The Golden Hour

Ah, the golden hour. Both kids asleep AT THE SAME TIME!! I should probably be eating. Or sleeping. Or showering. Or doing housework. But instead I am buzzing with ideas for a new range of brooches and necklaces. I have been doing concept sketches and simply cannot wait to get started on the making...BUT...

I have several other projects on the go already!! I have not yet finished my daughter's Quiet Book, even though I am slowly chipping away at it, and I have begun a project for my sister, as well as several items of clothing that are in the 'cut and ready to sew' or even 'partially sewn' phase. These are all things that I genuinely intend to finish. And I have not lost momentum, I have just got inspiration for other projects as well. What to do?

I want to keep craft as a way to relax and have fun, and not let it take over my life (which it seems to be trying to do!) How do you juggle craft projects? And how do you juggle craft with other (arguably) more important things such as ingesting food and keeping the house clean? 

Vintage Style Aprons

Aprons. They're all the go at the moment, have you noticed? We often used aprons when I was growing up. Saturday mornings meant baking time, which meant apron time. Fun! I loved putting on my apron like Mummy, and whipping up a chocolate simplicity cake (leaving plenty of mixture in the bowl to lick out of course!). My two and a half year old also loves to don her new apron (thanks, Sneha!) and 'help' me bake (was I that much trouble, Mum?).

Well a couple years ago, I decided to make myself an apron. I found some gorgeous Michael Miller fabric with a vintage kitchen motif, from Oz Material Girls which I thought was perfect for my apron. I bought the pattern from Etsy as a pdf download from Tenth Muse Studios (sorry but it appears she is no longer selling). The end result is above, middle and right pics (it is a reversible apron).

Around that time, I also made a simple half-apron (above left) from a rectangle of vintage red gingham fabric that I was given by my grandmother, with some home-made bias binding for the trimmings from some white fabric she gave me. It's very simple. Maybe I will do a tutorial for that one sometime soon.

With the small amount of leftover Michael Miller fabric, I covered an art canvas and attached a bit of ribbon with some mini-pegs for a matching recipe-holder. This is now a fixture in my kitchen that I use regularly, especially when I am baking.

I recently found some vintage magazines at an op-shop, with some great sewing patterns and gift ideas. There were some cute aprons in one, as pictured below.

Perhaps I will give these a try next. I think the embroidery and applique looks sweet. But perhaps not so practical for wearing while baking or gardening, as you would have to hand-wash to protect the embroidery. kind of defeats the purpose of an apron... Do you like to use aprons, or don't see the point?

Put A Bird On It!

  

You may have seen this before, it's been floating around for a while now, but it's still funny second time around (and third and fourth!). It's from Season 1 of the TV show Portlandia, apparently.

This one is for you, Hannah and Sneha!

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to HeatherLizMarie!
You have won the kanzashi brooch giveaway. 


Please email me at candykins.crafts@gmail.com with your postal address, so I can get this prize to you!

Candykins Craft Blog First Ever Giveaway

I have seen other blogs do this, and I think it is a fun way for readers to participate! And for one reader to end up with a little something to keep. So how it works is this - you  have a chance to win this cute  kanzashi brooch in lovely, bright primary colours (7cm in diameter). To enter the competition, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post before Sunday 9pm (Eastern Standard Time here in Australia). Yep, that's it! Pretty easy!!

Open to Australian and international readers.

I will draw a name out of the entries and announce a winner on Monday.
Good luck! :)

Quiet Book - Part III

 Finally, an update on the quiet book. I have finally picked up where I left off, after a few weeks' break. I decided to do the pages in calico, and hand embroider the words just in my regular printing. It's definitely not perfect, but it is 'created with love' as the title page says.

I am rather happy with how the clothes turned out. In the end, I used tigertail threaded through tiny pegs with small couching stitches on either side of the pegs, attached at the ends through vintage buttons, and threaded back and forth through the calico page. It's a little crowded, the downside of making so many clothes! Seeing them all lined up on the A4 page like that gives you a better idea of the size of each item of clothing.

