7 Things I Love About Spring

'Spring is sprung

Der grass is riz

I wonder where dem boydies iz?'

I'm not sure where my mom got this, but she's been reciting it every spring for as long as I can remember. And I'm just as subconsciously hooked as she is! So, reasons to love spring?

{ooooh! turns out this is quite the interesting little poem, indeed. Apparently it's the Brooklyn National Anthem and may or may not have been written by Spike Milligan?! More here.}

1. Daylight
Or, specifically: daylight saving time! Hailing from more southerly climes, this concept was lost on me until my first summer in the UK. Nowadays I look forward to it for most of Jan/Feb/March!

Best thing about the clocks going forward? It forced me to make the blind for my sewing room that's been on my Sewing Flagellation List for, like, ever. Y'see, in a fit of makers' anguish, I finally removed the nasty curtain pole & too-short curtains that had been temporarily hung nearly a year ago ... But now the blazing morning sun is beating down on my beloved sewing library and UV protection is needed! More on that soon!

On the DLR on the way home after a day in Clogland.
It's still light!!! And so purdy. 

2. Flowers
Ahhhhh. Spring flowers. Nothing beats 'em. Daffodils (1st offenders?), tulips, crocuses, TULIPS, hyacinth, tulips, other bulbs. Magnolias!! Cherry blossoms! ALLLLLLL blossoms!

Ahem. Excuse me.

I have a rampant urge to snap meeellions of blossom pics every spring but never get around to doing anything with them.

I have no IDEA when or where I took this.
But it's so PURDY!!!

Crocuses outside the Brighton Pavilion

Daffodils springing up out of the rubble outside a neighbour's house.
Determined little buggers, aren't they? ;)

Tulips from a neighbour's garden.
- Mine aren't blooming!!!! :(

3. Green
There's nothing like seeing some leafy growth to cast off that wintry haze.

The sprawling, rampant rose bush by our front gate.

4. Warm!!
Ah, to wear short sleeves & flip flops. It's a joy entirely unto its own.

6. Gardening
See above re: daylight, flowers, green & warm. Add your own homegrown tomatoes (so tasty!) and tadaaaaaa! Joy.

My yield from a few years ago

7. Birdies
We're incredibly fortunate to have the most awesome garden, and to live very close to 2 parks. Birds are in abundance and give us plenty of chirping. They also provide hours of fascination for the fluffs ... As long as they don't catch any birdies, that's fine by me.

Because none of the birdies want to sit still long enough for me to take a pic-a-roo :(

Source: media-cache0.pinterest.com via valentina on Pinterest

And just for good measure, here's some more poetry:


Der spring is sprung
Der grass is riz
I wonder where dem boidies is?


Der little boids is on der wing. 
Ain't dat absoid?
Der little wings is on der boid!

Baking Queen

You are the Baking Queen, young & sweet, only hhmmhmhmhmmmm ...

What do you mean this 'isn't for kitties to lie on'?

Baking Queen, feel the beat of the egg-beat-thing

Do not say anything about the lousy stitching. Do not.

You can shake, you can bake, having the time of your life



Take one little bit of leftover fabric ...



Add a sprinkle of embroidery, a pinch of frenzied sewing and delicately fold onto some gingham ...

... et voila!! Embroidered teatowels shall be yours!

See that girl, watch that scene, diggin' the Baking Queen!

Queen Ren proudly showcasing her Red Velvet cupcakes ...
and a vegan CHOCOLATE PECAN PIE. OMFG.

Project details:
I hated Abba until Lauren & I saw the Mamma Mia movie. Meryl Streep is the Queen of Everything (except baking, duh!!!). That title is reserved for Her Highness, Most Awesome Rennie of Cooperland.

(Oh wait. Shit. What about 'Julie & Julia???')

Precursor posts: Xmas in February (not the Lou Reed kind), So, what are we making today?

The apron was made using this Martha Stewart Pattern, embroidered with the AWESOME Beat It by Urban Threads design. I spent several weeks of the December Xmaspresentmakingfrenzy humming 'Beat It' to myself. I'm sure I'm not the only Urban Threads customer to have experienced this particular problem.

The tea towels were entirely self-drafted by me. I know. Marvel at my awesomeness as I cut a rectangle. Then laugh at my stupidity as I render myself incapable of using a hemming foot (or whatever it's called) and end up doing it the ole-fashioned way, a la pressing & stitching. Lather, rinse, repeat. The embroidery: again, marvel at my awesomeness as I embroider sans pattern. Actually, embroidering lettering is pretty damn awful without some sort of grid-based size guide ... but hey.

