1(67) things to make for children

Continuing with my love of 1970s craft books is the Better Homes and Gardens 167 Things to Make for Children. Alas, I think that the title is a misnomer because really, there's only one thing in there that I would consider making - and some of the projects are downright hideous like the doll with a shrivelled apple for a face.

The project that I have made is the Artist's Vinyl Apron. I posted a little while ago about the iron-on vinyl that I discovered and this is the project that I used it for. I'm delighted to confirm that the apron is now complete (although still under wraps until Di receives it).

Of course, one of my favourite things about the 70s craft book is the (rather ridiculous) copy:

There's a little bit of the artist in each of us, but children especially love to grab a paintbrush, dip it (or their fingers) in a paint pot and express themselves artistically.

But before they begin, outfit them with this vinyl apron. Then, just stand aside and watch your budding Picasso create his masterpiece without a worry about splashes and spills.

Funny, I never could imagine Pablo in yellow and white gingham.
(Oh ok, make it two projects because I do love that crocheted granny square dress on the cover too.)

oilily

Oilily is a spectacularly expensive brand of children's and women's clothes that hails from the Netherlands. They used to have a distributor in Australia but this arrangement ceased a couple of years ago and they had a big clearance sale. I bought a couple of heavily discounted (but I admit, still ridiculously priced, t-shirts and socks for little miss bear) and a woven woollen stole in red and blue for myself. It's a great size, super warm and gets a multitude of compliments every time I wear it so I consider it worth every cent.

So, I saw this burgundy checked fabric at Stitches here in Seattle some weeks ago and was quite taken with it but really had no idea what I would do with it. I wasn't sure about wearing a garment in a check like this (unless maybe a coat but that's a tall order) and didn't want to sew anything for myself anyway.

Then I recalled a post on wisecraft about making your own scarf from a piece of fabric and fraying the edge to create a fringe. That is what I am going to do with this fabric, of which I bought a yard and a half. I'm going to make it up to the same dimensions as my favourite Oilily stole. Stay tuned

japan

Oh I wish (kind of). Just more armchair travelling, well, the Japanese garden in the Arboretum which is a few blocks from where we live. Yes, those conifers in the background of the picture below are a bit of a giveaway.

I have actually been to Japan three times - for a nine-month stint in the year after I finished high school and two trips bookending my first trip to Europe. That first nine-month trip was just long enough to teach me how unutterably unknowable Japan was to a tall, fair foreigner with size 9.5 feet. A dear friend who was there a bit longer than I (and at a different stage of her life, married to a Japanese man) recently said it was only after a year that she started to feel like she could have, I don't think fitted in but become more part of the culture.

And of course it is only more recently that I have become interested in Japanese craft books. Another friend's mother is currently in Japan for three weeks and we have passed on all sorts of department store names and fabric shop details to her. I also recently borrowed a couple of books about zakka (which I take to mean household goods) from the library and it (almost) makes my feet itch a bit.

It is certainly getting colder here in Seattle, so unfortunately the ornamental carp have already gone into hibernation and there is no more fish feeding. We must go back in summer when it is spectacular to see them roiling around in the water in a feeding frenzy.

spooky

Well, scary actually. Scary the number of pre-fabricated, all-in-one costumes that so many children were wearing for Hallowe'en. Half the fun of costumes is putting them together - either making them or finding something in the back of the wardrobe or at the thrift store (although, disappointingly to me the thrift stores here are full of brand new merchandise at this time of the year in the shape of precisely the all-in-one suits that I'm complaining about).

Ok, so I rant a little; I do know that not every parent has the time nor inclination to make a costume but I think that it is a fantastic opportunity for children to do so themselves and to use their imagination. It also helps to make the occasion less exclusively about getting stuff. That said, there were a few hand-made costumes where we went trick or treating - an awesome rocket ship, a fabulous yard waste bin, a beautiful cotton woolly cloud.

Little miss bear wore a red corduroy cowgirl vest and skirt that was (apparently) mine as a child with a checked shirt from her wardrobe, a cowgirl themed t-shirt purchased at Value Village and her yellow gumboots. Yee-ha!

eowyn

Ok, so not everything works out in knitter-land.

Flatliner
Pattern: Eowyn by Theresa Venning from Rowan 38.
Size: Just the one size.
Yarn: Some really fabulous Álafoss Lopi by Ístex. This yarn is both fabulous because it's a single ply bulky from Iceland, and because I bought two-and-a-half skeins of it from an op shop back in Australia. The pattern actually calls for a strand of Rowan Kid Classic and a strand of Kidsilk Haze held together, knitting at a gauge of 12 stitches to 10cm. Unfortunately, the lopi was not a good substitute, even though it does knit up at a similar gauge. It just made the armwarmers, particularly the seams, too stiff and bulky.
Needles: 7.5mm circular and a cable needle.
Start to finish: 19 October 2009 to 20 October 2009.
Comments: I knit these in the round, whereas the pattern calls for them to be knit flat but I really can't see the point of an extra seam. The construction is very simple - the armwarmers are just a tube with a cable knit into it, no shaping. The lace trim is knit separately and then sewn on to the tube (didn't find the instructions for this detailed enough - slip stitch or mattress stitch? neither worked well in the lopi) leaving a gap for the thumb if desired.

Given this, as far as substitution goes, you could actually make a version of these armwarmers with any yarn - just calculate how many stitches you need to cast on to create a tube of suitable circumference in the yarn that you want to use. Knit that tube to the length that you want, including a 12-stitch wide cable, or any other sort of cable/decoration you like. Then knit the lace trim to the required length, making it wider with a few more knit stitches at the straight edge if you want. Attach the lace and you'd be done.

Verdict: Just didn't work out this time around but I would still like to make these armwarmers, either out of the suggested yarn or something else more appropriate than the lopi, or just use the tube plus lace concept in a different weight yarn altogether.

texture

I have cast on for Woolsthorpe. I'm not going to beat around the bush, claim that I only seem to have cast on, or that I haven't really cast on but am knitting a swatch that closely resembles the front. I was claiming for a while that I was just swatching the ribbing but halfway up the left front this is no longer true. And what else do I have to say for it? Ah, texture!

I have long not been keen on either ribbing or moss stitch, both of which require an endless k1 p1 (that is, knit one purl one) sequence. However, it would seem that my knitting has become more proficient lately because I am really enjoying knitting these fabrics which I would usually otherwise avoid. The ribbing is actually a twisted rib so it's k1tbl p1 (knit one through the back loop purl one) which I hadn't done at all before. And here at this juncture it contrasts nicely with the moss stitch and stocking stitch.

