Blinkies.

And now for something completely unrelated to everything I've been posting about recently! But photos of the blue bubble are to come because I think it may be my favourite handmade item in some time.

Christmas is coming. Eek. I started my Christmas shopping last week, and that makes me feel tremendously more organised than last year. Now that I have the pdf patterns back in my Etsy Shop, I was thinking about cool ways to personalise blinkies for presents. The embroidered blinkies or message blinkies as they were sometimes known, were always the most popular at market stalls and in shops. Sometimes a line from an obscure song would sit there for a month before anyone bought it, but they always did. The right person would see it, and bam! And they would seriously toddle off excited as can be.

So, I trawled through my Flickr photostream, and found some examples. These were always good for new babies too, especially if the parents hadn't found out if they were having a boy or a girl. One of the most popular lines was 'I'm a lover, not a fighter'.








I always used tracksuit material because it was soft, and plain, and I always think it looks better than using 100% cotton, the shape seems to work better, and something special with a small print inside the ears- Japanese linens are great.

People also used to go nuts over handprinted fabrics! It seemed like I just couldn't keep up with this kind of thing. This one is using a stamp that my friend Riyo made, but you could use just about anything.


And then there are stripes! Which always work well with dots. People sure do love stripes!


And Kristyn, a customer, just asked me on the weekend how on earth do you neatly sew the toy up at the end, and I found this really great video on ladder stitch which shows the exact way that I do it. I hope it helps.

B.

From KCWC:

This is the Ayeshe top that I made Elka. I love how it turned out, especially how it feels, but I must say that I didn't really enjoy making it. It was the second one I made because Elka is small and I've been stung by sizing charts in the past, so I sewed one up using cheap, scrap fabric, and so I was just a little over it by the time I was basting and top stitching this tiny little top. It was fiddly, and top-stitching isn't really my thing! I also had to unpick something- I can't even remember what it was, but I remember the process- unpicking double gauze fabric is not fun. But it wasn't complicated, I think if I'd had made it in a size 5, and the arm holes had fit around the arm of my sewing machine, I wouldn't have been soooo over it. And there was a nice moment when I was pressing the collar and Joe walked in and told me it was so cute, and he loved it, and that really made me feel good about the whole thing again. I will have to sew some elastic inside to stop the neck hole from gaping open though, it is a little low, and that somehow seems inappropriate on a 20 month old!


And this is the Apron Dress that I made from an Ottobre pattern. And it felt good, it is so simple and I've made one before, and I felt like myself again after all the top-stitching! I chopped up and resewed two of the fat quarters from the Handprinted Fabric Swap from earlier this year and I like how it all turned out. I like the complete lack of pink, and I like the imperfections of the stamps. And I like the old sheet I used to line it with. And I liked how easy it was. Sometimes easy is nice.


The orange pattern is by Susie, and the bunnies are by Anna.

Hurrah! Sewing and some photos! I just need to get the Bubble Dress photographed, preferably whilst on the child, but that might be setting my sights a little too high! :)

B.

KCWC via Instagram.

Well, I managed to make some things this past week! Despite having a baby who came down with a fever on the Sunday night before the KCWC started. I was thinking 'just my luck', but as it turned out, once things calmed down a little, she had some very, very long day sleeps, and by neglecting the housework and most other things, it all seemed to fall into place.

So I made two Ayeshe tops, one out of some cheap stuff from Spotlight, but I think it looks alright, and one from some Nani Iro that I have had stashed away since doll making days. I made the Nani Iro/Oliver and S Bubble Dress that I have been wanting to make for such a long time, I just have three buttons to sew on. I managed to make an apron dress from an Ottobre pattern that I've used before- I made Elka one in Autumn and she is now wearing it as a top with shorts on hot days, and I managed to use some of handprinted  linen from the fabric swap a few months ago, which made me happy, I think it's so hard to decide to cut things like this up because they are special, but I really liked the way it turned out. And I managed to trace a short pattern and choose some fabric, because I realised toward the end of the week that shorts and skirts are probably what Elka needs most... And I think I've chosen a pattern to make a robot dress from.

Now I just need to take some proper photos, but part of my sewing strategy was to just use instagram to save time, and it seems to have worked. My username is 'beecah' by the way, as it is most things.

Yay me.
B.

Here's Hoping!

