c u r i o u s w e a v e r » Sewing

Colouring the underworld for babies

curiousweaver — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 09:33:53 +0000

With so many babies being born in Australia’s baby boom I’ve taken to jazzing up singlets so the little ones feel connected to the textile world from the get go.

I used to buy the pale coloured singlets and do bullion roses on them. This looked great but the roses are a bit lumpy for their little chests. Also who wants insipid colours on a child when you can have your own shades of tie dye flocked with simple flower embroidery or applique. I was disappointed that some of the neck bands, from the same packet of singlets, didn’t dye with my cellulose fibre reactives as they must be polyester. Don’t you think the manufacturer would warn us of such horrors! Perhaps if weavers ran the world this would attract a major fine or even a jail sentence with the Textile and Weave Protection Board!

These photos are especially for Alex – the mum to be - so she can see how to make them. I just concertina folded (or pleated) the singlet then wrapped string around them very tightly. In another lot I used clothes pegs to do the resist rather than string. You can see this effect in the two purple singlets above.

Circle Clothes

curiousweaver — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 21:42:31 +0000

	Exploring the new Japanese sewing pattern books is a delight for looking at clothing design in a fresh way. Converting 2D Cloth Into 3D Works (1) by Natsuno Hiraiwa has a collection of beautiful simple designs which have inspired me to get sewing and use some of the fabrics in my stash..I’ve made several things out of this book. The ‘jacket top’ at left is cut from a beautiful Japanese traditional width (15″) ikat silk that I bought in Melbourne. Even though most of the patterns are cut from wider widths joining the 15″ widths together still works. Great for handwovens. This pattern is basically a circle and many of the other patterns are variations on this idea.The only problem I encountered with sizing was in the expected length of the top. I found I had to add another 10cms (as a bias cut) to the bottom. So I think the patterns are designed for neck to waist lengths that are shorter than the average expected in western sizing.The other problem is missing out on pattern details because I can’t read Japanese! It’s enough motivation to learn how to.
The top is more like the richer blue above.

I purchased the book from yesasia	This is how you put the top on.

Aprons and Image

curiousweaver — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 02:02:23 +0000


Sometimes an opportunity for a textile image comes along which is magnificent. But unposed, unrehearsed….just sitting there. This heavy rope has been left outside on a deck to gather moss and other plant life. A fantastic example of nature and the human hand creating something together.
	Here I’ve been making aprons again, this time for my mother. She gets cupcakes in brights. I didn’t leave my husband out either and you can see here that he actually wore it for a BBQ. It had the appropriate racing cars on it. Of course they were the wrong type of cars of interest as they all look the same to me…I don’t think I’d have any luck finding drag cars on fabric, it’s just too specialised. Like many of us I’m always surfing the net looking for weaving eye candy. Thanks to Fibrescape I found this wonderful link to weaving classes at Penland School of Crafts. The dyeing of the yarns made a great difference to the woven textiles for these weavers. Colour just makes everything more exciting especially for beginners.
Cup Cake brightness

Dave in BBQ mode

An Apron Break

curiousweaver — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 02:40:04 +0000

I confess, I’ve always been an apron wearer. I just ruined too many clothes with big drips of cooking oil to submit to the perceived shame of apron wearing. I think aprons somehow symbolised a womans’ home role. I still had the role but minus the protective clothing! I’ve never really thought of making one or delighting in such things. Inspired by Lucy and her aprons, I promptly went out and got enough material for aprons to suit my two daughters. I so enjoyed making them. The fresh motif based fabrics available today make choosing a theme for a person even more fun.

The pattern was easy to make up and I used 70cms of two different fabrics for each one. This makes the apron reversible. I used just about all the fabric which included enough for a ruffle and ties. Each apron took about two hours to make.

Now I’ve plans to make a few more for gifts…including, one for my husband. He has been known to get splattered by oil too!

Too Many Exciting Projects

curiousweaver — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 06:17:07 +0000

	I know I have far too many projects on the go, but there are so many interesting challenges out there. I was delighted with the Yarn Harlots pattern and instructions for a baby’s ‘watermelon’ hat and just had to get going with a tension sample. She actually *allows* you to do a 10stitch x 10 row little sample for it. Makes starting a bit more inviting. I haven’t got any pink yarn so I’m going to do a strange blue and purple ‘watermelon’! The other little project I finished today was a fleece hat for a baby. As I don’t actually have the baby for measurements I had to search a bit but found that newborns to 6 months average a head circumference of 14-17" and a crown of 8-10". This helped when adapting this fleece pattern for the hat but, as always, the second one will be better than the first.
Taking on too many projects?

The baby fleece hat

Sewing Newborn Kimono Jackets

curiousweaver — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 02:10:34 +0000

	With all of this design mode on my mind I was determined yesterday that my new nephew (to arrive in September) would wear finely styled and designed clothes. I searched for some measurements (watch the neck size as it is incorrect) for new babies then made a block up for the 00 size. I then drafted a little kimono style matinee jacket and made it up in a lightweight waffle weave fabric. I was really happy with the result as the weather in September will be starting to warm up but still cool at times. I’m going to improve on the design today, perhaps adding ribbed cuffs for easy dressing of the baby. I would like to offer the pattern here but I’m still working out how to do that on a PDF file. I found another kimono baby jacket on Martha Stewart’s site but I think my design has more pizzazz because it is designed with shaping for the human body rather than a square shape leaving the front and back identical.
Kimono style jacket for a newborn.

My neice, Miss Darby as the fairy