52 Crafts: 2009 Summary

As I mentioned before At the beginning of the year I signed up to 52 Crafts. I posted about it here on the 14th of October at which point I'd created 22 items, so had 30 left to go. Today on New Years Eve I have created 50 items. As you can see I've been crafting away for the last 11 weeks. Below are thumbnail images of all the projects from this year in the order they were completed. Those that I have a blog post or burdastyle link can be clicked on to take you to the relevant page to see more information.

I'm only two shy of the 52 goal, but after umm-ing and err-ing about it this morning I've concluded that if I rushed to make two more things today I'd be making things for the sake of making them for the first time this year and that's not really how I want to end the experience. I think 50 is very respectable, and I'm happy to leave it at that.



And so, goodbye 2009. It was nice knowing you.

Sunny Melbourne Summer Day...

You may have noticed the post count around here has increased somewhat this week. Between having to wait to post about Christmas gifts and using the time off work this week to spend some quality time with my sewing machine there's been lots to show.

Despite having plenty going on, yesterday on my walk home from the city I took a few moments to really acknowledge and appreciate the world around me.

...beautiful native flowers

...the amazing buildings I walk past every day

... the beautiful blue of the sky, particularly against the green of the trees and the red of red-brick buildings

Red and white flower top finally finished

This top has been in my UFO box for absolutely AGES. So long in fact that it's one of the photos in my first blog post. I hadn't finished it because of indecision regarding the sleeves.

It is inspired by a dress I saw in a window on Brunswick Street which multiple flowers similar to this one across the front of the bodice. Instead of lots, I made just one out of jersey and attached it to the shoulder of the top.

My indecision struck when I got to finishing the sleeve and bottom hems and realised that I had for some reason cut 3/4 length sleeves when actually, I don't really like 3/4 length sleeves. I didn't have enough fabric to cut the sleeves out again full length, but didn't want to chop them off as that's a decision I couldn't take back. Thus, it got hidden in the UFO box and guiltily shoved to the back of my mind.

This week I decided to bite the bullet and just hem the sleeves as 3/4 length. I'll wear the top a few times, and if I really don't like the sleeves I can always shorten them.

The hems were finished in my new favourite method of using a twin needle. So simple yet so effective. I really need to go and buy a few more in different widths and experiment! If you've never done it, you should watch this video EmilyKate made which explains it all really well and then give it a go.

Due to the sleeve length this top is unlikely to be worn for a while due to the season, but as soon as it cools down I'll wear it. You never know, I'm in Melbourne after all, that could be next week!

Hidden Support Top

To go with my new summer PJ bottoms I thought I'd have a go at making a hidden support top to wear with them.

I started with a vest top that I have with a similar amount of stretch to the jersey fabric that I chose to use. Using my tracing wheel to trace around the top I made a simple pattern and then sort of guessed how big to make the inner pieces for the hidden support.

I stitched elastic that fit snugly around my ribcage into the bottom of the inner sections of the top to create the hidden support shelf bra.

And because this is somewhat a prototype and designed to be PJs, I finished the edges very roughly with a 1" strip of the jersey folded over and zig-zag stitched in place (with navy 'contrast' thread because I didn't have any matching and couldn't be bothered with going out to buy some).

And then the same zig-zag along the bottom to hem it.

Very quick, very simple and hopefully very comfy. Once I've worn it a bit to work out any problems with the fit I think I'll make a few more of these both with and without the hidden support.

Some more summer dresses...

My wardrobe is not very even in terms of summer vs. winter garments; I have SO many more summer clothes than winter clothes. I just much prefer lovely floaty skirts and dresses, they're just so comfortable to wear on a hot summers day. I do intend on addressing this uneven-ness in the future, but since it's still relatively early in summer I am indulging in my love of summer clothes and today I purchased some fabric to make some dresses.

A while ago my friend Jacinta has asked me if I can teach her how to sew, so we decided to start by picking something that we both like and making it side by side. Since it's summer, we decided on a nice summer dress. After painstakingly looking through the patterns on the main pattern websites we made lists of which patterns we liked, which thankfully had an awful lot of overlap. A few rounds of short-listing later we chose two dress patterns that we both liked, so the other day I went and bought them at Clegs in the $5 pattern sale. They are New Look 6886 and Butterick 5350.

Today we went to spotlight and bought our fabric. I went intending to buy fabric for one dress to make alongside Jacinta, possibly a second, but have the confession to make that I came home with fabric for three...

First, for the Butterick pattern I bought this fabric and intend on making view B with a contrast mid-section in black:

Next, I got this fabric for view A of the New Look pattern:

Lastly, I got this fabric for view C of the new look pattern, which I will make a contrast belt with navy fabric:

Jacinta bought this fabric and will use the New Look pattern, she hasn't decided which view yet:

Because she has such a hectic and busy life Jacinta can't get started until mid-January. Thankfully I now have two other dresses to keep me amused in the meantime.

Another Bag...

I've made another bag like the one I made for my mum for Christmas, this time with some different fabric.

Which again folds up to keep in my bag:

One thing I like about this bag is that I bought 0.5m of fabric and it uses exactly that much for the main body of the bag, plus a little bit more for the pouch. It doesn't add anything to my stash, which is certainly a good thing, as I'm running out of room!!

Summer PJ Bottoms

Overcoming my indecision from the other day I've since whipped up two pairs of summer PJ bottoms with the fabric I bought a while back.

I used the PJ bottoms pattern from my argyle PJs with a few small alterations:

- Shortened them to 3/4 length & added a kind of cuff to the bottom.

- Changed the style of pockets to ones inspired by some PJs I saw in Bras n Things.

- Added some extra height to the back for comfort (and modesty).

- Altered the waistband to be a nice chunky one and left out the drawstring.

I also added some contrast trim to the edge of the pockets and between the main trouser leg and the cuff.

Jelly Roll Plans...

This afternoon I've been perusing flickr to get ideas of what to do with my jelly rolls and charm pack. I've made a temporary "design wall" in my living room where I've laid out all the fabric so I can see what I have.

(image is clickable to see it larger)

From the jelly rolls half of the fabrics are beige based and the other half red and blue. Also half of the strips will yeild 2" stripes and the other half 1" stripes. The charm squares are all a bit darker than the strips, but with similar tones so can hopefully be used together well, although I am concerned about the almost black squares.

Despite being somewhat limited by what fabric I have (in regards to the strips and squares) there's an awful lot of patterns I could choose to use, including Log Cabin, Bento Box, Cathedral Steps, Rail Fence, Double Hour Glass, Coins and heaps of others that I'm less drawn to. Then once I've chosen my design there's even more choices for which colours to use where and then the chosen layout for the whole quilt. I could even do some kind of mixture of different designs.

Far too many decisions for someone as indecisive as me!!