We make! umm I make!

With beginning my 3rd year of uni sapping absolutely all my time and energy!! I really wanted to find some time to do some sewing this year. Lot's of friends are having babies and theres the charity sewing I miss doing and some clothes I'd like to make and well I've missed sewing so very much!
So, for the rest of this year I am going to *try* to set aside 1 day a week to sew. I think it will be better for me to do something other than uni work, even though its art and I do love it too, some times it is just too much!
So to kick off my new resolve -I bought some books to spark my interest.  I will be making something from these books over the next little while.

Storybook Toys has some gorgeous dolls and puppets that I would love to make. I am especially enamoured with the hand embroidered faces, just gorgeous, really looking forward to it!

We Make Dolls has some quirky and fun little toys and is a combination of lots of different doll makers with different styles so I'm very very much looking forward to getting stuck into this book and making, well everything in there! The only thing I can see thats a little disappointing is that some of them say "make your own template" and don't provide the pattern piece..for the head and the ears! Thats really actually quite shitty! Especially since its the dog on the cover.

Really, I'll be back with some sewing, promise! ;)

Today I made a few tiny additions to the tiny spikey christmas tree.

I made some crocheted snowflakes using 5ply acrylic (same as the star) using this simple snowflake pattern by Sarah London.
I think they turned out pretty cute, and they took all of a few minutes to make.

I've got lot's of partly finished presents still on the go...days are running out! But last night I finally finished off a Christmas present, A pair of boxer shorts for my 14 yr old nephew.

They are elastic waisted, but also have ties (made from the fabric) threaded through the casing to tighten them up a bit more.

I used Simplicity 5314

The doll she is completed.

So this year I am attempting a completely handmade Christmas. But I assume that as time runs out to Christmas, "completely" will become somewhat or mostly ;)
This will be our first Christmas without Mum and that's pretty awful. I hope by making something handmade from the many patterns, fabric, laces, ribbons, yarn and what-not that came from Mum, that everyone will have something from Mum this christmas.

I made this doll for my niece. It started out as a UFO from a year ago. I had got this far, and then buried it in a box, and several bags of UFO's. I found all it's pieces while tidying up and organising my sewing room!

I think the most time consuming thing about making it was the stitching around the thumbs. Each time I went to stuff it, it split. I had to sew it a number of times. This fabric wasn't the best choice. It frayed easily. I also stuffed up the order of things. Then I wouldn't have ended up in this turning out mess!

But eventually she came good, but the nightmare of stitching on the head was, well, ahead...

I avoided that job for such a long time! and in the end I just went for it, and it really stitched up in no time..what was I so afraid of!?!

By Friday she was ready for the fun part! I used this boucle style yarn from a spotlight sale for her hair. First the fringe, I measured the length i wanted, then doubled it (it helps to wind it around and around a piece of stiff card) then i used some kitchen silicon paper strips wrapped around the yarn and used the sewing machine to sew right down the middle of the yarn. The paper holds the yarn flat but together and it stops the sewing machine eating the yarn. It also tears off really easily around the stitches. I left it on to pin place it, then ripped off the paper and hand stitched each piece of yarn to her head along the same line as the sewing machine stitch. Then you flip the back sections of yarn forward over the front section and no stitches can be seen.

We ended up getting this freezing cold rain shower Friday, that turned into a really cold night. What better to do than pull out Buffy the Vampire Slayer boxed set and stitch on the rest of the hair. You follow the same procedure as with the fringe, but down the centre of the head, a bit like a crazy mohawk. The Boucle yarn hides any stitches. Then I selected every second or  so strands of the yarn and stitched them further down the head about ear level (if she had ears) and stitched them down. This way, even when my niece decides to un-braid the hair, the doll head will still be covered and not mohawked! but some of her lovely long hair will still free.

So this is what she looked like finished. 

She's very cute, I'd quite like to keep her, awww but my niece will love her! If I were to make her again, (which I will have to as I had cut out 4 of these at once) I would alter the thumbs to make them easier to sew. Also the soles of her feet were too big for her leg parts, so they would need to be altered. I would also change the face or remove the darts in the chin area, to me they just look wrinkly. 

