summer sewing

I think the knitting craze kind of settled down for a while now, but there is always plenty of things to keep busy with.

For example in past few days I bought my first pattern and spent ages piecing it together…

 and the bloody things don’t always align properly, do they?

Then I made this little halter neck top…. proud because I managed to make this unaided and also cut the bias binding too 😀 (no fancy bias binding aids, just my scissors) Although, I think my technique of sewing the bias binding onto the arms for example could be improved…not bad for first attempt though 🙂

We’ll see if it fits anyone tomorrow 😀

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sunny yellow

I was recently browsing on Pinterest, looking for knitting patterns… (as you do) something to use for my next project. And I stumbled across this little alteration gem, which is a cardigan made out of a sweatshirt. So I went to the closest charity shop looking for a sweatshirt to use. Obviously there was none to serve the purpose… but I found this little t-shirt from Land’s End in lemon yellow. (forgot to take a ‘before’ pic, sorry)

I slept on it and woke up with the idea what I’ll do to it 😀

Whipped out my Alabama Chanin book and I used her corset pattern and the end result is…..

voilat

I was super lazy, used my sewing machine to assemble the pieces and also only used my phone to take some quick pics of it 😀

… and here it is in action

I like the raw edges and probably if I were toned enough I’d love how figure hugging the garment is 🙂

Anyway, back to knitting for me !

x

gone mad…

…at least it feels like that a bit.

Not bad mad I think… just knitting mad 🙂

So far this year’s creativity has been exhausted in knitting… and I’m loving it. Over Christmas I have knitted my first ever wearable garment. A lovely blanket style cardigan following a pattern first time in my life. (pattern by Isabell Kraemer)

and here is the cardi in action. The colours were sort of chosen to reflect on an iconic Frida Kahlo photograph.

I so loved making it!!! And seeing someone wearing and cherishing it gave me enough enthusiasm to start another one.

My fingers and wrists are struggling but I can’t wait to finish and start a new one 🙂

exciting march

What an amazing way this month has started… my good friend and fab artist Amanda Hiller has been featured in Period Living magazine. Amanda’s work is so lovely and when I first heard about the news of this article, I didn’t realise the scale of it… Amazing!! Getting my copy tomorrow!!

But the other exciting thing about this article is that some of my photos are featured in it as well 😀 So happy! Its a great way of showing off our continuous cooperation.

Here are a few photos I took of Amanda, her work and her studio.

Enjoy

bring back the 50s

Last week I had the chance to be an assistant on a fab photo shoot for Rumour Couture… two gorgeous models and three locations. It kind of made me reminisce of my first assistant job I did for a documentary (ages ago – in another life 🙂 )… felt great and at the end of it I was aloud to take some shots too, which proper cheered me up 😀 Here are a few, all taken with my brand spanking new 50mm lens – so in love with it, I don’t even know if I’ll ever take it off now 🙂

 

 

 

As you can see Amy and Lisa are absolutely stunning and lovely! We had my kind of hot, sunny weather… and Garreth is just the best for letting me come along.

 

Thank you to all of you, I had a fab day with you guys xx

 

 

 

 

P.S.: here is a song that kind of dominated my last two days… totally not matching the photos but its beautiful 🙂 enjoy

 

 

Is there a recipe for patience?_2

Well I didn’t have to wait long 🙂 I got ‘go ahead’ from customer, replies to emails, things got sorted (at least some of them) and the dreaded moment came too, my bike sort of gave up on me today, so finally that needs fixing now.

Oh, in the mean time, I have an almost finished bag, saw at least 4 movies and took photos of some amazing ladies. Still a lot of editing to do, but here is a sneak peek

 More to come soon 🙂

x

Is there a recipe for patience?

There must be an art to it… some people must have some tactics…

I don’t.

Mostly I’m the kind of “I want it all and I want it NOW!” girl. Mostly… because there is that rare sometimes, when I probably have more patience then a saint 🙂 as I said, its rare.

I mean, after sewing that dress (see previous post :-p ) I realised how impulsive, “fast” (it still takes me about 3 hours to make them) and almost thoughtless my bags are for example. When we were sewing the dress, I used a mostly well traced pattern, the fabric was cut as closely to the pattern as I could and , here it comes, and I used an iron… yes, to iron the fabric, to press open the seams, to flatten the fabric. It was a well paced journey of preparation, well thought through steps and a not too bad result.

I feel that most of the time my bags are reactions to the fabric. I kind of have an idea in my head, but that evolves to suit the fabric, been as I like to use accidentally found fabrics, end bits or odd stuff. Here are my latest ones. They were commissioned by a friend of mine, Simon  – and he already sold three of them 🙂 yahay.

My big achievement with these bags were the adjustable straps. Some have slide buckles and others work with metallic snap closures. Still very imperfectly me… but a bit better 🙂

So yes, advantages of no patience is impulsive randomness that I like… but then sometimes, like when I’m waiting for a customer to to just give me the go ahead, for 5 days now, seam really hard. All I want to do is get cracking…

Or when I’m in-between projects, I should be able to enjoy the time, fill up with new ideas, let the new thing blossom organically. But instead out of impatience I force my self to make things and mess them up, feel down, get up, still having to wait a period of time and then start something great.

