Rickrack and Ribbon!

 You may have picked up from my last post that I found making my own skirt a very gratifying experience.

 

Having been very pleased with the results I raided my fabric stash to make more of the same, but pretty up the bottom edge with some trim of some design.

 

I did also think about lining my latest creation but I couldn't quite get my head round the idea.  Who knows, I might be brave enough upon the next conquest, we'll see.

 

I cannot tell you how much joy I had for a good 45 minutes ummming and arrhing over various ribbons etc.  Green / purple ribbon were in the running, however I finally settled on some silver ribbon and some pink rickrack which I fell in love with upon first sight. 

 

♥ Tah Dah! ♥

  

Jxxx

Cheep! And Chic!

Whilst having a mooch in a fabric shop I came across some birdie fabric which, yes you've got it...I just had to have!  My reason being that as I have been spending so much time with my hook and yarn it would only be fair to my sewing machine to get it!

I also purchased a simple skirt pattern to help me ease my way into making my own clothes.

Eager to get started I soon found that measuring my waist was quite a task in itself!  Every time I measured I was something completely different, which nearly put me off the whole project altogether!  I then decided that it would be easier if I got a skirt out of my wardrobe which I knew fitted and make a pattern from that.

I simply got some baking paper, folded my skirt in half (laying the crease down the straight edge of the paper) and drew around it. Along the waist I got a pin and made holes along where the waist line was and then added a 1.5cm seam allowance to all the edges.

I cut 2 pieces of the main skirt, and 2 pieces for the waist band (front and back).  Before sewing anything together I hemmed the bottom seam of the 2 pieces of skirt, and the top seams of the 2 waist band pieces.  Afterwards I stitched a waist band piece to the top end of a skirt piece.  When I had done this twice I attached the zip to one edge of the skirt. 

Once this was done I stitched down both sides completing the skirt.

Tweet Tweet!  One birdie skirt made!

There was even enough left over fabric to make Big Sis one!

Tah - Dah! Two birdie skirts made!

 

Happy Making.

Jxxx

Craft, Flowers, Tea and Cake!

I always look forward to wednesdays for a couple of reasons:

 

1.  It's half way through the week.

2.  I get to go to Number 35 Coffee House in Dorchester, where I meet a few other fellow wool lovers (AKA 'The Chain Gang') where I oooooh and ahhhhhh at their latest creations, have tea, great cake, AND crochet all at the same time.  WOWZERS! What a treat!

The last time I went I came across a fab market stall selling fat quarters, buttons, ribbon and all sorts of goodies.

 I also bought some hyacthins as they are look beautiful and have a great fragrance.  I couldn't resist but to make this cuff to hooky them up!

The pattern that I kind of followed is here (due to the size of my pot I didn't increase at all).

Here is the end result...

 



 

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Jxxx

Snowy days

Big bro, Little Bro, Big Sis and Little Sis were soooooooo excited to wake up to snow on Friday, and had me up and outside by 8:30am.  I just love the snow when it has just settled and nobody has set a foot on it.

 

 

 

We trundled up to the top field with our sledge where I was probably the biggest kid of all.  All of us girls managed to fit on at once!  I'm don't think that will happen next year as it was a bit of a squeeze and bottoms will have grown!

 

The snow  has also meant that I have wanted to cozy up by the fire with my hook, which has in turn meant that I've been productive with the yarn that I bought from Nessie's just over a week or so ago.

 

I am following Attic 24's granny square pattern, found here which I have found to be very simple and quite addictive.

 

 

The results are certainly colourful!

Jxxx

 

New Tables!

Remember the tables?  And that scrumptious paper that I fell in love with?

Having felt like they were a disaster I thought that I would carry on with my idea as I had nothing to lose - as the paint and paper were already bought. 

I put a top coat of quick dry 'satinwood' however discovered after a couple of attempts that this made the problem of the blotching worse. So then I decided to just stick with the undercoat.

Then for the exciting bit.....the paper!

I wanted to go for a patchwork design and cut six pieces for each of the tops.

Little Miss very much enjoyed spreading the PVA round.

 

 

After the glue dried, I put on a couple of coats of clear gloss varnish...............

 

...Tah Dah!

 



 

 A colourful revamped nest of tables!

 

If you want to give this a go, I would recommend that you don't go with double sided paper like I did, because once it becomes wet with the PVA the print of on the back tries to come through to the other side (this is the reason that I have only used one square of red).

 

Jxxx

Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

While Mr T has been away and as the weather has been so cold (brrrrrrrrr!) I haven't spend any time in my woolly shed.  I have however brought my crafting inside...

Before Christmas I treated myself to 'Crochet today' magazine as I had spotted a 'bobble' Christmas stocking that caught my eye, which didn't look too daunting as patterns go.  I think that this year I will make a few more as the festive season approaches to give to Little Sis, Big Sis and Little Bro (Big Bro can have the already made one). Whilst having a flick through I also thought I would try my hand at this shrug -  in this beautiful royal blue.  I think it may be my new favourite colour - but it seems that all colour is my favourite these days!  My last attempt at a item of clothing turned into a throw having got my tension wrong! 

