Pinspiration: lace tipped scarf

I was a bit of a latecomer to Pinterest - I deliberately held out thinking it was just another time waster! I'm a bit contrary like that, I don't Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr, I deleted my Facebook account and I don't have the time or energy for Polyvore (although I like looking at the boards that other people have created). But since succumbing to the allure of Pinterest this year I've become a mad pinner, pinning all sorts of images, tutorials, recipes and things at any spare moment of the day.

But there does come a point when you wonder what's the purpose? Why do you pin all these things? Clearly I'm not alone in thinking this:

image source

image source

image source

Another eternal quest I'm on is to use up fabric scraps in meaningful and useful ways, and not add to the scraps pile after making a project. Which is where Pinterest and the whole point of this post comes from. I spied this beautiful scarf pinned, which is no longer available but was for sale for a ridiculous $1100:

image via styleawip.blogspot.com

After finishing the plaid dress I made from New Look 6144 recently, I happened to have a long rectangular piece of fabric leftover that was too short to be made into an infinity scarf or a normal scarf on it's own, but with the addition of some white stretchy lace fabric from deep within the stash look what I turned it into:

Obviously mine isn't as elegant as the original, because I think the black lace on the beige cashmere is a sophisticated mix and the jagged edge of lace where it joins the fabric is a nice detail but I still like mine nonetheless. The teal plaid fabric of my version is so soft too, almost like flannelette so it's the perfect fabric to be wrapping around one's neck.

And I'm not the only one to copycat this project - look at this lovely green jersey and white lace version that Jen made a while back over at Sea lo que sea.

I just can't bear to waste good textiles and throw away scraps any scraps that aren't tiny, but since I'm not a quilter they certainly are piling up. I'm lucky that I have two small children to sew for because their clothes use up the larger left over pieces, and in the past to use up the smaller fabric scraps I've made:

• wristlet purses
• doll clothes
• dog bed stuffed with fabric scraps
• clothes for paper dolls
• fabric alphabet letter magnets
• contrasting pockets and details on kids clothes

What's your battle plan for using up fabric scraps? Anyone got any burning good ideas?

And yes Marjorie - I've kept the scraps from my Liberty shirt because they are way to precious to throw away! Thanks everyone for your kind comments on the shirt, it has certainly been on high rotation in my wardrobe.

zero waste sewing

I've been quite intrigued by the zero waste sewing movement, given my frugal nature, my distaste for waste and the huge bags of fabric scraps I already own.  Basically zero waste sewing is, as the name suggest, generating little to no leftover fabric through careful placement of the pattern pieces on the fabric.  Personally I can't see how it could be achieved fully in most designs unless you ignore grain lines and directional prints or the nap of fabric.  But I like the philosophy behind the movement and instead like many others I try to use my larger fabric scraps in a useful manner rather than just chucking them in the bin, especially since I work in the environment sector and know the resources and energy that are used when producing textiles (even the cheap and nasty ones).

Since I'm not a quilter (and nor do I think I would ever have the patience to be one), I'm lucky to have a small child to sew for as well the odd crafty item here and there to use up my fabric scraps.  And this would be an excellent example of both.

The blue and white stripe knit fabric I used for the bodice of the dress in the last post was from an odd shaped piece of fabric I picked up from the op shop and had been in my stash a while.  So to begin with I was using up someone else's scrap but being oddly shaped I couldn't have made much more from it than the bodice top that I did.  But I also managed to eek out this tshirt for Anna since they are little bitty pattern pieces for such a little tshirt:

The pattern I used is Kwik Sew 3424 which I've used before and is such simple construction it's not worth talking about.  I made a red cotton yo yo flower (also scrap fabric!) with a button from the stash to jazz it.

I also managed to cut out a simple rectangular gathered skirt with a elasticised waistband from the solid blue knit also from my dress, using up the last of the biggish area of the fabric:

By this stage there were only random small bits of fabric left, but I still wasn't done with it.  I  made an even smaller matching t-shirt for Anna's cabbage patch doll.  Unfortunately Anna wasn't being cooperative and refused to let me take a photo of her wearing these clothes, but the cabbage patch doll was a far more willing model!

So I think I've done my best to avoid adding precious resources to limited landfill deposits.  Rest assured though that Anna, the cabbage patch doll and I will NOT be seen in public together wearing our matching fabrics......

Speaking of the cabbage patch dolls, one of my very lovely readers, Renata, who is a fellow Sydneysider, sent me an awesome package shortly after christmas:

Unbelievably Renata gifted me these very cute and hard to come by cabbage patch dolls patterns from her own pattern stash.  So thank you again Renata, although I'll probably be cursing you when I'm up to my eyeballs in fiddly teeny tiny dolls clothes!

scrap bustin' time

I'm always on a mission to use up my fabric scraps in a useful way, not just to clear them out of my sewing room but also to justify to myself the need to keep them in the first place! It's just that it can be so unbelievably fiddly making stuff out of little scraps, and I'm not even talking about sewing together a bajillion little squares to make one big quilt.

With wet and cold weather around here recently I needed something to keep Anna occupied too, so I delved into my humongous scrap bag and cut out a whole stack of teeny tiny dresses, tops, skirts and pants:

to glue on to these little paper dolls I picked up for a few dollars from an art supplies shop:

Total success! It kept Anna occupied for at least 10 minutes (only about an hour less time than it took me to cut them out.....), although I think she liked the glueing and tasting the glue best of all.  Every Australian kid eats some Clag glue at some point in their young lives, it's practically a rite of passage:

And now we have a whole village of paper dolls with somewhat mixed up fashion sense:

Best of all I have this awesome tin to store all the pieces in:

I purchased this tin of shortbread biscuits last Christmas purely for the pretty tin,and I knew it would come in handy soon enough.  Take that, doubting husband of mine.

