61 Days Until Christmas...

The fact that I like to make as many Christmas presents as possible for my significantly extended family may come as no surprise.  The fact that every year I bite off much more than I can chew hopefully would come as a surprise to my significantly extended family (I'm not going to lie - half the satisfaction comes from making it look effortless!), but I'm sure will ring a few bells with my fellow craftsters.  In the interest of staying organised, inspired, and delivering the best that not only I can muster, but absorbing the best in Christmas Crafting the blogosphere has to offer, this year I am participating in a genius scheme, made possible by the lovely Tilly, a collective of creative bloggers sharing lists, ideas and tutorials in a safe environment ~ and that means a strictly family & friends-free zone!

So if you know me well enough to be expecting a gift or two from me this year, please do not visit the Crafty Christmas Club, and maybe forget you ever read this post.  If, however, you don't know me and want to get in on the inspiration, come on down and see what your handmade Christmas could look like...

WIPs

With Christmas little more than 9 weeks away, I'm already starting to feel the pressure...  And in order to keep on top of my personal projects//private commissions//present making, I seem to be making a start on everything all at once, to be worked on bit by bit on rotation, surrounding myself with the beginnings of everything I need to have done by Christmas, just so my work load can make sense to me visually.  

Herewith a little handful of my Works In Progress...

Practising piecing hexagons for a very special project that I'm keeping quiet for the time being...

Notes on a hat I've been promising my Mum since last Christmas.

The most deliciously soft beginnings of Pickles' Close Cables Sweater (for me!).

Inside view of my Swing Jacket.  Let's face it, we're talking extreme procrastination here.  All that's left to do is hand stitch the lining and sew on the buttons.  An evening's work.  I would argue that my lack of a mannequin in my life is making accurate pinning of the lining harder than it needs to be, but today my lovely neighbour Jess lent me hers.  And she needs it back soon, so no more excuses!

Some I-cord piping for a Christmassy tutorial coming soon...

And lastly, my floor this evening: hot cocoa and a chunky mitten - because my hands were freezing today, and then I thought it would be nice to prepare a quick winter warmer kit pattern (coming soon too).

~

Tip of the iceberg...

Pine Cone Garland

Following a few visits to Kew Gardens over the last month, I have found myself with an abundance of pine cones...

...Some we painted, ready to be strung and hung as Christmas Tree decorations.  But Christmas is still 9 weeks away...

...Then I got inspired after seeing this tutorial from Twig & Thistle and made me a little pine cone garland using screw hooks and some Tyrolean ribbon my Mum gave me years ago.  It's always nice to bring a bit of the outside in, paying homage to the seasons, but despite all my efforts to greenify my fingers, most living plants I come into contact with don't last long (except my beloved Cherry Tree).  So... maybe I'll have more luck adorning my house with a plant that's already dead!

Preparing for Autumn ~ part VI

It's always a strangely bittersweet mix of emotions coming to the end of a project.  As I go ticking off the things on my Preparing for Autumn list I compiled back in July, I find myself feeling satisfied and efficient (and warm!) but also slightly sad to have to put it behind me, having enjoyed the process so much.

But really it's ok - I get to enjoy the fruits of my labour and you can be sure I have an ample supply of to-do lists in the waiting.  And that is why I can't stop crafting: my life is creative and productive, never boring, always learning and improving, a world of infinite possibilities...

My Big Herringbone Cowl, finished just in time as the temperature dropped.  I am completely in love with this stitch - so elegant and subtly interesting, unlike most knits I've seen, without an obvious knit or purl in sight.  To see the journey I've taken in the making of this snood - which began life as an old Maxmara cardi - see here.

Caramel Apple Steamed Pudding or The Most Delicious Thing I've Ever Made. In My Life. Ever.

For a while now I have been aware of a distinctly fruity theme that seems to be at the heart of my baking.  Something about the way fruit reacts to being cooked, the soft squishyness of it, the way the flavours are dictated by the seasons... The silky smooth marriage of bananas and chocolate, the jewel-like glow of a plum upside-down cake, the sweet tang of baked apples... No surprise then, that my new favourite book is Rustic Fruit Desserts; arranged by season with recipes that make you want to lick the pages.

source

Since getting this book, one recipe has really sucked me in.  Maybe it's just because I love all things Autumnal, and I seem to have an endless supply of delicious Norfolk apples (thanks to a certain culinary friend)... And the Caramel Apple Steamed Pudding certainly did not disappoint.  Essentially an apple upside-down cake, but add to that a pudding mould that has been lined with homemade caramel, apple slices that have been caramelised, and a cake that has been steamed au bain marie for 90 minutes.  The texture reminded me of the sticky toffee puddings I used to have as a child at my Grandparents' house - soft, dense but fluffy (as much as I hate the word, it can only be described as moist), the sticky sweetness  perfectly balanced out by the ever so slightly tart apples.  In fact, it was so delicious that we ate in silent appreciation, with just grunts, groans and mmmm's being the only sounds to escape our lips.

Fighting Crowds of Grannies...

...stocking up on supplies and overdosing on inspiration, this weekend at London's Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace.

