Business card wallet

I think I'm safe putting this up... if not Hi Mat!

A couple months ago Mat suggested that a business card holder would be a good present, and then I promptly forgot all about it. I ended up getting him a disposable pre-loaded Visa card so he can buy obscure reggae music online - and then I remembered the card holder idea. I did a quick Google and came up with a great little tutorial and this is the result:



open it up and voila! some Heather Ross Mendocino fabric. I think it's fairly 'guy-looking'.



Perfect to put the Prezzy Card into and partially disguise what it is when wrapped. I'm half-hoping he doesn't like it and I can take it over, I think my "business card" looks pretty snappy tucked in there!

What I'm up to at the moment

2+2 blouse, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

Amongst the many projects I have on the go at the moment is this Oliver + S blouse from the 2+2 pattern. I bought the Lecien 'My Foklore' fabric a fair while ago for this exact purpose and I can honestly say I think it's one of my favourite fabrics ever. The photos don't do it justice, but the little pops of red are just sublime in their perfect redness.

Mat said "that's too nice to give to Hazel!" and of course what he meant was that she may very well refuse to wear it and I think that would break my heart (again). But what else was I supposed to do with it? It needs to be worn by a little girl in some shape or form, and if I didn't make the size 4 now I wouldn't have had enough fabric to make the next size up. It was close as it was! I had initially thought that I'd put it in her stocking as I'm confident that she would wear it if she thought it was from Santa. But I'm not sure if I can bear her not knowing that I made it. It's totally an ego thing I know! I'm still really undecided about this - any advice would be welcome.

All the potential angst aside, just look at that fabric, the gathering, the sweet little ties at the neck. I might have some quibbles with the technical aspects of Oliver + S pattern construction at times, but you can't deny they make the cutest kids clothing patterns around!

Two birds with one stone

Though I can assure you that there is no way I could hit one bird with a stone, let alone two, because I throw like a girl.

Fabrics, a flash test and hopefully some recommendations from readers

I bought some fabrics yesterday at my favourite fabric store Global Fabrics as they were having a sale on knits. I know, any excuse to get in there! They have so many beautiful things at the moment, just gorgeous. I was in a trance the whole time, wandering around thinking "oh I could make something with this! And this! And ohhhhh, that's amazing! And oh! look at this, I could make something from this" with visions of fabulous garments floating in front of my inner eye. I ended up with the ones in the pictures below. The right-hand fabric is a cotton voile which will be a floaty summer top. The other three are knits destined to be tops and the orange one will be a dress. I'm going to make Hazel a dress from the kitty fabric and she faithfully (and rather desperately) promised me that she'd wear the dress if I made one. There should be enough for a dress for her and a tshirt for me.

Now the second part of this post is a small test of the flash diffuser idea from the previous post. I discovered that although my SLR is a Canon, the integrated flash isn't quite like the one in the tutorial and doesn't have the long metal arms. I managed to get the paper attached anyways. Robyn, I think that you could do this with a point-and-shoot too, I had a quick try with mine and just taped a bit of paper below the flash. I think you'd need to do a lot of fiddling with the position of the paper but once you'd sorted that it should work the same. Anyways, here are the results:

No flash, light coming in from the window to the left. Not bad, but a few shadows here and there.


Full flash. Again, not bad but you can see it's burnt out the shadows at the bottom of the orange fabric.


Bounced flash. Pretty good - more even lighting than no flash, but it hasn't burnt out anything. I had to fiddle with the angle of the paper a bit, the first time I had it angled up too high and there was a dark patch in the middle of the photo.


Third part - I need recommendations for a pattern to make a dress for Hazel from the dot/cat knit fabric. Just something really simple with a one-piece A-line body and short sleeves. I have in mind something maybe with a gathered neck and gathered puff sleeves. Nothing too frou-frou because that fabric is all about simplicity I think! Does anyone know a good tutorial or purchased pattern they can recommend?

Oh how sweet!

Ume Komachi 'Blossom', originally uploaded by Ansis68.

That's what I said when I opened up the package from Cotton and Cloud - not only did it contain my Ume-Komachi 'Blossom' fabric, but there were a couple of perfectly-matched zips (much closer in RL than they look in this photo) and a cute assortment of mismatched little white buttons. Suddenly the fabric has gone from "maybe a bag or a pillow" to "wouldn't a top look fabulous?" I'm going to have to ponder this a bit, but that's part of the fun isn't it. Does anyone have good patterns to suggest for tops?

