for babe: deux.

three months to go and i'm getting the urge to nest. i've been making lots of bits and pieces for babe. two knit blankets are in progress. a couple of small jumpers (sweaters) are being finished up in the evenings. and i've got a list a mile long of other things i'd like to get started on - this wee one won't stay 'wee' for long!

i had it in my head that i wanted to make the baby a blanket - something that maybe could be something held on to - enjoyed - for years. it needed to be suitably sophisticated and large enough to transition from baby-sized to child-sized. oh and it needed to be easy.

in my mind i enjoy sewing. in reality i'm a bit of a lazy seamstress. i like sewing just until the end of the project when i get bored and can't be bothered to finish the seams 'just-so' or be super careful about how the binding goes on...needless to say, i'm probably not going to set up an etsy shop filled with hand sewn creations. oh and those drapes i made last year - they are still un-hemmed. i foresee an afternoon sitting under the windows streaming public radio for distraction in my future.

so easy.

but cute.

and long lasting.

oh and gender neutral.

enter - the ten hour quilt. i saw this on pinterest a long time ago. declared it genius and promptly pinned it to my 'secret' baby board.

but just so you know - it's not ten hours. it took me max five. ok eight if you include the washing and drying. but i mean the washing machine did that - PTL for washing machines, can you imagine the days before there were washing machines?

i did not pre-wash the fabrics. the batting is a bamboo-silk-cotton mix that is supposed to shrink about 5%, combined with 100% cotton cloth, a very hot wash and a hot tumble dry leading to the crinkle quilt look. which helpfully covered up the inevitable puckers in the stitched fabric. top recommendation from this experience - save yourself and buy the bias tape pre-made - it was just brilliant to have pre-made bias tape when it came time for binding.

i simply cannot wait to wrap our little one in this for years and years to come. amazing to think that we're only eleven weeks to go!

thread & needle.

last week a dear friend asked if i'd help her prepare a wedding gift for a friend of her's. she just didn't want to buy off the registry.

i understand this. i loved getting things off our registry, but i generally avoid them. i prefer to pick gifts that celebrate our personal relationship with the couple. unless there's something on the registry that we just LOVE and have to give...

in the past i've done

• a giant wooden salad bowl with a list of family favourite salad recipes. 
• wine and cheese boards for with a slot for a single wine glass. 
• handmade vase from travels. 
• a one-of-a-kind tray covered with a map of london and focussing on the spot where the bride and i went to grad school. 

but i think i like this the best, and i might just use this idea myself for future weddings...

i traced the design on the fabric and spent an hour or so stitching around the design, i added the date of the wedding to the back flap and made a basic envelope pillow the next morning before work. the design can be found here and is customizable! 

sew-nice.

a few weeks ago le boy and i had a conversation that went like this:

him: hey babe, if we got you a new good sewing machine how long would it last? 

me: hmmm about 20 years. 

him: let's go tomorrow morning. 

and when we went to john lewis and spoke with the lovely and helpful sales lady, she informed us that yes, they do last 20 years, in fact they last longer :) i was pretty certain about what i wanted (a jonome) le boy, being the consummate value for money man, asked a lot of questions, maybe more questions than most men would ask in the sewing department, and definitely more than a man who won't ever actually touch a sewing machine should ask. but i kinda love that he did, because it means that he cares about the stuff i care about. (ok sappy portion is over). in the end we walked out with a janome, of course we paid for the privilege. 

so what else to do but put the new baby to work? 

and work she has!

wanting to dress up our bed i made a few quick throw pillows. the basic how-to for cushion covers is here with a great measurement guide for the most common sizes. 

i wanted to dress them up a bit and turned to martha for some ribbon inspiration.

for the loopy centre pillow.

and for the rosette.

i just pintucked the ruffle until i liked it and sewed straight down the centre of the ribbon.

all very easy and very very quick!

and for the thing i'm currently most proud of? the console table slip cover! an ikea expedit bookcase turned on its side and covered now provides oodles of hidden storage. the instructions and genius behind this is found from in the sept 2011 canadian house and home.

(and isn't the new chair pretty?) we're ambling our way toward finishing up the living room. in my dreams i'm sewing the curtains this weekend...

weekend plans.

this weekend i will:

• host dinner tonight for a few good friends, i prepped much of it this morning. i'm doing a lentil & tomato salad from ottolenghi's plenty, this broccoli & bacon salad by jamie oliver, and bbq'd sausages and chicken with our new favourite (and spontaneously created by me last week) sauce: tomato ketchup,  worcestershire sauce and red wine vinegar.
• meet some old girlfriends for picnic (hopefully) lunch - haven't seen these girls in years! 
• buy a new sewing machine, mine has bit the dust and it's time to replace it!  
• go to the movies with my guy 
• sew a slip cover for a bookcase-cum-sidetable 
• enjoy a free day while le boy is in an incredibly long cycle race, luckily he doesn't ask me to attend as well 
• go to evening church and enjoy the late evening light on the walk home 
• listen to podcasts 
• chat with the fam 
• read more of my current (and excellent) book: canada by richard ford 
• block my recently completed cardigan! 

happy weekend. 

sixteen::newlywed::homemaking

::: to see all 31 days of posts please click here :::

 

 

the weekend's been mainly productive. i did get a little distracted by cooking - the soup from yesterday, chicken stock, delicious fish cakes that i'll post very soon! i hung curtains (more on that later), had a fight with the printer for printing everything with a blue tinge, and made some new pillow cases for our living room.

