floating world

quick knitting

I haven't been knitting much lately. I blame all the Danish TV shows we've been watching, as I'm not a good enough knitter to be able to read subtitles at the same time. I also blame the Clara dress I started making nearly two years ago, which Milla has long outgrown, but which I'm determined to finish (I've finally finished the ginormous skirt and am now up to the bodice). It is not a particularly enjoyable knit, I find the alpaca hairy and uncooperative, and the pattern is fiddly to follow.

Anyway, I decided that since the alpaca dress will be too small for Milla and it will end up being a gift for a yet-to-be-determined girl baby (I will have to find parents who appreciate the years of my life that have been eaten up by this dress and who are willing to dress their child in hairy charcoal alpaca) I can put it aside, and knit Milla something that will fit her this winter. And I needed it to be quick, satisfying, a bit mindless and not at all hairy. So I'm making a Versa dress in Cascade 220 - some of the grey and orange left over from this cardigan, plus pink and yellow. It's going along at a cracking pace and making me remember why I like knitting. Hooray! The pattern is simple enough to do in front of the TV, but the stripes make it more interesting than a vast swathe of plain stocking stitch.

Other things:

I've been reading! I finished The Night Circus, The Snow Child & Gone Girl and they were all completely different but really enjoyable. They had just the right level of interesting-ness - perhaps the book equivalent of knitting a stripey Versa dress? - where they're not so challenging or grim that they're onerous to read (I'm looking at you, A Fine Balance), but not so vacuous that they feel like a waste of time. Now I'm engrossed in The Paris Wife which I really recommend, especially if you're at all in to Hemingway and have read A Moveable Feast.

We just finished watching Season 2 of Homeland, and saw Moonrise Kingdom and Argo recently. I'm looking forward to The Great Gatsby, if nothing else it should be a spectacle.

How about you? What are you knitting and reading and watching?

And thank you for all the blog reader ideas. At the moment I'm using Bloglovin on the phone and laptop, it seemed very slow at first but now seems to be running fine (or maybe I just got used to it).

holidays + kcw

It's school holidays here - hard to believe that the boy child has already finished his first term at school. That wobbly tooth fell out on the last day of term, so the tooth fairy pillow got its first outing too.

I'm enjoying the change of pace, even if the tyranny of the lunch box and school run has been replaced by breaking up squabbles and lots of demands for food and entertainment. It's been good to potter, catch up with friends, visit the park, do some craft and cooking together and see a movie.

We just got back from a couple of nights in Canberra - it's a perfect place for small children, with lots of museums and activities. This time we visited the Deep Space Centre, War Memorial, Questacon and Parliament House. And stopped in Moss Vale on the way there and back to break up the journey and have a milkshake at Bernie"s and a peek in the wonderful Made By Others.

Now we're back, catching up on washing and I'm thinking about Kids Clothes Week sewing. I've missed the first couple of days, but I'm going to join in for the rest of the week because I really need to make some winter clothes for Milla. Ali is in uniform most of the time now, and isn't growing quite so fast, but Milla needs play trousers and some dresses and tops. So far I've been cutting out and tracing patterns - in an ideal world I'd make her a smock top, a couple of Geranium dresses (maybe one smock-length), and a couple of pairs of After School pants. I've got my eye on the Parsley Pants pattern too, but I don't think that will be released til after KCW. I'll see just how much I can fit in, in between washing-hanging, trampoline-jumping, food-prepping, lego-building and all the other school holiday stuff. And if I don't finish it all this week, there's always next week.

making a silk purse out of a sow's ear

I was very happy when Marina asked me to test her new Little Ellie Dress pattern a couple of weeks ago - her patterns are so sweet, and dresses for Milla are just about my favourite thing to sew. This has no closures, so is simple to put together, but the contrast collar and band and boat neckline make it look really smart.

To make it I reused some Liberty lawn from this skirt, which I only wore once all summer. I loved the fabric, but never felt comfortable in it - sadly that's the danger of deviating from the uniform. I might have worn it more if I had lined it, but because it was unlined and fairly light I was worried about having a Princess Diana style see-through skirt moment too. The collar and hem band for the dress are in a navy chambray I bought from Kelani ages ago.