The "Merry Wedding-Mas" Beanbag

Be warned, al ye who enter here. The tale of woe ye are about to reade is longe and fraughte.

(or something else olde english-ey & forboding-ey)

My lovely friend, Shelley, got all married up in October 2009. Some months before that, she asked whether I'd make her & lovely hubby-to-be a beanbag for their living room as a gift. The story went thus: they had already purchased the fabric & knew exactly what they wanted, but Shelley's lovely mum wasn't able to make said beanbag and the gorgeous fabric was sitting around unloved, waiting for someone to whip it into shape. Cue heroic fanfare, and enter Santie, wearing cape and tights. (and other suitable garments. come on, this is a family show.)

In an almost identical fashion to the 'A-hunting We Will Go' waistcoat, we fast forward to November 2011. Aforementioned gorgeous fabric had been sitting in my sewing room among all my own fabric for such a long time that I had to review my Sewing Flagellation List* to remember it was still there and that I still hadn't even given the lovebirds a freaking wedding present.

*You know what I mean. The long list of lovely projects you dream up and that end up just making you feel guilty for not having completed them. I'm going to publish my SFL soon in an effort not to have one at all. It's a scary list at the moment - and I'm not the only one. Judging by how popular Tasia's recent post on her sewing stash, it seems many sewists are echoing the sentiment, 'It’s no fun if it feels like homework!'

The turning point came with the previously blogged frantic nature of preparations for Christmas last year. I couldn't possibly spend time on making them a different present when they had been waiting so long for one of their own conception ... so I got stuck in.

I used a pattern from the Singer Reference Library: Quick & Easy Decorating Projects book, which I found here. These are such amazing books and I am hunting them down one by one. They will be mine! Oh yes, they will be mine!!! Mwahahahaaaaaaa....

Ahem. The printer I've had for 8 years only works as a scanner these days - something to do with clogged feed heads or spurty things or little nasty green pixies cackling maniacally at my fruitless efforts to get it working again as a printer - so I just drew the pattern pieces onto newsprint free-hand with a few measurements in mind to keep the proportions right.

 As Shelley & Marty are also the proud parents of 2 lovely kittehs, I was conscious that they would probably need to wash the beanbag to de-fur it once in a while, so I decided to make an inner & outer for the beanbag. I cut 8 of the main body pieces, and 1 large circle and 1 small circle from both the lining fabric and the main fabric. The lining was the leftovers of the costumes I made for Hallowe'en, so both Ghostbuster & Bin Laden will live on elsewhere ;)

The rest was simple. Insert 'normal' zip into bigger circle (cut in half to accommodate the zip), sew up the 8 panels, attach the small circle to the top of the 8 panels & then attach the bigger circle (with the zip closed) to the bottom of the 8 panels. Open up the zip, turn the bag right way around and ta-da! Wash, rinse & repeat for outer. Ta-da. Like I said.

Beanbag inner bottom with zip

Beanbag inner panels 

Beanbag inner top panel

The only complicated bit was that I had decided some time ago to embellish the beanbag with some embroidery. C'mon. Ya knowz me like-a to 'broider. I asked Shelley if there were any preferences, and she provided the CUTEST designs in confirmation of their nicknames for each other, the Monkey & the Cat. I've looked around to see who the designer of these prints are (Shelley had them as cards) but no luck - so please let me know if you know. You know.



So, here's the finished version, all 'broidered up.

Oh yeah. I couldn't use the 'You Rock my World' image for embroidering. Boo.

Here's my one annoyance with this project. Those leftovers, and the two zips from my stash, make the total cost of the beanbag about £1. EXCEPT for the bastard beanbag filling. People, take my word for it: this stuff is pricey. I'm not talking millions of squidoos, but £15 for a 2.5cu ft bag at Argos is taking the piss -- and didn't even fill this bag halfway. I know Hobbycraft do the same size for about half the price BUT, dah-lings, don't waste your time. eBay is your friend. eBay is always your friend. I got a 4cu ft bag for £10.95 with free P&P and it arrived the next day. Ta-freaking-DA!

Filling it was fun. Rose & I have developed a foolproof system, having developed a cat-food-bag-funnel prototype last year for a different beanbag ... luckily our prototype was not required this time around, hence the relatively unharried expressions.



Tip: it's much easier to fill the bag if your zip
opening is big enough to hold the the bag of filling!

And finally, some shots of the final (albeit half-filled) bag in use. Did I say this was a gift for Shelley & Marty? I'm sorry, my bad: this was evidently meant for Sophie & Oscar all along.

