Spring has sprung

The Botanic Garden is actually making me later and later for work each morning. I'm usually already running late when I walk through, but now I'm all, 'Oh but look at that magnolia tree, I need to take a photo! Those daffodils have doubled since yesterday, I need to take a photo! Freesias in a little clump amongst purple-y blue flowers, photo! Tulips, photo! Poppies, photo!'

The tulips are amazing though. One morning there were a couple, the next morning quite a few more, and then yesterday as I drove past I saw there were HEAPS. Walking to work this week is going to be great. Unless this crazy wind ruined them all.

This week I saw a play I did not enjoy. But nothing else. I decided what I'm going to knit next for Baby Knitters Club. But I haven't actually started it.

Baby Knitters Club seems to be on a slight hiatus at the moment. However, Kate got busy in her own time and made these amazing bibs. They're like kerchiefs - they're square with a pointed bottom - and she put domes on them like a grown-up. Amazing! [I wrote 'put domes on them like a grown-up' while half-asleep last night before I gave up on finishing this post; what does it even mean? I think it means that domes seem like a hard-out thing and that only a grown-up, accomplished sewer could put them on something. Yeah, that's what it means.]

Here are two photos I took while passing through Carterton last time I was in the Wairarapa.

I think they'd need to add 'knitting' or 'sitting around drinking cups of tea, eating, and talking' to make the Club appeal to me. Neither of those activities seem crazy for a Senior Citizens' Club.

BREAKING NEWS

A REAL child actually wore something I made! On her first ever birthday! It was really cute.

At the party there was jelly - not thirty cups of it, but rainbow jelly which makes it even more impressive.

For her birthday Isla got an amazing teepee. I want one.

I think someone else does too - and given who spent the most time in the teepee today, I think we can tell who it was really for. Turns out little sisters having birthdays are actually quite handy.

Ancient History

What have I been doing? I don't even know. But here are some photos from last weekend. I think. It seems like a long time ago already. I was down in Canterbury visiting my Mum.

I finally completed my great Christmas 2011 lavender scheme, by taking the bunch of dried lavender out of the hot water cupboard, stripping the little bits off it, admiring my harvest, and cutting up an old pillowcase to sew two little lavender pillows.

I kept saying it was a small cottage industry and that Country Calendar would be around to interview me any minute. Next summer I am going to really have to up my harvest. 

On Saturday night my Mum, step-sister, and I went to a movie at the Waikari hall. The old screen is still there from many many years ago when movies used to be played and someone has set a projector up in the old projector booth. The chairs weren't exactly luxurious but it was a cute community time. The movie was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, which I had seen before but I knew my Mum would like.

Sewing the day away

On Sunday I welcomed daylight savings by staying in bed until 10am reading the winter issue of Extracurricular. Then, after enjoying homemade pancakes with bacon, banana, and maple syrup thanks to my awesome Mum, I stayed in my pyjamas sewing until 3pm. I listened (and attempted to sing along) to Celine Dion circa 1996 and Dusty Springfield. It was an extremely good time.

I took my sweet time making this very basic pillow, mainly because I could. It's for my 4 year old cousin, Maggie, hence the material. Two Christmasses ago I made her older brother a Thomas the Tank Engine pillow and while he has since shifted his attention from Thomas to toy soldier figurines and the All Blacks, the pillow still sits on his bed with his soft toys. Apparently Maggie sometimes borrows the pillow for her soft toys, so her Mum asked if I could make her a pillow of her own.

Like the Thomas the Tank Engine pillow, this one has a separate cover which can be taken off and washed as my aunty is a washing fanatic. If I make another pillow like this (which I most probably will considering the latest addition to the family, baby Isla, will surely need her own pillow in a couple of years' time to complete the set) I'll make the top (patterned) layer's edge longer as it's just zig zagged and ironed over 1/2 an inch which isn't quite flash-looking enough.

While I really like my sewing machine (which due to lack of space has been sitting in its box since I moved house in February), I still love my Mum's sewing machine the most. I think because it's what I learned to sew on and because it's metal, so I somehow feel like I can't break it - even though I'm not in the habit of throwing sewing machines around the room or any other activity that could actually break one.