What every doll needs is clothing. So this week so far, I have stitched up a dress, some shorts, top, skirt, handbag, shoes undies and a head scarf!

Now I'm exhausted and she is being wrapped up for christmas! Yay! one down, 20 more to go!

Also some exciting packages came yesterday that made me almost squeal and be overly, overly excitable when saying thank you at the delivery man, as he handed them over.... I believe he now feels that I am a weirdo...but never-the-less, One package came from olivia in Germany as part of a Swap-bot.com swap of craft leftovers.
It was an envelope filled with, yarn, stickers, knitting needles, an ornament kit, tape, beads, a stamp, pieces of fabric and a lovely postcard.

The second package was an order I placed ages ago from Bendigo Woolen Mills. They've been super-busy with a huge sale on.
It's 100% cotton, it's 4 ply, (very very thin and a bit scary for me) as I am a beginner knitter. I bought it to knit up some stuff for Garry's cousin who is having a baby in march. It's so very cute and pretty colours too.

I had not knitted rib before last night, I was learning and making heaps of mistakes, so last nights attempt was very very poor! today I will have to pull it all back and start again. The great thing about it is that it is not wool, and so it is not so icky and fluffy and warm to knit in this hot muggy weather we've been having the past couple of days.
I was so excited I started knitting it straight away, despite having not finished heaps of other things - I know I know!!
The pattern came form mums knitting stash, I photocopied it to keep the original nice. It is from New Idea magazine, March 1976 just a few months before I was born!! I don't know if Mum ever knitted it...I hope so! I am making this first one striped, because I love little stripes. It also means I can use all the colours at once!
That's what I've been up to:)

Mouse Tony

 Yesterday I made a purple mouse using the Patchwork Mouse pattern from issue 20 of Sew Hip magazine.

I don't usually buy magazines, but I bought one for reading back when Mum first went into hospital and I haven't been able to stop buying them each month since!

The instructions were really clear and really the hardest thing I had to do was to choose fabric I liked.

Of course that didn't stop me from making a mistake. I scanned in the pattern (So as not to trash the original) and printed out the bits I wanted, only to have printed one page out at 90% and all the others at 100% which led to this small problem.

So, I chopped a little bit off him so he is a tad shorter than he was supposed to be... ooops! But he "Turned out" ok eventually...hahaha get it!

After that, Tony and I needed a little break from each other.

So while he relaxed, I got to work on stuffing another Maisey I had cut out and started months ago. She's also decided to join the toys I've made for Mirabel.

And now back to Mouse Tony.
I changed him a little from the magazine, instead of using a string for his tail I used a strip of fabric folded in twice and stitched with a knot in the end.

I love to give them all names, but this time I just couldn't think of one, so my husband called him Tony!
Mouse Tony.
Is it just me or does Mouse Tony sound like he runs the Mouse Mafia?

What you don't do to your thumb if you want to sew and/or keep your thumb

Wow, look what happens when you step back for just a moment, a month goes by with only one blog post that whole time!
There has been a crazy amount of actual working going on. But, now I have 2 weeks of holidays to recover! (and clean my house) I've been lucky enough to pick up a part-time contract for the whole of next term, which is lovely. I'll be teaching food tech to three year 7 classes and filling up the rest of each day with casual classes when and if they are available.

About a week ago now, I bashed/crushed/twisted my thumb unceremoniously between the big bolt that holds the sewing needle in the machine and the sewing machine bed. Theres no way to explain how I did this...all I can do is show & tell why you should not do this if you want to continue to own a thumb.

