Linaloo

Christmas Stuff

Yesterday I made my cards and gift tags in preparation for Christmas. I'll just gloss over the fact that I haven't done any shopping or making of actual gifts yet.  Since I started this blog four years ago (I can hardly believe that it's been that long), I have stuck with the same simple and classic colour scheme of red, white and linen for all things Christmassy.   I mulled the possibility of switching things up a bit for some time before cutting, stamping and gluing this year's cards.

But it wasn't to be. 

Red and white, I'm still not over you.

Practical making: a bedskirt

 
Not the sexiest title for a blog post, nor the most riveting of subjects for that matter, but I do love a bit of practical making.  It seems the homemaker in me is always slightly smug and pleased with herself when she's able to put her sewing skills to practical use. (Although this project barely counts as sewing, as it involved just 2 little seams).

Our old bedskirt ripped ages ago and I have have been on the hunt for a replacement for while.  I've had a hard time even finding something suitable and I couldn't bring myself to spend a small fortune on one.  I knew I could probably make one but the thought of the amount of time it would take for the tedious measuring and accurate assembly of something for the bottom of my bed put me off until I happened upon this simple solution here. With a little bit of measuring, cutting of a flat sheet that has never been used, some joining, hemming and saftey pinning to the box spring and hey presto!  A practial, cheap and easy fix in just over an hour!  Admittedly white is probably not the most practical colour and I will likely end up changing it for a natural linen shade eventually, but it's certainly better than seeing all the dust bunnies lurking underneath the bed! 
I am so easily pleased.

Finishing up

 
I blew off the mountain of dust from my sewing machine and sewed a box. Actually it's been half finished for a while, like a lot of things on the to do list, but these past two weeks I have been very disciplined, forcing myself to finish a whole bunch of projects, including painting the powder room (downstairs loo).
 
The sewing box is for my daughter, made from this amazing tutorial.  I added a little pin cushion and a few supplies to start her off and I will encourage her to make a little needlebook. To be honest, I'm not sure she's even vaguely interested in sewing, but wanted to make her a kit, you know, just in case...

Splash of colour

  
More doily doings for this month's splash of colour organized by Emma.  I LOVE red and white together.  So simple and striking.  This doily is a big un' (that's a 12 inch hoop) and I've been saving it to frame in my bedroom for a while.

Rainbow farfalle baby quilt

 
In your face winter blahs.

You have not yet managed to deplete all my energy reserves or surpress my drive to make stuff.

I present the finished rainbow farfalle baby quilt using mostly thrifted pillowcases with a bit of Amy Butler thrown in for good measure. In the end, I quilted in the ditch as a free motion quilting foot was a special order (and long wait) for my humble little sewing machine.  Baby size quilts are such a satisfying project - not too big to be intimidating or time consuming, but perfect for a whimisical and (relatively) quick quilting fix.   

Based on this tutorial from Film in the Fridge.

Scrap flying farfalle quilt

This weekend I largely ignored all non-essential household chores, opting for a decent stint at the sewing machine instead.  I started work on a baby quilt for a friend due in November.

I've never really been one for holding onto stuff for a long time and I don't get emotionally attached to my possessions on the whole.  When it comes to fabric however, I seem to have a hard time getting rid of even the minutest of leftovers.  So a scrap quilt has been on my list for a while.  At first I had a go at some blocks for a string quilt using paper piecing, but it looked too busy for my taste. I'm not a minimalist by any means but I am drawn to clean white space in quilts.   Even if it is for a baby.

I finally settled on this pattern - inspired by Film in the Fridge's Flying Farfalle quilt, (love that name) making my "bowties" a little more obvious by matching the fabric.

It's all pieced but now I'm having a quilting quandry. Ashley quilted hers using diagonal lines,framing the bowties beautifully, but it turns out mine are a bit too large to do this. So now I can't decide how to quilt it...apart from the safe but possibly slightly dull option of in the ditch. 

Suggestions?

My muumuu

I bought some proper fabric from a proper fabric store on my birthday to make myself a proper dress.  I'm a classic pear shape - almost a size smaller up top than bottom, so fitted dresses are never easy, either to buy or to make for a novice dressmaker like moi.  So I decided on a more relaxed shape in a simple chambray/linen kind of fabric.  I have no idea what kind of fabric this is actually, but it feels and creases like linen.