After four finished knitting projects in the red/burgundy/purple colour group, it is also lovely to be working with blue. Again, this is one hundred per cent wool recycled from a J Crew sweater that I bought at the thrift store. I am having a lot of success with recycling this brand and would recommend it to anyone considering upcycling yarn (except people who live in Seattle and frequent the same thrift stores as I do - hands off!).

inspiration

I truly love books, and I love to look to them for inspiration. I have previously mentioned and recommended Make Your Own Contemporary Quilts. Not only are there fantastic ideas and instructions in there for making quilts, the styling is also very inviting. Like this little vignette of antique dresses pictured at left. An image like this kindles an immediate desire in me; usually my response would be to try and make what it is that I have seen and responded to so strongly.

Actually, most of my needlework efforts and endeavours are about making my own versions of antique/heirloom-type pieces because they are so difficult (and expensive) to come by otherwise. If I can't acquire a piece of hand-made gros point de Venise lace then my first thought is to make some myself.

Anyway, having not yet gotten around to sewing any heirloom christening dresses just for show or mastering smocking, my own antique children's dresses vignette has been sadly lacking. That is, until this Sunday past. I went to Fremont Market to say hi to my dear friend Heidi, a fabulous potter about whom I will do a more comprehensive post shortly, and spied a white lacy something as I walked by a second-hand wares stall. You know when you see something and you know that it is just right, that it is just what you want and you mentally suck in a breath of air and wonder, 'how much do they want for it?'

There was another second-hand wares guy across the way who had a couple of vintage-looking cotton quilt tops for sale. As I usually do, before asking after the price I determined how much I'd be prepared to pay. I decided on thirty dollars (that's how much it would have been worth to me and if I really fall in love with something I'll often go fifty per cent over what I am 'prepared' to pay), he wanted one hundred. No thank you.

So the white lacy something (incidentally in pretty poor shape and badly discoloured) - I decided that I was prepared to pay fifteen dollars. She only asked for ten - hooray! I snapped it up, happily paid for it and gave it a good long soak in oxy-action stuff. A lot of the discoloration disappeared and after a gentle steam iron, here it hangs on the inside of little miss bear's closet door - the beginnings of our own antique children's dress composition.

swatch for joy

Ok, so I do like to swatch with new yarns, just to get an idea of how they knit up, what sort of fabric they create, what the gauge is with a particular needle size. I wouldn't quite say that I find swatching joyous but I have had the garment Joy buzzing around like a bee in my bonnet for a long time now. So I decided to just swatch up for it, in the yarn that I would like to use, following the chart, in the shape of a sleeve, just to see how it turns out.

So, I've got a sleeve and I'm calling this one finished for the moment.

The Vital Statistics
Pattern: Joy by Kim Hargreaves from the Rowan publication Vintage Knits.
Size: Bizarrely enough, I knitted the xs size sleeve and it seems to be just fine for me.
Yarn: This is recycled yarn, 80 per cent wool and 20 per cent cashmere, a purple/russet/burgundy tweed - it truly depends on the light. I recycled it from a Talbots twin set that I bought at Goodwill in Tukwila - a long sleeve cardigan and a short-sleeve top so no worries about there being enough yarn - hooray!
Needles: 3mm bamboo straights.
Start to finish: 19 August 2009 to 17 October 2009.
Comments: The major change that I made to this knit (like many other knitters) is that I didn't use beads on it. The original calls for some 5000 small beads to be placed to form the chevron pattern. No thank you - how onerous to knit, how heavy, how expensive and how would you wash it. Instead I purled on the right side (where the bead shoul have been placed) and knit on the wrong side. The resulting chevron pattern is evident but subtle. I really like the effect.

Verdict: I'm very happy with this sleeve and I am putting it away for the moment. I haven't even yet compared it to one of my favourite commercially produced cardigans to check the sleeve cap size. I know that the sleeve is long enough and wide enough because I knit it that way. I have concerns about how a size extra small sleeve cap would fit into a medium size front and back if that was what I ended up knitting for torso fit. But that's all for later.

here comes the sun

... and I say it's all right.





















The Vital Statistics

Pattern: Sunrise Circle Jacket by Kate Gilbert.
Size: Hmm, I mucked around with this quite a bit. I wanted a fitted garment so I cast on for the 86cm size sleeve but increased to the 91cm size and knit that for the front plus six more rows because I wanted it to cover up more tummy when it crossed over. And then I knit some short rows but more about that later.
Yarn: Recycled J Crew 100 per cent 10 ply wool in dark aubergine and burgundy. I want to take the opportunity here to wax lyrical for a bit about recycled yarn. Even though that is mostly what I use, I do still get a thrill walking into a yarn store at all the colour and texture nuances available in commercial yarns. It's all there for you, immediately available and it's easy to forget that with patience and good foraging, that you can find great yarn by unravelling and recycling. Like this J Crew wool that I have been knitting with. The variety of shades in this yarn is really difficult to capture - there are all sorts of other colours hiding in there, sometimes just a single filament but it gives the finished fabric such depth and vibrancy.

I happened across the same sweater in two different colours so used the dark aubergine for the jacket and the burgundy for the hems as i was again concerned about running out of yarn. As it is I have a hge cake of the aubergine left over and heaps of burgundy too. Actually, the burgundy is what I used to knit the Columbia Beret.

Which actually brings me to my next point - the light has changed in Seattle and I am finding it very difficult to capture colours. The dark aubergine is much darker than the burgundy, although this is not particularly evident if you compare it with the photos of the Columbia Beret below. Oh well, take my word for it.
Needles: I used both straights and a circular on this project - 4.5mm bamboo and Addi Turbo.
Start to finish: 15 May 2009 to 15 October 2009. Wow, five months exactly. I'm surprised, it didn't seem to be that long. I started knitting it when I finished the knitting on Wallingford, which just goes to show just how long I delayed on the seaming up that project.
Comments: This is a great pattern. I made a few changes, namely making the fronts wider so that there would be more coverage when the garment is closed. I did this at the neckline by simply knitting six rows into the next size. To make the fronts longer I worked six short rows on the front, from the side seam to part way up the front, wrap and turn, back to the side seam; the next one not so far up and back; and again. I also followed the example of some other knitters and didn't cast off the hem stitches but instead kept them live to then sew down. I took this one step further and also did a provisional cast on for each of the pieces and then sewed down the live stitches. Both of these measures were to keep bulk out of the garment.