It started swelling straight away, but it seemed like such a minor cut. I took a photo to laugh t myself about look what happens when I try to sew tired...joke son me well and truly now!
By mid week it didn't look small or minor, it was gooey and sooooo painful even a small bump or touch made me cry, it was also burning hot and oozy, it started to pain, and spreading a raised lump a deep red colour under the skin from the cut all the way down to the knuckle joint. By Friday I could not stand to move my thumb, cover it with anything, (no bandage, tape, rubber gloves, nothing) and the pain and dark red burning was spreading into the palm of my hand. I can't show you, those photos would have been too gross and gooey and even if I had the thought of mind to take any, (I was too busy weeping at the time of dressing changes) they'd probably end up in some hall of goo or manky file on the internet -I've seen the toe files people!! LOL
Now that I am on the Antibiotics and let's just delicately say, my thumb has been slightly skinned and mostly de-gooed by the Dr. I can show you what it looks like today. It looks really good :)

See that darker patch of skin reaching toward my knuckle? Luckily it's receding fast, because thats the infection and it's hot and burning and damage causing! Today my thumb only hurts if I bump it or if I'm doing too  much with it. - Let me tell you, I had no idea how much I use my thumb until now! Typing is particularly bad, turning things like jars or taps even worse! The most sad is my scissors, I bought brand new Mundial shiny sharp "good" scissors right before this happened, the very night this happened, and I haven't been able to use them since!

For this months and last months FOSAL items I get a big fat FAIL stamp on. The little May cross-stitch still did not get finished, It was a purple stocking.

I didn't even get time to choose one to start for June, and here it is, July already. :(

I did complete my 12 sewing challenges in 12 months June item, (Something self designed or self drafted) and I even photographed it with days to spare, and then I promptly put the camera down and forgot to blog or flickr them. BAH! So I guess that's a Fail too! It did take me almost 3 weeks to sew. 15 minutes here, an hour there. Some time grabbed before dinner, after dinner, while I could still stay awake and before I made my thumb not so opposable.

I made...an apron. I had no pattern, I used my measuring tape to measure me, then estimated some extra room for gathering, around the uh, bust area. Then I drew it up onto some brown paper taped together. (It was like brown paper dress-ups!) I ended up stitching the gathers into the brown paper, then taking around half the gathering out of the bust region, re-fitted it and then, finally got to cut out some material! My rotary cutter and I went to town! I cut 2 strips for the waistband  (the 2 waistband pieces sandwich together trapping the top of the apron between one edge and the skirt of the apron between the bottom edge) and each tie is two really long pieces stitched together on 3 sides to form a tube when turned out.  The open end of one tie pokes inside the left and the other into the right edge of the waistband sandwich and is stitched in. I made wide binding for around the neck straps and edging on the top of the apron.
I stitched around the edges of the waistband, straps and ties with the dark blue thread to finish it off.

The top and bottom edge of the top part of the apron is gathered, or rather ruffled using my ruffler foot. It gives the "boobage" area a better fitting rounded shape rather than what a flat apron always does on me, which always seems to "tent" in the middle.

The floral fabric is vintage from my Mum's cupboard It's a very heavy, thick cotton. I've been in love with it for a very long time, she gave it to me a couple of years ago, I just didn't know what to sew from it. It's too floral for pants. Too heavy for shirts. I don't wear skirts. I just didn't know what to do besides look at it lovingly! The plain blue fabric is 100% cotton bought from Spotlight last year, it was bought for something else, but I can't remember what!
I may still take up the skirt because it's a tad long.
During the past few weeks I made a cake, from a packet..I know..Oh the horror! But it did taste good!

In other news, I have not been keeping up with my finish 2 projects before starting another. I plan to rectify that this week if my sewing room ever goes back to useable.
I'd been having back problems after sewing for even short bursts. I tried lot's of different chairs and stools but really I've found the Horn sewing table too low for me and a I keep hunching over to use my machine. So, I will be using my enormous table to sew from and cut out on. (It was destined for Dad's shed but never made it there) my horn sewing table is going to keep being used mainly for my overlocker and my old sewing machine and so, today this is what my poor sewing room looks like.

The poor Horn feels unloved. We tried to think of ways to lift the horn up a bit, but there just isn't any is there? It has a fold/pull out section to make it a T shape with draws etc so no matter what we thought of, we couldn't work out how to keep it functional.

So we decided instead to use my poor old table (which would have had to have it's legs repaired in order to be used anyway). The poor old wobbly thing! But now it has been re-legged completely to make it taller. Here it is in progress, with the table top upside down underneath it, because we have no space to move around it otherwise ;)

The legs may be stained sometime in the future, but for now they will stay as they are and we'll see how it goes.
Just before pulling apart the sewing room, I stitched up the free bag kit that came with a magazine called Homestyle sewing. I didn't make it fancy or make a flower or anything, I just made it and it fits magazines perfectly to take on holidays with us tomorrow to the beach.

