Inspiration - The Purl Bee

So it's a bit late and I can't get my Stash Less post finished by the morning. Too many thoughts that I want to capture properly y'know? So I thought I would show you one of my latest finished objects and at the same time pay homage to the institution that is The Purl Bee. The Purl Bee is the blog run alongside the gorgeous shop Purl Soho in New York. Over the last year or so I have mentioned many projects from the Purl Bee in passing, but I have never actually done a post on the blog as a whole - crazy talk as it is one of my favourite blogs! So today I wanted to highly recommend you have a look through their archives if you are looking for inspiration over the Christmas period.

Most of their patterns are free, nearly every single one is gorgeous. Their instructions are fantastic and the women that come up with the projects are incredibly clever. The Purl Bee does simple beauty - just how I like it. They epitomise Point 3 on The Craft Sessions Manifesto  - Beautiful things can be made with very simple techniques and skills. Nearly every project is simple in it's design and execution, and they don't often use complicated techniques. Most of their projects could be done by an advanced beginner and often they are suitable for absolute beginners. Simple beauty over and over again!

My first version of the Embroidered Denim Jumper from her 5yo birthday!

This week it was my middle girl child's 7th birthday and she asked me for another version of her birthday dress from two years ago - "It's so comfy mama!" It is gorgeous free pattern called The Embroidered Denim Jumper. I love this pattern. So simply constructed. The yoke is super fun and the dress comes together quickly. It also has a beautiful shape and is very comfortable. 

The only issue I had is that the first version had a super wide neck, and while it still fits, it was super annoying t. This time around I printed out the neck template but then made it smaller about 1/2" the whole way around. This worked much better. It is still a big open neck, just not falling off her shoulders the whole time. I have included some dodgy iPhone photos we took at her birthday lunch the other day. She wasn't into me taking photos on her birthday - fair enough! 

I also altered the dimensions a little to give a proper gathered skirt all the way around and I think I make the top section a couple of inches longer. If you can sew a straight line you can sew this dress! What I particularly love about this project is you can really just embrace the wonk. Wonky lines of stitching in this look gorgeous. It adds to its simple charm.

Other patterns I have made using their projects; I showed you my versions of the City Gym Shorts a few weeks ago. I have also made their absolutely gorgeous Herringbone Cowl. My version is shown below. Sadly it has gone to the world's lost property bin so I need to knit up another at some stage. I just need to move on from the heartbreak first. 

I've made stunning dolls, and rabbits and owls and baby pants and totes and …..many other things that I don't have photos for because I get them done and ship them out. The Purl Bee is my go to for gift making ideas -  and the perfect site to visit the week before Christmas! Last minute gift ideas abound.

My little boy is about to make pillow cases for his sisters for Christmas using their pillowcases for every bed pattern. A simple project that the girls will love. 

Get to it tigers! I'd love to hear about your favourite Purl Bee patterns. 

Felicia x

I Made This - Melissa Wastney

I Made This is a weekly blog series that features makers from around the world and aims to talk about the things we are proud of; of the objects we make that have meaning to us and the journey we take to make them.

This week's I Made This is by the lovely Melissa Wastney of Tiny Happy. I've been lucky enough to spend some time with this ace woman when she comes to teach at The Craft Sessions. I'm always inspired by the way she approaches her work, with a freedom and a disregard for the "rules", creating simple beauty time and again. She often reuses fabrics and repurposes things - which she documents in her gorgeous book Sweet and Simple Handmade. 

A page from Sweet and Simple Handmade.

Keira’s green quilt

This is my daughter’s baby blanket. I hesitate to call it a quilt. It’s more of a small patchwork piece, made in the summer of 2005, when I was very pregnant and it was so hot that I drew the curtains in the house during the day and took the occasional cold bath. That was nearly ten years ago, which is hard to believe.

Back then I was doing a lot of knitting; I had a spinning wheel and was experimenting with yarn dyeing too. I had made quite a few baby hats, booties and vests in earthy colours. And I thought that if the baby was a girl, I’d like to call her Fern.

The previous year, Mum had made a very beautiful queen-sized quilt for Tom and I, and she gave me the leftover fabric scraps. My patchwork skills were a bit dodgy, so I just sewed the squares together until I had a cot-sized piece.

A general lack of funds combined with my reluctance to traipse into town with a toddler meant that I had to find an alternative batting to put inside my quilt. I remembered a length of fleece fabric in the wardrobe leftover from an old project, so that’s what I used. To back it I used plain green cotton. I didn’t like my chances of quilting the piece properly so I tied each corner with perle cotton thread.

It was finished just in time for Keira’s arrival (in the end Fern became her middle name).

When I told Felicia about this project at The Craft Sessions this year, I think she was a bit horrified about the fleece layer inside the blanket* (I think Mum was too when I showed her, but she didn’t mention it) and these days I would definitely use cotton or wool batting and a proper quilt binding.

I know that many traditional quilts would have been made with scraps and re-used blankets or coats inside for warmth and weight, and this is what I really like about the quiltmaking as a craft: its humble origins. Warmth, function, a sense of making do.