Fit-wise, I took a lot of care with making sure that the row count on both the front and back sides was identical; ditto for the depth of the raglan sleeves. Nevertheless, I ended up with four stitches extra in the width at the neck which I took up using the same decreases as for the darts in the back, a neat and tidy double decrease achieved by slipping two stitches as if to knit two together, knitting the next stitch and then passing the slip stitches over (s2kp2 in the pattern which was a bit confusing as it makes it seem as though there are purl stitches involved).

I also didn't include any fastenings on the garment, preferring to fasten it with a kilt pin (or a shawl pin) depending on the weather and how tightly I want to pull it around me.

Verdict: I really like this garment, particularly the construction and fit - the back darts are in just the right place for me. It's funny that this is knit in a heavier weight yarn than Wallingford but is nevertheless a sleeker garment. I think that it was a good idea to keep all of those hem stitches live but it made for a painstaking sewing-up process, or rather sewing down stitch by stitch.

So, what next? This garment knitting thing is really addictive. The end results so far have been super and I feel so great wearing a cardigan that I have made myself. Really, I would like to finish my other works-in-progress, if only for the sake of getting them done, but neither socks nor lace is appealing at all at the moment. I may also have knit up the pocket linings for Woolsthorpe last night while watching a dvd, you know, just to check gauge and whatever ...

rain is a-comin'

Oh yes!

Well actually, it's here in Seattle already. After a particularly dry summer when people's lawns turned brown and gardens actually needed to be watered, the rain for which Seattle is famous has started. I think that we are on day three of a forecast ten-day stretch. That's ok with me, I like the rain.

It's also a sign that it's going to get colder, soon, and my mind turns to ways to keep warm. After finishing Wallingford and being on the verge of completing my Sunrise Circle (it was blocking), I decided on a quick beret.

The Vital Statistics

Pattern: Columbia beret by Sarah Pope of Blue Garter (a free pattern - thank you Sarah).
Size: Just the one but it fits me fine.
Yarn: Recycled J Crew 100 per cent wool in a dark burgundy.
Needles: I used my Addi Turbo 4.5mm circular which is probably a bit small for this wool but ideal for making a firmer fabric for a hat.
Start to Finish: 11 October 2009 to 12 October 2009.
Comments: I didn't knit the ties on top but just crocheted a little cord of ten or so stitches and made that into a loop.

Verdict: Alas, this may be a little to scratchy to wear. I'll have to see whether it still bothers me against my forehead when the weather is really cold. My meret is very soft and comfortable to wear and I can see myself reaching for that first. I also don't think that I achieved quite enough structure with the yarn that I used. I'm wondering whether a bit of a spritz and a quick spin in the clothes dryer may help this along.










Apart from these misgivings (all to do with my yarn substitution) I like this pattern and I really like the way the eyelets swirl. It also knits up very quickly for instant gratification (it took two days but the actual knitting was all completed within 24 hours with an overnight sleep thrown in). If I had ready access to the available yarn I might consider trying it again but as it is, if I don't end up wearing this version, I think that I'll look for something else to knit with yarn that I already have.

remiss/redress

Me, again. I have also been most remiss about posting on all sorts of things recently but particularly about projects underway and projects finished.

First of all a project underway to thank Di for the wonderful package previously blogged about. Little did I know that after requesting that Di sew something for baby bear that I would return to Seattle and have a crazy burst of sewing inspiration and time.Oooh, inadvertent craft swap happening here. Apparently her little boy needs an apron for cooking and painting and other potentially messy activities and she never gets around to making one. A-ha, my opportunity!

I was going to buy waterproof oilcloth of some sort but in the spirit of refashioning and using my stash I decided to look a little closer to home and decided on a graphic black and white fabric, thrift-store purchased, which I originally used in my vintage fabrics quilt. My initially plan was to sew it with a layer of vinyl over the top but was delighted to discover a product that allows you to, effectively, laminate your own fabric - Therm O Web Iron-on Vinyl! Wow.

Here is a before- (unlaminated on the left) and after- (laminated on the right) shot:

The actual making of the apron is also progressing - I have cut out the pieces and pinned the binding around the edges but am not going to say or show any more so that it will be a surprise when it arrives in melbourne. I am also going to have to wrack my brains as to what special Seattle extras I can put into the final package.

remiss

That's me. I have been very remiss with posting about a fabulous package that arrived over a week ago already.

It is lovely to come home and see a box sitting on your door step, to recognise the Australia Post packaging, to know that it contains something from home. But not just something - many things! The package came from Di, of the blog Clementine's Shoes, who is a dear friend back home in Melbourne.

While going through our belongings back in June, I unearthed a scarf (black with scottie dogs on it) that belonged to my grandmother. I knew that I was probably not going to wear it but so wanted to keep it in some way. Ah, refashion! Di had recently made a drawstring pouch-type back pack for her little boy and I thought that I would never manage to get around to such a thing so she was kind enough to agree to make a backpack for little miss bear out of the scarf. Thank you so much Di!

But not only did we receive the backpack (referred to as 'the backpack that Di made especially for me' by little miss bear) but also a fabulous sock monkey. And some Lucas Pawpaw Ointment which is the only surefire cure I know of for those annoying dry cracks at the corner of your mouth. And a magazine. And something very precious that came in bubble wrap and was consumed pretty much before I could even get my camera out. And some more bits and pieces, all deeply appreciated, that are out of sight here. Thank you again Di, we are so delighted with it all.

happy birthday to me ...

... I am (no longer) thirty-three. Nor thirty-four for that matter but thirty-five. Ouch! And it was actually my birthday a week or so ago but the point is, I received a wonderful package in the mail yesterday. My mum was kind enough to give me some birthday money and I used it to buy a book that I have been coveting for about a year. It has only been available to buy in Europe and postage was prohibitive, except as a birthday present.

The book is titled Tausend Blicke - Kinderporträts von Emil Brunner aus dem Bündner Oberland 1943/44, which translates roughly as 'A Thousand Glimpses - children's portraits by Emil Brunner from the Bündner Oberland 1943/44' (Bündner Oberland refers to a region of Switzerland - I think).

I have never been much of a photography fan but when we were in Switzerland last year I saw some images from this book as postcards. I didn't buy them as I tend to only buy postcards of works or places that I have actually seen and I hadn't seen any photo exhibitions. Nevertheless, the images remained with me and I conducted a rather clumsy phone call to the bookshop at the Schweizerischen Landesmuseum in Zurich to try and find out more about the photos or the photographer. And thus I discovered Emil Brunner, a press photographer who in 1943 and 1944 visited Swiss mountain villages and took these inspiring portraits of the children living there.










