Wrist cuffs on Etsy and Madeit

In a little burst of energy today I re-activated my Etsy and Madeit shops to list some of these leather wrist cuffs that I've been making.



When a friend recently asked me what I was selling in my shop and I told them there was nothing at the moment it got me to thinking of why I do (or don't !) list things, and I came to the conclusion that, for the moment anyway, I list things to sell when I'm enjoying making something and think others may like it to. I wish I could be more consistent but at this stage it just happens when I'm inspired.



So there's a little collection of cuffs and things waiting for new homes :-)



Hopefully this burst of creativity will inspire others too. And hopefully also top up my Paypal account so I can go and buy some handmade Christmas presents (sorry for mentioning the 'C' word ;-) and some new Indie patterns for me (oh, the list is loooong, hee hee).

Frustrations & forgetfulness

Day 4 of kcwc didn't go too well for me. I wanted to make a girl's dress in knit fabric and found a pattern I thought would work but I just was not happy with it at all. The construction went together well but the style just seemed all wrong... so in day 5 I've been pulling it apart and trying new things to get it to at least be wearable (hopefully show you tomorrow). The big girl thinks it's fine, but I couldn't take cringing every time she wears it! Of course I had to jump in and use one of my favourite pieces of fabric from my stash, instead of some boring thing to test it on first, which makes it even worse... ah... more speed, less haste.



Not to worry. I did finally finish off this cuff though. It's a present for a friend who's birthday I missed :-(



I used some of the fabric I got from Cloth a while ago and backed it with a lovely piece of orange wool felt. At the last minute I felt inspired to sew on a little birdy, which worked out as I wanted it to and was fun to do. I hope my friend likes it. Fingers crossed.

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? ;-)

Late night musical inspiration

Up late last night working on a small graphic design project for a friend, I was listening to The Waif's 'London still' on youtube and I stumbled upon another of their songs 'Bridal Train'. I love Australian story-telling songs, Paul Kelly is a favourite of mine, and this song interested me (there's an interview about it with the lead singer here if you're interested).

So I watched the video (work, what work?) and I noticed the great bracelets the singer had on in the opening scenes. They looked just like beads with a bit of red string wound around her wrist, which isn't particularly practical to recreate, but it reminded me of a project I've had in mind for a while... I had a flash of inspiration and had to make this cuff before I went to bed for the night.

I saw a few fabric cuffs recently in a designy shop in Newtown and had a vision of using a great scrap of fabric I've had for ages now to make one. It's from a pack I bought from my favourite Australian textile designer Julie Patterson's company Cloth. It's a pinky-red heavy cotton screen printed with red and white galloping horses (though all that's left of this scrap is the legs... never mind, good for a bit of visual texture).



So I cut the scrap into about a 10cm wide band, cut some wool felt for the backing, sewed around the edges with a few rows of machine stitching, left the pinked edges raw to get a 'deconstructed' look (and not get to bed any later!!). Then, taking inspiration from a post I'd recently seen on Treefall (of some very lovely, not deconstructed, finished, considered cuffs probably not made in the early hours of the morning) I finished it with an elastic and button closure. I went to bed feeling satisfied with my bleary-eyed crafting, but did wonder if I'd still like it in the cold light of day next morning!






Luckily I do still like it (imperfect as it is), and now of course I'm looking at my scraps of printed linen etc and thinking cuffs... but sleep is probably the more sensible option tonight...


my friend the coffee machine