So that took care of a small percentage of the fabric scraps, now to find a use for the rest of it!

And thank you all for the lovely comments on Anna's skirt in the last post.  I didn't pick up on the special connection of making something for Anna from something her great grandmother made many many years before she was born, but now I realise it is pretty special.  Her great grandfather is still alive, but he didn't really recognise the fabric - although I don't know if that's because he is 94 and a bit ill at the moment, or whether it's purely because he's male and doesn't notice these things!

my spirit child / my flagging spirits

I received a lovely email from Heather last week who came out of blog lurkdom to recommend the book by Mary Sheedy Kurcinka titled "Raising Your Spirited Child", to help my understand/cope with Anna's "spirited" personality. Isn't "spirited" a much nicer term than saying my wilful/ annoying/ exhausting/ PITA child? All terms I use readily (in my head not out loud) when dealing with Anna. Apparently spirited children are more alert, persistent and sensitive than others, plus they are more energetic, have worse moods and are shy in new situations. Yes, that describes Anna pretty well. I have this book on order.

Well this week, my spirited child has:

• has spent two to three hours every night screaming after being put to bed instead of going to sleep, and then waking at 11pm-midnight to start another 3 hour screaming match. Yes she has a regular bedtime and bed routine (bath, book bed), she also has soft music playing all night, heating to keep her room to a constant 20deg, curtains with three layers of lining to keep out the light, and we tiptoe around keeping quiet. All to no avail!
• after an hour of the second stage screaming match, she comes into our bed to sleep and she quietens down but then she then proceeds to play with my hair or stroke my face or arm for most of the remaining night;
• broke the arms off my prescription sunglasses, the second pair of my glasses she's ruined;
• slapped some children at daycare;
• refused to eat dinner most nights, instead opting for raisin toast; and
• managed to peel a few keys off my laptop:

Sigh..... but, her vocabulary is amazing, her words come out loud and clear, and she is pretty switched on - she saw me searching for a shoe the other day and she went off and found it! Of course she probably hid it in the first place but she was smart enough to work out what I was looking for. She is also starting to recognise pictures and say what they are, her current favourite being dog, clock and car:

I know long term having an alert and smart child is great, but boy is it tiring right now...

Anyway enough babbling on about my child - the reason I tell you all of this is to report on my woeful progress this week on those annoying curtains, other sewing, this blog, essentially anything not related to trying to get a screaming toddler to settle and sleep! Basically curtains are half done - I've done four drops, only four more to go. And I vowed to myself not to move on to anything else until they are done so I am aiming to finish them this weekend even if I stay up all night, because I have plans for another red skirt for me.

I did however quickly whip up this lumpy looking dog bed from some bright green terry towelling from the stash, stuffed with fabric scraps:

It's just a rectangle of fabric with rows of stitching sewn across the width to create a channel to stuff. Of course Anna had to have a test lie down before the dog did:

Yes, she's still in her pyjamas and slippers - it's been cold around these parts lately! And then she generously shared her dummy with the dog:

I wish I could say I managed to get the dummy from her before it went back into her mouth, but alas I wasn't quick enough. It's alright though, because shortly after this photograph she rinsed it out in the dog's drinking bowl LOL! Germs are good for kids, right?

The dog bed looks a little small, I measured it to fit into his sleeping crate, but didn't take into account that when it was stuffed it would get shorter. Anyway it does the job and got some fabric scraps out of my sewing room, although two days after I took this photo the dog has ripped part of it open so now those sewing scraps are swirling around the garage! Double sigh, I think I have a spirited dog too......

I will see you all shortly on the other side of my curtain sewathon, I promise!

and here's one I prepared earlier.....

Sadly nothing new has been completed from my sewing room this week because it turns out that I am part of the 1% of the population who adversely reacts to the flu vaccine, and I have been very sick for most of this week. It just pains me to have several days of uninterrupted time at home that I could have used sewing up a storm, but I was too sick to even get out of bed and watch crappy daytime telly let alone get anywhere near my sewing machine. But I'd say I've caught up on any sleep deficit I may have had, so there is a silver lining to that cloud.


But now it is a sunny Sunday and I am feeling well (just in time for work tomorrow, oh joy!) and the husband and I are heading out to dinner later this afternoon to celebrate my return to the world of the well (and my brother's birthday). However to keep up with my personal goal of blogging at least twice weekly I am going to post about something I made earlier this year. Actually since I've been sewing for eons but only blogging for a few months I do have a lot of older creations that are unphotographed and unheralded, but I may start interspersing them with more recent completions in my posts just to give them their time in the sun too.


I made this sleeveless top from the leftover waffle weave cotton that I used to make the Louis Vuitton inspired suit I blogged about here. The fabric was too pretty to waste, but not quite enough, so paired with some other fabric scraps in black, I morphed this now OOP New Look pattern dress into a top but cutting at the waist and using a shorter zip in the back. Incidentally my mum made this pattern into an ankle length dress made of maroon microfibre with cream straps for my year 10 formal (ie 'prom' in US terminology) way back in 1993. You won't be seeing that photo (even though the dress was finished superbly, yay mum you rock) because it features way too much metal on my teeth, but here's a photo of the pattern instead.



I've worn this top a few times to work, under a black pants suit (purchased RTW, shock horror!) and my favourite black patent heels and it makes me feel very glamourous indeed. In the photo I've worn a chunky black bead necklace that came with last month's InStyle magazine by the designer Claire Aristides - total score for a freebie. But I took it off before I went to work - it felt a little too OTT for my rather staid office, well a little more OTT than usual for me! All in all I'm rather proud of this creation - very thriftily made from offcuts and it totally lifts a plain black suit.