tiny happy

yet more fabric...

It's fairly difficult around here to whip up the kind of excitement I think my vintage fabric finds deserve. But you would like to see them, wouldn't you?

Here's some I found this morning at a second-hand market:

These are polyester/cotton blends, so they should be good for bag linings or suchlike. I'm especially excited about the little deer fabric!

And these I found while op-shopping:

I promise I do actually own an iron, it just doesn't get used much.

And they're cotton- so might be good for summer children's clothes. My favourite is the crazy seersucker on the left- it's hard to tell but it has pictures of children dancing and apples all over it.

And equally as exciting:

yesterday my Mum handed me a big bag of her quilting scraps. I can't wait to start on the new baby shoes I'll make from these- thanks Mum!

unfinished projects

Yesterday I posted about a book given to me by a friend, Anna. I ran out of time to include some more gifts she gave me last week- but they're too gorgeous not to post about!

The last time I visited Anna's parents (they are close friends of Tom's parents), Suzie, her mother, took me into her bedroom and showed me the huge chest of drawers she inherited from her mother's estate a few years ago when she died. Suzie's mother was an amazing knitter, seamstress, cook and baker extraordinaire, on a big sheep farm out of Kaikoura. The drawers were crammed full of fabric pieces, patterns, knitting needles and wool, the smocked bodices of baby dresses, and... lots of unfinished projects. It was the most amazing thing to find... some of the baby clothes were garments worn by Suzie and her brother, little dresses and sunhats and finely-knitted baby vests. That day Suzie gave me some fabric and some pieces of stripy cotton cut out to make pants- I finished them and now Keira wears them!

But last week, Anna handed me a bag of more projects:

(Sorry about the terrible afternoon shadow!) some old, beautiful floral lawn fabric, white viyella and a pink vintage piece of fabric which Anna said was once her mother's doll's cot valance! And two nearly-finished merino wool jumpers for a baby.

And then, this:

An exquisite brown brushed cotton baby gown with velvet bias binding and a hand embroidered neckline. Ummm, except that the embroidery thread is still attached and there are all the skeins of floss there ready for its completion. Anna and Suzie say they won't finish them and wanted to give them to someone who would appreciate their craftswomanship and style- and I love them! But I don't know if my skills are up to it... do you think I can do I can do this woman's work justice?

floury fingers

This is the cover of my new cookbook, given to me by our friend Anna yesterday afternoon. (Thanks, Anna!) Today is grey and overcast, *perfect* for baking, and so Arlo and I will try out a recipe or two, I think. I adore the cover and the illustrations throughout the whole book- each recipe is illustrated and even the ingredients lists have little drawings showing what they are. It's written for children to use themselves- I love the use of the word 'overall' for apron and the way it says to 'please ask Mummy to turn on the oven' throughout. So cute! It was published in 1962.

I want to try jam tarts, honey crunch and rock cakes, which I remember being mentioned a lot in Enid Blyton stories when I was a child, but I have no idea whether they would actually be nice or not.

This is the poem on the title page:

Floury fingers

Buttery nose

that's the way

the cooking goes.

old t-shirts can be so useful

I've been wanting to make some kid's pants from the old t-shirts around our house for a long time now- I'd tried before, unsuccessfully, but was re-inspired by a post on Soulemama a while ago. I did a search around the house and found these:

I love how used t-shirts are so soft and cosy, but I don't always love sewing that type of fabric- I find it quite hard to get a neat seam! So I took note of Soulemama's tip and used the already-hemmed part of the t-shirt as the bottom of the pants.

Here are the finished pants, I hope to add them to my stall this weekend to sell along with a little tag about recycling t-shirts and how to make your own (if I get the time to do that before Saturday!)

There's a great tutorial on making kid's pants by Kath of Redcurrent right here.

Elgar and Anzac day

I've just listened to an amazing interview on National Radio about a new documentary exploring the work of English composer Edward Elgar and a possible New Zealand connection to his famous Cello Concerto. I've loved this piece of music for as long as I can remember, and it was definitely the inspiration for my taking up cello lessons back when I was nine years old. (The image is my battered 'cassette set' of the concerto, played by my childhood heroine, Jacqueline du Pre.) According to the documentary, Elgar wrote the music to lament the lives lost on the horrific battlefields of WW1, and in particular, one life, that of the son of his life-long love, Helen Weaver, who left England to emigrate to New Zealand. The son had attended Nelson College, so I am feeling quite overwhelmed by the close connection my hometown has with this amazing music!

I'm loving National Radio's thoughtful coverage of Anzac Day, which has included both interviews with the head of the NZ army as well blatant anti-war songs such as Neil Young's 'It's a War'.