Mum's sewing kit is starting to get a bit worse for wear but whenever I see it it's like being taken back in time to our house in Martinborough. I tidied it up a bit before I put it back in the cupboard this time around (because I'm such a dutiful daughter/it's messiness irritated me) and there were old blouse patterns from when Mum used to sew a lot, some wide gauzy star ribbon from the troll doll house I made and decorated when I was about ten, 'M. Jacobson' name tags from when my sister lived at the Wairarapa College hostel and all her clothes had to be named, the old sellotape tin Mum has always used as a pin box...an unitentional time capsule.

Handmade

On Saturday I went to two classes at the inaugural Handmade at Te Papa.

The fibre seems to have an angelic glow about it in the photo. Well, looks can be deceiving.

In the first class I learned that spinning with a spindle is really really really really hard. I was especially gammy at it so after about half an hour the tutor said, 'Okay Cherie, come and sit up here by me.' After that I improved a little bit, but not very much. And at the end of the hour and forty-five minutes I was so tired from concentrating I wasn't sure I'd make it through the next class.

A reviving few hours in the Knit Lounge perked me up though and I got to covet an amazing crocheted blanket that someone had found at an op-shop and brought in to contribute to Tash's knit graffiti installation (which, unfortunately, I didn't get to see as I had to zoom off to the Wairarapa on Saturday evening, but hopefully she'll post some photos on the OutdoorKnit blog). I badly wanted to steal it. The colours are so great and the pattern is enough to make me want to learn to crochet.

In the 'Learn to Make an Embroidered Needlebook' class I got to do two very exciting things: meet Melissa of Tiny Happy, and learn how to chain stitch! Here is my not-quite-finished poor excuse for an embroidered needlebook next to one of Melissa's beautiful ones:

I was very pleased with my new found chain stitching ability though, I believe I said, 'I'm chain stitching! It's like magic!' aloud a few times. Well, it is. I also got to use a magic sewing machine that was all electronic and flash. Want to change the stitch length? Just push a button. Want to make sure the sewing machine doesn't run away on you if you accidentally put your foot down a bit too hard? Adjust it to a slower maximum speed. Magic!

Overall, my Handmade experience was a good one. I think some of the classes needed to be longer than an hour and forty-five minutes (I heard quite a few other people saying so and I definitely agreed in terms of my embroidered needlebook class) and that the cost of materials should be included in the class cost so that people know the total cost up front, but apart from that I will try to go again next year if it's on and hopefully have time to hang out a bit more. I wish the Knit Lounge was there every weekend!

The Royal Garden Party

The Royal Garden party on Saturday afternoon was a deliciously delightful success. Beth is amazing, there were strawberry macaroons, lavender scones, guiness cupcakes, sandwiches with cucumber, mint and cream cheese, coronation chicken, and egg and sprout fillings. And lots more. I finished making my bunting and we got a real Christmas tree and decorated it in the blue colour theme. The back garden looked so cute with white paper lanterns and while I didn't achieve my goal of three knitted cupcakes I did manage two. One 18 month old girl was very smitten with them so I gave her one to take home.

Such a lovely afternoon - which then turned into a night of dancing. Perfect!

Decorative doings

Today I cut out a million fabric triangles to make bunting. I ran out of time to actually sew the bunting onto the tape but there's time enough for that before the tea party on the 11th of December (I'm being very organised as am in Auckland next weekend, time is disappearing scarily quickly at the moment). It's a Royal Garden Party themed tea party, inspired by the fact that my friend's sister is returning from England and Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their engagement the other week. I bought some blue material (blue blood/Kate's ring has a giant sapphire in it) in the Arthur Toye Fabrics remnants bin for $4 and used some vaguely blue scrap fabric I already had. My triangles are crooked but it doesn't really matter.


Also, lamest photo ever, but I knit a leaf in record time! Maybe it was just due to the relief of knitting with fatter yarn and needles (my first sock is ready to be kitchener stitched closed but The Bible tells me I need to do it in a quiet room with no distraction and lots of concentration) but I honestly knit it in like an hour. And I didn't have to mark off all my rows, I managed to just know where I was up to! I want to knit some more red and green leaves and use them as Christmas decorations, probably strung together on a ribbon or something. I have green and red acrylic yarn that isn't going to be used for anything else so I might as well.


And a random 'I love Wellington' photo. My first Kaffee Eis gelatto in many many months, on the waterfront, in the sun. The weather here has been actually amazing for the last few weeks, not absolutely brilliant every day but pretty close.

