These became.....these!

So....here's some fabric. We've got plain black drill, ikea drill prints, and a crazy old curtain.

They became.....

these!

This is a favourite dress/tunic of mine that I've made a couple of times from one of my patterns in my collection. It's a Simplicity from 1976, and is such a handy dress - the pockets fit HEAPS of things and don't bulge out (I wear my tunic for installing shows, it fits a hammer, tape, nails etc and doesn't complain!)
I've never made it without the shoulder frills before, but I think the neckline is a winner here coupled with the slightly extended shoulder line. We decided to go contrast loco with this one.
These garments were both swaps with jewellers. I'm very happy with my swaps and will have to put up pictures of them. Swapping is great!! We're planning some earring trades soon :)

The other graphic fabric is........on it's way to getting made. Had to have a bit of a think about how to go about the construction of it. Hopefully will get it started this week.

This might possibly be the only time I get excited about this.

Yep, the title says it all. We're getting ready.

Below the washing line is my trusty brick seat and bucket for weeding.

Instructions: Sit on the brick, weed everything in arm range, fill up buckets, feed to chooks.

What's happened in the garden today.

Last year Darkcloud and I went halves in a gamblers choice bulb selection. So this is the second time they've come up, but probably the first good year for flowering (I think we put them in a bit too late last time) I still have all the packets somewhere, so will figure out what they are when they flower.

Today this one is in full weird bloom (I love the spotty bromeliad like tongue leaves) and in the background is possibly a hyacinth budding.

I actually have big plans for the bulbs for next spring, something along the lines of this:

yeah! Australia's biggest flower show - Floriade in Canberra (our nations capital, and home of questicon, cool hands-on science museum!) Okay, so maybe not this massive a planting, but I'd like to have strong clumps of bulbs, instead of one here, one there...... Got to have plans...!

Also, these were the eggs that greeted me this morning. Either those bloody pigeons that have been getting a free ride have decided to work, or one of the chooks has just decided small is beautiful.

I'm hoping for working pigeons..

They are sitting on my first crocheted beanie (and to date the only one actually finished!)

saturday sewing (another view)

Darkcloud got this up first, but then she's all about the organisation :)

This was such a fun day - I hadn't had a sewing day with her since November (way too long ago) and I really needed the company to have the strength to finish this project!

I was putting together an insulated roman blind for the living room window. I had the top finished earlier in this year, but I actually started it.....in 2003. I feel pretty sheepish about that. It was originally going to be a doona cover, so was going to be queen sized. A couple of things hampered the project, one, I cut all the triangles out without adding seam allowance on them, so instead of the three different sized squares forming perfect bigger rectangles....it was a hodge podge. I didn't realise this until I had cut hundreds of triangles and sewn together most of them into squares. That disheartened me enough to put it away for a couple of years. In my defence, it was quite a while ago, and I definitely put seam allowance on everything now!

It was from a Kaffe Fasset pattern, I can't remember which book, but mine actually is louder than his - if that's possible (if you know his work, you'll be amazed).

Another thing that stopped the project from finishing, is that I realised, well, it's fabric that has a white background, and if it's a doona cover, it will basically get really dirty and muddy looking really fast (on account of sootcovered glassblowing husband). So I needed to find a place for it where it wouldn't get feet on it - a window!

Hopefully it'll be up by next weekend *fingers crossed*.

Oh, and the insulation is a pure wool blanket I picked up from an op shop for $1!

Studio Workplay

This is a picture of my studio space that I share with a metalsmith/jeweller and a glass artist. I have my printing press, my silk screens and my knitting machines all vying for space and time. (I also have a sign up from my birthday party, but the happy birthday bit has fallen down along with the balloons and streamers).

I am making progress in my knitting, I took my first finished piece in last tuesday for the guild meeting, it's a scarf made from a thick ply variegated cotton that a friend gave me after realising she'd never finish her project. So this is getting sent to her this week. I started off doing every needle, and tried to do lace work, but the ply was too thick, so it didn't really like doing it, and then I went to every second needle for the majority of the scarf, coming back to make it even at the other end. So it's kind of got a ribbed body almost, and then more structured ends. I've told her she can pass it on if she wants!

This is what I've been doing with my sample pieces - making little pouches with them.

From top left: plain mohair -- terrible to work with, I'm handing over all my mohair/angora/fuzzy stuff to my hand knitting neighbour, it's really frustrating to put through the machine, you have to freeze it before hand, and then dislodge the tangled fibres every two passes, it takes a looooooong time to do anything with it. (The piece of kaki knitting on the machine in the photo above took a crazy amount of time, I was lace making with mohair, will have the finished piece of that up sooner or later)

:sock yarn (3 or 4 ply) 80% wool, 20% nylon, really fast to work with, playing with my cam lever. I also dyed this at an open day at the spinners and weavers guild in Hobart in january.

:working with a tuck stitch pattern (I can read the diagrams - yay!) and using a really nice 80%bamboo 20% wool 4/5ply (can't quite remember) it has a lovely sheen and a nice weight to it.

:stripes! the red is the bamboo mix, the black is a nubbly cotton. When I get two carriages, I'll be able to do stripes without knots, which will be fabulous.

: another tuck stitch pattern in the bamboo mix. The lilac one is the only one that I didn't sew wrong sides together and turn out, and I think it sits the best, so will probably redo the lime one to make it the same way.

I'm happy to have made something useful out of my samples, I've used one for carrying jewelry when travelling, they are good because they can be folded in half, I'm thinking of using one as a wallet..... got to figure it out.

I'm working on other things with the pieces, I just need to resolve them before putting up photos.

I'm also doing some lino cutting at the moment, just very slowly...

Student work

So as well as making clothes for people, I also do a bit of teaching. I currently have 2 students, a 10 year old and a 15 year old. It's been good practice getting used to being around kids again. Interesting and a bit daunting at times!

So this is M's work, she's been learning how to use her machine, and how to patternmake her creatures and generally learn how to sew so things will stay together. She's been making these really cool monster toys, and my project for her was to design one as a bag.

Here it is! It's got an appliqued face, and stuffed legs that dangle. There is an inside zip pocket (for those treasures that can't be lost) and also an elasticated pouch pocket that will fit lots of things, but we've been talking about how many apples it'll carry.

I quickly designed this bag to be quite a simple project that you can adapt really easily (and add lots of things on) and M decided to make it bigger, so we scaled it up, but I'm thinking I might make a couple smaller ones out of my knitting samples and see how that goes.

the workwear project

For a while I was making my husband's work shorts. I made them very slowly (not being as exciting as a frock), and he ripped and burnt holes in them before I made the next pair. I got obsessed with how to make a pair of shorts glassblower proof, or at least Tom proof.

This is the last pair I made, they've got a double reinforced back which I've quilted for extra strength (bike rider bum) and the pockets even have the contrast navy stitching that lines up with the back. The sides have reinforced strips covering the seams and pockets (where they always used to catch and rip) and then the ric rac detail over the top of it.

And then? Well, we came to a compromise (though I think he just gave up on me ever making him anything) and he started buying workwear and I didn't have to fight with heavy drill and break all my 100 size needles! It did need to be fancied up a bit, so here's some of the results.

Ric Rac and ribbons! That's what all the ribbons hanging down on my work board are for.. I just have to figure out a way to decorate the shorts without busting more needles.