Wiksten tank

As you may know, the Wiksten tank pattern has a cult following in sewing blogs. But up until recently it hadn't really appealed to me. I thought it looked a little shapeless, and I'm trying hard not to buy patterns just because they are popular and look good on others. Sometimes I have an inkling that a pattern is not really my style or won't suit my figure or lifestyle, but I see a few versions I like so I give it a try.

But I'm happy to say that I was wrong about this one as I really like it.

I used an old piece of printed voile from my stash, bought at Spotlight. I must say, there are some fabulous voiles at Spotlight at the moment. I bought some recently to make some harem pants for my girls for summer and it was so hard to choos just two.

Overall I really liked this pattern. The side seams are French seams, making it beautifully neat, and the neck and arm holes are finished with bias binding, which I love using.

And I love that there's the option to buy this pattern as a downloadable PDF, it makes it much more cost effective than buying the paper pattern, and I also secretly quite like sitting on the living room floor in front of some interesting TV program, cutting and taping a pattern together (glass of wine and block of dark chocolate are nice extras when available ;-)

It's a bit firm around the bust (see the wrinkles above) so I'll go up a size next time, but apart from that I'm really happy with it and plan to make a few more for summer.

Have you made the Wiksten tank? And any plans for summer sewing? I'd love to hear.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Neon lights iPad sleeves and purses

In my creative space this week I made some things to put in a little local gallery/handmade shop called Sweets Workshop. The owners, Emma and John, are just the most lovely people, very open and encouraging of independent designers and artists and I feel lucky to have a space like this in my local area.

I'm planning on making some more kitchen items soon (you may remember my artichoke and beetroot designs if you've been following me for a while) but firstly I couldn't resist the urge produce this little range, which has been in my head for a while now, bursting to get out :-)

Using my 'lights' design I screen printed some crazy neon colours onto a length of white cotton and also some oatmeal coloured linen.

Then I made them into little purses and iPad sleeves, highlighting the designs with bright ribbons and metal zips.

It was fun to go outside of my usual comfort zone and use such bright colours, playing around with the mix of design, fabric, colours and trims to get a balance I liked.

I love seeing the circles all lined up.

And I couldn't decide if I preferred the inks on the white or oatmeal so decided to do both. It will be interesting to see what sells better.

Im belatedly playing along with my creative space over here.

- - - -

I'm off to wear my new Belladone dress tomorrow night (finished, yay!), hopefully I'll show you some pics and do a little review of the pattern next week. Have a great weekend!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Wrist purse

One of the items I made for the big girl's school fete recently was a pile of small purses with wrist straps. I thought they might appeal to both mums and girls so would hopefully sell well. Of course I forgot to take a photo of them (and the other things). But I do have shots of this one as I kept it for myself (sorry school! ;-)

As I was running out the door with the littlies to pick up the big girl from school one day it occurred to me that my sore shoulder could benefit from not carrying my heavy bag containing lots of stuff. And considering that the littles ride often ride their scooters these days it is a very quick trip - with me doing a jog at times to keep up with them :-). So in went my phone, keys and bandaids (plasters) for those inevitable scooter stacks.

I love the little peek of red linen when the purse is opened.

And its such a useful shape and size.



And even leaves my hands free when needed... Pulling along a scooter or two, applying bandaids or taking a turn on a scooter myself.

And the little birdie makes me smile.

Don't you love it when something you kind of haphazardly do turns out to be perfect for your needs.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Weekend craftiness - gift tags

Recently I bought a huge pile of cute blank white gift tags with the intention of decorating them to use as gift tags for Xmas and beyond.

So when the kids asked to paint on Sunday morning I brought out these and my watercolours.

It was so interesting to see what they came up with their first time with watercolours.

Some experimenting with blowing the paint around with water and really getting into the beauty of watercolour, I think...

Testing out what happens to the paint the more water you add...

And the little girl didn't really get the whole water idea but still loved it...

And came up with some interesting designs...

I love seeing what kids do when given freedom to create whatever they like. They're not so constrained by convention and I think it's a nice reminder to us grown-ups to loosen up and go with what feels right.

Now on to the wrapping paper ;-) ...

 

Posted with Blogsy

Halloween trick or treat bags

Craft for kids has been at the centre of my creative space this week. There's been a lot going on but not much time spare to blog it.

Anyway... Here are some bags I made for the kids for Halloween to take trick or treating. Last year we had the plastic ones which I think I must have given to the charity shop in a clean-up, as I couldn't find them. They always annoyed me as they took up so much precious storage space, so when I decided to sew some (of course!) I wanted something easy to fold away to use the following years.

I used some stash velvet for the outsides (see, it's useful having a stash - she says, trying to justify it ;-). The grey was a piece from Ikea and the black was an old thrifted skirt. I drew some halloween shapes onto felt, cut them out and machine stitched them on. The lining is a pale grey cotton from the stash.

It's a shame I didn't think to get some pics of them stuffed with lollies, being held tightly by little hands. They looked pretty cute.

And they were fun to make too, though the deadline got a little tight at the last moment! And as usual the back of the appliqué is strangely more interesting. Have you noticed how that tends to happen?

We also made some of these little ghosts from lollipops, wrapping a circle of white paper around, tying it with string and then drawing eyes and mouth on. I can't remember where I saw the idea, but it was a nice little touch, we'll definitely do them again.

More creative spaces to check out over here.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Friday photos

Some favourites from the week gone by via Instagram (bubala_jo). Have a lovely weekend!

 

Posted with Blogsy

Screen printed coffee beans

In my creative space this week I've been screen printing using my coffee design.




It's the first time I've printed a large piece of fabric and I found it fun to wander my way around the fabric first placing the group head in circular patterns and then randomly adding the coffee beans over the top. Every time I do some printing I remember how much I love it and how therapeutic it is. It's a shame there's not more time for it.

This is an old cotton linen table cloth that wasn't getting much use, so I thought I'd print it and make it into a couple of new covers for our kitchen bench seating (hopefully show you when they're done).

I'm joining in with the 'my creative space' fun again this week. Pop over here to check out some fantastic crafty goodness.

 

Posted with Blogsy