tiny happy

One of my favourite things about the lead-up to Christmas is making sweets and baking. The kids have been helping to choose recipes, which invariably require abundant quantities of chocolate, and design cards and gift tags.

This year we wrapped homemade sweets of all types for their teachers, and tried something new: rocky road. We found the recipe on my sister's blog What Sarah Bakes.

To make our version we used dark chocolate, plain biscuits, almonds, walnuts and cherries. It's quite rich! But also quite delicious (the trick is just eating a tiny bit at a time.)

In the first photo above, you can see a Christmas gift I've made for Keira (I'm quite sure she doesn't read my blog.) She asked for 'summer pyjamas' a while ago, and cajoled me into buying the watermelon cotton last time we went to the craft shop. So I made the shorts from the watermelon fabric using this pattern, and for the top, I bought a plain top and appliqued some more watermelons on the front (using this technique). 

My friend Anissa is holding a special giveaway on her blog – it closes soon and I think you should take a look. The winner receives a lot of handmade loveliness…

In a rather unoriginal move, I completely copied a dress I liked on Pinterest. It's this one. I couldn't find it for sale, so I made it myself. It took a really long time, because I didn't have a pattern – I realised how much more i enjoy sewing with a pattern.

Because there are quite a few internal seams and the dress is not lined, I had to resurrect my old overlocker which had been languishing in a cupboard for some time. Most of the making-time was spent cleaning and re-threading it – a task not unlike solving a Rubik's Cube.

But it was a good challenge, and I'm happy with my new summer frock. It's nice and loose with big side pockets. The fabric is a textured white linen/cotton with black lines.

Also, it's chamomile season. I picked these to make tea, but then decided they were better appreciated on the kitchen table. 

– This yarn was a gift from my Mum. She bought it while visiting my sister who lives in the Czech Republic. It's Rowan 'fine art' sock yarn in the colourway Chiff-Chaff. Isn't that a great name? The colours are smoky greys, and purples. Mum said it was hard to choose colours she would never personally want to knit with, but she knew I would be into it, and I am.

– Back in autumn I saw a competition to come up with a phrase or saying to go on a complementary tote bag for this knitting event. On the bus on the way home from work I casually sent in 'Get your knit together', because I love puns and it amused me at the time. (Actually, my children think I possess the world's worst humour, and they don't appreciate my puns at all.) Anyway, I was so surprised to see the finished bags made up and on Instagram, using my suggested phrase. The design was done by Dear Colleen and the bags were a gift to attendees from Tash of Holland Road Yarn Company. Not only did Tash send me my own tote bag, she included a HRYC voucher – hooray! 

I'm making myself finish a few projects before I spend the voucher on more beautiful yarn though.

Hope you have a great weekend!

I made a set of pillowcases for a very dear friend who I have always associated with the colour yellow. I knew I had to source some Nani Iro fabric especially, to make sure they were really soft and light. (I bought it from my local shop Stitchbird).

S.J.E has recently had a baby and I thought she'd be spending more time in bed, feeding and reading, and (hopefully/sometimes?) sleeping… 

The fabric is Nani Iro – En Garden – Road Michi double gauze cotton on the front, and a vintage grid-patterned cotton on the back.

Here is my simple pillowcase pattern, in case you want to make some for gifts too.

I like how utilitarian these are – anyone who has a bed needs pillowcases. Sewing them up in a really nice fabric makes them into a special gift.

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I have borrowed Lena Corwin's book Made by Hand from the library a few times now – and have now bought my own copy! It's a beautiful book, and I'm currently feeling inspired to make the dress and knitted socks (patterns by Jenny Gordy) and make a braided rug from old t-shirts. That's my goal for the new year.

Would you like to make a few ornaments for your Christmas tree, or someone else's? Here's the promised tutorial for the decorations I wrote about the other day. Put on your favourite album, make a cup of tea, and enjoy some Christmas crafting.

It's quite likely you won't need these templates or instructions, but I thought I would include them here in case you're new to hand-sewing and embroidery. These ornaments make a great beginner's project if you are keen to try embroidery, because they're small and simple. It's easy to get a good result quickly. And who doesn't like that?

If you don't want to do the embroidery, these would look just as nice unadorned, or you could sew on beads or sequins instead. 

On the paper template drawings, I've included the stitches you will work on each piece and describe how I do them below. Obviously, you can use any colours or embroidery stitches you like. These ornaments are backed with pieces of cotton or silk fabric but you could use felt on both sides if you prefer. I wanted a delicate look for these, so I used ordinary sewing thread to work tiny blanket stitches around the edge. (You can click on the image below to enlarge).

