floating world

the study

My study used to look like this. Well, not really, it was usually messier than that, but that was the general configuration of furniture. Then, about two years ago I had a built in desk and shelves put in. I love the built in desk. Suddenly I had a vast expanse of surface, all the same level and with no cracks to drop things down, instead of two small desks and a filing cabinet. We painted the walls a soft grey colour, and added a red light fitting. I just realised that I'd never photographed the way the room looks now... probably because it has never been tidy enough. But change is afoot and we probably won't be in this little house for too much longer, so I wanted to document the space before we go.

a mostly unphotographed easter

Happy Easter! We spent our long weekend in Thredbo, a little village in the mountains about 500km south of Sydney, with a group of friends. In winter it's a ski resort, but at this time of year you can go for walks, catch a chair lift, ride a bobsled or play tennis. Or, if you prefer, mooch in the lodge enjoying the view and knitting and baking and eating chocolate.

We took turns to make dinner in the big communal kitchen... I made hot cross buns*, chocolate cake, passionfruit pavlova and kitsch-but-delicious Easter nests. I didn't take many photos but we had a wonderful time, the children enjoyed all the attention and chocolate and were absolute troopers in the car on the way there and back. It was beautiful sunny weather, but cold enough to make fires in the evenings, which was perfect for knitting by. And one night we drove to a nearby campground for a bonfire and marshmallow toasting and saw lots of wild kangeroos hopping past.

I hope your Easter was relaxing and chocolate-filled too.

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*This is the third year I have used this recipe, they always rise well and taste great. I didn't bother doing the candied or dried apple this time, and just added extra raisins and peel. And made a simple glaze from water + sugar + cinnamon + lemon juice for when they came out of the oven.

there are many things wrong with this skirt

Whenever I sew from a commercial pattern I go through a routine in my head that goes something like this:

"Oh, it's the first time I'm making this pattern. I suppose I should check what size I am. Especially since I can't be bothered making a muslin".

[Measures hips and waist. Shocked intake of breath. Compares to pattern envelope. Even more shocked]

"Oh, wow, this says I should make a size 14. Usually I'm about a 10 in clothes. But I guess the measurements are right so I must be a 14. Hmmmm... it says if you are between sizes and small boned you should go down to the lower size. So I'll make a 12".

SO then, feeling virtuous that I have bothered to take my measurements and read the pattern envelope I cut out the pattern and fabric and sew up the garment only to try it on and find that it is BLOODY ENORMOUS and realise that I should have just ignored the pattern envelope and sewn a Size 10 anyway. Does this happen to everyone else too? Why are the pattern sizes so big and completely unrelated to the measurements they give?

Anyway, being too big is just one of many things that is wrong with this skirt.

It had potential. I really liked the pattern (Simplicity 2226) when I saw Kate's version... I'm a big fan of skirts with pockets. And I liked the fabric (Dear Stella Chevron), which was an impulse addition to a Hancock's order. But the quilting weight fabric is really too stiff for a gathery skirt. And I completely underestimated the importance of matching up the zig zag stripes at the side and back seams, so it looks really wonky and amateur.

SO I'm calling this one a muslin, and will try again with a smaller size in a more agreeable fabric. And this version shall not be spoken of again.

corduroy pinafore

A pinafore for Miss Milla, made from Liberty babycord that I bought at Shaukat when I was pregnant with her. And using a Butterick pattern that my mum has had with her sewing things for as long as I can remember... aren't the envelope illustrations adorable? I had thought it was from when my sister and I were little, but on closer inspection the pattern looks more 1970s than 1980s (or maybe even older?), so maybe it was a hand-me-down, or one Mum used to make dresses for someone else's children before we were born.

The Liberty cord was, as always, a dream to sew with, and I think the finished dress looks sweet. I'm imagining it with a long-sleeved white picot edge t-shirt underneath and grey tights. But my proudest bit is the invisible zip... I have been avoiding these for SO long ("Learn to do invisible zippers" was on both my 2010 and 2011 Creative To-Do lists, but I've been wanting to learn to do them for much longer than that, since conventional zippers always result in much angst and unpicking) and with some help from Mel and the proper Janome invisible zipper foot I finally was brave enough to try it... and it was really easy. Quite anti-climatic after all the build up, but I'm very happy to have a new skill in my sewing repetoire.

autumn knitting

I'm not quite sure how, but it seems to be March already and I know that since my children are getting bigger and my knitting remains woefully slow I had better get on with making them each a cardigan if I want to have them finished in time for winter. I've started Ali's first - it's the Wonder Years pattern, and I'm knitting it in Cascade 220 (except for the blue stripe which is Zara left over from this project, long long ago).

