not my busiest sketching week. i never got round to doing any more on the shoes, i had to remind myself that these are supposed to be sketches rather than finished drawings. this is the most successful of the few i have managed to do, i think the choice of materials (square conte crayon) was appropriate to the subject, i wanted to sketch it in ink but i knew i’d make a terrible mess. i didn’t quite manage to get the shading effects i was after with the crayon, but i’m happy enough with the result.

i have been busy with other things, which partly explains the lack of sketching, i finally broke my block on the buttonhole-project, which i’m really hoping to get finished this week, and i had a day out in london, epic post to follow …

yes it’s back again

now you’re all reading this post in professor farnsworth’s voice

and even better news, i found more bell pincurl clips on ebay. yay. if you’re after some it’s worth setting up a search, they seem to come up fairly regularly.

i rather like this. it’s about an hour’s work, would have taken another to finish. i was enjoying it and would happily have done more but i was losing the light so i decided to drink the rest. cheers

hmm this is starting to veer quite a long way off topic, but i couldn’t not post about my latest toy (courtesy of taste-t vintage).

i did the set on dry hair, using a gel spray to dampen down to the ends, and wound each curl around an eyeliner tube. i gave it a final squirt over with more gel and left it in all day. i could have got away with half as long i reckon, the wavy clips not only make sure the curls aren’t crushed, they also improve airflow to help it dry quicker (hence “half the time”). i’d be interested to see how long a wet set would take with these. my hair is naturally pretty straight and has never taken well to any kind of curling so i am super impressed with how well this set took, it’s still going strong after being slept on. above is before brushing out, and below is the finished product after a lot of brushing.

so now i can do it, i need to work out what to do with it. i didn’t have much luck styling the curls into waves, so i just rolled the sides back and clipped which gave a nicely fortiesish vibe without being too stylised (whilst i love some of the more “costumey” styles on other people they’re just not for me). apols for fuzzy webcam pic it’s the only one i have. also apols in general for rather odd pictures, trying to take hairdo pics that are also as anonymous as possible for internet purposes isn’t at all easy!

i’m going to do some more foraging around for ideas on what to do with my newfound curls, if anyone has any suggestions of places to look i’d be ever so much obliged

debi tagged me for some questions, sorry it took a while to get round to answering!

1. Which pattern/vintage style have you been thinking about lately? no pattern in particular, but my mind has been drifting 30swards, for sure. there’s a line where vintage tips irredeemably into costume, and to my eyes that line falls at some point in the 1930s, i’m just trying to work out where.

2. What is one place that you really want to visit that you haven’t been to before? finland. fuelled mostly by a lifelong love of tove jansson. i urge every parent to read the moomin books to their kids. along with being great fun they have an unexpected depth, a darkness. and if you’ve not got kids try her adult fiction/autobiography that’s only recently been translated into english, the winter book, or the summer book. plus i want to see the northern lights

3. How do you relax? i’d love to say running, yoga and meditation (which i do, sporadically, natch), but to be truthful i mostly have a drink  after seeing the state of the lovely dylan moran on the telly last night i’m planning to revise this strategy sooner rather than later.

4. What is your favorite holiday? camping. we have a very nice tent.

either at a festival (ideally without the kids!) or in reach of somewhere like avebury. this summer i will get my kids to uffington.

5. What is one sewing skill you want to learn/try out? tailoring. i have a secret ambition to weave the fabric for a tailored jacket. oops. not so secret now.

6. Can you knit? Crochet? Any other crafting talents? my various dabblings are detailed over thattaway>>>

my most unusual “talents” are probably knapping flint (making knives by banging rocks together) and being able to count in binary on my fingers. i’m not sure i can really count that as a craft, although i for one welcome our new robot overlords.

