When I was a child my cousin gave me a set of nesting dolls she’d bought in India. When I was in Russia I bought a few more sets.
That’s all I have in this collection - a small collection, but one where each piece has meaning to me.
Here’s my REAL collection:
You guessed it! My fabric collection, my sewing magazine collection, and let’s not forget - my pattern collection.
For some time I have been planning on making a wallpocket/pinboard for my sewing room. Now that I have finished it, I can’t believe I procrastinated for so long! It was so quick to assemble!
The board is caneite (I think) from Bunnings; the fabric is Kaffe Fassett (from Ballarat Patchwork). The idea was from Craft Apple’s fantastic tutorial; Shim and sons has beautiful wallpockets which also guided me. This one is pretty large. The two strips of smaller circle print are pockets, divided into four across the board.
I used a staple-gun to attach the fabric to the board (thanks Dad!) after first sewing the pockets to the base fabric. The colour is not quite right in either of these photos; in reality the colours are much stronger (that wall behind the wallpocket is actually yellow).
Now it just needs to be put up on the wall! I have a number of items waiting to be pinned to it and to be placed into the pockets.
I love it when a parcel containing fabric (or anything else to do with sewing) arrives!
I am going to cover pinboards/inspiration boards with these Kaffe Fassett fabrics I bought from Ballarat Patchwork. They’re absolutely gorgeous! I’m doing a big board for the sewing room from the centre lotus printed fabric, with a pocket in the fabric on the left. And the fan fabric will cover a pinboard to go above my computer. Any leftovers (and I hope that there is some) will possibly become bags, or other crafty projects. Suggestions?
I also received some quick yo-yo makers - time to use up all those scraps and create (there is lots of inspiration for what to do with yo-yos on the myriad of craft blogs)!
Of the crochet hook and knitting needle variety! Once I started working with yarn, I quickly realised that I had no adequate storage for my hooks and needles. A little googling later and I had found some excellent tutorials that helped me to make these:
And both together all rolled up!
I’m certain that I’ll find it handy to have the crochet hooks separate, as I have an inkling that I am much more likely to be doing crochet than knit. Although you never know what fad inspiration will strike me next!
I keep trying to figure out where the time has come from to do all the crafting that I’ve been doing lately - I’m possibly neglecting my poor husband and child. Although I think that it has mainly substituted for watching TV (I’m completely behind on about every program now, so can’t have been watching much) and of course, now that I’m not going to work I have some time while Miss Clare is at kinder. I do get up earlier than the rest of the household as well. Does it sound as though I am trying to justify anything?
One of the things that probably makes the biggest difference in finding time to sew and craft is having a dedicated sewing room. The machines are always set up, everything is easy to find and on hand, I can open the cupboard doors and stare at the piles of nicely stacked fabric for inspiration. I am even keeping the mending up to date. The ironing board is permanently set up with iron, pressing cloths etc. Knowing where everything is has made it all so much easier.
I am very excited today - my sewing cabinet is here! Not only is it here, it is in place in the lovely new sewing room. Getting it up the stairs was a bit of a struggle (our thanks again to the friend we roped in to help):
but they did really well with only minor scratches (to the men, not the walls/cupboard)!
Here it is with machine and overlocker in place, just waiting for me to do some sewing:
And another view:
but of course, Miss Clare’s favourite part of the new sewing cabinet is this:
the new cubby house (presently being used to play shops with Daddy).
The room rearrangement is great - the table is now clear for craft and for cutting out (my machine and overlocker were on it while waiting for the cabinet to arrive) although I think it is likely to become a repository for the ironing pile. The little TV is set up so that I can watch while sewing, ironing or using the table, and the couch is below the window (it was beside the stairwell before, which was very unsafe) so I can chat to visitors while sewing.
It’s fantastic! Can you tell how excited I am! Now to make a lovely big pinboard/inspiration board/pocket board to go on the wall above the cabinet.
For those who are interested, the cabinet (or “Home Sewing Centre”, as they call it) is the Horn Sovereign, which is Horn’s top of the line cabinet. I have been coveting it for ages. It also has a huge flap that can be opened up at the back, which is great if sewing anything large (such as curtains or quilts). My aim was to get a cabinet that would last me until death! I managed to buy it on Mother’s Day sale for $100 off, but it was still expensive.
But isn’t it marvellous!
Well, I didn’t get around to drafting any bags last night, but I have almost unpacked all of my fabric/sewing boxes that have been languishing in the garage or under the house for many months and years, and organised them in the wonderful cupboards in my new sewing room!
I have filled three drawers with patterns (they do date back to when I started sewing for myself in the eighties - many of the drop-waisted dress patterns are going to the op shop), another drawer with yarn, and still need to organise all my sewing notions, trims, buttons, elastic etc into some of the other drawers.
I’ve sorted it according to potential use - clothing, bags, linings, miscellaneous, etc, while also trying to keep fabric type into account. I can’t get over how great it is to have where I can actually see it - I am sure that I will become inspired to try a few new crafting challenges in addition to clothes sewing.
The view out the window was also quite inspiring this morning:
Eventually there were about eight balloons up over the city. I love Melbourne in Autumn!
Had I mentioned that I’ll be going on maternity leave soon - in actuality, leave without pay - meaning that I will have no income to purchase those essentials of sewing like fabric. So I’ve been doing some stash building and now have more fabric than I could ever sew while on leave. Yesterday’s purchases were these fabrics:
many of which will become bags and accessories, but some of which will become clothes for me - particularly the bottom two cotton voiles. The bright purple butterfly cord is for Clare - still to decide if it will be pants and jacket or a dress. I’ll get her to choose - since then she is more likely to wear it (had “discussions” this morning about her refusal to try on clothes I’d made for her, out of fabric she’d chosen in the designs she liked - how can she be so definite about it at only four?) and I won’t be subjected to hours of sewing without the reward of seeing her in what Mummy made.
I also managed to start tidying and organising some of my trims:
I still have quite a few bits of Liberty bias binding bought in a scrap bag years ago to sort through as well.
I made the following doll’s clothes under strict direction from Clare - she chose the fabrics, did the cutting out, arranged how she wanted things to go, then I did the machine sewing.
She’s quite pleased with them - a skirt and top for her “baby”. I wonder at what age she can learn to use the machine?
I have FINALLY completed the four cot quilts I was making from vintage chenille - I patched them together, did some applique, then backed it with flanelette and used a layer of pellon inbetween. I am quite pleased with the finished results (and will post photos later) although I can’t claim credit for the idea - there seem to be lots of chenille patchwork quilts around on eBay at the moment, although I got the idea from the one I bought at the Daylesford market about eight years ago! Clare really loves it, so I thought that I’d better make another for the new bub - and ended up making four! I’ll give one to cousin Sally for her new baby girl, and will decide on which we’ll keep and which other to gift once I’ve had this one.
My other sewing has all been inside my head - lots of planning going on, but not much actual sewing. I’ve also been doing lots of mental sewing room planning, as it won’t be long now until the renovations are complete and I have a huge sewing room with amazing cupboards to put everything in! The other time-waster (is it a waste?) has been blog-surfing on the net and building up an ever-growing wishlist on Amazon for craft/sewing books. And I’d love to figure out just how to get my hands on some of those beautiful Japanese craft and sewing books and magazines!
Off to my nephew’s birthday party now - no time to sew, let alone blog!
