Month: April 2008

miscellaneous, this is ...

This is … my favourite book

Each week I await the announcement of the following Sunday’s “this is … ” with a little excitement and a little trepidation.  Will it be too hard for my overfull, addled brain?  And this week, we have “this is my favourite book”.  How on earth to decide?  I like most books, for all sorts of reasons!  Eventually I thought that I should let my first impulse rule the day.  This is my favourite book.

Why?  Firstly, it reminds me of my Gran.  She started me off on the “Anne of Green Gables” books when I was quite young, and I adored them.  I still do!  Secondly, it’s a great read; incredibly evocative in its descriptions.  Thirdly, the main character is fantastic.  Considering the time in which the novel was written, she’s a terrific female role model.  And the male lead isn’t half bad either!  Each time I read this book I appreciate it differently; I first read it in my early teens (maybe earlier), then again in my late teens, then as an adult.  It’s still a really lovely story.  Not terribly deep and/or meaningful I suppose, but there are some lessons to be learned about living each day as though it is your last, about facing your fears, and about being true to yourself.  So thanks Gran! 

by thornberry
bags, craft, patterns, sewing

Beach bag

It’s great when Nicole Mallalieu is designing new bag patterns – because generally I get to test them out!  Here is one that will be available in a week or so – the Beach bag.

The fabric is all from my stash.  No idea what it is made of or where I got it from.  The blue is fairly heavyweight; I used a light/medium weight interfacing on the body of the bag, but a light fusible wadding in the straps.  This is a fantastic, highly versatile pattern – there are photos of a few of the variations on the website.  I made this one with overlaid handles, but an alternative is a shoulder strap.

I chose to close this bag with a zippered gusset, but there are also instructions for magnetic catches, and the examples on the pattern cover have some other closure suggestions.

This pattern has loads of pocket options.  In the spirit of testing out the pattern instructions thoroughly, I used the three different options that were included.  Inside the bag I’ve used a patch pocket on one side and a zippered pocket on the other.  On the outside I’ve used compartment pockets, which became instantly divided when the overlaid handles were sewn on.

And I love the hard base!  It contains interfacing (two different weights) and template plastic, and has purse feet.  It wasn’t hard to do, and I think that I am addicted.  I’ll be using this type of base on most boxed corner bags that I make from now on.

I am giving this one to my friend Di for her birthday (and yes, it was a couple of weeks ago – you all know that I never actually get gifts finished on time).  But I’m looking forward to making another, with different design features.  Thanks again to Nikki for the way that her patterns encourage the user to be the designer.  Now I’m sounding like an advertisement … but I promise, I’m just the pattern tester!

by thornberry
adult's clothing, patterns, planned projects, sewing

More old patterns

It’s been a week of illness for everyone in our household except Clare.  Stella and I were finally well enough yesterday to pop out to one of the local op-shops for a quick visit.  Success – lots of old patterns!  There were many from the 80s (which don’t count as vintage to me, since I was sewing dresses for myself during the 80s and still have the patterns to prove it) but also quite a few from the late 60s and early 70s.  They worked out to cost 25c each.  Bargain.

I have seen the Simplicity one on another sewing blog recently (maybe Summerset’s) – it must have been a popular pattern! I think that it will be a really flattering shape for me. 

Many of the patterns have really interesting design lines.  Some are completely in tune with current fashion.  And the illustrations are always good value!

The girls skirt pattern was a sentimental purchase.  View 3 was the skirt that I made in Year 7 Fabrics (first year of high school).  We had to choose a skirt pattern that had a waistband, a zip, and gathers or darts.  While many of the other girls chose pencil skirts from the “Misses” section, at age 11 my figure was definitely still that of a “Girl”.  I remember wishing that I too could make something a little more sophisticated.  I am struggling to remember what the fabric was like, but I think it was a soft purple, with a print.  Mum, can you remember?  Anyway, the finished skirt was rather nice.  And entirely age-appropriate.

by thornberry
adult's clothing, apron, aprons, craft, sewing

Rachael’s Apron

Happy 40th Birthday Rachael (even though it was about two weeks ago).  Your apron is finally finished.  Because I altered the pattern to make it reversible, there are two fronts.  Here’s one:

and the other:

The purple fabric was bought last year some time from GJs Discount Fabrics in Brunswick, and the green from Spotlight a couple of years ago.  Once again, thank goodness for the stash!  The pattern is McCalls 2811, view A.

It’s an interesting design – there are no ties to fasten it; it simply wraps around and the weight of the fabric combined with the three armholes (one arm goes through two armholes) seems to keep it in place.  Here’s a view of the back.

Rachael put it on when she received it; because she is tall the design works really nicely on her!  Yay, success!

by thornberry
craft, embroidery, fabric stash, miscellaneous

Blog Rolls and Brown Owls

Lucky lucky me!  I won the Blog Roll made by Kirsty during her week of pillowcases on Meet Me at Mike’s.