Keira is very attached to her ‘blankie’ and as a toddler would talk to it and tuck it up in bed like it was one of her soft animals. It’s travelled around the world with us, been dragged along to countless sleepovers and trips, and even though she’s nearly ten she still carefully arranges it on her bed every night, carefully smoothing it over her duvet.

Some of the squares are completely falling apart, allowing the fleecey secret to show through (I used some random bits of silk from a favourite vintage dress amongst the squares without thinking) but I’m so happy that I have this little piece of that summer; that hot, tired, round, heavy waiting time.

Previously in I Made This: Elizabeth Barnett

*Hey - it's Felicia here. Just to set the record straight ;) I wanted to say that I rather impressed that a woman who makes such beautiful things lined her babies quilt with green fleece. Impressed not horrified! x

Around The Traps #3 - Recycling Yarn

I spoke yesterday on Stash Less about how restrictions can make some projects sing. So today I thought I could post you to some inspiration around the same topic.

People using recycled yarn.

Grid Junky - Jerome Sevilla who is a super inspiring maker who I came across on etsy (I think?) some time ago. He exclusively uses recycled yarn for his projects and his knitting is gorgeous. He shows his process to harvest yarn on Tumblr. He documents his projects in a really inspiring and helpful way. Jerome's designs have a really unique feel to them which he talks about a little bit in last week's brand new Woolful podcast (which you should really have a listen too!) this week and was so interesting. 

The Better Sweater project - although this isn't updated that often, I love the outcomes of this project. I'm really hoping she continues to document her process as I find her garments so wearable. It makes me want to not be so lazy and go yarn harvesting.  

Here is a post about the How To Recycle Yarn and a second How To Recycle Yarn post and a third.

And after you have listened to last week's Woolful podcast you should have a listen to Jules of Woollen Flower, who is one of our super special teachers at The Craft Sessions (and Jacqui Fink of Little Dandelion) in this weeks episode. I haven't heard it yet - it will have to wait until tomorrow as it is ridiculous o'clock - but I can't wait. 

Felicia x

Stash Less - Why restrictions rock!

The series where we talk about having a thoughtful stash.

There is this art theory that goes something along the lines that creativity can be enhanced by actually giving yourself or your project a set of restrictions or rules.

(To read more about this idea: Why placing limitations on yourself is the key to creativity.)

And although this isn't the purpose of Stash Less, in many ways that is what it is. A set of restrictions that I am growing to totally love. Last week I talked about some of the negatives, some of the realisations. This week I want to share one of the enormous benefits. And that is that I am looking at what I have with totally fresh eyes. 

Reading Tom of Hollands blog last week I had a "ping" moment when I read the words of Felicity Ford in this blog post. She said

“when developing guidelines for a creative process there is usually some tension around rules. Rules can be extremely helpful and supportive, offering a framework for creativity or a set of criteria to which a brief can be fitted; but they can also sometimes seem restrictive. This tension between rules and openness was important to explore……….”

— http://tomofholland.com/2014/11/28/knitsonik-blogtour-pt2/

In my crafting past I haven't had that many restrictions. I find a project and pick some materials. If I don't have what I need, I reassess or I purchase it. Restrictions aren't something I have thought about much, and as a consequence I have generally played it safe and not taken risks. 

This passage from Felicity lead me to think of all the projects I have come up with as a result of stash less. And what is interesting to me is that these ideas have come about because of Stash Less, rather than in spite of. Because of Stash Less I am looking around my existing stash to see what I can come up with that will make my heart sing.

To explain what I mean I'm going to list you a couple just to get your juices going. There are many more. 

1. The silver kid sweater. 

Among my stash I have found about 250g of 5ply in different silvers. There is a single ball of Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette, a single ball of Milla Mia, a single ball of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino and about 1.5 balls of Blue Sky Metallico. I also have a smidge of Blue Sky Sport Weight. All of these could be knit at a gauge of between 22 and 25 stitches. Without Stash Less I wouldn't have gone through my stash with such a critical eye and I would have used these one by one for small projects like for hats. Instead I have been figuring out how to best combine them for my almost 7yr old. 250g of 5ply is enough for a whole cardy. 

So what am I thinking of making? I'm thinking a top-down pattern so I can knit until I run out of yarn. Body first and sleeves second so that I can 3/4 the sleeves if I need to.

The questions yet to be answered are;
a. Do I use another colour with all the silver - either to use as a break between the transitions from one silver to another, or as an accent, or just to get full length sleeves in case I run out of silver. I have yellow, or charcoal or duck egg in stash….
b. Do I colour block the cardy with the silvers, or because they are so similar will that look stupid. Do I do a four row, four row, four row thing where I switch randomly. Do I include a textured stripe to transition between colours - like a garter stripe or maybe some moss…..

This project is fun and will be ace. I just know it. Requires a little more thought. And I have to wait until Xmas craft is over to begin.

