Best Of - Small Girl Frocks

May 20, 2014 thecraftsessions

Starting the post by keeping it real. This is what her frocks look like normally. x

I would estimate that over the last six or so years I have made at least 40 small girl frocks. Some thrown together, and some laboured over with intense amounts of love, patience and ultimately joy. So today I wanted to talk about the one that has truly become my absolute favourite and why it is I keep making it over and over again.

To set the scene I'll tell you what I need from a girls dress. I want something

That is comfortable.
They will get a few years out of - in other words that i can make two sizes too big without it looking odd.
That covers their shoulders - due to the super harsh Australian sun.
That is flowy and cool.
That is not precious or fussy.
That layers well.
That goes together quickly but is finished beautifully.
That can handle the rough and tumble of being worn by a small person*.

And out of all the patterns I have tried over the years there is really only one that fits the bill. Drum roll please….

The Geranium Dress

So first the details. It is made by the super clever Made By Rae as a downloadable pattern with two versions - Version 1 has sizes from newborn to size 5 and then Version 2 has sizes from 6-12. This pattern is so worth the few dollars. Like all of Rae's patterns there are a heap of different variations written into the pattern. Have a look here at the flickr group to get a good idea of just what can be made.

I make a single variation but it also comes with a different neckline, with ruffles at the shoulders or with a more traditional tank shaping. Being lazy in many ways, I tend to just pick a version and stick with it so I don't have to redraft it. That said, when a version is this pretty why bother with others?

So what is to love about it. As well as being all that I mentioned above, I think my real love comes from the ease with which it comes together (even if you are a beginner!) AND the beautiful finish of the dress. If you were to french seam the side seams of the skirt then there are no exposed seams. There is absolutely nothing fiddly about this frock.

The next thing I love is the fit. It is really comfortable. There is nothing constraining about it. It doesn't pull. It covers the shoulders but doesn't restrict their movement. And then whether you are teeny baby or 8yo then this frock works so beautifully. It isn't fussy. It is sweet, but made with a slightly sturdy fabric is perfectly suitable for climbing trees - tucked into your undies of course!

I've realised as I have been posting these photos that actually I really really love the back view of the frock. Pretty buttons make it!

Perfect dress in the extreme heat of the tropics.

My middle one came up today - the first hot day we have had in weeks - and said "mama I need my flowy dress to get the air through (pointing at the armholes). It's my favourite mum!" Almost made my heart hurt with the sincerity.

Not much else to say. Try it if you were looking for a small girl frock. You won't regret it.

Oh - before I go. I just found another pattern I love the look of and really want to try. It doesn't seem quite as comfy as the Geranium as it is a bit more fitted. Nor does it have the shoulder coverage. But it is so so very sweet to look at. You can find it here.

Felicia x

* which I've also realised is a reason that I don't use solids as much as I would like….see the first photo as an example.

Part 3 - I was totally wrong about patchwork!

May 16, 2014 thecraftsessions

The quilt top. Image used courtesy of Siobhan Rogers of Beaspoke Quilts

This is the third installment in this little mini-series and probably the last. (If you haven't read Part 1 and Part 2 you might want to backtrack as I describe just how wrong I've been and why). In this one we tackle the thing I’ve found the trickiest to love - that is the use of lots of printed fabrics in quilts. But again, over the last few years I have found more and more examples of quilts I love, that have this characteristic. There are beautiful examples of this kind of patchwork all over the place if you just start looking….

This style of patchwork involves the cutting up of a beautiful print and putting it next to another beautiful print – sometimes in a traditional pattern and sometimes not. And the thing that I have found tricky about it in the past, is the sense of overwhelm I feel. Sometimes it feels visually a bit too much – but I think that was because I was looking at the wrong quilts. Done right this can bring so much life and depth to a quilt.

So I thought I would show you just a few examples to demonstrate how mixing printed fabrics can be done in a way that is thoughtful, considered and ultimately stunning.

I haven't had quite enough time to gather all the permissions I wanted to to use other people photos so this post is a little link heavy. Still I hope that you enjoy the assortment of quilts I have pulled together that yet again demonstrate how wrong I was about patchwork!

Simple Traditional

First up – those of you that have followed The Craft Sessions over the last year will probably realize that I have a little crush on Naomi Ito’s Nani Iro fabrics. Little is possibly an understatement. I have just a small pile which I occasionally dive into when I’m feeling brave.

And that is how I came across today’s first quilt. I was looking for things to do with double gauze. I wanted to see how it would work best – a garment or a quilt. I remember seeing this quilt for the first time and thinking “wow!! that is clever”. And it is. It is the use of the print to enhance the simple design. It is the fact that there is quiet in the quilt. It is the simplicity of it – the use of a traditional pattern in a simple way using beautiful fabrics to make something stunning.

