Recycling old for new

I just found this awesome tutorial to turn a man's shirt into a child's dress on www.dana-made-it.com.

I love seeing anything that supports making and recycling old clothes rather than throwing them away and buying new, cheap disposable clothes and this is a fantastic idea!

Dana-made-it.com is a fantastic blog packed with ideas for refashioning new items from old clothes and lots of fab photos.

Take note!

Aprons.. lots and lots of them!

I realise I haven't posted anything for ages again - but I have a good excuse! I've not had a lot of time to myself recently as I've been crazily preparing for Christmas, making these lovely aprons which I will (hopefully) be selling at the Craft Fayre at the Komedia on Sunday in Brighton.

If you'd like one then they will be available in the shop soon, or if you can't wait then email me and I'll send you one. These aprons are reversible and made from cotton and viscose suiting fabric, so as well as looking stylish they are also fully washable (on a low temperature) so you don't need to worry about getting covered in cake, or steak, or whatever floats your boat.

I thought after all the cute girly aprons that I'd make something for the boys too, so these are available at £25 each.

Black with White Stripe with grey/white stripe:

Black with white stripe / Mottled black and white

Brown/Blue tweed stripe / mottled black/white:

Brown/blue tweed stripe / Grey/white stripe:

And more for the ladies! I've now got this lovely apples and flowers fabric with hot pink polk dot, cupcakes with chocolate and turquoise and a little tailored skirt apron made with the black and white stripe fabric and the grey and white material.

Tommy's Booties

These booties were made for a small person called Tommy.... They were knitted in Rowan Handknit Cotton and Rico Baby DK and the pattern can be found here

The buttons are made of coconuts :-)

Broad Street Mittens part 2

Gosh, I just realised I last blogged about these in January too, what have I been doing? I suppose the need to knit gloves in the summer isn't great really. Now finished, the mittens are no longer mittens, but proper gloves, and they fit and are soooo warm! I'll be glad of this in the winter.



I decided to keep going with the fingers as fingerless gloves are never really warm enough for me, even with the mitten flap. But having finished them I remember the reason I wanted fingerless ones was so I could knit in the winter so maybe I'll have to make another pair.



The yarn is a regia 4ply nylon/wool mix and the pattern is from knitty and can be found here I have changed the size (as I have small hands) so if you use this yarn I can't guarantee they'll fit you!

Business Cards!!

In the middle of making everything I managed to finally get some business cards printed! The design was inspired by my trademark photos on the floorboards, though sadly there will be no more of these as I've moved, and will therefore have to get more creative with my photography!

The cards were printed on 450gsm recycled card and I love them :0)

Emma's bridesmaid dress.

I made this dress for my friend Emma in September for a wedding. She was a bridesmaid and had just been told to buy a burgundy dress and that was it. I really wanted a bit of practice at making something for someone else, so I offered to make it for her as an excuse :-)

I did have more photos of this dress but I seem to have lost a memory card! The fabric and lining are both silk and it took about a week to complete.



It's actually the same pattern as one I made for myself (as a brithday present) Emma and I are a similar size so I was lucky that I could try it on when she wasn't around.

The pattern is Burda 7488 for anyone wishing to make one, I just omitted the contrast fabric from the bottom and instead used one piece.

Chris's Shirt

I've been wanting to write about this one for a while but I've had to wait until I gave it to a certain someone for his birthday before I could make it public!

I loved making this shirt, the fabric is beautiful and it felt like a proper challenge to get all the checks to match up. I changed a few of the design features - omitted the pocket flaps after deciding the fabric was too heavy for them, changed the shape of the front yokes and added small darts from the pocket down for extra shaping.

Making this has made me seriously think about going into menswear as it was so nice to put together. I've taken an order for one more in plain fabric, which should be a lot quicker, so watch this space :-)

It fitted it's recipient perfectly (phew!) though I still need to get a photo of him in it to prove this (when he'll let me..)

Etsy

So I've started setting up shops on Etsy, Misi and Folksy! I don't have any stock yet as so far I've just been making things for myself, but watch this space :-)

I'd really like to make some one-off's for people, so the idea of the shops I suppose is so people could make orders through them, so if you want anything give me a shout and we'll work out a price.

Rowan Big Wool Cardigan

This pattern is from one of the Rowan Studio books. I wanted to make a cardigan thick enough to be worn as a jacket, and this is definately warm enough. It was supposed to be the other way round (seams on the inside) but the way the pattern was meant that the collar wanted to turn in. After trying it on inside out I much prefer it with the seams showing, so that's how it is now. I can't decide on where the buttons are going though, I keep moving them around, I'm sure they'll find a home sooner or later!

Birthday Frock

I decided on Fri (22nd) that as I was going out that night I had better make myself a new dress! I found this lovely Paul Smith fabric and some yellow silk and spent the whole day up in my room throwing around pieces of fabric and paper.



By 6.15pm on Friday I finally gave up and realised it wasn't going to happen that night. So Saturday, complete with monster hangover, I put the rest of the dress together. This is the result, a classic style dress (that looks lovely on, but unfortunately no professional photographer was around today to take a picture of me in it!) with a silk lining and big bow at the front.

I think I actually love it.

Rowan "Lichen" Aran

I love this cardigan. Its fun to knit and looks really impressive, but its really time consuming and I just want it now!



I've discovered that knitting on circulars is definately the way forward for big stuff like this. It makes it 10 times easier to carry around and it means the weight is in the middle and not on each arm when it starts getting big. Also, my tip for cable - use a hairgrip rather than a cable needle - it stays there easier without slipping out and you're much less likely to drop a stitch :-)

This pattern is from Rowan Knitting and Crochet Magazine Issue 40

Summer Dresses

Remember back in May I posted a photo of a model in a magazine and said I was going to copy the dress? Looky here to recap. Well here's the dress, I finally got around to posting up the photograph (courtesy of Helen Tinner Photography)



Also Helen shot a better photo of me in the floral dress I blogged about last May



And the tulip dress I was in the middle of making in June

Wrap around skirt

I designed this skirt for my pattern cutting class last year. It was loosely based on a few pictures I'd seen in vogue (which I should upload but they're in the attic). I think I mainly designed it because I wanted this skirt, rather than challenging myself by making something more difficult! None the less, I love it, wear it all the time, and often get compliments on it. It looks great with cowboy boots!

Kangaroo Beanie

So this is what I'm doing right now, amongst other things. I've been asked to make a beanie hat for an electrician with his logo on the front, so I'm quite excited about designing this.

This is what I've been given to work with



And this is the chart I've made so far. (I don't have the right colour pens but I know where I'm at!) I've changed the pattern around the kangaroo slightly as it's going to be a wiggly stripe that goes right around the hat.



I gotta go out now and buy some new needles!

Hot Pants for Winter

I made these in September? October? 2009. I've given up trying to post in chronological order now. These were from a burda pattern for my dressmaking class. I'm really pleased with them, they're so comfortable I'm making another pair in corderoy.