Teacher appreciation gifts

Hi there,

What is with this weather? It should be summer here. One day we are fine and the next we are completely washed away. And when I say washed away, I mean very, very wet. Rain water tank filled to the brim and overflowing wet. And cold. And did I mention wet?

Good for getting those end of school year things done though. This year I made key rings for the teachers of our children to show them our appreciation for all the work they are doing.

To wrap the little presents up in a nice way I used some left over wall paper. Actually, come to think of it, the wall paper isn't left over from anything, I think I just bought it once in a sale at Laura Ashley, thinking I might use it for something and stashed it away in a little corner of the studio. But, the idea is that you could use left over wall paper if you wanted to.

Using the back end of a craft knife and my metal rulers (essential part of craft equipment in my studio, I seem to use them very often for all sorts of projects) I scored some lines  in small strips of the wall paper to make nice and crisp folds. Some glue and a few snips for the base of the bag was all it took to make up these small gift bags. With a hole punch I made some holes at the top and threaded through a piece of ribbon. All very easy and with a maximum effect.

If you are interested to make some bags of a similar size, I used the following measurements:
9 cm - score - 3 cm - score - 9 cm - score - 3 cm -score and added a 1 cm strip for the glue.
For the base I just scored another line at 2,5 cm and made small cuts at the corners. Then I halved the side parts (the 3 cm bits) by folding them and glued the whole thing together.
This would of course work for all kinds of sizes; just take a look at what you would like to wrap and adapt your measurements accordingly. Happy giving!

Have a nice (a hopefully sunny) day!

Missoni bracelet

Hello you!

Just wanted to share this with you:

Doesn't it make you think of the Italian fashion house Missoni? I'm quite sure that this is the actual bracelet they make their designers work on before they start on a new collection!

The above is just a glimpse of their 'home' range, but check out their women's wear and you'll know what I mean (if you are not already nodding your head at the computer). 

They even have the zigzaggy bits in their favicon (which is the little symbol that pops up in your navigation bar if you are on their site).

For this bracelet I would recommend peace and quiet; about 01.00 am will do the trick, because you will end up in a big muddle if you get distracted. And make sure to finish the pattern of 6 when you stop because you will invariably forget where you were.

Watch the video here and I've written it down for you as a reminder while you work. Don't worry, once you have watched the video a couple of times, it will be clear.

Take 8 strings (dmc embroidery floss), all different colours and work in pairs.

The pattern is 6 rows and is as follows:

Row 1: backward knot, forward knot

Row 2: separate the end strings off and forward knots for the rest of the row

Row 3: forward knots

Row 4: separate the end strings off and forward knots again

Row 5: forward knot, backward knot

Row 6: separate the end strings off and backward knots for the rest of the row.

That is all. I really hope you'll give it a try. Making friendship bracelets would make and ideal holiday activity; you don't need much, some embroidery floss, an old belt or strip of fabric to tie around your leg and a clothes pin to pin your project to the fabric or belt and away you go. All easy to slip into a bag, for any spare time; perfect for long train or car rides, sitting around at airports etc. 

Enjoy your day today!

XO

Things Irish

Hello there,

 I must confess I have a weak spot for all things Irish.

This started upon meeting with my biology teacher Sean and having him teach me many interesting things about protoplasma and suchlike. Beautiful in his own right and complete with cauliflower ears caused by playing too much rugby.

Strangely enough I have never actually set foot in Ireland, I mean like Never, and now I am afraid I will be hugely disappointed when I will go there.

The Irish seem to have lots of good things: beautiful and rugged nature, ultimate spa's, humour (the famous Irish craic) and the necessary funny people.

They may have less good things too: the food (all carbohydrates), the drink (that brown stuff they get all patriotic about), they can't all see eye to eye and sometimes have nasty ways of expressing their discontentment. But this last one would be a wholly different topic.

This brings me to the following video shot by himself a.k.a. Tony of Marian Keyes and her niece Ema using their brilliant random generator to select raffle winners.

 

There are some cooking videos on there, involving intriguing ingredients such as date syrup and tahini. Very good for sleepless nights or rainy days. 

Better news still is that Marian's new book will be out on September 13th and I am already looking forward to it. 

Hope you have a nice day today!

XO

First rainbow bracelet

Hi again,

Here is another try

Ah, that is better! I don't know why the knots on this bracelet are not as nice (a bit uneven and a bit knot-knotty) as on the first attempt. I'll put it down to tired hands and late nights. But hey, you can already see this bracelet has potential!

Have a nice day,

TTYS

TSW Bracelet No 25

Hello and good morning!

Do you remember my posts on rainbow and friendship bracelets and how I felt the sudden wants, aka severe TSW, for them?

On my quest for a nice rainbow bracelet knotting pattern I stumbled accross a youtube video by Beyond Bracelets. And oh my, there it was, my rainbow bracelet. Number 25 it is called.
And yes, that implies that there are at least 24 other patterns too! In fact there are even more. I haven't seen too many of the videos yet, but the ones I did watch had very clear instructions. No wind whisteling in the microphone so far.

If you are interested, please have a look at the video and see for yourself.

 

A little wiser now, I used some normal cotton to try out the pattern. It was hard to concentrate but I managed to get a nice bit done. Then I messed up because I got interrupted about 50 times and I couldn't for the life of me remember what step I needed to do and ended up with a weird looking lumpy bit.

That was the exit point for attempt number one. I stayed up late to have another go and this is what it turned out like.

Hmm, I can't seem to get past the video to upload my photo. Mysterious ways of blogger maybe. I'll try and do it in a seperate post to see if that works.