I picked up this Cynthia Rowley pattern and spent the next few evenings patiently sewing it up bit by bit.  It was super easy to put together but it turned out to be a muumuu of mammoth proportions.  Even my normally very kind husband said it looked like a sack dress, so with a few adjustments on the side seams it became a mini muumuu.

I threw caution to the wind and actually wore it out last night without feeling remotely self concious and fidgety as I am apt to be when wearing something I have made in public.  Unfortunately though my non-fidgetyness did not last long as it was a very humid evening (in a supposedly swanky outdoor venue which somewhat hilarously clashed with a Megadeth/Slayer/Alice Cooper gig going on nearby) and the dress ended up being quite itchy... 

Hmm.  Maybe I should have called this post "what I wore to a Megadeth concert"?

Anyhow, the good news is (I'm clinging onto the bright side here) that I don't hate it and I learned how to make ruffles. 

Progress!

Seam rippin' yeah, that's where I wanna be

I tried something new this week.  Actually make that two things.  First was deciding that I would "have a go" at making my own clothing pattern from scratch based on two very old Monsoon summer tops that I'm very fond of.  Second, and slightly more straightforward, was making my own bias binding for edging armholes on said summer top.

Given that my clothes-making-for-me track record is pretty lame (last count 3 tops, 2 pairs of lounge pants, 1 skirt and 1 dress), new thing number one was quite adventurous.  The biggest challenge I find about making clothes is getting the fit I want and I rarely end up wearing anything I've made as a result.  Sound familiar?

Anyhow, I just focused on the process and worked using freezer paper to trace and draft pattern pieces and sewed myself a muslin.  It took 3 attempts and a lot of seam ripping to get something half decent looking.  Then my patience (or lack thereof) got the better of me and I abadoned the muslin in favour of using my chosen fabric (a thrifted Ikea Rosalie pillowcase).  More seam ripping ensued before things slowly started to improve and it suddenly dawned on me that seam ripping is perhaps not, as I had previously thought, an admission of failure, but simply a sometimes necessary part of the process of getting a piece of clothing to fit.  As soon as I got my head around this idea, instead of feeling scary and frustrating, seam ripping suddenly felt good, like it was one step closer to a potential fit. 

Could this be my "aha" clothes sewing moment I wonder?

The end result?  Well it's still far from perfect (as you can see both from the gaping and the fact that I look a few months pregnant) and I will most likely never wear it,  but I feel like drafting something from scratch was a valuable lesson in enjoying the process.  Above all, its encouraged me not to give up on clothes sewing...

PS This post's title is taken from Oceanic's Insanity (Dream Tripping) - a dire song of which I was once very fond in my first year at Uni about 100 years ago.  Please tell me I'm not the only one that remembers this one?!

Thrifted sheet blah blah blah

Do you ever get bored of my thrifted sheet posts?  Sometimes I feel like a one trick pony with my "hey look what I turned an old sheet into this time" posts, but to be honest I simply never tire of them. This one was bought on yesterday from a new thrift store a friend took me to.  It was washed, dried and turned into a shirred sun dress for Ruby less than 12 hours later.  

I normally frequent just two reliable stores on a regular basis, and if there was any doubt in my mind about how much I have come to love thrifting, my heart was pounding with excitement and anticipation as soon as we arrived at the new place, confirming that I am indeed completely and utterly hooked.  
This dress is much like last year's (which has since been shortened into a top), based on this tutorial from House on Hill Road. It's perfect for slipping over a swimsuit after a visit to the pool.  Florence has also just posted a helpful (and very entertaining) shirring tutorial here.

Union Jack pillowcase

Nearly a year after I finished his quilt and promised him a pillowcase, I finally finished it this morning.  It's been languishing in the "nearly finished pile" since last summer.  Somewhat ironically, it marks our almost 4th anniversary of living in Montreal (we arrived on 06.06.06 from the UK).  Tommy was just 19 months old when he arrived but still has the remains of a British accent, and is very aware of his Englishness.  He fully embraces his roots, and proudly exclaims to anyone who cares to know, that he is one half English, one half Greek and one half Canadian. 

That's a whole lot of boy!

 
His puppy, "Fluffy", is wearing the Montreal Canadiens jersey -they're playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs (um that's hockey if you're not a fan) at the moment - go Habs go!