my week...

So I've had a bit of a week.

Thursday morning found me feeling a little bit squiffy. Thursday afternoon, quite unwell. Friday morning resulted in a trip to Emergency and by Friday afternoon I was in surgery for (and I quote) "a nasty appendix." Saturday found me back at home, but unable to lift, carry or hold 10 month old little-miss-e.

Whew... So since Thursday my lovely husband has been working hard, looking after me, looking after little-miss-e and trying to stay on top of food/cleaning/washing/dishes etc. I've been working hard at resting, recovering and doing nothing. (And that is strangely hard work too).

And making lists in my head of things I want to sew/crochet/cook/bake and create when I get better...

Things like this backpack, for little-miss-e as she heads to childcare soon:

from here (with a tutorial)

wordless wednesday

I know it doesn't look like much yet...

...but I can't wait until I have time to finish it!

And this is just the prototype. I am making a gift for a friend's new baby, based on one of little-miss-e's favourite toys. It needs a few tweaks here and there, so I am glad I made a prototype rather than just running ahead and making all the mistakes on the real thing. And also, little-miss-e will get to have this one when it is done - so that is lovely for her too.

Oh, for some time to myself to finish this and start the real thing! The issue is that we have a small house and so my sewing machine lives in little-miss-e's room. So when she is asleep I can't sew and when she is awake I can only sew for a short time until she gets hungry/bored/wet/pooey etc...Oh well, slowly slowly it'll get there.

hippos for flights

I'm not sure if I mentioned - by my lovely husband is not from Australia. He hails from far across the seas. So with little Miss E in tow, we packed up and prepared to travel to far away lands to introduce her to the family. But before we left, I was a little nervous about how a 3 month old baby would go on long haul flights.

So being it being the Internet age, I googled and unsurprisingly there was a lot of very useful stuff out there. I won't link it all up, if you are interested you can search for yourself I'm sure. I also won't do a list of tips for travelling with babies - there are already heaps out there (for example: check out this list by my lovely friend Lisa). What I will do it show you what I almost made (my lovely step-mother provided the actual crafty hands for this one).

One of the suggestions I read about was to pack each change of baby clothes in an individual zip lock bag - thus enabling you to take a quick change to the plane toilets. I thought more about this, and decided it would be more useful to have a small bag in which I could put all I needed for a nappy change, so I wouldn't have to wrestle the full nappy bag along with baby in the confined space. Seeing I was staying with my step-mother at the time, I asked her about her fabrics and she came up with this:

So perfect!
We then designed the bag together - with button closings at the top and a little wrist strap (leaving both hands free to wrestle baby / hold onto seats as I headed to the toilets). And ta da:



My step-mother did the sewing, whilst I fed little Miss E. And there you have it - hippos for flights.

NB:  I confess, I have it on good authority that the bag was very useful - it turned out that it was my lovely husband not me who did all the airborne nappy changes!

crafting disappointment

Today I tackled a pretty simple job - making a draught stopper for our hallway door. A lovely project for a cold and wet winter afternoon. So having completed it, I should be full of that warm creative glow - right?

hmm... 

Realistically, I've got that feeling of crafting disappointment. See, I should have measured the door (and the gap under it) much more carefully. I should have thought a bit more about adding in seam allowance. I should have measured my fabric more carefully and then stopped and added in another piece fabric when I thought I needed to (rather than taking the I'm-sure-it'll-be-fine road). I should have taken a bit more time for this quick project, and then I would have ended up with a draught stopper that will actually stop the draughts.

Instead I've got a not-quite-draught stopper, that doesn't quite cover the whole width of the doorway and it doesn't quite cover the whole of the gap under the door. On the plus side, it does look pretty while it is not-quite-doing-it's-job...

When I went to post about this not-quite-draught stopper, I confess, I was tempted to tell you all how great it is and how happy I am with it. But realistically, I am not always happy with the stuff I make. Things don't always turn out right, or like what I had planned in my head. At times that has to do with my skill level, at times to do with my tendency to just have-a-go and at times to do with my pride (and my stubborn assurance that I am sure I am doing it right, rather than stopping and re-thinking things through).