Little dress

Hi There,

Do you remember this dress? It is definitely a dress that I will be making more often. Very quick and very useful.

Between us, don't you think dresses are the best invention ever? Planning, or lack of it, seems to be an issue and preparing what I will wear the next morning is not something that works for me when I am trying to find my bed in the dark late at night.

When the weather is warm enough, slipping on a dress in the morning saves a lot of time and, providing you have the right shoes and cardigan to go with it, you are all set in seconds! Bonus is that you don't look a frump, which is what happens to me when the weather is not warm enough for light clothing. Don't you admire women who look the part all of the time, make-up where it should be, nicely scented and organised at eight (8!) o'clock in the morning? Power!

In the meantime though, I thought it might be a nice idea to make a mini-version of the dress for our little dress and skirt loving monster. This wonderful fabric was beckoning me to turn it into something, anything, just to get out of the pile where it had been sitting for a whole three weeks!

Well, what can you do? I love the print on this fabric, retro but at the same time 'toadally now'. The fabric is made from organic cotton which is a very good thing too. Perfect for a simple play-n-school dress, don't you agree?

One thing I did not like about the fabric is that it only stretches in one direction, width ways. This is something you should take into account when turning it into something else because it does influence the fall of the garment.

I'll show you what I mean by it. This is what it turned out like: a very wide and short dress.

 I used the pattern before, so I know it is not that. It might be a little on the wide side but not this wide. So I undid the sides and the top and bottom parts again, cut off about 2,5 cm on each side (which makes about 10 cm in all!) and added a 5 cm strip of fabric between the top and bottom parts. I added little bits of the royal blue fabric on the front (just thin strips of jersey folded lengthways) to emphasize the middle strip.

This description might be hard to follow but you'll be able to see what I mean when you look here.

Little detail on the inside (for my personal pleasure entirely because who would see such a thing?):

Oh, and on an unrelated subject, I can't stop grinning when I look at my wrist. Do you like it? Far from rainbows still (look here for other bracelets), but I'm slowly getting to grips with the technique. Such a simple  thing can make me so happy.

Anyway, love you and leave you for now,
XOXO

Pin cushion

Hi,

Just thought I'd show you my favourite pin cushion. It was made for me by my aunt about 20 years ago. The stitches are very small and it must have been an incredible amount of work. I just love it!

It is filled with rice, which makes it a bit difficult to get your pins in sometimes. A wool/rice might have been a good filling too. But it is so nice I don't mind. Its beauty makes up for it in a big way. 

There are some beautiful alternatives around if you don't fancy all the hard work involved in making one. Here is a very nice one without any embroidery.

And what about this little fellow? It is a pattern by Heather Bailey and you can read more about it here. I think I'll put it on my wish list in my book of wishes. It would make a lovely present for sewing friends, don't you think?

Enjoy your weekend,

XOXO

Kirsten Kimono Tee

Hi there,

Because I am in dire need of some new summery t-shirts, I decided I might as well continue my t-shirt marathon just for a little while longer. Starting me off was the Kirsten Kimono Tee pattern that the lovely Maria from Denmark designed and put on her weblog. It is a free pattern so if you are interested I would suggest that you hurry over there and download the pattern!

The pattern is as simple as they come: only 2 pattern pieces (and neckline ribbing if you want it) and it has very clear instructions.

I decided to do a trial version first, using some pink jersey that I had lying around (I seem to have lots of fabric 'lying around' in the studio, but rarely big enough to be able to use it for myself - Different story though). When I bought it, it was nearing the end of the bolt and the lady in the shop saw it had some little blue stains on it so she gave me the remaining fabric for free. She didn't have to do it of course, but I was very pleased she did.

The original shirt has a slightly different neckline but I liked the idea of a little waterfall or cowl neck one, just to give a bit more interest to my very plain fabric. Adding a waterfall neckline is very simple to do. You just cut the original pattern underneath the arm and divide the top part into two or three little triangular sections before copying the result onto a new sheet of paper. Easy-peasy!

This drawing is very clear, I think. If you prefer reading it, here is the link.

And this is the result. I apologise for the slightly weird photograph as I was instructed to 'strike a pose' by my very helpful and lovely photographer. As you can see I also added another 10 cm in length to the original pattern.

So, a big thank you to Danish Maria for the pattern and inspiration!

Hope to talk to you soon (HTTTYS)

Life is all about slaying dragons

Hello you,

Can't remember where I saw this line, but I like it! It is also very applicable to my life at the moment.

Not that I go around hunting down dragons - what for, we're peace lovin' Veggies in our house and not in the slightest blood thirsty - but the feeling of fighting something quite big does seem to be a recurring item on our agenda these days.

Most of it is related to computer stuff, so probably boring and yet familiar to you (or maybe not at all and am I, unintentionally bien sûr, insulting your intelligence).

The delight of working with computers is enormous; we can't even imagine working or living without them anymore. But getting them to do what you want them to can be a bit of a struggle. And tedious. And frustrating. And time consuming. Did I mention boring?

Anyway, I like the slogan so much that I am considering doing some work on it and putting it up in the shop. With the small under caption 'but I am a Veggie' as an optional extra. Would you wear such a thing on your tee when you are having 'one of those days'?

Today I have been able to finish the last of my gift t-shirts. What should have been just a couple, turned out to be 8 in total. Here is the final one:

Don't know what the problem was, but the stitching on my cover locker is back to its well behaving self, even with the woolly nylon.

Happy to call it a day for now on the t-shirt front though!

TTYS,
XXX