I made this fairly roomy for Milla, so that it will fit next summer as a dress, and then hopefully the summer after that as a tunic top. I'm sure the fabric will get much more use this way than it would have if I left it as the skirt, which is great because it's too pretty to waste.

february + destashing

Somehow it is February. I thought spending the summer holidays entertaining two children, might drag a bit, but it flew past. We did lots of museum visits, playing at home, and jumping on the trampoline under the sprinkler. We went ice skating, inspired by Peppa Pig and their very talented figure skating uncle*. And then there was  preparation for the boy child to start school - new school shoes, picking out a lunch box, and sewing on name tapes. He had his first day last week and is very happy - he was so excited to wear his uniform at last, and to head off in to the world and learn new things. Luckily he ended up in a class with some friends and a teacher who is meant to be lovely, so that is the best start either of us could have hoped for. I do feel a a bit nostalgic about him starting school, because it really seems like no time ago at all that he was a tiny baby, but growing up and learning new things and tackling new stages in life is exactly what he should be doing, so I am happy and excited for him too.

So now we are all settling in to a new term time routine, of packing lunch boxes, washing uniforms and the girl child and I beng home together during the day. I have booked her in for ballet and gymnastics, which she is absolutely loving, and has had a sudden language explosion. Ali is doing well getting himself dressed in the mornings, and I'm remembering to pick up extra groceries to make sure we have things to put in the lunchbox, and have been doing some baking. My favourite is still this muffin recipe - such a good way to use up bananas that have got a bit too sweet.

It's six months now since we moved house and I'm still working on getting everything tidy and finished. There's furniture to be sanded, pictures to be framed. I've been sorting through the cupboards and giving away things we don't need or don't use or don't like. I've finally accepted that even if I really love a piece of fabric, if I haven't used it in the past five years and don't have immediate plans for it I should probably pass it on, so I've sorted through a big box of fabric and craft books and yarn and will have a stall at the Stash and Treasure sale in Marrickville next weekend. I'm excited about freeing up some space and sending out the fabric that's been neglected in the craft room on to a new home.

 

* Edited after protest by said uncle

pyjamarama

I have been sewing pyjamas. It began before Christmas, when the weather got hot. The girl child had no warm-weather pyjamas and was sleeping in short sleeved onesies. The boy child had one pair of short pyjamas that still fit from last year, but that is not enough.

I went to the shops and found (a) $40 pyjamas with tasteful prints in nice cotton or (b) $15 poly cotton pyjamas decorated with Buzz Lightyear and spangly princesses. I bought neither. I did, however, buy a pile of plain cotton t-shirts that were on sale. There wasn't the full range of sizes and colours so I just picked three for each child in whatever colours were available in their size, and then came home and picked fabrics that matched from the stash to make shorts. Ali got orange, blue and charcoal t-shirts, and shorts with lions, sea creatures and polar bears. I used the Bedtime Story pyjama pants pattern in Size 6, but short-length.

(I sewed a square of fabric on each t-shirt so they didn't get mixed up with the regular t-shirts)

Milla got aqua, coral pink and purple, and shorts with houses, abstract circles, and some purple flowers which haven't been photographed because they're in the wash.

I also made her a pair of pyjamas to match these ones I made Ali a year ago, from some cotton/linen Japanese fabric I found at Spotlight. I don't have the Bedtime Story pyjama pattern in the smaller size, so I made her shorts from the Oliver + S Puppet Show pattern (Size 2, with some width and length added. I got a shock when I realised this pattern only goes up to 24 months!) and the kimono top from the Habitual pattern (size 4, bit shorter, and with shorter sleeves because I was running out of fabric).

You can kind of tell from these photos that I like polka dots, can't you? This is Milla's single bed in her room (which used to be Ali's, but he now has bunks)... we still have the cot set up as well and are gradually transitioning her in to the bed. I'm looking forward to when we can dismantle the cot though, and make a bit more room.

