For some reason in the middle of Winter, this watermelon fabric was speaking to me. Perhaps it was the extra cold weather and mega frosty mornings that were getting to me and I wanted something bright and cheery and reminiscent of Summer to get me through. The watermelon fabric did the trick and this new Joey dress was born.
I think it is one of my favourite Joey creations to date – I mean, who doesn’t want a dress with watermelons plastered all over it? Every girl’s wardrobe needs a couple of Joey dresses in it. They are cute and comfy and the ability to mix and match fabric combinations means that you can customise your creations to be truly unique.
My favourite thing about a knit dress though? NO IRONING NECESSARY! Straight from the clothesline, to the washing pile, to the cupboard. Big tick in my book!
SUPPLIES: Make It Perfect, Joey sewing pattern // Watermelon knit jersey from Ixat // Hot pink jersey
I’m not sure how I feel about blogging at the moment…gone are the days where I would sew up something new, head out and take photos straight away and then sit down and blog about it all. I’m not sure what it is exactly – probably a combination of busyness and trying to stay away from the computer (time sucker!) but I really think that social media is creeping in and taking over a big part of what a blog used to be about.
For me, Instagram is my favourite social media platform. I love all of the inspirational images and how easy it is to keep in contact with family, friends and other crafters and I especially love that you can get a quick snapshot of what has been going on without having to visit loads of individual blogs. It is a really convenient place to have a quick chat with other people too – ask questions, give feedback, etc. I find it much easier to be personable there than on the blog. However, I also recognise that Instagram can never fully replace the blog with more detailed photographs and information about projects or events that can be helpful and give insight to readers.
I still have a pile of unblogged projects (and an even bigger lot of unphotographed ones!) and I do want to get up to date eventually, but at the moment “plodding along” seems to be the best way to describe my blogging frequency! And now that I’ve written that, perhaps I’ll prove myself wrong and get stuck into blogging more frequently again!
Back when I released the Women’s Hero Vest, I made myself a few more to test of different fabric combinations and this is one of them. It isn’t my favourite vest, mostly because of poor exterior fabric choice but I still really like it and wear it often. This one seems to get worn to the gym a lot, it is thick and warm but extremely soft and light to wear.
The exterior fabric really let me down here – no fault of the fabric, just a bad choice made by me but I did want to see how it would turn out so used it as a trial run. This fabric is a semi-sheer french terry knit. I liked the speckled blue pattern on the white background though and decided to give it a go. Everything about it is okay except the pockets are really thin – you can see in the photo above how my hands can be seen through the pocket when I put them in there. If I was thinking ahead, I should have lined the pockets – they would have been particularly nice lined in the same fabric as the fleecy interior. As they are now, I try not to actually use them as I am worried if I stretch or pull on them too much that they will tear at the seams or circular stitching.
I do love the lining of this vest though. I used this minky cuddle sherpa and it is really soft and fluffy and cosy to wear. My kids love snuggling in it, I actually made Lil a new Uptown Girl jacket and lined it with the same fabric after I finished this vest because it is so snug. I think the blue ribbing finishes off the vest nicely and gives definition to the edges which could otherwise look washed out of it was finished in a lighter colour. And I inserted my zipper using the concealed zipper method – huge big winner, I don’t think I will make a vest without the concealed zipper again. Once you get the hang of it, it really doesn’t take much longer than the method described in the pattern.
So, overall this vest gets a tick…I love everything about it except for the fact that the pockets aren’t totally functional but it was a good experiment in fabric choice!
The 1st of September always brings rejoicing around the country with the first official hello to Spring and hopes of warmer weather just around the corner. On the weekend I started watering our plants again and was surprised and excited to see the first little buds turning to leaves on our baby Silver Birch Trees – horray…we didn’t kill them!
The beginning of September also brought the arrival of a Spring-themed Sew Box Subscriptions from Craft Boxes Australia to my doorstop. If you are among the hundreds of Australians who already subscribe to Sew Box, then you will already have welcomed your bright and happy box for the month of September. All of the goodies included in the box are pictured above, and you might notice a copy of my A+ Skirts (PDF version) pattern is amongst the other crafty gems. Those faux leather tassels have really caught my eye, I have visions of them at the end of a keychain, accompanied by some pretty beads.
When you subscribe to Sew Box, at the beginning of each month you will be sent a mystery box full of a selection of surprise crafty products for your enjoyment. Being presented with a box of hand-selected surprise products can really help the crafty juices flow and challenge you to step out of your comfort zone when it comes to using different products and creating different things.
