Nighttime florals

Hola! Once again, long time, no blog post! (Whoops!)

Not to say that I haven’t been writing blog posts – it’s been Indie Pattern Month over on The Monthly Stitch, which has been rather full-on! Heaps of fun though, and so many inspiring creations. (And I may have added a few more things to my things-I-really-want-to-sew-right-this-minute list. Yikes! Too much I want to make, never enough time… If only one could get paid to sit at home and sew pretty things for oneself… 😉

Anyways, I have been doing a bit of sewing, if not as much as usual! I’ve also been doing some knitting, since it’s winter over here and winter = knitting, yes indeed. (I even have a completed knitting project to show off – oh my! But that’ll be for another day, as this cardigan got finished first and therefore is getting posted first.)

So for today, I have for you… a cardigan! A lovely black lightweight merino knit cardigan, to be precise.

A while back, my friend Lou wore a gorgeous cardigan to work that I immediately coveted. It had a lovely curved front yoke panel in a sheer poly chiffon type fabric, while the rest of the cardigan was knit. Gorgeous, I tells ya! So naturally, I immediately added making one similar to my ‘things to do’ list. 😉

Black isn’t really my thing, but it’s also a very useful colour to have as a cardigan, as it actually goes with other things. (Unlike many of my garments, which pile together in a colourful, clashing mash-up of crazy prints.) So I pulled this lovely super-fine merino out of my stash, paired it with a black-with-green-floral print cotton I got from Fabric-a-brac a while back, and set to work.

I used the Jenna cardigan pattern as a base. Making the modification was easy – I figured out where on my chest I wanted the curve to end, and used the notch markers in the armscye to start the curve from the side. Simply cut it directly from the pattern, then added seam allowance to both yoke and remaining front bodice when cutting out the pattern. Simple! (Although I did take care that the woven fabric was mainly above my bust, for easy fitting. Not that I have much of a bust, but still…)

The sleeves on this are actually narrower than the original Jenna cardigan sleeves – I’ve been playing around a bit with them, and may have an update to the pattern coming out in about a month, with a narrow sleeve option as well as the original classic straight sleeve. Sssh! Secret squirrel! 😉

Photos were taken around on the Miramar Peninsula, while hanging out with the lovely Nikki and Sandra. (Thanks, ladies!) We went to see a great movie together (whose name I just completely forgot, but it was about “the worst singer in the world” and was utterly delightful), then nabbed some photos on the coast on the way back home.

Right then, back to the knitting I go! 😉

What are you making at the moment? Go on, give me some inspiration on what to start next!

 

 

Cat Lady Cardi

So, did you hear about the Cat Lady Sewing Challenge that Miss Crayola Creepy came up with? Brilliant idea (but then, I’m a cat lover, and I love sewing challenges, so I am somewhat predisposed to loving the idea!) – make up something using cat themed fabric.

And oh boy, I have cat themed fabric in my stash! (Which probably won’t be all that suprising to many of you….) Not as much as I would have expected, to be fair, but I still have (going purely from memory here) at least three types of Hello Kitty prints, and a great lightweight cotton with a geometric print and lucky cats on it that I bought in Tokyo last year. Oh, and some leopard print fabric, too, since that apparantly counts for the challenge. So yes, lots of cat themed fabric to choose from!

But you know what? The challenge was due to end at the end of October (luckily it got extended, since I only got my photos taken today – although I did have this cardi finished in time for the end of October!), and I had a baby bump to contend with. Chance of me making up one of those cat-print fabrics in something I could actually wear both for photos by the end of October, and later on once the baby arrived? Pretty much non-existant. (And I just couldn’t bring myself to make up a maternity garment in some of my loved cat print fabric, and get only very limited wear out of it.)

So I came up with another idea instead. Not sure if it still qualifies for the Cat Lady Sewing Challenge, but rather than using cat-print fabric, I made a cardigan purposefully to go with a cat applique patch I found at Spotlight.

Coz look – cat applique patch! Cute, right?!? It’s winking and all, even.

I made up variation A of the Jenna cardi, in the waist-length version.

The fabric is merino – I acquired a long, oversized dark grey merino top from a clothes swap party a while back, and recycled it for this cardi. There wasn’t enough to cut out all the bands as well though, so I used a fine black merino that I bought from Levana textiles (oh man I love that place!) for contrast bands. The only change I made to the pattern was with the sleeves – since I cut them from the sleeves of the top that I was recycling, I used the existing sleeve hems rather than adding the sleeve cuffs. (I may have changed the sleeve length a bit as well based on the length of the existing sleeves I was cutting them from, but I can’t quite recall. Later-day pregnancy brain haze, and all that.)

Since I’ve made this pattern up several times now (yeah, that may be an understatement!) it came together quickly and easily. What took the longest was choosing the buttons – I spent a while debating between plain black, or pink and white striped – did I want them to blend in, or to bring out the pink parts on the cat applique? I went with black in the end, since I figure this is gonna be getting a lot of wear with a lot of my dresses!

Obviously, it isn’t fitting so well at the moment – after all, it’s only been 9 days since the lil’ one arrived, and there’s still a fair bit of baby bump to vanish! (Plus sleep deprivation and the like, so please don’t look too closely at the dark circles under my eyes!) Hence why it’s being worn with a maternity skirt, rather than one of my dresses. (Oh I am so looking forward to wearing my dresses again… It’ll be nice to go back to feeling like ‘me’ in my clothes!)

