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.Suzy Hausfrau.

I knew you guys would love the MillaMia knitting pattern books as much as I do! It was great to hear that I’m not the only one in a knitting mood at the moment.

Well, today I want to introduce you to a super cool yarn store, Suzy Hausfrau.

I really love coming across an easy to navigate, clearly set out and inspiring online store and Suzy Hausfrau has mastered all of that! Suzy Hausfrau is based in Canberra, but ships worldwide and stocks a sensational range of yarn, knitting and crochet supplies and patterns.

To entice you even more, Suzy Hausfrau offers FREE postage on all Australian orders and a very generous 10% discount on all orders over $60!!

I was generously sent some gorgeous MillaMia 100% Extrafine Merino yarn to knit up a dress for Lil. I chose Storm colourway for the dress. Not like me to go with a neutral colour, is it? I’m envisioning this looking cool with some really bright stockings and long-sleeved top underneath so thought it would be good to have a basic base-colour for the dress.

This yarn is gorgeous. It really is super-soft and high quality. I’ve always been one to encourage others to use the best quality products that you can afford when hand-making clothing. If you are going to spend hours pouring so much time and effort into the making, you definitley want to use quality products. I’ve already been scouring through knitting patterns to decide what I’m going to knit with this yarn next!!

MillaMia yarn comes in a great range of colours. You can see all of them here.

Suzy Hausfrau specialises in selling exquisite yarn sourced around the globe – many of the products in their range have not been stocked in Australia before. You’ve got to and check out their gorgeous range of BC Garn, Debbie Bliss, Holst Garn and Kalinka Lingarn. And keep an eye out for new Amy Butler and Kaffe Fassett yarns arriving any day now!

Make It Perfect readers are very lucky today – Suzy Hausfrau are giving away $100 gift voucher to spend in their store!!

All you have to do to enter is one or all of the following things…there are four ways to enter and each way is worth a new entry point! Giveaway closes next Wednesday, 16th May and winner will be drawn randomly.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Important Suzy Hausfrau Links:

Ravelry

May 11, 2012

Other

.MillaMia.

I don’t know about you, but cold weather makes me want to break out some yarn and get knitting. I haven’t had a lot of success with knitting in the past (not meaning I’ve had failures, but I just haven’t known where to go for good patterns). I happened across this book, “Bright Young Things” by MillaMia a few weeks ago. I couldn’t stop flicking through the pages and was super keen to find some good yarn and knitting needles and get to work!

Lucky me was sent a copy of the book direct from MillaMia to review and share with my readers!

If you’re looking for some modern knitting inspiration, then look no further. MillaMia’s patterns are amazing – they are stylish and cute, definitley something that I’d want my kids to wear. I want to knit one of everything for my kids. The instructions look really clear and easy to follow but lucky for me, my Mum is a super-star knitter so if I get stuck or lose momentum I’ve got technical support right at hand!

My first project is going to be the Pernilla Dress for Lil. How adorable is it?

Here are some of my other favourites from Bright Young Things:

MillaMia have two other sensational knitting pattern books, “Wonderland” and “The Close Knit Gang” – take a look at some of the lovelies in these books:

MillaMia’s next book, “Little Rascals” is going to be released very soon…the sneak peek is to die for, I can’t wait to see what else is inside!

Word on the street is MillaMia are currently working on launching a collection of knitting patterns for women, which is also very exciting!

So, you’ve got the books but now you need the yarn…MillaMia also provide a superior range of coordination 100% extra fine Merino Wool. But I’ll tell you more about that in a few days…

MillaMia products are avaliable on their website, or at a large range of stores within Australia and throughout the rest of the world – take a look at their stockist list, here.

MillaMia Links:

Website

Facebook

May 9, 2012

Other

.Shot Cottons.

When I was first putting together the Poppy Tunic pattern, a friend suggested I try using Kaffe Fassett’s shot cottons for the main fabric. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a huge Kaffe Fassett fan. I know that he is extremely popular, but his style just doesn’t grab me. His shot cottons looked great though and I was lucky enough to get a selection to try from Alan at XLN Fabrics.

Wow! They are absolutely perfect for sewing clothing – especially when you are looking for something with a nice soft drape.
Unlike other solid fabrics, shot cottons are not completely solid. They have a more organic look and feel about them, with colour variations and imperfections in the weaving giving them lovely individual stlye and detail. The weave of a shot cotton is quite loose and they are fairly lightweight, thus creating a nice soft drape and feel for garment sewing. And there are more than 50 colours in the range!

The cotton is woven using two different tones of thread – the lengthwise warp threads and crosswise weft threads are usually a different colour. Sometimes the difference between the colours are very vivid and other times they are much the same. Each shot cotton has a unique dimension and seems to give off a different colour depending on how the light reflects against them. When the raw edges of the fabric frays, a bright stripe of colour appears (see photos below – and check out these funky shot cotton scarves!)

I highly recommend using shot cottons in garment sewing and know that I’ll definitley be visitng these again in the future. There are loads of great colours and they are really comfortable to wear.

It is difficult to properly determine what colour your shot cotton is going to look like in real life from the swatches that Kaffe provides. Here are the ones that I have in my collection so far, along with their names. I’ll be sure to photograph others as I collect them to help out with determining colour choices.

April 20, 2012

Other

.Things I’m Crushing…Bright Doors.

We’re a bit house-crazy over here at the moment (actually, being married to an architect is always house-crazy!) We (that should actually say “he”) are dreaming, planning, designing, pricing our next home. We have a contract on some land and have lots to get organised before anything happens (like selling our home first!) but in preparation for the next stage, I’ve been thinking about the little things that I want our new house to include.

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you’ll know I’m partial to a bit of colour and at the moment I’m really loving bright doors. Especially when the pop of colour appears unexpectedly on an interior door – funky! And maybe something we will be including in the new pad…