January 2008

January 29th, 2008

Tote bags

In the shop.



And for those of you who are wondering, no Swedish linen bags yet.
Soon.

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January 29th, 2008

Nani Iro sewing patterns + Paris

Thanks to Jen for the link to the nani iro site, I happened upon a heap of patterns for download. Follow this link and navigate by clicking the pictures or the dates on the top nav (as long as you stay within the sewing section). I want to make the baby bloomers!


And a few of you have asked about Trade Me and Paris. A clue: it’s easy to guess my Trade Me name. And Paris, yes we’re going on holiday to Paris in July. Which is slightly connected to us having a massive clearout… slightly.

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January 28th, 2008

Out with the old…

This weekend I have at long last had the time to sit down quietly and sew to my heart’s content. And because I’ve been having such a big clearout on TradeMe (our eBay equivalent) I’ve been able to return to Linnet again (just in case I’d forgotten anything) – although really I need to be saving for the Paris fleamarkets.

More stuff leaving the house today. More things being listed. I love having a massive clear out. And this is quite a ruthless one. I’ve got four months to whittle myself down to my most important belongings.



So I ordered some grey cotton from said only shop in the world, and low and behold it’s double gauze. Now that’s funny because just a week or two ago I thought I would lose my fear of double gauze and buy some of that beautiful Nani Iro I keep longing for but never dared sew.



It’s amazing what one can squeeze out of a half metre of fabric. Although with the dress I’ll be ordering at least 0.6m next time. I had to do very bad things to the sleeves. The shorts are so cute – the cotton crochet lace is from Linnet – I used the pattern from Girly Style Wardrobe , and the dress pattern is from Koharu no Fuku.

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January 21st, 2008

Today it’s raining

It was good last week. As I said, some shop money came in. November and December worth from two shops, which of course afforded me a trip or two to Linnet.



Today I am feeling so so drained. Today I will curl up on the (linen) sofa, drink chai spice tea and let my pisces fish self soak up the rain and replenish my inner energies.



Out will come the linen yarn and a doily or two shall be made. Perhaps I might make something useful. Jussi mentioned linen washcloths. I think I’ll make a green one to begin with. Or maybe I’ll make a scarf for Astrid instead. No – I’ve looked and decided upon a cushion cover now.



And I won’t even think about our front room full of stuff that needs sorting. Sorting to keep. Sorting to sell. Sorting to send to my aunt for safe keeping.

And I won’t think about the past two weekends spent going through old family things; mum’s things, grandma’s things, my things, family things. Not just a few boxes. Four entire rooms of it.

Treasures that needed rescuing. Precious things buried in forgotten pockets. Memories that had come undone. Things mum told me I must find. And things she thought long gone. All unearthed. All ready to be unpacked and polished and worn and treasured. All ready to become family heirlooms again. All things that came too close to being sent away to be auctioned as a bargain job lot.

Today I’m buying back a treasured family book from the book dealer. Next week I go to the auction house to check over everything – to make sure nothing was accidentally missed. So kind of them. Somewhere in there are two wedding dresses to be handed down from a great grandmother and a grandmother whom Astrid missed by such a short time. These things are for her. Not to be sold off as a job lot thank you.

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January 18th, 2008

Making

As well as shopping, sometimes I make things too. Like bags.

With echino and re:form and trefle linens and cottons. All mixed up like. With heavy lilac dkny linen handles that fit just nicely over the shoulder.


And then I might make other bags from vintage swedish linen, a dash of japanese fabric, a piece of brown leather with pink embroidery cotton detail.



Destined for yon shop of course. I’ll let you know.

Oh yeah and I got some shop money in so had to buy more stuff from Linnet. I thought I might hide the fact I have done so from Kevin be shy and not put it on my blog, but what the heck – I’ll show you when it’s here. Which I think will be tomorrow – woo!

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January 15th, 2008

Two books

I ordered these early October. They’ve just arrived. The first ones got lost in the post somewhere along the way but book orders are never a rush – there are always plenty to read right here.



The first book; one piece + smock blouse is the only clothing book I’ll be needing, at least for a while. It’s Girly Style Wardrobe and Onnanoko no fuku for big girls.

There are dresses in here and lovely lovely tops. I can’t wait to begin using up some of that Liberty fabric on projects from this book.



The second book, Linen Work, is smaller than I expected it to be, but it’s packed full of goodness. It’s the kind of book one would want to curl up on the sofa with, a good coffee and biscuit close by.



There’s some text – and I for one want to know what it says. It’ll require time, but with the help of my rusty Japanese (thank you mum for insisting I take Japanese at school), my trusty kana chart and a dictionary it can be done.

I love this colour chart – I want to dive in and swim through each colour.



Linen Work is a gem of a book which requires careful study and thought. I have a feeling that in reading as much as I can, some lovely secrets will be revealed. And even if I never get around to it, it’s such a nicely designed book with many wonderful photos and projects (with patterns) it wouldn’t matter. Not one wit!

This weekend, apart from sorting through mountains and mountains of old family stuff (lots of rescued goodies I might add) before it’s got rid of, I managed to fit in some crochet.



It took some getting used to, but Charlotte, the lace hook and the Linnet light weight yarn are working together quite well. Practice makes perfect. One day! Patterns for crochet motifs available here.

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January 12th, 2008

LINNET



I’m officially in Love. I knew I would be. LINNET is most definitely in my top ten shops in the whole wide world. No, make that top five.

My parcel arrived early this morning. It was probably more exciting than Christmas. Up we got Astrid and I, and out to carefully and slowly unwrap and examine the delights that lay within.



