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Kindle Pocket. Must not be fancy. Must be manly.

March 20, 2011 By 4 Comments
I didn’t meant to do it, but I mistakenly bought a Kindle that now belongs to Mr J. We do share an interest in reading some of the same things, so it does mean we can buy one copy of a book and have it delivered to both Kindles at the same time. Course, he has commuting time to read in, not to mention the odd half hour locked in the bathroom, whereas these days I read for approximately four minutes before I fall asleep, so we don’t exactly read the same book in the same time. I woke up last night still clutching my kindle, which helpfully turns itself off after ten minutes of inactivity. I could have been like that for hours.

Kindle Pocket

As the whole Kindle ownership thing was something of an accident I baulked at buying a case for it, and suggested I make one instead. He was all full of enthusiasm for the idea. Too full. There were stipulations about thickness, and fastenings (there were to be none), the kind of fabric to be used, the kind of seam, placement of seam…Etcetera. Etcetera.

Some of the stipulations I ignored obviously, since the maths would get hugely complicated, but the main one I stuck to, namely to make a pocket just the right width so that the kindle slides in and out, but is held snug and tight. It took three attempts and I still think it could do with perhaps 1/8″ or 1/4″ more.

Kindle Pocket

It’s an innocuous looking thing, isn’t it? Much more subdued than lots of things I make. But Mr J is happy with it, and is very pleased that it can fold in half and be stashed safely in a pocket while he’s reading.

Kindle Pocket

And it does indeed grip the kindle like a vice. So much so that there are some improvements bubbling away in the back of my mind for it. The fabrics were chosen by himself, and are a brown wool suiting remnant from the Cloth House and an Amy Butler green solid. Very classy. And very manly too, reminiscent of having a flash lining inside your business suit.

Filed Under: Finished Things, Sewing - 4 Comments

Pillows Piped and Zipped

February 21, 2011 By 2 Comments
It’s what they call Pillow Month over at Sew, Mama, Sew. Over here in the UK we’d probably call it Cushion Month, since we reserve the word pillow for the ones you rest your head on in your bed, but I’m willing to go with the pillow thing, because I like the alliteration. It’s fortuitous timing, since I’d already decided that it was back to basics in the sewing department with me, and cushion covers was where it began. The first thing I ever made was a simple envelope cover for a cushion from a Kaffe Fassett stripe – not that I had any idea who Kaffe Fassett was back then – and then I sat on it for years until it completely wore through.

Finished Cushion

It seemed high time I made something new for the house, and I absolutely fell for this fabric from John Lewis called Lanterns, a made in the UK cotton and linen mix. It reminded me of the courgette flowers print we have, and the background colour is a perfect match for the Strong White we have on our walls.
While shopping I noticed a whole lot of bolts piled up against the cutting desk, all the choice of a jovial American gentleman, all of which I liked. I clocked one with an Orla Kiely sort of feel, called Cynthia, and requested a half metre of it from my cutter. I swapped a nod of acknowledgement with the American, though it turned out to be all for his son, with whom I obviously share my tastes. I’m not entirely sure what to do with this one yet, but it may end up as another cushion cover. Since I don’t get to sew for hours on end these days I took a piecemeal approach to making these covers, and took a few mini sessions to complete them. I started by making the bias strips to cover the piping, then making the piping, then adding the zips to the back panels, attaching the piping to the front panels, and then putting it all together. It’s taken me days and days, but only because of my circumstances. Even with the zips and the piping (both of which I love doing) it’s not really a complicated project. I’m going to do a couple of tutorials over the week on the stages and then pop it together into a pdf for handy reference.

Finished Cushion

Just in case you were wondering how my cover already looks creased – that cat will find anything I make for the house and instantly step on it. I honestly don’t know how she knows.

Filed Under: Finished Things, Sewing Tagged With: , - 2 Comments

Blanket

January 11, 2011 By 9 Comments
I truly love crochet. Sewing requires all sorts of dangerous things like pins, scissors and seam rippers, as well as an entire table and full concentration. Knitting requires two needles and management of stitches on same, which would be ok if motherhood didn’t require a person to be instantly interruptable at all times, which places said stitches in peril of loss and unravelling. Crochet requires one hook and one stitch, making it instantly put downable, and you do it on your lap, which means no table, and if you are doing something simple, you don’t even have to pay attention.

Simple Crochet - Blanket

I noticed this the other day. A jumble of things on the back of the sofa: the kitten blanket, the boy’s cardigan and the newly finished throw slash blanket flung out of the way in a heap. It just struck me how normal it is for us to be flinging handmade blankets out of our way as if they were nothing special at all, which makes me feel glad. Nothing I had when I was young was handmade, and I think it took me a long time to appreciate the effort as a result.

This winter has been colder than most and since we live in a Victorian terrace we have sky high ceilings. Most of the rooms are warm enough, but the living room has an enormous bay window and currently no door, so the radiator does a sterling job of heating the top two feet of the room, leaving the bottom six feet utterly freezing. It’s been a joy to have this wrapped around my legs in the evenings while I worked to finish it – another boon to crochet, useful even before the tails are woven in.