It feels good to get some sewing done, and especially since I didn't buy any new fabrics for this. And pyjamas are a great way to use up prints that are too bright for daytime clothes.

unfinished business: part 3

Way back at the beginning of 2010 I did a Steiner doll making class. I finished the first doll fairly quickly, but stalled on the second one. It was partly because I missed the last class when we went on holiday. And partly because it was more complicated, with jointed limbs. But, really it was the hair. The hair terrified me. For the next two years the doll sat in a bag, naked, and with a blotchy semi-bald scalp. I finally pulled it out after we moved and finished stitching the first scalp-layer of hair on. And then it looked like this for a while:

Not very cute. So I finally decided enough was enough. I would finish this in time to give to Milla for Christmas (I had previously planned to give it to her for Christmas 2010 and 2011 and for her birthdays in 2011 and 2012). Since the hair was scaring me I knitted a cardigan instead. A mini-version of the Kina in some grey wool that's been hanging around. And then I made a dress, a modified version of this simple peasant dress, with a ruffle added to the bottom and bigger armholes (there are, I discovered, a LOT of doll-clothes-making resources on the internet. Some of them quite odd).

And then I bit the bullet and did the hair, with the help of this tutorial from Crafty Sheep. This is easier than the hand-stitched way that Carla, my doll-making teacher suggested, and while I love her ethos of making it all by hand I wasn't sure I had the time or patience to ever do it that way, so I was happy to find a quicker and simpler way to get the hair done. And finished is better than perfect, right? I can't believe that after putting finishing the hair off for so long it only took about an hour.

And I really enjoyed making the clothes. If Milla takes to her and likes dressing her I'll make some more. It seems like the perfect way to use up leftover bits of wool and fabric.

poppy dress

I know I said I was going to take a break from making dresses for Milla, but there are extenuating circumstances. Firstly, I found this 50cm cut of possibly my most favourite Liberty lawn ever (I bought it at Shaukat in South Kensington in 2010) and realised this is the last summer that Milla would be small enough for me to make a dress out of it for her. Secondly, a mum from preschool who knows I sew loaned me her copy of "Girls Style Book" in English, which is beautiful and full of pretty, simple patterns. I didn't want to hang on to the book for too long, in case it was swallowed up by all the chaos in the spare room, so bumped this project to the top of the queue. I picked Dress A, because I thought the simple, gathered style would be perfect for the Tana Lawn, and it's similar to a ruffle-necked top that Milla was given last Christmas and has worn a lot.

It was a novelty being able to read the instruction - usually I just sew things in Japanese books from the diagrams - but quite helpful. The pattern pieces are simple and it came together easily. I made a Size 4, which is a little roomy, but I wanted to make the biggest size I could from the fabric and I think this way she'll be able to wear it as a dress this summer and as a tunic top later on - since I love the fabric I want it to get as much wear as possible.

The only gripe I have with the pattern is that it specified you need 1.6m of Liberty lawn for a size 4. I made it out of 50cm, by slightly reducing the seam allowances, using bought bias tape for the armhole facings and shaving a bit off the ruffle. I am sure you could make it without any modifications to the pattern except for using bought bias from a 60cm cut. That extra 1m would cost about $45 in Australia, so over-allowing for the fabric it makes a big difference to the cost of the finished project.

I'm very happy with how this turned out, and glad to use up the fabric too, but I'm going to put it away for a Christmas present since Milla really doesn't need any more dresses right now and it will be nice to have something new for her at the end of the year.

two

The sweet girl baby is two. Friday, her actual birthday, was cold and rainy so we had a quiet day baking at home together and sung happy birthday with cupcakes to celebrate. Yesterday we had a birthday morning tea with family and a few friends, and she was in her element, playing with new toys and enjoying all the attention. She loves the doll cot, and has been busy tucking in different teddies and dolls.

