Around the traps - Simple Sewing 101

Alrighty then Simple Sewers. I haven't had enough wifi or computer time to do the next alterations post but I did want to show you some pretty pictures from a few weeks ago that I took of my friend Christine wearing a couple of her Simple Sewing 101 - Tops. In the photo above she is wearing her Alice Top which is Step 4 in the post and then in the photo below she is wearing a gorgeous version of the Califaye Basics Tank which is an alternative to the Wiksten Tank which was Step 2. You can get all the details (and loads more gorgeous photos) from the post on her blog about them. 

What is winding me up as I'm writing this is that I really want to try the Cali Faye Tank - and rather than buying the pattern, piecing it together, cutting it out and then trying it on, I could have just tried Christine's on..... rid-ic-ulous that I'm only realising this now. We had the whole weekend together!

Other Simple Sewing 101 superstars you should check out are my lovely friend Karen on Instagram who has been sewing up a storm - a few weeks ago she made the Cali Faye Tank as well as some gorgeous Nani Iro and Linen numbers I know you lot will love.

And while you are wandering the halls of instagram you could also have a look at the other tops with the instagram hastag #simplesewing101. There are so many alterations popping up like this gorgeous number! Or this. Or this.

Hopefully they have inspired you to whip out your scissors and get sewing? 

Felicia x

Aragon Wildflowers

We spent a few days camping recently in the hills of Aragon in northern Spain, near a little village called La Fresneda. La Fresneda was the kind of sleepy town where old men play cards in the main square for the afternoon, pulling their chairs and table onto the road to find the shade from the late afternoon sun. 

It felt a little like the desert at home. It had the same scruffy beauty, the sun-bleached colours, the same style of scrubby trees, and soil that didn't look like it could grow anything. At all. But, like in the deserts at home, there was so much life. Almond trees and thousands of olives. Stray figs growing randomly out of stone walls. So many varieties of wildflowers - and so many beautiful soft colours. 

Travelling as we do, with three small children, we often have limited time to do the things we really would love to do. And so I only got to go for a walk once during our time there - my middle kid and I walked from the campsite into town. Unfortunately it was in the middle of the day (and it was hot!) so the colours are even more bleached out. But it almost gave the colours more beauty. 

Imagine these photos taken at dusk….

Hope you liked them. 

Felicia x

The Chambray Cult has left the building.

So I’ve dropped off the planet temporarily and it’s because we are away again, and as always, time and wifi are patchy. I always have grand plans about posting like nothing different is going on. I’m either an optimist or a fool. Take your pick.

Like last year, we are in Europe, and again we are camping (hence the patchy wifi). My fella is from the UK and so we visit nearly every year to see his family - and just so we don’t feel we have spent our entire holiday on the M25 trying to see friends, we thought we would head off camping again. 

This time I was lucky enough to sneak in a sneaky trip to Squam before I met him and the kids in London. I'll post some photos of the wonderful Squam soon, but one of the best bits for me was that I was lucky enough to get to spend the weekend with some lovely friends I only get to see when I'm in the US.

Anyhow during the weekend one of them mentioned she was a little "sad" that I didn’t share photos of our trips on the blog. In the past I haven’t shared that much as I figure this is a craft blog, so I try to keep it not too personal, and mainly craft focused. Her point was that travel is often somewhere we humans draw our inspiration from, and the photos I’m taking probably reflect that. And so I thought I might try some out over the next few weeks to see if you like them.

The photo above is a rare one as I am actually in it – I’m normally the photo taker and not the takee. It was taken in Bilbao last week where the aforementioned fella stated that we look like we are in some kind of chambray cult. It’s probably true – who doesn’t love chambray?

I'll keep posting when I can.

Felicia x

*For those of you not from the UK it is a often excruciatingly slow moving ring-road that encircles London.

Stash Less - Not just for the holidays.

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago now but I thought it was still relevant so I would post anyway. 

---

I'm in NYC. And some lovely women I know just invited me to the garment district to do some fabric shopping. And a crazy thing just happened - I said thanks, but no thanks. 

I know! How shocking - we are talking about fabric shopping in NY. An opportunity that is few and far between. 

But it's really feeling good. Not because I don't want to go. I do. I wish I could. But I can't.

It turns out, that like a puppy, Stash Less is probably for life*!