Simple Crochet - Blanket

I spread the blanket out to try and get a decent photo, but no sooner do you spread out a blanket in this house than a cat appears to claim it. In fact you can move the cat from the blanket but you probably won’t have time to take a decent shot before she appears again.

Simple Crochet - Blanket

The pattern is from Simple Crochet again, still my favourite crochet book. It’s just one simple stitch combination that weaves a thick and robust fabric, perfect for keeping your legs warm while you watch a bit of TV. The yarn is Debbie Bliss Stella, which is now discontinued, and therefore available at a discount. I picked up the first of my Stella in the sale at John Lewis and then scoured the net gathering enough balls to make a throw of decent size. I possibly would have switched the red and the brown but I couldn’t get enough of the brown at the time, which is the price you pay for buying in the sale. It’s a very nice yarn to work with, and I do admit to a certain satisfaction at making a less that half price blanket.

Simple Crochet - Blanket

Eventually you just have to give in and let the cat have her way, but she will let me get underneath it at least. I feel a little bereft at not having a blanket to get under and work on at the same time so may well be heading for a yarn sale sometime soon.

Filed Under: Crochet, Finished Things - 9 Comments

Things that Disappear

September 28, 2010 By 13 Comments
When Fitz was small I made him a taggie blanket, which I loved, but he was just about growing into it when it disappeared. Where do things go? We have hunted up and down the house for it, and I know I never took it out because I was afraid of losing it, so it has simply disappeared. Other things this house has eaten include books, socks and money. Ok so maybe I spent the money, but I spent a lot of it on the house, so you see my point.

New Taggie

In the case of the taggie blanket the solution was just to make another one. I could have mourned the first one a lot more, but really, what’s the point in being able to sew if you can’t repair things, even when repairing means replacing?

Another thing that is disappearing is Bloglines. When I read about it last week I was sad, even though I jumped their ship a few months ago. Like many of you I jumped to Google Reader, and I’m happy enough. I guess I feel sad because of the streamlining that always happens with new internet thingys: once there were many social networks, and now there is just facebook, for example. And with the transferral of another arm of my online life into Google’s hands, and at the same time the utter mushrooming of online places I should be keeping up with, I felt a little tired as well as sad.

I am, you see, an internet dinosaur. I met Mr J because of the internet, way back when I was hand-coding a website for my boss. It’s so far back that animated gifs were the latest in technology. Yes, I’m that old. What this really means is that for me the internet is an adjunct to the real world – it is brilliant, and exciting, and it lets me talk to people I wouldn’t get to meet any other way. But I run this life parallel to my outside world life – the two can gently bump into each other but they are not enmeshed. I can best explain this using facebook: I see it as a way of connecting with people I have actually met, such as the classmates from my japanese class, or people from school that I am nosy about for ten minutes and then, curiosity satisfied, never need to think about again. Hence I do not link my twitter feed or my blog to facebook or vice versa, since I think my family could do without my wittering about fabric and wotnot, and I do not think it’s appropriate for people I haven’t met to be able to see intimate family pictures which may also include pictures of other people’s small children.

But it’s me and people like me who are disappearing. People ten years younger see facebook as just another part of their social lives and have no delineation between it and their real world life. It is just life. It’s why they have 400 friends – they add anyone they meet in a cocktail bar. It opens a gateway to social exclusion (imagine not being included in an event, or not having access to the internet for a week and missing all the invitations and gossip) as much as it opens up communication and ways of sharing life stories complete with photos. I am knocking it a little, yes, but that’s only because I’ve already had an email that asked why I hadn’t responded to an event invitation, which begged the question ‘why not email and ask me to your event instead?’ See? Dinosaur.

I don’t mind that. I’ll continue with my compartmentalised life for as long as I care to, because it feels right to me. If it ever feels wrong then I’ll mesh everything together. That’ll be a shock for everyone I should think…

Filed Under: Finished Things, Other Things, Sewing - 13 Comments

Pattern Review – Colette's Sencha Blouse

August 12, 2010 By 3 Comments
The first Colette pattern I saw was the Lady Grey coat, and it fired up a ‘me want’ feeling that just got bigger when I looked at the other patterns in her range, and read that they’ve been designed with an eye on the ladies with a C+ cup. (Small busts: Check out Colette’s site for some handy tips on making a small bust adjustment, as well as some inspiring pictures in the gallery.) How fortuitous that Alice asked me if I’d be happy to review a pattern from her new shop, Backstitch – I leapt at the chance, and finally settled on the Sencha Blouse.

Sencha Blouse

Made in very short sewing bursts when I wasn’t entirely knackered or covered in fish pie (Fitz is getting more creative with his mealtimes) it was an absolute dream to sew. I’ll definitely be making this one again, in a variety of fabrics. It’s so easy to wear & in fact I’m going to wear it today, while drinking margaritas. Read the full review at Backstitch! (More pictures at flickr)

Sencha Blouse Pattern and Kaffe Fasset spots fabric from Backstitch.

Filed Under: Colette Patterns, Finished Things, Finishing School, Sewing - 3 Comments
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