Matching Pegs

We are just back from a lovely family holiday here.

It wasn’t really long enough, but we did manage to swim, canoe, play tennis and …

jump on the Jumping Pillow.

I didn’t sew a stitch, and that was just fine.

Where has your best family holiday been?

Apparently (in English speaking countries) it rhymes with oil.

So, I’m fairly pleased with myself – 2 garments completed from the same pattern, without an iota of help from anyone else.  What feels particularly miraculous to me is that they turned out just as I wanted – comfy, light and relatively flattering.  The pattern in question is “New Look 6983” View B.

This red one was my first attempt, made up with some lightweight 100% cotton (dobby spot) I picked up from Spotlight .  I fiddled a little with the seam allowance – taking it in slightly to give a hint more shape at the waist, but made no other alterations.

This second one was made up in “Anna Maria Horner – Little Folks” Voile that I have been hanging onto for ages.  Even thought it is also 100% cotton, it feels quite silky to touch.  On this one I lengthened the slit at the centre of the neck .  I felt it was too high, proportionally, on the pattern, but as it is narrow, it does not gape scandalously open at the longer length.  I also gave the waist a little more shape than the pattern called for.

There was one huge departure that I made from the pattern instructions, one that my Mother taught me many years ago.  The instructions call for the side seams on the body to be sewn up, way back in step 2.  They likewise call for the side seams on the sleeves to be sewn together prior to sewing the sleeves to the body.

I ignored this order of assembly, in favour of sewing in the sleeves when the body and sleeves are still flat.  Much easier!

This method allows you to better distribute the fabric ease in the sleeves (i.e. fiddle with the slight gathers you make in the seam allowance, to make the sleeve rounded over the shoulder).  It is much easier to match the notches.

Of course, pinning the heck out of it helps as well!  After sewing the sleeve to the body, you simply sew the side seams of the body and sleeve together on one go, pivoting when you reach the intersection.

Look – no puckers!  Can you tell I impressed myself.

So the verdict – “New Look 6983″ is a lovely, simple pattern, and I will probably make it over and over again.  I still have another colour-way of the lovely voile, waiting to be cut out.  Expect to see me wearing these a lot this summer.

PS. That strangely posed photo at the top was one that Luke unexpectedly snapped when I was sweeping my hair out of the way of the neckline.  I kind of like it.  He was pretty accommodating to follow me round taking photos to my specifications in the first place.

Do you have a favourite pattern?

This weekend Michaela was determined to get a turn on the sewing machine, her mission, to make a quilt for “baby”.  I let her loose on the purple and pink piles of my fabric stash, (she had no interest in any other colour) and cut some strips from each of her chosen fabrics.

As I had done with Amelia, I set her up with some foundation fabric to piece the strips onto.  This seems to work really well for beginners, as there is ample fabric to hold onto, well clear of the needle.  I set the stitch speed to extremely-slow, and pinned the fabric well clear of where the needle was to go, so that Michaela could sew without worrying about removing pins as she went.

This method is great because when stitches go awry, they can be re-sewn, often without the need to unpick.  Ironing the strips open, as you attach them, covers a multitude of mistakes, as you can see below…

Michaela got about half way with her blocks before she decided to give it a rest.  I think she can be pretty proud of her first go on a sewing machine, especially as she is only 6 years old.

The sewing may have held her interest for longer, if this was not going on in the next room.

Cubby houses, made of quilts, are just too much fun to miss out on, and it is important to get in early enough to nab a piece of lounge room real-estate for yourself.

How young were you when you first used a sewing machine?  What did you make?

This past weekend saw me playing sewing teacher and assistant to my elder daughter, Amelia, who has started on a project, to make a new bag for swimming lessons.  The sewing machine that she won way back in 2007, has just returned from being fixed.  We found out the hard way that if you do not use a sewing machine for a few years, it will seize up, so we are making sure that it gets regular use.  When she was younger, it was easier to let her have a go on my machine, but she is old enough to sew with less supervision now.

A trip to Spotlight resulted in this great bargain – the cyclamen coloured cotton fabric was only $1 a metre!  It was perfect to use as a base for string pieced blocks, using scraps from a previous project of mine.  I just ruled some lines across the fabric squares, with my magic disappearing pen, for Amelia to align her first strips of fabric, and I let her at it.

