Screen printing fun

Not as much sewing in the last week or so, although I do have some things traced off and cut out ready to put together. Just have to get motivated again.

Here, finally, are pics of my two yr old's complete outfit - you've seen it in bits.

On Sunday I went to a Prints Charming screen printing workshop. I printed this fabric - which will probably become dresses for the girls - something simple to show off the print.

I'm so use to having co-ordinates to sew with though that now I'm finding it hard to get motivated to sew; I just keep thinking of co-ordinates I could print to go with this fabric. As soon as the rain stops I'll have to have a few printing days.

You may know that I've done screen printing before, but mostly finer, detailed stuff, and mostly printed as a border or similar - as shown in these posts (note - right click and chose "open in new tab" or page if you don't want to lose your spot here). I have done one print (scroll down to the butterflies) that has different colours and overlapping bits, but it still has some detail stuff.

It was fun to just do the large simple prints and not to worry about spending too long getting the drawings exact, etc. I will definitely do more fabric in this style - probably with co-ordinates next time though!

I also have a few other fun screen printing ideas that I hope to try out in the next couple of weeks, so stay tuned ...

To finish, a few pics from the garden.

Hopefully I'll be more productive in the next couple of weeks - my "list" is so long at the moment that I really need to get going with it all.

How do people find time to blog every day?

I don't know how so many people seem to get so much done AND still they manage to blog about it regularly. I don't seem to have time to blog and sew in the same evening. I keep trying to do quick updates, and not write much, but by the time I crop the photos it's getting late.

Look at this blog - it's one I use to visit quite a lot. When I first started visiting it, there were SIX YEARS of posts, with almost one post a day!!! It's a food blog, so just about every day they took a picture of their dinner and wrote about it. How do you do that?!

Anyway, here is another round of pics. I may not write much then for a few days (we'll see).

Here's the tee I made for myself. Excuse the dreadful pic.



Here are a couple of little needle felted cups I made for our play kitchen. My 2 yr old has been playing with them since they were made. The first (with the heart) was a bit thin but I've added more wool since taking these pics. I was rushing a bit when I made them so I'm sure they could be a lot better - more wool and then felted more would be good. The star one is already a lot better then the first one.

This is a little needle felted bunny. It's in brown wool because that was the best that I had, but it means that the features don't photograph well. It was fun to do. Now I want to make a whole host of animals. The two pics look quite different colours but that's just how they happened to turn out - it is the same bunny photographed on the same table. Remember, I'm still just practicing with my felting - I've only made a very few things - in fact, 3 birds (well, 2 big birds and a nest of 3 babies) and the cups (and the balls, but they are a completely different technique) before these bunnies. I am not completely happy with the bunny - it isn't perfect, but I still really like it, and it was fun. And best of all, my daughter likes it.

Trying to decide if the pink had can go with the cherry dress. Hmmm ... might need to make a few more hats!

The felted bowls - you saw them prefelting - when just knitted, in a previous post. These have been through a hot wash and dry twice, and then dampened and shaped over containers, then left to dry for a couple of days. I have the next size up knitted ready to wash, and the next are on the needles but not with much knitted. Not sure if I'll do these again, only because I have too much other knitting to do. I do really like them, but they are just a lot of work. I will be really pleased when I have the whole set done though.

First two pics are the group of three - waiting for three more to make up a rainbow stacking set for the kids' play shelves.

This is just a set of two that will go in the play kitchen. My daughter has already been using the smaller one to serve me pretend soup (and lots of it!).

And a denim skirt for my 8 yr old. Ottobre, 1/03, #21. She asked for a denim skirt - I was thinking of something using lovely quilting fabric, but this is what she wanted. I think I'll still make her a fancy fabric one, but just after I get the summer basics all done for all the kids (and maybe even something for me and my fella).

Just thought I'd throw in a pic of our pizza. I don't think the picture does it justice. It was a simple one - mostly to just use leftovers. It used the dough that I've talked about before and shown pics of before - that you just keep in the frig ready to use. I love it - so quick. Sometimes I make a quick pizza before school for the kids to take for lunches, it's so easy. The school one is particularly easy because they only want cheese and tomato paste!

Where can she wear this outfit?

I finally cut into my lovely Andalucia fabric, making this outfit for my 2 yr old. It's a twirly top and pants - all with lots of frills. I haven't sewn much frilly stuff since last summer.

Here she is the next day, wearing it for the first time. I'm not happy with the size around her arms - would like it smaller.