How about you? Do you have a tendency to assume you've got it right rather than stopping to check? And do you try to blog a positive spin, rather than admitting your disappointment in a project?

the napkin dress

it started a few months ago. i was busy, really busy, with a list a mile long of things that must be done. it was the weekend before i was heading off on our 5 week overseas holiday. and i found myself in a fabric shop, (legitimately, i had to buy wool to take with me) and, well looking at some clearance fabric (much less legitimately). 

see i had been inspired by the textured leaf's creative space dress. i too have a summer dress i am very fond of, that i had always thought would be really simple to make. and i had some fabulous napkins left that i won in clutterpunk's giveaway some time ago. all of which resulted in me standing and contemplating clearance fabric. i had the beginnings of a plan. and such a good plan at that. take some clearance fabric, some napkins, a bit of fabric stash lace, a bit of ribbon, and afternoon, and...well... after a few hours, things fell apart a little.

the problem was that, as always, i had a higher view of my sewing ability than actual ability. and by the end of the afternoon, i had a frustratingly almost-but-not-quite finished dress and still a long list of things to organise before i went away. 

fast forward to the past few weeks, and i have given the dress a second chance. unpicked and re-sewn a seam or two, tweaked a bit here and there and now am happy to say, the dress is finished!

and i already have plans (and i'll admit it, the fabric) for the next one!

quilting

this quilting thing really seems to be taking hold. after the success i have been having with the quilt i am making for my new nephew-on-the-way, i thought i'd have another go at a simpler quilt.

basically the idea stems comes from the fact that my friend has wooden floors and wanted something a bit soft to be able put her bub down on. a floor quilt. i whipped this one up in an less than two hours. using two pillowcases and some of an old quilted dressing gown as the wadding. i am pretty happy with the outcome:

i learnt a lot about machine quilting in this (given i had no idea before i started, it was easy to learn a lot) and in retrospect i think doing the quilting in a mix of brown thread / yellow bobbin would have added to the finished look. (truth be told, i did think of it at the time, but was too lazy to run upstairs to get the brown thread and don't actually own any yellow). the next one i make however, will have feature colour machine quilting. and i am thinking i will possibly make it a little bigger (this one was limited by the scrap of dressing gown i had).

oh dear, see i used the term "the next one"... it seems like i'm planning it already. i tell you what if i get addicted to quilting i'm going to blame gina (check out her fabulous green quilt, and this one here the one that started me on this whole quilting venture). i really don't know if my life can fit in another addiction or another obsession...

finally, some time...

so, its been pretty busy round here. as you may guess from my lack of posts. sorry 'bout that. 

but see, my very good and very lovely friend got married on saturday (yay!), so its been wedding central round here for the last week and a bit. particularly the last week as we had some of her interstate and international family staying here. the beds have all been full, and even the floor in a couple of rooms has been covered with matresses. wedding chaos and wedding joy - the two seem to often be linked. but the net result is that there has not been a lot of crafting. or blogging. or blog reading.

so in between the loads of bedding and towels i am trying to get done today, i have finally managed to jump online and show off the litte crafting that has been happening. yep, owls. or specifically i finally have finished one of the two owls i am currently making:

only one more to go. (that's ok, they were only due at the end of september - oops!)

packing for a bbq

so, i didn't finish my owls from thursday yet, but that's ok. see i've packed them all up to take with me today. i'm going to a bbq, yep a footy grand final bbq...

caveat: for those who are not from melbourne/victoria/australia, footy (aussie rules or afl as it is also known) is not just a sport, but its more of a religion 'round these parts (personally i prefer the kind of religion that's about following jesus, rather than following the antics of forty-odd blokes running around chasing after a ball, but that's just me).  so if you are a footy fan, sorry that i have probably offended you already, and you should probably turn away now, you'll be somewhat horrified at what i have to say next: end caveat.

living in the state of victoria for awhile now and in melbourne for a number of years, i am used to the grand final and the inevitable grand final bbqs that go with it. and i do enjoy them. the grand final is something worth celebrating. see to me, the grand final spells the end of the footy season and the beginning of a few months respite before it all starts up again early next year.

but grand final bbqs do require packing. see, as everyone around me watches intently and lives and dies with each goal scored, i am planning on quietly keeping my eyes on my hands as i hand sew the faces on the owls, and if i have time (the matches seriously take more than two hours) i'm also planning on being able to do some more work on my new crochet project. i like being 'round people. i like bbqs and i like making stuff and well, if there happens to be footy going on in the background, i can cope with that...

if you are a footy fan, sorry if i have just horrified you. just know that i am sure to horrify everyone at the grand final bbq today too. but like i said, i do think that the grand final is something worth celebrating!

