...Wiksten tops

A few weeks ago - after I bought my new sewing machine, and in and amongst all the mask-making - I downloaded the Wiksten shift dress and top sewing pattern, ordered some fabric from e-Bay, and rustled myself up this comfortable top. I found it to be a well-designed, simple pattern - the only adjustment I made was to the length, as I don't really like cropped-length tops. I added a couple of inches at the hem so that it falls a little below my waistline (or the place where my waistline ought to be), and lowered the pockets an inch or so too, but other than that stuck to the instructions and was really pleased with the finished result. My only regret is that I ignored the good advice to wash the fabric before cutting it, so the top did shrink a little after washing. It still fits perfectly well, but the sleeves now skim the elbows, rather than falling just below.

It was so much fun to be making something other than masks, and all my old 'O' level needlework skills came flooding back. I really took my time with it, even going to the trouble of matching the fabric pattern on the pockets. 

As we had a week off work booked for the beginning of August I decided to treat myself and ordered some more fabric to make a couple more tops - a lovely mid-blue cotton chambray and some Indonesian Batik cotton. Both went straight in the wash when they arrived (life-lesson re.fabric shrinkage learned).

First I made the chambray version. This time I added several inches to the sleeves and the body when cutting the top out, so that I could play around with placement of the hems. I had a fat quarter of pretty blue floral fabric that I'd held back from the mask-making stash, and I used this to make the pockets and line the bottom of the sleeves to make them three-quarter length with a turned up cuff. This longer version is more like a tunic/smock, and it is an absolute dream to wear. Cool and airy in the heat, with room for a long-sleeved T-shirt underneath in colder weather. I love it!

Next came the Indonesian cotton. Finely woven, beautifully cool and smooth to the touch, in a vibrant shade of turquoise which the photo doesn't really capture. With this one I added side slits and a deep hem, but made it a similar length to the first. I lined the bottom of the sleeves again, to have the option of turned up cuffs. This time I waited until I'd completed the top before adding the pockets, as I wasn't sure if the fabric design was too 'busy', but after a lot of deliberation decided to keep them - carefully matching the fabric pattern again. 

Yesterday was spent tidying the airing cupboard, sorting through bedding and towels and various other bits and pieces that get shoved in stored there until it starts bulging at the seams and has to be dealt with properly. Three sleeping bags went to my friend, whose grandchildren will be going camping for the first time this summer. Several duvet cover and pillow case sets were put in the "for the charity shop" bag, and I salvaged the fabric from a couple more to use for - you guessed it - some more Wiksten tops! It might seem odd to be making so many versions of the same top, but it makes sense to me. They suit me, fit nicely, and are comfortable and practical to wear. On that basis, what's not to like? Besides, if re-purposed curtains were good enough for the Von Trapp children's clothes then a re-purposed duvet cover will be good enough for me!

 

The one on the left is possibly a little curtain-like in design, but it's a lovely crisp cotton and I'm becoming eccentric enough to really not care. The one on the right is a poly-cotton blend, but I think it will still be quite wearable - if not, it was only destined for the dump anyway (one side had ink-stains on it, so it wasn't really good enough for the charity shop bag). 

Watch this space...

...WOYWW - The One With The Poppies

This morning the workdesk is in a tidied up, in-between state, with nothing much to talk about. I'm fairly certain that other desks (available via Julia's weekly workdesk tour) will have a lot more going on!

Meanwhile, a bit like Big Brother's Little Brother, here is the big workdesk's little sister workdesk, tucked neatly into the corner of the spare bedroom next to the shelves where all the toys and materials that I use for Work work are kept. So technically it's a Work desk, not a workdesk at all. I'm finding that the chair, chosen primarily for its space-saving qualities (and ability to pass as "reasonably comfortable" during a 30 second trial in Ikea where my main goal was to get in and out in the shortest time possible), is actually quite punishingly uncomfortable by the end of the working day. I'm not quite ready to admit it was a total mistake yet, mainly because my back is permanently grumbly and sore these days no matter what chair I sit in. It's too much sitting that's the problem, not what I'm sitting on (or so I keep telling myself).

So it was a relief  to have a complete break from sitting last week and meet up with colleagues for an outdoor, socially distanced, team get together at Lotherton Hall, near Leeds. Even though we couldn't hug each other, and had to abide by the "two metre rule", it was still lovely to see everyone properly, in living 3D, rather than catching fleeting glimpses of them during the weekly video conference call. The icing on the cake of this outing was the discovery that there is a creamy yellow version of my favourite "pincushion flower" (bottom centre, below). Sadly they were still at the flowering stage, rather than the "pop a couple of seeds in your pocket stage".

