Following knitted dreams

After the other day mentioning a little project I had my eye on, there has been a bit of unexpected progress.

I popped into Stitch, our lovely little knitting and dressmaking shop in Seaford for a zip (to try to spur myself on to make some new summer skirts I think I am going to really need soon) when I spotted some wool which looked so perfectly suited for the super chunky puff sleeve dream jumper.

It is called Wendy with wool superchunky and there was a lovely duck egg blue (shade 5203 - aqua). I didn't buy it straight away but the next day in a moment of weakness after a long morning of playgroup and park picnics and playing, I decided to pop in on my way home just for a little check. And came out with six balls! ha! (and went back the next day for two more)



I went into a bit of a knit frenzy for the rest of the afternoon, and most of the spare minutes since then - I really have a lot of housework to do, and in true need of an early night - but am really enjoying myself. And have already knitted half of the jumper - a front and a sleeve. It's so super super chunky it is knitting up in a blink.







































Hip hooray.

And today was royal wedding day and I baked a cake and wore flowers in my hair and socks with my flats and I felt a bit like it was 2010 again - With this and blogging a bit I feel a lot like a bit of my old self at the moment and it's really nice. I hope you enjoyed the royal day if that's your sort of thing. I really loved that veil.

 Yours chunkily, Emily

 

knitting friends and knitted friends

Today I had a grand afternoon, going on the bus and doing some cafe knitting with the greatest company, Snowy and Debbie. You can see some of Debbie's knitting in the background - a grand project she has in progress! Snowy has a pet cloud called jungle - a knitted cloud! Here is a picture of him sitting on a rock in canada:



I had the best seat on the bus on the way - front row. When I got on the bus was empty too which was strange but nice. I had a funny encounter with some people on another bus who we kept overtaking and being overtaken by. They kept waving to me - I think they thought I was much younger than I am (it might have been the doll that did it). That was quite friendly, but I felt a bit awkward. The scene was so lovely on the coast road though, the sun was shining and the sea was so calm.



On the way home it was the opposite of empty (full) but I carried on my knitting for a while and ignored the hustle and bustle around me. I managed to do such a lot of my knitting I was so happy. I am knitting a red cardigan - it has been a work in progress for about 2 years now, but I have a June deadline to meet. It is easy for me to get distracted these days but I think I am going to try to do a row a day from now on.

There is no romance in this post, but I did manage a little valentines themed craft this weekend which I will share once it's dry! Also this weekend I have been doing a lot of clothes folding - phew!

Happy valentines day if you have celebrated this day of love. x

Matrimonial Flora

Our wedding feels like a long time ago now, but I have just got our photos back and very happy to relive that most wonderful time.

I enjoyed planning for the wedding a lot, and between my mum and I, we managed to do a lot of things ourselves to make it wonderfully personal.

We just had a small guest list for our ceremony and reception dinner, so it was not too much of an overwhelming task to do the tables ourselves. I managed to collect lots and lots of glass jugs and vases from the charity shops, the odd one each week did the trick, and mum grew a lot of the flowers in her garden. Unfortunately because of the late start to spring this year, not everything was ready - but mum did a good job of finding some lovely sweet peas and freesias and cornflowers and roses and carnations - and of course lots of gypsophelia-  from roadside stalls, the supermarket and the florist. It was nice that the vision was quite a relaxed garden flower type theme as this meant that we could just enjoy picking what we liked and it was such a lovely activity for the day before the wedding to keep my nerves at bay!

And here is a lovely picture our hosts at the pub tweeted - they said that the dining room had never looked prettier.

And Liz and I made our own bouquets which made them extra special for us - and suited our outfits too.

So lovely all these flowers. xx

Something Old

I just wanted to take a minute to share with you the story of my wedding head dress.

I was so lucky to be able to wear this beauty. It belonged to my Great-Great-Grandmother and here she is wearing it on her wedding day in 1905 (a bit of a grainy picture - but you can tell she looks grand right - and you can see the flowers on her head)

After this it was split in half to make two half bands and here you can see my Great-Grandmother on her wedding day wearing that (she is in the middle with the flowers). The other half went to canada - i wonder if it is still there?

Next my Nanny wore it - here she is with Granddad on their wedding day - exactly 56 years before mine and Rich's wedding - 8th June 1957.

And here is my mum and dad - and the headdress as well. She made her own dress too - I think similar to mine with a simple silk dress with lace layered over.

 

And here we are- 2013

We had do do a little renovation work to get it ready for me to wear. My mum had done a good job of attaching it to her veil, but as i decided not to have a veil afterall it needed a bit of strengthening to be sure it would fit and stay on my head all day. I found some little paper flowers too to help make it look a little healthier. But I think still going strong for over 100 years of weddings.

