Lots of Little Stitches

I was busy boasting to a friend that I'd been sewing a rolled hem by hand - "Ahah" said he, "I'm making a wedding dress in silk chiffon, would you hem it for me." And so I am - a lovely soft dove grey colour and I might, eventually, get proficient & efficient at rolled / whiped hemming but right now it takes at least an hour to stitch 1 metre and when the fabric is not on the straight of grain it flutes and plays up. This shows some of the better bits I'm also mending / renovating a lovely old hand-knitted baby's shawl. Mending & reinforcing and then embroidering over the top of the mends so they no longer look like mends. Ladybirds & leaves in bullion stitch - where there is a ladybird on one side of the shawl there are leaves on the other side.

That photo is almost to scale as the beetles are only 1.5cm from toe to toe.

Been busy

Lots of sewing in the last week - including some shirts for grandson. With short sleeves in a classic stripe -





and long sleeves in tartan - this is a lovely light weight cotton fabric.






As grandson is left-handed I've placed the pockets on the RHside and because he likes to do up his buttons himself - "I can DO it" - I've used biggish buttons with slightly larger than normal b-holes. Buttons on the tartan shirt look like old-fashioned records (those black vinyl things) - they have different coloured 'labels' & I had fun matching the colours of the tartan :-)

Have also finally gotten back to that mega-project I started last year - to make an alphabet for the grands with knitted toys for each letter ... T is for turtle & tortoise and so I'm knitting a Sheldon a great pattern and I love the way he 'comes out of his shell' :-) but at this stage in his progress I think my Sheldon looked rather like a tick with a full tummy ...
On Sunday we went to the Leichhardt Public School Fete - because of the Tea Cosy competition. Lots of wonderful cosies - here are the children's















and the grown up's






Wonderful creativity. My Anna Karenina got a prize and I'm inordinately proud :-) Bought all sorts of things at the fete, 2nd hand books and clothes and a really big metal colander - which with a bit of adaptation will fit perfectly inside my dying pot - and make it much easier to dye roving / sliver without it felting up. Yea!

Well, I'll leave you with yet another native orchid flowering in the garden right now - Dendrobium falcorostrum (aka Beech Orchid) and it seems this is another orchid getting reclassified and getting another name Thelychiton falcorostrus all these names make our lovely native orchids sound like hardened criminals!

And this one is such a pretty thing - love the fancy shape to the tip of the labellum, like one of these { The scent is classic native orchid - sweet and powdery.

Almost Spring & some Doll Torture

Spring must be just around the corner when this happens in our garden -
lovely old-fashioned SnowFlakes. This happens too -

A native Australian orchid Dendrobium teretifolium, commonly called Rats' Tail Orchid in NSW and Bridal Veil Orchid in Queensland :-) I've had this lovely orchid since 1982. Love the way the petals curve backwards making the flowers look like a child running with their arms out and I love the perfume of these flowers. Sorry we don't yet have Blog-a-Scent but many native orchids have gorgeous scent - D teretifolium is like a lot of the Dendrobiums, sweet with a powdery quality. Wish I could bottle it!

And now for some Doll Torture - avert your eyes if you are squeamish! No I've not been customising Blythe Dolls (not brave enough) but I'm plotting and planning a project which requires 1/2 a doll. So off to large store toy department where I was bewildered by the amazing array of plastic ... mostly Barbies. BTW they've changed her face again and she looks exactly like Paris Hilton ... very apt! But I bought another sort of doll for a whole $6.

Hubby ripped her legs off, then he amputated half her bottom with a hack-saw, I cooked her arm in hot water



so I could bend it, then we drilled holes in her hips, finally I sandpapered the rough bits ...


More on this project in future posts.



Well perhaps as punishment for all that, there has been a little human torture too. This last week I've been busy sewing for a private client; making among other items, a slip dress in a very soft silk fabric. A really pretty fabric but a nightmare to sew except when perfectly on the straight of grain and this is a bias cut slip dress - the straps are probably the only parts on the straight. I had planned to hem the frock with a neat little machine hem - impossible, the sewing machine just wanted to eat the fabric, I tried all my tricks and nothing worked. SO - I consulted my lovely old "Encyclopedia of Needlework" for a quick brush-up on the technique for a hand stitched rolled hem. It isn't all that slow but my left hand gets the sore from holding the fabric taut.

Sewing for Little People

Well the Christmas / New Year break was nice and productive (could I have another one please?) here is some sewing I did before Christmas and during the time off.

Granddaughter is walking now which means dresses no longer get in the way (I like to keep frocks very short - or make rompers for crawling bubs) This is from a vintage pattern - McCall's 2244 (copyright 1958)

Big inverted box pleats front and back with ribbon down the middle of the front ones, more ribbon over the shoulders with bows. Cotton fabric with a lovely print of irises (?) but it is a one-way design because it is actually intended for patch-work quilt making ... I like using interesting and fun fabrics for kids' clothes but those one-way designs keep me on my toes!