You can keep up to date on all of the Sew Box happenings and check out contents of previous boxes at the Craft Boxes Australia Facebook page.
Sew Box Subscriptions has kindly offered one of their September boxes (pictured above) to give away to one of my lovely readers! If you would like a chance to win, simply leave a comment on this blog post. For extra entries, leave a comment on the Sew Box picture on my Instagram account and my Facebook page!
(Competition open to Australian residents only & ends Friday 18th September 2015)
For Mother’s Day earlier this year, I made my Mother-In-Law a set of Open-Wide Zippered Pouches (free tutorial by Anna of Noodlehead). I’ve made a heap of these pouches in the past, but have only photographed one other set. I love them for last-minute gifts – hence, the reason I rarely get a chance to take photos of them finished…I’m too busy wrapping them up and rushing out the door!
My go-to base fabric for these pouches is denim – I’ve got a stash of old jeans in my sewing cupboard and they are great to cut up and give the base of the bags a sturdier finish. For this set of pouches though, I wanted to try out a new product called Kraft-tex. You can read more about it on the linked website, but basically it is a thick paper material that feels a little like leather and wears like fabric – yep, you can sew it and wash it and it gets softer and crumplier with age. I haven’t used Kraft-tex enough to have a real opinion yet, but it seems pretty cool. It starts off really stiff (like cardboard) so I scrunched it up in my hands before sewing and it softened up a bit. It is supposed to get that crumpled look to it after awhile. Kraft-tex seems to be similar to the washable paper baskets/plant holders that are trending at the moment. I bought my rolls of Kraft-tex to make some of these, but my plans diverted to the zippered pouches first! I still have a few rolls left to play around with so will eventually make some baskets. I bought my rolls of Kraft-tex here, it wasn’t available in Australia when I first purchased it but I think you should be able to find some in Australia now.
I paired the black Kraft-tex with some fabrics from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary 2 range. The black, grey, mustard and cream colour palette is modern and sophisticated and made for an easy to put-together gift that I didn’t even have to leave the house for!
I’m trying to get through my list of unblogged sewing projects – it’s long and I don’t seem to be keeping up with blogging lately so this could go on forever! Here are a couple of Hero Vests I made for my boys at the beginning of Winter this year. Both are made with jersey exterior and polar fleece lining – my favourite combo for kids. Using a knit fabric for the exterior results in a soft and squishy vest – one that is easy to move and play in.
Oscar’s body temperature seems to have finally matured and he actually wore pants most of this Winter! Hallelujah!! I haven’t made him a Hero Vest in a long time because I knew he wouldn’t wear it, but I feel confident making him one now as I have a 50% chance of him actually reaching for it in the wardrobe! Although it doesn’t really bother me because I know it will be handed down to Tommy and/or Harvey anyway so it isn’t a wasted sew. This colour combo is great for a big boy – basic and will easily coordinate with most of his clothes. I bought the ribbing used in his vest online and it turned out to be more like a ribbed jersey fabric not cuff ribbing. I wanted to use a charcoal ribbing on his vest though so thought I would test it out anyway. The verdict? Not awesome. It does the job okay but you can see from the way the waistband keeps turning under in these photos that it doesn’t have enough stability and recovery to hold it’s own.
When I made Tommy’s vest he asked me why I keep making jackets with no sleeves?! Point taken Tommy…a jacket with sleeves will be sewn next Winter! I really love sewing clothes for Tommy, he is still at the age where he gets really excited and anticipates the finished product all the way along. If he knows I’m sewing something for him, he will sit at my feet in the sewing room, handing me tools and supplies and being a helper until he can finally wear what ever it is that I am making! I haven’t sewed him a lot of clothes lately, but I’m sure that with the change of seasons (pleeease hurry up Summer!) I’ll be sprucing up all of the kids wardrobes in the next few months.
I’m not 100% of the fabric sources used in these two Hero Vests…Tommy’s striped jersey is by Hilco and the red ribbing is a top-quality European purchase. I think Oscar’s grey marle jersey is a Stella jersey (pretty sure they no longer produce fabric?) and the polar fleece lining on both is from either Spotlight or Lincraft.
For some reason in the middle of Winter, this watermelon fabric was speaking to me. Perhaps it was the extra cold weather and mega frosty mornings that were getting to me and I wanted something bright and cheery and reminiscent of Summer to get me through. The watermelon fabric did the trick and this new Joey dress was born.
