Sneak preview

It's really difficult taking photos of yourself modelling a skirt (even harder than taking sock photos!) so I don't yet have a good shot of my new Vogue skirt.



Luckily I'll be hanging out with lots of friends at the weekend so if I wear it then maybe one of them can take a snap for me (hint hint).

FOs - Monkey socks and Vogue skirt

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.
Needles: 2.5mm
Yarn: Blissful in Ring a Ring o Roses by Skein Queen



Pattern: V8560
Fabric: Sun spots by Amy Butler
Size: 14

What do these two have in common? It turns out that just one isn't enough. According to Ravelry I've now completed my 11th pair of Monkeys and I've just started my second skirt in this pattern - this time a slightly shorter version in a gorgeous grey cotton I bought at Darnit and Stitch.



It's almost a shame that the zipper is such a perfect colour match as the method for inserting the zip is so neat that you can hardly see it.



I love the pleats - they're very satisying to do and give the skirt a lovely full shape.



These photos btw were taken with the aid of our new mirror. We got it at the same time as the rest of the furniture but it's been standing in a box in the hall until this week. Now it's standing on the floor in the living room until we work up the nerve to hang it. I want to hang it over the dining table or the sofa but it's very heavy and I'm rather paranoid about it falling off the wall and killing us whilst we eat dinner.

Dress rehearsal

That's what a muslin is really.



It's not quite finished. It needs a zip and the hem needs slip stitching but it's done enough for me to check the fit (like all proper model shots it's pinned in the back).

It's been a good evening for sewing. After putting the muslin together I put in some more work on the baby quilt that's been hanging around for about 2 years - there are just the two short edges to finish slip stitching and then it's done.

Tiny and cosy

I might have mentioned, once or twice, that I have the cutest niece in the whole world. She turns two on Saturday and already she is totally the little mother. Whenever we take her to the park she'll have a quick go on the swings and slide herself and then spend the rest of the visit putting dolly on the swings, pushing dolly in her pram, changing dolly's nappy.

I had the idea to make dolly a gro-bag (baby sleeping bag) of her own after one afternoon in the park when Laurie spent the whole time tucking dolly into her own pram and covering her with her own gro-bag.



It's just a rectangle with armholes and a neckhole and a zip up the front. I used the rest of the snail and peapod fabric for the outer and a beautiful blue fabric with flower print for the lining.



The bias binding is the fabric I used for my needle roll.



When I saw Laurie at the end of October she had really got the hang of adjectives. She would hold up a Cheerio between her little fingers and say "TINY" at the highest possible volume and pitch. She gets very excited by things that are tiny. The other thing that she would do is to tuck dolly and mousey and Jane dolly into her pram and say "cosy". Hopefully she'll find this both "TINY" and "cosy" and she'll have a wonderful second birthday.

TNA and Tikki

Yesterday the boyfriend had some business at The National Archives at Kew and I went along for the ride and to visit Tikki Patchwork which is just around the corner near Kew Gardens.



They have a lovely selection of fabrics and whilst the boyfriend was browsing among the rolls of parchment I was easily able to spend an hour browsing the bolts and fat quarters.

I picked out 1 metre of Kaffe Fasset Paperweight fabric for an A line skirt and a couple of fat quarters and one remnant plus some lengths of ribbon to make a crayon roll for Laurie and couple of tag blankets.



After shopping I pottered back to TNA to meet the boyfriend for lunch in their lovely cafe and to have a look round the gift shop. In fact we managed to have a really nice day out despite the fact that the boyfriend was actually working.



It would have been easy to go mad buying postcards reproduced from the archive images but I resisted and just picked up these two for Felix.



I'm going to start on Laurie's crayon roll as soon as I find some (wax) crayons to put in it. It's been a while since I used them myself and I'm not completely confident of making the pockets the right size if I just go by my own judgment.

Sew Sunday

Having managed to score the necessary beads for the Amy Butler necklace at Jacksons on Saturday I spent a happy couple of hours on Sunday morning watching Emma on ITV3 and cutting fabric on the bias.



I found the pattern in the Rowan Newsletter for February which was handed out at UK Ravelry day but it's also available online here as a pdf. It's a really great pattern for practising cutting on the bias and for using up bits and pieces of fabric. The beads themselves were 7p each from Jacksons (and I'm sure they're available elsewhere) so with 22 beads in this necklace and 14 in my second it's a fairly inexpensive project too.

After finishing the necklace we headed off to Blenheim with the plan of having lunch and then walking it off. Sadly we only really managed the lunch part (yummy sausages and chicken pie from Foxbury Farm) as my legs were still shot from Saturday's long walk.

Just need closure

Or rather just needs closures. I started off on this little dress for Laurie yesterday evening and got so enthused that I couldn't wait to obtain a zip before finishing off the inside edges of the back bodice. Of course if I'd thought it through I would have added an extra half-inch to the inside edge of each back piece for buttons and button-holes. As it is I think that maybe hooks and eyes or those little bobbly buttons with button loops would do the trick.



Pattern: Based on
this pattern with a few modifications.
Size: 12-18 months (I hope)
Fabric: Needlecord from John Lewis
Lining: Amy Butler cotton



I'm very pleased with the lined bodice and the waistband which encloses the top of the gathered skirt. The one thing that I'm not so happy with is that in all the excitement of the Federer/Murray final I hemmed the wrong end of the skirt (which is just a cylinder of fabric gathered at one end) so that the nap of the fabric goes the wrong way. Still I don't suppose she'll notice it. Fingers crossed that big sister likes it too as it's a v. easy pattern and such fun to make up.