Winging it.

My sewing style is...relaxed, shall we say. Perhaps a little...lazy. Slapdash. Haphazard. Suffice to say, me and my unpicker aren't the best of friends. If I can wing it without unpicking anything, I'm a happy camper. So, I was pretty pleased with how this top turned out, considering I completely omitted the darts at the back and ended up inadvertently making myself a mumu. (I'm never sure how to spell that word...but you know what I mean, right?) Anyway, disaster was averted with the zig-zagging on of a few rows of clear elastic in order to pull the back in. That part worked fine, then since I didn't have a stretch needle handy to finish the hems, I chucked the top into a pile of random stuff, and I didn't see it again for a few months. (That sort of thing happens quite a lot in our house. Stuff just vanishes into piles of other stuff. I can't imagine why; it's surely nothing to do with my domestic-goddess skills.) When I unearthed it I was struck with a fervent sense of "I'm going to finish this no matter how rubbish it ends up looking" so I took to it, still without a ball point needle, and with kids under my feet (a recipe for disaster no matter which way you slice it). So, here it is, resplendent in its dodgy-hemmed glory, skipped stitches and all, courtesy of the wrong needle. It's still rather comfy, though, I must say, and has had a few outings. The pattern is Simplicity 3835, the fabric is a viscose/spandex knit from Centrepoint (the shop, rather than the commune) and it is lovely and cool, although a little too crushable for my liking, since I'm not all that well acquainted with the iron. Domestic goddess..yeah...nah.

A nice cold one

Ahhh. I'm sitting here in a patch of afternoon sunlight, with a nice cold beer at my side. It's a Speights "Summer Harvest" and Oh. My. Goodness. It is delicious. Granted, the last 23-ish months have been a pretty dry spell beer-wise, for me; but nonetheless, it's a damn tasty beer. All apricoty and beery and mmmmm. I guess there has to be some plus side to the depressing reduction in cup-size post weaning Mr nearly 2, right?
Anyways, alcohol aside. It's been a pretty slow weekend on the craft front. I've had a half hour or so to do stuff, and this little macro shot is from the pocket of a skirt I'm working on, made out of a faded pair of curtains I picked up at the Sallies. It was one of those purchases that feels good at the time, but has you wondering on the walk home "what on earth was I thinking? Why am I bringing yet more crap into the house to sit on the shelf and not be used?". I'm still not a hundred percent sure it won't end up looking like a dodgy apron or house coat from the 1950s, but we'll just have to see.

In a triumph for the slack sewists among us, I'm pleased to report that of the two techniques I used to apply the satin binding and ric-rac to the pocket edge, the "be careful and pin, trim seams and baste" one ended up disastrous and very sweary, while the "bugger it I'll just hold it on and sew it and hope for the best" worked a dream. I feel truly vindicated.

It's craft, Jim, but not as we know it

I'm no Martha Stewart, that's for sure. There are piles of stuff in my house that eat other things, like single shoes, and cellphones, and important bits of paper. Unfortunately, it seems that the rot has also set into the file structure on my computer...as in, I haven't the foggiest idea where some of my pictures have ended up. Since I couldn't find any crafty ones, I've had to resort to a little bit of pictorial randomness...a last little taste of NZ summer. I'm going to tell myself that it's vaguely related to craft, because as the weather here has been getting chillier, I've been thinking a lot about what I'm planning on sewing for autumn.

So...I really need some new clothes. Well, technically, I don't, since I can't currently close my drawers as it is; but you know how it is. I REALLY need some new clothes. For someone who professes a love of sewing I am embarrassed to say that I pretty much live in a wardrobe of clothes from Glassons. Give me a racerback singlet and a pair of jeans and I'm ....well, I'm looking the same as I did yesterday. And the day before that. But enough, I say! Time to get serious ;-)

One of the main reasons I wear so little of what I sew (apart from the fact that so little of what I sew actually gets finished) is that stuff tends not to fit. So, in order to remedy this, on the advice of the wise and expert Maryanna-from-across-the-road, I've booked myself into a Palmer Pletsch fit workshop at the end of the month. Woohoo! I can finally find out from an official source all the ways in which my figure is imperfect (oh joy) and start to factor in my big-bum-overly-wide-shoulders-no-boobs statistics into all my sewing endeavours.

This autumn, therefore, I am pledging to myself to make at least 4 things that I will actually wear. I'm mulling over patterns at the moment, but so far I'm thinking some kind of hoodie; some comfy jeans/cargo/mum-trousers type things; a couple of skirts to wear with boots; and some kind of funky-casual dress to wear with boots. Hopefully all stuff that will fit into my playdough-and-spaghetti encrusted lifestyle. Functionality...bah. I've never really been all that good at that part of sewing. Most of the stuff I made pre-kids was pretty, going-out type stuff. I even (partially) made a black, beaded corset as a kind of wearable muslin before making my wedding dress. Deluded? Me? I mean, I know life before kids did involve a much more exciting social life, but a beaded corset? WTF? Maybe I should dig it out of storage and wear it to make some cheese on toast for the kids, just for a laugh. Now that would be a sight indeed.

