Tree Fall

Checks and Spots

 

Last week was a crazy week. After 4 days straight of working from 8am to 4am in order to get ready for the Saltaire Makers Fair, I woke up on the 5th day feeling vaguely confident that if I could just keep it up for another 2 days, then I would actually be ready.

Then Bella came in to our room and said she couldn't breathe and didn't think she could go to school. And we ended up spending those 2 days in hospital instead.

 

Of course these things happen and Bella always comes first, but that was one big spanner to throw in the works. We managed though, with Jim spending the night in the hospital with Bella for the first time, so that after spending the day in with her I could come home and work all night. And we all came out the other side with Bella feeling much better and with just enough stock for the fair.

 

 

One of the things I managed to make were some new childrens blouses for the Makers Fair. And this one has got to be my favourite ever. In fact this one is definitely going to be scaled up to my size. As well as Bella's size. And lord knows, if Jim wants one I'll even make one big enough for him too! (it's already Lily's size).

I also love this grey check one too. The fabric is extremely soft and has a tiny bit of stretch to it and the colour is beautiful.

 

I'm not taking any credit for why I love these blouses so much, it's all down to the fabrics. I love the fact that the prints are quite sophisticated and that they elevate the simple design of the blouse to something a little bit more special.

 

 

 

I'm putting both these blouses in the shop, in sizes 6 months to 6 years (and then I'm making them in my size too!).

Celebration

 

 

There are about to be a lot of changes around here. I hesitate to say that things are returning to normal, because our general concept of normality has permanently changed. But things are at least about to appear more normal, because this time next week, after 16 months at home, Jim will finally be starting a new job.

To celebrate Jim and I spent a day in London last week.

  Throughout everything, the thing that keeps Jim and I together is the fact that when we are able to leave all the day to day crap behind, we instantly revert back to who we were, before kids and stress and miscarriages and redundancy and cancer, and we relax and have...

 

 

The run up to Jim going back to work is a busy one. In the next 7 days we have the 3 day Saltaire Makers Fair, Lily starting nursery, our 10th wedding anniversary, seeing my big brother (who we rarely get to see), half term and work.

 

Which is why it was a good thing that we got to relax and spend the day in London, eating lunch, drinking wine, fabric shopping (Jim really is the best husband) and sitting on the Embankment people watching.

 

 

Bella asked what we spent the day doing and we told her we spent it holding hands. Which is both true and a great way to make your 6 year old daughter cringe in embarrasment. Although not as much as when we confirmed that yes, we had kissed too. She may never recover from that admission.

 

 

The last year has been hard and Jim and I have struggled at times to cope with it all and with eachother. And I don't doubt that the transition back to Jim working full time and me juggling the girls, school runs, nursery runs and work, will again present more challenges.

 

But if nothing else, we've learnt two major things in the last year. That we can survive the tough times and given the chance, we can still always find our way back to eachother.

 

 

More New.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New for the Makers Fair.

Linen fronts with appliqued spotty animals and stripey backs. Plus grey piping.

I'm really happy that the back is almost nicer than the front, it's like a double A side single (showing my age there!).

New

 

 

 

 

For the Makers Fair next weekend.

London Fabrics

 

Some new fabrics bought on a trip to London yesterday.

The top one is a Jack Wills red and grey tartan and the bottom one is a Liberty lawn. The middle three are just some cotton basics.

 

These yellows and greys are still my favourites at the moment though. The top one is another Jack Will's tartan and is destined to be used to make me a dress or tunic, so I splashed out and bought 3 metres (at only £6 p/m that wasn't too much of a risk).

The thin grey stripe is one of my favourite Paul Smith fabrics and the floral is a really beautiful Liberty Lawn that I sadly couldn't afford to buy much of.

The yellow spot and the check are unnamed cotton prints.

 

These two yellows are both cotton jerseys that I'll be turning in to brightly coloured snoods.

 

The red polkadot is my only regret. For some silly reason I only bought 1 metre.Which means another trip to London must be on the cards!

 

Saltaire Arts Trail

 

Next weekend I'm taking part in the Saltaire Arts Trail for the first time. It's the fifth year for this amazing three day event, and I'm very excited to be involved.

Saltaire itself is a World Heritage site near Bradford that was named after Sir Titus Salt who built a textile mill and the village on the banks of the river Aire.

The textile mill is now Salts Mill, which houses a number of galleries, restaurants and shops and is also the home of a large collection of David Hockney paintings.

Saltaire Arts Trail is spread over the long holiday weekend and includes the Makers Fair, Open Houses (where you can not only explore some of the beautiful houses of Saltaire, but also view and buy many unique works of art that are displayed in them), childrens activites and much more.

 

 

As it says on the Saltaire Arts Trail website -

"There’s plenty to keep little hands busy, with activities ranging from feltmaking to den-building, and we’ve even got a record-breaking cinema. There are exhibitions to challenge and inspire, and everything in between, from canal boats to vintage fashion.

Quite simply, it’s a weekend packed with creativity and inspiration, so come and soak up the bank holiday atmosphere in this historic World Heritage village."

 

I'm busy making Princess and the Pea sets, baby blouses, playmats, cushions, leather cuffs, snoods, the famous Treefall Bunnies and much more in preparation for the wonderful Makers Fair and would really love to see you there!

The Arts Trail is on from 28th - 30th May and really does promise to be well worth a visit. Especially as you can combine it with a visit to Salts Mill and if you're so inclined, there's even a fabric shop just round the corner called The Shuttle!