The past two years with this fierce, funny, determined, adorable little person have gone so fast.

doll cot and quilt for the very nearly two year old

I took a break from KCWC and garment sewing to finish off this cot quilt for the girl baby, because it's her birthday tomorrow. I was actually super organised and bought the cot (it's an antique one) back in May, but it's taken me until the last few weeks to get around to sanding it back and painting it, and the last few days to do the bed linen and quilt. Nothing like a deadline!

Here's a before picture:

I sanded it and did a couple of coats of a semi gloss water-based paint in a pale mauve colour. And then some bedlinen - this was fun, because I went through the scrap bag and found some pink, yellow and green scraps, and a bigger piece (50cm) of a pretty pear print cotton that I bought in Japan before we moved back here, and made a fitted sheet, a pillow, a pillow case and a small quilt. Because it's a doll quilt I didn't fuss over fabric placement as much as I usually do, so that made it quick and fun to put together. Lots of the scraps are old favourites, so it was nice to use them up and remember where they came from and the other projects I've used them in.

This birthday is the first time Milla will been given real "girl" toys. She has a tea set she plays with, and a toy hospital, but both of those were Ali's. To be honest I've avoided it for as long as possible. Last year Ali brought a toy catalogue home from preschool as a fundraiser and it had pages labelled "Boy's Toys" which were full of toys for playing out doors and exploring, and then "Girl's Toys" which were pink plastic irons and things like that... even though I know that the pink and blue aisles in the toy departments are meant for boys and girls, it made me feel a little bit sick to see it spelled out so clearly, especially since the girls toys seemed so rubbish.

I find it hard to articulate exactly why the whole "boy toy" and "girl toy" thing bothers me so much. I think it's because it seems to be funnelling children into such clear (and stereotypical) gender roles very early on. I know that older children are often very aware of being boys or girls, and want the associated toys, and peer influence starts to be a factor too, but I really believe that little kids should just be able to play with good quality toys they enjoy and are interested in, and it shouldn't have to be a "boy toy" or a "girl toy". The cynic in me suspects that a lot of it is marketing, to sell more toys, because if you bought your daughter a "Laugh and Learn My Pretty Learning Purse" (click on that link at your own risk, I won't be held responsible for any ensuing nausea) and then had a son you might buy him a different Fisher Price "Learning Toy" because the purse is a "girl toy". Whereas if it was a gender neutral toy you'd just keep the same one for both children.

But, having said all that, Milla does seem to be interested in the "girl toys" so I feel like it would be mean to keep them out of the house just because of my ideological angst. She's been making beds for her teddies for ages with cushions and tea towels, and she makes a beeline for the toy strollers and prams whenever she sees them at friend's houses or playgroup, so I know she'll love playing with this. And it makes me feel a tiny bit better that it's homemade and not a plastic and polyester version.

sweet heart dress

In February this year I won a giveaway from my favourite fabric shop, Tessuti - some very sweet heart-print jersey. This week I used it to make a Hopscotch dress for Milla. I have to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of jersey dresses, because they can look like nighties, but I know they'd be really comforable to play in, especially in the heat. And this pattern has some nice details, like the lapped yoke and gathered front, that make it look a bit smarter.

Milla likes the dress. I tried it on her to check the length before hemming it yesterday and she didn't want to take it off. And when she saw it was finished this morning she wanted to wear it straight away. She was less happy, though, about having her photo taken in it - she dived behind the sofa cushions as soon as I got the camera out.

Anyway, you get the idea. It's a nice simple dress and it fits her - I made the size 3, and she will be 2 next week. I was happy to use the fabric and try a new pattern, although I think I will get more use out of the pattern at t-shirt than dress length. The thing I was most excited about was trying a twin needle for the first time to hem the bottom of the skirt and sleeves. I read about these here and here, and it really does give such a nice finish. Up til now I've usually just put a band on all edges of the knits I make, but it's really good to have an alternative, especially for things like dresses where a band wouldn't work.

I just realised that I've sewn 5 dresses for Milla in the past two months. I think it's time I made something for the boy child.

Oh, and this is my 2nd KCWC garment, and my second stashbusting garment too. This one is 2 points - 1 for the garment and 1 for trying a new pattern.