The best present. Ever. (FO)

Last year I made my husband some shoe bags for Christmas, which he declared were The Best Present Ever. High praise, no? Flattery like that gets you everywhere...

He likes them for all sorts of reasons:

:: he has expensive taste in shoes, which he keeps for years decades
:: they don't take up any room in the house
:: they help him keep his shoes shiny and dust free

I like them too, for different reasons:

:: they are really easy to make
:: I made them from the stash
:: they are quick and cheap and have a high appreciation factor

After the raging success if last year's bags, an order was placed for more. Last year I upcycled some unused pillowcases (unused because they were the wrong size/shape for our pillows). This year I homed in on a linen skirt that had been hanging about in the upcycling pile for aaaaages.

It looked promising: a natural fibre in a neutral colour, and after a quick eyeball for size, I calculated that I could cut it up to make two new shoe bags in next to no time.

The first step was to cut the top of the skirt off. Choppity chop.

Then I ripped the central seams of the skirt. Riiiiip.

This left me with two rectangular pieces of cloth, each joined at the side seam and with the original hem. I spent a bit of time looking at the hem deciding what to do with it. I wanted my bags to have drawstrings, so needed a casing to run the strings through.The hem finish seemed to be perfect for this purpose,  so I just needed to sew the side and bottom of the bags together.

For durability and neatness and just because I like it, I used French seams. And, I bagged the bottom of the bags too, to give them a bit of shape.

Finally, I ran some tape through the hem casings to make drawstrings. All in all, a really quick little project. I reckon it was under half an hour, including all the rummaging and ironing. Result.

De-stashing

Whilst I have been working hard on the stash busting over the last couple of years, there are some corners of the stash which look decidedly dodgy. There is some really awful acrylic and wildly coloured yarns which came either from charity shop raids, or from my grandmothers knitting basket. I think I inherited her thrifty ways, as well as her bag of yarn unravelled from long forgotten jumpers. 

But, I have a plan. It is cunning, and a bit daring and probably also rather mad. And I'm hoping it might look a bit like this...

 

Apparently highly coloured acrylic yarn is just the thing cos it lasts for ever .... who knew?

Glasgow School of Yarn (and an FO)

On Saturday we went to Glasgow. A family day out and a birthday treat for my mother-in-law. While the boys went to see the new transport museum, we made our way to the Mackintosh Church to the Glasgow School of Yarn 2011. Unfortunately, I booked too late to get into any of the workshops, but we spent a happy hour or two in the market place choosing yarn, drinking tea, eating cake and chatting to knitters.

Natalie from the yarnyard was there with her lovely yarns and magic carpets (which she explained to me) and a lovely warm hug; and the jelly bean helped me choose some yarn to make some boy socks with - and we carried off some lovely BFL yarn in the colourway 'Lochside' from Abstractcat.

Once the second handwarmer was finished, the skein was quickly wound and a pair of boy socks cast on. I'm adopting/creating a new tradition to make my children socks each Christmas. And, while we watched the last episode of Spooks (sniff, sniff) I soon rattled through the leg of the first sock (I don't know why this picture insists on appearing sideways... I've tried to put it right, but it just won't go...)

Everyone else has got much better pictures than me of Glasgow and the CRM church (try here and here for lovely pics), and everyone was super friendly, and I only hope that it happens again next year.

In other news, the handwarmers are finished and rather lovely (even if I say so myself). There will definitely be some more of these in the near future...

Pattern: handwarmers (based loosely on the purlbee's pattern)

yarn: Jenny Cook hand dyed yarn (multi-coloured) with some green 4 ply from the stash (Jaeger?) 40g used

I'm trying to make better use of my time by being a bit more focused and organised about things both at home and at work. To this end, I am tending to having one 'big' project (for the house) and one 'little' knitting project (for out of the house) on the needles at any one time. At the moment, my big focus is on the cardigan of doom which is now blocked and waiting to be seamed and finished. I'm also focussing on my sewing basket/mountain a bit more regularly. Apparently you actually have to get your sewing machine out for things to be made and repaired - just thinking about it is not enough; who knew? Anyway, serious roll of drums and trumpet fanfare, because I have just made my first quilt! Tada!

It may be an itty bitty doll sized quilt for the jelly bean, but it's a quilt and I pieced the top and bagged it and stitched in the ditch and everything. And, it's all recycled/repurpose from old shirts and some old flannel sheets...

Making Monday (on Tuesday): dribble bibs

I'm a bit late with this week's making monday (oooops!), but if a things worth doing....