envelope pillow cases 

really these couldn't be easier, but since every tutorial i found online made these much more complicated than i believe necessary, too much cutting and hemming. i'm sure there's a purpose to all of that, but really, these are for my living room - i'm happy with just having them done at all!

you'll need a length of fabric that's an inch (or so) wider than your pillow and about 2.5 times as long. so my pillow was 15", i needed 16" wide and about 37" long. i had a couple lengths of fabric i picked up in new zealand when we were there last christmas, secretly hoping that one day, le boy and i would have our own place, in need of pillows - and here we are!

start by hemming the short edges, for a neat edge, fold 1/2", press, fold 1/2" over again, press. this contains the edge completely, and reduces the likelihood of fraying. also, as one of these edges will be visible, it's good to get everything tucked away!

now, here is where i fiddled a little bit. i had a semi-repeating, very graphic pattern, and i didn't really want it to match perfectly, so i folded my fabric so that it came 3/4 of the way over the pillow, all the way around the other side, and then the second flap came over by half again. it's nice if there's some overlap as it makes for a neat finish at the back. and remember to sew right sides facing - or your seams will be outside, and not in! (this has happened to me during late night sewing expeditions!)

you can see from my photos that i wasn't terribly fussy, i didn't even pin! i just pressed and then stitched down each side, back stitching wherever the fabric edges were for extra strength.

clip the corners for less bulk when you turn the case right side out.

stuff with a pillow. show your husband and be very excited when he makes a fuss over all the effort you went to. (don't tell him this took less than 30 min!) 

aprons!

as a thank you for hosting a wonderful bridal shower i wanted to give my sister and mom something handmade. being short on time i knew it had to be easy, and transportable. it also needed to be possible to make on my mother's old rickety sewing machine that i'm secretly hoping i can one day steal enjoy!

 it's a pain to work with, but man isn't it pretty?

on to the crafting:

i wanted to give them a copy of the hummingbird bakery cookbook. hummingbird is an american style bakery in london and most definitely takes the cake (pun intended) when it comes to baked goods. for sticky toffee or spotted dick (an actual dessert, i assure you) any kind of fruit crumble or anything that potentially tastes good with custard, the brits have it sewn up. however if we are talking cakes, cookies, squares or pie, the winners definitely reside on the other side of the pond! sometimes when one is a little homesick or wishes to take a great treat to a dinner party, the only reasonable answer is hummingbird cupcakes! what's even better is that the secrets have been released and the homebaker can also enjoy (no hummingbird is not compensating me for this endorsement, they're really just that good!).  i wanted to spread that love to a.b.barton and marvellous. a.b. is missing the hummingbird now that she's firmly ensconced back in TO, and well marvellous, she's retired now so surely there's time for baking?

but really, one needs a cute apron to bake in properly!

i found this super easy tutorial on skip to my lou. it uses a tea towel and ribbon to make a sweet and fast apron, with only two (!) seams! i got these tea towels from anthropologie, i can never imagine really using them to dry dishes, only to pretty up a kitchen (this may change when we are married and i have my own kitchen!) or in this case, make baking a little more fashionable.

a.b.barton has a thing for english bulldogs, so she was an easy choice. and mavellous likes anything that is made for her, so a sweet utensil motif did the trick!

i wrapped the aprons around the books rather than using bags or wrapping paper and used the ribbon as well, a ribbon! they were adored by both recipients - i just hope that the next time i'm home they're sure to put the cookbook to use!

i would definitely say this is an easy project that can be done in minutes, and makes a great gift, it's also a lovely way to use prettier tea towels!

flirting.

people often ask me where i get the time to knit or sew. or why i go to the trouble? i don't magically have more time - i find it. in snatches: on the train, in the car, on the bus, during lunch. while watching a tv programme, early in the morning. with knitting particularly i find i'm calmer, more settled and i like being a little bit productive and creative in those in-between moments that can otherwise seem like time wasters...

sewing's a little more difficult - it depends more on being in my house and setting up the kitchen table to be my work station, while not making life difficult for my housemate. thus, sewing has been less this year, but hopefully a guest bedroom/study/craft room will solve that problem once le boy and i have our own spot. a couple weeks ago i was left to my own devices when both my roommate and my fiance were away for the weekend - and the sewing machine made it's spring debut! 

when anna maria horner posted this skirt tutorial/pattern some weeks ago, i knew i had to make it!

i used an anna maria voile - it feels buttery smooth and SOOOOOOOO lovely. if i wasn't in the throes of wedding planning and the like i'd probably be making many more...

'flirting the issue' is a full skirt with a wide waist band actually made from a series of thin elastic strips - and the best part is that this skirt is completely customizable - shorter, longer, fuller, sleeker - the options are many!

this might be the only one that is crafted for the 2011 season, but i see more in my future, even if it's next year...

let the light come in.

or stay out?

my rented room's roller blind was passable at best, but actually it was sad. very, very sad. frayed edges, sun bleaching, years of hands (not mine) pulling up and down. frankly, it was tragic.

but, a fine tutorial from one my favourite blogs: Design*Sponge and i was off to the races.

really, it was easy, taking less than an hour, a series of straight stitching seams and a little RadioLab podcasting to help pass the time. a major change in the room for less than £10!

 

i smile as a i enter my room now. regardless of time - day or night. and the whole thing just brightens my day.