More "patchwork quilt" fabrics for shirts and summer PJs for our 3yr old grandson. PJs in this aeroplane fabric and I got aeroplane buttons too !




This chook print became a shirt and because the print is quite busy I kept the styling of the shirt plain and simple (no pocket, no yoke ...)

On the other hand, this beige plaid, really boring fabric became a long-sleeve shirt with lots of detail just like a grown-up business shirt and I'm planning to make a vest (and perhaps trousers) to "go with" this shirt.

Just sew sew ...

Have been doing quite a bit of sewing for the grandchildren in the last few months - I've given them these items and there's more to come. I think there will be twelve days of Christmas this year :-)

I like to use cute and/or unexpected fabrics for childrens' clothes and this year I've indulged in some fun prints intended for patchwork quilts. Here's a Christmas shirt with shiny buttons for our grandson -

and a close up of fabric and buttons on his new PJs.

He likes fun buttons (don't we all) and likes to do them up himself - so I've made larger than normal buttonholes to make things easier.



Our granddaughter has had her first ever birthday :-) and I'd made her a cute play-suit from a vintage pattern. Lots and lots of frills especially across the ample bottom (designed to be worn over cloth nappies)


Well, it is not just the bottom that is large - seems that sizing was just as unreliable back in the 1950's as it is now - the pattern says it'll fit a 6mth old and I knew it was large but I think this playsuit will be a nice fit next year !!!

Pressies for Grandchildren

YEA - we're off interstate tomorrow visiting our daughter and grandchildren :-) :-) :-)

So I've been frantically trying to finish some of the things I've been making for them ... granddaughter is 9mths now and she is getting a couple of dresses - green cotton cord. with ric-rac and yellow gingham binds and daisy (a bit bleached out in photo)

And vintage 70s rayon with purple contrast bits -

there is a matching hat













This knitted cross-over cardi has turned out rather large though I had the correct guage - oh well, as we are approaching summer this is probably just as well - it should fit by autumn!












The possum is just the right size :-)
I used yarn made of possum fur - which is a bit spooky I suppose but also very realistic! (it is lovely and made by Touch Yarns of New Zealand, where possums are feral pests) Because the grands are very young I've not used buttons for the eyes as suggested by the pattern (Cleckheaton's "Wildlife in 8ply" - very clever patterns by Barbara Lennon) nor have I used those "safety eyes" meant for toy-making as I don't think they are safe at all - they break very easily. SO - I used black felt but perhaps they are a little too large and rounded as this possum looks like it has a thyroid problem!


I've made more felt play food for grandson - guess it is never too early to learn how to be a wonderful Barista like his mummy :-) I've slightly adapted some of umecrafts lovely patterns to make felt 'cups' with inter-changeable 'beverages'. Have made 3 main bevs - Hot Choc, Coffee and Tea - then lots of extra 'tops' for the different variations.
Here is "Hot Choc" in the front and "Choc with MarshMellows" at the back - (not sure about those marshmellows!)



Here we have the coffees - from the left - Cappuccino, Latte (a 'top' sitting on the table), Flat White, then the other photo - Long Black (the main coffee base, don't you love the 'crema'?) and Mocha








And here is the whole lot - up-side down because I've stitched what they are ...






And finally - something for my daughter's Blythe Doll (well, she is almost another granddaughter!) It is being modeled by my Blythe Doll, Lillian.

Playing with Food

Another current crafting obsession has been making (and buying) felt play-food for my grandson ... he loves cooking.

I bought some great pieces from a fellow Etsyian FeltFoodCreations - a wonderful Banana and this fantastic Breakfast Set ...
just love those eggs!



I've also been making some myself - and I certainly appreciate how much time-consuming hand-sewing goes into this play-food !!
I bought some really good patterns from another Etsyian Umecrafts ...

Here are some vegies:




and some fruit - very proud of the strawberries:
Then I got really enthusiastic and thought sandwiches would be fun to play with ... here is the bread, wholemeal of course


Took ages to make as I hand embroidered all the 'grains' - there is a kitchen sponge (new & unused) inside the slices. I've also made the butter, some peanut paste (crunchy), nutella and vegemite ... some of those are in satin fabric as I thought they needed to be shiny. Am currently making some strawberry jam - with felt lumps :-) No patterns - they are just triangles with wobbly edges.

Fedora for Dora?

Am doing the Cert 4 Millinery course at TAFE this year and the first 'exercise' was to make a pattern for a fabric Fedora. The streets are awash with fabric Fedoras at the moment but I decided to sew my pattern up in good fabric and I'll be selling it on my Etsy shop.

I'm rather chuffed with it - got a nice shape to the crown complete with those dimples in the front (stitched in place with sneaky stitches inside). Here is a pic of one of the final processes - hand stitching the inside head-band in place - traditional gros-grain ribbon moulded by hand for a good snug fit on the head.