 

 

 

Cars

The Orla Kiely cars print in Olive is now in the shop, in both the large size and the small.

I love this print in both the orange and the olive colourways, but the olive just pips it at the post for me.

 

I've still got a little bit of the orange colourway in stock too as well as some of the rhododendron print (my absolute favourite).

As well as relisting the lovely Orla fabrics, I've also been making leggings out of Liberty jersey today.

If you have the chance to sew with Liberty jersey, I really recommend it. It feels very different to a lot of jersey out there and is really lovely to sew with. It stretches across the grain and almost sews like a woven cotton rather than a jersey. In fact, if you're scared of sewing with jersey, then a Liberty one is a great one to start with because it doesn't tend to stretch as you're sewing with it.

 

 

These leggings are for Lily, although she's still wondering why I keep making her non-pink clothing!

New in Print

 

I've been waiting for the first issue of Mollie Makes with the same trepidation that I wait for all new sewing/textile/lifestyle magazines in the UK. I always hope that this one will be different and that we will finally have a beautiful, inspirational, interesting UK magazine to read (other than Selvedge, which although always beautiful, can be a little high brow sometimes, which is great but not always what I want).

But sadly, time and time again I have been hugely disappointed by what's out there.

 

The fairly new Making magazine has come the closest so far to filling the huge gap in the market for intelligent, beautiful textile magazines, but it's focus on general crafts rather than textiles means that it's not as appealing to me as I had hoped, but that's just a matter of different interests.

But when I heard about Mollie Makes and the team that are producing it, I had high hopes that this time it would all be different. That there would be bright, beautiful images, interesting articles, projects that I would actually like to make and information that was relevant to the type of interest I have in textiles.

 

And good lord! It's finally happened. Mollie Makes is absolutely beautiful from cover to cover. I can honestly say that there is not one page that disappoints. With it's simple yet stunning images, it's inspiring layout and all the little design details, it's just exactly what I hoped it would be.

 

 

This is no Sew Hip or Sewing World, so if you're looking for a plethora of basic, uninspiring sewing patterns then this is not the magazine for you. But if you're looking for a magazine much more along the lines of Anthology or the fun side of Selvedge, then this is the one.

 

Whilst it does include a few patterns to make (all of which are fun and really well presented) this is not a pattern led magazine, it's more of a lifestyle magazine. But a lifestyle that is based on the love of handmade and vintage without making the mistake of thinking that that means low quality 'homemade' (a real bug bear for most makers).

 

Mollie Makes finally manages to reproduce the sophistication of a lot of the US magazines, such as Martha Stewarts Living, or the now sadly deceased Adorn with strong aspirational imagery and content, whilst not succumbing to the slightly patronising, unrealistic feel of MSL.

 

It's not all original content, there's a book excerpt and some images that have previously been published on known blogs, but I don't see this as a problem at all and it certainly isn't a criticism. In fact, it's nice to see it all pulled together in one place, especially as there are so many books out there now and so many blogs that you often miss things.

I'm excited about this magazine and I'm truly hoping that the quality of the content will remain just as high as in Issue 1. There are an awful lot of clever, talented people out there and it's about time that publishers were brave enough not to cater to the lowest common denominator the way so many do.

The blog world has proven for a long time now that people want more than just a cheap, easy pattern. That they want modern, beautiful content that offers an escape from the humdrum without making them feeling excluded.

 

 

With a free pattern you would actually want, 6 patterns (plus templates), book reviews, great interviews, events diary and more, Mollie Makes is a damn good read and I highly recommend it.

And no I haven't been paid to say any of that ;)

 

At £4.99 it's not cheap, but it's worth the money. So go out and buy it and show the publishers that there really is a market for this type of magazine, and then we can all stop complaining about how little there is out there!

Mollie Makes is available at Sainsbury's and WhSmiths. And hopefully it will soon be available everywhere else too!

Shades of Grey

Shades of Grey is the latest organic fabric collection by Jan DiCintio. As the name suggests the entire collection comes only in varying shades of grey and all of it is beautiful.

I was lucky enough to get hold of some yardage a few weeks ago and have wanted to write about it ever since, but have been holding off until I finished the dress that I'm making using the Ragg Tagg print below.

 

Annoyingly though, I haven't had time to finish the dress yet and I didn't want to wait any longer.

The collection, which is printed on organic cotton is made up of 6 prints and can be ordered from a number of online sites, including here.

I love this collection and the fact that it's monochrome withouy the harshness of a lot of black and white prints. I also love the fact that the Ragg Tagg print reminds me so much of a fabric that my mum used to own when I was little.

I'll be back with more as soon as the darn dress is finished!

 

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Thank you everyone for all the get well wishes for Bella. She's now out of hospital and even went back to school today (with strict instructions not to run around!!), so she's doing great.

 

Distractions

 

I was supposed to be teaching two workshops this weekend, but instead I'm in hospital with Bella with a bad chest, trying not to feel stressed about how she's doing and about the work I'm not doing.

So last night in an attempt to distract myself I spent some time looking through the 16000 photo's I have in iPhoto and wondering why some of the things I make only get made once or twice, while others are made over and over.

 

 

I designed and made this hedgehog way back in 2007 but haven't made it since, even though I really like it.

I'm guessing that part of the reason is that it takes an incredibly long time to handsew all those prickles on. And back in 2007 I had a lot less time to work with, so tended to make something a couple of times and then move on to something new.

Whilst sitting here in hospital though, watching Bella's oxygen levels go up and down, I've been thinking how nice it would be to stitch another hedgehog. In yellows and greys. Of course.