What a lucky charm.

xx

Bridesmaid

As our wedding was just a little one, I decided I didn't really need a lot of bridesmaids, and asked my sister, Liz, to just be there for the little tasks (like holding my flowers when i said 'i do') and she was happy to do this job! thanks liz.

Of course, she needed a dress though!

My mum was wonderful to offer to make this for me so I could keep concentration on my own dress, and other tasks. I drew up the pattern, and echoed some of the design features of my own dress - mostly just the dart positions. This meant that we had lots of freedom to have the design features that Liz wanted like some little sleeves and a full skirt.

I did have final say on the fabric though. And this was another difficult task! Fabric shopping can be quite hard work.

I had thought about a Liberty print because they are all so pretty, but also considered a real sixties pop flowers fabric, as i know this is more something Liz would like. We found this fabric by Liberty called Susanna and were quite close to going for it...

But i had a bit of a feeling it wouldn't be quite right on the day, picturing the flowers we were having and thinknig of my dress - all much more 'pretty'.  And i would sit and look at Liz and think that a smaller, closer pattern would suit her better. So i went back to the drawing board. There are so so many beautiful designs, but it seemed like there was something not quite right with a lot of them - either the colour palette was too autumnal or monotone, or the pattern was too small, or it was all too pink (Liz prefers to wear blue to pink so i was trying to accomodate this so she would be pleased)

After a lot of deliberating though I narrowed it down to these two:

Poppy and Honesty:

Claire-Aude:

During my research period I stumbled upon this grand blog and this helped bolster my faith in my vision. And as they had gone for the claire-aude, i decided to opt for the Poppy and Honesty - this one did seem the prettiest to me. Now I look back at all these options I know that we did the right thing!

It really worked out beautifully - Liz looked so lovely, and she found her dream shoes to wear with it. And somehow the flowers we had collected seemed to be the same colours too - so it really felt that it was all meant to be. I am pleased i trusted my instinct on this one!

The Ultimate Dressmaking Project!

What a busy few weeks I have had - but we did it - it's done - the wedding was wonderful!

It has been very difficult for me to keep up with my blog, mostly because all the things I have been doing i wanted to keep secret so as not to ruin any surprises one the day.

There was of course one project which was strictly top secret which I am now very very excited to share - My wedding dress!

My starting point was finding a pattern i liked. I know that i can make my own patterns, but i decided i wanted a vintage style and find that using an old pattern gives a much more authentic shape and fit - there's something about the way they are cut which i just can't seem to replicate.

I also had in my mind that i wanted a little over layer on the top. I had seen a dress in a flea market which had this and i thought was just really nice. But apart from this I didn't really have any other criteria. I thought it would be hard to settle on a design as there are so  many lovely ones on offer, but as soon as I saw this one i knew it ticked all the boxes (also I knew as hard as it was, i had to be bold and go for it!) Simplicity 6227 from 1965.



I thought this would give me quite a lot of options too as wasn't sure if i wanted a full length or knee length, but I had my eye on view 3, you can see top right.

It's a very simple design, with a straghtforward dress (as you can see in view 2 bottom middle) with a pretty little blouse and over skirt layer to finish it off (in lace for me) Perfect for our simple little town hall wedding.

I had a bit of a panic to begin with as the original pattern i bought had the pieces for the blouse missing! The seller was wonderful about it, but it was a bit of a mission to find another in the same size - luckily I managed to find a size 11 and a half - strange but close enough!!

The next big task was finding the fabric. I found a wonderful website - Platinum Bridal Fabrics. They have such a huge range of the most wonderful lace. I learnt a lot about the difference between a corded lace and a chantilly lace, and all the other varieties too. I ordered many samples but it really was hard to know what to do as they all seemed to be so different, and it was hard without seeing a large piece to know how the pattern would repeat and how the fabric would drape. I loved the corded laces as they were just so beautiful, but after not really finding one that was quite right for my dress, I cast my search a little wider and came across one sample called Melissa, a laser lace, which means it is made up of little fabric shapes sewn onto a tulle background. This one was sewn on with silver thread and was such a pretty design  -although much different in style to the corded laces, I really had a good feeling about it.

I put together my toile and was SO pleased - it was the most perfect fit (except for a little alteration at the neckline) and this was such a useful task to help me work out how i was going to arrange my overlayers, and which fabrics to use with the lace. I tried a bit of chiffon and organza but decided to go for a layer of silk tulle over and under the lace on the skirt to give it a bit more presence, and a lovely soft romantic look.


The toile and mock up of over skirt - complete with lace - i was very excited for this glimpse of what would be!

