2nd Crochet hat and Jewellry

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday so far.

My 1 week holiday has been a success for a number of reasons, chiefly because

1. I got to wake up each day after 10am ( yeah I'm that lazy)
2. I did not feel guilty drinking more than two glasses of wine everyday ( Wine aids digestion you know)
3. I learned how to crochet ( well I think I have)
4. I made some jewelry ( well sort of)

A few days ago I wrote a post about my first foray into crocheting, which resulted in a rather dubious looking hat. Well I'm glad to say I gave it another try, and ended up with this

I think its supposed to be a chunky beanie hat!

Back view

Don't know what dance I was doing, but I can ASSURE you all, I was quite sober

well maybe just.

So, I think I can consider this second attempt a success. Its been really hot today, but I wore my hat all day when I went to town to do some last minute shopping. I've decided to wear whatever I make this year. Nice or not. The nice ones will make me feel good about myself, the not so good once will make me work harder, and be more patient when sewing the next project.

JEWELRY

I also thought I should try my hand at jewelry making. Why? because I think we are good at many more things than we think we are. So I am going to keep trying everything crafty, to find out what I enjoy, and what I don't. So far, I've established that 

1. I adore sewing
2. I'm not crazy about knitting
3. I like crocheting, even though I am not good at it yet. 
4. I will like to try painting, jewelry making, millinery, perfume making, soap making, candle making, sculpture, and everything else under the sun that involves using the creative part of my brain....did I mention i'm not mad about knitting?

That said, when I went into town today, I bought some pendants, and some string. I wanted to make simple necklaces. These are probably the easiest things to do when it comes to jewelry making, because all I did was tie the string round the pendants, and I was done. A total of 30 seconds. Or less I should imagine. So, the more experienced jewelry makers will probably not classify this as jewelry making, but in my little book, I say it is. lol.

Ladies and gents (?), I present ( drum rolling), Dib's masterpieces

Raw materials

So all in all, a very productive day for. 

Have a wonderful easter everyone.

xoxo

Dibs

Burda May 2011 Picks

My love affair with Burda had ended ( though I still bought the magazines religiously). Issue after issue was put out with nothing remotely tempting. I think I continued buying the magazine out of habit. Its just one of those things you do, even though you know you should not.

Maybe the peeps up at Burda are pyschic, and sensed my displeasure with them because the may issue seems to be different. I have seen a few things that I know I will definitely be making sometime this year. The holiday section looks really interesting, so an added plus. I am contemplating these:

I love the collar, and I think its perfect for work.

Another nice work outfit

A little va-va -voom never did any harm did it?

I can see myself in this in Mallorca this summer.

I can totally see myself in this dress. This is perfect for both work, and fancy events. With different fabrics of course.

A nice casual look, I could go without the pockets.

The thing I hate about Burda is the extra step of tracing the pattern pieces before cutting them out. When I was younger, my mom used to make me trace out her patterns. Not something I used to look forward to I must add. My poor knees almost gave out before I even got to 15. Its funny how she used to sew clothes for herself, but I was never interested in sewing...not when I had boys to giggle at. Might I also point out that I spent 7 years in an all girls Baptist boarding school, so looking at boys during holiday time was a very serious event.  We used spend term time looking forward to the holidays, and then spent the holidays looking forward to going back to school to compare notes on the boys we saw. Gross, I know, but at that time, that was the highlight of our teenage lives. Girls with bothers were extremely popular in school. I on the other hand, had 4 3 older sisters, and a multitude of female cousins, so that was not cool.

Back to dear old Aunty Aenne Burda. I'm glad they are slowly but surely getting back on track.

What about you? Is anyone considering Burda Mag this may?

happy Easter

Dibs

Threads Magazine give away

In my overzealousness, I bought 2 copies of the current Threads Magazine. Not at the same time mind you. I bought one last month, then forgot that I had it, and bought another one last week. So I figured maybe one of you has not bought this yet. So if anyone is interested, let me know. I don't have many people reading my blog so its only a handful of you. I suppose it will be fair to give it to the first person who puts up their finger. So, if you need it, could you just drop me a note? or, if possible, could you raise a finger? lol.

Happy Easter

xoxo

Dibs

New patterns for summer holiday wardrobe

I went to the Darlington town centre today to check out what the charity shops there had to offer. I always love rummaging in charity shops for stuff because you can sometimes find interesting things there. Though sometimes its like a mad house, with people donating items that are clearly unwearable.

