Time travel

So, I thought I'd written a good long post last night about some of the things I made for Christmas. Except then it vanished. There's a lot to this whole blogging thing I don't get: inserting html; remembering to give credit where it's due; formatting text around my pictures. All this I can deal with. But when I write a post on February 2nd, and it gets published on December 5th - of a whole previous year - that phases me a bit.

If you want to check out what every one got for Christmas, scroll down. If you know how to do anything about my little time travel problem, let me know.

Christmas gifting

Gosh, I was such a busy bunny before Christmas, I was too busy making stuff to blog about it. Also, there's always the possibility that someone for whom a gift was intended might read. A slim possibility, it must be said, but one nevertheless.

So having decided not to make Christmas cards, I saw some old sheet music in a charity shop, and was inspired. I also used it to wrap presents, which looked lovely.

I had a good rummage through the pile at the shop, selecting the oldest, largest folios and those that were stapled rather than glued

in the centre. The lady, obviously differently discerning to me, looked over them, and said 'what an interesting selection of music'. I was flattered that she thought I'd chosen it to play, but she was delighted when I told her why I'd bought it.

I also covered a couple of boxes with music to give as gift boxes.

And here is the jacket I made earlier, all finished with button and pockets.

And here is two batches of aprons I made for all my kids' friends. Inevitably, I got the idea online, but can't remember where. All you do is cut the corners off a tea towel, and sew bias tape round, leaving good long tails to tie behind the bag and making a loop to go over the child's head. I also used bondaweb to iron on monograms and little motifs (stars and flowers mostly). They met all the prerequisites I have for bulk gifting: low unit cost, lost time cost, highly personalisable, appropriate for girls and boys of different ages. And they were sweet! I used really cheapy tea towels, but you could really get carried away with some of the beautiful ones you get in craft type shops. Or kitsch ones from a charity / souvenir shop.

I used this excellent tutorial for making bias tape, and now I'm obsessed with it. Expect more bias tape related creations soon!

It seems wierd blogging about Christmas decs too, but I was proud of my angels, one a cut out from the Guardian, the other Heston Blumenthal from the Observer. There's a possibility that he's actually a god, not an angel, but he was good on the tree. The funny cone things were pseudo Christmas trees for on top of the piano. Actually, they're still there.

And finally...

hot water bottle covers for the boys. It's snowing today, and they both sat huddled on the sofa with their hotties, under an ancient blanket. They were so snug! They're just felted jumpers cut up and stitched together. The sleeves make the neck, and I used the waist band for the opening on one side. Dead easy. Just don't tell them that.

Is there anybody out there?

Hello world. Before Christmas, I was so busy organising Christmas and making things that I had no time to blog. Then I had a row with my supervisor, and was in a pit of soul destroying existential despair (is there any other kind?)

Since Christmas, I've had my second year report to write, which I'm not going to describe because this isn't a 'doing a Phd blog', but which has been rather time consuming. However, I just (nearly) got it done. First draft anyhow.

I've also taken up running again (big time!) which I'm also not going to talk about, because this isn't a running blog either.

And now Mr Kinkatink's away, leaving me and the boys to ourselves, with not much time for running. So, over the next few days, I'm going to try to reacquaint myself with my blog.

Just so you're warned - there's a lot of backdating to get through!

Lisa, don't read this post

You never know who might be out there. Anyway, this is my version of the Ubiquitous Cardigan Refashion . There's ooh at least a zillion out there, but none of them (as far as I know) are for Lisa's daughter, shortly to turn two.

I grabbed this jumper at a clothes swap. It's lovely wool, but was a bit misshapen and had holes in the elbows. No one else wanted it (well, why would they?) and it didn't really even seem charity shop - fit.

But I could see the potential! So I shrank it. And then I cut the sleeves shorter. And then I cut it open up the front. Oh look, did I mention it's DKNY?

Using the sections I cut from the end of the arms, I made two little elbow patches and some pocket shapes.

I have a whole world of ribbons, some left over from my wedding (five years ago), others from whenever I can grab them. I tend to leave other people's weddings with all the ribbons from their gifts too. I have no shame.

So, I went through my ribbons looking for something perfect. I was close with a dark pink, but it was quite narrow, and I couldn't find a good coordinating button, so the lilac came out on top. I think it would be quite self defeating to go out and buy lots of new notions for a refashioning exercise (not that that would stop me), so it was good to just go with cupboard staples.

The jumper felted up so well there was no need to hem anything, so I just sewed the ribbon over the tops of the pockets, and round the edge of the jacket.

I'm not sure what made it go a bit ruffly, but it's a lovely effect, so let's call it serendipity. I made some little flowers out of another felted jumper - a cashmere one of my dad's no less, and sewed on a button, button loop (out of some silver ribbon) and the pockets. I won't put a picture of the whole thing up until it gets there though.

Something for me

So I decided to make something for me. I don't often do it, mostly because I had a formative experience at a Get Knitted sale when they were still in a warehouse and only opened once a month. There were a lot of women there who had really got quite carried away with the home made thing and who were firmly of the opinion that really more was more.

Anyway, I was in Ikea and saw beautiful upholstery material and thought 'I know, I want to look like a sofa'. So I made a skirt out of it. I bought a whole metre, which was, I think, £2.99. It was more than I needed for the skirt, because it was quite wide, but I wanted to make sure that I could get the bird pattern going across nicely.


Once again, I drew round something I already owned. Unfortunately, I hadn't worn the skirt for a while, so I hadn't realised how much weight I'd put on, and how small it would be. I really do look like a sofa, when an armchair would be so much preferable.


Don't ask how I put the zip in. I think I called upon dark forces to cobble it together. And then I had to use a hook and eye so it didn't undo. But this only occurred to me after it had already undone a number of times.