Xmas in February (not the Lou Reed kind)

Darlings. I am most unavoidably aware that I have been whatever-the-opposite-of-prolific-is for some time now. See, I have been refusing to post anything until I explained about Christmas, and the onslaught of craziness that preceded & ensued from this one little day. Which was a big day. But just one day in the scheme of things ... ohhhhh, the confusion!!!

Let me explain.

I had decided that, as my dear Dad was coming to visit from SA for the first time ever, I would put heart & soul into Christmas. It would be the Christmas that all other Christmases knelt before and wept at; the Christmas that lauded proudly over all the other little Christmases, patting them patronisingly on the head; the Christmas that would justify humanity's cruel replacement of all other yuletide festivals over the centuries with this one, single shindig.

In short: this Christmas was to kick ass.

{image source}

There would be handmade cards, tree decorations and advent calendars. Rob's family would come to our house for the day, and the whole feast would be made from scratch. Wine would flow, bellies would be full, the house would be aglow with the lights of a thousand fairies (or should I say the fairy lights would be aglow with the wattage of a thousand power plants? global warming be damned, it's my CHRISTMAS!! (see above, re: cruelty)). Most importantly, it would be a DIY event. Everyone would get a handmade present. Preferably only handmade presents.

Making Christmas decorations during conference calls ... 

To this end, I compiled this list (I'm editing out those not yet finished so that the giftees - who read this blog - aren't completely robbed of the element of surprise):

1. Mum-in-Law: framed family pics; monogrammed pyjamas; >incomplete<; novelty Xmas earrings
2. Dad-in-Law: framed family pics; DVD boxset*; gardening book*
3. Gramps-in-Law: brushed cotton shirts; monogrammed slippers; framed family pics
4. Sister-in-Law: framed family pics; clutch bag; Vogue 1170 dress; CD*
5. Nephew (4yo): Gruber monster from Mollie Makes; interactive world map*; atlas
6. My dad: monogrammed slippers; scanned family pics on USB stick; Dietz lantern; trip to Edinburgh; trip to west end; winter coat*; long johns* (tee hee); miscellaneous warm things for Northern Hemisphere winter
7. Lauren: >incomplete<; infinity scarf; slippers with stuffed bunnies; mezzaluna & chopping board*; infused olive oil
8. Rose: >incomplete<; dip-dyed t-shirt
9. Shelley & Marty: Beanbag; >incomplete<; infinity scarf
10. Willow (Lauren's ickle niece): dress
11. Matthew (Lauren's ickle nephew): coat
12. Andrew (Lauren's sister): >incomplete<, dip-dyed t-shirt

 *non-handmade presents, duh. As many of these would be thrifted/vintage as possible, with  some exceptions. Like long johns. That would just be weird, a la: 'Hi Dad, thanks for coming thousands of miles to visit us -- here is someone else's used underwear. Merry Christmas'

WOW. Even typing up that list took ages.

How did I do, do you ask? Well.

Some of the cards. I miscounted and made nearly 40 instead of only 30. 

It took nearly 3 weeks to just make the Xmas cards and some of the ornaments I had in mind. The advent calendar nearly missed the 1st of December, and we only managed to get the last of decorations in place about 10 minutes before the family were due to arrive on Xmas morning ... so it did not go according to plan.

The result of the 1st day of car boot fair shopping for materials for this insane endeavour!

As Rob was entirely un-reluctant to point out, this is because 'the plan' was freaking mental and totally over the top. He, however, has become accustomed to the totally over-ambitious nature of my plans and remains calm and helpful and reassuring and (oddly) optimistic for 99% right up until the moment where I lose my shit. Then he points out that he did suggest we took things a little less seriously, brings me a cup of coffee, and gets stuck in. Wonders occur. Things work out pretty much OK, and the world keeps spinning.

Stop making me pose for pictures!

Okay, I'll be cute for one more ...

In this particular context, the world kept spinning through the following workarounds:

• I realised 3 days before my dad's arrival that the presents would never be finished in time. Several were (and still are ... *blush*) near completion, but there just wasn't enough time to finish them all, or even some of them, properly. So we bought some presents were there was a shortfall. There was no angry mob accusing me of being a horrible consumer-driven spendthrift. I guess they must have been attacking someone else that day.
• The 17,000 unmade ornaments & decorations (which I had made in my mind and my Xmas Planning File) were not missed by anyone.
• There was still wayyyy too much food, even though some of it was cold (stupid vegetables) and some of it was nearly inedible (stupid homemade bread).
• There was enough chocolate to last until after my dad went back home in mid-Jan. Chocolate makes everyone much more malleable.
• I apologised profusely to those whose presents did not materialise and promised to deliver on completion.