Does this mean I'll have to learn how to put in an invisible zipper? Eeep!

ETA: in one of those perfect moments of internet timing, Kirin Notebook posted a tutorial on making cushions with an invisible zipper. And look, I've got fabric AND invisible zippers. Howzat!

My cup runneth over

Ages ago I did a post about my favourite fabric, 'Blossom' by Ume-Komachi, and how gutted I was that I only had a wee scrap and couldn't find any more despite much searching.



I have looked for it since, but had pretty much completely given up hope of ever finding it - until tonight. Just by chance I clicked through to the Cotton & Cloud blog because there was a very cute lunch tote from there featured on Whip Up and I wanted the pattern. It was late and I was a bit bored so I thought I'd check out the Cotton & Cloud shop and oh I can't say how glad I am that I did! Because there, in all its glory, was as much as Blossom as I could afford (not a lot given the NZ dollar), in all the colourways AND ON SALE. I literally almost fell over. Or off my chair as the case may be. So I now I have some of the pink winging its way to me from half a world away and I'm stoked. Of course I have no idea what I'll make with it - but I'm going to force myself to do something because I'm damned if I'll hoard it and never use it for fear of ruining it or getting it wrong. I've guarded my 20cm strip with a fierce devotion but now I can make a couple little things out of it without fear! Whee!

I'd love to hear of anyone else's longed-for but unavailable fabrics :)


The colour's a bit faded in this photo, but it shows the detail nicely.

More Lecien

La fleur du lin Herb by Lecien, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I checked out a new quilt shop over on the North Shore the other day and bought these two fat quarters of La fleur du lin Herb by Lecien. So lovely! I'm hoping to make some fabric bins to put thread spools or somesuch in. I prefer the grey colourway, but thought the two colours together would provide some variety when they're made up instead of two boxes exactly the same. The only thing is that when I unfolded them to take the photo I noticed they'd both faded quite badly along the fold lines! I'm really upset about that but I'm still debating if I'm upset enough to take them back. You can see it particularly on that centre fold on top, it looks like highlights on the fold but it's mostly fading. Bugger! I suppose it's possible that would be the bottom of a container... you can see I'm already trying to convince myself it's not worth going back, such is the way of a lazy person ;)

Fabric!

I had a bit of a fabric-y day yesterday and then again today so I thought I'd share them and what I want to do with it all.

My favourite fabric shop here in Auckland is Global Fabrics (having said that I haven't visited a new shop on the North Shore that stocks Japanese fabrics yet ;) ) and they specialise in selling end of bolt/run fabrics from high quality manufacturers and designers. You never know what you'll find but there's guaranteed gems and deals. And when they have a 30-50% off sale? HEAVEN ON A STICK. I went looking for fabric to make a new girly-girl skirt for Hazel who has grown out of her previous one. She came with me to make final decisions. So we ended up with the one on the left for the skirt and the one on the right for a shirt



Although I wouldn't do it myself, I imagine little girl style dictates they'll be worn together.

I also bought this denim to make a jacket for her and a hat for me. I have such a big fat head that I mostly can't buy women's hats in stores and am in dire need of one for summer! The circles are about 1.5cm wide



Then we spotted this ladybeetle fabric that is composed of panels with a stripey border, so I got two panels-worth and that'll make a really neat simple gathered skirt for her. She's really excited about it and I'm excited because it's not pink!



And finally, my friend Shelly in the States sent on some fabric I'd had sent to her from Fabric.com (I highly recommend American friends for this exact reason). I had birthday money and they had given me a 30% off voucher so it seemed destined if you know what I mean. I got several yards of two of Heather Ross's Mendocino fabrics. I got so much because Mat says he wants a summer shirt made out of the fish one! I'm really excited about that but how stupid am I for spending my birthday money on fabric to make him something :)) I'm hoping there will be enough to make Hazel a dress or something for me.

A work in progress

A work in progress, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

I'm back! I'm working on this hush-hush project at the moment, but couldn't resist taking this photo today, I loved the springy-ness of the pieces - much more interesting than when they're ironed! Wouldn't a skirt or jacket that be so neat done like this? I know it'd only last a wee while, but it'd be fun while it did. A skirt would literally bounce up and down when you walked I think.

I've been learning so much sewing all these strips, what with all the cutting, keeping an even seam allowance (that dreaded 1/4" even with the proper foot!), keeping all the strips even across the top, squaring them up... steep but fun curve.