This is her with her baby sister - my 1 yr old here is wearing clothes that I made for her sister last yr. I love this outfit. It's so nice to be able to use clothes another time around.

And I know that you can't really see the 2 yr old's outfit, and I generally keep this blog pretty much focussed on craft/clothes/etc, but I just had to put in this pic anyway - just because it's so cute. The 1 yr old is currently at the stage of just pulling herself up. She isn't in a rush to walk, but does stand a lot and still get's stuck - so she stands, and then gets upset because she can't work out how to get back down or what to do next. The 2 yr old is playing shop with her - no doubt handing her an ice cream.

So, with not particularly liking the fit around the arms, and with wanting something a bit warmer for spring anyway, I moved the buttons to make the arm holes a little bit smaller, and made this peasant top which can go underneath it.

Of course, the outfit wouldn't be complete without a hat. This is another from the Nicole M designs pattern.

So here is the whole lot assembled. I know that I overdo the pictures a bit, but I just couldn't decide which to put in. And I'll probably add another pic of this outfit when she finally gets a chance to wear it.

Which brings me to my dilemma of the day. Where can she wear it? Do I have to stop making frilly clothes just because we don't really go anywhere that she can wear them? Would they look silly if she just wore them to the grocery shop (we could pretend that we were going somewhere important afterwards!)? Could I dress her in this for school pick up? Or would it look too show-off-y? I love seeing her in this outfit (although of course, I haven't seen it all assembled yet!) but I've got a feeling that she wont get many chances to wear it unless I just don't worry about whether it is appropriate and put her in it. I do think the kids should wear whatever clothes they have (frilly or not!) when they're the right size, otherwise they just grow out of them.

It's so much more fun making frilly stuff for the two little ones - I'd love to make them a heap more. Will have to find places for them to be worn though.

If you have any thoughts on this, feel free to post a comment!

I didn't put in a pic of this peasant top the other day. Made it a couple of wks ago. It was in a pic that had the matching hat I think. I love peasant tops - as easy to make as a t-shirt, but so much nicer.

I did some more decorated, felted balls. The plain balls were made a couple of weeks ago (when I did the others) but have been waiting for the time and inspiration to be decorated. So here they are. The first is my least favourite of the three, although my 2 yr old says it's her favourite. It's some chickies. As usual, I've put in way too many pics, so you'll see each ball from a couple of different angles.

This is a rainbow one. The colours go from red to purple, and then back to red in the middle on the other side. I've decided that covering the whole ball is a good idea, both for the look (better then a white background) and because it is easier to then felt on in the washing machine, rather then needle felting it all on. I just needle felted it a very little bit to hold it into place before putting the ball into a stocking and into a hot wash.

And finally, a sun.

I couldn't resist this picture of all the balls together when I packed them into the basket to go on the kids' play shelf, although I think a bigger basket would have been better.

Here is my 1 yr old having fun with the balls this morning.

We made some kite stars together to decorate the window. It was a good project to do with my oldest daughter. They look really effective - completely not shown in this photo. I'll have to try a few different ways to take the photo. They are beautiful colours and the light shines through them.

This is something I haven't tried before - knitting something specifically to felt it (or is the proper term something else?). I'm a very slow knitter and I always have a few knitting projects on the go - kids' jumpers, knitted pants, etc. So I don't feel that I can spare any knitting time for "unimportant" things. But over the past couple of days I decided to give this a go. It uses big needles and I used two strands of wool. I found some Panda wool that was actually called feltable wool, so I decided to try that, although in the future I'll just dye up some of my stash of organic wool.

My aim is a set of stacking bowls. This is the first one - my tester. It's been hot washed and dried, then I dampened it and rubbed a bit and shaped it over the bottom of a jar and left it to dry. After a day and a half it is still very wet, and I'm wondering if it will felt MORE and shrink and firm up more (although actually, if it doesn't, it is fine as it is), so I've just put it into the machine a second time with the rest of the bowls that I knitted ALL TODAY! Look on ...

I have very sore hands now as I try to knit anything else, so that's it for me knitting for another day or two. I just knitted when I was chatting with the bubs, when they were eating (after I'd finished - better then eating more anyway!), etc. And I got four bowls done. I did another one to go with the first one, then decided I should have made the red one smaller so that I could do the whole rainbow without the last one being huge, so I did another red one and the two sizes up from that. I still have green, blue and purple to go.

Here are the freshly knitted bowls ready for felting.

This shows the two bowls that have been knitted the same size, with the red one already having been through the wash and dryer once. Just thought it was interesting to have a comparison photo.