7. How long do you spend reading blogs (per day or per week)? i only check a couple of blogs, maybe a couple of times a week, alhough every now and again i’ll go on a blog binge and hop from one to another for hours. i used to read a lot of blogs but i found it stifled any kind of creativity tbh. now i plough my furrow in blissful ignorance of what most of the rest of the world is up to and it suits me very well.

i spend literally hours a day on forums though

i know i should pass this on now, but as i said i don’t know 8 other blogs so i’ll post some questions here, in case anyone reading wants to answer – i’d love to hear

1. what craft project are you most proud of?
2. what song instantly takes you back to being 18?
3. what was the last exhibition you went to see?
4. if your craft room was on fire what would you save?
5. best dr who?
6. starter or dessert?
7. favourite waste of time?
8. if you went back to school/college what would you study?

i had a sudden realisation yesterday when i put on my vogue 1044 “wearable” muslin. it really is too big as in unwearably so the extra is mostly around the bust and shoulders, i really don’t think there are any alterations i can make that would fix it.

i guess before i was too close to the project to be able to assess it objectively, but yesterday i realised that were it rtw i would immediately be reaching for the next size down and i’d try the one below that for good measure, too. which is a little worrysome as the pattern i have only goes down one more size, not sure i can face either buying it again or grading down the one i have.

i suppose i have to put it down as a learning experience. when i first came across the pattern i was planning to sign up for a sewing class – focussing on fitting, oh the irony – but couldn’t really afford it, so i could see the time and money invested in the dress as my diy version of the class. still, it really hurts to know i’ve sunk so much into something i simply cannot use. i’ve made stuff that didn’t quite work out before, but usually it’s been on a much smaller scale, or still been functional even if not pleasing to the eye.

it’s just a shame that my first foray into dressmaking for me in a very long time has turned out to be a rather large purple white elephant. i think i really need to pause and focus on what i can learn from this to take into my next project. this garment sewing is proving to be a steeper learning curve than i anticipated…

i’m told the falbum plugin that i use for my pics is screwed, something to do with api keys.

i’ll link directly to pics for now, but i’m hoping there’ll be a way of fixing it that doesn’t involve redoing all the pics from my old posts

sorry, not sure where they’ve gone but mr admin’s off on a jolly training in london today. hopefully will be able to get them back tonight.

(ps: alice progress good! petticoat done, looks amazing, and i appear to have enough fabric left for the apron, so fingers crossed i can get that done tonight )

i bought these at a vintage fair for the sewing box i put together for M for christmas, because they were so very pretty. they were in as-new condition, so i guessed they were retro styled but relatively modern. but apparently they’re original 50s and you can get some too

(argh layout is better in some places and worse in others. will get there in the end)

i got them. weaving yarn is sooo fricken expensive. when it’s sold as crochet yarn it’s a bit less expensive, but you still need soooo much of the stuff

still, new projects are afoot, i just may have to sell some internal organs to get them happening.

and if anyone can point me in the direction of cheap weaving yarn i’d be ever so much obliged…

… so i was gone a while.

in the interim there was drinking and dancing and camping (i think those are the latest pix in the side bar) and running and tattooing and lots of laughing and far too much message boarding and just a bit of going a bit loopy. pretty average kind of year really

there was a wee bit of knitting, some life drawing – which was fun, will try to upload some – but otherwise not masses of arting/crafting going on. but we’re approaching a bit of a watershed, G starts playgroup in the new year, so i might just be able to snatch some of that stuff i believe they call Free Time.

i’ll be doing a bit of dusting around here, will be moving the furniture about again no doubt (apols in advance for broken pics, links etc.), and hopefully bringing some new craft content to the place. if there’s anyone still out there reading do please say hello

i have a tendency in all areas of life to switch on and off like a light, no happy mediums here. i pick up something new and eat, sleep, breathe it for a few months, then just as suddenly i’ll switch off (usually because something newer and shinier has caught my attention). this flitting from one thing to another leaves huge gaps in the development of my knowledge and skills, but because i want to get into everything up to my neck as soon as possible, the people i look to for guidance and inspiration are generally those people who’ve stuck at it for a long time and developed in a much more rounded way.