Photos from Limmat Verlag website
I can't say exactly what it is about these photos that I find so inspiring, or haunting. I just do and am delighted to have this book as my own. Thank you Mum for the wonderful present!

off the perch

Time to confess that, apart from my recently completed Wallingford, the knitting has actually gotten a bit out of control lately, which is why I haven't had much to say about it. It's just slow progress and few finished objects (except for ones I made six months ago) because I have been working on too many things at once. I fell off the perch a bit on sticking to my knit list. My three projects on the go at any one time (thereby ensuring some degree of finished-ness before I can cast on for something else) recently ballooned out to:

Baudelaire (sock knitting) - The most I have to report is that I took them with me to Sock Summit, did indeed knit a couple of rounds, and actually crossed the road at the same time as (albeit in the opposite direction to) Cookie A, designer of the Baudelaire sock, while I was carrying the sock in my handbag. Partially finished sock and designer, like ships in the night.

Knitted veil in Peruvian wool (project knitting) - Ok, the notion of a lovely big lace stole is wonderful, but the same four rows of lace pattern (and that's lace each row) 81 times over? Meh. Although I have overcome one of the annoyances of the pattern by purchasing some split stitch markers. I find it very necessary with lace to count, count, count and stitch markers really help to divide up the lace repeats and keep the stitch count what it should be. On the third row of the lace pattern the repeat is, how can I say, transposed to the left by one stitch, requiring thirteen stitch markers to be removed and replaced as you knit along the row. Ah, but not with a split stitch marker - you can k2tog with the stitch marker still between the stitches and then just rotate it into its new position. This is allowed for, of course, by the miraculous split. Took me three different packets of stitch markers to get the right size/pliability combination but that's ok, they'll come in handy. (Umm, that's the Joy sleeve on the right - bad formatting).

Diamond mittens (practical knitting) - Still in the rough.

Faux prussian stole (technically in hibernation) - I took this one on the Amtrak journey down to Portland with me, thinking that some uninterrupted train travel time may be all that I needed to get back into it. And I was right, until I ran out of yarn. Not completely - thank goodness - but came to the end of the skein that I was working with, and just when I was on a roll. I have to dig out another skein and see if I can get back into it again. And I might try some of those split markers on this project too as there are several occasions where I have to ssk or k2tog across a marker (see, handy!).

Swatch for joy - Well, I do love to swatch, and what better way to start a garment than to swatch for it and suddenly have a sleeve? This is just idle interest swatch knitting, letting my curiosity get the better of me.

Sunrise Circle cardigan - (to the left) This is probably what I am knitting the most at the moment and it's the 'oh-just-an-extra-garment-in-there' project that I have going. Stocking stitch and worsted weight yarn. I allowed myself to cast on for this second garment because I had completed all of the knitting for Wallingford and only had the finishing to go (so practically done in other words) and well, yes, half a garment later ... but anyway, I've completed both of the sleeve/front pieces (need to do some blocking) and about half the back. I think that with a bit of focus I could be wearing this soon - fingers crossed.

ps - I love the expression 'don't fall off the perch'. It's kind of like 'don't drop the ball' but not sporty.

wallingford

Eeeeeek, I am so incredibly excited - my first complete adult garment!! Finished this very day. Hooray, I finally did it. I can't produce much further ado so here are the details:

The Vital Statistics

Pattern: Wallington by Martin Storey from Rowan Classic Book 28 - Vintage, purchased at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island.
Size: medium
Yarn: 100 per cent wool recycled from a J Crew men's sweater that I purchased at Goodwill in the U District.
Needles: 3.25mm, 3.75mm and 4mm straights.
Start to finish: 4 April 2009 to 29 September 2009.
Comments: I was very motivated with knitting this garment as I thought that I was the only person who was working on it (only person on ravelry - that's all that counts, isn't it?) and that mine would be the very first Wallington to be completed. Little did I know that someone else was working on it in secret and didn't log it until they had finished. That took the wind out of my sails a bit, and after very successfully finishing most of the knitting within five weeks it then took me a further four months to sew the blasted thing up - oh well.















This was also my first attempt at knitting an adult garment using recycled yarn which produced the inevitable 'will-there-be-enough?' anxiety. As it turned out, there was enough. I did substitute in a similar yarn (also recycled J Crew) in burgundy for the facings inside the body and sleeves and for the central portion of the belt. As it turned out though, I chose not to use the belt and wrist straps that I knit - I felt that it would have made the garment just too bulky, so I instead bought some lovely grosgrain ribbon from the ribbon room at Nancy's Sewing Basket which I can tie in nice big floppy bows. This also obviated the need to find three matching buckles for the belt and straps.

I also knit the facings in stocking stitch instead of rib because basically, why bother, they're on the inside and that would have made the garment bulkier still. Yes, 8ply (or dk weight) yarn in my opinion produces bulky.

Verdict: Much ado, much ado. I am, actually to my surprise, really happy with this project. I had all sorts of fears about it not fitting well, not suiting me, not being big/long/wide enough or short/fitted/shapely enough - take your pick. But it's great and I feel immensely proud when I am wearing it. There are still two more patterns that I want to knit from this book, Woolsthorpe (for which I have some more recycled J Crew yarn in a lovely blue just waiting) and Souter (although I'm not sure what to do about the fluted peplum which I don't much like). Sunrise Circle must be finished first though!

103

That is 103 stories of empty space beneath my feet (and a second and final installment from my Birkenstock wardrobe - I still haven't managed to paint my toenails). In an effort to continue with child-friendly activities last week on Friday we went up the Willis Tower to the Skydeck to have a look at the city from above. This is the sort of touristy thing that I would rarely bother to do but I thought that little miss bear might find it interesting. She was actually pretty nonplussed about the whole experience but I thought it was great! Having children can really teach you things about yourself.

Chicago is a city famous for its architecture and is a wonderful place to look at from above. It was a bit overcast and the horizon between the lake and sky was just a blur and then the grey irregular rhythm of skyscrapers and the voids between them - fantastic. The newest attraction up there at 412 metres (1353 feet) is the Skyledge which is a glass box that basically sticks out from the side of the building. You can stand there on the (I assume very thick and strong) sheet of perspex/glass(?) and look down at the space between you and the street.

