Stash Avalanche

The smallest brain in blogland...

Oh dear.  It would appear that I am even more tired and stressed than I think I am.

All that work for Kids Clothes Week back in March.... and I've just discovered that I got my dates TOTALLY wrong and it's this month. Talk about STOOPID.

But that does explain why no-one else posted anything!* And it does mean that I get to do it all over again. Which is actually quite useful because I need to find some time to make the Coastal Cargos that I got from Blank Slate patterns the other week.

So. Moving stiftly on...

Following on from the shark trousers, I'm currently having a small trouser frenzy  - well, really it's just an excuse to make more welt pockets - and should have some photos to post in the next day or so.

*Although it does beg the question, does anyone actually read this blog because not a single person took pity on me to let me know my error. Thanks for that.

Show and Tell Tuesday: Celebrating the BOY

Hello. It's Show and Tell Tuesday again, hosted by Randi at I have to say...

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone for all your lovely comments about the quilted placemats. They are on hold for a week or so but should make a final appearance very soon.

The past two weeks have been we have been Celebrating the BOY with Dana and Rae. As usual life got in the way so I only started sewing boy-related stuff at the weekend and I'm still going strong.

I've been making t-shirts using Dana's Basic Tee pattern which comes as a free download for size 4T-5T - a bit big for Stashlet at the moment but as I learnt very early on in my mothering career, he'll always grow into them!

The 'grey' one is an upcycled, ex-black t-shirt donated by Mr G, and the fabric is so old that I looked at this version as more of a trial run. But it worked out ok so I am sure it will do for a summer - perhaps with a bit of fabric painting on the front.

The pale blue one is one of my old t-shirts. The fabric is a 2x2 rib which was fine for sewing the body of the t-shirt but a total pain for the neck, which is why it looks so awful and baggy. I then attempted to top-stitch it and the stitches went everywhere - it was one of the stretch stitches that my machine does and therefore not worth the angst to unpicking - so this t-shirt will have to be worn only when viewed from afar!

The navy pinstripe is a wonderful jersey from my LFS. It is lovely and heavy, and sews like a dream. I bought a metre on the basis that I would make a skirt (more on that in another post) and use the rest for tops for Stashlet. I need to get a second reel of navy thread before I finish this because I"m going to get out a twin needle and use that for hems and neck edge, so hopefully that will be done in the next couple of days.

Don't fear, dear readers, this is not the end of my t-shirt frenzy. I also plan to try the t-shirt pattern from Sewing for Boys, the advantage here being that I can make t-shirts for Stashlet in his existing size and he can wear some right now. So watch this space!

Summer tunics

Ok, so it's November and I'm only just getting round to putting photos and text together but better late than never.

This year I used an ancient Prima pattern and apart from some hilariously placed bust darts it went really well. I've previously blogged about tunic #1 - a sleeveless dress - and the plan was to make a second tunic, this time with sleeves, and hopefully resolve the dart issue. Which I did, so here is the dress, now dyed my favourite shade of Dylon, and the tunic-tunic which fits fine but colourwise is a failure.

The photos were all taken rather hurridly in fading light so apologies - they're not fantastic but hopefully you'll get the idea.

I had an idea for a really rich dark purple but the Dylon purple is too teenage-6th form-hippie for me so I will over dye it with blue next time I'm dyeing and see how that turns out, otherwise it's for the Oxfam bag.

Once I'd made those two I felt like I'd finally found a pattern I was happy with, so three more quickly appeared. Sleeveless, because it was summer, and therefore really quick to make. The first one was made from a print muslin that I was oggling over in my LFS. It's pretty sheer and needs a nude bra but I wore it loads. In fact I wore all three of these loads - my usualy summer staple, the jersey vest top, hardly got a look in.

The neck facing is a white cotton lawn. I was a bit afraid that it would be too white (because the muslin is so light) but it doesn't make a noticible amount of difference when it's on.

I also used white lawn for the facing of this next one, made in a heavily embroidered cotton.

I bought this fabric in Germany a few years ago on a whim because I really love broiderie anglaise but although the fabric looks great, all that embroidery makes it a bit stiff to wear so if I had to have a least favourite of the three, this would be it. But I still wore it lots so it is only 1% awful!

The last was a mild cock-up and recovery. I decided to make the neck notch deeper and it came out far too deep, with seriously illegal amounts of clevage on show. So I put in a false camisole type thingy, and that solved the problem and added a little bit of difference to the other two.