 Below left is the finished shoe-tying page, although I may need to re-thread the eyelets with something more stable than the novelty yarn that is currently acting as shoe laces. Below right is the almost-complete page that will be next to the shoe-tying page in the book. It is supposed to be the back of a head, if you can't tell (and you would most certainly be forgiven for not being able to guess!). It's a rather full head of hair, rather more full than Eliza's actual hair, but that was due to me having in my possession some half-finished craft projects passed down from my grandmother...I just gave this doll's hair (I think that is what it was going to be?) a trim. It is going to make the book rather fat.

To see the previous pages on the Quiet Book, you can go here.
Comments and suggestions are most welcome :)

Silver Birch Tree

I have mentioned before how much our family loves the local library. I have always loved books, and love to foster a love for books in my children also. But more than that, there is the excitement of not knowing what you are going to find from one week to the next. I love that our city libraries rotate books around, so the half a shelf of craft books are not always the same ones. The sense of anticipation before a trip to the library is similar to that before a trip to an op-shop - but the library has the added advantage of not emptying your wallet!

One of the lovely, romantic things my husband does from time to time is surprise me with some library books he has chosen for me at the city library on his way home from work. The intention is always super sweet but the books can be a bit hit and miss. However, he did this recently and hit a real winner. The book is called "Embroidery For All Seasons", by Diana Lampe with Jane Fisk, published by Milner.

WOW! This book really got me itching to pick up needle and thread. It also totally intimidated me! Check out this illustration below - the book is roughly A4 size, and this illustration covers the entire page, and is life-sized. Isn't that AMAZING??

 Anyway, suffice to say I could not long hold off actually attempting something from the book. Most of the designs required too many different colours, outside of my current collection of threads, but the silver birch caught my eye (below right, as illustrated in the book). It required only 3 colours, and while I did not have the exact correct numbers, I thought they were close enough. I learned some new stitches, and thoroughly enjoyed the process. My attempt is below left, as stitched on simple, unbleached calico. I think the embroidery hoop frames the tree nicely (as seen in the pic at the top of the post).

 This has satisfied my craving for now, but I may just have to put the book on my birthday list this year, so I can attempt some of the other beautiful designs in the book.

Retro Babies

 Yes. That does say $3. What a bargain! I found this gorgeously illustrated 1970s sewing book at my local op-shop, and just HAD to buy it. And yes, the patterns are all still there, and still in their plastic wrapper. Hurray!

 

The illustrations are almost as irresistible as the vintage patterns! I love just looking at it!

 Of course, I would actually like to make some of the clothes in the book, but have too many other projects on the go at the moment to get started. So for now, just feasting my eyes on the sweetness will have to do.

 The real benefit for me with these patterns is that they are made for wearing over cloth nappies. As a user of modern cloth nappies, I often find that the modern clothes are difficult to fit - especially onesies. When they fit baby in the torso, they are too tight around the nappy, as they are usually made to be worn over disposables.

 I'd love to try my hand at some of these gorgeous little ruffle panties and overdress sets. They remind me of some of the amazing clothing that my friend Kathryn of Kathryn's Creations makes - check out her online store.

 Where do you get your sewing/crafting inspiration from?

Another Envelope Needle Book

Just another envelope needle book, similar to the ones mentioned in my previous post. Thanks again to Kelly Rachel and her em ay kay ee blog for the tutorial and template to make this.

I have so much fun with these and they are so quick to whip up!

Trust, Dream, Believe, Hope, Expect

I am quite enjoying expanding my embroidery skills at the moment. I have rather limited embroidery experience, with a small number of stitches only. Recently, I have been inspired to try to master some stitches that I have tried without success previously. Such as padded satin stitch. Google helped me locate Mary Corbet's 'Needle'N Thread' blog, containing some very useful hints about how to do this stitch.

What better project to try it out on then this prayer journal cover I designed as a present for a friend?

I used the padded satin stitch technique as outlined by Mary Corbet on her blog - split stitch to outline the words, then padding stitches perpendicular to the direction the final satin stitches would lay, followed by the top layer of stitching in single strand of thread.

As you can see, I am still getting some puckering, I will have to work on that! But on the whole, I am quite happy with the end result, and I hope my friend is too!