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Finally, some skirts

Ever since I have been making aprons people have been asking me why I don't make skirts.  I make aprons because I like to focus on the aspect of wearable items the I most enjoy - the detail, the element that makes the garment special, rather than necessarily the entire garment. Also,I really enjoy the industrious feeling I get from tying on an apron. Clearly, my aprons aren't designed for purely washing the dishes or cleaning the house, but none the less, wearing one makes me feel more capable and ready (for what I'm not sure!) However, I thought I'd give some skirts a go, and I've been really enjoying the process. So, I thought I'd show you what I've been up to.

  
 
But I'm certainly not giving up the apron-making:)
 
This one I made a little while ago, but realised that she never made it onto the net
 
I'm trying to get more and more pic-heavy on my blog cos that's the kind of browser I am. I read bits and pieces, but really, it's all about the pictures for me!

a new gentleness

Jut got in from learning some more Tai Chi in the garden with my partner. I don't know why I've been so resistant to giving it a go when he has been telling me for years that it would help my health. I guess, sometimes it can be hard to believe that change is possible. But it is. With my natural tendency to work myself into the ground to get stuff done, I recently found myself at a point where I've had to make a conscious choice to be gentler with myself - to take time out when I need it. And the wonderful thing I have discovered (which probably comes as no surprise to you more evolved people out there) is that easing up allows me to be more creative and productive, rather than less.  Below a some of the pieces I have been working on recently.

For the love of patchwork!

I came across this lady's amazing work recently and just had to share. She is an Estonian fashion designer named Reet Aus. Not only does she make gorgeous creations, she also photographs them beautifully.  You can see more of her work here.

Back here in my little studio (read: spare room). I've been working on another apron top. Kinda pales in comparison to Rees's work, but I can dream.

It makes me think of looking out at a garden through many windows.

And an A4 folio made for meto try and help myself be a little more organised (in a colourful kind of way, of course).

Works in progress

Things are growing and developing both inside and outside my house. The garden in beginning to yield veg thanks to the rain and the labour of my green-thumbed partner.

And just cos I like any excuse to photograph our cat child, here he is again, hanging out in the Rhubarb.

Meanwhile, back inside, I've been working on a couple of things.

A new apron

 

and a shirt dress

 

I really like that prim, crisp shirt tucked into a skirt look (but find that the shirt never stays tucked in long once you start moving around, so I decided to cut off the lower half of a shirt and attach it to a panel-fronted skirt I'd made. I sewed ties into the waist section so that it can be cinched in and create a pleat-like effect at the sides. This is just my first attempt (still unfinished) but I think it has potential. Though I think next try I'll make the skirt sit higher under the bust and perhaps add some kind of faux braces detail. Still, I'm happy with it as the start of an idea.

Rain at last!

The wonderfully gutteral sound of thunder belching out as the bulging sky finally gave way and spilled heavy rain onto the earth was a beautiful sound to hear as I lay in bed one night last week. It's one of the nicest things in the world, I think, lying tucked up in bed listening to the sound of a storm (along with coffee in bed, a big juicy BLT and discovering a new and unpillaged Op-shop). And the rain has kept coming, allowing the poor wilting garden to breath a sigh of relief.Our watertank was even full (and overflowing) for the first time! Let's hope it keeps on keeping on.

I've been back on a bag-making run over the past few weeks. I printed off a pleated bag tutorial (can't seem to find the exact one I used, but there are heaps) as well as this zippered pocket tutorial from Crafster.org a little while ago and have been keen to have a go at both of them. These are some of the results (more on Flickr). One of the main points of feedback I got from the market last week was that people liked to be able to sling their bag over their body, so I made this lot with adjustable straps so they can be worn in this way or shortened for over the shoulder.

  

  

Market day success/getting sorted

Saturday was market day, and it was a wholly positive experience-a really good day. I couldn't have asked for a better initiation to the market world than via an intimate, community based market where the other stallholders were friendly and supportive and the market committee had even organised for a local cafe to come and take our coffee orders. Nice! It was also good to finally get some face-to-face feedback after months and months of working away in isolation in my workroom. The aprons sold well but I did have quite a few enquiries for skirt versions so I think I'll work on some for next time. This is me standing proudly at my little stall just before opening time-very excited!