Here are two of her finished blocks, ready to be sewn up into her new bag.  We are going to line it with fabric from a shower curtain to make it waterproof.

The same trip to Spotlight yielded these lovely fabrics.  The bottom two were heavily reduced, and even though the top one was not, I thought it was so lovely that it had to come home with me.  The middle fabric is a lightweight cotton, almost a voile, that is going to become a Kaftan style top.  It is going to be my test garment, before using some other precious fabric I have.  I have high hopes for New Look 6983.  All I have to do is clear my cutting table, which currently has months worth of sewing related clutter all over it.

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While I was writing this post my husband made a comment that shows how well he knows me, even if he was only joking…”You can’t post those photos – the colours don’t go with your blog!”.

The cyclamen in particular is not in my usual palette, and is a bit jarring with the dusty green background, but I have pushed on regardless.  Are you impressed?

I was driving through the backstreets of my suburb earlier this week, when I saw these chairs sitting forlornly on the nature strip* – a clear indication that they were there for the taking.  They were still there an hour later, when I returned the same way, so I liberated them from the impending doom of hard rubbish collection.

The chairs are very similar to the The no. 14 bentwood chairs by Thonet. Like the more famous chairs, these seem to have been made with woven cane seats, which have been replaced crudely with board, nailed in place and covered with the tattered remains of upholstery.

We have been searching all over the Internet to try and find out more about them, especially as the label under the chair seems to indicate they may have been made in Austria, like the Thonet chairs were – Weisskirchen is a place name in several countries.

The coat of arms on the left looks almost identical to one we found connected with Austrian and German Infantry- it looks to be an imperial, Double-Headed Eagle.

None of this tells us how much work is required to fix them up.  We are contemplating what we will do with them.

Yesterday was such a lovely day, that we all went walking down by the nearby pond.  There were two sets of ducklings to admire.  These older ducklings above, and seen below, these fluffier, younger ones.

We were careful not to get too close to them – it was my camera that allowed me to “get closer”.  The kids spent quite a bit of time throwing stale breadcrumbs to the ducks, from their vantage point on the footbridge.

I just love the way the lone, white duck stands out amongst all the brown ones.  We can always see him/her as we drive past the park, from quite a long distance away.

Have you seen/picked up any treasures by the side of the road lately?

*nature strip – an Australian term for the narrow strip of grass between the street and the footpath

…there has been too much going on, including this – Rory bringing home the 4 x 100m relay in 1st place.

Rory was one of only a few 9-year-old kids, from the school, to qualify for the district athletics.  His relay team will now be going on to compete for the school in the “Zone”.

He was pretty impressive in the 100m sprint

He makes it look pretty effortless, and he loves it.  Running is his idea of fun.

I couldn’t get a shot of the finish, but he almost caught that boy in front – it was very close.  He came in second.

Apart from Athletics, I have been to a 20 year school reunion, and there have been several concerts to attend, including Amelia performing with a mass choir at Federation Square, which was fantastic.

The concerts have also kept me busy on the computer.  I have created tickets and programmes for 3 separate school concerts – not amazing graphic design, but time consuming none-the-less.  If only I could remember to bring my camera to the concerts, to capture my offspring performing.

On a creative front, I have not had time for much, except putting aside small piles of fabric for later.  Here is some of my Koala fabric, (that my sister purchased from Spoonflower) with a pile of coordinates we picked out.  At some point I will turn them into a quilt.  Now I just have to find somewhere to store them in the meantime…

Have you got lots of little piles of fabric waiting for you?  What do you store them in?

Considering that it is hand piecing, I have been whipping through this “Wheel Of Fortune” Quilt.  I completed the purple and orange rings while I was on Sewing Camp, last weekend.  Since then I have done a little more each evening, and have made it just past half way, with the brown ring.

A really interesting pattern emerges from ring 4 (orange) to ring 5 (brown).  Unlike the previous progression, where each pair of squares leads to three diamonds, (yellow to purple) some pairs of orange squares lead to three diamonds, and some lead to two diamonds.  I decided that each pair of diamonds should be made of the same fabric, to highlight this pattern of 3, 2, 3 on the brown ring.

