Take the Challenge ...

Carolyn over on My Favorite is hosting a blog meme.
Sign up over at Carolyn's Blog to join the fun.

Carolyn writes:

For 2010 I thought that it would be great for us who sew to be challenged a little or a lot- depending on what takes your interest.

So each month I will be posting a challenge. Each month you (the blogger) can sign up for the challenge. It would be fun to blog about your challenge thought the month, but its not essential

You can participate each month, or just for one month, depending on what your life is throwing at you at the time.

The first sign up will be in the first (starting the 1st) of each month, and ‘presenting’ your projects will be in the last week of each month. (again there are no rules)

But remember… it is to challenge you. So if you think “oh no I cant insert zips” maybe that’s the month that you sign up so that you can learn.

At the end of the month blog your project, even if its still a WIP. There will also be a flickr group (WIP) so that you can scroll through projects quickly- or if you want to join in but dont have a blog.

I will try and include free patterns and tutorials to help you along your way. Im still learning too!

There will also be some free giveaways at random times!

The challenges are:

January: something for me
February: something in knit
March: softie
April: something lined
May: enclosed zip
June something self designed or drafted.
July: something with pleats
August: hand embroidery/ smocking
September: bag
October: refashioned (visit your op-shop and create something new!)
November: Something for the Christmas tree
December: sharpen your skills on one of the challenges!

Ripple Baby Afghan

Crocheted in Merino Magic By Heirloom Yarns
Pattern from new Corcht Basics from Leisure Arts

I like the end result but found it a pretty boring pattern.

Baby is close now.
I was rather hoping bub was waiting for me to finish this blanket.
Oh well, I'll have to go finish another project to see if bub is waiting for that to be completed.

Christmas Presents I can now show off!

This is Lizzy.
Her pattern was in a Women's Weekly book for soft toys.
I made her for DK, for Christmas.
I loved making her!
I think I need to get into some serious doll making in the near future.
I hear D.K loves Lizzy and as per normal has removed all her clothes repeatedly!
I think I need to make Lizzy a few spare outfits.

And this is DK's big brother, Josh's quilt.
It's HUGE and will fit a queen size bed when he's all grown up.
Josh's mum choose some of the fabrics when they spent last Christmas here with us.
We missed them this year.

Merry Chirstmas.

We started the day with waffles for breakfast.
With maple syrup and cream.

Then we opened the santa sacks!


All the kids got a water gun each.
They spent most of Christmas day shooting each other on the back lawn.

They all got new clothes and pajamas too.
Which of course they had to wear while shooting each other with the water guns.
Which meant the new clothes were in the wash by lunch time.

Rose got a Slushie maker, all the kids enjoyed her home made slushies.


The kids spent the afternoon playing the new Wii and DS games they received.
James videoed the happenings on his new Digital Video Camera.
He wants to be like Dad and make movies.


Liam enjoyed painting a glider.
His main present was a Lego robot.


Fern was very happy with her presents too.
A few art and origami books.
And a Cupcake baker, she made us all cupcakes for dessert.

We had a roast Turkey Dinner at 2pm and had desserts at 6pm.

And today, Boxing Day, we have sat around playing and eating left overs.

We had a great two days. Very relaxed. Just us as a family. I'm getting a little too close to the baby's arrival to make the trip to Adelaide to spend with the rest of the family this year.

I was very happy baby didn't decided Christmas Day was a good day to be born!

Spun, dyed, knitted and felted!

I finished spinning the East Friesien Wool yesterday.
I dyed it yesterday too.
Then last night I knitted it up into two bags.
I didn't get much sleep, bub thought it a good idea to warm me up for labour and twinged me all night. To keep my mind off how uncomfortable I was, I sat and knitted.

Today the bags got thrown into the washing machine in hot water and soap.
Three cycles later and the bags were felted nicely.

I'm rather happy with them.

The little bag I improvised the pattern for.
The buttons are vintage ones I bought from the op-shop.

The big bag is from a free pattern.
Amanda's Squatty Sidekick
I love this bag!
Knitted up on large needles 6.5mm the bags were very quick to knit. Just one night of pre-labour.
I have something to show for my labours!

Fern's Sewing Lesson

Fern had another sewing lesson today.
She made scrunchies for her hair.
Might encourage her to brush it without being told?
Maybe not!
After breaking two needles on the old Empisal, who isn't forgiving at the fabric being pushed though, I moved her onto my machine.