The last couple of weeks have been studded with birthdays - first dear wee Elias, then my dad, then my cousin's twins and yesterday, a little friend of ours who has got to the very grand age of three! Happy birthday to you all.

Wherever possible, I prefer to give home made gifts, so my dad got socks, and the twins - who were 1 at the weekend - got a variety of things, including a few cute dribble bibs (tutorial here).

These were upcycled from some old terry squares and some of the jelly beans old clothes. She really wears her clothes, and not all of them are in a fit state to pass on when she has grown out of them! Some days it is hard to keep track of the clothes she gets through - such is her capacity for attracting dirt and soaking herself with any/all available liquids. Not that we'd have her any other way...

Troosers...

A week or so ago, I made use of a child-free day at home to sort out my stash of fabric. It was a rather sobering experience - I hadn't really realised just how much I had accumulated over the years, nor how many half-finished projects and things for mending there were languishing in various trunks and baskets and drawers. 

First on my hit list were some old trousers of mine, set aside to make new trousers for the bean - and a pair of trousers of his that needed mending.

Then, I got to work on some trousers for the jelly bean. When you are in the throes of potty training, dungarees are a bit of an impediment, so I turned this cute pair into some trousers. Trouble is, the jelly bean herself has a different view point - in the way that two year olds do - and won't actually put them on...  humph. But I live in hope...

Sew...

A few FOs to record and celebrate (it's been a long, long time coming). I foresee more in the next days...

  

upcycled baby wipes and an upcycled dribble bib (tutorial here)

my first home sewn nappy

oh, and this one isnt finished, but she's perfect in every way...

Paring back...

For all sorts of reasons and in all sorts of ways, I in the midst of a process of paring back.

Firstly, I am trying to pare back the wheat and gluten in my diet. I have been gluten free a couple of times before and on both occasions I felt very well. This time the motivation is different and purely driven by me; the other times it was to do with the country I was in and breastfeeding a fussy baby... I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now and I quite like the way it's going.

Second, I am trying to pare back my wardrobe. I was reading about blogger Sooz's decision to stop buying commercially made clothes and the liberation that came with sitting down to think about a wardrobe of garments that worked together, and a lightbulb came on in my own head. I have too many clothes (dont we all?) and although I am making an effort to wear more of them, there are still many things that no longer fit, have never flattered or which just dont work. So, I have started to write a list of all the clothes that I own; to think about the colours and styles that suit me best; to be honest about the things which do and dont fit; to assess which things might be refashioned (for me or the children) and which things it would be better to donate to a local charity shop. I'm excited about this. It feels grown up and organised and good and I'm looking forward to the actual sorting/off loading and refashioning that will result.

Third, I am thinking about the way in which we can pare back the carbon that our family consumes/relies on: the way that we travel; the way we use energy in our home; the things that we eat. You know, we might not have long to get to grips with climate change and we can all play a part. 74 months left. 

Tutorial: Dribble Bib (aka Bibble)

It seems that the height of bib fashion (who knew there was such a thing as bib fashion?!) is currently a triangular neckerchief with a popper fastening, and which snuggles beneath the chin to catch the dribble that flows from teething babies/toddlers.


You can find oodles of these dribble catchers in the shops, including some very fancy ones with waterproof innards and velour layers, although they do cost anything up to £8 each! But they are a doddle to make from recycled/upcycled fabrics and here's a short tute to prove it.

You will need:

1. some thin card to make a template
2. some absorbent fabric for the backing (e.g. terry, towelling or fleece)
3. some fabric for the top (e.g. t-shirt material, dress fabric)
4. press stud or fastener
5. scissors/thread/needle

1. Using an old bib as a guide for neck length, make a template for the bib using the card. You will need to draw a right angle triangle with a long edge that corresponds to your old bib (in my case, measuring approx 40cm/15").

 2. Use the template to cut backing material. Here I am using a well used bamboo terry square.

3. Use the template to cut the fabric for the top of the bib. Here I am using a plain (but rather bright!) t-shirt...

4. Next stitch the two layers of fabric together. Because I am not a very accomplished sewer, I simply topstitch about 1/4" from the edge, leaving the edges raw. Alternatively you could zigzag or overlock the raw edges together OR sew together with right sides facing (leaving a short gap) and then turn right sides out and finish by top stitching. If you are making these as a gift, then you might also consider finishing with bias tape to make them really neat.

5. Add your fastener/popper at the appropriate places. Some of the commercial bibs have two poppers so that length can be adjusted.

6. Add bib to baby and smile.