Now that I've only got about 20 rows to go I can see that I have gone slightly wrong with the stitch that makes the heart on the back, but think with a little tweaking it will be fine and dandy.

Jxxx

I've found what I was looking for!

 

You may remember a couple of posts ago that I am in in the middle of drawing my 'All things bright and beautiful' drawing.

 

 

Whilst spending some time with my good friend Sue, we went into the local craft store where we came across these goodies.....

 

 

 

At first I was looking at felt tip pens to give my pic the depth of colour that I wanted to achieve.  However, Sue suggested that I should try drawing ink, a medium which I have never used.  What swayed me with the ink is that I could individually choose the colours (the pens came in packs) and I can paint the ink on the picture with a brush making it much quicker to apply than a pen!  I have also found out that a little goes a LONG way so they will last for ages. So far I'm very happy with the results......

 

...happy and vibrant...

 

Big Sis and Little Sis fancied 'helping' me, however I persuaded them to do some colouring instead (phew!)

 

 



 

Jxxx

 

 

Picking and choosing

Crikey!  What a busy couple of days it's been! 

Whilst I had a couple of hours to myself I had a poke around in a lovely little yarn store in Beaminster.  Nessie, the lady who runs the shop couldn't have been more patient to a rookie in crochet - I found choosing colours for my next project surprising difficult and could have easily just bought the whole shop!  However I don't think I could explain myself to Mr T upon his return  (eek!) 

After MUCH deliberation I chose these colours to make a granny square blanket out of to snuggle down with in the evening.

I particularly like the orange and the turquoise.  However I'm not sure that the pic does the justice as it looks as though I have got two pinks but one is actually a cherry red. 

Now for some hooky time! Jxxx

Today Mr T has stripped the wallpaper in our upstairs loo before his two week adventure at The Ascension Island.  It's very much in in it's transion state -things get worse before they get better!  Unfortunately I don't expect much progress on this until Mr T gets back as the thought of wallpapering petrifies me!  Give me a pot of paint and a brush any day of the week! 

Yesterday it was the 11th anniversary of my Dad's death.  I can honestly say that he was the most positive person I have ever met.  I remember him coming up with a motto for his life when I was a teenager, which I thought was completely bonkers at the time!

 'Aspire to Inspire'

Now as an adult, I think his motto was great and hope to take this on in some small way for my own life.  He chose 'All Things Bright and Beautiful' as one of the songs at his funeral, which is where I have taken inspiration from in this ink drawing that I have started. 

 

 

I'm still thinking how I'm going to add colour.  The last one I painted with watercolor but I may want something a bit bolder.

 

 

As for now I'm going to make a nest on the sofa and spend some time with my crochet hook and yarn.

 

 

Jxxx

After waking up this morning I dashed out to accomplish the the next coat of painting on the nest of tables.  However I discovered to my horror that the original brown colour was seeping through the base coat of primer that I had applied :0( 

And to think that the theory of my project had seemed to be so easy!!!

To drown my disappointment I put the kettle on, had a cream tea, and got the sewing machine out.

After a bit of thought I chose to make a bed cover for our family's faithful friend, out of fabric from my growing stash that I have been acquiring over the years.

This was a VERY easy project to do.  I simply measured the rectangle and added 3cm for the seam allowances (1.5cm each side), measured the depth, and again added 3cm.  For the base I cut two pieces of fabric slightly too long, in order that they would overlap to make an envelope opening, which meant no fiddly zips!  Then stitched all together!

 Jxxx

Today I started a project that has been in and out of my thoughts for a while. 

Earlier in the week I was having a mooch around town when I unexpectedly stumbled across the most beautiful double sided paper for wrapping gifts.  This sounds a little silly but I couldn't imagine using it for it's purpose as it would involve the paper being thrown away! But wanted it incorporated into my life somehow, and so I was frantically thinking about how this delicious paper could be used...

...I then had a brain wave....

...When Mr T and I first got married, most of our furniture was either given to us or purchased second hand.  Needless to say that 13 years on we still have most of it.  I then thought about a nest of 3 tables that live in our lounge which really need to be either binned or give them the once over.

Yep, you've got it,once over it is.  I'm going to give them a lick of paint,cover the tops with the paper, and seal with varnish.

Big and Little Sis, and Little Bro all helped with the sanding.  And I have just come in from the shed after giving them all a coat of primer.

 
I will keep you posted with my progress...
Jxxx

I find it truly amazing that a ball of yarn and a crochet hook can bring so much happiness to a person.  On the run up to christmas I fell in love with making some christmas pudding crochet tree decorations.  So much so, that I thought that they would make fabulous tokens of appreciation to a few of my closest friends.

This did mean however, that I was without a project over the actual christmas period.  Luckily for me there is so much inspiration on the web where I came across a gorgeous Cath Kidston Style Cowl, which you can find here: Inverleith, if you fancy having ago at it yourself. I thought it just the item for a present to myself!!

Here is the finished result......

I am soooooo happy with it!

At first I thought it was a tad too long as I like a cowl to be snuggly around me but  realised after a day of wearing it that I just had to wind it three times and not two!  Jxxx