Lovely soft fabric, cute buckle, and best of all, look at the embroidery inside!

Kirsty, you are SO GOOD at embroidery!  The stitching is so perfectly done.

So now I have a spot to keep my camera, notepad, pen and inspiration!  Thank you for your generosity.  There are some other terrific embroidery designs for a Chick O Roll, Rock N Roll and Stitching Roll on Kirsty’s blog.

And speaking of generosity, huge thanks go to Pip, Kirsty and Brooke for creating and running the wonderful crafty club that is Brown Owls!  We had a marvellous night last night with crochet as our theme.  Kirsty’s great-aunt Pat was there with her amazing crocheted dresses that once won a place in the top ten at “Gown of the Year” and shared her years of crochet knowledge.  Jess did a great job of helping out all those new to crochet.  I took along a few of the things I’ve crocheted and a pile of crochet books.  There are photos of what we got up to on the Brown Owls blog.  A big hello also to all the crafty bloggers and non-bloggers that I met (or met again) – it’s great to put a face to a name, and to many of the blogs I lurk around!  I also picked up these little pieces of fabric that will work nicely into a scrappy quilt that I am planning on making.

by thornberry
miscellaneous, this is ...

This is … my latest discovery

Do you know what this is?  Maybe you own one already.

My latest discovery is an expanding sewing gauge, and I can tell that it is going to reduce my frustration levels and improve my finished products enormously!  It is used wherever you need to mark anything that is equidistant, like buttonholes, buttons, pleats, etc – I am sure that I will find other sewing applications for it as well.  I can’t believe that I have taken so long both to discover this and to actually buy it!  A girl has to have good tools.  Edited to add:  for the Aussies that now realise that they too NEED one of these, I bought mine online from Punch with Judy.

There are a few fantastic giveaways happening in the blogosphere at the moment – check these ones out and if you’re quick you may even win!

Bronwyn at Whippet Good has a giveaway of lots of handcrafted goodies for her 100th post:

Emma at Scrap Bag has a Kaffe Fassett fabric giveaway for her 100th post:

and Betty Jo at Lino Forest has a beautiful brooch giveaway for her 200th post!

by thornberry
craft, miscellaneous, op-shopping

Knitting needle bangles

Look what we did this afternoon!  I read zephyrama’s post yesterday, and knew that Clare and I just HAD to have a go ourselves at making knitting needle bangles.

Before:  a pile of op-shop plastic knitting needles, and a how-to.

During: needles bubbling away in our old camping pan.  A larger or longer pan would have been good but this was all that we had.  They were a bit like spaghetti; as the end in the water softened, I could push the rest of the needle in.

After:  a whole lot of bangles!

They’re not perfect, but it was lots of fun!  With a bit more practice I reckon that we could do even better.  Longer needles seem to be more successful.  I’ll be keeping an eye out for long plastic needles in every op-shop that I enter from now on!  Thanks Zephyrama!  I vaguely remember people making bangles out of plastic toothbrushes when I was a kid – I suppose that it was the same process.

by thornberry
bags, craft, sewing

Belinda’s Bag

Happy extremely belated 40th Birthday Belinda!  Here is your bag, which I’ll actually give to you at brunch this weekend.

It’s made in Amy Butler “Nigella” fabric from Z&S Fabrics, following Ric-Rac’s excellent tutorial!  Here are the detail shots.  First, the inside zippered pocket:

The other side has a patch pocket:

And I love Jodie’s method of attaching the strap.  I made fabric-covered buttons for it.

I included a magnetic snap (I know, you’ve already figured that out from the photos) but somehow forgot to include a key fob.  Too late now!

by thornberry
craft, craft magazines, crochet, embroidery, work in progress

Magazines, a little stitching, and meeting Michelle!

We were away (again!) over the weekend, so not a lot of crafting was done.  I have been reading these magazines which arrived over the past couple of weeks:

I subscribe to all of these!  Interweave Crochet only arrived yesterday, and as usual it has some stunning projects!  While visiting my parents I managed to do a teeny bit more stitching on my Brown Owls tote:

I have a few plans for lining the tote with complementary fabrics and adding them to the handles.  I’ve finished my name embroidery and just need to make a top to sew things on to!

But more importantly, I had a visit from the lovely quiltingmick from Canberra!  Lucky me – she had a few days visiting Melbourne and we were able to coordinate for an hour and a half.  It was the first time we’ve met “in real life” – and we had a great chat!  So much in common, sometimes it is spooky!  She gave me this gorgeous crocheted flower brooch, which looks absolutely huge in this photo!

Thanks so much Michelle – great to finally meet you and next time we might be able to go fabric & yarn shopping together!

by thornberry
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