C'est fini!

Finally, on Saturday night I had a bit of a craft time at my friend Beth's house and finished the baby pinnafore (she made a toast cushion - I wish I'd taken a photo, it's very cool). I had machine sewn the buttonholes a wee while ago and they didn't go so well. They were lumpy and when I opened them using the fabric cutting part of the quick unpick, it nipped the edges of the sewn buttonholes and the thread frayed. So I had to painstakingly handsew the edges of the open buttonholes to make sure they didn't fray more. They don't look that great but they are done and I think it looks very cute. Now I need a baby to give it to, or it's going to be waiting a long time in my wardrobe.

I saw this on my way to work this morning and I had to take a photo:


It was so mega it went right around the corner. I bet by the time whoever drew it had finished drawing, it was time for them to go inside.

A little bit of everything, all rolled into one

Some cool tea cups I inherited when someone left the team at work. They are now sitting on my windowsill looking funky (funky is a great word, don't deny it).

So, not much progress has been made on either the sewing or knitting fronts. My first sock is going interminably slowly; I'm getting quite bored of it, it's taking much effort to do even a few rows. I want to knit a baby cap for some quick gratification but I'm worried I'll never return to the sock.

As for sewing, I practiced buttonholes on my sewing machine on the weekend and they were okay but not good enough that I want to attempt them on the baby pinnafore yet. This weekend I hope. I actually wasted a lot of time when I got my sewing machine out last Saturday fiddling around with all the dials because the straight stitches looked weird. It had been on zig zag and I followed the instructions for putting it back to straight except for one instruction I misread which lead me to mucking around with all the dials for ages and sewing 'test' lines all along a piece of scrap fabric until I realised what was wrong. Craft rage follows me wherever I go.

Seeing as my Tuesday night sewing clasess are now over, this week I was able to go to cheap movie night with my friend (and sewing guru) Janet to see Inception. Janet suggested it and I wasn't sure it would be my cup of tea because I don't normally like anything that could be potentially scary, has lots of violence/shooting, or is all action/blockbuster-y. Turns out Inception isn't really any of those things, but I hadn't taken enough notice of it to realise that. All I knew was that when it came out everyone seemed to be saying it was amazing and like The Matrix (which I haven't seen, someone tried to get me to a while ago but when we started watching it it seemed really out of date, the computers and cellphones looked old, and I just wasn't into it; granted I didn't really give it much of a chance).

Inception, on the other hand, was amazing! I loved it! There was quite a bit of shooting but nothing was particularly gory and it didn't feel gratuitous or never ending. I loved the twisty twisty mind benderness of it and the suspense and I especially love that afterwards you can talk with people who've seen it about what they thought about the end and then read stuff on the internet that makes you go 'Ahhhh yes, I didn't think of/notice that'. I'm glad I went slightly out of my comfort zone and saw it. I didn't know until she appeared on screen that Ellen Page was in it which pleased me greatly because I really like her and Marion Cotillard is just the most beautiful person with an amazing voice. It makes me want to watch the movie in which she plays Edith Piaf.

Just in case you think I have abandoned theatre for movies, what with all my classic movie Sunday talk, the Banksy documentary, and now Inception, rest assured I really haven't. It's just that of the shows I've seen lately none have made me want to rave about them. The ones that I can remember are: Doors. Walls. And also silence. and Distraction Camp at BATS - one was a bit extreme but enjoyable; the other I did not enjoy.

I saw Marat/Sade at Toi Whakaari, during which I spent most of my time feeling like I was having major deja vu. The fact that it was in the basement, the way the seating was arranged, and that it was set in an asylum reminded me of a show I saw there last year called Bedlam and some of the costumes and the company-ness of it made me think of another show I saw at Toi last year called The Caucasian Chalk Circle. I know that some of this was unavoidable due to the choice of play - you can't just rewrite the script so it isn't being performed by a company of people in an asylum, but it made me question why the play was chosen in the first place. I also thought some more original design concepts could have saved if from the Bedlam deja vu. But this isn't a theatre review blog so I'll leave it there...(except to say there were some really strong performances).

I saw Shipwrecked! at Circa which has its last show tomorrow night. This was theatrical storytelling in a pretty pure form and very entertaining with lots of clever uses of props (a dead dog symbolised by books laid out a certain way was one of my favourite examples) and really engaging performances. It tells the story of Louis de Rougemont which is a really interesting case of storytelling in itself.

