Tree Fall

Summertime Cuff

 

I'm not sure why but I absolutely love sewing with leather and could happily play all day long with my little circles of different coloured scraps.

I'm lucky to have a supplier close by who stocks beautifully soft, amazingly coloured leathers and have become slightly addicted to buying all the different shades.

 

 

I made this new cuff a couple of days ago in bright summery peacock colours after playing around with some teal and white leather.

After loving all the deeper winter colours like moss greens and mustards, I'm now trying to focus more on softer, light colours and as well as bright yellows and blues I also have some beautiful soft heathers and spring greens that I want to play with.

 

 

In the meantime though, this new summertime cuff is in the shop now.

Children's Clothes Workshop

 

 

As I've said many times before, making clothes for Bella and Lily is one of my favourite things. I love the fact that I can use my choice of the most beautiful fabrics out there rather than having to rely on what's in the shops. And the fact that I can use prints that may not be immediately obvious for childrens clothes, but that look beautiful on the girls.

 

And the girls love the fact that they get to wear clothes that I made. There is honestly nothing better than hearing Lily very proudly tell anyone and everyone (!!) that mummy made her skirt or blouse. Or having Bella walk in to the studio and pick and choose the fabrics for her next skirt.

 

 

And as far as I'm concerned, whilst there are lots of pretty, flouncy, girly clothes out there, the ones that are the most useful in the wardrobe are the simple, easy to wear blouses and dresses that can be worn over leggings for running and playing in or tights for a dressier look.

 

 

Because I get a lot of emails asking about making these simple but fun clothes, when Karen and I were working out the time table for our upcoming workshops, we realised that a workshop teaching how to make some easy to make and easy to alter and embellish childrens clothes would be a lot of fun.

 

 

So with that in mind we're holding a full days workshop where you can spend the day in a lovely park side setting, learning how to stitch a basic yet classic tunic blouse suitable for ages 6 months to 7 years, incorporating long or short sleeves and easily adapted to become a dress.

And once you’ve mastered that, you can spend the rest of the day sewing a simple pair of unisex trousers again suitable for 6 months to 7 years, in styles both fully lined for the colder months and lightweight for coolness in the summer.

 

The workshop is being held on Saturday 7th May and runs from 10 - 4pm.

If you want to find out more you can look here and if you would like to book a place, you can do so here. Or if you would just like more information just email me or Karen at greycircles@hotmail.co.uk

 

****edited to add - there are now only two places left on the workshop ******

Countryside Softies by Amy Adams

 

I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in the blog tour for Amy Adam's new book Countryside Softies, which meant that I was also lucky enough to be sent a pdf copy of the book to review.

Before Amy discovered her passion for creating adorable creatures, she spent 12 years as a designer for a major craft manufacturer. Her background also includes a university degree in weaving and embroidery. In her book, Countryside Softies, she brings 28 felted wool creatures to life with clear instructions, time-saving tips and enchanting photography. Each project is graded according to difficulty (easy, moderate and slightly tricky) so both experienced and novice sewers can share in the fun.

 

 

 

Amy's long history of pattern writing clearly shows in this beautiful book, which is jam packed with the cutest woodland animal patterns that you can imagine. As well as clear and concise instructions (including specific stitches, felting wool and how to stuff your creatures to the best effect), it also includes full sized patterns, suggestions for how to personalise your stuffies and of course imaginatively styled, beautiful images.

 

 

The patterns in the book are broken down in to three sections, In The Headgerow, Amongst the Woodlands and Along The Riverbank and include woodland favourites such as a fox, a squirrel and an owl as well as some wonderful, less obvious creatures like a dragon fly, bumble bee and a beautiful kingfisher.

 

 

If you would like to try out the Dragonfly pattern for yourself, you can download a free copy of the pattern here.

If you would like to be lucky enough to win a copy of Countryside Creatures, just leave a comment and on Friday 29th April I'll be picking a winner.

You can order your own copy of the book from here or even better, get a signed copy from here.

And in the meantime, you can follow the whole blog tour here -

• April 18: whip up
• April 19: bari j
• April 20: blue nickel studios
• April 21: fat quarterly
• April 22: ric-rac
• April 23: syko
• April 24: lucykate crafts (the author)
• April 25: treefall design
• April 26: i heart linen
• April 27: sometimes crafter
• April 28: plush you
• April 29: allsorts

 

Quick inspiration

 

Green's been catching my eye a lot lately. Especially when teamed with yellow or grey. Also with blue.

 

These images are all from April's Elle Deco (I have to be honest and say that I didn't like May's issue for the first time in a long time). And have all been inspiring me.

I like the darker, deeper more opulant tones. Especially against a stark white background.

And do see all those cushions have piping on them? As I've said before, I love piping.

 

 

 

Thanks for everyone's suggestions about dressmaking on the last post, I've found them really helpful and am intending to have another stab at it all over this holiday weekend.

 

Fail

 

I got up extra early on Saturday morning specifically so that I could make a start on a dress using one of my new Lisette patterns.

I decided that I wanted to make the Portfolio Dress first, using a blue chambray that I bought a few years ago.

 

 

I started off by tracing the pattern in a US size 8, because I'm a UK size 10-12 and I assumed that the pattern sizes were the same as store bought sizes.

I used the Burda pattern paper that I really like, to trace the pattern so that the original pattern is left uncut and then cut all the pieces out of the traced one.

 

 

And that's as far as I got. My big plans of cutting the pieces out on Saturday and sewing them up on Sunday was completely stymied by my children's insistance on eating food, wearing clean clothes and having entire conversations with me (which seems unfair when Jim and I never get to have an entire conversation).