MY creative space...

ok, so i know our lovely creative space hostie is on holidays right now, but i thought i'd still creative space it up tonight. see, i'm making owls:

its the same pattern that i used for the finished owl in the corner. but i am experimenting with their faces. i'm pretty pleased with them so far, and i am hoping that they will all look different enough for terrible comfort's show (see the call out for owls - there is still time to join in, just). and if you are keen eyed enough, you will be able to recognise the gray felt. yep!  its my felted jumper! perfect for these owls.

i might be creative spacing it pretty much on my own this week, but at least i've got a few owls to keep me company... 

my portable saucepan-able creative space...

unusual i know, but this week, my creative space got a bit portable and oddly saucepan-able. see, i help run a sewing group on sunday afternoons. its for women on a local housing estate who otherwise wouldn't have access to sewing machines or overlockers. but on sunday this week, it was very quiet, and so i began to riffle around in the scraps bags to see what i could find.  

see i had been planning to make an owl for terrible comfort's halloween show (see the call out here, and join on in!). and having printed out this pattern at work during the week and then having conveniently left it in my bag, i thought i would get started. so, finding the cut off leg of a pair of tan corduroy pants that had been hemmed by someone and a scrap of beigey coloured fake fur i was off. that was, until some more women showed up and i went back to helping run the group. and that's where the saucepan comes in. see at the end of the group, i had to pack everything up to take the rest of the owl pieces home. for a random assortment of reasons, i had one of my big saucepans with me - the perfect place for all the owl pieces. 

and so this week, i have been finishing the owl off and here it is, all finished: the terrible comfort portable/saucepan-able/fabric scrap owl...

the front panel is a little bit crooked, but not too bad for a first attempt at the pattern, with no instructions. i might even make a few more!

what's going on in your creative space? saucepans?

the next project

so, i've been vaguely mentioning my next project for some time now - since i finished my last one actually. its a project that is going to be dear to my heart. see, i've got a nephew on the way he will be my sister's third, after a bit of a gap. her other two were born while our nan was around. and our very crafty nan made them all sorts of things. things like this:

i inherited a whole lot of stuff from my nan, part of which includes her fabric stash. its full of bits and pieces, scraps and chunks. fabrics that remind me of my childhood, of the things she made for me. and the same fabrics that nan used to make things for my sister's kids.

seeing she isn't around to make things for this new nephew-on-the-way, i want to. i want to make something out of her fabrics, out of her legacy. i'm not that great at softies, so i am heading in a slightly different direction. but i am starting to get a picture of what it will look like, and i'll tell you the details as they come together, so its still a bit of a watch this space project. its on its way. like my nephew. fortunately, he isn't due until december, so i've got a bit of time...

ahh, the joy of computers

 well, we are back up and running, and i am thankful for the engineers in my life - one who hassled and hassled me a few months ago, until i finally got an external hard-drive and did a back-up of everything (well, most things). and another engineer, who was able to save almost all of the other things, before fixing my computer and after quite a bit of work, finally getting it to talk to the internet again. 

but in crafty news, well, to be honest, despite my extra computer free time, i've not been as crafty busy as i'd like. i'm still procrastinating on starting my new project. i think its the mess that it will entail. see, its a fabric based project and to start, i am really going to need to a few solid hours of uninterrupted planning- to pull everything out of my fabric stash. oh and i'll need some decent fabric scissors too (any suggestions are welcome).

so in the mean-time, i have been crocheting for my secondary back-up refashioning project. it will eventually be a two-person sized granny rug for snuggling under in the lounge room. i'm up to 50 squares, only about a billion to go! 

not about crochet (really this time)

ok, so, i'm really not talking about crochet this time. but i did want to let you know that i did manage to finish the mexican wrestling masks i was working on over the weekend. 

the original is the blue one, out of a horrible synthetic, that (i am told) was unpleasant to perform in. the white ones i made are out of a cotton based jersey. the feature-y bits are out of felt. 

they're for this show by terrible comfort at la mama in carlton. if you're in melb - go check it out! it opens tonight!!!

not about crochet

ok so, i do know that not everyone crochets. and that not everyone is into crochet. and after reading and reflecting on this slightly mocking post from gina at clutterpunk* i've realised that i do post an awful lot about crochet. so today, i thought i'd do a post not about crochet.

i was thinking, see, that i could post about the current sewing project i am working on for terrible comfort's show, which opens next week.

 (they will be mexican wrestling masks, black and white ones, copied from the blue and yellow ones - i should be working on these at the moment...)

or i was thinking that i could post about these fabulous vintage op-shop finds: a pillowcase and a doona** cover (which is for my yet to be fully worked out next project).

 but really what i want to post about is this new wool that i bought and the granny square scarf that i started last night. 

so ok, hi, my name's becclebee and i'm a crochet addict... 