Then, as a reward for this motherly concern for my child's travel enjoyment and edification, we went to Goodwill. The only Goodwill in Chicago and oh, the disappointment. It was small (compared to Seattle Goodwill stores), badly organised and the stock was dismal. We bought a couple of books but that was it. Upon returning home I worked out why (or at least why the Seattle Goodwill stores are so good). Look at the City of Seattle flag!

artic

Ten years ago, my trip to Chicago was planned around visiting the Art Institute of Chicago. Well, ten years ago I actually planned my trips, bought a guide book, wrote an itinerary, did this in the morning, ate lunch here, did that in the afternoon, ate dinner there, occasionally went to the cinema in the evening. (Actually, Chicago is the only place that I have ever stolen a movie! I am generally a very law-abiding citizen but I went to the cinema and saw The Mod Squad. It was so woeful that as I was leaving I saw that Forces of Nature was about to start in another theatre so I just walked right in and watched that one too. Slightly less woeful and I don't mind a bit of Ben Affleck.)

Anyway, Art Institute of Chicago, Oak Park to see the Frank Lloyd Wright studio and homes, somewhere down south to visit another FLW house - it was a packed few days back then. It wasn't until a few years later that I realised that Chicago was on a lake.

Needless to say, this visit has included a couple of visits to the Art Institute but in quite a different, meandering, 'come away from the fountain!' kind of way. I was trying to do some stuff that I wanted to and still engage little miss bear so we looked at the miniatures collection (well, eight of the fifty odd before attention span ran out), visited the education centre, read picture books and took a bit of a stroll through the galleries. Can't resist including this one:

When I was last in Chicago this painting was not on display because it was away on loan as part of another exhibition. That exhibition was actually at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (where I also stayed on that visit) but had not yet opened. So I didn't see it that time. It's always good to have something to go back for.

And I have something to go back for again now. I had been wanting to revisit Chicago for the past few years because I understood that they had some items in their textiles collection made from fifteenth century brocades, which is just the sort of stuff that I love. Due to the construction of the recently completed modern wing, the entire textiles collection has been packed away to protect it from dust and debris. So Chicago is back on my travel list. I have managed to walk along the lakefront a couple of times this visit - next time I might even get out on a boat.

windy city

We just blew in to the windy city and the windy city is mighty pretty etc etc.

Hooray - we're having a few days in Chicago. I love Chicago. I was last here some ten years ago so I expect that this trip will be a little different to the last.

In 1999, I stayed northwards at the dodgiest youth hostel in Lincoln Park (it may well be much nicer these days). Now we are staying in a plush hotel in the heart of downtown, just blocks from the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1999, I was a student and on a shoe-string budget. Now, well, I have a husband.

In 1999, it was just me and I did what I liked and pleased myself. Now I am acquainting myself with every children's attraction in the city.

And now I knit. In the airplane - so exciting (ok, if you are from Australia where you can't get knitting needles through airport security for the life of you).

3

... that's the magic number.

Baby bear recently turned three and we had a birthday morning tea for her yesterday. She is such a grown-up girl now (small sob) - no more nappies (even overnight!), no more mother-tot swim classes (just the teacher and students in the pool now), no more bedtime kisses (hugs are ok, she just doesn't want to be kissed; and just at bedtime, I cover her in them the rest of the day).

Happy birthday sweetheart! In honour of this occasion I hereby rename you, for blog purposes at least, little miss bear.

made for each other

Ooooooooh, it's so irritating when you have a picture in mind and you're sure that it's in a certain book and you go looking for it and it is indeed not there and then you're unsure as to whether you ever actually saw said picture or just dreamed it up and ... oh well, let go.

What I am trying to say is that, once upon a time (and this may be a fairy tale), I saw a picture in a book of a slightly prairie-style striped dress. Some time afterwards in my op shopping (so we're talking Melbourne days here) I found a great dress from a medium-weight cotton which was just the fabric for said dress, a sort of herringbone-weave self stripe.

Then, some further time later, I bought a Japanese pattern book (at Kinokuniya when we were in Singapore last year) and there was just the pattern for the dress. I have since discovered (in a kind of freaky co-incidence way) that the Japanese pattern book has just been published in an English language version titled Carefree Clothes for Girls: 20 Patterns for Outdoor Frocks, Playdate dresses, and More by Junko Okawa.

So, just a day ago I decided that it was time to dig that original picture out and put some thought into this project. Can't find 'said' picture anywhere in the book that I thought it was in. Will there be a fairy-tale ending to this sad story? Will I remember which book I saw the picture in or will I just have to make the dress myself? Ha ha - I'm not sure which would take longer!

here's one i prepared earlier

Ah finally, a finished knitted object! Actually, I finished this about six months ago and had been hiding it in the cupboard in anticipation of my friend Anne's birthday.

The Vital Statistics

Pattern: Cable and Lace Scarf Redux by Kim Powell, available for free on Ravelry.
Size: I knit until I ran out of yarn which was 38 repeats. I'm not sure how long it ended up - a good scarf length.
Yarn: Two balls of Garnstudio DROPS Silke-Tweed in colourway 18. I acquired this yarn at a yarn swap and just wanted to knit it up immediately. I can't actually now remember why I chose this particular pattern, I think I had Branching Out from Knitty in mind but came across this one along the way.
Needles: 3.25mm
Start to finish: 22 January 2009 to 17 February 2009 - wow, more than six months ago.
Comments: This pattern is avaialble for free as a Ravelry download and contains only written lace instructions, which I have found that I cannot work from. I charted the lace myself and found it much easier to knit from the visual. It's so long ago that I can't remember much more about it - oh, I reversed the twist on one of the cables so that they mirror each other. The yarn was lovely and blocked out very nicely.

Verdict: My friend Anne was absolutely delighted with the scarf which I gave her for her birthday last month. It was hard work to hang onto it for that long - every time I saw it in the cupboard I wanted to give it to her early. I enjoyed knitting it and can't wait now to see her wearing it.

houston, we have a quilt

A year ago, when my mum was visiting, we shopped together at various thrift stores for the fabrics to make a quilt, inspired by the one on the cover of Vintage Fabric Style: stylish ideas and projects using quilts and flea-market finds in your home. My mum is visiting again and this evening I finished the quilt. Yes, absolutely finished the quilt, removed it from the 'I'm busy with' list, it is utterly and completely done. HOORAY!!

I estimate that it has taken me a year to make: the squares were cut out and some sewing was done at the end of last September; in October the top was all sewn up but it took me until December to deal with the batting; by the end of March this year I had the top and batting all pinned together and the backing ready to go; in early April, much sooner than expected the quilting was done; and then ... well, somewhere along the line I must have sewn the backing to the top/batting and that is where it remained until today.

What a story of delay and procrastination! Although, admittedly and in my defense, several of the, ah, pauses in production were the result of not knowing quite where to go next and some leisurely consideration of options and possibilities. I was put off at times by not knowing what to do next, but hey, I've made it through.