So Sunday morning I got up even earlier so that I could at least cut the pieces out of the chambray, ready to sew up another day. Which is when I realised my mistake in cutting out a size 8. Fortunately whilst I was pinning the pieces to the fabric I started to think it looked a little small. So I did something I should have done in the first place - I read the pattern properly, including the sizes! And discovered that my measurements and the pattern sizes bore no correlation if they were the same as store bought sizes.  So again I did what I should have done in the first place and read the sizing info that Liesl has on her Lisette blog and forum and discovered that pattern dress sizes are different to store bought sizes. I did not know this, having never made something for myself before!

So now I'm trying to work out which size I should use. Because if I go by my measurements I need to be using three different size patterns in the one dress! Obviously though, I would rather it was too big than too small, so I decided that maybe I should start again using a size 12 pattern instead. In the hopes that I can adjust it if it works out too big.

So after a weekend of no lie ins, in an attempt to do something for me, I managed to cut out the wrong pattern size and totally confuse myself about which size I should use. Oh and I also decided to make the Traveller Dress instead...

 

 

So at some point (maybe next weekend) I'm going to attempt to make a size US12 Traveller dress (view c) out of that jade linen in the top picture. And if it works I'm then going to make it out of that gorgeous grey print (which I shall be blogging about).

I'd be interested though in knowing how other people find pattern dress sizes compared to store bought dress sizes. And I should also say that the confusion is due to my inexperience and not a fault with the pattern.

 

 

Commissioned

 

A month or so ago I was commissioned by Bradford Museums to design and make an interactive piece for Cartwright Hall Museum.

The brief was for a rug inspired by the beautiful David Hockney painting, The Diver which is part of the museums permanent collection.

 

The rug is more than just a rug though, it's also the background to an interactive map of the Indian continent that I have made out of wool felt and attaches directly to the rug in the form of a jigsaw.

 

 

And then alongside the rug and the map, there are drawstring bags for four different children's books and felt animals that also tie in to the Indian continent.

 

 

All of this is part of the museums beautiful way of involving it's visitors and in particular the children with their permanant collections. Rather than continuing with the traditional 'look, don't touch' ethos of most museums and art gallery's, Cartwright Hall is finding ways of engaging it's young visitors directly with the work on display through interactive pieces that reflect the paintings hanging in the galleries.

My work will be in the gallery over the Easter holidays and once it's in place I'll be able to show it properly, but in the meantime I thought I'd share a sneaky peek of it before I deliver it all on Monday.

Can you say 'nervous'?

 

Dressing up

 

As we move in to spring and summer I've been thinking more and more about new clothes and in particular summer dresses and one of my main sources of inspiration is as always the Toast lookbook.

 

 

Of course I could never afford their clothes and have been told (having never seen any in real life) that the quality does not justify the price, but it doesn't stop me loving the way they are styled.

 

 

 

 

And as my desire for new clothes grows, so does my pile of dress patterns. All of which I will put to good use. Very soon. Very soon indeed.

 

 

Double Dipping

 

I made this dress for Bella when she was 2 years old, (using this great tutorial) and once she grew out of it I put it aside for Lily to wear.

Sadly though, Lily is now too big for the dress too, so rather than it never been worn again, I decided to cut it up and turn it in to a skirt for Bella.

 

 

And now, once she grows out of it again, I can put is aside for Lily to wear as a skirt. Which means that by the time Lily grows out of it, we should have had at least 8 years of use out of it!

 

 

To turn it in to a skirt I simply cut off the shirred top half and created a channel for the elastic waistband. It took all of 5 minutes and means that Bella gets a new yellow (her favourite colour) skirt, just in time for the warmer weather.

 

 

New fabrics

 

I've bought very little new fabric this year. Actually I should probably clarify that statement rather quickly. I've bought very little fabric that wasn't destined to be used for a specific workshop or a specific order.

But when I clapped eyes on the new Joel Dewberry Aviary 2 collection I just couldn't resist.

 

 

We've obvioulsy seen the bird prints before but the new colourways of the Aviary collection are absolutely beautiful and there was just no way I could resist either the mustard/charcoal or the red/aqua colourways.

Especially when they were teamed with the beautiful mustard,teal and grey poppy print, which is from the Bryant Park collection by Khristian A Howell for Exclusively Quilters.

The other fabric that I recently bought is one of my absolute favourite Orla Kiely prints.

 

I love the colour combinations of the Rhododendron print and have used it to make my favourite lampshade in the past.

Although I'm keeping some for myself, I've put a little bit of the Orla print in the shop. The piece I'm keeping though is destined to become a cushion with olive piping.

Of course.

Having a Giraffe

 

This is my new Giraffe Stroller quilt in the mixed (for boys or girls) colourway. I've combined my two different types of stroller quilt for this one - with the patchwork front, rather than the stripes, but with a chenille backing rather than wool batting and cotton backing.

 

 

I'm really happy with this progression but have one more idea that I'm going to try out over the next couple of days. In the meantime though, I like how it's turned out and especially like how bright it is. Because although I've been making quilts and toys in this colourway for a long time, this particular quilt seems brighter than the previous ones.

 

 

As with the other stroller quilts, this one is available as a stroller set in the shop, alongside it's matching bib.

 

On a slightly different note, do you like my new chair? We've been in desperate need of new kitchen chairs for quite a while now, but lack of funds has meant that we've just been using two wonky Ikea ones and a step stool for the last few months. So I was extremely happy when I spotted two Ercol style chairs at a car boot sale last weekend for the hugely cheap price of just £4 for both!

 

Bargain!