tiny happy

These elasticated garments were made for Keira over the weekend. She seems to be getting taller and some of her old dresses were on the short side, so a few new spring things were in order.

I drafted my own pattern to make these- after having a good look at some other clothes she had, and drawing on a big piece of cooking paper. A few small adjustments were made, but I do quite enjoy making my own patterns when it comes to garments with only a few pieces. (Can't imagine how people make their own patterns for complicated clothes, though!) The long-sleeved top was made from some op-shopped gingham (makes me think of picnics and Dorothy) and the flowery dress is made from a cotton voile.

The Young Lady of the house has put her order in for a few more things, so I'd better get back to work. See you tomorrow!

We have a giant sage plant in our vegetable patch, which has just this week burst into flower. I picked a jarful of sage stems for the mantlepiece and did a bit of embroidery whilst under the spell of sage perfume. The linen I used was originally a pillowcase that was given to me by my great-uncle. I believe it was brought out with him and his wife from Italy after WW2. The pillowcase was an old-fashioned size and had some raggedy edges, so I'm going to gradually give the linen a new life. It's nice to work with long-held family pieces like that. 

There was a bit of mauve theme going on in my workroom this week: these drawstring pouches were made for my shop update today, and were all put together from recycled materials. I love that soft, unassuming shade of purple.

Three good things about today: strawflowers in a cup, the first strawberry from our garden (this is the first time I've grown strawberries- it's rather exciting.) And a few brass lockets with inset embroideries, finished and polished.

Hope you're having a good Tuesday, too.

I found a forgotten box filled with wool felt scraps in my workroom, and decided to construct them into flowers, modelled on some picked from the garden this morning. They were also inspired by a recent trip to an antique store where I saw lots of amazing old felt handbags adorned with tiny gardens of hand-sewn felt flowers.

I made some of my felt poppies into pins by adding brooch findings to the back- but i thought i could use the others to tie on to packages, birthday presents, hair-ties for my nieces, etc. And they were very therapeutic to sit down and make, of course.

The first two photos above show a 'mood board' that I made today in a textile design class run by a good friend of mine. Today, we learned about creating a certain look and feel for our future designs, and being intuitive in collating colours and images together. It was a lot of fun! It made me think of a wall in my workroom, (last photo above) which i use in a similar way, but it's really time I changed it around.

In this vein, lovely sites to inspire can be found here: record the day , inspiration boards blog and flickr, creature comforts & decor8.

It was wonderful to sit around a table with other students and learn about the design process in this way- I'd not done that before. Karuna, my teacher/designer/weaver friend is offering classes in textile design and printing, so if you live locally (Nelson, NZ), and are interested, you can contact her here for more information.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. It's a long one here for Labour Day, so I'm hoping to laze around in the sun for a while, listening to the latest Sufjan Stevens album, which has just now arrived in my letterbox. Excellent.

I spent a few hours today looking after my two youngest nieces, aged 6 months and 3 years. They didn't seem too interested in any of the toys we had lying around, instead favouring drawers and shelves in the room where I keep all my sewing things. So I pulled out some things with them, and was reminded of how cool the packaging of haberdashery used to be. These are some of my sewing supplies that have been kindly given to me or I've found second-hand. Most of them are kept in a box because I like looking at the packaging more than I want to actually use the notions. I love the fonts used and little slogans, such as 'fashionable buttons', 'always good a like' (I'm not sure what that means), and 'permanently coloured teeth' (on the zipper packaging, of course.)

Today's small embroidered piece was inspired by an evening walk with the family. Now that the days are getting longer, we can go out after eating dinner for a quick walk or bike ride- the children love it.

Yesterday when we were out, I spotted this cluster of white daisies growing amongst weeds at the side of the road. I spent the rest of the evening stitching these delicate little flowers and sewing them into a needle book for today' shop update. Yellow and white: such a good pairing.

A friend of mine asked me to make her a drawstring case from some vintage green linen she liked. She wanted a little bag to keep her camera lenses in, so I played around with different drawstring designs until I found the one that worked best. And then, of course, i couldn't resist making a few more.

They are basically just two squares, lined and sewn together, with an additional channel at the top for threading the cord through. It's fun to combine the different fabrics and ribbons, as well as being very useful for using up favourite small pieces of linen.

I find them handy to keep small things in order within drawers and my handbag, etc. The pink one with little horses is Keira's new 'treasures-bag'- she has filled it with pencils and necklaces- two of her Must Haves.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It's so nice to read your messages and find out a bit about you. I used the 'random number generator' to pick a winner- and that was Maria. I hope you'll like the embroidery kit and locket, schorlemadchen.

I got some really lovely presents for my birthday, including the book Homemade, written by Ros Badger and the late Elspeth Thompson. It's packed with great projects, and the styling and photography is really good. I especially love the pages of garden projects- they make me excited for summer. Even though I've made heaps already, I couldn't resist sewing up some long strings of bunting flags to use up my basket of fabric scraps. Instead of sewing each flag, I just cut around the fabric with pinking shears, as suggested in the book. I'm hoping there'll be lots of party opportunities over summer to hang them in the trees outside. 

It's my 30th birthday today, and I've had a really nice time with friends and family. And also, I've had lots of treats and kindness shown. Thank you, everyone. I was a bit nervous about turning 30 because it seems properly grown-up, (and also, I happen to remember my parents turning 30), but I think it's going to be okay after all, if today is anything to go by.

And so, just like I did last year, I'd like to offer a little giveaway here to thank you, too, dear blog-friends. I realised today that I've spent the last half of my twenties blogging here- and it's been great. I treasure you, tiny-happy-readers.

I've made up a parcel with an embroidered locket inside (a bit like this one) and also a small embroidery kit, including a wooden hoop, embroidered needlebook with pins and needles and some thread.

If you'd like to go in the draw to win the parcel, (I'll send it anywhere in the world), just leave a comment on this post, telling me something about yourself. Maybe the book you're reading at the moment, or your favourite thing to eat. Or what you're working on at the moment. Something like that.

Have a great weekend! It's going to be party time here.