The finished quilt by Siobhan Rogers - photo used courtesy of Siobhan Rogers of Beaspoke Quilts

And then after a little digging I discovered that the quilter is Australian Siobhan Rogers of Beaspokequilts. Her work has been featured in magazine after magazine and she seems to just have an incredible output. You can find more of her gorgeous work at her blog or her instagram.

This simple traditional square cross quilt comes from Leslie who we will talk about some more below. And I wanted to include it because I love the simplicity of it.

Click this link for another gorgeous quilt that is simply a collection of squares by Alessandria Taccia. And click here for a beautiful, more complicated star quilt that is so very pretty.

And then this stellar quilt by Toshiko Jinzenji. It is crazy good.

Old School Traditional

If you like the idea of Old School Traditional quilts but want something considered and modern then you can't go past the lovely Karyn of Make Something. Karyn runs a shop called The Workroom in Toronto and has consistently made quilt after amazing quilt for years. Watching her work over the last few years and the work of her teachers and students, has been a big part of my patchwork turnaround. So thanks Karyn!

If you go back through her flickr pages or join her instagram you will find inspirational quilt after inspirational quilt after inspirational quilt.

Improvisational

Next quilt style up is totally different in it’s style - freestyle quilting.

The first example is by one of our awesome teachers Leslie Keating of Maze and Vale. Leslie designs and prints her own fabrics and then uses them in her improvised patchwork quilts. She taught this style of patchwork at last year’s event and had people raving about “freedom” and “joy” and …. Have a look at some photo’s here.

Image used courtesy of Leslie Keating of Maze and Vale.

I think the thing that really makes Leslie’s quilts quietly sing is that fact that her fabrics all have a similar tone to them. I love the use of different neutrals and the different basecloths. And then there is the style. I love an improvised quilt – but it isn’t something I think I would feel free enough to do. Leslie's Improv technique achieves these random unplanned and stunning results.

Photo of a quilt from The Craft Sessions 2013 class taught by Leslie.

Another quilt that demonstrates this style beautifully is by the lovely Siri Hayes. Siri is my friend. She is an amazing artistic photographer but one of the benefits of being her friend means that I also get to see some of her amazing craft work. The woman is clever. And one place she always floors me is her use of colour.

Siri took Leslie’s class last year and put together a beautiful quilt top that I was a little obsessed with. And then just before I left, I went for craft night at her house and saw another one she was putting together and it is just stunning. This is one of those times when someone’s inate (or learned?) understanding and use of colour is what makes the quilt top sing. I asked her to take some photos for me. They don’t do it justice –said with total love for the quilt as the photos are gorgeous. There is always a subtlety to what makes the colour in a particular work sing. Maybe it goes back to some of the points in my last post or maybe it doesn’t’? I still don’t feel I undertand this one enough. But I love watching other people achieve it. Still so much to learn.

I also love this quilt again by Siobhan that she did in collaboration with the wonderful CLOTH fabrics. Gorgeous colours and use of prints.

Quilt by Siobhan Rogers of Beaspoke Quilts for CLOTH

Three more people/quilts you should look at if you like this style of quilting are

Maggie and Sparrow - An Australian quilt maker with a gorgeous sense of colour. Her colour palates are so interesting to me. They are harmonius and very very calm. But she uses colourways I just wouldn’t think of. Again another person that gets colour.

Lotta Jansdotter's quilt from one of her earlier books.

And have a look at this one by Insung from Namoo here.

And with that I have to get to bed. I think I've mentioned it on each patchwork post but just in case I haven't - if any of these lovely quilts have inspired you to give patchwork a try then please join us at The Craft Sessions this year. The lovely Melissa of Tiny Happy fame is teaching Freedom Patchwork which will have you capable, confident and joyful by the end of the day.

Felicia x

Inspiring Nordic Knitters

May 13, 2014 thecraftsessions

Image courtesy of Ingvild of Ullstrikk blog

This post could easily be a series. But I won’t go there as I already have a few series on the go…;). However I just found a couple of new knitters I needed to tell you about as I have found them so inspirational. The colours and style are classic Nordic. Pared back and simple, letting the colour, materials and simplicity of the design do the talking.

The first one is a brand new to me blog called Ullstrikk. The knitter’s name is Ingvild and she is based in Norway. Her knitting for her small girl is simply stunning. I have included her photos in this post and what they reminded me of was a point from The Craft Sessions manifesto – “You can make beautiful things with simple techniques”. Often the things that Ingvild makes are not technically complicated. Their beauty is about colour and simplicity.