A couple of quick notes about the construction of this quilt:

• I quilted only the top and batting together. This was because the top has so many different coloured squares and I wanted to use an appropriate thread colour on each but didn't want a riot of thread colours on the backing (because I always like to match my sewing and bobbin threads). It only occurred to me later that I could indeed have substituted in a different, matching-the-backing coloured thread in the bobbin. Oh well.
• Following examples in Make Your Own Contemporary Quilts, I then sewed the top/batting and backing together, right sides facing, leaving a gap of about 20 centimetres. I then turned the quilt inside out and ... well, that was April.

Today, in the glow of my recent advances with the doily quilt, I finally stitched that opening together using blind stitch (which is kind of like mattress stitch for sewing). I also stitched the junctions in the pieced backing to the corresponding junction in the quilt top to anchor the whole thing together. I did this in four places. I could have done it in sixteen places but I chose four, that's it. And, last but not least, top stitched around the edge.

It was the details of this last one that has had me held up since April. I was struggling, again, with what colour thread to use. I had toyed with ideas of changing top-stitching thread colours for each of the squares on the top but finally took my friend Di's advice and just chose the darkest colour thread to go all the way around. However, I actually put this darkest thread into the bobbin and did the top stitching with the quilt backing uppermost in order to top stitch in red on the red sections and in blue on the blue sections (not Di's advice, my compromise).

Given all of the above I'm sure that you'll understand that making this quilt has been a real learning experience, but also a real thinking-it-through-and-figuring-it-out-for-myself-(and-asking-for-some-advice) experience. No wonder it took so long! And still, after all the hours that I have spent looking at it and thinking about it and thinking it through, I still love it.

double double doily trouble

No, not really, no trouble at all, I just wanted to get that one last bit of word play* in (plenty of toil though). I have finished sewing together the doily quilt top - hooray! But I am left with somewhat of a dilemma. I'm not sure about how to finish it, that is, about how far to go with finishing it.

I thought that it needed some sort of sashing, even if just in the way of thin coloured ribbons, to divide the patterned from the plain blocks, and some sort of border to make it a bit larger, and they would really need to be from the same fabric and ... and the whole thing just started to get a bit bigger and more 'finished' than I think I ever really had in mind. You know the concept of 'matchy-matchy'? Well, I fear that there is the risk here of being too 'finishedy-finishedy'.

To just bat it and back it with a minimum of fuss and some stitch in the ditch may be just the thing and whatever size that ends up being is just the size that it is. Or maybe just a border, or just the sashing, or ... ok, perhaps a bit of trouble deciding.

* Could also have been called 'Houston, we have a quilt top'

marie seznec

A year ago or so I wrote about growing up and going grey. At the time I was unable to find any photos of my favourite grey-tressed icon, Marie Seznec, who used to model for designer Christian Lacroix. When we were recently home in Melbourne I unearthed some magazine pages that I had kept from circa 1991.

Fabulous, fabulous hair.

Reading the article in the (now defunct) British Women's Journal, I realised that she would now be 50 or so, and I am the age that she was in these photos. I'm not quite as grey as she was; I wonder if I am as grown up?

and we're back

Connected to the world again that is - the past week has been one without internet and I tell you, it has been stifling. The number of times website addresses are given out on the radio, in magazines, wherever; when you can't actually go and look them up, you really notice (and want to look them up, whereas usually you wouldn't be bothered).

Anyway, finally connected again and I feel like I've forgotten how to blog, and after such a busy month in August too. I really missed my blog when we were away in Australia and had a lot to make up for.

My mum arrived for a visit last Wednesday and that has been wonderful. On Friday afternoon we explored Bellevue Goodwill for an hour or so and I bought this length of fabric. There was a little tag on it indicating 1 1/2, so whether that's a yard and a half or a metre and a half I'm not sure. I love the print and it was 99c. I'm hoping that I can make a sweet top or even a dress out of it for baby bear.

One thing that I have been busy with is Stitchery (which is just my own personal version of Ravelry in the form of a few sets of photos on flickr). I am attempting to record all of the lengths of fabric, garments for refashioning, sewing supplies and patterns that I have collected (or should I say amassed?). I find the pattern search function on Ravelry so helpful, I'd like to just be able to search through my own patterns (Japanese craft books, Golden Hands volumes, random paper patterns) so that if I want to make a size 4 blouse out of this fabric I can just check my set of blouse photos, or size 4 photos. High hopes perhaps? A lot of work maybe, but hopefully worthwhile.

custom made

The great thing about making your own bag is that you can, indeed, make it your own. Ah, the insight!

I have been working away on the felted jumper bag - embroidering birds and sewing up the actual bag and lining. There's a sneak peek up above. And it occurred to me how great it would be to not have to root around in the bottom of the bag (it's quite deep) in order to find my phone when it rings. So I added internal pockets, tailored to my wallet and phone - hooray!

Next steps in the vision:
- decorative touches on the last two birds
- fix the edges and loose threads
- trim around bird shapes
- appliqué to bag
- sew lining in

Then there's the handle question - that's the one bit that I can't visualise at the moment. I think that I would like some tooled leather handles but haven't yet found any that I really like. I'm going to keep thrifting for a bag that I can recycle them from.

ps. What do your to-do lists look like? I start out with a rough overview of steps, the first ones the most detailed. As I move through the steps, the subsequent ones become increasingly detailed. I rewrite my to-do list (with its many many components) every few days. I wonder what onee would look like if I kept it from start to finish?

size matters

Better a week late than never, finally a knitting post. I'm talking about matters of size here, of course. I am reasonably tall, generally an Australian size 12 (which is a US size 10), so a medium to large let's say. And Trinny and Susannah would probably call me a vase (a vaaz, not a vayz - phew). What Trinny and Susannah would not call me is an extra-small.

Which brings us to Joy. I have been wanting to knit this cardigan forever. Vintage Style was the first time that I got Rowan suckered; that is, so in love with the models and the styling that I wanted to knit everything in there and bought the book immediately. Ok, so there's only a couple of things that I actually want to knit in there but Joy is number one.

So, please observe the photo: I think that this model is definitely an extra-small. And there is not a lot of ease in the garment's fit, that is, it's not baggy or loose and those are not bell sleeves. Gauge is 26 stitches to 10 centimetres, using a 3.25mm needle. By my calculations, casting on 61 stitches should give a sleeve cuff that measures about 23.5 centimetres in width.

Ok, I'm going on and on about this because I am knitting my first sleeve of Joy in size extra-small and on 3mm needles. My cuff measures about 22 centimetres in width which would easily block out a bit but I don't know that I would even want to.