This is the back. I even sewed vents and things in so it fits nicely over my bottom.

And because the bird is a bit high up on the front, I kind of have to tuck my jumper in. But I am SO pleased with it - it gets lots of comments, so I must have done something right. Mostly, I think, pick good material.

Only problem is, I didn't think about the fact that things are backwards when they're inside out, so the zip's on the wrong side.

And then, not content to rest on my laurels, I made a dress for my friend's little girl. I used an old pattern I've made lots of times before, but I can't remember what sort it is. I kind of adapted it - like by scaling it up to fit a two year old, and using two sorts of fabric. I wonder how the intellectual property works with that?

As ever, I forgot to take photos as I went along, although to be honest, I also forgot how to make it as I went along, and ended up unpicking it about 6 times.

You can't really tell from this, but it's kind of latte coloured corduroy, lined with African print cotton from Brixton market. I just tried to link to Brixton market, but it doesn't have a website. Someone needs to get onto that please.

I've made this dress a few times like this, and it works really well. Because you have to line it, I thought it would be really bulky with two layers of cord. But one is fine. And it stops your child looking too much like a geographer if it's not too cordy.

And because presentation is 90% of the battle (clearly, military strategists might disagree with me on that, but on the present front, I'm willing to stand my ground), I put it in a little bag and did it up with the same button. You're never too young to accessorise.

When Child A was little, a friend of mine used to look after him for me, when I went back to work. She had a little girl the same age, and when he, inevitably, had accidents, she would dress him in her clothes. I remember him being a vision in pink velour dungarees, and demanding his hair be put in bunches. When I tried to get Child C, who is the same size as the intended recipient of the dress, to try it on, he got really distressed, and tore it off. And it's not even pink. It's amazing how different two little boys can be...

Haven't I been busy

Right, so, lordy knows what I've been doing for the last however long.

Some of it has involved work. I think half term might have come in there somewhere. I went to a conference at Fire Service College so was away for the best part of a week with a pool, running, bar and an awful lot of carbohydrates. They do like carbs those fire fighters. I except the boys were ill.

However, I have also been doing lots of SEWING. I am very excited about sewing at the moment - it's so much quicker than knitting! It's the perfect instant gratification craft, and the longer the Phd drags on for, the more instant I like my gratification to be.

So, I've made some good kids' stuff, for mine and for other kids.

Child C is potty training at the moment, and every time we change him, he demands red trousers "my wear red trousers now mummy / daddy / insert name of temporary carer". He doesn't have red trousers. I did try and find him some, and got quite close in H&M. But they had hearts on them, and appeared to be bootleg. He's not that in touch with his feminine side so they weren't really an option. I had to make some.

Needless to say, there weren't any decent patterns for little boys trousers either, so I was forced I tell you to resort to the tried and tested 'drawing around a garment that fits' technique.

I think it worked - this is how I did it:

First, I drew round some trousers onto the wrong side of some red corduroy with nothing less than the sort of chalk you do pavement art with. Sorry, in my boys case, pavement 'art'.

F is front, B is back. the regular rectangle is for the waistband and the funny shape for the pocket.

At this point, I will warn you not to economise on fabric by folding it a different way - my nap runs in a different direction on each leg, giving a pleasingly harlequin type effect.

And why thank you, it is a nice rug isn't it. It's Iraqi, but we got it in Jordan quite a long time ago.

Then I ironed all the hems into the waistband and pockets. This is easier than pinning, and also I don't like people to think I can't iron, it's just I can't see the point except for sewing.

And then I sewed it all together. And in my haste for instant gratification (it's a drug you know) I forgot to take any pictures until they were done. But basically, I sewed the pockets on to the front, then sewed the legs together like in the dragon suit. Then I cocked about with the waist band because I didn't know how to do it. I'm not sure I did it correctly, but they stay up, aren't too bulky and were a whole new voyage into half elasticated waistbands.

See what I mean about the harlequin effect?

Enter the Dragon: Part II

So, as promised, here is the top bit of dragon suit. Or Doot as it's known in the Kinkatink household.


Find an appropriate garment to draw around (like a hoody). I only drew it onto newspaper because I thought I didn't have enough fleece left and so spent ages working out the optimum arrangement. As it happened, I didn't have enough fleece left, so I had to go back to Ikea and get another bit, so I could have just drawn straight round the fleece. Doh.





If you're sewing spikes in, you have to remember to sew it up in a funny order, and to cut the back piece in half (allowing a little bit for seams as well).

The order I did was:

• Shoulder seams
  Arms on
• Hood pieces on
• Spikes in and under arm seam together
• Spikes running up the back

• Then I thought it was missing something, so I sewed a 'tummy' on. This has brought great critical acclaim from Child B, who rubs it convincingly, going 'Yummy dragon tummy' like he's just eaten something particularly delicious.


• It also looked a bit raw at the front, so I sewed a bias type tape of the orange fleece around the hood. If you wanted to be a bit less full on, using the main colour would work well too - although with fancy dress, I would err on the side of 'more is more'. It does have a bit of an 'Oh my god they killed Kenny' look about it now, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.
• 
  
  Here is the dragon in action. Being a creature of mythical power, he's rather hard to catch on camera. At least that's my excuse for the poor picture. Below he has been subdued by his fearful adversary Brave Sir Dander. Or Siddhartha as a friend of a friend thought he was called.
  

All in all, these two costumes were probably three evenings work - less if I hadn't had to keep remeasuring and had just gone and got a second bit of material. Child B loves his so much he sleeps in it, and Child A, although less effusive, seems fairly chuffed with his too. Time well spent.