But yes, I have a cardigan! That will go with lots of things!! And it has a cat on it!!! So thank you, Miss Crayola Creepy, for the challenge that resulted in this addition to my wardrobe. 😀

And the winner is…..

Wow, firstly, thank you all so much for all the lovely comments on my post about launching Muse Patterns! Seriously, I’m a bit overwhelmed by all the feedback and kindness – you guys all totally rock! Like, seriously. Reading your comments was like getting a whole lot of little virtual hugs. (Awww, wasn’t that all soppy-like?!? Sorry!)

Anyway, a bunch of you went in the draw to win a copy of my new Jenna cardi pattern, and I’ve just drawn the winners, with the help of everyone’s favourite random number generator, random.org.

(You may have noticed there was an ‘s’ on the end of one of those words up there. Yep, I decided to draw two winners, instead of one. Just because.)

So….. wanna know who won?

First up is….

Mons!

Who said:

And secondly is….

dangerousalice!

Who said:

Congrats, ladies! I hope you enjoy the pattern. 🙂

(Mons – I can’t find any contact details for you, so can you please email me (macska at gmail dot com) so I can send you your pattern? Thanks!)

Thanks again to everyone who entered, and everyone who commented. You really made my day! 😀

Also, if you didn’t win but are still keen on getting a Jenna cardi pattern all of your own, the code ‘CUPCAKES’ will get you 20% off until Saturday 6 September. (Important note: Paypal does discount codes in a slightly odd way – you’re prompted for them after entering your payment details, whereas most other online payment systems ask for them first. Don’t worry – the option to enter the code will come up and the discount applied between now and 6 September!)

A little secret side project….

So, you may (or may not) have noticed that I haven’t been posting quite as much over the last couple of months. It’s not because I don’t love you, or because I haven’t been sewing up a storm. Not at all.

Instead, it’s because what I’ve been working on hasn’t been able to be shown yet.

But that’s all changing, as of right now. I am currently rather excited, and also in no small measure terrified. Eep!

Wanna know why?

Because I just launched this.

Yep, I’ve been busily beavering away for the last few months on designing and creating my first not-just-for-me pattern, and getting a brand-new pattern label all ready to go.

I’ve called it Muse Patterns. All the designs are (and will be) inspired by amazing women – both current, and historical. Women who are courageous, intelligent, and inspirational. The first few patterns are inspired by women I know (this first one is inspired by my amazing little sister, Jen), and after that, well, I’m gonna keep that a surprise for now. 😉

And as those who’ve know me for a while know, I’m a huge fan of vintage styles, especially from the 1930’s, 1940s and 1950’s (even though I’ve been on an indie patterns kick recently!), so there’s a fair bit of historical influences that will be popping in Muse designs as well. (While at the same time keeping them fresh and modern.)

The first pattern is the Jenna cardi – it’s designed to be a wardrobe staple, and very versatile, with three different sleeve length options, two different body length options, and two shoulder options, so you can mix-and-match for 12 different combinations. There’s a bit of 1940’s going on with curved front shoulder yoke detailing, and a touch of 1940’s and 1950’s with the waist-length variation with wide hem band.

And I may have made, well, a heck of a lot of these over the past couple of months while creating and testing the pattern. Hah!! Long ones, short ones, different sleeve lengths, playing with colour blocking, etc, etc. Now that Muse and the Jenna cardi are ‘officially’ launched (as of when I hit ‘publish’ on this post – eek!), I’ll be able to start showing what I’ve been making. (Don’t worry though, I’m not gonna be turning this blog into a ‘Muse’ blog – it’ll stay as it always has been, and Muse will be it’s own separate identity.)

Anyways, I’m pretty proud of this pattern – it’s been a heck of a lot of work, I’ve learnt a huge amount from doing it (how to set up an online shop, how much Paypal irritates me with it’s help questions, how to use Illustrator, etc, etc), and even if no one else like it or buys it I now have a cardigan pattern that I love making and wearing so it’ll be getting a lot of use in my sewing room at least. 😉

I also wanna give a huge massive shouted-out THANK YOU!!!! to all the UTTERLY AMAZING people who have helped me get this up and running. You know who you are, and you’ve all been awesome – giving feedback, giving encouragement when I wanted to throw my laptop out the window, testing the pattern, being models for me, all that stuff. Huge huge hugs to you all!! 😀

So yeah, there’s my secret project – now out in the open.

And just coz I can, here’s a discount code if any of you are interested in the pattern. Enter ‘CUPCAKES’ at check-out and you’ll get 20% off until 6 September. (Important note: Paypal does discount codes in a slightly odd way – you’re prompted for them after entering your payment details, whereas most other online payment systems ask for them first. Don’t worry – the option to enter the code will come up and the discount applied between now and 6 September!)

And also just coz I can, here’s a giveaway, too. Comment here, let me know which style you’d make first, and I’ll give a copy of the Jenna cardi pattern away to someone via random draw. If you want to go in the giveaway, comment by the end of Wednesday 3 September – I’ll draw the winner and contact them on Thursday 4th.

The giveaway is now closed – congrats to the winners! 🙂

And on that note, I’m going to go and eat a heck of a lot of chocolate and cheese and try to stop myself from biting my fingernails now that I’ve let this baby of mine loose into the world. Eek!!!