I think as our skills develop as knitters we are often tempted to make things that are more complicated due to simple fact that we have the skills to do so. Doing a complicated piece challenges the part of us that likes to be challenged. It is often more interesting to knit and so we go there. But for me if I look at my clothes – kids board then most of the things that I am attracted to and love, are simple designs in slightly muted colours (Yet again about the visual diary!). What I make is not that.

My kids are covered in beautiful (and some crazy) prints that we have found together over time. However when they wear them all at once – which they do – I often feel an urge to avert my eyes due to the chaos – all the while feeling total joy due to their crazy fashion. I’m starting to feel that if I was making slightly simpler colours and styles and using slightly simpler fabrics then we could achieve the same thing (the kids feeling joy about their clothes) without the visual overwhelm.

I think the photos of Ingvild's little girl in the picture below illustrate this perfectly. I don't think her outfit could be cuter….

Image courtesy of Ingvild at Ullstrikk blog

One more thing that is super common in Nordic knits is the extensive use of grey. Now I love grey for myself but rarely use it for the kids. Not sure why. Nordic blogs have inspired me to consciously knit grey for them. The start of example number one that I made earlier this week is below - using a beautiful colour way called Confetti.

You can see the finished hat on instagram here. The whole outfit makes me happy.

So back to Ingvild. She uses soft colours, lots of grey and simple patterns. And I love it all. I have been back through her blog roll and found the whole thing incredibly inspirational. She has kindly allowed me to use her images in this post – so thankyou Ingvild.

Other people you should have a look at if you are feeling inspired by this post are Charlott Pettersen - she has a book that at this time is only in Norwegian but the patterns are super sweet and her instagram account is fantastic. Also Helga Isager. She is a true nordic genius, her books are absolutely beautiful and many of her patterns are translated to English. You can also get many of the patterns as kits using Isager wool here.

Any others you know of I should look at? Do you have this issue between what you love and what you make?

Felicia x

The post where we get a little personal

May 6, 2014 thecraftsessions

So here is the thing. I'm actually overseas and will be for a few months. I had big BIG plans to be able to continue to post like nothing is happening. I was going to answer emails in a timely fashion, and peruse and chat on instagram as normal. I was planning on working like I wasn't away. Not sure why I thought that was necessary to keep everything going as normal. I'm guessing it was ye oldy friend ms.perfectionist trying to do it all.

Anyhow, it isn't working. I have been away a month and trying to find time to reply to emails quickly, and keep totally on top of things is causing me a little spot of stress. So I wanted to explain where I'm at, rather than confusing you with pictures of a Danish field and a wool shop in Croatia*. Or frustrate you by posting in a totally random fashion....

And this is where the personal comes in. I don't often get personal on here so here goes.

The long and the short of it is that we have been planning and hoping for many years now to go on an adventure with our kids. A big adventure. I like them. Always have. But I kinda screwed up 13ish years ago and met a corporate fella while I was travelling. And he is/was super corporate, so we got stuck in the life. A lovely life - but one that lacked time and had plenty of stress.

Fast forward ten years and three kids and we start talking about adventures. We weren't sure of the when and how, but we had plans. Lots of plans. Maybe we drive from Australia to England in a camper van. Maybe we spend 6 months in South America. Maybe. Maybe. Anyway late last year we got super lucky and he was made redundant after nearly 20 years. And we booked some tickets....

We decided to start a bit smaller and so now we are camping our way around Europe - with a tent and three kids seven and under. We left at the start of April. Got to my MIL in the UK. Bought a second hand Land Cruiser and top box and off we went.

We are only a week or so into the camping part, but I can see that life will not quite be what I thought. We have adventure, but adventure means that I can't be sure of wifi access and/or how many kids will throw up on the ferry and/or if there will be the time and space on any given day to take a photo and write a post. Two days ago I thought we were headed for Spain, but we are now heading down through Germany into Prague. We actually have no plans and nothing booked. I can't tell you how exciting that is….

So before you get concerned…. The Craft Sessions September 2014 is all good to go. We are completely sorted and I will be back in plenty of time :) (and we still have some tickets left!). The blog will keep going and emails will be answered, classes assigned, etc etc. The only thing is - it might take me a day to get back to you sometimes, and somedays it may take me three.

I'll be back later on in the week with a post on some inspirational nordic knitters and hopefully another one on patchwork. The next post in the Secret to Becoming a Great Knitter/Learn To Read Your Knitting series has just been photographed and hopefully will pop up next week.

Hope things are good with you and yours.

Felicia x

*If anyone has any wool shops etc that I should check out in Europe please let me know :)

Freestyle knitting

April 30, 2014 thecraftsessions

So today we are talking freestyle knitting - knitting where you just make up your own pattern as you go. Now, I can hear you saying “but why??... why would I want to?... people write patterns for me to follow”. All of that is true but there is a few great reasons for trying freestyling that I want to share.