I did not really see anything I liked, so I went into another shop to look at their fabric selection. I mentioned in an older post, that I was going away this summer, and would be making my holiday wardrobe, so I figured I could start with a maxi dress. So, when going through their fabric collection, I noticed they had a half price deal on simplicity patterns. I like simplicity patterns, but I rarely buy them as I get Vogue, Butterick and McCall at half price all the time courtesy of my sewdirect membership. Talking of which, they have a 50% discount promotion going on right now for all McCall patterns to non-members.

I bought this pattern

I also bought this fabric to make it. It is 100% polyester, so it was not expensive. If I like the finished outfit, I might consider making it in silk.

I bought non-static polyester lining, which was the only lining they had. I asked the sales rep if it was ok with the type of fabric I bought. Now, I don't know if she knows much about linings, but she assured me it was the best for the fabric I have( I suspect she just wanted to make a sale). This interaction made me realise I had no knowledge about what type of lining to use for what fabric. That merits a post I suppose. So I will have to update my fabric knowledge. Any thoughts on which books to look at?

I also bought 3 Lisette patterns (distributed by Simplicity). This is a new pattern line, from the makers of the Oliver and S pattern line. Oliver and S specialise in children's wear, and presently, they only have four patterns in their Lisette line. For anyone who is on Burdastyle, you will notice that Oliver and S is always present on your page, as the sponsor of projects. I have not really seen many people posting pictures of their completed projects. But then again, this line was only launched this year, February I think. I did find one though, by nightknitter. She has made about 4 or 5 items with these patterns, so if you are interested in seeing how they are finished, you might want to go to her blog. So far, I'm loving their instructions. They have little tips called "Lisette tips" included in their instructions. This comes as a huge relief because Simplicity pattern instructions can sometimes be very vague, assuming that everyone knows what it means to "staystitch". I hope they will be easy to carry out, as they are to read.

I was so happy when I went to pay for these four patterns, and was informed at the till that I qualified for a free pattern. Apparently anyone who bought 4 patterns, got the 5th one free. So I selected this one

I chose those patterns because I will use them for my holiday wardrobe. So, these patterns should give me about 4 dresses, 2 tops and a pair of shorts. 

I started cutting the maxi dress today, but had to stop halfway because we went out for a family meal. So I will continue it tomorrow, and hopefully should finish it by Thursday night. Just in time for the barbecue we will be having on Friday. Its not very hot up here in the North of england, but I INSIST on suffering for my art. 

take care everyone,

xoxo

Dibs

1st attempt at Crocheting a hat

Please don't laugh at this ( lol). My family have been laughing at me all morning, and there's just so much anyone can take.

Yesterday I took it upon myself to learn how to crochet. I've been seeing a lot of knitting and crocheting going on in awesome blogs, and feeling soooooooo jealous that I could only create with the help of a machine, and not with my bare hands. To make matters worse, I saw Donna's blanket  and Kestrel's stripped socks, and I just knew I had to do something about  it.

So armed with four hooks I bought after church in the church fund raising table for the grand sum of 50p each, I harassed my mother-in-law for some yarn. She gave me what she had left at home, and I went on youtube, to see if I could learn from any videos. Now there are loads of helpful people out there, willing to help people like me, who have no idea on what to do with a hook, but sometimes, the willingness to help gets lost in translation, and the videos are anything but helpful. Anyways I managed to piece two and two together by looking at many videos, and started my crocheting journey. 2 hours later , my mother-in-law and I went shopping, so I was able to buy more yarn from hobbycraft, which was 50% Merino wool, at £1.99 on sale. Apparently that was a bargain. I have no idea if its true.

So, after watching countless hours of videos, and undoing everything about 6 times,  I managed to make this hat. Its is supposed to be a cloche hat, but to be honest, i think it looks anything but.

Are you done laughing? Good. 

Hopefully next time I will do a better job of it.

I really like crocheting, especially as I am on holiday, and I am expected to do stuff with the family, so I have not had time to sew anything. At least with crocheting, I can crochet in the car, or when we go to the park, or sit with the rest of the family and crochet, and participate in conversations. Thats not quite possible when sewing, because the noise from the sewing machine is more than enough to drive everyone from your side.

So though I do miss my machine, at least I was able to satisfy my creative urges by learning something new.

Now what can I make next?

xoxo

Dibs