the fruits of my labour

Well, that was an unexpected delay, but here I am after some technical difficulties and other impediments to blogging, like tiredness, kids and life in general. Not that I am complaining about kids and life. Without them, there’d be nothing to write about, right?

Anyway, the little sewing project I mentioned a while ago is finally finished and without further ado, I shall unveil it:

It’s an apron (I like to state the obvious) for Chris and I’m pretty happy with it. Excuse the creases, but I couldn’t get a photo of it before Chris used it, which I’m not complaining about, as it means he must really like it. It’s linen and it feels lovely. I was very much inspired (as I so often am) by the aprons of Amanda of SouleMama, who uses a lot of linen and makes a lot of (beautiful) aprons. I have no idea if the linen I used is like what Amanda uses, as there seems to be many kinds, at vastly differing prices, but I got mine here and I like it. I have more and intend to make an apron for both Elliott and me from it.

I didn’t use a pattern, I just traced an old apron of Chris’s and just kind of made up the rest as I went along. At times I felt I was crazy, as a sewing novice, for doing this, but then usually I would tell myself I was being an idiot and it was just an apron and it really couldn’t be that hard. And it wasn’t. I’m certainly not saying it’s perfect, but it works as an apron, I learnt a few things and it wouldn’t have been perfect if I’d used a pattern anyway. Nevertheless, I’m expecting an order of sewing books to arrive from Amazon any day now, and I think they’ll help me feel more confident. Or completely overwhelmed and out of my depth. One of the two.

I haven’t been able to find a lot of time for craft lately, sadly. But when I have (usually only minutes from bedtime, when everyone else is asleep and I’ve finished most of the pressing chores), I’ve been knitting. A few weeks ago I made Isobel this wool nappy cover. I followed the free Ottobre pattern here. I used 12 ply machine washable wool, rather than untreated wool roving, which the pattern calls for, because that’s what I had leftover from other projects and I’d read on the Oz Cloth Nappies email list that other people had used it successfully. It seems to be working quite well over a fitted nappy, although I haven’t been brave enough to try it at night. If you think it sounds crazy to use wool as a nappy cover (and I admit it is a bit counterintuitive) and want to know more about its benefits, especially overnight, and how to lanolise (a must) go here. You should know that we have been using these wool covers very successfully on Elliott at nights for months, and wish we’d known about them sooner.

This is the most complicated thing I’ve ever knitted, which is saying something, as it’s pretty basic. I found the hardest part was picking up stitches along the leg openings. How do you do that?! I just kind of made it up. It looks OK, but I’ll try to find a tutorial on it before I try it again. I’ve started another one in 8 ply, hoping I’ve correctly calculated the pattern adjustments. We’ll see! Again, I’m just using what I have.

And if that’s not enough knitting news for you, there’s even more to come soon, as I visited Sunspun the other day and bought some beautiful wool to make a couple of things for Chris. I just need to work on my technique, though, because I know it’s not right and it’s slowing me down.

In other craft supply shopping news, I received some fabric in the mail a couple of weeks or so from Quilt Fabric Delights. Here it is, all freshly washed and ironed:

It’s now waiting for me to do something with it, along with some natural linen from here. Hopefully that something will include some aprons for me, Chris and Elliott, and some fabric coasters. A couple of family members who shall remain nameless think the fabric coaster idea is nuts (”Why would you want to make coasters out of something you’d have to wash?“) , but I am desperate to make my first attempt at patchwork and maybe quilting, very much inspired by these, these, and these. We’ll see who’s nuts…