But quickly before I start I want to say that this is not a post about designing a pattern - that is a whole other kettle of fish. This is about making up a garment that you want to knit without a pattern. While freestyling is much easier after you have a little experience under your belt, I do believe that advanced beginners could/should give it a go.

1. You can make what you want

This truly is the best bit. Ever spotted something on pinterest, or even in the real world, and fallen totally in love. Then spent hours on Ravelry trying to find a matching pattern. Yep - me too! Often Ravelry doesn't have the exact pattern I want. I have become a notorious modifier who is always changing something to shape it to what I want. Through learning even a little about the structure of your knitting AND the potential structures of knitted garments, you gain so much control. You can truly make what you want, how you want it. And who doesn't like having some control hey!

I'm trying to figure out how to make this beauty. If only they would take one more photo of it lying flat I would be set...

2. You learn how to make modifications

Freestyling means you will learn about knitting structure. And this means that ALL your garments benefit. By understanding more, you are able to modify patterns so they fit beautifully so you actually want to wear them. Then because they fit, you will think knitting sweaters is wonderful so you want to knit more. Win.

3. You gain confidence and understanding

Learning how to freestyle your own design really solidifies your knowledge base in a way that knitting from a pattern doesn’t. I’m having trouble finding an analogy but freestyling means that you have to pay a lot more attention to the details of the knit. Honing your skills while you work.

4. You get more joy from your knitting

I have no actual proof of this. But I do offer into anecdotal evidence the photos that are used in this post. This jumper was a request from my small boy for his birthday next week. He designed it. He chose the yarn. He refused my many many requests to choose a simpler collar. He feels total ownership of it and even knitted a few stitches. And although the ad hoc nature of the knit meant that I did lots of ripping of the aforementioned collar (and copious amounts of s@#$ring) I feel way way prouder of it than if I had knitted someone else’s pattern. It bloody well worked! And he is thrilled.

5. Fun

Freestyling is fun. The sweater you are making may be looking a bit big around the neck – why not do a few more random decreases you rascal you, and make it a bit smaller. Freestyling is a wind-in-your-hair kinda freedom without leaving your couch. As EZ says "it's your knitting!"

6. You learn things

Now although I like his jumper, there are a few wacky things about it – like for some random reason I decided to do a three stitch raglan which looks a little s%$t….so I learnt a valuable lesson - that I don’t like having 3 stitches in between my raglan decreases. I remember making the decision to do it but I don’t remember why and I do regret it - but not so much I was willing to rip it out. All about the learning.

Please excuse the hideous light but I was trying to take them under a very grey English sky that wasn’t going anywhere.

How to learn to freestyle knit!

I truly believe you need to go back to the masters - Elizabeth and Barbara. They wrote two essential and fabulous books. One for bottom up and the other for top down. They both have their benefits and their separate joys. Bottom up means that you are essentially doing a giagantic gauge swatch before you get to the all important yoke – but you can’t try it on. With top down you can try it on as you go but you need to get your gauge right first.

Resource 1

Knitting without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman. I have talked about this book on the blog before but if you really want to understand your knitting then this is the perfect place to start. Elizabeth will fill you with confidence, knowledge and joy.

Resource 2

Knitting from the Top by Barbara G Walker. This is the bible for the top down knitters. Ignore the picture on the front as this book has all types of top down shaping and is oft quoted as the book where people began their top down journey.

Read them both and you will truly have increased your knowledge and understanding of the knitted garment in an exponenetial way. You will never be the same.

Resource 3

Another fabulous resource would be Karen’s posts on How to improvise a top down sweater. This series is brilliant!! And she was a pretty new knitter when she wrote it, so she is looking at it from a wonderful perspective that doesn't assume you have years of knitting experience.

Resource 4

If you are able to get to a class or two (or work with a knitter you know) to learn it in a hands on way then that is incredibly valuable. That said – I didn’t. I learnt all I know from those books, youtube, making other people’s patterns and making a ton of mistakes (and a few successful knits ;)). Which reminds me - another great resource for how-to is just to take notice when you are knitting other people's patterns. You will find an absolute wealth of knowledge if you really start to pay attention.

Okey dokey. Now if you think freestyling may be for you, just get to it and remember mistakes are how you learn – ripping is part of the process my friends. Don’t see it as wasted time – see it as a step towards mastery.

I’d love to hear if you freestyle (or plan to) at all.

Felicia x

PS. A little housekeeping. Due to my inability to maintain two separate Pinterest pages, I am not going to be updating The Craft Sessions pinterest account any longer. I will however continue to update my own (and have changed the link icon to link to my personal page). I have a heap of clearly marked craft boards. So if you are interested in craft but not in the fact that I need a coffee table, please feel free to just follow the craft boards.