Back at home, my optimistic sowing of an ancient packet of poppy seeds has paid off. Half a dozen plants, are just coming into flower - one in this rather fetching shade of bubblegum pink...

...one with just the faintest hint of a rosy blush...

...and one in the more traditional red, having trouble getting rid of the creases in its petals, after being crammed inside a tiny seed for far too long!

On the making front, I've been having fun with some custom-painted rainbow masks for two little friends who wanted to match each other on the bus journey to school...

...and a tiny cardboard cupboard for the mouse house, complete with some teeny-tiny tins (little finger-tip size) of lockdown staples. My grown-up daughter, who is still too young to appreciate the joy of revisitng childhood pastimes, is beginning to think I've taken leave of my senses. You don't have to be mad to entertain yourself in lockdown, but it certainly helps!

...WOYWW - The One With The Tiny Mouse Bed

Yet again I'm scurrying in like the White Rabbit (muttering, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!") for Julia's weekly workdesk round-up. So without further ado, here is the obligatory photo, which reveals a positively miniscule area of workable space (soon to be rectified, see below*), surrounded by teetering mountains of materials. From left to right, there's a fabric/pattern book pile that has been there forever and really needs to find a better home, and a stack of mask-related stuff - yellow tin with rotary cutter, elastic, tailor's chalk and tin-ties and a box of sandwich bags for packaging masks - with a random bag of embroidery threads perched on top. The threads were used for a project (see below**) which also involved the paint, wire and pliers on the right hand side. Further to the right, a box of sewing threads (masks again), balanced on top of the paints, pencils, and daily doodle book which I try to keep handy ("handy" being a euphemism for "buried at the bottom of a rather precarious pile").

The little purple objects in the middle are the pressed petals of the gorgeous tulip on the right. The colour has darkened, but the "hand-painted" effect is the same. I'm just not sure what to do with them! My brain has just whispered, "Why not preserve them in clear resin?" Thanks brain! Might just have to give that a try!

* Being an All Round Good Egg and Wonderful Human Being (not to mention Tired of My Incessant Grumbling and Whining), this week my lovely husband came up with the idea of getting another work-desk for me, to put in the corner of our tiny spare bedroom. He even found the perfect little drop-leaf desk you see below ('Ingatorp' from Ikea) which is just the right size for my laptop, phones, notebooks and me. This means I will have a designated "Working From Home" space that I can just shut the door on and leave at the end of the day, rather than the current arrangement where work paraphernalia encroaches on my happy creative space and has to be packed away every evening to make way for the sewing machine. What a thoughtful man I married!

** Next some WIP pictures of the paint/wire/pliers project mentioned above and featured in the title of this post -  the tiny mouse bed. This is another of Ann Wood's wonderful creations, instructions for which can be found (very generously free of charge) here. 

I had so much fun making the little stripey tufted mattress, and best of all it turned out to be just the right size for the tiny patchwork quilt!

In other news, mask-making continues to take up most of my spare time in the evenings after work, and often half the weekend too. It is a bit like having a second job, but I'm getting quicker and quicker all the time, and I like the fact that they're jolly as well as practical. I love the thought of all these cheerful, brightly coloured face coverings out and about in this strange new world we're living in. The picture below shows some of the recent batches (XXSCat dog not included).

My latest 'order' included a request from a little girl for a rainbow mask. So I'm going to be playing with fabric pens and crayons to create my own design, as I don't have any rainbow fabric in my stash, and my husband will kill me if I buy any more - even the best and kindest of men has his limits!

Finally, a bit of gratuitous natural beauty - trees at the park after all the recent rain - lush, green, and full of birdsong...

...and a gorgeous Red Admiral butterfly that came fluttering into the garden and had me positively racing to grab my camera!

...WOYWW - The One with the Edited Highlights

I'm bringing up the very rear of Julia's weekly workdesk tour with a workdesk photo from a couple of Wednesdays ago, which I didn't have time to upload on the day. Somehow, even though I'm working from home, I seem to have less time for blogging at the moment. I think it's because (unless it's the weekend) it's becoming harder and harder not to blur the boundaries between work life and home life. I'm starting my working day a little later than normal and finishing a little later too, because it's easier to get hold of the families I'm working with during that time-frame. So this is a bit of a cheat, but it was preferable to letting another week go by without posting anything.

I like this photo because it captures the absolute chaos that ensues when I get absorbed in a project! Paint, pencils, varnish, super-glue, twine, fabric, ribbons, lace and beads....   

