caro-rose-creations

Back to work

I am busy making curtains for my son, who has moved into the same house as my daughter.  "This room is too sunny Mum."  Hence the curtains.  I bought material that was coated so that it would deflect the heat as well, but you can't make a mistake because once the needle pierces the fabric you have a hole.  So, lots of hair clips was the answer.

Also, I have a machine finishing class coming up soon and I have three items with three different ways to add zippers, which cost about $3 or $4 each.  I have been looking for the recycled version to keep the cost of the kits down.  These cost 20c each but they do have to be washed and ironed.  I will have to test one first to see if they are good enough for the job.

No rest for the wicked.

A quick alteration

I have great difficulty getting sleep wear that is comfortable.  After a couple times in surgery  I don't like tight clothing around my middle and nighties just get in a mess.  I found a pair of HUGE pajamas in a sale, marked down to $5.00 and in a light weight knit, just right for this in between weather but miles too big.


The jacket, although roomy, didn't fall very far over my shoulders but the arms hung way over my hands.  The pants just fell straight to the floor, besides hanging over my feet.  Time for an alteration.

Using my overlocker I took the elastic and casing off the top of the pants and also shortened the arms and legs.  I stitched a new hem on both of these, just stitching on top of the overlocking.

I turned a new casing for another piece of elastic, that I can now replace if I need to, stitching at the top and the bottom  and threading a new piece of elastic that make the pants fit. (I also secured the elastic by sewing across the casing at the back and front to stop the elastic from twisting in the wash.)

So for the investment of half an hour and the cost of the elastic I have a new pair of custom made pajamas.  It pays to keep your eye on those sales .

Preparing a new project

I  don't know why, but I always think of new things to do just when I should be going to bed.  It has happened again.  I want to make some of these little needle cases the same as my friend Angela gave me, this is her design.  I want to develop it as an exercise for my machine quilting class.  (You know, all those little practise pieces you do.)

I have great big bundle of 'Traveller's Fabric' that I am always looking to find a use for.  (When members of our cottage quilting trip travel we bring back a piece of fabric for everyone, they mount up!)

From her trip to New Caledonia Angela brought me back this piece.  I have some ideas how to quilt it and it will also be made into one of these needle cases.

 

Most are a bit small for the task but I have found a few.  Next step was to iron them all in preparation for cutting.  Then I realised the time.  Out came my trusty noodle.  The noodle is one of those styrofoam toys kids use in the swimming pool.  They are usually 1.5m  to 2m in length.  I cut them into shorter pieces,

and then wrap my fabric or embroidery around them.  No creases the next morning, or when I get back to the project, and, I can stick pins into it to hold the fabric in place. 

But don't leave the next step too long or that pin will rust, as I have found from bitter experience.

I took that trip

I ended up driving up to Toowoomba and the road only had a few problems.   All the water had drained away but you could see where it had been from the piles of ruined household goods out on the side of the road waiting to be picked up.  The good thing about the trip was that there weren't that many trucks.  Normally 5,000 trucks go up and down the range each day but at the moment the roads west are still blocked so I had a great drive out and back. It isn't that far, about 2hrs each way.

My friend, Angela, had baked delicious cup cakes and made great coffee and we talked and talked all day.  First stop was the Op shop.  Vinnies in Toowoomba usually had the best old doiles etc.  Not one this time.  I think a trader has taken them all but I did get a Royal Minton dish, ($8)

lots of tins for my threads(20c each)  and some bears to dress for the next raffle.  ($2 -$4 each)

Tucked away in a corner I found these badly damaged embroidered children's pictures.  I know they are old but they look very modern.  I could use these designs.

We dilly dallied around shops and then stopped for lunch at Veletta's. 

Great period cafe with wonderful pressed metal ceilings that were different in every room. 

And the lunch was delicious.

