growth

now i have a loooong weekend so i hope i will get lots of things done...

firstly i thought it would be good to catch up with myself a little and show you the progress of my little green friends:

I did not mention this little one before as had given up hope - but this is a cutting of a piggy back plant my mum gave me weeks and weeks ago. i put it in a pot and it started to rot, so i decided as a last ditch attempt to save it put it into my little vase of water - and now there are many very small new leaves! There is something magic about this little purple vase - remember the tomato? (that by the way is now potted, but not grown at all yet - it's still strong though so perhaps just resting for a bit)

And look at the paperwhites! They are the fasted growing of anything ever! I think they are going to flower long before chistmas!!

My spiderplant is still doing very well too and has some little seed pods - i might try planting them when i get a minute!

Yours the house gardener,

Emilia. xxxx

Handy Mittens

Now the weather has turned to ice - but luckily for the last couple of weeks i have been working on these delights from my knitting book of olden days.

These are men's mittens - for a man who must use his fingers (so it says). But i used smaller needles and they have come out quite a good fit. Possibly a little bit long though.. but not to worry.

here you can see the fronts and backs! 

And i used some wool from my stash - some lovely vintage colinette (my mum gave me from a long long time ago!) and so it means these are lovely in blended inky colours. I am very pleased.

Yours warm of hand,
Emilia. x

Pied Piper

Oh my - it has really been a while. But here I am, with much to show and tell!

Tonight I will tell you about my progress with my Keira Chanel skirt project.

A couple of classes have passed now so I have done my cutting out, and last week was focus on seams. Julia showed me how to do piped seams and as I have not been able to find any velvet trim in the colour i want (i want periwinkle blue - which is very slightly purple - but only very slightly) I have decided that instead of trimming in the same way as keira's skirt, I am going to do piped seams in their place.

Last night i made my piping using some chording and bias binding which i found in exactly the shade i wanted! triumph. (in these pictures it doesn't really look like it matches at all, but to the naked eye in good light, i think is very nice)

And here is where I have got to tonight - i have piped the tops of the pocket panels and lined them now, and sewn the piping in place on the panel seams, but only pinned those seams so far. But i think it is an idea of how it is going.

Although it won't be so much the same as keira's, i think this will give a lovely finish - and grand to use a new skill.

I still have my black fabric which i haven't yet cut (i have realised it's a bit much to have two class projects, so this one is my homework project -  although i have fallen a bit behind with it - more on this another time!) Although i had a grand plan for it, i am wondering if perhaps i could use this pattern and make it in black with velvet trim. Oh the decisions. 

Well, soon i will have some more things to show you too, but for now this is all.

Much love,

Emilia. xx

Paperwhites

At the weekend my paperwhite narcissus bulbs arrived and i managed to find a good pot to plant them in.

And they have started to sprout some shoots already! Richard says it looks like i'm growing claws. But i'm not.

There they are just peeking!

I am really hoping they are lovely in time for christmas. More floral, less clawry. Some flowers will help fit in with Richard's Hawaiian christmas theme too (not that I am thinking about christmas just yet).

Yours bulbously,
Emilia xx

Be square

over the last few weeks, crochet has been the order of the day.
I am enjoying trying out some different square styles for some shop items.

I started with a set of traditional granny sqaures:

 Then made some greek style squares:

And am now working on italian squares:

I think after these i will make some big sqaures, and maybe some circles! And hopefully put some items in my shop quite soon (i am quite slow with stocking that shop! I keep being thrown off course by things like sunny days!) i hope there will be someone who will really like to have some of these on their coffee table!

Lots of love,
Emilia. xx

Give us a toile

Last night i really did a lot of homework on my skirts. Here you can see all the pattern pieces drawn and cut out.

and this is my Keira style toile made up (with Keira for comparison) 

 I am really pleased with it. It was a good exercise as there are a couple of minor adjustments i need to make to the pattern (raising the line of the pockets is one) - but hopefully it will mean a happy sew for me now.

Here is a peek of the fabric i am going to use (little bit of linton tweed!):

I have cut the toile for the other pencil skirt out in some nice fabric (rather than curtain lining) as I have high hopes it will work out okay. Now that this one has fitted so well i am really optimistic so will let you know when it is sewn together.

Working on the patterns last night made me realise how good the classes are for me. It is great to have a reason to slow down and focus. And i am enjoying all the steps.

Yours sewn up,
Emilia.xxx

skirts skirts skirts

For my next evening class, i really need to have my mind set on my project and to have a pattern ready to use (i think next week will be for cutting out) so knew that i would need to spend some time this weekend to get myself prepared and am pleased to say i've had a most productive day!

I have decided now that i want to attempt two projects to be finished by Christmas. I think this should be okay as the focus is on the construction and not on all the drawing of patterns which did take up a lot of our class time with the pattern cutting course (of course!) and i will hopefully be able to go on wednesday with my patterns ready to go (at least something!)

Here is a small presentation of my design ideas. I've managed to draw the paper patterns already AND cut out the toiles, so i just hope they will sew together okay so I can full steam ahead on wednesday.

Item 1: Black Pencil Skirt (made in the black crepe fabric)

reeba skirt

I have decided to go for this one! I made the pattern really easily from my blocks - just adding an extra dart to the front piece, and putting in the seam and vent at the back. I haven't drawn the waistband piece yet, but would like to be able to create that corded effect.

Item 2: Trimmed Panel Skirt (To be made in grey white and lilac houndstooth check)

a little bit of chanel

I saw this chanel skirt as worn by keira (here you can see all the pictures) and think my patterned fabric will look nice in this design. I love the trim detail too and would like some lilac velvet ribbon to pick out the colour in the fabric (i hope i will find some). I was really in a dilemma about the back, but after walking home behind a girl in a panel skirt on friday, I have decided to split it into three to mirror the front, and then split the middle panel again so I can still have a centred zip and split. 

I will let you know how the toiles go! fingers crossed!

Yours skirtingly,

Emilia. xxx