Pants!

Me and my sewing machine have made our peace, and I'm sewing up a storm lately! With the very hot day we had in the beginning of july, I was in need of some light summer pants, but all my closet offered were heavy jeans... so I looked around in my burda patterns and got to work.

Super confortable light plaid pants, perfect for summer, nice enough for work but loose enough for biking... They are awesome.


But I couldn't stop there. I had fabric lying around, intended for comfy stay-at-home pants, and it called to me. After all, I was on a wave of sewing success, right? I combined my mock-patchwork with some castle peeps by lizzie House and BAM! another pair of pants. 

Having more and more handmade items around me, in my closet and also for daily life, makes me so happy!

Feeling challenged

This was the situation on my desk a few days ago.

I knew what I wanted to make, I had the pattern cut out.
And then it took me ages to decide on a fabric combination. I played around with the fabric for the better part of an evening.

Sometimes, the fabric choice for a project is crystal clear to me. Other times, it comes over time, when I play around with the prints and put them next to each other. But I don't think a fabric decision ever took that long before. I hope the end result will be as I imagine it...

Still with the small things

Me and my sewing machine get along much much better lately. So well actually, that I am planning clothesmaking again. But in order to not break the peace, I focused on small projects in the last weeks, First of all my first mug rug:

I Used an absolutely gorgeous mushroom print that I bought a while ago, having no idea what it would become. I still have a lot left, and it is really hard to cut into because the colors are so vibrant and beautiful.

After that, when I was playing around with some stuff while I actually shout have been organizing my sewing supplies, I found a baby pink zipper. Pink. I would have never bought that, it must have come from my grandmothers stuff - and I wanted to make something special out of it.

So a zippered pouch it became, after I dug around my fabric stash looking for a print that at least features pink. I think this was the only one (back then - I ordered a ton of fabric since). I love the polka dots on the inside, and it was fun to try a patchwork pattern for the outside without committing to a whole quilt. I like how the star turned out, but I am sure that there is a more efficient way to do this pattern, I just winged it. If I would do it again, I would look for a pattern first.

And of course, there have to be buttons. Big colorful ones.
The pouch has already found a home in my office, I keep all my girl stuff in there that one needs but does not want to have floating around in a drawer - like aspirin, hand lotion, tampons and such. Now they are stored away prettily, and I don't have to worry about accidentally spilling tampons everywhere.

The little things

My life is very full right now. Full of work, training, sunshine, cozy nights in with my man, cinema nights out with my girl friends... And here and there, in between all that, I snatch away a few minutes to craft. I still don't trust myself with big projects, so I have been focusing on smaller things lately, and finishing old projects.

These socks are one of the old, old projects... I started them in September last year I think, and only finished them a few days ago. But I love them so much.

I like the colorful stripes and the cable pattern (which almost drove me insane while knitting), and I like to wear woolen socks even on summer nights.

In a sudden burst of courage, I wanted to try a dresden plate patchwork pattern a a few weeks ago. Inspired by this post, I set to work, paper piecing the pattern, and I love how my new pincushion turned out. Almost too pretty to stick pins into...

Harry Potter

Look what a kind owl dropped off at my doorstep yesterday!

My very own complete hardcover Harry Potter series.
Don't worry, I have read them before, but I had to hurry because the books were usually borrowed... Now I can read and reread them as often as I want, yeah!
I think the program for easter holidays is set! (Unless, of course, me and my sewing machine get along again. Then I may also make some stuff.)

It's already March?

So apparently it is possible to not blog for almost three months. Who would have thought. I tried to figure out what kept me away from here, as I usually really like to ramble on about stuff on my blog, and it all comes down to three reasons:

One: My priorities at the moment are my boyfriend, my job and my training. Closely followed by the household, that’s kinda necessary sometimes. The boyfriend has to work horrid overtime (like 50+ hours a week, every week), and that leaves me with most oft he cooking and organizing. Which is fine, but does not leave much creativity time. Plus with starting my new job and training for a half marathon, my days are full. It’s a good kind of full, I like my job and I have learnt to like running too, it just makes you tired at the end oft he day and quite unable to read knitting patterns or the like. At least spring has finally sprung and I don’t have to go out looking like this anymore:

Two: The lack of camera. When I had to hand in a picture of me for my masters ceremony last week, I realized that in the year 2010, about ten pictures were taken of me. Total. I may have about 4 or 5 of them, all in awesome cell phone quality (as proven by the pic above). Now what you have to know about my cell phone: It’s old. It has a cracked lens, the color is coming off and it is held together by adhesive tape. Not the best option to take nice pictures, but the only one I have. I will look into purchasing a decent camera with the next paycheck, or at least the one after that. Yesyesyes.

Three: I am in a serious sewing rut. I have several projects that I was totally motivated about, that turned out horrible. One pair of pants that may still be rescued, a skirt that looks like a potato sack on me and a blazer that went wrong on so many levels are waiting to be turned either into trash or something nice. I think the only thing I managed to fabricate lately are dishcloths, which meant sewing bias tape to fabric squares, what a challenge.

I hope I can share how I rescued the other projects sometime, but the motivation to try again is pretty low.

What I do have, as opposed to sewing luck, is ideas. If only a few oft hem come to be I will be most happy. I will keep you posted (and I mean it, failed projects or not).