You will need:

Template for ornaments
Small amount of felt fabric in charcoal, white and red (I used a wool blend from Stitchbird)
Embroidery floss in white and charcoal (I like regular stranded DMC thread)
Machine sewing thread in white
Small amount of stuffing (I used wool roving)
White narrow ribbon, cut into lengths of 10.5''
Small amount of scrap fabric – a light cotton works well (choose something that won't fray too much)
Paper scissors, fabric scissors, hand-sewing needle

Prepare the front and back pieces:

For each ornament, cut out one shape from felt and one from cotton fabric. 
To work the embroidery, you'll only use 2 kinds of stitches: straight stitch, and chain stitch. Separate a length of floss so you are working with only 2 strands. Take the felt shape and work the straight stitches first and then the chain stitches, using the template as a guide.
(This is a good explanation of working a chain stitch, and this is an innovative way to work them in isolation, like they are here!)

Assemble:

Sew the front and back ornament pieces together, beginning at the point where one of the asterisks is placed on the template, and finishing at the other. Because the back is made from cotton with a raw edge, I use ordinary sewing machine thread and very small blanket stitches around the edges, to minimise fraying. (There are some good YouTube videos on working this stitch). Pull the stitches quite taut. When you get to the top of the ornament, poke the ribbon loop between the front and back, and attach with small running stitches. Resume with blanket stitch once you have passed the ribbon loop.

Finish:

Stuff the ornament through the gap left (between the asterisks on the template). Don't over-stuff them – they don't need to be too firm or chunky. For best results, pull the stuffing apart into wispy pieces before pushing inside. This way it won't clump together. Sew up the gap with blanket stitch.

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Thanks for your comments on my last blog post. Yes, I will publish an embroidery pattern and template here for you to download and make some ornaments of the same design. Later this week, if I can work out how (I'm truly hopeless at things like that.)

I bought this beautiful piece of Nani Iro double gauze (design is 'Spectacle') from my local shop Stitchbird. You know that i love variations on blue and grey, and this is a slice of blue landscape, or seascape. Or sky-scape, even.

I will make something to wear from it, I think, but until then I have it pinned on my bedroom wall to admire and think about clouds and mountains.

I made a batch of these ornaments after a few requests on etsy for something Christmassy. I really enjoyed making them — I used wool felt in dark grey, red and white, and embroidered each one with white of grey thread. They are backed with recycled fabrics – bits of Liberty and kimono silk, mostly. Wool roving inside. And the edges are sewn together with tiny blanket stitches.

Things I have noticed and admired this weekend: 

– this album, which I'm currently re-discovering (I played it a lot when it first came out) Orkney: Symphony of the Magnetic North, which is very evocative and beautiful.

– this shawl I would like to cast it on right now.

– an inspiring interview: Joanna Newsom talking with Tavi Gevinson on Rookie.

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Are you making any ornaments for the holidays?

I could post a template + embroidery pattern for download, in case you feel like making a set of my decorations for yourself?

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I spent a chunk of late winter – spring working on a collection of embroidered project bags for beautiful London store Loop - you can find them for sale here.

Susan, who commissioned them, bought a selection of jewel-coloured Swedish linen from a neighbouring shop and sent it to me to be embroidered. She has great taste, and it was fun to work with colours I don't usually pick out. One example is the vibrant pink you can see in the middle photo above, which i embroidered with clusters of white flowers.

The pink reminds me of a panel of textured glass in our front door, with the light shining through on a bright day.

The sun was shining this weekend and I had time for novel-reading and knitting which was pretty nice. Hope you had a good weekend too?

I got to finish a project that had been sitting on my desk for a while: a pair of these shorts for miss K. I'm so pleased with the finished garment, and so is she, declaring them her current favourite thing to wear, and asking for a pair for her best friend. 

The (free) pattern recommends using Liberty or similar cotton lawn but I felt something warmer was needed for Wellington life, so I used a lightweight denim fabric, with Liberty lawn in a green leafy print (a gift from Nikki - thanks!) for the binding and waistband. (You can click the photo to see more detail of the fabric.)

Keira allowed me to interrupt her violin practice to photograph them.

On a recent trip to the bookshop, I couldn't resist the latest Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater to add to our collection of his writing. The kids went through and wrote little notes on the recipes they want to try (eating, that is.) 

My favourite is on a blue post-it note on pg 27 and reads 'Artichoke tartiflette… because ARTICHOKES!!!'.

Nicola, my clever and generous friend, made this recipe calendar and sent me a copy the other day. I enjoyed the 2015 version, too! This year's calendar looks to be another winner, and there are already quite a few recipes I want to make (lemon bars, strawberry icecream, cashew dhal…) so I probably won't be able to wait till 2016.

Nicola also sent me a set of these linen bowl covers, which is the most practical and aesthetically pleasing gift. I've never been able to tolerate the waste of space that is plastic wrap (I usually just put a plate over a bowl to cover it) so having linen covers that can be thrown in the wash is quite frankly a genius idea. (If you have similarly anti-plastic friends, a set of these linen covers would make a top Christmas present I reckon.)

And lastly, I thought you might like to meet this little hedgehog (pattern here, thanks Pia) I knitted while chatting with friends and drinking tea. He says hi.