I was so enthused by the while experience that I was motivated to do a big clean and reorganize of my workspace so I can get down to some new work. I figured it probably won't be this ordered again for quite a while so I thought I'd take some pics so that I can remember the fleeting  moment when I could see all of my desktop and floor surface!

Yes, there's fabric hanging from the walls, on the rack, on the desk, under the desk and even in the unused fish tank! It's great to have some order, if only temporarily. If any of you crafsters out there have any tips on how you store your fabric stash, please let me know. I'm always trying to work out better ways to have it ordered but accessible.

Getting ready for market day

I've certainly been to lots of markets and even had a few stalls at the Camberwell market to sell old clothes, but I've never had one where I've sold things I've made and I'm really quite excited about the prospect of having my first stall of this kind at the Maribyrnong Makers Market. If you're a Melbournite and you're reading this and you're free on Saturday November 15th, you should come along.

 So I've just been finishing off a few things for the big day, like making some business cards...

I decided to utilize the some of the mountain of fabric scraps a keep in bags just in case they can be used in the future (though realistically they are too small to be of much use) by sticking them onto the back of cards with my details on them. I felt that using what was at hand was in keeping with the spirit of my approach to making (as well as being a good way to use up scraps!)

I also decided to customise my paper bags using a lino stamp I made (and yes, I did inevitably cut myself in the process-those lino cutting tool are damn sharp!) They are currently hanging from temporary string lines around my house while the paint dries. I like the look of them, hanging en masse above my head line little paper flags.

I also made some swings tags.

I've also been having fun mucking around playing with display options. The market stall space is only 1metre X 2 metres so I need to be smartt about how I use it. I picked up a double rail hanging rack from a shop fitting place in Collingwood which is perfect for displaying my aprons. I think I'll take my trusty dress form along as well because she adds visual interest.

I eventually decided that the table top stand I made to display the purses didn't utilise space so well because the table itself took up quite a lots of space, so instead, I added some legs to the back of a louvered wooded panel I picked up at Camberwell markets a few years ago and have been using as a bed head. I think it works better.

Meanwhile, out in the garden...
We harvested our garlic. It's still pretty small. But it looked as though it was dying off so we thought we'd better pull it up now. It may be small, but it certainly packs a garlicky punch (and it looks pretty too, I think).

Ed also performed a transplant job on our poor bug-beseiged Bok Choy.

Hopefully it will do better in this location. Why all the fortifications?

Because this furry little devil child likes to dig them up!

Mouse at large/ Harvest/ IKEA love/ Dexter-fest/ Beautifulness

You don't have to worry about mice in the house when you have a cat, right? When we adopted this little cutie from the RSPCA we figured that he would deal with the ongoing mouse problem we've had in this house. Seems we were mistaken...

This little man likes to think of mice more as animated toys than potential prey. One night last week (just as I was heading off to bed) he came bounding upstairs from the kitchen with a mouse in his mouth and decided to set it free in the bedroom! Thanks Tomas! The mouse scurried into hiding and I was left freaking out about going to sleep with with a rodent at large in the room. I decided the best solution was to lock puss in the bedroom with us so that he could perhaps catch it in the night. At around 3am we woke to a commotion as Tomas pursued our furry "friend" around the bedroom but be managed to lose it AGAIN! So I spent a rather restless night jolting into wakefulness everytime the bedsheets brushed against my legs. The next day, my partner discovered the mouse under our futon bed, wacked it with a shoe and took it outside. On his return he went looking for our fearless mouse-killer of a cat only to find that his had been asleep on the bed through the entire proceedings!

On a more positive note, our garden is doing well (considering the lack of rain). This is the first carrot we've harvested. I've been chomping at the bit to pull one up for the last month or so, but Ed keeps telling me to wait till they mature more. On the weekend he finally gave in and I pulled up this fellow

Not exactly the most attractive carrot but it certainly tasted like the real deal!