These two photos show how incredibly different the colour of this yarn is in different light. I can't decide whether it is brown or russet or purple. It's recycled from a Talbots twin set, 80 per cent wool 20 percent cashmere. A further note: while I am following the chevron pattern chart I am not achieving the effect by slipping a stitch with one of 5,300 tiny beads on in. No thank you. I am instead purling the stitch on the right side and knitting it on the wrong side. Because while sometimes nuts I am not crazy.

And those little clippy things holding the sleeve together in the photo on the right? Miniature hairclips. These things are an absolute must for anyone who has not mastered the whole seamless knitting in the round picking up stitches thing. They hold your knitted garment's seams together perfectly, grip tight, one stitch in, don't allow slippage and I could not seam without them. Why then is my Wallingford still languishing in want of a side seam? Well, I never said that I seam with them either.

toile de jouy

So I have continued my long overdue exploration of the second-hand book shops in the nearby University District. Today I went to Twice Sold Tales and was rewarded with this lovely book about toile de Jouy fabrics. I actually had the pleasure of a daytrip to the town of Jouy-en-Josas last year when we were visiting Paris. There baby bear and I visited the museum on the site of the original Oberkampf factory.

I can't remember when I was first introduced to toiles de Jouy. It was when we were living in Sydney because I remember a day trip up to some suburb of Gosford to a patchwork shop which was the only place that I could find that sold the stuff. For $90 a metre.

Anyway, my heart leapt when I saw this book at the bookshop because just this morning in an attempt to ravelrise my sewing stash I had taken some photos of my own toile de Jouy fabrics (and assorted others) to store/organise on flickr. Am I nuts? you may ask. Yes, probably.

A word or three about Twice Sold Tales - this is a bossy bookshop. You know, the kind that has little signs and notices stuck up next to the cash register that read:

'If you can'y see me, I can't see you. Please ring the bell just ONCE!!.'
'No returns on books, ever. That means YOU!!.'

The use of bolded italic uppercase in these messages seems to be OBLIGATORY. As is multiple exclamation marks!! I guess that if you are the proprietor of a successful small business then you can afford to be crotchety.

cretaceous

Cretaceous. That's me. I am feeling completely, utterly and entirely cretaceous. Hmmm? Cretaceous is an adjective to describe the time period some 145 to 65 million years ago, and not over-tired, sleep deprived, irritable and cranky, do I hear you say?

Careful, or I'll:
ps. we baked gingerbread yesterday, using the recipe from Sweet Old-fashioned Favourites (Australian Women's Weekly) and using the cookie cutters that I bought at Urban Craft Uprising a few weeks ago.

running out of doily-associated word play

I have sewn them all up! Yes, Monday evening and Tuesday afternoon were filled with the whir of my sewing machine and all thirty-five squares of nine patches each are complete!

Looking back on my blog posts I estimate that I started cutting the blocks out for this quilt late in July, so in the absence of a sewing version of Ravelry (when is somebody going to start that? even just an on-line database for projects, stash and pattern queue - pleeeease) I calculate that to be just over three weeks of tracing, cutting, *pinning, sewing, ironing, repeat from *.

And I am at peace. Really. The imperative I had to get working on this quilt has been quelled and I feel like I can let it sit for a while or just work on it at my leisure. Such a relief. Needless to say, percolator style, other projects will soon enough rise to the top to demand my attention.

In some other random news, my copy of Quilting from the Traditional Needle Arts series has arrived - hooray. And some fabric also arrived in the mail - I took a gamble and bought a couple of metres of red cotton jersey on ebay. A gamble because red is a colour very close to my heart and it has to be a good shade of red. And this one is - it will be the backing for the wagga. And a package destined for me that has been held up at a sort facility in Denver, Colorado for three days has finally entered Washington - hooray! I hope that it gets delivered tomorrow.

Oh and by the way, did you know that I knit? Yes, really. I'll prove it tomorrow.

getting pinned

Growing up in Australia we got a lot of media from the UK and from the US alongside our own national stuff. As such I read as many Enid Blyton novels as I did Judy Blume, and watched as much Educating Marmalade as I did Growing Pains. And sadly, that was probably many more hours than I spent reading Australian novels or watching local tv. Ah, misspent youth.

But anyway, point here is that I spent much of my childhood getting my head around the lingo particular to each country. The concept of 'getting pinned' was one that I first encountered in, I think, the musical Bye-bye Birdie. Needless to say, I never got pinned. But the doily quilt (yes, I am getting around to something relevant), that is all pinned up.














Here are all the strips of three that I completed a few days ago having the seams ironed open and flat.

And here are all of those strips of three, pinned together to make blocks of nine which I did this morning. Next step is a whole lot of sewing.

traditional needle arts

As I have mentioned before, I am not an embroiderer. This does not stop me in any way from acquiring books about embroidery (ditto for quilting, needlepoint, dressmaking etc). I really recommend this Traditional Needle Arts series - they also publish volumes on embroidery, patchwork, quilting and cross stitch. The projects are lovely, the photos inspiring, the instructions clear - fantastic books.

I already have the Patchwork volume (should be sailing its way from Australia to the US in the next few weeks along with many other books and possessions, I can't wait to look at it again) and now the Embroidery volume (ah, and Quilting and Cross Stitch are on their way too, courtesy of abebooks).

And trapunto is long something that I have been interested in trying (one day). I have had this book from the library before.

I bought these two volumes from Magus Books (1408 NE 42nd St, Seattle, 98105; 206 633 1800) in Seattle's University District on Friday. I had never been in before and it's quite an unassuming storefront. But oh what a treasure chest of second-hand books! It's actually huge inside and when I asked where to find the needlework books, no one sneered at me (it has happened before elsewhere).

Not being an embroiderer also does not stop me from actually doing embroidery as and where required. My approach to making things is mostly that I have an idea and imagine what it will look like, then work out what techniques to use, then try my hand at it. Thankfully I have so many books on various needlework topics from which I have absorbed basic techniques and details in the past, and I can always look something up.

Do you remember the felted jumper bag, the poor long neglected felted jumper bag? I'm still working on it, little by little. Wow, I just checked - it is almost exactly two years to the day that I posted a photo of the materials and threads that I was collecting to make the bag!) So these are the little birds that I have been embroidering to go in the tree that decorates the bag. One is complete and five are at finished outline stage - I think I'll just do some feather stitch (how appropriate) and see if I can master french knots. Ooooh, I'm excited.

doily update

I tell you, I could practically give you a daily update on the doily quilt. I am just loving making it and manage to fit in a few seams or some ironing or pinning pretty much every day. I have quite a production-line method in place and it is delivering up results.