The hole in the foot is bigger on my machine and more forgving if you try and push the fabric through rather than let the machine do the work.

Fern made two and I made two.

A model shot was required!

There are a pile of free tutorial links for making scrunchies HERE
No point me writing another.

Spinning East Friesien

My mum gave me this spinning wheel for my birthday last year.
As a new spinner I had no idea what to do with her to get her going.
I didn't even know she was a double drive or how to set the drive band.
So she sat and gathered dust and I admired her from afar.
I did a google search and discovered she's an old wheel.
Link HERE to her details.
So from that information I think shes late 1970's early 1980's

She's very beautiful and makes a great decoration!
And I finally got her working!
I gave her a dust, oiled her up, used some kitchen string as the drive band.
Worked out the drive band is just one big loop not the two I initial thought.
And i set her to work spinning up the 180gms of East Friesien wool I received from Jane at Moseley Park in the natural fiber club.

psst: Jane has another fiber club starting in January!

Here's the 180gms of East Friesian all spun up and dyed by me.
It didn't take the dye up as well as some wools I've dyed.
I'm still pretty happy with it.
there's a little luster to the wool too which is nice.

Jane says that East Friesien is a milking sheep, related to the Finn and the Gotland.
The wool is supposed to have a low itch factor so even though it is slightly course the comfort level is high.

Learning to spin on a new wheel meant I wasn't as even as I am on the Ashford traditional.
It all takes practice.
I'm enjoying the learning journey.

ETA: 10 WPI and 205 meters

Nursing Cover

I made myself a nursing cover today.
I followed the FREE tutorial from HERE
After feeding 6 babies for over a year each I'm still uncomfortable feeding in public, more so as I age and everything sags!

This is a great pattern, very easy to follow and a fraction of the price of buying a cover.
I spent less than $25 on materials for this, 2 D rings, 1m of fabric and some boning.
I choose a quilter's fabric, you could choose a cheaper fabric.
It took me less than an hour to make this.

Vanilla Soakers

Finished two newborn sized soakers.
Pattern: vanilla
Pattern is available for download for $6Au, very reasonably priced.

I liked knitting these, a change from my normal top down soaker.
The pattern was very clear to follow.
These are knitted by knitting the crotch first, then joining into a round and working up.
I think I prefer top down due to the ribbing casted on tends to be more stretchy than the ribbing casted off. Although a sewn cast off does give a more stretchy cast off.
I also find grafting very easy so I'm not put off my grafting with a top down design.
I really like the ribbed crotch on these.

Draft It yourself! Handkerchief top

Mad Quilter's

Draft it Yourself

Handkerchief Top



This is a very simple top for a child.
The pattern is very simple, just a square with a curve cut on one corner.

Drafting the Pattern

You start with two measurements.
Measure from the child's neck to where you want the bottom point to go. (Lilly was 40cm) This is the center front length.
Measure across the chest and a little behind the back on each side to how far you want the points to go to. (Lilly was 47cm). Don't measure all the way around, this will be too big!

1. Start by drawing a line the length of the measurement you took around the back. This is the diagonal of the square for the pattern.

2 Fold the paper along that line and from each end point draw a line out to meet.
These are the sides of the square.
You could be more mathematical and work out that if the hypotenuse of the triangle is 47cm then you can use Pythagorean theorem, to work out the sides of the square!

3. At one end of the folded square, draw a neckline.
I drew mine 7cm from the point.
Working out that 47 - 40cm is 7cm
The 47cm being the diagonal and the 40 cm being the center front length.

4. I then added a seam allowance to the neckline.
I didn't add a seam allowance around the sides, this is a very easy fit garment.

And that's the pattern finished!

Fabrics requirements:

Woven fabrics.
cotton tape.

Cutting
From fabric cut two of the pattern piece.
One of the lining and one of the fabric - this design is reversible.
From tape: Cut 2 10cm lengths for the loops and 2 80cm lengths for the ties.

Construction

Pin then baste a loop to each side corner of the right side of the fabric
Pin then baste a tie to each end of the neckline.
refer to photo above.


Lay the other fabric piece on top right sides together.
Pin it well, matching corners and sandwiching the loops and ties between the two layers of fabric. being careful not to catch the loose ends of the ties in the seam, sew all the way around the square leaving a 5 cm gap to turn the top through.


Trim the corners and clip the neckline curve.
Turn the top through the gap left.


Press with the iron.
Stitch all the way around the edge, closing the opening you left for turning as you go.
And that's it, all finished!