My main reason for going to Toowoomba, besides seeing my friend, was to get some embroidery supplies.  We got to the shop only to find we had dilly dallied for too long, it was shut.  I will have to go up again in a little while.  (how sad).  Nothing for it but to hit the patchwork shops.  At Precious Time they were having a fabric sale.  I don't need it but I had to have it.

I also wanted to  buy old crocheted doilies, not one today, so Angela kindly gave me a selection from her stash.  I want to make a table runner by joining a series of doilies together.  At least I have the beginning of my runner.

It was a great trip and I had a lovely day, can't wait for the next one.

Some Recycling

One of my school students favourite textile assignment is making something from recycled textiles.  I always set a $10 limit to how much they could spend at the opporturnity shop and some of my favourites have been a pillow made from a tea towel.  I loved the way this student went around and put flags on all the tee markers.

There have been tons of bags from old jeans.

 And then the redyed items,

 I am always looking for examples to give the students inspiration and yesterday whilst doing some shopping I came across  the Matt Blatt shop in Fortitude Valley.  My little camera went into overload.

This cool sofa covered in old jeans.

This foot rest.  The top was patchworked pieces of old sweaters and the sides were flowers made of broken zippers and old buttons.

There was also a rug made from old sweaters sewn onto a piece of felt.  (It is somewhere on that site but I can't find the image.)

Then there were a number of cushions, can you pick the Ikea fabric in the one below?.

I normally get a few boys in the class who couldn't fit in the Industrial Design (wood work) class.  They don't want to be there and are usually just pests.  But, they love playing around with design programs on the computer.  I think an old piece of fabric and an iron on transfer, not necessarily this dog,($95.00) is something they will like, (not naked ladies), would keep them happy for days and the girls will love teaching them how to use the sewing machine.

One of the fabrics used for the cushions I recognised.  (It sells here for about $24.00 per metre in the USA about $11.00).  This is not a fancy cushion, no piping, plain sewing, zipper opening, cost now $95.00.  That will impress them.

 

 

Little dress No 3

This one is for the baby who is 7 months of age.  It will have to be a going out dress because she is just crawling and a dress would be no good.  The fabric is Japanese and I plan to make another dress for her sister in a different colour way and style.

Pattern: Mc Calls 8731. 

This one was easy to make although I had to cut the fabric on the weft to get those lovely borders.  As I bought the pattern in an opportunity shop I'm not sure if it is still available.

Dressmaking

Little dress No 2.  The pink coat hanger was mine when I was a little girl.

 Pattern: Butterick B4434  sizes 1 - 6 Fast & Easy

It wasn't so fast or so easy, especially as I had misplaced the instruction sheet.  The dress is fully lined with a zipper in the back and ties at the side seams .  The fabric is a fine cotton batiste from Japan.

Dressmaking

I haven't made my grand children a lot of clothes for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, it is cheaper to buy them.

Secondly, my daughter in law hates ironing so those little dresses will not be used.

But who cares if they are only used once?  I have got the bug to make little dresses.

This is dress No 1 and it has bloomers to go under it.

What if?

We are expecting days with very high temperatures over the next week, up to 40 degrees C and over. In the past few weeks we have had very severe storms.  All these things have been predicted as part of climate change.  So what?  We can still get on with our lives.  We duck for cover when the storms come and turn on the aircon when the temperature goes up.

But now there is talk of the temperature rising even more and that these predictions haven't taken into account the melting of the Arctic permafrost. 

 

No one is talking about what this will mean for textile production but if you follow the data it will have a profound effect.  It would be wonderful to have a crystal ball to see the future but then again it may be so horrible that it is better not to know.  I don't have much hope that theUnited Nations climate negotiations  in Doha, Qatar, will have bring chance but I wish it would.

Alexanda Henry

I remember the first time I saw a full range of Alexanda Henry fabrics, I was just blown away.  You may see dribs and drabs here in the stores but never the whole range.  True Up have a great review of the latest fabrics and I am blown away again. In fact the reports went over three days, here,  here, and here.  Now I have to start looking at USA online shops to see what I can get.

I have some old embroideries like these somewhere.