The Handcrafted Gift Season has begun...

Yes, it's coming close to Christmas and the time of year I have to really crank out the pressies. There's a whole lot of birthdays coming up in the months before Christmas, then the big event itself, so that doesn't leave much time. Chop chop, snap to it and all that!

This wrap skirt is a birthday gift that needs to get sent today if it's to make it to the recipient in time. I finished it about an hour ago. You wouldn't think a wrap skirt would be too hard, would you? Well in actual fact it isn't really, it's just that I always find taking direction from other people all too hard and end up making things difficult for myself because I just want to do it my way. (Yeah, fight the system! The Man isn't going to hold me down!)

Anyways, it's done and I think it turned out pretty cute. I just love the Japanese style fabric, I'm not sure if you can tell but there's actually metallic gold print for the outlines. I used the pattern (kind of!) from http://www.bigredcouch.com/journal/archives/2007/03/wrap-skirt.html but because I'm not quite sure of the exact size of the person receiving this (she just had a baby but is usually about the same size as me) I made a little bigger than needed to fit me then added 2 darts to the back panel. That way there's enough fabric to let it out if needed, but it's ready to wear if she's about the same size.

There were many a sew/unpick drama in the making of this skirt but I think I finally got it right. I think. Doesn't help that the presser foot doesn't stay up on my sewing machine anymore, which is a worry since I had it replaced once before and the machine is only 12 months old - not sure if I'm too hard on it or it's just a design fault. Ho hum, better take it out to get fixed again!

I'm working on some other crochet stuff too, pics soon...

Working on the Neverending WIP

Last night, I finished the row of neutral colours for this blanket. I'd already finished the row of varigated colours and the warm stripe was one of the first things I'd done! I attached them late last night, and there's only one long row left to do - cool blues, greens and purples for the right side of the blanket (opposite side to the pink/yellow/red long stripe). I'd really just like to have this finished and done with, which means a virtual sweatshop to get that last row done...but I've got a heap of other things I'm working on and I'm at a crossroads with what to do.

Anyway, the latest additions to this blanket are the neutral colours across the top, varigated row along the bottom and the pink/yellow/red etc long stripe down the left side.

Recycle Upcycle

I've not written for a while because I've been working on a few projects that are to be gifts for people who may actually read this, so I'm not going to fill you in on that just yet! Let's just say, the after-Christmas posting is going to be HUGE. We'll leave it at that.

In the meantime, check out the awesome retro shopping bags I made from an old tablecloth. Pretty slick huh? I got 4 from this tablecloth, and I've cut up a vintage Sheridan sheet and got 6 bags from that. They're mostly done, I just lost momentum with them and put them aside for now. I'll get back to them later...for now I just love these ones. Funny, I didn't think much of the tablecloth in it's original form, but love these now they're bags.

Pattern from http://www.morsbags.com