And now I am off to my first Phoenix game. With a black nostril. If you get a burst blood vessel in your nose cauterised with silver nitrate, make sure the person (well, doctor) doing it is careful not to get the silver nitrate anywhere visible because it is a burn. It will not just come off, you have to wait for it to fade and the skin to heal. I'm thinking of it as a social experiment - who will say something? Who will merely stare? Good times.

Sew nearly there

Trimming the seam allowance after sewing and cutting notches in the remaining seam allowance around the curves - which apparently helps the seams sit better.

Tuesday night was the last of my 8 week 'dressmaking' course. I had hoped I would completely finish the baby pinnafore I started making 3 weeks ago and I nearly got there, I just need to do the buttonholes and sew the buttons on. Considering I've never done a buttonhole before it's kind of a crucial element, but in the last 5 minutes of the class the teacher (Kim) quickly showed me how to do it on a scrap piece of fabric, and armed with my sewing machine's instruction booklet, I'll do some practice buttonhole runs and hopefully get the pinnafore fully finished this weekend. It was a magic revelation seeing the machine do the buttonhole, all you have to do is measure the button width and mark it on the fabric, turn the dial at the appropriate times, put your foot down, and the machine does the rest! I wonder how you do a hand sewn buttonhole? I bet it takes a million times longer.

Here is a sneak peek at the almost finished product:

It needs to be washed and ironed. All in good time. I was too impatient to wait, I had to take photos asap. But of course there will be more photos once it's been washed and ironed and with the buttons on.

Look at that HEM - a significant improvement on last week's attempt. Also, I still love the two fabrics together, they please me greatly.

I am glad I did the dressmaking course, it wasn't quite what I thought it would be but it forced me to sew for two hours once a week which I'd love to try to keep up. I said in my feedback form that I thought it would be good if they spent the first 15 minutes of every class teaching a new technique - how to read a pattern one week, how to put in a zip the next, how to do darts, how to do button holes etc. It's those things that put me off most of the time and I still don't feel entirely confident in my zip abilities. But practice makes perfect so I'm going to try to keep hauling the sewing machine out as regularly as my busy schedule allows!

Best laid (optimistic) plans

I have been told (by someone in particular) that I am a 'negative' person. I disagree with this (I prefer the term ‘realistic’...) and it would seem that my attitude when it comes to sewing indicates that, actually, I may be overly optimistic. This is because I went to my sewing class on Tuesday night with visions of sewing up the baby pinnafore in a flash, getting the teacher to help me make the button holes, sewing on the little wooden buttons, and sailing off into the night with the finished product: the cutest baby pinnafore in the history of the world.

But of course, it wasn't that simple and I feel like I didn't really make that much progress except to sew the WORST HEM EVER.


It was all going well, I sewed the front bodice piece to the front skirt piece for both the outer and inner layers of the pinnafore.


Then I sewed along the edges on the outer layer (or the 'shell' as the pattern calls it) and came to the hem, for which the pattern says 'Turn the bottom edge under 1/2” and press. Then turn it under again and stitch.' So I marked 1/2" all along and ironed it up and then turned it up again, but I didn't mark where to turn it up to the second time, I just folded it at the point where the first turned up fabric stopped (this is a cryptic and pointless description of events I know, but I'm writing it anyway). I thought it looked okay so I sewed it. As I was sewing it I thought, 'Hmmm, maybe this isn't the most even of hems but oh well.' And then when I finished I thought, 'It's not great, but it's okay.' And then the teacher said, 'How did it go?' and I said, 'Not the best hem ever' and she looked at it and said, 'Well you could unpick just this bit and sew it again?' (which must be bad - I mean she doesn't seem like a perfectionist by any means) and (clearly in denial) I replied, 'Nah, it's fine, no one will notice when it's on.'