The fabric I used for the 'camisole' has a lovely scalloped edge which was perfect for the job.

I now have my eye on a viscose blend at the LFS that would make a good winter tunic but the way my sewing (and blogging) time is at the moment, it'll probably be high summer before I get round to cutting the thing out!

A quick comment on buttons: I put 'proper' sized buttons on the dress and purple tunic but found that they weighed the neck notch down and pulled it open in a kind of flopsy bunny type of way. I decided that the three sleeveless tunics would just have one very tiny button so that I could close the neck enough to keep them from falling off their hangers; this works much better.

More catch-up

Foof!

It's crazy busy here at Stash Towers so apologies for another absence. I have loads of tunics to show you - finally a tunic frenzy that I can wear! - and a very belated thank you to post but unfortunately those will all have to wait until next time.

In the meantime, here's the rest of the catch-up from earlier this summer.

Bean bags!

Stashlet has a little play area in the kitchen by the back door and he likes to watch the birds feeding so I thought I'd make him a bean bag to sit on (comfier than a stone floor, even in a big, fat cloth nappy!). The first one turned out rather too big - as you can see, it takes up nearly the whole play mat - so I made a smaller one...

Sorry, not the best of photos...

The big stripey one is 75cm square (which for some reason my imagination saw as about half the size, sigh) and is made from an Ikea cotton that (looking at their website now) seems to have been discontinued. I shall see if I still have the label. The smaller round one is another Ikea fabric, Fredrika. I used the width of the fabric to determine the circumference of the cushion so it's just under 150cm around and 40-something cms in diameter. 

These are both covers, with the actual polystyrene beads in a calico bag. And it's just as well, because the smaller one is already covered in biro and snacky smears!

I'm tempted to put some more beads in both of them, but they were such a pain to fill, that it's not a high priority. You have to do a Kirsty Allsopp and be prepared to get covered in them; they stick to everything, especially when an excited Stashlet jumps on the cushion halfway through filling...

The other thing I did was make an extension to the pushchair hood. It was only when we went looking for a more portable stroller in the spring that I discovered that some pushchairs/buggys/whatever! come with additional segments of hood that you can pull out as a sunshade. Wish I'd known that this time last year!

Anyway, this one is made from a stiff vilene-type interfacing sandwiched between two cottons. I strengthened the outer edge with a double strip of boning, and hand stitched it to the existing hood using a cotton tape to act as a kind of hinge.

 

There. That's a better photo of the fabric.

I was going to ask Mr G to help me sew it on by machine - him supporting it as I went round using a zip foot - but in the end the hand stitching worked out fine.

I can't say it's 100% successful, because it doesn't fold back under the existing hood very neatly, but it does the trick.

 

 

The return of the tunic

Way, way back in the pre-Stashlet days, I had a tunic frenzy. I made several tunics and they never managed to fit properly, which was really disappointing.

But, after more than a year off, I seem to have got my tunic mojo back. Hurrah! because I really like the idea of simple pull-over tops that are not blouses or t-shirts.

One of the many tunic patterns I have lounging around in my pattern box is a version from the May 2009 Prima magazine, and I thought I might give that a go with some trusty Ikea Bomull. By the way, have you noticed that the quality of Bomull has gone down? Ikea, what are you thinking?

My perennial problem with all the previous tunics was fit across the back. Prima's tunic comes in two versions, one with sleeves and one without, so naturally I made the one without. Now there's logic for you (er...). I also decided to make it dress length having been inspired by the lovely, simple A-line dresses that Harmony and Rosie keep coming up with.

Unhemmed, but what the hell. Let's live dangerously once in a while.

Having still not got rid of my pregnancy flab, I made the size 18 (oh, how I cringe to type that) and it is a perfect fit. Except.....

The bust darts. At least it's not the fit across the back. Do I have serious boob droop or is the pattern being a little over ambitious in the pert department?

Those little safety pins mark my point of bust. That's 4.5cm lower than Prima's. Which is quite a lot, even in a new M&S bra.

So.

Well, I like this dress despite the dart issue so I unpicked the dart and moved the pointed end down to my point of bust.

Clearly this is not ideal, and I plan to make a second trial and add 4.5cm in directly below the armhole across the complete width of the dress, but I plan to dye this a very dark blue or purple so I am sort of hoping that the rather strange dart won't be too obvious. If you're reading this and going Noooooooo!, please let me know, I woudl prefer not to look a complete idiot if you think it is going to be that bad.

