18/03/2013

La Gelateria

Today I’m bringing home a diy project from Bugaboo Mini Mr & Me’s novel Hand-made Gift Series. I have to admit, there once was a time when I felt a little awkward about home-made gifts and their fairly strong association with paddle pop stick photo-frames. But home-made gifts, done well, really can beat the pants off anything store bought! And as anyone on Pinterest knows there’s no shortage of inspiration out there. So here’s a little something to consider before undertaking a gift of the hand-made, hand-stitched felt food variety: do you love the recipient? How much? Because let me tell you, hand-stitching the waffle on a waffle cone is not something you do for just anyone. What starts off as a labor of love, quickly becomes just plain labor. A beautiful, heirloom, one of a kind gift for your kids? Absolutely. A beautiful, heirloom, one of a kind gift for the kids up the street? Think twice, my friends, think twice.

Now just putting it out there there. In the DIY gift arena, you would be hard pressed to find anything cooler than an entirely felt ice-cream parlor? As well as being pretty to look at, it’s a tactile wonderland. The ice-cream scoops and cones are detachable with velcro which means you can have your chocolate mud-cake in a waffle. Or your peppermint chock chip in a cake cone. Or a strawberry chunk surprise (with real strawberries), orange sherbet and caramel triple scoop. Lets not forget the cherry. Kids or no kids, I would probably still have made and gifted this to myself.

Etsy is an absolute mecca for felt food ideas. There’s everything from roast chickens to dim-sims to seafood platters. I came across this one particular shop that sells pdf patterns for some seriously delicious felt delicacies and the kits to make them with good quality wool blend felt. Buying a kit with the right felt colours already included made it all a bit too easy so I got a bit excited and purchased the ice-cream set, the pizza and the hamburger lunch.

Pattern: You can buy the pattern from here or a ready-to-go kit, which is the way to go. The felt has a good wool content, feels nice to touch and has a soft muted palette which I think adds to that ice-cream parlor of yesteryear charm. I gathered the other bits, tacky glue, needles, velcro and thread and set off on what was supposed to be the slow-food equivalent for sewing. Impatience reigned and finished the whole thing in a week.
Difficulty: The instructions are clear and the actual construction is not complicated, but a willingness to develop a decent callous is necessary.
Time spent: Probably between 15 and 20 hours. A couple of hours each day here and there. There’s the tracing, the cutting and then the assembling.

Worth it: ABSO-FREAKIN-LUTELY! Look at these babies. This is the sort of hand-made gift that blows anything store bought out of the water.

Love-o-meter: Played with for hours, cherished forever and passed down from generation to generation. That’s the best case scenario, most likely they be loved hard and live a short, saliva drenched life.

17/03/2013

Giveaway Winner

Newsworthy

Oh you guys! Thanks so much for entering. Reading your comments cracked me up, somehow managing to make me simultaneously inspired and hungry. It was all ‘mmmmm, pulled pork’….then ‘mmmm floaty summer dress’. I got a little overheated but here’s what I learnt: there’s some amazing nosh being eaten around the world and there’s quite a buzz around Grainline’s new Archer blouse. So this morning I asked Archie for a random number between one and two hundred, thinking, what could be more random than a five year old’s brain. Well, then I realised I didn’t actually know if he could recall the numbers at the other end! We abandoned that one and went for old Ronny the Random number generator, who declared the winner as number 27…

Congratulations to Kat, of Petticoats and Peplums!

Fortunately, this isn’t the last piece of Wiksten fabric left on the planet. You can get your hands on some here and while you’re at it checkout the other prints in the collection…

14/03/2013

Giveaway time!

Newsworthy

How remiss of me! It’s been two years since I hosted any kind of giveaway on this blog. Two YEARS!! Which could look like a lot of take and no give. Even more shocking, I started this blog, for reasons I can’t remember now, three years ago around feb / march. THREE years! And since I was a total wussbag about announcing my one year blogoversary and forgot the two year, now seems as good a time as any to be giving away some material radness to the people who make blogging so much fun…you lot. So, as a token of my love, I am giving away two dreamy yards of Silk Crepe De Chine Wiksten fabric from Spoonflower. The fabric used to make this beautiful dress by Jenny Gordy, of Wiksten.

It’s not a dream. Just leave a comment, say hi, tell me what you’d make, what you had for dinner, whatever… I’ll announce a random winner from anywhere in the world in approx three days time.

Good luck!

27/02/2013

Don’t Ya Wish Yer Leggings Were….

S.E.W.N.

…hot like these? Don’t ya BABY don’t ya?!