*i'd like to note i love gina and i'm completely ok with her hassling us all about our crochet addictions
** doona (also known as ' duvet', or 'quilt' for those non-aussies)

a pillow pal

i did a random and unexpected bit of op-shopping today. and came across this... a CPR "pillow pal". what fun! a pillow case designed to help you remember and practice your cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

i definitely couldn't leave it there, not with my continuing pillowcase obession. for 99 cents this gem was mine. but what to do with it?

well, a little lace, a little scrap material, and here you have it, the latest addition to my ever-growing bag collection. 

i love the way it looks on the inside too... 

a day of half finished projects

so, i am trying out my new crochet book, and it seems i am less good at following patterns than i thought. the first square i tried was, well, to start off with - not square. so i tried again, the pattern seemed simple enough...  

i'm halfway through this "square" and things are not going well. (in yellow of course for my current baby blanket project)

so i thought i would stop and make something else.

like a wheat bag. see, the request was for a wheat bag with a cover, that can be taken off and washed, like a wheatbag-case. so i made it out of a pillowcase (no surprise there). the base wheatbag is the slightly shorter one. and the wheatbag-case has the lengthways stripe.

however, to finish it, i am in need of some wheat... (and, now that i look at the photo, i think i am also in need of an iron)

holidays and projects

aren't holidays so much fun! mine were full of all sorts of lovely goodness. much food and family and friends and beaches and hanging round at home and (whispers quietly) cricket and of course, crafting... 

oh the crafting i did - making, sewing, unpicking, threading buttons, crocheting. and as i slowly drag myself back into the everyday, i am keen to share some of my holiday projects...

the owl bag:

see, i got a request for a bag. i thought and thought and decided it should be made out of a pillowcase (ok, a fairly obvious choice given my current obession), lined with the sheet, and with a thread sketched design - an owl. 

see:

and it has a little internal pocket for the keeping of a phone, and a zip to keep the things inside it all secure...

i am really happy with it, and so is it's new owner! don't you love it when you sit down with an idea in your head and by the end of the afternoon, there it is in front of you!

another of these skirts (with a how-to)

so, you may be starting to worry about me and these skirts (i know i am). ok, ok, i know i have already made and posted about these skirts twice (here and here). so far. so i thought when i made another of them the other day, i would add a how-to, (my justification of being able to post about them again). so here it is, made from the great op-shopped fabric i bought a few weeks ago. 

this is a seriously easy skirt. it takes a very short time to make. the front is straight and it has a draw-string at the back. the measurements here make an aust size 12-14, but it is easy to make bigger or smaller, just change the width of the sides... and lengthen or shorten as desired (although, being a fairly straight skirt, you would have to take that into account). still to be easy easy easy, just follow the instructions below:

basically, cut two rectangles - the front being smaller than the back - and the draw strings

front: L = 24", W = 20"
back: L = 24", W = 27"
draw strings: L = 26", W =  3" (cut two of these)

hem the bottom of each (or cheat and make it even easier, like i did, by just using the selvage as the hem). then sew up side seams right sides together (i start from the bottom to keep the hem in line).

fold over about 1 and 1/2" at the top and iron flat.

then sew in a little rectangle of interfacing (or use iron-on interfacing - even easier). make sure that you sew it on the skirt side, rather than the inside (i hope that makes sense- here's a pic). it goes right in the middle of the back of the skirt. 

then make two button-holes into the interfacing - like this. (its where the draw-strings will come out). 

 once you have done this, sew along down the folded top. 


next make the drawstrings - fold them in half lengthways (right sides together), iron and then sew the up (leaving the ends open)

turn them right side out (i used a knitting needle to help)

and iron flat. 


then its just a matter of threading them through your neat little button holes and sewing them firmly to the side seams.

and you're done!


phew - have a cup of tea and enjoy your fabulously easy new skirt...

the sheet skirt

so, here is my sheet skirt all finished and done.



i am really very happy with it. my first pattern-less skirt success. (you may well note the similarities with the pillowcase skirt i posted below - they are the same basic idea, but i did actually make this one first).








and thanks to everyone for their great ideas on what to do with the rest of the sheet. i really like the pj idea, and the cushions. and the bag lining and the softie... well all of them actually. i can see much potential!



Note to self - i really must clean that mirror!