I love the fabric.

The good – it is big and looks pretty good.

The bad – the hessian straps (with grosgrain ribbon on them) aren’t very soft and not sure hot long I would like to hold them for.  The pattern called for 3.5″ jute for the straps but I think a nice wide webbing would be good too.

On the inside the seams are all exposed.  They are finished with the overlocker but I would have preferred there to be a separate lining. 

Also the pocket between the straps is a little high up and would have been better about 2 inches lower.

So overall – I made a big bag.  I will use it and really like the way it looks, but I don’t love it and didn’t enjoy making it.  Sorry friends you won’t be getting this as a gift anytime soon.

 

Sorbetto x 2

The weather has finally turned cool – not cold (remember this is Queensland!) But is now officially jeans weather.  It is cool enough to wear a pair of jeans all day but still warm enough to wear a short sleeve shirt.

My wardrobe was distinctly lacking any nice cotton short sleeve shirts.  I did a quick search through the virtual fabric bolts at Fresh Fabrics Australia (etsy) and came up with 2 fabrics.  These Joel and Denyse prints both had some yellow which would go nicely with my new favourite mix yellow cardi that I got at Coles.

I ordered 1.5m of each and within a day of them arriving they were sorbettos.

Love them.

knit knit knitting

I haven’t knit anything in a while.  My crafting goes in definite phases.  It was sewing dresses and now it is knitting.  I have a bad feeling that bag making and quilting are just around the corner too.

I have been knitting up a storm.  We are heading to New Zealand in a couple of months for a family holiday.  I decided that I HAD to knit everybody new hats RIGHT NOW!

For me I knit another Quincy by Jared Flood.  This is the third I have made. The first one was lost in Japan. The second (which I bought the yarn for in Japan) went through the wash and got felted.  The third is made from a ball of Rowan cocoon that I bought from Tangled yarns with Susie.

It is a mushroom cream colour and chose it to go with this handspun yarn I bought in Canberra last year.

That turned into this short one row scarf. I added a toggle button to keep it in place.

For the little boy who loves wearing stupid things on his head – I made the Fish hat (alive version with sew on google eyes)

I wanted subtle stripes but the colours are so close you can hardly see them.  He chose the colour of the lips and fins.  Details of the yarn and modifications I made to the pattern are on my Ravelry page.

The little girl needed something cute. And it HAD to be pink.

 

The pattern is Capucine and it soooo cute on her.  ravelry details

I think I knit these 4 things in under two weeks. It is amazing what I can get done if I focus on it.  Now I am putting that same energy into a jumper that has been sitting idle for a very long time.  I have almost finished the bodice and only have the arms to go. I might even have it done before winter!

 

the perfect denim dress

I obsessed about making a denim dress for a long time. It turned out just perfect.

My inspiration was from Make this look.  I used the same pattern but omitted the sash.

For this dress I didn’t make a muslin.  I used the principles from this book (Fit for real people) of tissue fitting.

I didn’t exactly use the tissue (the actual pattern piece) as I just can’t bring myself to cut a pattern.  I trace all of my patterns onto light weight interfacing and go from there.  So when I did the tissue fitting I used the traced pattern.  The concept of fitting the pattern to your body is a great idea, but just extremely difficult to do by yourself.  So I ended up doing it on mummy dummy.  I traced a size 10 for the bodice and a size 12 for the skirt based on the pattern measurements.  Lucky for me not this pattern didn’t need any alterations, apart from a small adjustment to the shoulder seam.  But it was good to check fit without wasting time making an unwearable muslin.

I struggled to find any lightweight denim locally and I ended up getting some on ebay.

I used bias binding around the arms instead of the facing an added top stitching details to the darts, around the neck and arms and of course the hem.

It fits beautifully!!!

The invisible zip went in perfectly.

And for a bit of fun I put some contrast fabric in the pockets.

I haven’t worn it yet because it feels a bit “dressy”.  Maybe to work tomorrow – we’ll see.