And now I'm off to bake some Anzac biscuits and listen to those Elgar tapes once again.

failures and rain

This picture was taken from our car on a sparkling autumn day last week. But for the last few days, we've had consistent rain and dull, grey sky. And I've been feeling a bit bored, too, by my crafting efforts even though I should have been really busy and productive while Tom has been home on holiday. I've had good intentions, too- re-stocking baby shoes and pants for Saturday's market, trying to make a set of children's pants from recycled t-shirts, which I've been collecting for that purpose for some time now, and doing some knitting for friends and family as winter approaches. I made one hat, but I think I made a bad choice of yarn because it threatens to 'ping' off my head when I try it on. I cut up some of my favourite vintage linens, to make some pretty little baby shoes, but as I was sewing up the last seam on three pairs I noticed the fabric (a loose-weave linen type) was coming apart in a few vital places. I coped better with this disappointment than I usually do in such situations... I just threw the disintigrating pairs into Keira's drawer and reassured myself they would probably fit her for a few months (they don't, as it turns out.) I tried to take a picture of the corner of my sewing room dedicated to the forlorn collection of single hand-knit socks, nearly-finished jerseys that I ran out of wool for, unhemmed pants and tops. But the camera had run out of batteries and the charger was nowhere to be found. Sigh.

Ah well. I'm hoping the sun will come out soon so I can spend my time doing washing instead of adding to my pile of failed craft projects.

toddler taste

I've been finding more and more lately, that Arlo (nearly three years old) is developing his own strong opinions on what he wants to wear, and which colours he likes. And they're starting to veer away from my own tastes. But I'm trying to make a concerted effort to let him choose what he wears and it's been fun going clothes and fabric shopping with him lately. (Provided we have lots of apples and crackers on hand and I've made a solemn vow to take him to the cafe afterwards for a 'fluffy.' (A milk-only, kids 'pretend' coffee, for those lucky enough to not know.) We were looking at winter tops in a shop yesterday and he had thoughts on most of the ones I suggested: 'Oh that's too strange, mama,' and 'I don't think I need a monster on my t-shirt mama!'

I decided to sew him another pair of pyjamas for winter, as last year's pair is getting too small, and I wasn't too suprised when he insisted they were to be made of the exact same fabric as last year. Fairly ugly, Disney-style pooh bear print. Here they are, hanging on the washing line:

It's not that I don't like Winnie the Pooh. I love all the A.A. Milne stories, especially the gorgeous little line-drawings that accompany them, that I grew up on. I'm just not so keen on the cartoon, Disney-fied version of them.

I used a fairly ugly but versatile Kwik-Sew pattern (#3149) that I've used so many times to make raglan-sleeved tops that it's almost unusable (I really need to learn to make working copies of my patterns!)

Oh well. I had wanted him to choose, after all.

fabric finds

Tom's been on school holidays for almost a week now and I've been loving having the opportunity to do a little bit of child-free op-shopping. The towering piles of fabric in our bedroom and living room indicate that i have a problem, but I can never resist buying old fabric when I see it in second-hand shops. Here's what I found yesterday:

Hmm, they could have done with an iron!

The black and pink floral fabric is corduroy, and I'd love to make Keira some pants from it. I also like to use cord fabric for the soles of my baby shoes, as it's quite tough and sturdy. There's enough of the turquoise fabric for a skirt or dress, I'll just need to find something warm to line it with if I've going to make it for winter!

camera withdrawal

A baby stick insect was hanging out on our cookbook last night. I think she hoped they were real apples.

I'm sorry I've been a bit of an absentee blogger over the past week. Two things happened: I left our camera at Tom's parent's house over Easter so I couldn't show you the crafty things I've been doing, and I started working in a cafe during the day. I'm just doing that for a week while Tom's on school holidays, but it really cuts in to my craft/internet time! Ah well, nothing like cooking all day to make me crave knitting and sewing... and it's nice to have a break from the home.

The Easter Fair was fun. Thank you for all your support and encouragement! Rhiannon, Amelia and I sold a few things between us and we had lots of time for chatting non-stop and knitting behind our little site. You can see a picture of our stall here (thanks, Rhiannon!) I enjoyed meeting lots of other crafters- especially those from Golden Bay who don't come to our Saturday market here in Nelson. I met women who made needle-felted hood-hats, lots of indie clothing designers and a woman who has set up Pukeko Baby a little company that makes beautiful hand-knitted baby clothes from organic wool. We saw lots of hippies too, which was great, my favourite being an old man with a crystal dangling from his goattee beard. Stylish!

Plans for the rest of the week include making lots more baby shoes, as I almost ran out over the weekend! And I have another bag idea in mind that I'd like to try out as well. Hope you had a lovely Easter weekend...

late, late

Staying up late trying to get things ready for the Easter fair tomorrow. I've made new bags and baby shoes. Good thing I have coffee, isn't it?

Happy Easter to you.