This last bullet point is my explanation for the posts to follow over the next few weeks. I have decided not to post anything, or start any new projects, until I've completed this Christmas list. Some headway has been made and I can now start posting ... so bear with me! :) :)

The amazing Sharpie art of laineylamonto {imagesource}

so, what are we making today?

Jack is joining in in the frantic Christmas present making ... let it not be said that kitties do not get in on the festivities.

today is a good day

Colette Patterns Sewing Handbook, coffee, tasty snacks & lots of making stuff ...

Catching Up: Part 2 - Wedding Blues

Just before our Hallowe'en party, my lovely friend Liz sent a desperate plea for help in the Wedding Guest Dress department.

We've all been there ... what the FREAKING HELL do you wear to somebody's wedding in unfamiliar territory -- especially when that wedding is miles away? (btw, in Liz's case, it was my hometown of Cape Town *sob*) She had raided every shop she could think of to no avail, a universally bad sign as, trust me, this girl has shopping mojo. And a 20% M&S discount, but that's another story.

So. Of COURSE I agreed to help her! Yay!!!!!! :)

(disregard the fact that this was my 2nd gig sewing for someone else, and therefore the only the 2nd time I would actually be expected to both finish the garment and not finish it poorly).

We went through my Burda & Knipmode collection & settled on Burda 10/2009-115, which was meant to be made up in heavy winter fabric, with a lining. The clever girl had narrowed our choice of styles by helpfully bringing a reference garment with her; also v useful for for comparative fit ... thank god. See below.

Seeing as the reference garment was a lovely floral summer dress and she was going to Cape Town for the wedding (!) we collectively pooh-poohed the heavy winter fabrics and Liz went off to buy a cotton/elastane blend, an invisible zip & thread. Like I said, the girl got skillz: two shops & one slightly frazzled phone call ('what kind of zip was it?') later, she had herself the ingredients to a dress.

Short version? I waited 'til the Monday after the party to start cutting, but all-in-all the dress took 3 nights: one night of construction, one night of fitting and one night of alterations ... plus one VERY frantic morning to finish off. The pattern is, honestly, not the easiest to interpret - Burda's instructions were sparse (as always) and by omitting the lining I created loads of problems for myself. HOWEVER. All of those problems were solved by liberal application of lovely lace trim. Huzzah!

What is with Burda patterns?
I hacked off nearly half a foot on the side seams during the fitting.

Ohohoh. And. Please, let's not forget one CRITICAL resource: Colette Patterns' invisible zipper insertion tutorial. I would have totally died without that info.

(Note to the lady with the big opinions about ironing the zipper teeth in the comments section of that tute: ironing them works. Not ironing them doesn't. Nuff said. :P)

Liberal application of lace. 

 Liz wore the dress a few days ago, and I'm most relieved that she looked very happy in it. Idiot that I am, I was so swept up in applying lace trim that I completely forgot to make the accompanying self-fabric belt ... it's on my list of things to do this weekend, I swear!

Looking at the pictures now, I can see the mistakes that another fitting session and a few more days' sewing would have fixed, BUT I'm really chuffed with the results. Considering this is only garment number 9. Shh,  don't tell Liz. 

Look at the happy smiles and ignore the mistakes. IGNORE THEM. 

And why is this post called 'Wedding Blues'? Well, apart from lovely Liz being in my lovely hometown while I had to be in stinky work doing stinky routine things, I mistakenly convinced myself that Liz had chosen not to wear the dress after all ... this is what comes from looking at people's Facebook pictures while in a bad mood. Dumbass that I am, I didn't remember that the wedding hadn't even taken place yet and that the pictures I was looking at were of a completely different wedding.
So, I proceeded to stomp around for several hours while poor Rob tried to placate me. When Liz sent a message several days later saying that she was wearing the dress, well ... I felt like a total twonk.

Lessons learned: BurdaStyle patterns come out BIG, Facebook-stalking never leads to anything good, and invisible zippers should be ironed prior to insertion. :)

Catching up Part 1 - Hallowe'en!

Hello lovelies,

This post might sound like the crazed ramblings of a madwoman, and um ... that's probably completely accurate because right now I'm feeling so COMPLETELY inspired & motivated and and and ... WOW.

Had to take my friend Rose to the airport this morning at the crack of sparrow's fart (intentionally mixed metaphor: crack of dawn & sparrow's fart, but ruder! hee hee) so got hom by 7:30 & decided to catch up on bloggy blogs. I have a self-imposed rule that I only read The Sew Weekly on a desktop computer, otherwise I miss out on so many of the lovely images via my RSS Reader. ANYWAY.

