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.

sewing for F day

My little boy started school this year and it has required me to make a few things for him.

We made a library bag and a nap pillow.  Pacman was the theme of choice.

Then last week we had our first dress up day.  It was F day.  They had to be a F’n something.

When you have to think about it, there aren’t a lot of things to dress up as beginning with F.  It is a stupid letter.

All the little girls were not surprisingly Fairys.  There were a few firemen, footballers and a flower.  I also came across a Flight engineer.  But my little boy was the best frog there.  Well ok, he was the only frog!

I was inspired by this little mans frog costume.

I traced a beanie on some polar fleece for the hat and added some stuffed eyes on top.  The hat was a hit.  He wore it constantly for a few days after I made it – including to bed.

And the next night too!

The top was a cheapy with some of the hat fabric on the front for the belly to make it match.

The hands and flippers were made from sturdy felt.  It feels like felt but it is stiff like cardboard.  I put some elastic on the back that he could slip his palms into.  It is a clever idea as it allowed him to still use his hands.

I was pretty proud of myself with this costume.  I had a great time putting it together and he loved wearing it.

still running strong

Just thought I would give you a quick update on how I am going.

I have finally committed to doing the Gold Coast Half marathon on 1 July.  My initial goal was to do lots of 10km races this year and I think that I will still compete in as many of them as I can.  But now instead of training for just 10km, I am training for 21km.  I have asked an old RAAF friend to do the half with me and am super excited about sharing the experience with her.

I go to run squad twice a week (about 10km of intervals each session) and also do a long run on the weekend with the group. The squad training is definitely helping improve my running.

This is a”garmin map” screen shot of one of my sessions. The inner loop on the right is 1km.

Two weeks ago I finally broke the 6 min/km mark.  Then the following week I ran 5:45′s and last week I ran 5:30′s.  I did my fastest ever km last week too at 5:15.  Not bad considering it was the 8th km of the session.

I have always been slow but now I can see my speed improving quickly as my endurance gets better.

A few weeks ago for something different I ran up and over (and over and back) the Gateway bridge.

There aren’t a lot of hills near where I live so this is the ultimate hill workout for me.  I parked on the southern side of the river and set off for the run from there.  It was heaps of fun and not as difficult as I thought it would be.  It was a dreary day and even started to rain a little – perfect Queensland summer running weather.

Today I ran at the women’s international fun run at Southbank with a new friend from running squad.  It was her first “race”.

  And

There were lots of Chicks in Pink.  In fact there were so many, the narrow course was very crowded the whole way round.  We cruised the 5km in 33 minutes.

Now I am psyching myself up to do my 12km long run this afternoon.

I am loving running.

Little people

I bought the kids some of these wooden dolls ages ago. We painted them together and they were played with a lot. But slowly they have started going AWOL. Occasionally they turn up under the couch or in a bookshelf.

I decided to get some more from goose grease and I noticed that she had these great checker sets for sale.

The postage was a little but steep (including the board) so I decided that I could make my own set and just got the dolls from her.

I made black ninjas for one team

and after some discussion, the other team are little girls.

I  used acrylic paint that I bought from an art shop.  It was a simple student set of 10 tubes.  They could probably do with a coat of varnish too, but I really couldn’t be bothered.

There are 4 extras each for “king me”.

The board was a lucky find at the local market for $5. I just noticed it. I am sure if I was actually looking for one I would never have found it.

The kids like playing checkers with them.  But the game doesn’t last long as the little boy invariably starts losing. Then the pieces are generally taken from the board to participate in battles around the house.

At least they are being played with.

The lab coat

Two weeks ago I browsed make this look look again and got fixated on making this denim dress.

I rushed to spotlight that day and spent way too much on the pattern. 4 fabric stores later, I had no suitable dress weight denim.

The last shop I went to (bargain box at Capalaba ) had this blue black shirting. It wasn’t denim but I knew I could make a dress with it and I had just the pattern.

The little boy was sick and the little girl enjoyed some (obviously much needed) alone time. She was an angel all weekend. So with one kid in bed and the other occupied I got a full weekend to sew.

The pattern I made was the lisette traveller shirt dress view A.

I think it took me about 5-6hours.

It is a little short and am worried about puckering around the buttons when I sit down. I may sew the bottom half closed. But my new singlet slip that I mentioned in the last post might solve the problem.

Hubby thinks it looks Ike a lab coat. He could be right. Not sure how much wear it will get now but I bet coming it to the colder months it will be great with my long boots or leggings.

This is the second time I have used this pattern. The first was a two tone thing which to be honest I haven’t worn.

I realise now that if I want to wear clothes that I make, they have to be simple styles in solid colours that go with shoes that I own.

The denim dress has not been forgotten and I am still keen.  I ordered some fabric from ebay and it is the next to sew.