Searching for Motivation

I found this half done quilt/wall hanging in my fabric box whilst searching for something else. I thought maybe if I post a picture of it on my blog that it might inspire me to finish it.

I bought the kit for this in Calgary when Melissa was three months old... she is now 3 1/2 years old!!

I still need to satin stitch the birds legs on, and also add all the water splashes out of the bird bath.


The in-laws have the kids tomorrow, so this maybe what I fill my day with.

Ballet T's

These gourgeous T-shirts are knitted with two strands of cotton yarns.

Hannah's is 50% cotton, 50% soy

and Melissa's is 30% cotton, 70% Bamboo.

The pattern came from this book by Teva Durham.

You will definately see more of this book from me...

check out this yummy cuddly jersey

which will hopefully be knitted by me for next winter for one of my girls...

Help I'm Dyeing...Wool

Sarah gave me a huge bag of cream wool that would have originally come from Nana's.

I had read a bit about dyeing your own wool from here so thought I would give it a go.

First attempt was using red and pink food colouring, I was trying to get a wool that I could knit into a cardigan/shrug for the girls that they could wear with both red or pink clothes.

I mixed up some pink colouring with water and poured it into an old Pyrex dish, added the wool (which had been wound into hanks and soaked in a white vinegar/water mix), then poured red food colouring mix over the top. Then you microwave for around 4 minutes, let it cool for a few minutes then microwave some more. When the coloured water looses it's colour you know it is done. Then rinse in warmish water and hang to dry.

This is the result...



After I had dyed two hanks (200gms) I realised that I didn't have enough to make a jersey/cardigan, so I did 4 more hanks the next day... the colours turned out the same!!

My second go at this was with green and blue colouring. This time I mixed the green in one glass jug and the blue in the other. I put one end of the hank in green, one in blue and microwaved as above. When done, I mixed the two colours together and dunked the undyed part from middle of hank in it to get a gradual colour variation...



Not bad for a first attempt... if I do say so myself.

Philippa is getting me some Kool Aid from Canada so I can try dyeing with this... can't wait.

Round Neck Tops

This pattern came from the Etsy shop of that*darn*kat. It was a relatively easy pattern to follow. The fabric came from Spotlight, Hannah's was made from light weight dress fabrics. I wasn't that pleased with the neck and hem, as the spot fabric was a lot more flimsy that the main fabric. I decided that because of this, when I made Melissa's I was going to modify the pattern a bit.

With Melissa's, I started by doing the hem double, this was fairly straight forward, aside from the fact that I attached it to the wrong side of the main fabric! I had to rip this out and start again! Then the neck I decided to add interfacing to the whole peice to make it more stable. I did this adding the interfacing to the neck lining only, but when I attached the neck and neck lining together, the neck had pulled out of shape due to the bias. So I had to rip the neck out!! Finally I did this with interfacing on both neck peices (aside from having a meltdown at the iron with the interfacing) it worked well. It gave the neck a lot more stability.

This pattern is great, I think it will get a lot of use. I plan to use it to make some 'pinafores' for winter out of a baby cord or lightweight denim.

Wrap Dress Experiment

I first spotted this pattern a couple of months ago, but didn't buy it until I found it on special. After mentioning it to some ladies on a forum I regularly visit they suggested some alternate ways to make this dress. Instead of finishing all the edges with binding, they suggested that I make it reversible!

Here is the first one I did, was supposed to be for Melissa but was way to short to be decent. So Hannah got it, but it is a bit big for her (mainly around neck). This one was done as reversible, but fabric is same both sides (at least if she spills her food on it I can reverse).



This is the next one I did, I made my own bias binding, and it is the same size as the first one (3) but I did it the length for a size 5. I don't like this one as much. The double fabric of the first one gives it much more 'guts' and it sits heaps better.