Have a lovely rest of today, I've just realised I've been typing this post for a week! Finally I got to hit Publish on this post!

A Busy Busy Busy Busy Week

OMG! I meant to post something every night for the past week..where oh where did all those days go you may ask!
Well I worked everyday this past week and by the time I got home all I wanted to do was sleep! And sleep I did, from about 8:30 right through til the alarm next morning. I was exhausted! Where did my youthful energy go, where did that girl who went out late every night, all those crazy late night bars clubs and all night parties, how often did she see the dawn, shoes in hand...she's 33 now and...asleep by 8:30, just awake long enough to watch Masterchef on the telly...Even on Friday night I did'nt even make the end of Masterchef Masterclass! Asleep on the lounge, crochet in hand! ...boy oh boy how we change through life.
So...here is what I finished this week...I can't remember what day it was...but it was a day ending in y.
For the 12 in 12 challenge, Mays item was something with an enclosed zip.
Taadaa! the KF Everything Wallet completed!

I changed it a bit in order to line the inside of the zipper pocket.

If I were to make it again, I would make it with the correct sized zip, instead of just the smaller one I had in the draw...

I know it's not made for an iPhone, but if I made it again... I'd make it wider and adjust the velcro bit so it would close properly once full of all my cards and my iPhone, and money...

And I'm an idiot, I spent hours choosing the positions of each pocket on the fabric to cut out cool bits of patterns on the fabric to show on the edge of each card pocket...and then promptly realised once finished, that you see none of them beneath the cards..hehehehe.

Still, I love it and it's cute...and the lovely Coles checkout operator made lovely comments about it - Usecase user testing successful:)

Also at some point I think last week even, I finished off my husbands scarf, but I'm not sure If I told anyone or showed it once it was actually finished! So, here it is...modelled by a reluctant, don't-talk-about-me-on-your-blog-husband. ;)

I had to finish this one hat I started about 15 times, unpulled, changed a bit, unpulled, made a mistake, threw it in a bag, found a much better pattern...unpulled and re-used the unpulled yarn, but finally I got it right and finished it! And it was really really simple as it turns out!  I used the Art of crochet, Teresas pattern Little Darling Toddler-Youth Crochet Shell cap. I could only get one ball of this yarn, I really loved it, I wanted it for me, but I can't really make anything much for me out of one ball, I really liked it and couldn't leave it in the shop, my niece loved it because it has pink in it ;) So now she has a crochet shell cap.

Last night I started crocheting a beanie during a run of 24 episodes we were trying to catch up on, I didn't really know what I was doing with it when I started it, and really I should have been finishing off all the other projects I have on the go...but I finished it so quickly I made another one too...no patterns just a crochet hook (4mm) and pink and white and pale pink and pink left over bits of wool. I experimented with them a lot, I made them ear-flappy hats, like I had as a kid. they should fit the twins nicely, if my sister isn't too embarrassed to put them on them! I think they are cute, but I understand that not everyone likes what I like and I'm ok with that. I just say to her each time, if she can't use it give it to someone who can.

On the first one I made the pom-pom old style using two disks of cardboard, seriously painful and annoying when it fell apart while tying it up, second one I made this morning using a Spotlight pom-pom maker, a much easier process not involving cutting out cardboard:) Pom Pom makers:

I also got to use my new Birch split ring stitch markers, I know, not gorgeous beaded glittery jewelled lovelies that I've seen around the net, but they do the job and they don't get heavy or snag the wool:)

And now, to talk about the new crochet project I am starting...
These lovelies came from Bendigo Wool :

And I'm trying hard to make lil hexies...I love love love the little hexies from Attic24's lovely hexagon-howto.

Here are some of the practice ones I did, full of mistakes and perhaps I shouldn't put the two browns next to each other, but none-the-less, once I get the technique down, they will look great and I hope will make a lovely warm blankie for our brown, brown lounge.
I havent yet started anything for my May ornament for the FOSAL...oops.