Oona took on my innocent challenge to produce Oona-fied work wear suitable to my OH SO boring work environment. Oona! Dudes. The number of girl crushes I have on sewing bloggers is phenomenal, but Oona is high up on the list :)

SO! Also inspired by a lovely comment from Zoe a few weeks back, here are some images of several projects I've been working on since my last installment...

The main focus of October was Hallowe'en. We LOVE Hallowe'en, and fancy dress is a big feature in our world for pretty much any occasion - so, let's face it, Hallowe'en is going to be a pretty big occasion. Because Rob has a beard now (and it looks so good on him :)), he tries to come up with costumes which enable le beard - hence Osama Bin Laden for his birthday in July.

Blessed are the meek.  

This time, he went for something a little more controversial: Zombie Jesus.

The very picture of zombified grace.

After my initial 'eek' moment, I though, 'Eh, well' and went ahead with modifying my self-drafted Osama tunic & troos-pattern into a Jesus-robe-thing pattern.  The robe was then made from two Ikea curtain offcuts from the charity shop, the toga-wrap-thing from a Primark sheet (it was impossible to find enough red fabric that wasn't new. Grrrr) and the trim was from a VERY lucky c/shop find - a bag full of upholstery trim for £1. Hello dumb-ass, wanna sell me some really expensive stuff for nothing? GREAT!!!

My favourite part was embroidering the sacred heart: I've always loved these images and this was so fun to do. Took AGES, but it killed lots of time commuting to/from Europe for work.

when the sun was still out at 6pm. *sniff sniff*

I'd decided to go with a Ghostbuster costume on the premise that it would be quick & easy: pair of cheap overalls & a vaccum cleaner strapped to my back, TA-DAAAA!

Yeah, right. When did 'quick & easy' EVER work in our house? So, instead it became this:

Embroidered Ghostbuster Badge for Pocket

Tracing Simplicity 5151 ... on pegboard????

I bought Simplicity 5151 on eBay while looking for a jumpsuit/overall pattern, which was scarce as hen's teeth then and as is to be found in abundance at ANY other time ... what's with that??? I was so excited when the pattern arrived that I didn't notice until the photo above was taken that the instructions in the envelope were for another pattern altogether. So, I winged it.

FYI: excluding the 3 garments I made in primary school needlework classes, this garment would represent my 8th (complete) garment. Eight. As in onetwothreefourfivesixsevenEIGHT. And no freaking instructions??? 

Thank god I read blogs. Honestly, this pattern was the bomb and gave me no grief whatsoever, it really was very straightforward. In the end, I only omitted the button placket because there wasn't time to sew it on over the centre front zip and make the pretty button holes. More on that in a sec. 

I finished the dress at approx 11:00 on the morning of the party, due to start at dusk. My dramatically-minded husband put that vague description on the invitation, so we really had no idea what time people would start turning up, and the house still needed to be decorated, AND I still had no proton pack. 

Enter chaos.

Proton Pack in Progress ... recognise any sewing items, folks?

MANY glue sticks later, the pack is ready to be sprayed black. 

We took this sucker outside and sprayed the heck out of it with - wait for it - Poundland-variety black matt car spray paint (seriously, £1! kicks ass).  Rob sacrificed an old backpack so that their straps could be glued onto the front of this tea tray-rubbish-glue gun confection, and that was it. The most fun EVER. 

Fast forward several bored guests (who arrived early, looking amazing only to find their hosts running around like lunatics trying to get Zombie Jesus' contact lenses stop moving around) to later in the evening and here are the proud results of the whole shebang: 

With 50p LED light and everything!!! 

The goggles only last an hour or so as they were way too flimsy ... but still cool :)

Who you gonna call? 

Last point to mention: we ran out of time to make an appropriate gun-handheld-thing to be attached to the proton pack ... so I got an old vacuum hose from some junk in the garage and wielded it at people incessantly for the rest of the evening. They weren't annoyed at all.

hello, are you really sewing?

Even Miss Meg can believe her little kitty eyes ... 'is this a reel of thread? You've GOTTA be kidding me!'

No-no-no, it's true. I sew, I sew. Hallowe'en is coming & I have finished Rob's costume (bar trimmings and toga-esque wrap thingy), while mine is still in the 'all the little things are finished phase'.

this is especially important as I discovered on Sunday that my lovely 70s pattern included the wrong instructions - ah, eBay. How I love thee blahblahblah. Anyhoo.

more soon! with real pictures! YAY!