new project, knitting!!

quick post, as i havn't posted in a while. I bought some amazing wool a while back but hadn't managed to do anything with it, so started a (almost) seamless baby onesie a few weeks ago. The wool is dye threee different colours, dark pink, light pink and white- in kinda patches, so it looks beautiful knitted!! Also, i've discovered my gran didn't teach me to knit, she taught me purl! so my knitte things are actually purl stitch but at least she taught me something usefull!
Pics to follow, i'll post pics of teh amazing wool too! I might even manage to post a pattern if i can manage to write one.

little dungerees

ok so maybe there was a slight distraction from my 'project posted every week' idea, but i've done a few things recently. Heres my little dungerees, for a girl about 12-18 months. Made of pink corduroy, pink satin lined, with pink plastic buttons to fasten.

Slight distraction

Ok so maybe i got a little bit distracted from the patchwork quilt. Im as far as pinned it all together, and had intended to sit down and start quilting today but saw the pretty pink wool sat there all lonely on the desk and thought sod it i'll get back to the quilt in a little while, i'll just knit a teeny tiny bit. Well......that was about 11 this morning and i'm still knitting, i don't think i'm very self motivated really. But i do have a pretty good idea, i'm going to try knitting a seamless baby onesie, i've looked at a few patterns online and i'm going to give it a go just kind of making it up as i go along, if it doesn't work i can always jsut unravel it and start again! wish me luck xx

Project One - Scrap Patchwork Quilt (Part One)

First weekly project, thought i'd start with a patchwork quilt, to try and use up some of the masses of scrap fabric i have, since i did promise my partener i'd do something usefull with it (he thinks its silly that i keep all of the scraps that are too small to even sew childrens clothes from, i've tried using the excuse i'm being eco-friendly but really i keep them because there such pretty fabric that i cant bare to part with them!)
So i dug out all of these especially pretty pink scraps, i took a few pictures as i went so i could post making the quilt from start to end.



I started off by marking and cutting out hundreds of rectangles from my scrap fabric, i found a cheap biro was actually a lot better for marking my fabric than tailors chalk, dressmakers chalk etc.



Starting to sew all of the rectangles together, chain stitching to save on thread.



A few of my rectangles sewn together, i pieced together 20 rectangles for each row of my quilt.



sewing together the rows.



All of the rectanlges sewn together, making up the quilt top.



The quilt top folded up, i sewed around some of the hearts on some of the patterned fabric, just for a pretty touch on the quilt top



This last picture is my quilt top pinned to a layer of batting, and the pink velour i'm using as my backing on the bottom. I found trying to pin them together on my desk was impossible, everything just moved about, so i layed them on the carpet in the hall, and i found the velour fabric sort of stuck to the carpet, so the batting and quilt top layed perfectly flat on top, and nothing moved about as i pinned them!

Well thats as far as i've got, but hopefully i'll finish this and post a part two for this project soon.....well, i might get bored and move on to something else, but i'll get back to finishing it eventually!

summer resolution

I havn't posted anything in a few weeks, so since i'm now finished uni for the summer i thought i'd begin a bit of a summer resolution - i'm going to post a project every week! I started my blog with the intention of it being a bit more personal than it has been so far, so hopefully a project every week will make it a bit more personal too.
My weekly projects will all be sewing, or maybe knitting because i've been experimenting with that recently and i'm starting to enjoy it (maybe a bit too much, my HUGE stash of bits of pretty fabric i've promised my other half i'll do something with eventually, is starting to be taken over my a slightly bigger pile of pretty wool i've promised him i'll do something with eventually!)

april babywear creations

a few new creations for april, all babywear/children's wear, around age 1 or 2.

firstly, a pink winchette waistcoat type jacket


second, a semi-formal pink stain and floral cotton patterned dress


third, a beige, floral pattern cotton dress,


fourth, blue floral winchette dungerees, fully lined with striped blue cotton, with blue sattin ribbon straps,


and finally my favourite peice, a onesie made from cath kidston floral patterned raised/brushed cotton, with elasticated cuffs,

pink patchwork quilt and pillows

Pink patchwork quuilt and pillows set made as a christening present for my little cousin.
The blanket is approx. slightly shorter than single bed sized and the pillows a little smaller than normal bed pillows.
Fabrics used for the blanket included a pink poly cotton for the back and some of the patches, a floral pink cotton for the stripes on the front, and the patches include a floral cotton winchette fabric, baby print cotton, and a heather bailey design cotton. The fabricc for the pillows is a pink poly cotton blend and pink floral cotton. Both are padded with wadding.

few new designs

two new designs, first pink nightdress for a child, approx 9months-a year old



second a green long top, again for a child, approx 9months-a year old

few new baby clothes made

nothing posted in a little while since we've been moving house, managed to loose all of my project work in the process so bit of a mad rush trying to find it all in the mass of boxes that are still packed.
thought i'd post some pictures of the new baby clothes i've made, not 100% happy with them, some little bits to fix- hems to sew that kind of thing
1. white sparkle satin and purple polyester lining dress, with purple ribbon waist, hem and cuffs.
2. white super soft satin dress, with red ribbon waist and hem.
3. pink floral fabric dungerees, with ribbon tie shoulders.
4. pink dutchess satin dress with ribbon tie front

tanya whelan

just a few surface print pattern designs by tanya whelan, i came across these on the freespirit fabric designers websites whilst researching 'floral', my theme for this semester for my textile surface pattern module. These are deffinately very influencial designs in my work, i'd personally say the're somewhat of a balence between Cath Kidston's slightly childish designs and the very mature ones coming from Laura Ashley at the minute, the're quite shabby chic, in a way a little romantic. These can now be found in john lewis, hobbycraft and some patchwork fabric shops online.

designs by bella rose cottage

one particularly adorable design by bella rose cottage, one of my favourite shabby chic designs websites. i love the patterned fabric, this is the type of inspiration i'll be using for my next project.

baby dress-handmade myself

baby dress i recently made, had some fabric left from the patchwork blanket and thought i'd try the pattern i had. its probably sized for a baby around 4-6 months old.

baby blanket-handmade by myself

heres the baby blanket i made, the front is patchwork, made up of a plain pink 50% cotton/polyester blend, white sateen, pink polyester floral patterned, and pink polyester satin. The backing is white sateen, and padding is polyester wadding.

intro

ok first ever blog post, just to say this is my blog, im going to be posting pictures of my own work, and random musings, as well pictures of other peoples work i like, things that have inspired me etc. everything on my blog is fine for anyone to copy, provided the're not claiming its the're own work.