Quick crafty update

As the school holidays here start to come to a close I give a sigh of relief (I'm over the fighting and mess). Keeping me sane over this period I've been:

• Casting on for a dolls pram blanket:


... after being inspired by these beauties from The Purl Bee:


• Making a start on crafting for the school fete:


• Trying to keep the kids busy with various activities... this one lasting a matter of minutes:


• In love with this new piece of fabric that just had to come home with me after a recent trip to Ikea (points off for re-stashing). Lots of ideas spinning around my head involving this one:


And enjoying pinning kids clothes ideas for KCWC next week.

Hope your marbles are intact (not sure whether mine are) and you have a lovely weekend!

Cuff love

The kids have been pretty demanding lately so there's not so much craft happening (plenty in my head though!). But as I have had cuffs (obsessively) on my mind since my late night session recently, I have squeezed in a couple using my favourite fabrics.


In one (above) I've finally cut into a beloved piece of Marimekko fabric designed in 1960. It has been waiting for the perfect project, and while I don't think this is the perfect project, one great thing about cuffs is that they only use a small piece of fabric and I think they'd be fantastic for using up small scraps. I bought a quarter of a metre of this lovely print back in the olden days BC (before children) when my time was my own and work lunchtimes in the city allowed for the occassional trip to a great shop like Funkis. I still hope to make the rest of the fabric into something like a bag or a panel in an A-line skirt, but for now I can at least enjoy a bit of it rather than let it all just sit in the stash out of sight.



The other one (below) is the Ikea fabric I posted about recently. I love how just taking a small section gives it a very distinctive look. Taking a piece from somewhere else on the design would obviously look quite different. I've been really enjoying wearing it with plain black tops and jeans and maybe a scarf in one of the the colours in the fabric. It just adds a little spark of colour. I backed this one with a piece of repurposed black wool from a skirt I chopped up recently.




In each I have gone with a really simple design where I've sewn the two pieces wrong sides together, sandwiching a small loop of hat elastic at one end, turned them inside out, hand stitched the opening shut then sewn on a button from my button collection. My style is very simple anyway but I really feel here that the simple, clean design lets the fabric speak for itself. I did try to embellish the black and grey one with a small felt disc free stitched onto the front where the button goes, but even that felt too fussy and I unpicked it all! Oh well, trust your gut instinct is always the answer I guess!

I also have plans to 'gather' some scraps and samples from some of my favourite Australian fabric designers and make more. How many do you think I could wear at once? ;-)

Aprons & playdough

In the past I've mostly avoided wearing aprons when I cook as they tend to make me look like even more of a 50's housewife than I feel already! But there's no denying that cooking (and particularly cooking and playing with little kids) is a messy business. And as our washing pile is continually mountainous I figured it was time to clean up my act a bit and make myself some aprons. My little helpers would of course need one each too. And what mother-daughter relationship is complete without a few matching items of apparel, right?

I used this white, blue and green tree patterned Ikea fabric from my stash. It's pretty thick and 100% cotton so should be good for all the hand wiping and splattering that goes on during a cooking session. And hey, maybe I can get to school pick-up without food smeared over my clothes for a change... but there's still the baby and toddler to do their bit - no apron will save me from the dreaded vegemite fingers :-)



I just cut a simple rectangle (big for me, small for the girls), hemmed the edges and sewed on a length of grosgrain ribbon that had been passed on from a costume designer friend when she left to live in London (sigh). And to stop the ribbon ends fraying I used a little trusty superglue.



So to test out the aprons the girls and I made a batch of playdough. I think I love playdough almost as much as the girls do. I find it one of the more enjoyable things to play with them (as opposed to those where you'd rather stick pins in your eyes ;-)

Fresh out of the saucepan, the cooked mix is so tactile and resembles a big lump of bread dough (maybe that's the appeal!).

Then with the addition of some food colouring it seems to take on a life of it's own.

And all sorts of creatures and shapes are made by girls big and small!



Playdough (the cooked version)

Mix in a saucepan:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
1/4 cup cream of tartar (near the flour in the supermarket)

Then add gradually:
2 cups water
2 tablespoons oil

Stir til smooth then cook over low heat, stirring, til mixtures congeals. When cool enough to handle turn out onto bench top and knead a bit, adding a bit of flour if sticky. Add food colouring and have fun!