make something

ZIPPERED POUCHES

Published on September 18, 2011 in stitchery and the workroom. 8 Comments Tags: Far Far Away III, zippered pouch.

Sometimes the best projects are ones that you can start and finish in just one sitting. When I make zippered pouches, I’ll often make two or three or even four. It feels like it takes just about the same time. We needed a couple pouches for the shop for receipts and petty cash. I couldn’t resist making myself a pouch with some of my Far Far Away III fabric and some horseshoe fabric I had. It doesn’t have a use just yet but it usually doesn’t take very long for a cute pouch like this to find a purpose.

COLOUR THEORY + MINI QUILTS

Published on September 17, 2011 in colour, patchwork and the workroom. 3 Comments Tags: colour theory, Lizzy House, mini quilt.

Somehow I was catapulted out of August into the middle of September, (WTH?) so don’t mind me while I reminisce about the last bits of summer.

Colour Theory + Mini Quilts with Lizzy House was a phenomenal class. The first class was spent mixing paints and learning about colour theory. It felt like being back in art class, but it truly drove the lesson home. Right away we were putting together dynamic colour palettes that surprised us. I saved mine and I’m making a mini quilt out of it this weekend.

For the mini quilt portion of the class we had to design something from scratch. I’ve done lots of improv quilting, but never really planned a design, so this was a challenge. We were also supposed to try to only use solids. Another challenge for me since I rarely use solids.

I added one more personal challenge on top of all that. I wanted to try to convey transparency with my design where parts were overlapping. Let me tell you, I was frustrated by the whole thing. But for me, I know that this means that I’m actually learning something!

My mini turned out to look just like my sketch and I can’t tell you what a thrill it was the first time I pieced together a component with the transparency layers.

It was really special watching each individual mini quilt come together from a sketch to a little mini work of art. It was even more special to see everyone achieve little milestones of personal challenge and achievement. I’m not going to lie, there were some joyful tears at the end of this class. Yep. That’s the kind of teacher Lizzy House is.

CHAMPION RIBBONS

Published on August 31, 2011 in scraps and the workroom. 1 Comment Tags: champion ribbons, Lizzy House.

Oh boy. What an awesome week we had with Lizzy House last week! I can’t believe that it’s over already. I took a crazy amount of photos so I’ll be posting those over the next few days in batches, starting from the end and working back to the beginning.

We ended the week at the workroom with Lizzy’s Champion Ribbons class. What a perfect and fun Saturday morning we had. This project is pure genius, using bits of felt, ribbon, buttons and any other craft materials you’ve got lying around. Plus, I’ll take any excuse I can get to make a trip to Mokuba to buy fancy trims. What’s great about this project is that it is so playful and relaxing. We sat around the huge table together, making a mess, cutting felt, turning ribbon and chatting away.

To add to the festive mood, Andrea made a delicious spice cake that she decorated with mini bunting made from Lizzy’s fabric. So sweet! It was so pretty but we didn’t seem to have any problems gobbling it right up.

I ended up making six Champion Ribbons. My favourite part was going through my scrap bin and finding the perfect bit of fabric to cover a button with for the centres of my ribbons. I made a few for myself and a few for gifts. I think these make a special gift and I can’t wait to award some special people in my life with a Champion Ribbon. I already know I’ll be making more ribbons very soon, I spent the other night organizing all my trims into mason jars so I’ll be ready for another ribbon making session.

1001 PEEPS : ENCHANTED BOW SKIRT

Published on August 12, 2011 in clothing, DIY, stitchery and the workroom. 26 Comments Tags: 1001 Peeps, Enchanted Bow Skirt, Lizzy House, shirring.

I’m so excited to share my 1001 Peeps Summer Camp project with you today! Have you been following along with the other great camp projects every Friday?

Since I love making clothes so much, I thought I would create a skirt pattern that is very easy to sew. You will start and finish this skirt in a few hours! Also, I show you how to do elastic shirring with this pattern. If you’ve never tried it, this is a magical technique to learn. It’s also very addictive. You may have seen it in this dress, this dress or this dress. Since I know how much Lizzy loves bows, I had to make sure it had a big bow on it too! My Enchanted Bow Skirt features a ruffled paper bag waist, an elastic shirred waistband and an adorable contrasting bow.

It was pretty hard to choose just two fabrics from the 1001 Peeps fabric collection for the skirt, but I’m having a love affair with purple right now, so I chose the Purple Pearl Bracelet for the bow and the Scheherazade for the skirt.

You can download a pdf of the instructions to make this pattern here. I’ve added the elastic thread that I use to our online shop, in case you don’t have a place near you that sells it. Please let me know if you make one, I’d love to see it!

the workroom will FINALLY be receiving our shipment of 1001 Peeps next week. Just in time for Lizzy’s arrival. There will be sets of all 24 prints for sure! Fat quarter, half metre and full metre. If you need one, (I definitely need one), let me know and you can pre-order.

There are just two more weeks left of the 1001 Peeps Summer Camp. Be sure to visit Whipstitch next Friday and Happy Zombie on August 26th!

p.s. The bow on this skirt is totally enchanted. Take a look at the last photo where the magical bow is trying to fly away!

Finish Enchanted Bow Skirts :
- Jeni finished her skirt within a day of posting the pattern! It’s amazing with the Royal City print in orange.
- Lizzy House made TWO enchanted bow skirts while she was in Toronto. Here’s her first one made with Heather Ross’ Far Far Away 3 fabric.