For Milla I'm planning a bigger version of the yoked cardigan, in a goldy-orange colour (a dangerous departure from my usual grey/blue/red colours).

And for myself, I'm working on Lawrence in Tosh DK. Although the cowl is gobbling yarn, and I'm starting to worry that I won't have enough. So it may end up as a midriff jumper with a huge cowl. But I can put off dealing with that by knitting the children's cardigans first.

(more details on all projects on Ravelry).

a new pincushion

The tomato pincushion on the left has served me well for many years. Ten years in fact. In 2002 I was doing the most soul crushingly boring graduate job ever at a television station in Sydney, and to distract myself while I plotted my escape to London I started sewing again, and also took Japanese classes at night. There used to be a big fabric store on York Street, right near where the buses stopped for the QVB - I don't remember the name but it had furnishing fabrics upstairs and hobby sewing things in the basement. One night on the way to Japanese class I stopped in there and picked up some haberdashery, including the tomato pincushion.

Since then the tomato has lived in London, Tokyo, and then come back to Sydney. It was never particularly well made, and gradually started to disintergrate. First the small tomato full of sharpening sand fell off (I think that happened in Tokyo). Next it started to leak sawdust, until it was a fraction of its former size. Some things gain sentimental value the longer you hang on to them, but I have never been particularly fond of the tomato. It served its purpose, but that was all. Sometimes I would admire handmade pincushions on Etsy or at craft stalls, but I could never justify buying one because I knew I could make one myself. Except I never did make one, so I was stuck with a leaky half-deflated tomato.

Anyway, I finally decided that enough was enough and ordered the very cute (and well written) Apple Pincushion Pattern from Craftapalooza. Yesterday I spent an hour sewing and - ta dah! - a new pincushion. It was fun choosing scraps of fabric and putting it all together. And it looks much prettier than the tomato ever did. When Ali got home from preschool he transferred all the pins into the new apple cushion, and we threw the tomato in the bin.

Some other things:

Please notice the beautiful fabric the pincushions are sitting on. It is Liberty Lantana that I ordered from England via eBay, and is quite possibly the nicest fabric I have ever bought. I am a little bit intimidated by its niceness, but when I get over that I'm going to make it into a Tova. By the way, did you know the Tova pattern is available as a PDF download now? I know a few people who were put off by the expensive postage to Australia, and while the print version is beautiful it's much more affordable (and quicker to start sewing) now that there's a PDF. And it is a really lovely pattern.

I also got some Liberty lawn from Shaukat.

Ordering online isn't quite the same as rummaging through the funny shop in South Kensington, but they have a great range of prints and the postage is reasonable and fast. Mine turned up in a week. Time to do some sewing!

a dress for humid days

I finished a version of New Look 6775 this week, just in time for a few hot humid end-of-summer days. I've lost count of how many times I've made this dress, it has been a great pattern. This time I made a sleeveless version with a tie belt. The print is a viscose/linen blend (it's hard to see in this photo, but it's a blue, black and natural mottled design) and the yoke and belt are in a black cotton/linen blend, both from Spotlight. The print fabric is quite loosely woven and frayed easily, so I was glad to have the overlocker to finish the side seams, but it's nice and cool to wear and surprisingly wrinkle-resistant. Always a bonus, there are clothes I like but rarely wear because they need ironing. I love dresses because they make it so quick to get ready in the mornings, and while this one is nothing fancy it will be very handy for doing preschool drop-offs and playground excursions.

long overdue

The past couple of weeks have been chaotic here. New preschool and daycare routines. Good things like houseguests visiting from overseas. Bad things like a sick husband and sick kids. I feel like I'm hardly keeping up with the basic jobs that need to be done.

But life seems to be calming down now, and it's been good to have a few quiet days to hang out at home and give everyone a chance to recover. And I did a little bit of sewing - something I've been wanting to make for... um.... about 5 years.

