Crafty Mermaid

One of the many things I really like about New Zealand has to be the range of different fruits and vegetables here compared with Ireland.  One of the really fun additions has to the the Cherimoya or Custard Apple - a native of Peru and Ecuador.  Yum!  They're in season from Sept to November and available at the Wellington market. The taste is like a light but nicely favoured custard.

I'm so pleased with this make - its the Ensis Tee again using merino fabric from Levana and my black leftovers from the Circle Top from Fabric Warehouse . I really love the colour combination and as my hair currently matches have gotten a lot of compliments.   I've managed to suss out the neckline on this one but it might be down to the lack of stretch in the black knit and the heft of the merino.  Lovely warm and so so comfy!

Woohoo!  We're up to November! And circling back to another Circle Top . This time in navy and fabric purchased from the Fabric Warehouse in their Lambton Quay popup shop where I miraculously bumped into Gillian . This was a gift make for a wonderful and very dear friend - who I've been informed really likes it (I really hope that's not just being nice to me!) Same as the other Circle Top but with more wavy binding.  Technically a misstep but I like the look of it! That binding really takes forever to sew on! I love how the circle top is basically a circle with arms. I also find the cuffs rather comfy. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the wrapping too.  Rather pleased with this one!

The blank canvas tee as a short sleeved jumper. This fabric was originally purchased and turned into a poncho.  I've no idea why, except that the pattern said it was easy!  I've had the remainder in my stash for ages and was rather too chicken shit to do anything with it.  But my prowess in knits is growing and I've ventured into free online pdf patterns too!   I drafted a different neckline and elongated the sleeves - the top turned out great but the size was off and the hemming wasn't great - in the end it just ended up annoying me even though BM assured me it wasn't noticeable.  I've worn it a bit but its off to the op shop and I'm chalking it up as a learning experience

I finally made it to two Fabric a brac s last year.  They really are a bit of a pilgrimage for fabric lovers across Wellington.  Though it seems the only photos I have are the ones of the cafe!  Oophs!  In my defence I was working in the cafe for the day (still managed to bag some great fabric bargins!). The tea rooms The view of al the lovely eats and the hall of fabric goodness!

I'm really running behind - near the end of Jan and still only posting about October!  Ah well. Here's my birthday cake ala the Aro Bakery.  Thanks to Gillian for celebrating with me!  It was a crazy week in work so not the most recharging of weeks! Though I ended up with some really lovely birthday gifts.  I'm still working away on my Q&A 5 year diary - you write a few sentences a day for 5 years and there's a Question prompt on each page.  Some lovely card and envelopes for my card making hobby.

I love, love, love this cardigan.   Its the Circle Top by Papercut Patterns .   Made up in a linen cotton blend (I think!) from the Fabric Warehouse purchased during their sale this year.  I sized up the pattern to XL but feel I needn't have bothered.  Its pretty much a circle with two arms and a LOT of binding! Here's it with an Arabian Nights dress up costume - I went as an Arabian Night (black dress with LED lights sewn in!). I love the cardi, partly because as its black, it fits in my wardrobe well but mostly because it looks as good or better than something I would buy.  I really love the finish the overlocker gives and this definitely something I would have purchased.

Real clothes for me!  Somehow knits were in my far too hard to make pile for far too long.  Thankfully, this past year, I've started to venture into the wonderful world of knits. The Ensis Tee  by Papercut Patterns. I was rather pleased with this make and wore it quite a bit.  Two slight problems to fix however.  First, the neckline wasn't tight enough so didn't sit where it should have (and looked like it had gotten a bit too well worned and baggy rather than being new). Second, I used a twin needle to hem the arms and ended up with a serious ridge between the two.  I've found a pinterest link to how to fix this (and will report back the next time I use it to see if I can amend it). Loved the pattern and the colour combo. The grey knit was quite stiff while the pink is very drapey.  A nice combination in person.

I'm a massive fan of the idea of an open fire in Winter (a bit of a misdirect in the middle of summer but I'll just pretend its for my Northern Hemisphere readers (hee hee, hello mammy!)). Yes, I'm finally getting through my backlog of projects I want to post about.  This one is a goodie though.  Using up old egg cartons, dryer lint and the wax of used candles to make awesome and environmentally friendly fire starters. Dryer lint - check (I like to use the dryer lint from my prewashing of my new fabric - makes it extra nice!) Saved up bag of used up candle wax! Dryer lint in egg carton soaked in melted and then set used candle wax. Done! With the added bonus of being as nicely smelling as the original candles when you start the fire.

I have a serious back log of projects - 2014 wasn't the best year for blogging but it was a good year for projects! So I present... Belle Bow Blouse by In-House Patterns Its a PDF download for a D cup.  Hurray!  Much less of a Full Bust Adjustment to do!  But unfortunately a lot of sticking together and still quite a bit of tracing out. I made up a muslin (and due to my swanky new sewing machine  I now have a one step buttonhole!). In terms of fit, I ended up making it too big as I changed a bit between cutting out the fabric, sewing it up and getting up the courage to actually do the buttonholes! The pattern eats quite a bit of fabric if you make the bow version so unfortunately I didn't have enough with my fabric a brac purchase and had to dip into some textured navy I bought at the Swonderful fabric sale. The fabric is far less see through than it looks in the photos.  More like the one below.  And its quite stiff so not as much of a loss that it doesn

I went up to Auckland for work at the start of Spring.  BM joined me for the weekend and we did the coast to coast walk on the Saturday.  It was great to get my bearings in the city and also to have a nosey around one of Auckland's private schools.   Auckland Grammar was having an art exhibition so in addition to a nosey around the main auditorium we also got to see some great art. I really liked the texture and the colours of this piece by Heather Wilson * (Colour Bomb).   This one was my favourite.  I really loved it.  I have a fondness for toy soldiers  and tin robots are always cool.  We come in peace by Ross Jones .   This appeals to my sewing aesthetics.  Tui Halo by Sarah Brill . I loved the colour and lines in this artwork.   Shane Hanson . This chap seemed rather down but contented!   Annie Mciver . It was wonderful to see the early signs of Spring. And walk up one tree hill. As well as see the lambs.  The

I sometimes have a buying habit that is very hard to break.  Here's a round up of a number of purchases from this year so I have an idea of the timeline from purchase to production! From the swonderful sale on Cuba Street,  I haven't used any of these yet and unfortunately the black lace isn't stretch. At Gordon Harris , I got this fimo mould for letters and numbers.  I hope this will be useful for card making - especially the vowels as they tend to run out first in the alphabet stickers left in my stash. Knit merino fabrics from the fabric store Auckland. The fabric warehouse pop up shop on Lambton Quay.  I've used (and abused) the royal blue/navy knit, cut out a patter on the black dots and still haven't touched the sheer. Evans in Lower Hutt closed down this year and I bought these three stretch fabrics in their sale.  I've made a pair of espresso leggings with all three and a further two bike shorts from the gre