Quilting cottons at The Eternal Maker

Romantic chevrons at Colinette

Knit-kits at Handscape Knits

Chunky, rusty ribs at Sublime

Liberty quilting bundles at Sunflower Fabrics

Beanbags - a quick tutorial

With the mornings getting a notch frostier every day, I think our days of kicking a football around the garden this year are numbered.  And while I'm overflowing with cosy, crafty indoor activity ideas for the colder months, my three year old boy still has enough energy to fuel a small tractor - and no amount of cutting and sticking and baking and story reading will sufficiently exert that energy.  I draw the line at the football in the house so I thought that soft, unbouncy beanbags would be just the thing to throw around without causing too much havoc, improve my toddler's hand-eye coordination, and most importantly, wear him out!

This is such a quick project, taking only about half an hour, and the child in your life will love being entrusted with the most important job - pouring in the beans!

You Will Need:

4 x A4 sheets of felt in different colours (or enough felt/thick cotton to cut 8 x 15cm squares)

a rotary cutter or scissors

a ruler

dried beans

pinking shears

Measure and cut out 8 squares 15 x 15cm, 2 of each colour (or you could contrast the front and back).

Using a short stitch, join 2 squares together by stitching 15mm from the edges, remembering to leave an opening big enough to pour in the beans.

Get your helper to spoon in the dried beans through the opening until you have a full and squishy (but not bursting) pouch.

Stitch the opening closed, and trim off the excess edges with pinking shears.

Just When My Last Cake Couldn't Get Any Worse, I Go And Do Something Like This - And Totally Redeem Myself!

Practicing my wheat/gluten/dairy-free cupcake recipe for my son's 3rd birthday party this weekend.

Yuk

Looks delicious.  Smells delicious.  Tastes.  Like.  Shit.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for healthy eating, but there's something about (specifically sweet) Macrobiotic baking that puts me off.  I just don't ever salivate at the thought of things like couscous cake with a creamed tofu carob frosting, for example.

We have this book at home, The Natural Gourmet, which, if I'm in the right mood, is very appealing.  All the talk of elements and biorhythms is right up my street.  And the savoury recipes are genuinely delicious. But today I made the mistake of trying out an Orange and Walnut Loaf Cake recipe from this same book.  I made it so lovingly and entirely by hand, not an electric mixer in sight, and feeling so pleased with myself and how I'd picked a recipe who's "Major Phase" was Earth, apparently perfect for an Indian Summer blah blah blah...  And when it came out of the oven, it looked so perfectly rustic, smelled so fragrant and orangey...  And somehow it tastes like a tasteless gluey crunchy squelch with a hint of orange.  Exactly the kind of thing you'd buy - and quickly regret - in a health food store if you were feeling a bit peckish while paying for your echinacea/wheatgerm/organic cotton tampons.  Oh well.  You live and you learn.  No more hippie baking for me.

and the winner is...

Thank you so much to all of you who entered the Swing Jacket Pattern Giveaway, and also a huge thank you for all the Birthday wishes!  So, without further ado, the lucky winner is...

...Andrea!

Please drop me a line at elisalexdcp at hotmail dot com so I can get your postal address.  Well done, and I'd love love love to see your finished jacket!

NB. I'm having a little trouble showing the random number generator... but the first number it churned out was 15 (any tips for these widgets for future reference...?).

SSS'11: Days 28 & 29

With the uncharacteristically glorious weather we've been having here in London Town, it would've been a crime not to break out the last of the summer frocks.  A welcome change too from spending the vast majority of this me-made-month in jeans and swing/sorbetto tops... (I guess that's one thing I've learned from having participated in Zoe's Self-Stitched-Sept - I wear jeans way too often).

day 28

Day 28: me-made 70s jersey empire waist dress made from this pattern when I was pregnant.

day 29

Day 29: me-made circle skirt, made from a 1950s pattern using two layers of cotton shirting.

They say the weather will even finer tomorrow, so I am determined to end this challenge on a high...

Swing Jacket Pattern GIVEAWAY!

To celebrate the imminent completion of my Swing Jacket (and my birthday this coming weekend), it is with great pleasure that I will be giving away to one lucky reader this delicious and delightful 1950s Swing Jacket sewing pattern!

image courtesy of Vintage Patterns Wiki

This is the pattern that I didn't use in the end - I had originally wanted to give away the McCall's I'm using, but after the mutilated mouse fiasco, I thought this one would be more appropriate... 

The image is courtesy of Vintage Patterns Wiki, so please ignore the size in the picture.  It is actually a size 14, bust 32.

To win this all you have to do is become a follower of my blog and leave a comment below, and I'll announce the winner at some point on Sunday 2nd October.  May the best seamstress win!

Paw-Print Pants

My son is having trouble adjusting to the fact that it is no longer shorts and t-shirt weather.  And every day when I tell him to get some trousers on, he reacts as though I'm suggesting he wear something as unreasonable and unbearable as a suit lined with razor blades.  So I cut up an old pair of my maternity tracksuit bottoms in the hope of making him a warm pair of trousers that he wouldn't find too offensive.

Enlisting the help of Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Children's Wear, I drafted a simple trouser block for stretchy knit fabrics, got chopping, overlocking, appliquée-ing, hemming, reattaching the waistband (made smaller of course, and getting carried away I sewed it back to front... but whatever, at that point I couldn't be bothered to unpick it and start over, and maybe it's even safer to have the drawstring at the back anyways...?).  

The result was a perfectly sweet pair of sweatpants for a very active little boy.  Cosy enough to keep him warm, comfy enough for him to enjoy wearing them, and cute enough (the paw print on the bum!) for him to actually want to put them on in the first place.  Success!