Off to see the film Ponyo with Hazel and Mat tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to it!

Fat quarter bundle surprise

I need to preface this tale by saying that here in NZ aside from a few quilting stores and even fewer other fabric shops, the only place to get fabric and crafting supplies is a chain called Spotlight. They are renowned for poor customer service and pretty average fabrics. But sometimes you find a gem, hidden away, purely by chance. Like this linen tape awhile ago.


I'm in the process of making a couple of birthday presents for some of Hazel's little friends and I needed some fabric of particular colours I didn't have in my stash, so I thought perhaps they'd have some fat quarters that would do - nothing exciting but in the right colours. It's a very uninspiring collection I must say! But as I poked and prodded a fabric caught my eye. It was part of a bundle of 3 fat quarters (originally 5) that had been pulled apart and loosely tied up again with ribbon. Here they are:



So do you see what caught my eye? Oh yeah baby, HEATHER ROSS! Sorry to shout but really, Spotlight and Heather Ross fabrics are not something that you would normally consider in the same sentence, let alone the same universe. It was all I could do to keep from passing out (you see how fabric deprived we are down here). You can bet I searched high and low to see if there were any more but alas!



I very casually purchased that bundle, discounted of course because there were only 3, almost holding my breath in case the girl at the counter said "wait a minute, that shouldn't be in there, I'll have to charge you twice as much". But she didn't and I ran across the parking lot to the safety of my car. Ok, so it was pouring rain but honestly, I felt like I'd got away with something slightly immoral and illegal (but not fattening). The bundle was from a commercial fat quarter operation so it doesn't have anything to do with Spotlight at all, but it's such an unexpected thing to find in a generic fat quarter assortment. Actually the other ones are pretty nice too, whoever put it together had taste!

ETA: Eeeeee! The orange stripy one is Heather Ross too - both from her Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries collection. Double score! I think I need a drink...

The Red Coat

Red coat, originally uploaded by Ansis68.

This morning I started pulling apart a red wool jacket I'd made back in the early 90s (very boxy with big leather buttons) with a mind to make Hazel an Oliver + S winter jacket with it. When I stuck my hand into one of the pockets I felt several bits of paper. Sadly my first thoughts of "oooo unexpected money, how lovely!" were dashed, but I did come up with a train ticket to Chatswood dated 15 June 1996 and a ticket stub from a Otago V Brumbies rugby game in Canberra dated 12 May 1996. I guess you don't need to be an archaeologist to decipher this evidence from the past! Yes, I was living in Sydney then, we'd been there for about a year at that point. I'm surprised that I didn't wear the jacket much after that, but I suppose by that time it was at least 5 years old and starting to look dated.

I do love the wool it's made from though, it's the most perfect red, not too yellow, not too blue, just rich and saturated. I remember when I made this I really wanted to do all the edges with black blanket stitch and my mum convinced me not to. The wisdom of age over youth for sure in retrospect :) We did do a lovely job on it, my mum and I, handmade buttonholes and all. It may end up being too heavy for a coat for Hazel, but I'm enjoying spending time with it again after all these years.

So what were you doing in May/June 1996?

Another Wee Wonderfuls Olive completed

Finally finished the dolly today - she just needed her bow attached but it's amazing how long something like that can take to get around to! Now I'm behind on the monkey but I have some stats to run for a paper tonight so I'm afraid I'm going to be more behind by the time I make it to bed!



Today Olive is modeling a lovely pinafore made from Amy Butler's French Wallpaper fabric and a shirt made from Ginger Blossom by Sandi Henderson in Vintage Dot, as well as Lime Bouquet Toss for her sporty little bow*. She's undergone eye surgery to replace her original dark blue eyes the better to resemble her adoptive mummy Nicole.

As she sashays away, we see the sweet crossed straps of her pinafore and the splash of lime from her bow.



Bye bye Olive!

(One down, how many more projects to go?)


*Not sure of the shoe fabric, it was part of a scrap bag but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere so if anyone knows the pattern I'd love to give it credit!

A new love

Mmmm. Fabric., originally uploaded by cicadastudio.

I just discovered Cicada Studios - ohhhh I'm in love! This is the 'Earthly Delights' range and the dandelions are blowing me away. The other collections are just as lovely. They're about to open a new shop called Cloud 9 Fabrics which will sell organic fabrics at reasonable prices. I'm just hoping this brings the designs into my price range! I could probably afford some fat quarters but that's about it at the moment...