Then, as per the pattern, I went about sewing up the sides of the lining part of the dress. When I came to the hem on that the teacher said, 'Marking where to fold it up to for the second fold might help' and as I followed her advice I thought, 'Why didn't I do the hem on the lining before the hem on the outer? Then I would have made this discovery before doing the hem you actually see'. Right at that moment the teacher walked past and said, 'Actually, it would have been a good idea to do the lining part of the pinnafore before the outer part because they're exactly the same and you could have practiced everything on the lining which no one will see.' I casually smiled and said, 'Yeah I just thought that, oh well!' all the while thinking, 'WHY DIDN'T YOU MENTION THIS BEFORE? NOW I HAVE A TERRIBLE OUTER HEM ALL BECAUSE I WAS RELIGIOUSLY FOLLOWING THE PATTERN. I DON'T HAVE YOUR WISDOM. THIS IS WHY I AM HERE.'

Craft rage. It's so common. And so often it's the patterns that cause it. Why DID the person who wrote that pattern say to make the outer 'shell' before the inner when they're exactly the same up until you attach the lining to the outer? It does make more sense to 'practice' on the lining because you're not going to see it. But then I guess people writing patterns aren't thinking about making it as easy as possible for beginners with no foresight.

Anyway, we had to pack up before I got to sewing the second hem and I have since decided that really, I need to unpick the whole first hem and do it again. Grrr. But I CAN finish this pinnafore before the end of my last sewing class next week. Surely that's realistic?

Project Runway started again tonight which was super exciting. I went to my friend's house for dinner and her Mum, Aileen, is a knitter who has been knitting up a storm for the Spring Knack Market on Saturday at the South Wellington Intermediate School hall (Rintoul Street, Newton, 9.30am - 1.30pm). Luckily Aileen is also a big Project Runway fan so we had a really good time knitting and drinking wine and having our own little Project Runway judging panel. I am probably extremely annoying to watch Project Runway with because I love to mimic Heidi - she says the same things every week so it's pretty easy: 'As you know in fashion, one day you're in, the next day, you're out.' I liked the dress made by the designer that got sent home, clearly Heidi and I don't share the same opinion when it comes to fashion. Then again, I guess we don't have much in common at all, so no wonder.

Because I hadn't planned to go round to Aileen's house for dinner, I went straight from work and didn't have my knitting with me, so I started knitting a little scarf in moss stitch for the teddy bear Aileen was knitting. Here are some of the creations she and her sister-in-law have been making, I love the little sleeping teddy in a pink bunny suit...


I may have to buy it. I'm definitely going to go along to the market anyway, as it's very close to my house.

Cute as a button

So I decided to make a little pinafore as my next project at my sewing night class. I couldn't find a free pattern that I liked on the internet on Monday so I rushed into Arthur Toye ten minutes before they closed and furiously flicked through pattern books and bought this Butterick one. I thought I'd make 'C' (the pink dress) because it seemed pretty simple, although not such a fan of the ruffle but I'm guessing you wouldn't have to put it on.

Then today I emailed one of my sewing gurus asking if she thought I could make it reversible and mentioned that it wasn't quite what I had in mind but was still cute and she sent me the pattern for this pinafore which was exactly what I was looking for. Turns out I couldn't find it on the Burda Style website because it's called a 'toddler jumper'. A jumper is a jersey in my books. Americans.

Anyway, so at lunchtime I went out and bought fabric and the CUTEST buttons for a baby pinafore EVER. They are WOODEN. WOODEN BUTTONS. I don't think I can convey how much these buttons please me.

The navy blue fabric is for the outer and the cream with squiggles is for the inner. The pattern on the outer fabric makes me think Scandinavian. Why? I have no idea. As for the inner fabric, when I was buying it the shop assistant said, 'Oh this makes me think of little gingerbread men' and then as soon as she said that I saw ghosts and rabbits. I kind of wish they were still just squiggles.

Anyway, because the pattern was printed out on computer paper it needed sticking together before the pieces could be cut out. So I spent the whole of tonight's class doing that and then pinning the pieces to and cutting out the fabric. But when I start sewing it is going to be so quick and I'm going to get to learn how to do button holes!

(It's totally like being back at school, look at the tables and the stools!)

As you can see, when it came to pinning the pattern pieces to the fabric I realised I had bought twice as much fabric as I needed because while I got the right length, it was obviously way wider than was called for. So the next person to have a baby girl might be getting a matching pinafore to this one...

I can't wait to sew this, just the size of the pattern pieces and the cut-out fabric pieces had me exclaiming, 'Look how CUTE this is! It's so TINY!' every few minutes. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I just love small versions of things. Although today I had coffee with a very short woman from work and I felt bad for being so much taller than her and I'm not even tall. It was weird.