Or in relationships, friendships and all other ‘ships’… the journey, the beginnings are all very exciting but I do find the slow progression of things sometimes frustratingly annoying…

So unless anyone has any better advice, my cure for impatience for now are loads of sewing and movies. And that it shall be … 🙂

 

Mondays…

I find that since I moved to the UK, or at least for the last 5 years, Mondays have been my favourite days. I know, I know, everyone hates it because its the start of a working week, end of a weekend yady ya, blah blah… I generally have work on weekends… and Mondays have always been the day for me 🙂 its a MeDay and the start of a great week. At least I try to look at it that way no matter what. (don’t always succeed, so relax :-p )

This Monday I have sewn my first ever dress…

 

 

 

It is kind of wearable… I’m saying kind of, because it fits nicely at the bust and the length is exactly what I wanted, just not used to wearing such a high necked garment. Also, I really like the gap on the back with the little hook and loop closure (this is because there should be a long zip, but I don’t know how to sew zips yet) but I think we might have left it a bit too long as the hook keeps unhooking it self. Also next time I’m gona aim to have it more fitted at the empire line or at the waist… I don’t know the name of those lines either. Gosh what an amateur beginner am I?

Anyway, I keep writing we, and its because I couldn’t have done it without a lovely friend of mine, Janine. She was just grate showing me how this particular pattern worked, telling me great hints and tips from her own experience and I just had a great day of sewing with her. Can’t wait to try other patterns and fabrics 🙂

Check out Janine‘s blog by clicking on her name or her creations for sale in her shop.

Wishing you all a happy week, come on Chris Froome and Mark Renshaw!!!!! (sorry, I’m in a bit of a Tour de France fever at the mo) and role on happy Mondays 😀

x

Le Tour de France

I’m not into football nor tennis… I kind of like watching swimming (weird, I know)… but ever since I was a kid coming home from school I remember watching the Tour de France (not the highlights, the whole lot… fair enough, I did fall asleep a few times too).

And specially since being friends with a cyclist fella’ I kind of got more into it. My embarrassing admission is that since I started cycling to work I developed this weird fetishistic fascination with Lycras (not MAMILs – Middle Aged Men In Lycra), yeah I call them Lycras now, all the cyclists in their serious looking gear on a cool road bike. Every time I see one I unconsciously change gear and before I know it I am trying to catch them up and race them, even though I’m only a girl wearing skirt and tights on a vintage hybrid with a basket on the front. It might be a subconscious thing that I want to be like them… I don’t know.

So anyway, I’m writing this post because I am heart broken, as the Tour is here in the UK and I can’t go and see them… gutted. I’ve been cheering Chris Froome for two years now, and how cool it would have been to see them swoosh past on the road… Anyone, who is out there, in Leeds, or Sheffield or gona be in London, well I hope you’ll enjoy it, wave them on for me, and just to let you know, I’m super jealous of you all 🙂

And just to make sure we have a bit of craft in this post too (after all this is supposed to be a craft blog), here are my latest finds on Etsy and elsewhere, that I am seriously considering saving up for

I mean riding at night doesn’t get much cooled then this… yeah, I know I’m just a hopeless cycling romantic 🙂

https://www.etsy.com/listing/117520818/vibrant-blue-colored-led-battery?ref=shop_home_feat_1

 

 

I want to be that panther… 🙂 and i like the colour of the T-Shirt too.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/105129084/mens-cheetah-bicycle-t-shirt-american?ref=favs_view_2

 

Now I like this little idea, so simple and I would be so grateful sometimes if I had one on my bike.

 

https://www.etsy.com/listing/104072889/bicycle-frame-handle?ref=favs_view_2

Now some other useful or cool stuff, like patchnride 🙂 though I’m not sure what you’d do with it, if you can’t find the puncture on your tyre.

 

And then there is this… I really like helmets like this, but I’ve been told that I’ll look like a weird golf ball. I’ll let you know as soon as I got one 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for visiting and let the Tour begin!!!

x

lovely things No 1

If you read this blog you know, but if this is the first time you ventured over here, then I’ll tell you 🙂 I love taking photographs… One of my childhood dream come true really. I know that some must think that ‘it’s only a push of a button, what’s the big fuss?’, but I find so much pleasure when I manage to take a good shot, or when my image does justice to something beautiful.

I find product photography really gratifying. For some reason I don’t always take good shots of my products (maybe because they aren’t good, who knows? :-p) but for example I’m really pleased with the photos I took of a friend’s jewellery. All taken in natural light with my standard lens on my lil’ Nikon 🙂 Although my next step is investing in a 50mm lens, for that shallow depth of field and fab bokeh 🙂

But anyway, have a look:

 

These photos were taken of Jane Dearman‘s jewellery and they are all available for purchase in her Etsy Shop. Also what is really nice with Jane’s jewellery (apart from them being so amazingly delicate and some of them so complex) is that they can be made to order, which means you can have the perfect jewellery to match your outfit and event 🙂

Thanks for visiting

x