I made a fitted cot sheet.

When I was pregnant with Ali I bought a couple of packets of white Len fitted sheets from Ikea because, amid all the other expenses associated with having a baby, I couldn't justify buying expensive but beautiful cot sheets. And, I figured, I could always sew my own.

5 years later the Len sheets are still holding up well, but when I saw this cotton fabric on sale at Spotlight I decided it was finally time to make one. And, about 1 hour later (at least 30 minutes of which was threading the elastic through the casing) it was done. Even on sale the fabric was $10 for 2m, so it isn't as economical as buying Ikea but I do think it looks pretty - I'm a sucker for cherry print. I used this tutorial from Micheal Miller which saved some time taking measurements, and it's ended up a good taut fit.

I realised when I was taking photos of the sheet that I hadn't ever written about the coverI made for the change table cushion - that was another thing I meant to do from before Ali was born because I didn't like the stretch-terry ones in the baby shops, and finally got around to when Milla was about 6 months old. In the meantime we used to cover it up with a cotton blanket, but it always came untucked, especially when the babies got bigger and wrigglier. This stays in place much better, and you can't really see but it's a grey and white spot cotton. To make the cover I traced the shaped ends of the cushion, added seam allowance, and then measured a rectangle to wrap across the top and tuck underneath. The bottom is finished with elastic, like a fitted sheet, but after I made mine I saw this tutorial which looks like another simple way to do it.

The cot and change table are the same ones we used for Ali, my grandmother bought the cot for us and so it's extra special, especially as she died when I was pregnant with Milla and so never got to meet her. When we used it for Ali the change table shelves were plain plywood, but I covered them with wallpaper from Porters Paints before Milla was born. In this room they are right next to each other (there is a sofa on the other wall) and now that Milla's getting taller I have to be careful to put the baby wipes and creams out of reach. On more than one occasion I've come in to find she's been finger painting with Sudocream. And today when I came to get her up from her nap she'd been posting all the baby wipes between the cot and the wall.

The doll is another new addition. I'd been avoiding plastic dolls, but Milla seems drawn to them - she was playing with all the manky ones at playgroup and daycare, and picks them up and pats them on the back so sweetly that it melted my heart and I forgot about my petty aesthetic objections. This one is quite cute anyway, it's a Miniland doll and is meant to be the Asian baby but I picked it because it kind of looks like Milla. I couldn't stomach the clothes in the toy shop though, they were all fluro and polyester, so I thought "It's okay, I can make some". But given my track record the poor dolly will probably be sitting around in her undies until 2017.

the nephew quilt

The nephew quilt is finished, and has been safely dispatched to America with my mother-in-law, who is visiting the new baby. It is soft and snuggly and will hopefully keep him warm.

The fabrics are a mixture - some left overs from Ali's pyjamas (and I went back to Spotlight and got an extra metre of the spot for the backing), some prints from the stash, and the rest were from Remnant Warehouse (which, despite the name, has a very good range of non-remnant patchwork fabrics). I was going for blue and green (it's always hard for me to not use red) and loved the lime Umbrella Print elephants.

I still feel like I'm learning something with every quilt I make. The proper cutting mat and fabric guilloutine I bought last year made cutting this out so much easier. Although I did get distracted and cut the squares at 5" instead of 4", so it turned out kind of enormous. The sashing is 3" and I used a 1cm seam allowance. The batting is cotton, also from Remnant Warehouse.

I quilted this on my Janome with the walking foot, but I think this is the biggest quilt I can manage on that machine. Doing both sides of each seam took longer, but I really love the effect, it seems to make it more crinkly and puffy and emphasises the grid.

I'm glad it's finished, and on its way to the new baby, and I hope that his mum and dad like it and that it will keep him cosy for a long time. Ali is also glad that it's finished because he says now I can make his Captain Barnacles costume.

daiso in sydney

I always loved pottering in Daiso in Japan, so I'm very excited that there's a branch in Sydney now. Masses of ridiculously cute (and some surpisingly useful) Japanese stuff for $2.80 a piece. Just quietly, this is going to be my go-to place for kids party bags from now on - there are lots of sweet stationery and craft items and toys, and pretty cellophane bags.