Once I have completed the 5th (brown) ring, I am going to make the next ring, of squares, with the dusty pink fabrics you see being auditioned here.  The ring of diamonds that follows will most likely be green, but I reserve my right to change my mind – after all, that’s part of the fun.  Usually I design things on paper and tend to stick to my plan, but not this time.  I am not even sure how big I will make it.

Do you tend to change you mind as you make things, or are you one to stick to a plan?

After lots of planning on the computer (in Illustrator), I whipped up this little quilt top.

I wanted a fairly restful (but hopefully not boring) background to add some simple applique to.  The applique is going to be some bright, fairly large circles, I like to think of them as “bubbles”.

As usual, Lotta tried to steal the show….

She was actually playing her favourite game – soccer!  This is an old ball, from a game that Rory had, that was similar to Totem tennis, but with a Soccer ball.  You can see the little tag where the elastic string used to attach.  That is where Lotta can pick up the ball (which is obviously far too big to fit in her mouth).  If you kick the ball for Lotta, she will chase it around for ages, pushing it with her head, until she can find the “tag” to pick it up.  She loves it.  When I was taking photos, Lotta saw me nudge the ball out of my way, and came bounding up to have a game.

Here you can see me preparing some “bubbles” to applique onto the quilt.  I am using a method that I have used before, which involves sewing them (right-sides together) with some very light, fusible interfacing – which is NOT ironed onto the applique fabrics.  Once you cut a slit in the interfacing, and turn them out the right way, you can iron them onto the quilt.  This means that the edges are all evenly turned under, and can be hand appliqued down to sit quite flat.

The interfacing I am using is called “Floriani Wet and Gone“, which after (vigorous) washing, completely disappears.  I am planning on hand sewing these circles down, while I am away on retreat.

I love working with circles, but lots of people seem a little scared of them.  Are you?

Last weekend Amelia’s best friend, Olivia, came over so that the girls could do some more sewing.  They were working on the slightly larger version of my apron pattern that I had just drafted, (so really these are prototypes).  The girls chose their favourite motif from a whole range of food-themed appliques that I designed ages ago, and slightly different applique fabrics from my stash.

Apart from sewing the appliques on, using the dangerous rotary blade, and a tricky bit of top-stitching to attach the pockets, the girls did the lot.  We had a really fun time and they are very proud of their aprons.  I found having one sewing machine (set to very slow) and a space to pin and measure was perfect.  There was barely any standing around waiting for a turn.

When it was time to sew around the circumference of the apron (including the two curved sections that go under the arms) with a 1/2″ seam allowance, I decided to use a trick – to draw the stitching line on.  Until then, the girls had been sewing using the 1/4″ foot to align against.  I gave each of the girls, a ruler and one of my new “frixion”pens, which are erasable pens.  The ink is designed to erase when you “rub it out” using the rubber tip, but the tip is not really an eraser, it is actually heat, that the friction or rubbing creates, that makes the ink disappear.  This means the ink disappears when you iron over it!  This made the going much easier for the girls, because they just had to follow the line they had marked, with the needle.  I know they could have marked a line with chalk, or washout pen, but these lines are really crisp and stand out.

Since the weekend I have been really busy.  On Monday I went with the preps on an excursion to the Zoo.  Big groups of 5 and 6 year olds are exhausting, (but so enthusiastic).  We had a lovely time, and the fact that there was a gentle rain all day meant that the school groups pretty much had the Zoo to themselves.

On Tuesday the kids had no school, so were home with me all day.

Yesterday I drove out to Healesville with my Mother and her friend, to see the portraits created by the Archibald Prize Finalists  for 2011, at TarraWarra Museum of Art.  It was wonderful, I am so glad I went.  I enjoyed all the different styles of portraits, but this one was my favorite.

Finally, I will leave you with this lovely clip, celebrating the Sydney Opera House.  You can read more about it here.

Look what I picked up last Saturday.

Sadly it was on sale because the small, local wool shop was closing, for good, that day.   I am in love with the myriad of colours that make up the yarn.  With 6 balls I am planning on making a luxuriously large, soft scarf.

It may take me a few months.  Are you knitting?