For the under dress I decided on ivory dupion, and lined with silk habotai. and even the tulle i used was silk. All silk! It was very lovely to be so indulgent. I remember showing you the package when it arrived, and was dying to share the contents and now i can! I loved draping this about - although was a little bit shy with it to begin with - so beautiful and so white (ivory!)



So beautiful - the perfect uncut fabric - it arrived on the roll!! - so special.


the pattern pieces ready to cut out - a nice simple one.

There was a little 'bump' in the road though, as just after i had made up my underdress and the over skirt I found out that we are going to have a BABY (so much joy!) I did shed a few tears over my dress i will admit (but also i was feeling sick and sorry for myself probably), and was unable to look at it for a few weeks, not just because I was sulking, but also for practical reasons - I didn't really know what needed to be done! I safely reached 12 weeks though and had got over the shock and although was nearly 18 weeks pregnant on the big day, I only needed very minor alterations - just enough to let out the seam allowances a the waist, and I did alter my overskirt so it was a little more streamlined than the original, and not so ballooning (I felt like a bit of a marshmallow originally!) I was lucky that the dress did have plenty of space around the tummy - it was just the waist that I needed to hope wouldn't expand too much - everyone was helpfully suggesting i elasticate it but it was too late for that! I think the wedding came at the perfect time though - not just because it was the most wonderful blue sky day, but also just because the dress was still so comfortable - i think a week later and it might have been a squeeze.

And so here are some pictures for you of the finished dress. It is so lovely to have it revealed now. I know it doesn't look exactly the way it would have without the tummy (no cinched in waist here!) but this is the way it was meant to be an I am so pleased with how it looked on the day - it did seem to have bump reducing properties and although i think if i had known i would be pregnant before i had started the dress, i would have chosen a different design completely, it was actually wonderful that i didn't as this was perfect and very flattering - and had i known i probably wouldn't have been brave enough to go for it

final nervous moments before the ceremony

 

(Just married!!)

Merrily Marriedly yours,
Emilia. xx

Happy Mothers Day

For my mum this year I made mini simnel cakes from this lovely book.























I am sad that I forgot the marzipan centre though. This taught me a good lesson to read all the instructions before getting carried away! But on the plus i found some lovely dried fruit called 'orchard mix' full of dried apricots and pears and prunes and sour cherries. i hope they are a lovely treat for my lovely mum.

Bridesmaids made

Hello there, hello then,

Here i am!

I decided to come back - after SUCH a long break from my blog. The last couple of months were quite busy with bridesmaid's dressmaking - too much doing and not enough writing! I feel like this is rather a massive leap since my last post - so much missed. But Jess' wedding was a spectacular event, and the dresses were such a triumph - i was so proud to have been given such a role in the celebrations.

I was a bit silly not to take any photos of them myself, but the pro wedding pictures are back, and here we all are captured beautifully (i like this picutre!):

And doesn't Jess look a beautiful bride!

This was a dressmaking feat and a half for me, but i am so pleased i was able to do it. I was quite nervous the night before the wedding - the responsibility of the task hit me! But once we were all dressed i was much better. And with the stoles and gloves i think the effect was wonderful.

And there will some more exciting projects coming up for me, but for now i am enjoying the completion of this grand project, and a small time of rest for me and my sewing machine (but not for long!)

Happy new year, and nice to see you again. And see you soon (it's a resolution)

Lots of love,
Emilia. x

Mauzumi Blue

Recently it was friend Beth's birthday and as her birthday falls often in my summer holiday, she is accustomed to receiving handmade gifts!

And this year I gave her this amigurumi mouse! Mauzumi blue i call him, but i am not sure what she will call him. a nice friendly face for a birthday though.

hooray!!

Tomorrow I have to go back to work after this long holiday so it is a bit of a glum time. But i suppose it wouldn't be a holiday if it was never ending. It has been such a treat to have such a break! And so much achieved too. I give this holiday a ten.

Yours,
Emilia. x

Jubilee dressed

Today was Andy Murray in the Wimbledon final. I won't mention the result incase you don't know it yet, but the tennis was a good backdrop for my sewing of my red white and blue jubilee dress!

I bought this fabric a while ago to make a dress for the jubilee weekend. I thought the colours were just right without being too obvious and all in all rather festive. I didn't really get it finished in time though, but felt spurred on when i started watching the tennis this afternoon. And am pleased i will have it for when the olympic torch comes to sussex in a couple of weeks.

The fabric is a jersey so this dress is lovely and comfortable - just like a big t-shirt. Perfect for weekends and national events alike. Hurruh!

Yours
Britannia
 xxx

Happy Mothers Day

For mother's day, as last year, i made a simnel cake for my mum. She is a master cake maker, but i don't think it's often she has a cake made for her so it's nice to give a sweet treat.

This year i didn't grill it though. i think it made a more attractive cake that way.