(coming to the point, promise) so this leaves me with that ever-familiar feeling that i’m racing to catch up. the world is turning without me and all those incredible projects in my head aren’t getting made. and i get frustrated with all the things that are standing between me and my making time, and that’s when it stops being fun.

i just finished a quilt and my first thought was “okay what next”, in the hope of clearing something off my mental memo board and making some space, without even stepping back and looking at the project i’d just finished. i forget it’s possible to make space between and within projects, that it isn’t a race. that, even though i have a shiny new work room to play with, free time can still be spent away from the sewing machine. that a rounded family life leads to a rounded creative life.

and while being online can be motivating and inspiring, tbh the last damn thing i need right now is any more inspiration, at least until i can check off my half dozen current or imminently pending projects. and reading blogs gives me a serious case of keeping-up-with-the-joneses-itis too, so i’m pledging here to trim my bloglines and spend less random web time too. i doubt any difference will show here tbh, my sporadic drive-by FO posting will continue, hopefully at a sustainable pace.

quilt teaser…

words to follow…

i’ve been out of the loop for a long time. when i’m not in a crafting/blogging phase i don’t read other people’s blogs at all, so i miss all the exciting developments. so i’m sure this is old news to the rest of the world but i’m still squeeing in delight over spoonflower and the possibilities it raises. i’ll be interested to hear more about the inks and durability of the prints as per the comment on this post.

as my brain fizzed with excitement a realisation dawned: i’m not actually that interested in fabric for a purpose, my excitement comes from the fabric itself. i’m not full of ideas for prints that i just can’t find in order to complete that perfect *insert FO here*. when i sew my joy comes from working with (and acquiring, natch) fabrics, rather than the construction of a garment. i suppose that’s why quilting appeals to me so much, as it’s the creation of a new fabric from existing ones. and why i love blankets and tea towels too – there’s nothing standing between you and the fabric. i’m endlessly fascinated by the structure of fabrics, and the techniques and materials used to create them. (oh dear i feel the inevitable pull of a new weaving category again ).

so i think the urge to create fabrics for their own sake – to sit in my cupboard of cloth, neatly folded and beautifully co-ordinated – will be a strong one, that i will need to resist. but oh! the possibilities…

here we are again, flickering back into life (although not flickring, no time to post pics). i’m stupidly busy at the moment, but i can feel an end in sight. we had some work done on the house which entailed moving out for nearly a month and weeks of painting before things can get back into place. but it’s finally coming together at last.

the upshot of all this work is a gloriously peaceful new bedroom (even with piles of bags and half-made furniture it’s pretty calm) and – squee! – a play/work room, which is to be shared, but means i’ll finally have a dedicated place to work. i’m still putting the flatpacks together, but when that’s done i’ll have a proper home for all (i hope!) my materials (it’s a very big cupboard ) instead of everything being stuffed into random nooks and crannies all over the place.

and the prospect of a work space is sparking off all kinds of new projects and ideas. the 365 is still ongoing although i’ve stumbled badly recently, but the fibre and fabric is calling again. so i should finally have blogworthy news.

baby G turned 1 10 days ago. life moves on

i’m still here, despite appearances

i was really hoping to get the chance to reply individually to everyone’s kind comments following the feature on my house quilt at sew mama sew. but since baby G is turning into toddler G at an alarming rate of knots i now have about an hour to myself over the space of a week. she’s totally wobbly and doesn’t have the sense not to hurl herself backwards head first when she loses her balance, so i’m literally hovering behind her ready to catch her most of the time she’s awake.

so here i am at least acknowledging all the comments – and those that trickle in from people who are making/have made bender or boo – it’s so lovely to hear that people are drawing inspiration, no matter how little, from something i’ve done.

click is a bit less dusty than it is around here, although nowadays i’m finding it even harder just to find the time to take a single picture in a day (let alone develop/scan film or write a blog post) i’ve totally forgotten twice in the last fortnight. still, i’m ploughing on with the 365 project. i think i’ll prolly extend it to 365 pictures in total, allowing for the odd gap (3 so far in 120-something days).

it’s such a joy watching a baby turn into a real person. G has just started sitting up and her manual dexterity has correspondingly jumped forward, now there’s no stopping her with her leaning and grabbing. nothing’s safe, she broke her first glass last week.

i’m not sure whether i’ve made my job harder or easier by trying to describe motherhood without including recognisable pictures of the girls. i hope it makes me think more, steers me away from the obvious, the crowd pleasing adorable kid shots (of which i have bucketloads), it certainly makes me try different angles. but i hope their usual absence doesn’t leave too much of an empty space, i’d like to think their constant presence just outside the frame (generally grabbing at the camera) makes itself felt.

catching up on pictures i took but never posted 6 months ago.

i remember this being a horrible grey day with much too much walking.