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Monday, 21 September 2015

September IHSW

I was surprisingly organised this weekend... actually nothing to do with organised and everything to do with actually noticing the posts going up and paying attention to the weekends. It was International  Hermit and Stitch Weekend this past weekend and I actually settled down on Saturday and stitched.

Now as some of my long time readers know I joined the Crazy January Challenge in 2013 so a LOOOOOONG time ago. Most of the little starts are still unfinished and I've decided to make it my goal over the next couple of months to actually finish them. It shouldn't take long and will be lots of fun. I still love the designs which is why I started them in the first place.

So this one is from the Cross Stitch Collection October 2012 and is one of three gingerbread men.
At the beginning of the weekend it looked something like this...



and then after this weekend it looks awesome!!! It's now finished!



Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin


Friday, 18 September 2015

Sewing Pants

I have been having a number of rants lately. I hate kids clothes. Actually more accurately I hate the clothes they sell for kids at the shops. It's frustrating buying clothes for the kids because Lana is growing up but not out and Caiden is just growing. Both kids don't fit the clothes in the store properly and honestly the styles are awful. The girls shorts are extremely short and uncomfortable and the boys shorts are boring. Also when I measure her she's extremely small around the waist and extremely tall in the legs. It isn't any fun trying to get something store bought that sits comfortably.
So this rant is going somewhere. Ages ago I bought one of the One Thimble magazines. (Issue 5 if you want to find this pattern) I now have a couple in my arsenal and they are a great little magazine full of kids sewing patterns and other stuff. I love them because they have all sorts of tutorials and information. It's not only kids clothes there are other projects available. I made the stitchidori from a tutorial in the latest issue.


Now the whole purpose of this post is because I finally made some clothes for the kids from this magazine. I don't know why it took me so long to try out this pattern... but I think the kids will be getting a number of clothes from these magazines as they look so much smarter and nicer than everything in the shop. I love these shorts because I don't have to sew any zippers in and the waist band is knit fabric which sits comfortably around their waists.


I took the kids to the shop and got them to pick out some fabric. Caiden only wanted skulls and thankfully we managed to find some. Red and grey ones which are pretty awesome. I will pair the grey skulls with the red fabric from cat in the hat (you saw a photo of what that will look like yesterday) and I paired the red ones with a navy blue fabric.


Then I had to think about Lana. She was much harder to pick for as she was being entirely annoyingly picky. But then she fell in love with the pink skulls and I had to agree. We also found some music fabric and some pink which I will pair together. She just wanted to go home but still wanted me to make the pants now! You can just hear the dilemma.



Now I got home and washed the fabrics and was cutting the first pair out as the kids went to bed. Here was mistake no. 1 trying to sew anything late at night. I sewed one of the panels on upside down and didn't realise until I'd finished all the top stitching. So there I am 9 o'clock at night unpicking and resewing because I wanted to get up to putting the band on by the time I went to bed. Then at 5am the next morning there I am sewing the waist band on and trying to get it all finished before the munchkins woke so I could show it off. 

Mistake no.  2! Sewing and finishing the waist band without physically measuring it on the child. It ended up being way too loose and I again had to sit there desperately unpicking half of the band sewing the seam tighter and then sewing the back of the band back on.  Gosh that's a mouthful! They fit Lana beautifully but unfortunately on caiden they're still loose he has NO hips or anything and constantly has this problem with clothes.  But talking to grandma about it and her solution was to add elastic into the band.  As it starts to wear I will have to do that I think. Something at least to pull it close on the waist instead of just sitting as he has nothing to sit on! He's straight from his shoulders down to his hips.  No definable waist to size to!

But even with those small mistakes that thankfully only lose me time but nothing else. I managed to complete them in a couple of days. Now Caiden is complaining that they are loose so I may have to come back and add that elastic sooner rather than later but we will see how they last. 


I do love how these shorts turned out and I am looking forward to making many many more.


Actually Lana in particular has requested that she has more shorts and she doesn't want to use her shorter more uncomfortable shorts anymore. Which makes me really happy because she wants to use the shorts that I'm making her. 

Have you made clothes? Have you sewn clothes for other people? I would love to hear about your experiences with sewing or even shopping for children.

This post contains affiliate links it won't cost you any extra but if you do buy the magazine I will get a bit from it.

Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin

Thursday, 17 September 2015

WIP Wednesday

So I know it's now Thursday where I am but this is the first time I've picked up my computer for a couple of days. I've been really good about trying not to spend my time zoning out on the computer. I'm still getting highly distracted by my phone but that is a given as well.

