If you read Chaletgirls blog, which I am sure you all do, you would know that little Emmeline recently turned one.  I normally buy her kids presents but I really wanted to make this little girl something special.

I wanted to make a topsy turvey doll.  You know the ones that have a head at each end with a skirt in the middle.  They are normally fairy tale characters, like red riding hood and the wolf; or cinderalla as a maid and a princess.

I wanted to crochet it and after having a quick look on ravelry I found the gourmet crochet pattern.

I ordered it from crochet australia and received it pretty much the next day.

I used wool from Yarnplanners’s stash (thanks susie).  I was really quite surprised with how much wool this pattern uses.  I quickly ran out in a few colours so had to be a little bit creative with my colour choices.

The skirts are separated by about an inch in the middle, so you will always see the other skirt underneath.

If I made it again I would stick with two colours like the pattern has – pink and white, white and pink. Then it wouldn’t look so odd seeing the other skirt.

I got it done and I love it. This is probably the best toy that I have made so far.

I was a little late getting it to her but by all accounts she loves it too.

I have been working extremely hard at the sewing table to get this quilt done.

I have fabric and supplies sitting in the wings for a few quilts that I am dying to start. But I have been quite strict on myself to finish some WIPs first.

This quilt is the result of my chaletgirl block swap. During the swap I thought that the cream squares were a little boring and compared to other participants, not the best fabric choice. But once together and framed with a simple cream border, I am pleased with the end result.

I also wanted a simple pieced back using mainly stash fabric. The plan was to do the square pieced border and then use the cream fabric all the way to the edges. BUT ….  the shop that I bought it from didn’t have any left and I couldn’t even find a decent match at spotlight.

I ended up using what I had, which was almost enough, but not quite. The patchy Kokka fabric was a gift from Sheridan for my birthday last year.

To make matters worse I did the maths wrong on the initial centre square. Which is why there is a great big strip of taupe at the bottom to make it big enough.

In the pieced border I included a few labels. There are also pieces of fabric from the other participants with their name written next to them.

I had fun being part of this project and I got a great quilt out of it. This quilt is destined as my “doggo” quilt. I plan on taking it to work when I work overnight to keep me warm.

Thanks Sheridan. Good job. I would love to say that I can’t wait to be part of the next one. But I already am!

Last month I made a Jumper – pattern and wool by Jo Sharp.

It is really daggy, comfy and warm.  I love it.  I hadn’t blogged about it because I was going to take some better photos.  This was taken about a minute after I finished sewing the ends in, over my pjs.

I have also done this months around the block blocks for Louise.

BTW I am on holidays at the moment, and in two days I finished two quilts that have been hiding in my UFO box for way too long.

I don’t love this quilt.  It was all about the process.  I had fun picking out the fabrics at a craft show.  I enjoyed making the “Yellow Brick Road” pattern.  Then because I don’t love it I wasn’t too scared to quilt it myself.  I did ok.  Just don’t look too closely.

Quilting that gave me some confidence quillting the bug quilt.  I really couldn’t have sent it away for quilting because I wouldn’t have been happy with an all over pattern.  First I did the book shelves, and I was going to leave it at that.  Then I did the border.  Then I couldn’t just leave the black around the bottles.  Now it is almost quilted to death.   I don’t like the feel of quilts with this type of dense quilting.  Nothing beats the feel of a quilt that is hand quilted.  But maybe with a few washes it might soften up.

(OMG – doesn’t the black show the cat hair!!)

So now I am packing madly.  I am taking the kids on a road trip staring tomorrow, heading south.  Unfortunately I will be solo as hubby has to work.  We will eventually end up in Sydney to spend some time with Sheridan and Henry.   Can’t wait.

I don’t blog much anymore but I still do a lot of making.

This last week I finished my Milobo Cardigan.  The ribbon is black velvet.  I like the look of it through the eyelets but don’t really know how to tie it to look nice.

I made a needle roll for my circular needles.  The green fabric was a gift from Sheridan long ago.

And I got all of my blocks back from the Chaletgirl block swap.

I really enjoyed being part of this swap.  It was such a small commitment and really easy to do.  And look what I got in return.  I have no idea how I am going to lay them out but I want it to be a little more interesting than a simple 9 patch quilt.

I have also cast on for a Jo Sharp jumper (a few times).  It should be going faster than it is but I am taking my time.  I have also had to rip back a few times too because I want it to be just right.

The yarn for the project is so yummy, and the most that I have ever spent for one knitting project.

I have had a “thing” for butterflies for a while. More recently it has turned to dandelions.

I am so consumed by these two things that I have had a tattoo designed that includes both images.  It is just sitting waiting for the right time to get it done, but that is another story.

I have been wanting to do an emroidery picture since I saw Hillary (from wee wonderfuls) display her stitchettes in simple hoops.

Scouring the net I have found some great dandelion inspiration.

WooHoo cross stictch sell this pattern on etsy.

Hare and Drum have these beautiful completed pieces of wall art too.

Wrapables has a whole range of dandelion products like linens, bags and pillows.

And these dandelion wall decals are just awesome.

Badass custom decals

rm67

lewasdesigns

daydreamer

Anyway, this is how my picture turned out.