MANNISH STYLE : DRESS 12

Published on August 7, 2011 in colour, japanese dress/craft, natural dyeing, stitchery and the workroom. 21 Comments Tags: Japanese dress book, logwood, mannish style, natural dyeing, shibori, silk.

Mannish Style – available at the workroom
Dress 12 : silk shibori dyed in logwood

Oh boy, was I ever excited last week when I remembered that I had this piece of silk from my Advanced Natural Dyeing class. This pattern from Mannish Style is exactly what I had hoped to find to make a dress from this shibori fabric that I dyed in logwood. I love the drapey folds.

This pattern was also very easy! There are just 2 pieces (front & back), with the front being cut on the bias to give it that nice drape. The neck and arms are finished with bias trim. The pattern was intended for a knit fabric which you can see would have even more drape. Because of that, the dress is a bit snug around the hips and I would adjust the pattern next time to be a bit looser. I would also love to make this in a fun knit fabric.

This silk is my most favourite piece of fabric that I have dyed myself. The super dark, inky purple colour we got from this logwood bath is so amazing and so much deeper than any other colour I’ve done in the past. There is still some of this silk leftover and I want to try to use every bit of it. I’m trying to figure out what else I can make with it, perhaps a tank top or camisole?

SUNDAY PATCHWORK #9

Published on August 4, 2011 in patchwork. 4 Comments Tags: mrsmcporkchop, star-y log cabin, sunday patchwork.

It’s been a while since I’ve worked on my Star-y Log Cabin quilt, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot. (that counts for something, right?) I finally promised myself that I would devote a Sunday Patchwork night to make some headway with this quilt top. (which was designed by Amanda)

It’s pretty fun to start to see it come together. It’s definitely a much bolder palette than what I tend to go for and it feels pretty good to step outside my normal ‘grey’ palette. I have about five more rounds of logs to do, so I’m just about half way done!

HONEYCOMB SMOCKING

Published on July 30, 2011 in clothing, needlework and the workroom. 3 Comments Tags: honeycomb smocking.

I’m learning honeycomb smocking and I’m pretty smitten.

MANNISH STYLE

Published on July 29, 2011 in clothing, japanese dress/craft, reading, stitchery and the workroom. 4 Comments Tags: Japanese dress book, mannish style.

Mannish Style – available at the workroom

This is my current favourite Japanese Dress book. Firstly, it has a fantastic title that makes me smile every time I read it. The full title on the book is ‘She has a mannish style’. I am feeling this mannish style right now!

What I love about this book is that it strays from the typical sweet tunics and dresses you find in most Japanese Dress books. It’s great to see some variation in the styling. There are some super cool drapey tops and vestlets that look like they will be fun to make. I’m looking through my stash to figure out what fabric will work for one of the dresses. It will be one of the 13 projects I hope to work on over the long weekend. I need more time to sew!

365 : APRIL

Published on July 27, 2011 in 365. 0 Comments Tags: 365, mosaic.

1. 365 : 91, 2. 365 : 92, 3. 365 : 93, 4. 365 : 94, 5. 365 : 95, 6. 365 : 96, 7. 365 : 97, 8. 365 : 98, 9. 365 : 99, 10. 365 : 100, 11. 365 : 101, 12. 365 : 102, 13. 365 : 103, 14. 365 : 104, 15. 365 : 105, 16. 365 : 106, 17. 365 : 107, 18. 365 : 108, 19. 365 : 109, 20. 365 : 110, 21. 365 : 111 (explored!), 22. 365 : 112, 23. 365 : 113, 24. 365 : 114, 25. 365 : 115, 26. 365 : 116, 27. 365 : 117, 28. 365 : 118, 29. 365 : 119, 30. 365 : 120

This year I’ve finally started taking more people photos. They need work and I’m still really shy about it, but it’s a start. I had a mission to photograph all of the workroom family and that has really helped. It’s just so much easier to take a photograph of a jar of jam!

365 : MARCH

Published on July 27, 2011 in 365. 1 Comment Tags: 365, mosaic.

1. 365 : 60, 2. 365 : 61, 3. 365 : 62, 4. 365 : 63, 5. 365 : 64, 6. 365 : 65, 7. 365 : 66, 8. 365 : 67, 9. 365 : 68, 10. 365 : 69, 11. 365 : 70, 12. 365 : 71, 13. 365 : 72, 14. 365 : 73, 15. 365 : 74, 16. 365 : 75, 17. 365 : 76, 18. 365 : 77, 19. 365 : 78, 20. 365 : 79, 21. 365 : 80, 22. 365 : 81, 23. 365 : 82, 24. 365 : 83, 25. 365 : 84, 26. 365 : 85, 27. 365 : 86, 28. 365 : 87, 29. 365 : 88, 30. 365 : 89, 31. 365 : 90

Finally some more 365. I’m really having a summer of reflection, spending a lot of time looking back. I am constantly trying to make sure that I also don’t forget to be in the moment. Something with the moons and eclipses have been off for me in the last few months. So I am just trying to get through this funny time. I have high hopes for August and the fall, though!

You can see here that we were working on our online shop since March (and before). I can’t believe we started creating those floss palettes in March. It took so long to get it all together. This is the fun part now.

p.s. I really love looking at snowy photos in July.