And finally, the three bowls that will end up as part of a set - after felting.

Now they should actually have finished their time in the washing machine so I can go and see how they are, but I'm not going to show pics today. I have a heap still to do tonight. The babies are in bed and I want to sew a skirt for my 8 yr old. I am trying to get through the Wardrobe Challenge on PatternReview.com, but I haven't registered yet because I keep working on other projects. I was hoping to sew up a "wardrobe" for my 6 yr old and my 8 yr old (ie do two entries) by the end of November, but I'll see how I go. Even if I don't end up entering, end of November is a good deadline to have most of their summer basics done.

I have been asked for a tutorial for the poncho. I'll make another poncho in the next couple of weeks and will take photos as I go then - so it's be coming.

Tomorrow is "blog action day" so I will write then, although it may not have any craft in it (or I might post twice if I want to show off the felted bowls). Catch you then.

Starting on some warm weather sewing

Time to start sewing for Spring and Summer properly. My toddler urgently needed some warm weather clothes, so I did a couple of quick things to get started.

This dress is Simplicity 5222, but without the elastic at the waist. The method for putting the elastic in the neckline wasn't what I would usually do, but I followed the instructions and was unhappy with the result - too big, and a nuisance to adjust because the elastic is put into each part (front, back and each sleeve) separately, so I had to adjust it in four places to get it smaller. I did it though, as it was pretty bad as it was. This photo is the original - doesn't look as bad here as it did in real life.


And this is adjusted, but here you are only getting the back view - sorry, no clear pic of the difference! What I'm hoping you can see here though is the elastic added to the back. She's reaching up so it's a bit hard to see the shape. The whole thing was too wide, and it was particularly bad at the back, so I added elastic and now the dress is really quite cute, and a bit different. The elastic at the back is a really nice feature.

Fabric is from Heather Ross's Mendocino line. I absolutely love it and wish I had bought miles and miles of it. I'd really like a beach quilt/rug out of it now.

This is another dress that may look the same, but actually has lots of alterations to the pattern to make it a better shape and fit. Fabric this time is Sandy Henderson's.

I've made quite a few hats and this is my favourite so far. I love it and will probably not make any other pattern up for a while, but will make this one over and over. It is from Nicole Mallilieu (hope I spelt that correctly, I'm in a rush). I would definitely recommend the pattern. I've followed quite a few hat patterns, and there were really great tips in her pattern that I've never read before. I love this hat. Not sure who designed the fabric.

Here it is with a matching top. I want a hat to match each of the girls' outfits!!! This top is just a made up pattern peasant top. I love how easy these tops are to sew, how great the look and how comfy they seem to be.

A bit more felting. This was from a kit I purchased from A Toy Garden. Excellent kit, although I did do it a tiny bit differently. I've hung this spring fairy above our spring nature display.

Also made these felted wool balls. I'm extra pleased with them for a few reasons:

*I love how they look

*it used up some wool that I really was hating using for shaping doll heads, so now I can buy the wool I really want for the next doll head

*they were super easy to make

*the main part was done in the washing machine (hot wash) and dryer so I'm not worried at all about them getting dirty, as they can just be washed and dried again by machine

I did the main ball part in the washing machine so it is solidly felted. Then I needle felted on the design. This was quite slow and difficult as the balls were so firmly felted. Then I put the balls back into stockings and back through a wash and dry again to try and get the design more firmly attached. I have three more plain balls to decorate so I'll play with how I get the design onto them.





This is a peasant top for my oldest daughter. Just a super quick sew because she is short of summer clothes.

And here are her new jeans. I should have made them at the beginning of winter as she's been desparately in need of them for ages. Love how they turned out. Ottobre 1/04 #33. The fabric is hemp denim (non-stretch)

When she put them on the first time to wear out, we realised she had no jumper to match, so with 15 minutes before we had to leave I made a quick poncho out of some polar fleece that I have had for ages. I added the hood after we got back home. I think she'll be getting more ponchos to match more outfits (as will the little girls too) as this was such a huge success. She has worn it almost every day since. Quick, easy, convenient (over a jumper if needed, or just over a tee).

I just made up the pattern. Maybe I'll write up a tutorial some time. Let me know if you're interested.

Photo shows it over her new jeans and top.

Made a tee for my son. For almost all tees now I use the Ottobre special pattern pack. It's such a good t-shirt pattern.

Also made myself a tee - cutting up an old baggy style one completely and cutting a new one out of it, but forgot to take a pic so I'll be back with that pic when I get around to posting next.