2. The quilt.

I have started making my first king sized quilt. About 230 x 230cm. It's big which feels a little scary because what if I screw it up. That is a lot of fabric. Without Stash Less I would have been tempted to stay safe and use the dirty blue with the hatched cotton (like what you see in my mock up). And it would have been boring. BORING and safe!! Instead because I didn't have enough of the dirty blue, I had to use some denim along with the dirty blue, and I am so very very happy I did. You should see how pretty it is. I would show you but sadly I have had to put it down for a moment to get onto Christmas and birthday crafting. So I will show you in the New Year when I have basted it. Until then there is a small picture on instagram. 

3. Frocks. 

This is not one project but many. As I mentioned in a previous post I don't use scraps. A terribly wasteful fact I am not proud of. I don't use them because I haven't had to, because there is other pretty stuff in the cupboard. I want to change this and this dress on pinterest is part of my obsession with this idea. I see myself creating so many versions of this as a combination of yardage from my stash and my scrap basket. I feel like I will learn so much from trying this idea out; I will be practicing colour choice and bravery all at once. I see grownup frocks and kid frocks and shirts and tanks. I'm excited and I love the fact that this is not the easy option.

Also inspiring along the same lines are this and this and this and this.

So the point I want to make is that without this restriction I would choose safe over tricky. Safe to make sure I got something I like and didn't waste the materials by mucking it up. But safety doesn't necessarily achieve projects that sing. There is more risk in all of these three options. All of them could fail. All of them could look rubbish. But I have the feeling that all of them will sing louder and much prouder than if I chose the safe option. 

I'd love to hear about your projects that fit into this category. Do you ever restrict yourself creatively? 

Felicia x

Previously Stash Less: A Realisation!

I made this - Elizabeth Barnett

I Made This is a weekly blog series that features makers from around the world and aims to talk about the things we are proud of; of the objects we make that have meaning to us and the journey we take to make them.

This week's I Made This is by the amazing Elizabeth Barnett - a visual artist and maker from Melbourne who I met randomly many years ago at a sewing class. When we met she was making these beautiful textile collages - some of which you can see on her website. Normally I include the person's logo (if they have one) below - but I really wanted to include one of her paintings - just to give you a taste of her work. 

I made this Lisa dress from a pattern that I bought at Tessuti fabrics in Melbourne on the Cup weekend recently. Bel aka dyeingtrade (who I met at the Craft Sessions in September!) and I have been talking a lot recently about planning our summer wardrobes and so when I saw this pattern I was pretty sure it would be the centerpiece of my summer wardrobe. Bel and I met up on the weekend and madly sewed our dresses (Bel made the wiksten tank but as a longer dress version).

I bought the fabric at Treehouse Textiles in Mornington and the mother of pearl buttons are vintage ones from the beautiful L’uccello in the Nicholas Building. I spent quite a bit on these items but I am glad I did because I now have a dress that I love every element of and will wear often, rather than a garment that I sort of like but it isn’t quite right and I have a pattern that I will definitely use again and again. (and in light of Felicia's recent post on Materials... it confirms that one should use good materials that you know you will love to wear)

I had seen the pattern on pinterest and it instantly reminded me of a dress that I used to own that no longer fits me after I had my baby last year. I thought, YES! I can recreate the dress to my own shape and size in a fabric of my choosing. I like the way it is floaty and light for summer wearing.

I went through my stash to see if I could make this dress out of something I already had but none of the fabrics that I have were big enough (as the pattern required about 2m of fabric) so I decided to buy something new (going against the stash-less ideas that Felicia has been posting about recently and which has really got me thinking) But this project was special and I don’t have a huge fabric stash in large pieces so I felt justified in buying the Nani Iro fabric which I totally adore.

I am a pretty confident sewer these days after years of hacking away and fudging garments together. I have always been a maker/crafter (Craft has always been a part of my family) but my finishing of garments had always left me feeling unsatisfied with the things I made and they always ended up falling apart or I hated how “handmade” and dodgy they looked. I did a class a few years ago (where I first met Felicia actually!) at Amitie textiles when it was in Bentleigh. Our teacher Gwen has years of experience and she taught me things that I will never forget! Eg. button holes, hemming, inserting a zip, setting a sleeve, and the importance of pinning and tacking! These classes have been invaluable and have taught me not to hack at fabric or brazenly sew without pinning (which has its place for some projects but in most cases for me would end up in me unpicking and ruining beautiful pieces of fabric).

When I looked at the pattern I wasn’t that keen on putting in all the fabric stiffner and the shops weren’t open on the Sunday to get some so instead I did without and I decided to add a full lining for the bodice of the dress (with some leftover fabric from one of Mum’s quilting projects). I am really pleased I did as the Nani Iro fabric is really sheer and I am not that keen on see through garments for myself! I love the bias binding that finishes the neck and sleeves and helps them to sit nicely. I had never done that technique before but it worked amazingly and I starting thinking about other patterns that I could alter to achieve that look. I could even make different fabric bias bindings from my stashed fabrics for a nice bit of interest on the garment…. the possibilities!

I LOVE this dress and have not really taken it off since I made it. I will definitely the pattern again and maybe even in two fabrics, one for the top and one of the skirt (perhaps something in my stash will work for this).