To wear cross the neck ties at the back,
thread them through the loops
and tie them together.

Happy 2nd Birthday Michael!

Michael turned 2 yesterday.
And to celebrate he threw a wonderful tantrum!
Even threw himself onto the floor, I was pretty impressed.
Fern and Rose baked and decorated the cake for him
And we all enjoyed it after bath time.

Draft it yourself!! 8 Gored Skirt Tutorial.

Mad Quilter's


Draft it Yourself!
8 gored, elasticated waist, skirt.

Don't be scared to have a go at drafting your own patterns.
There are many benefits to doing this.
1. It's your pattern so no one can tell you what you can and can't do with it!
2. It's fun.
3. It will fit.
4. You don't have to wait for the pattern to arrive.
5. You can make it just as you want it!
6. I'm sure you can come up with more reasons why you would want to ;)

Drafting the Pattern

You need to start with measurements.
You take measurements around the waist and hip, from waist to hip and waist to skirt hem length.

Lilly's waist was 60cm.
Hip was 64cm
Length of waist to hip 18cm
Waist to hem 38cm

1. Start by drawing a line down the paper which is the same length as waist to hem.
Put a mark at the waist to hip measurement

___________________________

2. At the top draw the waist line which is the length you calculate by,
taking the hip measurement adding some ease and dividing that number by 8 ( the number of gores the skirt will have)

So in Lilly's case..
Her hip was 64cm and I added 8cm for ease and got 72cm.
I divided 72 by 8 gave me 9 cm
So the waist line at the top of my pattern had to be 9cm long.
I put halved that to 4.5cm so 4.5cm of the waist line was on either side of the waist hem line.
I used the hip measurement to calculate my waist so that the elasticated waist band would fit easily over the hips when pulled on

_____________________________________

3. The hip line is the same length as the waist line in this pattern draft.
Draw that line in.

______________________________________

4. Draw the hem line.
I just doubled the waist measurement I calculated.
So mine is 18 cm.
If you want a more flared skirt make it longer.

_______________________________________

5. Draw the side seam.
Draw a line that joins the ends of the waist hip and hem line.

6. Add the hems, casings and the side seam allowance.
I used:
1 cm for the side seams
3cm for the casing
2cm for the hem.

__________________________________________

6. Cut out your pattern.
I folded mine in half along the waist Hem length.
This makes certain the pattern is symmetrical.

Fabrics
Woven fabrics are used.
If you want the skirt in stretch you will draft the pattern with less ease.
I used some vintage polyester which I bought at an op shop.
I used 2 fabrics but you could choose one or four or eight different fabrics.
Try and ensure the fabrics are all the same weight and fiber as different fabric will wear and wash differently and distort the garment.

Cutting
Cut out 8 pattern pieces.
I cut four of the blue and four of the floral.

Construction

I sewed a blue to a floral right sides together.
Keeping the same fabric on the top is the trick to making sure you have them in the right order!
I sewed 4 pairs of gores then joined them into panels of four.
Then joined the panels of four together.
At this stage I went back and zig zaged all my seam allowances to finish them.
Give the skirt a good press.



Join the remaining seam and finish the seam with a zig zag.


Make the casing at the top for the elastic.
Fold over 1cm then over again 2cm to create the casing.
Pin at each seam.
Leaving 2cm unstitched, sew all the way around the casing at the folded under edge.
The opening left is used to insert the elastic.
As this is a very slippy synthetic I'm working with and didn't like my iron. I elected not to iron!


Next finish the hem.
I folded 1cm then folded over again 1cm.
I pinned at each seam allowance then in the middle of each gore.


I added two more pins between the seam and the middle of the gore.
All this pinning is necessary to ease in the extra fabric at the hem.
Sew the hem carefully close to the folded edge.
It takes a little wiggle and a few little tucks to get it there.


Using the waist measurement cut your elastic and thread it through the casing.
Sew the ends together and sew the opening up.

Now go search out your model...


( And yes..once more her hair is as wild as she is!)

My love of old sewing things...

What's in the box??
It's old and dusty.

Must be treasure!

Oh my isn't she beautiful!
A portable hand crank sewing machine!
A Tailor Bird
I found some information HERE about her.
She was made somewhere between late 1940's and early 1950's

Unfortunately her manual is missing.

But she does have 2 bobbins and her shuttle.

I bought her in Caltowie about 5 years ago.
Her movement is free, so once I work out how to thread her and her shuttle I'm hoping she still sews.