I was a little absent minded and forgot to add the mixed spice and ground ginger, but it is packed full of dried fruits and crystallised ginger so i hope will still be a tasty delight. I will wait for the verdict (or maybe i will get to sample a small slice myself!)

Happy Mothers Day Mum!

yours lovingly,
Emily. xxx

Happy Birthday Deer Eleanor

On wednesday it was Eleanor's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SPECIAL FRIEND!

We had a really lovely celebration - a lovely italian meal with friends, and a little bit too much complimentary limoncello. oops.

I have been really enjoying handmaking gifts just recently. it's lovely when you give yourself lots of time. i think i was previously traumatised by a handmade christmas - but I am feeling encouraged once more.

I found some lovely soft cream wool in Yorkshire, a little while ago now, and (as Rich said it best) it is the perfect combination of Nanna and Baby which made it good for Eleanor's tastes.

I made her a scarf knitted in blackberry stitch. It's a lovely bobble effect. I will write a small lesson on blackberry stitch below - it is a nice one for scarves. I found it in my book, Mary Thomas's book of Knitting Patterns. She also recommends that it is good for jumpers, borders, hats and bags.

I wish you much warmth and comfort with this item dear friend.

Much love,
Emilia. xx

(ps. and of course there was cake - dolly mixture galore)

ps. can you tell i have been using photoshop?? perhaps a little obvious with this neon cake!!

Blackberry stitch (also known as bramble stitch and trinity stitch):

Here is how to achieve this effect (thank you Mary Thomas):

Cast on stitches in a multiple of 4 plus 4 edge stitches
(start with a wrong side row)

Row 1: k2, *(k1,p1,k1) into next stitch to make 3; pass yarn to front of work and p3tog; pass yarn back * and repeat from * to * across row until 2 stitches remain; k2

Row 2: Purl

Row 3: k2, *p3tog; (k1,p1,k1) into the next stitch* Repeat from * to * across row and k2 to finish.

Row 4: Purl

Repeat these 4 rows.

LOOK AT THESE!

I just really wanted to show and tell these gems i found on an etsy browse (/binge) Knitting needles! As bracelets!

I really love the vintage plastic knitting needles - i am always on the look out for them in the charity shops - they are so much nicer than the modern design and it does make a difference i'm sure. It's like my inability to knit anything black - just too dull.  I am not sure why so many knitting needles are grey? answers on a postcard.

I don't even know the name of the lady who makes them, but her shop is called sewnewthings so do have a look! I have no idea how she can make a knitting needle curl up like that! maybe some sort of magic?

Now I must get ready for ice cream for dinner in honour of Eleanor's Day of birth (maybe i will have a pizza for starters)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEARL! JOY TO YOU ON THIS DAY

Yours
Emilia. xxx

Birthday makes and birthday bakes

This weekend was full of birthday fun and I did lots of making and baking for the special occasions. This is a very nice thing about being on holiday - plenty of time for making and baking.

a nice feature of the socks is that they stand up alone.

Here are the socks I knitted for my mum. I used some rowan pure wool 4 ply in 'antique' and this pattern from the guardian. They were a real delight to knit, although perhaps could have been a little longer at the ankle. It's not often I knit socks though and these were definitely the best pair yet. I would like some for myself before the summer is out.

award winning!

On sunday we went for a garden party in honour of Mum's birthday and also because it had been mine and my sister's birthdays in July too. Mum's garden won first place in the Burgess Hill in Bloom competition (garden design category) so it was a treat to sit there in the sun. I am so pleased for Mum that she won and proud of her too. Gardens take a lot of work i think.

Mum had asked me to make a cake for the occasion as there were lots of people there and it is nice to help. I decided a good summer treat would be the apple and raspberry cake i made a few weeks ago.

two cakes are better than one (on the left is apple and raspberry cake and on the right Beth's birthday sponge)

Here is it on the left. And here on the right you can also see a birthday cake for my friend Beth. On saturday night we had a good old knees up for that event, and this sponge had come out really very nicely indeed. The recipe for this one is:

8oz butter/margerine, 8oz caster sugar, 9oz self raising flour, 3 eggs, 2 tablespoons of very hot water (added only once the other things are mixed together well). 

It makes a very lovely light sponge.

Also for Beth's birthday I knitted a red tea cosy just like ours. I have been really impressed with this little make as really does keep the pot hot. I even used the pattern I had written there so was pleased to have written it down to know what I did. I did make a couple of modifications though like having fewer stitches and making the ruffle in garter stitch. Beth likes tea and has a nice teapot so I thought this would be a good gift.

It's nice to be able to make nice things for presents. I am pleased with this time well spent.

And now it's time for a holiday!! 

Yours birthdaily,

Emilia. xxxx