Crafty Mermaid

Wendy of Sew Biased saw this fabric at a recent fabric sale and texted to ask if I wanted it - Hells Yeah! The map is a little unrealistic but I've got blazer plans.

This time the Jenna Cardi was all me :) [ last time blogged here ] Here it is with my Mabel skirt .  The fabric was a cheap cotton from the  Levana Popup shop in Porirua for a $1 a metre.  The buttons were from stash and I mixed up the colours a bit so I had enough :) I had to grade the pattern at the shoulders, bust and hips.  The sleeves were far too long and I've shortened them a bit.  I could also benefit from making the cuffs a little tighter and somehow lengthening the centre front.  Also need to make the shoulders smaller and do something with the neckline too.  The fabric wasn't the greatest choice of this as its too light for heat but pleased with the pattern and trial. Rather pleased with the trial of adding the buttons.  Washi tape really helped the process.

One of my good sewing buddies ( Wendy of Sew Biased ) made up the Muse Jenna Cardi in a lovely black merino sweatshirt fabric.  But the cardi didn't fit unfortunately - or rather fortunately as it was then gifted to me and I finished it off by sewing the buttonholes and adding laser cut pakman buttons.  Love them!  

I've been making a lot of Tees and they're definitely filling a gap in my wardrobe.  I have to hand it to Levana , there's something special about snuggly merino knits. This is a Skinny Bitch Curvy Chick free Tonic Teeshirt pattern .  I love it and its rather flattering - of course the awkward angle of the photograph makes it look far less appealing :)

I'm still woefully behind on uploading and blogging my pictures.  This visual feast is from the WSBN visit to the Little Teapot in Kilbirnie organised by the wonderful Kat . Behind the three tiers of calories, you get glimpses of the Papercut Watson  Jacket (by Zara of Offgrid Chic) .  I've one of these in the final stages of completion - I chickened out of doing the buttonholes myself and have actually paid someone to do them for me!  Also peeking out is the Star Wars creation that is  Joy's dress  - also self made - awesome print, no? What high tea would be complete without a knitted tea cozy.  A tea cozy is the next crochet project I plan on starting.  Though I still have to blog about three blankets (just finished the last one yesterday). Given the Kilbirnie location, Emma , Gemma and I also visited Stitchbird - a predominantly quilting store in Kilbirnie.  Some cute craft patterns and quilting inspiration.  I don't end up buying much as q

This is Ryu.  That is my recycling.  But its in a box.  So Ryu must sit on top of it. Your weekend dose of cute.

You can't say I'm hurting for basics these days.  A blank canvas tee in black merino (with my previously made Mabel  and Espresso leggings).  Nothing much to say about it - other than its warm, cosy and easy to wear.

` Meet the lovely Mr Cat.  A creation from the Hop Skip Jump book . I've made a few of these now ( octopus  and Sydney ).  He's very pleased to meet you! He's arms and legs rotate and his trousers are a bit tight but he's a spiffing cat. His body fabric is a felted wool jumper (boo hiss for unintended felting),  his ears are a map fabric I'm too attached to to just throw out the scraps that are left over and his tie and trousers are a quilting cotton.

This was the first year I went to anything at Handmade Wellington .  Normally I just find it ridiculously overpriced for stuff that I can figure out how to do on my own.  This year I went to a handmade dumpling class and a stevia talk. This wasn't how mine turned out - but it is from the House of Dumplings  who ran the workshop. So earlier than I would have liked on a Sunday morning, I toddled off to Weltec on Cuba Street to make some dumplings. I'm normally a morning person but that morning, it just wasn't happening.  The class was a little too large and we didn't quite get to do all the stages ourselves - pity as I would have liked to figure out more about when the dough was good to go.  The intro to the class also took an age - and ate into our 'doing' time.  It is great to get everyone to introduce themselves but not in that size of a class with to and fro questions and then not enough time at the end :( We were given prepared dough and

There's something really comforting about making blankets.  Especially in winter (which is why I'm already half way through another one and have completed a second blanket since I've finished this). This is Attic 24 's Hexagon crochet pattern ( again ).  This time in the same yarn as my Ripple blanket . I really love the vibrancy of the colours.  It wasn't made with anyone in mind so I'll just have to wait for an appropriately adorable sprog to turn up! I really like the asymmetric look!