A terrible attempt at pop culture reference aside, I’m smitten with my new hand-made printed leggings. It’s taken a world of self control not to just go and buy a pair since I’ve wanted in on this trend for a while. Or more accurately, since I grew out of a great psychedelic pair I rocked as a seven year old. I’ve been searching for some suitable legging fabric, tribal, preferably and with a four-way stretch. I did have this swimsuit lycra (from here) set aside for the day when the stars would align, the sewing gods would smile down and I would transform it into a magnificent bustier, high waisted bikini with boning. With my magic sewing wand. That I don’t have. So no hard feelings it didn’t happen this summer and is probably a few more seasons and a tad more garment experience off. Leggings on the other hand, for an hour and a half and no perspiration later, they’re slinking out the door in all their tribal glory.

I’m holding Pinterest responsible for my slightly less hazy idea of what’s going on out in the fashion world these days. And I can’t get enough of what seems to be a perfect balance of fun / feminine: Peplums, geometric prints, tribal, leggings, high waists, blazers, peterpan collars, neon, maxi skirts. I’ll be sad when any of these go out of fashion again. If ‘you’re dabbling in DIY fashion, it’s a pretty exciting time too. Thanks to an ever-growing choice in sewing patterns and designers, making clothing that are ‘as good as the shops’ is not just a fantasy. Coveting some printed leggings of your own? Here’s a start….

Burdastyle Lace leggings

Burdastyle ‘Carol’ leggings

Leggings by ‘The Fashion Hackers’ (etsy)

Since I feel kind of bad flaunting this fabric from a store with no online shopping on the other side of the world to a good chunk of you, I’ve decided to be nice and share my current hotspot for some seriously random and wonderful printed stretch fabrics. This shop, happened upon by accident on Etsy, will probably be fished out now. But it’s okay because I stocked up a few days ago…mwhahahaha! When selecting fabric for leggings you want something super elastic, which is why 4-way stretch is good. Baggy knees are no-ones friend. If you don’t mind lycra next to your skin, swimsuit fabric makes for a great pair but there are others that will do the job too.

I chose McCalls 6173 and whilst I love the final result I won’t be recommending it for the sizing alone. I cut out what I though was my size according to the measurements and before I’d taken the scissors to the fabric, looked down at the pattern pieces and realized they were gargantuan. So, I thought, I’ll just sew the next size down and hope for the best since I am fundamentally opposed to muslins. Only, after trying them on, I proceeded to take, no kidding, a further 2″ off each leg seam from crotch to ankle. It became a fun game. Try them on, take them in, try them on, take them in until eventually they clung like a legging damn well should! Too harsh perhaps? Okay, I did like that the pattern has side seams only on the insides of the leg, good news if you’re trying to match up a print. A bonus point for you 6173.

Nope, nothing else to add…I think we’ve covered every angle.

13/02/2013

Back with a Briar

S.E.W.N.

I don’t really know how to begin this post. I feel like I’ve been well and truly back in the Blogosphere since early January. Happily lurking in the background, catching up on everyone elses posts, meanwhile working myself into a state over the perfect witty title / grand re-entrance scenario for my own. I figure it’s one of those things that’s just not going to happen if I wait around any longer, so here is me pushing myself out of the nest, getting back on the horse / any other awkward animal-related expression for starting over.

So. Happy New Year. Lets take a moment to chat about about the lovely Megan Neilsen. Fellow Aussie chick, mama, self-taught sewer, whom happens to just, you know, run a household, clothing label and design her own line of sewing patterns. Enough enough! The woman is a well oiled machine and could probably release a best seller on time-management. But for the meanwhile I’m content building up my hand-made wardrobe with pieces from her very-wearable pattern collection. You may already be familiar with her Darling Ranges dress (or skirt, when sizing charts elude), the Banksia blouse, the Kelly skirt (on the list) but her latest, the Briar, is my favourite yet…

Maybe you know what I’m talking about when sometimes an easy sew looks like an easy sew when its finished. Not the Briar. I’ve had more compliments lavished upon this top than any other hand-made item of mine which sees the light of day. And not once has it been followed up with ‘oh’… pause… ‘did you make that?’ + judging eyes. Certainly the best outcome for handmade stuffs but especially surprising because it’s such a simple top. It’s not overwhelmed by fussy details, just a wee pocket, a neatly bound neckline and a scooped hem. The Briar has nothing to prove. It’s comfortable in it’s own skin and it makes me feel just so wearing it.

If that’s not enough reasons to fall for Briar, it also makes for the perfect layering companion. I made it up in this metalic cotton knit (whatever thread in there that makes it metalic, also gives it a crushy effect which is kind of cool) originally to layer over my Tribal maxi dress but I’ve since had so much fun styling it with other things, it hasn’t even reached the maxi yet. I love that, in being so simple, the pattern leaves room for play. As well as a cropped version like this, you can make a t-shirt length variation or a straight across hem if the high-low trend isn’t your thang. And that’s before you even start to look at fabrics. I knocked my own socks off here, voluntarily choosing a SOLID. Not just being the print fiend that I am, but because I had Megan’s short sleeved tribal Briar on my mind. And if that’s not enough versatility for ya, the Briar also makes up in a woven…results in soon!