I know that one of the worst things that I can do in terms of not buying-more-stuff-for-the-sake-of-buying-more-stuff is not to shop. I did let myself go to Purl Soho but I went with intention. I went to specifically look and feel their new yarns. I wanted to try their Worsted Twist and their Flax Down - I knew my specific purchases before I walked in the door. But even with that well-thought-out intention in place, I almost left with other stuff. The impulse purchase "oh but I really want to make that at some stage and wouldn't it be lovely to have it now" feeling was really strong. But I stopped, thought, and I put the things back. 

In the end I purchased two skeins of yarn, an addi needle I needed and a present for my kids of some knotting cord. And that was it! 

There is the little bit inside me that still thinks it would be crazy not to go and look at the garment district. I make a lot of clothes and having fabric on hand is a bit part of my ability to do that. The old "but your in NY" excuse. But that is just what it is. An excuse. And I don't want to live like that. I know I'm being repetitive - but it is for me more than you - because really I have enough.

I want to be responsible and aware and conscious of the choices I'm making and the behaviours I'm engaging in. I want to walk my talk.

I still have a way to go**. But I know I won't get there by heading to the garment district. 

Felicia

* More on that soon. 

**For example I know little to nothing about the manufacture of many of the fabrics I purchase. And I may have done a little too much purchasing at the Squam fair - but more on that next week. 

A Me Made May Roundup

Me Made May has wrapped up for the year and personally I am calling it a big success. Consciousness was raised!I I really loved participating in it, but more than that I loved sticky-beaking at other peoples wardrobes via the ever wonderful instagram hastags #mmmay15 and #memademay. Totally inspiring - and showing that handmade can easily be everyday. 

I wrote about my participation in Me Made May in this post. My pledge was simply to wear handmade everyday; as I wear homemade nearly everyday anyway I didn't think it was going to be any big deal. And really it wasn't. I took it a tiny step further, in that I aimed to wear my whole handmade wardrobe. I didn't quite wear everything as there were a few summer things that weren't weather appropriate but I tried. I didn't have a total repeat until Day 23 - which means that I was right in my post the other day when I talked about the idea of "enough". I'm there*. 

The thing was, I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to get out of it. I hoped for some awareness on what I really liked and didn't like in my wardrobe. And then maybe a little more consciousness around what I already had and more specifically, some consciousness around what I had, but didn't like. What I clarified is that over the last 2/3/4 years I have slowly but surely developed a wardrobe I really love. A handmade wardrobe that I wear nearly everyday without thinking about it. That fits my life and makes me feel good. 

Day 1 through to Day 9.

That said I also discovered a few other things

1. I have few things I don't like and therefore don't wear. For each the things I don't like there is a very simple fix - I've been being lazy. I'll get to them when I get home in July. 

2. I discovered there were some holes in my wardrobe, that became clearer through the wearing.

a. I have a huge jacket sized hole. When I return to Australia the Morris is going to be tackled and won, before my kids have recovered from their jetlag*. 

b. I love frocks. Love them. Just peruse my pinterest board and you will find a wealth of frocks. In reality I only have two that I own and wear. Fixing this hole is my sewing goal over the next year or so. I aim to hunt down and perfect some frock patterns that fit and make me feel the joy. I have two ready-to-wear frocks I love, so I am thinking I might be doing some copying, in terms of size, shape and fit. I know I have been avoiding this as it seems easier to just bang out a top than to make a frock. This is a declaration of intent lovely people!!!

c. Some of my clothes are getting a little thin - like my favourite Liberty tank dress - and will need to be replaced over the next year. 

Day 10 through Day 21.

3. I also discovered something (quite liberating) about my handmade wardrobe limits!
When I was looking at the "bottoms" section of my wardrobe I realised that I had only one or two handmade garments and they annoyed me.  I am a classic pear with a set of rounded saddlebag bits on my outer thighs. That make pants/skirts trickier to fit and so I would much rather be able to try the thing on as a finished garment. The idea of fiddling with a pattern to get something to fit without being even 20% sure I would get something wearable at the end is not at all appealing. My heart feels constricted at the mere idea of looking for a pattern.

So my realisation?? - That in making my handmade wardrobe I do not want to make pants or even really skirts. In the future I might have the brainspace but I currently don't have it in me to fiddle with the fit. And so I am just going to cross that whole category off my sewing list. Letting go = happy days. 

Day 22 through Day 31

All details for all patterns etc are on instagram. If you don't have an instagram account then go to http://instagram.com/thecraftsessions - just click on the individual photos for the details. 

I'd love to hear what you learned, and what you loved, from this year's Me Made May.

Felicia x

*Last time it took those little tigers 6 nights. SIX nights before they were sleeping between the hours of 12pm and 4am. This time I might need to resort to herbal sleeping remedies?