Filmknitter

Crafty update

My gosh, I haven't done one of these in a while! Lest you think the Rosalie scarf finished me off, let me assure you that I have been making stuff since I finished it but many of them were tiny projects which hold little interest for a blogular audience e.g. a sat-nav case for my TomTom, a couple more squares on my very first blanket and a baby hat which must be kept quiet as it's a present for a colleague (so *shhhh*).

However, since Christmas I have also begun doing something else creative, outside of knitting, which has been taking my attention away from my most beloved hobby. 'What can it be?' I hear you ask. Well, since I moved to Oxford I'd been intending to take a dressmaking course at the excellent Oxford and Cherwell Valley College, and I finally enrolled for one at the end of last year. It started in January and I took one term of 'Basic Dressmaking' when I made a perfectly serviceable summer top in stripy cotton:

I learned how to follow a commercial pattern, make ruffles and pleats, how to set in a sleeve, how to ensure good fit, and how 'facing' works. It's an excellent course and our teacher, Louise, was incredibly patient and very good at mastering a whole class full of clueless beginners!

I got to take my own sewing machine and use it in classes so I'm now much more familiar with the settings and how to fix it when things are going wrong, which I didn't expect, so that was a massive bonus too.

Click the photo to see a larger version but be warned - it looks much more professional in the thumbnail, where the mistakes don't show :)

Then, after the term finished in April I made myself a lovely skirt based on a pattern I bought from 'Fabulous Fabric' in Ashby-de-la-Zouch (highly recommended - they have some gorgeous fabric and a very classy shop!)

This is McCall's M5631, very slightly different to the pattern, and with a seam at the back where there shouldn't be because I cut it out wrong first time round (based on an error in the instructions!). I learnt how to install an invisible zip, thanks to my mum for teaching me when I last went home, and also how to make a skirt that fits.

This is probably an exact size 11 as all of my shop-bought skirts are 10s (just too small) and 12s (just too big). This one fits perfectly around the waist and is a revelation - I shall be making my own skirts in future!

So, after completing the basic dressmaking course I decided to try my hand at a term of Advanced Dressmaking, which started last week. So far the difference between the two classes is like the difference between first year of Primary School and first year of University, but I'm determined to persevere and I  seem to have picked it all up pretty quickly so far so I'm hoping it will turn out to be the right choice! My next project is trousers - I have a pattern and fabric for some simple suit trousers and will hopefully start cutting out my pattern pieces this week.

I have to say dressmaking isn't something I would ever have expected to enjoy - as my housemate exclaimed on hearing my plans "but, you have absolutely no interest in fashion!" - however it's all going rather well at the moment and may begin a new era of my being well-dressed for a change (or maybe not, as I look down at myself, in jeans spottled with cleaning fluid and a baggy old cardi :))

Oh, and before I forget, I went to Burford for the day on Saturday with some friends, and we discovered that the needlecraft shop is open again with, hurrah, an excellent choice of yarn and knitting books in their upstairs room! Despite suffering a distinct lack of funds at the moment I succumbed to the following:

'Closely Knit' by Hannah Fettig: a beautifully executed pattern book with at least four things I want to make immediately! Also two balls of organic cotton for another baby hat (everyone seems to be going on maternity leave at the moment!)

I also made the following heart brooch from the book, it's very cute and only took one evening to make. No idea when I'll wear it, but I love it anyway!

Curtains

When we moved into our flat nearly two years ago I took one look at the psychedelic monstrosities hanging in front of my bedroom window and said "right, I shall make myself some new curtains for in here." Two years later I have finally got round to it! I didn't take a 'before' picture, but here is the 'after' one:

To be honest I wasn't going to go for flowers but I spotted this fabric in the Laura Ashley sale (£24 for 3 metres - bargain!) and it's such beautiful thick stuff I had to have it. I really like the warm colours in it as well, and it's flowery without being overly fussy, I think. I also got some blackout linings, so the curtains are really thick, which will hopefully keep the room warmer as well as keeping the sun from waking me up in the summer.

I've never made curtains before and only got some very cursory instructions from my mum so I did a bit of internet research and found out how to blind-hem (so that the stitches don't show on the right side of the fabric) using this site and also this site: Anna's Nest, which showed blind-hemming on a machine. It's actually fantastically easy assuming you can sew in a straight line. I discovered that my machine has what is known as a 'blind-hem foot', which helped a little but it could still be done without one.

The measuring and hemming is the most time-consuming step, and it's really hard to make sure all the edges are straight when you're working with huge swatches of material. One of these days I shall find myself a yard-stick, which would make it a lot easier! However, once you've got your curtains hemmed you just sew the curtain tape, or rufflet, to the top of the curtain and then pull the threads (the exciting bit!) to get the top to gather nicely:

 

For my first go I'm pretty impressed with these and I'd definitely make curtains again, though they are time-consuming - these are for quite a small window and took me the best part of a Saturday to make!

Knitting basket

One of my favourite presents from Christmas was a beautiful traditional shopping basket, from my aunt. I'd asked for a basket that I could use to store my knitting in instead of the rather unaesthetically-pleasing carrier bags I used before. This is perfect as I can put it by my feet when I'm sitting on the sofa and knit away while the working yarn ball stays securely in the basket, instead of jumping all over the sofa, falling on the floor, getting woven into the cushion tassels etc. I made the lining myself out of some Laura Ashley fabric as I was worried the yarn would get caught on the wicker inside.