1. Peekaboo Bonnet #2, 2. Color Theory Top, 3. KCWC Days 5 and 6, 4. Untitled,
5. Sailboat skirt, 6. PatternH, 7. stella3, 8. Zonnebeertje en Brombeertje, 9. Sarouel + Blazer

I'm going to attempt the Elsie Marley Kids Clothes Week Challenge again this year to make Spring and Summer clothes for Little Miss E, who at almost 20 months has finally hit the 10kg mark! We cheered. She is small, but our doctor says this is because she never. ever. stops. And she doesn't. Last time I attempted this challenge, we were plagued with months and months of colds, flu, tummy bugs and teeth, but it is Spring now, I have really gone to town on cleaning and decluttering, I have a sewing space set up and it is mine, all mine, and it is relatively organised. And because Elka is so small she is still wearing the robot pants that I made last time around but never photographed, and so I'm hoping she'll get a little while out of the clothes I make this time around.

This is my to-do wish list:
- Oliver and S bubble dress
- Figgys Ayashe blouse
- a robot dress, from an undecided pattern, from this fabric (E loves robots thanks to this wonderful book)

I'm also hoping the print some more fabric using my cat stamp to make another top or dress, but I've found that if I make very big lists, I feel overwhelmed and they don't become reality, so I'm keeping it short and simple, and keeping my fingers crossed!

B.

Hibernation

Source: thingsorganizedneatly.tumblr.com via Rebecca on Pinterest

I just noticed that I haven't posted in such a long time. Two months I think. And with a little cluster of emails about dolls and patterns and online shops, it occurred to me that people must still be reading- or at least checking my little blog.

I am still here.

I have been reading lots of blogs, and some books- parts of books, I'm yet to actually finish any book other than Save Our Sleep since E arrived- 19 months ago now! I have been chasing E and watching her grow, and learning so much, about her and me, and Joe. And it feels like we've all been sick a million times this winter which has been so exhausting.

I haven't turned on my sewing machine in such. a. long. time. As much as I have wanted to, space is just such a hassle for us. We even drove to Ikea and bought me a very long and narrow sewing table to fit into our bedroom, but getting the space organised has just been too much for me to think about with everything else, I am slowly edging towards it though. It's Spring now, so I seem to have caught the decluttering bug, not that I know where all this junk comes from, and I am sure there will be another load of it along soon enough, but I seem to be getting on top of it.

I relisted some of my old doll patterns in my Etsy Shop, in the hope that it will inspire me to kick on with other projects, and I even went through a mysterious box of trial and error toy sewing patterns that had been bugging me for so long. It's funny to revisit that stuff and see how much time and energy went into it all, and then kaput! A baby arrived. Part of me wants to be doing all of that stuff again, but this time with my little baby is so fleeting, and lovely, and intense and I want to be all here for it. So I guess it will happen gradually, when it's all ready to happen.

B.

Printing Swap Faves

These are a few of my favourites from the handprinted fabric swap so far, they were posted in the flickr group and it's been really cool to see all the different designs. A piece of the second fabric- the orange kaleidoscopes, arrived in my mailbox yesterday and I am very tempted to do some foam stamping because I love the softness and texture of the printing.


Small Bird


Flower Press with printing tutorial


107 Quilts


Mle BB

Such fun!
B.

In the post...

In the end, of course, it all came down to time. Somehow Elka and I have had three colds already since Autumn, big ones that linger and require lots of cuddles and baths, and not much else. So when I had everything planned for weekend printing, and Elka woke up with a ridiculously snotty nose on Friday morning I was slightly panicked. Thanks to Joe- in a million different ways, I got all my printing done on Saturday, Sunday and finished it up while E slept at lunchtime today. Phew. And so I pressed it, folded it and hurried off to the postoffice and got it all in the mail by 4pm. Joe took Elka to the library and I am always amazed at how much i can get done on my own- seriously!

I used a lino stamp, and obviously it's completely imperfect, but I think being cats, it kind of works, it just looks a little like they have white cheeks (well, to me it does!), and I have plans to print some more and make Elka a little denim apron dress. The design was completely stolen from this one that I have loved since seeing it a while back, but I figure, like most things with design, everything is derived from somewhere, and it's not as if a designer designed a cat head... and most importantly, I'm not selling it, so I went with it.

The trickiest bit was figuring out why the paint wasn't as vibrant after a few stamps. After a lot of trial and error, I realised that you should just get a tiny bit of paint out of the jar at a time, enough for 4 or 5 five stamps. I think the paint was drying a little when I had a large amount sitting around waiting for me to roller it up onto the stamp.

This is the swap group flickr page.
And these are my swap partners: Susie, Sheila, Jane & Anna.

B.