At last report, I had started out by pinning all of the squares in the intended configuration onto a spare sheet. Here are a couple up close:

And here are the resulting nine-patch squares:

I am really delighted with how they have turned out. So delighted that I have, in fact, already completed seventeen of them. And the other eighteen have been sewn into three strips of three each and are waiting to be ironed. This has come together so much more quickly than I had anticipated. I do hope that I can keep the momentum going.

$1.25

I have long been meaning to start a comprehensive and in-depth review of thrift stores in Seattle and surrounds. Problem is that I have thus far found that the best thrift stores are the big chains (Goodwill and Value Village) and that the smaller, independent store fronts often don't measure up, which is unfortunate. And I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

Anyway, I stopped by what must be one of Seattle's most idiosyncratic thrift stores today. It is held in the hall of the University Temple United Methodist Church on Fridays between 2 and 5 pm, accessed by the lane behind the church. Amongst dinner being prepared for the neighbourhood's needy and someone plinking away at the grand piano there are a number of racks of clothes, tables of stuff and shelves of homewares and books. And these things really are a bargain - the vintage sewing pattern, child's shirt and three Duralex glasses were a quarter (that is, 25c) each; a grand total of $1.25.

Alas the sewing pattern is missing the pattern piece for the sleeve. Truth be told, I do know how to draft one up myself but what a chore. Also truthfully, the pattern is a child's size 10 and baby bear being almost three I have years to psyche myself up for a bit of pattern drfating. I just really liked the picture on the packet.

No pattern drafting required (and costing a tad more than $1.25 but I expect that it will be worth every cent) I finally bought myself an Ottobre magazine. It's issue 5/2006 (winter) and my choice of this particular issue was prompted by an inspirational creation that I saw over at the blog omi creates. I think that Naomi's version looks far better than that in the magazine (pictured below left). And Naomi made hers from fabric that she bought at the Salvation Army - fantastic!

I had bought (ahem, a couple of years ago now) a very generic McCalls pattern to make baby bear a coat by recycling a Romeo Gigli jacket (that I incidentally also bought at the Salvation Army) but I'm almost ashamed of it now, having seen what is possible.

I also like the red jacket on the right and have just the fabric for it - to be recycled from a pale aquamarine angora/wool coat that I bought at (wait for it) the Salvation Army, albeit in Zurich, last year. And fortunately all of the patterns come in a number of sizes so there are still years in which to procrastinate ...

alchemy

You may have read a book called The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho. It's a long time since I did but the general gist that I remember was taking a journey to discover that what you most wanted was right here at home. Such was my trip to Portland.

So here I am at Sock Summit, staffing my friend Kylie's stall while she took a well-deserved break on the Saturday. I wish that I had the alchemical ability to turn my toenails to bright red - that was one thing that I forgot to take with me, some nail polish. The idea was that, finally with time to myself, I would catch up on those kind of grooming things. I did manage to get my hair cut but no nail polish was applied.

I caught the train down and it was a great, relaxing ride. It also ran on time, both going there and coming back, which I've been told is quite unusual. I was able to sit and knit, uninterrupted for several hours. I really enjoy train travel and this is the first long train ride that I have taken, by myself, since ... hmm, moving from Melbourne to Sydney in 2001? Anyway, I got back onto my faux prussian stole and actually ran out of yarn! I have heaps more here at home but hadn't thought to take any spare with me. I don't think that I realised that I was so far through it already.

At Sock Summit itself I wasn't booked in for any workshops, I just went to experience the atmosphere, visit the marketplace, catch up with friends. Kylie brought all of this wonderful hand-dyed sock yarn over from Australia under the lable ms. gusset. I worked in retail all though high school and my uni years and I had forgotten how much fun it is, for the first 15 minutes. Then my cheeks started to hurt from all the smiling but I did get to talk to lots of attendees and even sold some yarn.

And bought some yarn too. I have been hankering after the Handmaiden 'vintage' colourway for months now but had only seen it available in the Camelspin which is about $40 per skein at my nearest yarn store. So I was delighted to come across their Casbah on sale for $24 a skein, and machine washable to boot - hoorah!

Otherwise, I found the marketplace completely overwhelming - hundreds of vendors all with, well, basically the same thing - sock yarn - and as much as I like knitting with finer yarn it's not really where my head is now. And there were just so many vendors that really, it all started to blend into one big mass of colour. Perhaps a more experienced sock knitting connoisseur would have coped better with it all! As for my Handmaiden, I'm considering the Cleopatra Wrap (Ravelry link) from Sensual Knits. But then again, I still haven't made a Clapotis yet ...

koharu

Yes, I went to Portland; I even stayed overnight, two overnights! But I've got a finished project to show and that's even more exciting.

Last week, I finished the little halter top from Koharu no Fuku, made from my beloved tea towel. Here is my favourite bird - the blue wren - just next to the underarm, nicely bound with some fabric that I had in the stash. I think that it would have been hard to find a closer match for the green.

The top was of very simple construction - just front and back with some bound edges and a casing for elastic at the back. It was the perfect pattern for my limited yardage as the ties are made from the bias tape and there were no sleeves to cut out. I made the 120cm size (that is, the size for a child of height 120cms) as it was the largest that I could achieve out of the available fabric. Even so I did have to make the bottom hem a little narrower than was called for, by only a centimetre or so. Then two seams and a lot of bias tape, which was actually very easy going using my trusty Clover tape maker.

The pattern called for elastic across the back, which I included. I have, however, left one end of the casing open. Given that I made such a large side (I think that baby bear is only around 105cm tall) I wanted the elastic to be as adjustable as possible. You see this trick sometimes in children's trousers - the elastic in the back waist can be adjusted by buttoning it at either end of the casing. That is of course special elastic with buttonholes running down the centre, which I haven't used. At the moment the elastic is secured with a safety pin but this is not a long-term solution, as in, baby bear can't wear the top until I find an alternative. It might just have to be a few rough stitches to secure it, and a few more in six months when she's grown a bit more. I also love how you can see the details of the linen and the tea towel brand still there on the back.

I'm really delighted to have this project finished. I haven't done nearly as much sewing for baby bear as I would like to, and it was such a shame to have this tea towel tucked out of sight. The weather here in Seattle has, of course, cooled down dramatically this past week. I'm sure that the top will still look cute over a long sleeve white t-shirt but I am glad that I made a larger size as there will definitely be use out of it next year as well.