The ribbons were also a gift from my aunt so I was pleased I could use them for something straight away. I did feel like a Jane Austen heroine though, receiving a basket and ribbons for Christmas :)

I didn't really know what I was doing so there's no pattern here. I cut one big oval for the base of the basket, then two 'walls' which I sewed together to go round the sides, then attached to the base. I had to do some nifty pleating at the base to get it to fit together, which I haven't tried before but it worked a treat. Then I added two panels, folded them over and attached them to the sides so that they would go over the top of the basket, and threaded some elastic through to make sure they'd hug the basket and fit tightly. Finally I added the ribbon so that I could attach the top sections of the lining together round the handles.

I'm delighted with my basket and it's already been in use in a big way. It's incredibly useful and I can see myself being one of those middle-class women who go out with a wicker basket on their arm when they go shopping (though I don't feel like I'm old enough to carry it off yet). It will go nicely with the pipe I intend to smoke once I hit the age of 65 :D

Spotty bag

I haven't made a new bag in aaaages so last week I decided now was the time to make another one.  I needed a new bag to take all my cycling gear to work in (helmet, gloves, high-vis vest etc) as the one I was previously using (a rather classy one from the Globe Theatre) was starting to look a bit manky.  2 years of being stuffed on the back of a bike every day will do that to you!  So as a replacement I used some lovely spotty green oilcloth from Laura Ashley to make a bag of the same dimensions that would, hopefully, stand up to the elements a bit better.  And here is the result:

I made it just an inch or so taller than the old bag, so everything now fits perfectly.  It's lined inside with cream cotton, which isn't ideal as it will get rather grubby once I start stuffing wet stuff in there on rainy days, but it was all I had and at least it's washable!

In terms of knitting I decided that I should start a project that would use up all the odds and ends in my stash, including a large bag of brightly coloured acrylic yarns that I ended up inheriting from a great-aunt who used to knit those Jean Greenhowe creations (they really were things of beauty, we had the scarecrow at one point, and occasionally she'd knit them to be raffled off at our school fair).  So, here is the beginnings of what will eventually be a beautiful blanket:

It's actually grown since I took this photo and is now a full square, five blocks across.  I'm going to leave it there for a bit while I start thinking about Christmas crafts and gift-knitting, and it'll probably end up being a majorly long-term project that I'll finish when I'm about 80, but for now I'm very pleased with it and can concur with the general consensus that mitered squares are thoroughly addictive!

In other news I saw 'Burn After Reading' yesterday, I've been incredibly lax with film reviews recently for one reason or another but I will try to post up a full review soon.  I don't have much to say about this one though really.  It's fairly amusing but almost all of the really funny bits are in the trailer so I didn't properly laugh out loud at any of it as I'd seen it all before. The five main actors are all great, Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt in particular are an inspired pairing.  McDormand has the most amazing cartoon-like face, and between them they provide most of the successful humour in the film.  I wouldn't discourage anyone from seeing this film, it was a perfectly agreeable way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but don't go expecting the Coen's best work.

Pinafore bag in "Brodie" check

Behold the latest bag, created last weekend after a fair amount of faffing around.  I used the rest of the fabric from the bucket bag I made for myself just after Christmas.  It's made in the same style as the more recent pinafore bag but the shape is a bit more square as I found the other one looked a bit too long.  This one I'm more than happy with, and it is up for sale in my Etsy shop.
I also found some green polka-dot oilcloth in Laura Ashley while I was in Bath on Sunday so I think that will be the next to go under the needle.  Just a simple tote, though I don't know when I'll find time to make it.  This weekend is my last free weekend for about a month due to visitors, and outings, and my holiday in a few weeks.  Still, at least I'll get a week off - hurrah!

What I did with my Bank Holiday weekend

On Saturday we went to the Badminton Horse Trials.  It was fabulous, as always.  We walked a lot, ate a lot, and spent a lot of time looking at horses speeding round the track as fast as their little hooves could carry them.  Here are some pictures:

This is the water jump, which is at one end of the lake and is always impressive.  They have to jump out of the lake and then immediately get over this jump. 

Zara Philips was competing (the Queen's grand-daughter).  Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough pressing the button as she zoomed past so here is the photo that isn't of Zara Philips.

This just made me smile, very traditionally dressed chap on a horse, with a mobile phone glued to his ear.  The horse wasn't impressed, it was dancing about all over the shop.  Note also the dogs on the right - there were A LOT of dogs there, it being a pooch-friendly event.  Lots of well-groomed pedigree types as well as a fair amount of mongrels.  We also met a tiny 8-week old puppy who yawned at us - so darn cute!

So after the excitement and exertion of Saturday I spent much of Sunday taking it easy with a book but by Monday I was recovered and spent the day watching some of the DVDs that have built up over the last few weeks and making a new bag.  I bought the fabric for this a couple of weeks ago in the Laura Ashley in Leamington Spa and after recently learning about the magic of darts and pleats decided to give it a go in this creation.  The shape of the bag is tapered at the top using pleats and has a rounded shape at the bottom thanks to the little darts.  This is for sale on Etsy here.

Note the little inside pocket, which I nearly forgot to add but I'm very glad I did!  I really like the shape of this bag and I love the material.  I think next time I'd make the shape a little more square, but other than that I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out.  I may have to make another one next weekend.

Etsy, and the joys of making a bit on the side

Finally I have registered with Etsy, a fabulous American site which is specifically for folk who want to sell hand-crafted things.  It's incredibly well-designed and very user-friendly and I would recommend you to have a look at it if you're looking for unusual birthday gifts etc.  The majority of sellers are in the US but their international population seems to be growing so I thought now was the perfect time to join.  Et viola! Here is the link to my new shop "The Craft Cauldron":

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5429783

There are only a couple of things up there at the moment, including a new bag I made on Saturday that I'm rather proud of (I managed to put in a zip!), and I need to jazz it up with a banner and some more info, but for now it looks pretty damn good I'd say.  Please go and have a look!