It is hanging on the side of our bookcase as you walk into our room.

I am very proud of this project. This is my first knitted adult garment that I have attempted and completed.



It is the February Ladies sweater. The original pattern is from the Knitters Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman and it is sized for a baby. The pattern is more of a recipe rather than detailed instructions. Flintknits did a great job writing up the pattern as an adult version. It is very popular and currently on ravelry there is 4818 of these projects listed with 2832 of them completed.

I made the baby version for cabingirl (Emmeline) aka little chaletgirl.

For mine I used 2 1/2 balls of Bendigo Alpacca in Jet Black, just over 1000 yards. It took me 2 months complete. I did it while watching lots of House, Criminal Minds, Amazing Race and Survivor episodes in the evenings.

It is knit it using a 5mm circular needle. It is a top down design using Raglan shaping. The sleeves are picked up and knit in the round.

When I was done I had only 6 ends to weave in and once the buttons were sewn on it was ready to wear.

I washed it and lightly blocked it. It only gained a little more length than expected, but that is ok. I made it to wear to work and the best thing is that I do like it and will actually wear it.

I am not perfect though (are you surprised)- there is a mistake in it. Just under the bust line I doubled up on one row, so there is a small ridge. I did notice it as I was working but decided not to rip back to my safety line. I wish had …. but I didn’t, so I can live with it.

I belong to the Australian Swappers group on Ravelry. There is always a few swaps going on. The latest one that I am a part of is the project bag swap.

These are the ones that I made for my swapee. I probably wouldn’t have picked this fabric for myself, but it has sewn up just beautifully. It is from the Andalucia range by Patty Young (she has a great blog and awesome sewing patterns).

They are now headed south and I was sad to see them go.

I made grab bag,

a small zippered notions bag

and what I would like to call a lace project bag.

It is just a simple drawstring bag (the pattern is from Living Creatively) that I put grommets on. I envisage that you put your knitting in the bag then thread your circular needles out through the holes. Then (I hope) that your lace knitting wouldn’t get tangled up with the needles.

I hope she likes them.

This is a long overdue post.

Mid summer was very hot here in Brisbane and I was inspired to make my little girl some simple cotton dresses. I got some cheap cotton from spotlight.

I trawled through sewingpatterns.com for what seemed like hours and settled on NEWLOOK 6504

So then I googled the pattern the see if I could find an aussie supplier. You can see where this is heading …. I couldn’t find it anywhere.

Sewingpatterns.com offered the pattern as a download for $2.99 US, so I thought for 6 bucks (with a crappy exchange rate) it was worth a go. ……

It was a fairly simple ordering process. You pay for the pattern and they email you a password. From there you install a simple security plug-in for Adobe reader. Then you can download the instructions and the pattern sheets. The security of the system is that you can only use the same printer to print the patterns, now and in the future.

.

So what you do is print out the pattern sheets on your normal printer using normal typing paper. You tape them together and then cut out the pieces. VOILA there is your pattern. Well that process took fucking hours!!!! This pattern for a simple child size A-line dress was 84 pages. I kid you not. I would hate to think how many pages a more complicated adult pattern would be.

Putting the pages together was easy but kind of tedious. In the end I only joined the pieces that I thought I might use in the future. Which was silly because since then I have made almost every view of the dress. I also used a paper cutter to trim the sides of each page to make matching the edges up easier.

After I got the pages together I traced the size I needed on Grease proof/baking paper.

So a lot of work for a simple pattern. But a pattern that I only paid $6 for that I couldn’t get from my local spotlight.

I MIGHT do it again but only as a last resort and only if I couldn’t buy the pattern locally (within Australia).

So the final product …. perfect.

I have made 4 of these dresses and I can make the simplest one with just under 1m of fabric in just under 2 hours. So for  1 lunch time nap and $4 thats great.

I met for lunch with a few girls from work. One of them recently had a baby and I could not go without giving her something.
I have had this wee wonderfuls pattern for ages and thought I would give it a go. This is Olive from the Make-along series.

She has proper “bottom” and sits really nicely.
The doll was so easy to make and I used mostly scraps from my stash. She matches one of my handbags!

I love the wee wonderful patterns and have made quite a few of them. This one was no different. The instructions and clear and well written and lots of pictures help describe what you are doing.

Below are some my other wee wonderful creations.

I have been on a real kick for sewing clothes, but I think I am over it.

I finally made my Amy Butler pj pants. The pattern was a little small so I ended up adding a 4″ panel up each side. I didn’t like them so long either so I cut them off just under my knees.
To make a matching top I bought a singlet and just appliquéd a simple square on it. The fabric is a sheet that I picked up from vinnies for $2. Apologies for the photos the only person at hand to help was my 3yo.

I also made myself a top and a dress. The pattern was McCalls 5655. I borrowed it from a friend who had made it. The top is just the dress cut short. Very simple to make. It looks a little maternal but I am told “that is the fashion”.

I have also made 3 dressses for the little girl, with the 4th cut ready to sew up. I will tell you more about them later.

And the worse thing about all of this productivity. I have an overlocker, which I rarely use. These would have been perfect projects to get it out for. But I didn’t. Maybe one day I will be more inspired to use it. I think that I avoid it because I am not overly confident using it.