I'll get back to you on this, a. when I've dyed this version, and b. when I've made the second, lengthened-under-the-armhole version.

 

 

 

Baby baking

Not sure I've mentioned it, but I'm doing baby led weaning with the wee Stashlet. I find the auguments for it so convincing that I can barely walk down the baby food aisle of a supermarket without getting somewhat outraged... but that's probably just me.

Anyway, since the Stashlet appeared, my diet has gone rather haywire so I thought I'd try out some recipies from the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook to get me back on track. Baking seemed the easiest option to fit in during naps so I went a bit crazy, as you can see.

This Baked Oat Cake is made with oatmeal rather than wheat flour and has no added sugar, and despite spending three times longer in the oven than the recipe suggested, it turned out rather well. The sweetness is provided by apples and sultanas. Stashlet's opinion: ooh, I can squish this and eat it.

I love savory muffins so I was very happy to make these Spinach and Cheese Muffins. I added a bit of ham too although I think it got lost in the general cheeseyness. Mr G's opinion: am I really only allowed one? Stashlet's opinion: yum! He couldn't get it in his mouth fast enough.

My only grumble, which happens with all savory muffins not just these, is that they stick horribly to the tin or to paper cases, which is a total pain in the arse. I think it might be the cheese, but if anyone has suggestions for improving the situation, do please let me know!

Flapjacks. But suprise flapjacks, because they're cheese flavoured (yes, we now have no cheddar left in the house). Sounds weird, tastes suprisingly good. Next time I think I'll try them wth onions in. Good for taking out on trips and pretty substantial in the wave-it-about-and-bang-it-on-the-table department. Stashlet's opinion: Nice, but the crackly paper bag it came in is much more interesting right now.

I'll definitely be making more from this book and if I have enough time, I'll stick a few of the recipies up on here too.

added 28-09-11 Bummer time: turned out that every subsequent time I gave Stashlet a muffin or flapjack, he projectile vomited all over the place shortly afterwards, with the clear conclusion that he's allergic to cheddar if not all cheeses. So cheese is off the menu for the time being. The doctor said that babies with eczema often display more food alergies so we will have to curb our enthusiasm for a while...

Zip buying question

Inspired by Millie and needing a chunky open ended zip for a cardigan I'm knitting Baby S (and not being prepared to treck into the middle of Dublin to find one (grumble)), I have decided to have a small zip buying frenzy. Ebay doesn't seem to have what I want so I Googled around a bit and found fabricland.co.uk in Bournemouth (UK).

However, having got my fingers burnt a couple of years ago by a very swish looking on-line knitting shop, cautioned by Jo's recent experience at Fabrics Galore, and blinded by the Fabric Land website (you really will need to wear sunglasses...), I'm wondering, has anyone bought anything from this shop and if so, were you happy with things and would you recommend them?

Cute as a Button theme and variations

First there was this...

The original Cute as a Button baby jacket that I made in January.

Then I made this...

The Whale Jacket: a size bigger and a teeny bit tweeked from the original.

And I thought, that's a useful little pattern, I wonder what else I could do with it.

And made this...

But the sleeves - well, the wrists - turned out to be too tight and I could just only get Baby S's hands through them.

So I cut them back and added a little cuff...

But I didn't like the seam across the top of the sleeve, so I altered the pattern to make raglan sleeves instead, top stitched the sleeve seams, added little vents in the side seams, and took a really wonky photo of it...

And then I thought, I still really like that original Charlie Tunic which is made in linen rather than cotton jersey. So I was going to make a Bomull tunic version (which admittedly is cotton not linen) but Baby S was having a bad eczema week and didn't like pulling his arms through sleeve holes, so I decided to make life easier for him and made this...

Which admittedly needs ironing but there's no space to unfold the ironing board at the moment!

I think it looks a bit like something a Chinese Mandarin would wear, but perhaps that's just me. I kept the raglan sleeves and the vents in the side seams, and added 1cm to each front half to enable a bit of overlap for buttonholes (yay! for a sewing machine that makes button holes!).

So, despite the fact that I originally grumped about the miniscule seam allowances, I think I can say that all in all it's quite a versatile and alterable pattern. I still intend to make a linen/cotton pull-over-the-head version, and there is also a half-made dressing gown version waiting to be finished, so I think we can officially call this my first sewing frenzy of 2011.

Happy Monday!

(ps. the binding for the shirt and the blue top are both Kaffe Fassett.)