The calendar is lovely, with a different set of cute watercolours for each month. I bought this to inspire me to get my watercolours out and use them. I’ve already hung it next to my new inspiration board. So I’m feeing quite organised this year.



The linen I bought, tiny pieces they were, are of the most amazing quality I’ve ever felt. It’s by no means cheap but worth every penny. This grain-sack linen is so heavy and just exquisite.



What had initially led me to LINNET, my google search for linen ribbon, all simply gorgeous as well. Funnily, the day after ordering this I inherited a roll of about 20 metres of antique linen tape.



The yarn on the left hand side above is a very fine white linen. I was left my grandmother’s crochet hooks, amongst which were many lace hooks. So I also picked up some little crochet motif patterns – so I’ll now have a good excuse to actually sit down and watch a dvd tonight whilst crocheting some of these.



I’ve still got to finish the four bags I started making yesterday which I’ll do today. But for now it’s time to get ready for the day and head to La Cigale market where we’ll fill my new tote bag with gorgeous fresh produce then sit down with a yummy hot moccachino and watch the world go by.

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January 8th, 2008

The “lining the vintage-swedish-linen bags and purses with really cool fabrics” project

Today heralds the beginning of another new project. It ought to be noted this does not fall under the “delicate and natural” brief – that’s my other project.

Every evening over Christmas I sat down in my new reading nook with my favourite book and looked at everything over and over. Then I spent two entire days looking all the way through Reprodepot and Superbuzzy; adding things to shopping carts, removing them, adding them back, mixing, matching, considering. Back to the book. Back to the sites. There was no intentional matching, but on a subliminal level, of course.

On Boxing Day morning a small twist of fate led me to the most marvellous treasures from my vintage linen lady and today the first two parcels arrived early at my door. After we’d breakfasted and I’d cleaned up the glass I broke Astrid and I began to slowly unpack and admire these new wonders and play a bit of mix n match.

The green and blues in both these fabrics are simply made for each other. I’m quite excited about this combo – no doubt there’ll be a bag in a few days time.



These ladybugs with lilac dots are absolutely gorgeous. It’s a linen so it will be rather heavy for lining don’t you think so we’ll see – but these two look cute together. Aren’t the orange apples sweet – and I think the red dashes are rather brilliant.



Oh and the purple wavy dots – simply simply extremely lovely in all their wavy loveliness. And what better to go with them than the spangly orange flowers?



This little discovery was the first in my line of finds. I love the harder style of illustration – yet it’s still very friendly and looks most happy with the also-friendly chocolate dots.



And this linen runner – well it vanished from the shop and then it came back I’m happy to say and it’s now in its rightful home soon to become a lovely purse with trees on the inside.



I’m just so in love with these fabrics I could burst! And I really must do some work now and sew tonight.

Some amazing fabrics and eye candy over at The Time Has Come. You can see their blog here. You must have a look. Really. Especially you Lottie if you’re reading this :)

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January 5th, 2008

Drawing inspiration

This year my overriding goal is to spend more time on things. Mainly the design process. I’ve been thinking these past few days about a subject. Something to provide a framework for my thoughts.

Yesterday I revisited Alison’s and Hilary’s cotton ribbons; which led me, via google to LINNET. It was like walking into the garden of eden. Page after page of pure beauty. And looking for books today I came across Print and Pattern’s lists where I found Simple and Natural: Petit Pattern Book.



The thoughts that had been simmering over the past few days knitted together. The photos I’d printed out yesterday matched so beautifully with flowers from the garden – I am now most definitely ready to find some wall and get an inspiration board up.



My first theme; natural and delicate.

With my fresh, clean new diary and sketchbook in hand I am very excited about the coming year.

{ Background photos are from LINNET }

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January 4th, 2008

Hello oh eight

New Year’s around our house was about as exciting as last year with me making cushions. Earlier in the day I ran into Leslie’s latest project and thought that would be a brilliant way to display some of the favourites in the Swedish linen collection. They’re not usually this squished up next to each other. Consider it a family portrait.



The Christmas Fairy was kind to me this year and brought me many desired things. I’m currently reading the Florence Broadhurst biography and planning something with my first ever delivery from Reprodepot. What a shame Martha’s is closed. I can’t buy any natural linen now I’ve finally realised it is quite nice after all.



I’ve cleaned up the sewing mess, filed all the fabrics in the fabric chest and even put my sewing machine (not the overlocker) away. A clear desk for the next stage – which I’ll blog about soon.

I made a blind, from chintz of all things. We’re not quite sure how the mechanism works so I roll it up by hand each morning. One thing they don’t warn you about when buying chintz on eBay is that it’s shiny at night. In fact they didn’t even say it was chintz. But it’s a gorgeous design so I’ve decided to convince myself that shiny at night is hip.



Astrid’s been inundated with toys so we’ve tidied those up too and she’s now on a one toy a day rotation. The Haba playland is the exception to the rule although Oscar seems more keen on it than Astrid does.



The garden’s coming along. It’s been quite tedious work in the heat, so one evening after having some friends around, and two bottles of fizzy later, I got into the garden and made excellent headway. I’ve been attacking the kikuyu every weekend but I finally managed to clear most of it, and get a few new things in. Now my friends tell me a couple of drinks work wonders for doing boring jobs, and I’m inclined to agree. (Note it is usually in full sun, the photo was taken around 8:30pm).



The wildflowers are past seedling stage, I’ve put in new peas having discovered the ones I’d planted and staked were, in fact, dwarf peas. We’ve not bought lettuce or spring onions for ages and the other day we got our first courgette. So it’s still maturing, but if you look back to the (bottom of) 21st of November progress has been pretty good!

Right then. I’m off to play with my new fabrics and decide whether to make a tote bag, a camera bag or a door stop.

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