BUT and this is the big but in the last week I have made 3 pairs of pants for the kids and yesterday I cut out two more!!!! That is a BIG thing  for me. I've been productive and getting projects done. It's been a good feeling because I have been a bit blah before that. Not in a bad way, just enjoying not particularly doing anything. Which makes for bad progress but good feelings. I've had some self imposed deadlines on me recently with my mother's birthday and signing up to help test the hexie bowls, and trying to get the book week costumes done. Though I've thoroughly enjoyed them and I'm not complaining it's fun sometimes to not do much so that is why you really haven't heard that much from me this month. Though there will be a big post that has been in the works for a couple of weeks coming on Friday mainly showcasing the pants but also talking about why I felt the need to make a WHOLE pile of shorts in the last week.

So although I do have some finished photos in the spirit of WIP Wednesday I'm just going to show you teaser photos of me cutting out fabric. It has been awesome to get back behind a sewing machine and make clothes. I told my grandma and she was so proud and had all sorts of advice for me.

I didn't pick the colours. The red is left over from the cat in the hat hat that I made for bookweek. I bought WAAAAY too much fabric and the skulls were picked out by the little man. Actually I've been having lots of fun with many fabrics but I just realised how bad a blogger I am I have NO photos of progress shots as I just started sewing.



These are two different kinds of shorts and I have some done in dark blue as well. I'm going to go make sure I get that post organised now :D Ready to share on Friday.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Friday, 11 September 2015

Hexie Bowl



This past week I signed up to do some test sewing for a lovely lady from one of my facebook groups. She blogs over at SewTodayCleanTomorrow. I have been eyeing off this pattern as she put it together and when the opportunity came to sew it I jumped at the chance.



So there I was having my first go at English Paper Piecing. I glued up a pile of hexagons in pretty blue to match my mother's planner. I then set about sewing it up and having a fun time.


Of course I couldn't stop at just one. I made one in my music fabrics figuring that would make an awesome raffle gift. I made it a bit steeper and found it a bit harder to put the inner lining in. But you just work slowly around the bowl. For this second one I changed up the pattern of the lighter hexies and made them sit on top of all the red ones. I love how it turned out.



Then I had to try one that was washable. So using the heavy weight vilene that I had bought for my stichidori's I used it to make another bowl. I ironed the cut out hexies onto the fabric and then cut them out like I would the cardboard ones. Then I folded and glued the fabric down like normal.... though my iron also helped with this part. Then it was just a matter of putting it together like normal.



I now have 3 bowls.... though only one will be staying here.... so I had better go and make some more.






If you want to buy the pattern you can buy it directly here and if you want a quick fun little pattern give it a go. You will have a ball making lots of hexie bowls. I know I keep trying new things and colours and fiddling with wadding and stuff to make different effects. They are entirely addictive.

Maybe the pattern should come with a warning... it's addictive once you start you can't stop... Honestly well worth the price of the pattern and so useful too. You could spend hours getting distracted by fun hexagons but it's a project that is completed quickly unlike a blanket.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Wednesday, 9 September 2015

WIP WEDNESDAY



I've had that sort of craft day... instead of taking my big cross stitch to my craft day I took my containers full of little projects. I finished one that was meant to be finished in February, finish finished a project while taking photos so I can write up a tutorial to share. And have got another of my projects out and I'm stitching with the hope of finishing it. I need to get control of all my WIP and actually keep finishing stuff. It won't take long if I actually try. I just love starting new ideas and projects. But I also love the feeling as projects are finished and I can tick them off my list. #crossstitch #wip #wipwednesday #instablog So bye! I'm off to keep stitching. Happy stitching, Caitlin

via Instagram http://ift.tt/1ETrYoH

Monday, 7 September 2015

Last week .... the week that wasn't

So I had every intention of posting last week. I even had my WIP Wednesday post all worked out but then it just didn't happen. I had that sort of week and although a lot was happening I just didn't get the right photos at the right time. I have been very busy with life the last week and although I have been crafting I will share my sewing in it's own special post as I have been doing some test stitching and trying out a pattern.

In the evenings when I haven't been sewing I've been tangling up a storm. I love just sitting there and stitching. But I also love having a pen in my hand and just making pretty pictures. 






These are mini books from I've made cut down from paper I used to make some midori traveller's notebooks for my mum and sister.


This week was also father's day and we went up to the beach and had a wonderful day out. It was an awesome way to spend a day. I found all these beautiful flowers on the beach and got some beautiful photos. 



Happy Stitching, 
Caitlin
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