Restructure

Firstly, many thanks to the many wonderful people who left comments here or on Facebook or who sent lovely emails after my last post.  I've been quite fragile lately but you've made me feel stronger and a little bit protected from the blows of future criticism.

It has been mentioned before, that I can't leave well enough alone, once I gets me an idea..... 

So now, not only am I restructuring my business and lots of real-life stuff, but I can't seem to stop turning last year's knitting machine wraps into twisty-drapey winter woollies....

The few scarfy-shruggy rectangle-based things I made a little while ago got me thinking about other wrap-and-sew structures for knitted rectangles.  I decided to try this idea on last year's rectangles before I knitted up any new ones. 

I've been felting them a bit, too.  The blue one felted up nicely, but I think the red one might need a few spins in the dreaded front-loader to disguise all the little pulls and holes in the knit.

These two are based on a spiral wrap.   The back is lovely and snuggly-warm and the neck can be cowled and draped in a lot of different configurations.  I'm now thinking of other wraps and other shapes to wrap.....

Other restructuring activities include the revamping of a few of my smaller projects: converting them into digital downloads.  You can find them over at Pink Chalk Farics.

So far, we have the Pyramid Purse, the Lavender Handbag (which also makes a cute little pincushion) and the Fabulous 50's Bib.  These are all my go-to "quick gift" projects.

The patterns have nice spiffy-new colour photographs and re-vamped pattern pieces.

There is still a lot to do here... organising the path ahead while bringing the tail end of the good ship YOU SEW GIRL around.  You can expect to see more revampings and restructurings.... and you can definitely expect to see more knitty wrappy things.

Just talk amongst yourselves....

No new sewing to show... so here are a few bibs I finished a while ago....

...backs of bibs....
and tarted-up singlets.....
For a gorgeous baby boy. Safe to blog them now.

Welcome to the world, little one.

Itchin' to start stitchin'

A friend is expecting her baby to arrive any minute.

And I have loads of really cute fabric, a few Ikea hand-towels and a bias tape maker.

Gosh, I even have a pattern....

I've been up since dawn - like a kid on xmas morning - having negotiated a WHOLE DAY to sew....

And the man of the house is having a sleep-in! Unfortunately that's part of the deal. I'm marooned here until he wakes up.

If you want to win a bib made from my Fabulous Fifties Bib pattern, head on over to Solomon Sewing and go in the giveaway.

...

Oh, and Nikki's having a giveaway too... You could win this book.

A present for Hamish

A dear friend, her partner and new baby boy visited today. I thought they might like some new bibs (made yesterday). The blue one is my Fabulous Fifties Bib and the other is a little snap-closure one I make sometimes. I was right... they loved them!

The dog print and its co-ordinating paw prints (on the binding) is something like*** Paws and Whiskers (I THINK a Kauffman print...?) from GJ's - on sale for only $8 per metre - and I bought mine at the 25% off sale. Yay! I love GJ's!! (And no - I don't have shares in the company!!).

The red print is from the Wee Play range from Moda.

*** I can never be too sure of print ranges these days, because before I start using a fabric I cut off the selvedges to send to Jodie, and then instantly forget from whence the fabric came. But I think seeing what Jodie comes up with is MORE than compensation for my failure as a fabric-geek.... don't you?

I've also been playing with my new patternmaking project and a few little fiddly origami things. I've only used fabrics that I'm not precious about - just to test the processes - and strangely enough, I believe they'll do as Christmas decorations next year.

I'm not through trying all the designs I picked out to try and already I'm getting ideas about mutating the forms of these lovely Japanese designs.... thinking raw edge and unusual fabric combinations....probably a bit of assymmetry... ???

SO MUCH TO DO ...and less than a week before reality kicks in again. We open for business again on the 12th Jan. Yikes!

I thought I was the only one who didn't know about this....

Good to hear (in your comments) that I'm not the only one who missed the news when basting spray appeared on the market.
Here it is - all the way from the world of Patchwork and Quilting.... BASTING SPRAY. It's like spray adhesive to hold bits of fabric together while you cut/sew it into place. AMAZING. I usually use it to hold down "feature fabric" overlays on bags before I stitch them into place.

Yesterday I used it to make cutting towelling backing for Fabulous Fifties Bibs a lot easier.... and it was SOOOO easy... ...until I ran out of the red spotty fabric for the neck binding on the second bib (but that's another story).Here's the back of the finished one.
One thing that bothers me.... and perhaps someone from the quilting world can tell me this...? Basting spray is supposed to wash out easily, but does it have any toxic nasties in it that should be washed out before the bib is put on a baby for the first time (for the 10 minutes that it'll be worn before it's slopped all over)??