...and another Sophie Tilley peg doll base kit comes to life! She is possibly a Maude or a Jane, I'm not sure which yet.

I'm still making masks for friends and family, but during a lull in the orders I spent a happy Saturday morning making a teeny tiny patchwork quilt for the mouse house out of the smallest leftover scraps. I do love life in miniature so!

From one tiny bed to another - the most exquisite bird's nest, cunningly crafted from woven stems and twigs, layered together with fibres and leaves and flower heads, and lined with the softest of dandelion seeds, feathers and down. It got blown out of a tree in my parents' garden during the windy weather, but no sign of eggs or nestlings thank goodness. How amazing to think that this beautiful object, barely bigger than a tennis ball, was constructed using only beaks and claws for tools!

... the 5-4-3-2-1 Coping Technique

I recently came across the '5-4-3-2-1 Coping Technique for Anxiety' (I think an ad popped up somewhere for someone selling charm bracelets that you could use as a reminder of the things on the list). It's basically a sensory awareness grounding exercise that can help to shift your focus to the 'here and now' and away from anxious thoughts. You do it by stopping to acknowledge...

• FIVE things you see around you.

• FOUR things you can touch around you. 

• THREE things you hear. 

• TWO things you can smell. 

• ONE thing you can taste.

I haven't yet remembered to use this in the moments when I'm feeling really panicky (usually after the weekly shopping trip or late at night after reading too many newspaper articles), but thought it might be fun to try and cement it into my brain in this catch-up post for April into May...

Five things I've seen:

A sea of bluebells in the woods during a sunny lunch-time walk.

Dandelion clocks in the front garden. I know this is a weed-fest waiting to happen, but they looked absolutely beautiful in that moment.

Like mother, like son - my eldest's cheerfully overgrown front garden when we dropped off some home-baked banana muffins and choc-chip cookies for him last week. I had a little cry in the car on the way home because I really wanted to hug him, but couldn't.

A perfect peaches and cream tulip in a flower-bed along the road.

The serendipitous juxtaposition of a pretty pansy amid the forget-me-nots that have self seeded into a big blue ceramic pot.

Four things I've touched:

Well, hand-made actually! A little felted dragonfly brooch for my sister's birthday.

Masks, masks, and more masks. For friends, family and colleagues. I made three for my sister's best friend, who does shelf-stacking in a supermarket and has been having panic attacks due to lack of PPE provision by his employer and the thoughtless behaviour of customers shoving past him. He's been wearing scarves tied round his face and feeling really self-conscious, so these washable cotton masks are a lot more practical and comfortable for him.  He sent me a text saying that they had made his life "a 100 times better" - which made me cry again.

A painted pebble (picked up from the beach at Seahouses, so extra special) with a portrait of the semi-tame blackbird - "Charlie" - who lives in my Mum and Dad's garden.

A denim feather brooch. Middle-of-the-night-Pinterest-browsing (also recommended for keeping anxious thoughts at bay) led me down the rabbit-hole of recycled denim - bags, rugs, aprons, pot-holders, storage baskets, tassels...and feathers...are among the many things you can make from a pair of worn out jeans. So top right below a photo of some of the feathers I made (including a tiny "budgie" feather from some spotted cotton - it works with any woven fabric)...and a couple of photos of the brooch I subsequently made after thinking, "Okay, so I've made some feathers, now what?" I whiled away several happy hours yesterday, and re-purposed at least 2 square inches of denim in the process. Waste not, want not!

Three things I've heard:

Birdsong - from dawn til dusk. Here are a couple of robins chirping and chatting over a bit of suet-cake in my Mum and Dad's garden...

...and here's Charlie and his mate gathering mealworms a little while later. Blackbirds are so expressive and melodic in their singing.

I've had this CD on non-stop repeat whilst I've been making and sewing in my craft-room. I really love everything I've ever heard by these silver-tongued sisters! 

I don't have a photo for it, but I've also been listening to the free-to-use version of Spotify (just so I don't wear out the First Aid Kit CD collection through over-use). I have a playlist of about 100 favourite songs which I shuffle-play through my phone - the intermittent ads don't bother me too much and it's nice to lose myself in a few "blasts from the past".

Two things I've smelled:

Both in bloom at the moment, and my favourite scents out of any/all perfumes - lilac and lily-of-the-valley. I don't like picking flowers, but I couldn't resist picking a couple of sprigs for this little bud vase on my workdesk. Absolutely heavenly.