Had a pretty slack weekend really, which was nice. Spent a fair portion of it watching "Dexter" on DVD. I caught a few episodes when it was on telly and thought it was pretty good, but once I really got into it I was hooked and I devoured the whole on season one in two days. I also made a trip to the catheral all things functional and appealing - IKEA. Now, just to be clear, I am very much anti mass-produced goods in favour of the ideosyncratic and handmade...but I make an exception for IKEA. There is something so damned seductive about the place with its simulated rooms that you can wander through feeling like you are in life-sized dolls house decked out with and chairs and tables named "Inga" and "Bjorn". But it's the Market Hall that I love the best with it's industrial pallet-sized boxes filled with lime green fish-shaped ice cube trays and other necessities of domestic life. What I did discover (much to my cloth-obsessed pleasure) was that IKEA now sells fabric by the metre. I usually source my fabrics from exclusively second-hand sources, but I thought I could make an exception...just this once...

But something gorgeously special and HANDMADE that I spotted in the web earlier tonight is the beautiful work of a lady named Margaret Ooman. She makes these lace-covered rock pieces which are quite poetic.

Actually, here whole blog is filled with extraordinary work and photos. Well worth a look.

 

Rituals (I need them)

Round my place we have a particular Saturday morning ritual. We aim to leave home en route to Footscray market by 10.30am. We swing past Savers (it is on the way afterall!) before heading off to our respective banks to get food money and meet up again at the "Bread Man" (the Italian guy who sells great Sourdough bread is our standard Rendevouz point). After buying our meat and veg we often grab a coffee at the nut stall (it doesn't look like much, but after constantly seeing old Italian men drinking there we decided that that coffee must be something special - and it is! Also, there's something really nice about sitting at the small tables surrounded buy open containers of legumes, watching the market traffic go by.) Next we might grab a BBQ Pork bun (or maybe an egg tart - there's room for some flexibility is our ritual;)) from the Chinese bakery nearby to give us some sustenance before we head off to the Asian supermarket down the road. Seeing as there is a Salvos on our return loop to the car we pop our heads in there. Always worth checking! I found this great lot of fabric at Footscray Savers/Salvos yesterday. Check it out!

 

We then go home and begin the newest addition our Saturday ritual;the stock-making. Stock-making became a regular thing at our place when we realized how easy it was and how much nicer it is that the shop-bought stuff. Sure, it takes time, but if we get it on around midday it can just be left as be potter around doing our respective Saturday arvo things whilst enjoying the homely, comforting smell of the stock bubbling away in the kitchen.

The final part of the Ritual is lunch. We try and keep it pretty simple but tasty. One of our faves is a spruced-up version of beans on toast. You fry a bit of onion, garlic and chilli in a pot (Hungarian salami is nice to add if its on hand), add a tin of Baked Beans in BBQ sauce and finally some fresh chopped parsley. Serve on sourdough toast. Simple but yummo.

Another nice bean dish inspired by one I had at A Minor Cafe in Albion St, Brunswick, uses Cannellini beans. Again, you fry up some onion and garlic and also some roughly chopped smoked ham. Add a tin on Cannellini beans, some fresh thyme, a little chicken stock and some grated Parmesan or Romano cheese and serve on toast. Very tasty and soothing.

The Maribyrnong Makers Market is only about a month away, so I've started working on ways of displaying my goods. I came up with a pretty reasonable (and cheap) solution for displaying my little zip purses. I just covered an old cork board I had with a bit of quilt wadding and then fabric, attached some elastic strips, backed it with box board ($4) and made hinged pine structure ($6.50) to make it stand up, and VOILA!- a stand for displaying my purses.

I plan to peg the purses onto the elastic bars like this -

I'd been thinking about making a folding screen to use at the stall to hang some of the bags and aprons on but was concerned about the cost of the wood, but it would seem that luck was on my side today, because as I was driving home this arvo I saw a wardrobe on the nature strip in front of a house. There was a guy working in the garden of the house so I pulled over and asked him if he was throwing it out. He was. I told him I only wanted the doors and asked if I could borrow a screwdriver...and now I have two of the panels for my screen!

Oh, and a few more bits made my me

Loving making these little purses! Getting better at getting the zip in straight each time I try. Yay!

and here are a couple of details of some bags I have been making (getting more textural)