On the bandwagon

I have a looong list of stuff I want to make. Every time I visit a new blog, I add to my list. My list is starting to stress me out, which kind of defeats the purpose of "craft-as-meditation", right?

Anyway, many moons ago, I admired the whole pencil roll/needle roll thing that seems to appear on every second blog. I added "Pencil roll" and "needle roll" to my list. And, astoundingly for me, I actually did something about it and made one of each. Sadly, not for myself (my knitting needles reside in a kid's shoe box and a holey snap lock bag); but for a friend who'd just had her second baby. I figured since she'd done all the work, she should get the best present ;-) In the spirit of not-making-anyone-feel-stink, though, I also made something for the older brother. Oh, and the baby. But cos I'm a slow crafter, I'm saving the needle roll and baby clothes for another slow news day ;-)
Here's the pencil roll, at any rate. Pretty much another instant gratification project, and all from stash, which adds a nice virtuous shine to the crafting experience. I also made him a little drawstring bag for all his boy stuff. A trainee "man-bag", if you will.

Small things

I have a jumper for myself that's been on the needles for nearly a year now, and shows no sign of being finished anytime soon. Maybe I'll plan for it to be a bedjacket in my retirement ;-) Small things, on the other hand, like this jumper from "Simple knits for cherished babies" by Erika Knight, are like the knitting equivalent of chocolate biscuits. Instant(ish) gratification. I like that. I clearly like chocolate biscuits, too, since for the past three days that's all I've had for lunch, followed by a chaser of jelly snakes. What a stunning nutritional example I'm setting for my children.

Anyway, I'm off for an evening of stitchin' and bitchin' tonight - I can't wait. And the best thing of all is that I don't even need to get organised...since it's just over the road, I can just sneak out the door at the last possible minute, and leave the bedtime battles to my lovely husband. Ahhh...

A new bag for an old bag

IMG_5315, originally uploaded by JenNZL.

Ok, so, technically speaking, I guess at 31 I'm not really an old bag...but many days, I certainly feel that way. Especially since Mr nearly 2 has decided that sleep is for the weak and that he'd rather party at all hours and no longer nap during the day.
So, this bag is unfinished, but since I didn't have anything else to write about today I thought I'd just put it up anyway. The plan is to finish the blanket stitching around both the circles on the front, which are currently steam-a-seamed on and won't last being thrown into the car and sat on, amongst the many other indignities that the bag of a harried mother has to endure.

The pattern is based on this one, but I added a few inches to the depth of the bag and also added heaps more pockets to house all the gadgets I find myself lugging around. Muesli bar pocket? Check. Place for snotty tissues? Check. Home for random Lego men and dried up crusty bits of playdough? No worries.

I angled the sides of the bag and the strap a bit to make it less boxy. Good old op-shop grey blanket provides a cheap and sturdy outer; it's lined with some Amy Butler stuff from our local sewing shop; and the little embroidered fantail on linen is based on an image from an old NZ postage stamp. (who? me? a sheep? ...isn't it compulsory to have at least one backstitched-bird-on-beige-linen in a craft blog? ;-)

It's yet to pass the acid test, though, of life with two small children. I'm always on the lookout for the absolute, all-time, bag-of-perfection that will solve all my crap-carrying problems. I'm just loathe to admit that probably what I really need is a suitcase on wheels. Or a porter.

finger vs. the breadknife

Guess who won?
Slicing your finger with the breadknife isn’t ideal at the best of times, but it’s particularly crap when you’ve just arranged to have an entire morning sans children, in order to get stuck in to some sewing. Kids are dressed, teeth cleaned, ready to head out the door. I’ve got that nice warm anticipatory feeling in my stomach, looking forward to uninterrupted me-time at the sewing machine. Feeling benevolent, I figure I’ll just slice a couple of passionfruit open for the kids before they go. And there you have it. The breadknife won. Damn wobbly slippery fruit.

The kids still went out, but I ended up spending the morning on the computer, eating chocolate and feeling sorry for myself, with my stoopid stoopid sore finger held at shoulder height to stop it throbbing. Bah.

Anyway, I did manage a few handsewn projects, after the chocolate and panadol kicked in. And on a brighter note, I’m fully planning on using said munted finger as an excuse not to do any dishes tonight…thus freeing up more time for craft. See, always thinking ;-) (except while cutting passionfruit, evidently.)