One thing I've tasted:

(This could also count as a smell). My daughter's baking. Since we've been in lockdown she's been trying out a few different recipes (favourites being banana muffins and chocolate-chip cookies), so we now have a supply of home-baked treats available throughout the week. She has started keeping the cookie dough in the fridge and making batches of just three cookies at a time so that we can always enjoy them "fresh out of the oven" and yet still have a chance of fitting back into our non-lockdown clothes one day.

...WOYWW - The One With The Masks

Choosing photos for this blog post, I realise that time has gone all peculiar lately. There are moments of clarity and periods of productivity, but mostly it feels like the days are blurring and melting into one another - probably not helped by the fact that I'm literally living* in the big pair of dungarees I bought during an otherwise stressful and never-to-be-repeated shopping trip to Sainsburys two weekends ago. (*If I wash them towards the end of one day and hang them on the airer overnight they are dry enough to go back on the next, and they are so comfortable I don't want to wear anything else ever again! To be honest, what with the DIY hair-cutting and the perma-dungarees, it's looking increasingly unlikely that I will ever be able to integrate back into polite society when the Lockdown ends)

Tiptoeing in at the very tail end of Julia's weekly workdesk tour, the photo below shows the current state of mine. This is its daytime appearance during the working week when its companion desk is occupied by laptop, files, notebook, post-its and phones. But before examining the contents of the workdesk more closely, I do just need to capture a few of those moments of clarity and periods of productivity that have happened over the past few weeks.

The Easter weekend was spent in the garden, weeding and tidying, sifting through the compost heap and generally enjoying the great outdoors. Even though I could hardly move for arthritic stiffness by the end of each day, it felt lovely to be outside for hours and to doze on the settee in front of the telly in the evening. 

When I finally picked up my knitting needles again it was to finish the baby blanket for my friend. I was in such a hurry to get it in the post to her that I forgot to take a normal photo of it as a recognisable object, so these rather abstract shots taken while it was gently blocking on the bedroom floor will have to suffice! I didn't entirely like the way the random colour combinations played out, but it was bright and jolly and soft and squishy, which is all that really matters to a baby.

Felting is still very high on my agenda (evidenced by the blue foam felting block and the blue tin containing felting needles and a growing collection of other felting-related accoutrements on the left of the workdesk). It was one of my colleagues' birthday last weekend, so I spent a couple of evenings after work making a little forget-me-not brooch for her. Forget-me-nots are everywhere in the garden at the moment, and I'd been taking lots of photos of them, so it was fun to make a little "wool-painting" of them - plus it seemed rather apt now we're all working from home and only seeing each other over Skype.

Gratuitous photo of a speckled wood butterfly on a mint leaf...just because it's such a lovely thing. I literally dropped everything I was doing to get this picture!

...and finally, the reason why there is a sewing machine and thread and paperclips and pliers on the workdesk: Masks!

Last weekend my elderly (in their 80s) parents called by my garden gate on their way home from an illicit shopping expedition, my Dad in an ancient-looking medical mask and my mum with a scarf round her face. Despite my best efforts to convince them to stay at home and let me bring them whatever they need, they simply refuse to give in. So I decided to look for a face mask pattern I could use to make them something more substantial and safe to wear when they inevitably go out again. This is the one I settled on - the  "Better Fit Face Mask" by Pretty Handy Girl. 

After a lot of difficulties getting the printer to print the pattern at the right scale (fifteen-sixteenths of an inch square is NOT "as near as damnit" to an inch square - trust me, you do not want to discover this fact after sewing an entire mask that turns out to be two sizes too small) and extensive experimentation with nose piece materials (jumbo plastic-coated paper clip cut in half with ends bent over worked best for me) I managed to make several pretty and practical washable masks for my parents to use on their excursions.

As soon as my sister heard what I was doing she asked if I could make her one or two, and then her friend (who works in a supermarket and is terrified of being coughed and sneeezed on) asked if I could make him one too (I'm planning to make him several). Various friends have asked if they can have one,  and when my husband told his colleagues about them I got a couple more requests from them too! Luckily I already had quite a few fabric remnants I could use, and Aldi had some fun fat quarter bundles on sale at the weekend, so I've only had to buy paper clips, beads and elastic (to go over the ears). Given how difficult finding the latter has proved to be, I think elastic might possibly be the new loo roll -  everyone is getting into the DIY mask-making business!

Although they are not virus proof, and act more as a visual reminder to maintain social distancing, there is some evidence to suggest that close fitting fabric masks (these have three layers of fabric) can block at least some of the larger air-borne droplets created by coughs and sneezes. I'm enjoying helping friends/family (and anyone else who needs one) to feel a little bit safer.