Sewing serendipity and a giveaway

Talk about fate...

I have been reading Lazy Daisy Jones’ Sew-a-Long posts with interest and admiration. I would love to sew my own clothes; the skirts she has been making are simply fab.

When I was younger and single, my grandma made me loads of clothes...skirts, dresses, all beautifully tailored just for me in the fabrics of my choosing. Then I moved far away, was married, and it just wasn’t so easy to pop over to have a dress fitted.

I sewed a teensy bit with grandma when I was a little girl, a few basic techniques were learned in Home Economics class as a teen, then I pushed all the knowledge to the back of my mind. I figured I’d re-learn when I had a granddaughter who needed a skirt hemmed. Little did I realise that as an adult I would develop this love of craft and creativity, and seeing others around me making lovely garments has left me searching the outer reaches of my brain to find those long-lost skills.

But still I don’t feel confident enough to join Daisy’s sew-a-long. Someone obviously feels differently...

This arrived in the post three days ago. See the name scribbled on the front?

My grandma is enjoying the Mand-A-Long that I'm hosting with Daisy, and in her browsing she clicked over to Daisy’s blog (she is the tech-savviest 89-year-old around!). When she saw the sew-a-long pattern, she went rummaging around her pattern drawer and found the very same one!

Unbeknownst to me, at least four of the skirts in my wardrobe were made by Grandma using this pattern! A long black skirt for choir concerts, a suede-y camel basic skirt, a casual denim, and a fun cherry print I chose when Bunny was small.

Grandma sees no reason why I can’t join the sewing party, because she’s already done the tricky work of cutting the pattern to my size. How can I argue? Serendipity has given me the opportunity to make a new skirt. So it is with a bit of trepidation that I join the sew-a-long, but I’m going to Skype my grandma when I hit the tricky bits. And now I get to buy some new pretty fabric!

In other sewing news, a short while back I mentioned a new stitching project:

I have made a WIP bag

Large enough to store a current work-in-progress

I’m quite pleased with how this turned out, I made it up myself, you see...and I’d like to give it to you!

To celebrate my one-year blogiversary, I’m giving away this WIP bag to a lucky reader. I enjoyed making it so much, I’m going to make more; I have more pink fabrics, I'd like some violet shades, and I’m playing around with combinations of blue...

So to enter, please leave a comment below, and tell me which colour combo you prefer, pink or blue!

Entries will close on Saturday, 12 April, at midday, and the winner will be announced after. I am so grateful for all the comments and support I’ve received from all of you during my first year of blogging, I want to give something back!

Now I must get out the skirt pattern and start figuring out how to make a garment...

Happy crafting!

Chrissie x

Mand-a-long update!

Hello to you all and a very happy welcome to my newest followers. Before I dive into mand-a-long madness, let me say a big “thank you!” to all of you who commented on my blogiversary post and my April Fool’s post. Bunny was extremely surprised by her crocheted lunch, the teaching staff had a good giggle, and apparently I’m an “EPIC” mother!!! Her friends thought it was a very cool prank and she was chuffed to bits! (I’m enjoying this while I can, I know in a few years’ time I will be decidedly un-cool and definitely un-epic...)

Now on to the topic of the moment: mandalas! How is your little pretty project coming along?

I just finished one in soft, chalky pastels, which I find rather pleasing on the eye at the moment. I will want to do a darker version, and a brighter mandala; I even want to make a rainbow one for Little Flower, but for now, quiet colours suit me.

What yarn are you using? So many cotton yarns to choose from, which is your favourite?

The centre blues, the white and the peachy pink shades in my mandala are Rico Baby Cotton DK, which I bought on sale at a local yarn shop. It is lovely and soft and doesn’t split at all. The soft taupe colour is King Cole Bamboo Cotton DK, and I must say it is the dreamiest cotton yarn I’ve worked with – it glides so smoothly on the hook, it is soft, and it comes in dozens of shades. I want more more more!

The grey is Drops Paris, cheap n’ cheerful, but it is very splitty. I’m not sure I will buy more of this once my stash of colours has run out, but it serves its purpose and comes in a good range of shades.

A great friend and member of my craft group made the mandala pictured above, the same pattern I used in this post. She had no intention of starting one, but at our crafty get-together last week, she was looking at the pattern, then she started checking out my yarn colours, so being the gracious hostess I am, I offered her a hook. Less than an hour later she was halfway through the mandala and left with yarn in her bag! She took this photo to share, and I see more mandalas in her future. I warned her that they are addictive!

But my friend nearly didn’t begin the mandala because the pattern started with a magic ring, which can be intimidating/infuriating/impossible for many people to crochet. So I simply suggested she doesn’t do one, but crochet the standard 4ch, ss ring. It worked perfectly!

I made two rings here, one is a magic ring, one is a 4ch ring. Not much of a difference when you crochet more than a dozen stitches into the ring. I’m not even going to tell you which is which, because it doesn’t matter. What I will tell you is that you can alter a pattern to suit your needs. If you don’t like magic rings, don’t bother! You aren’t making a toy that needs to have sealed ends to hold in stuffing. Adapt a pattern to what makes you happy, whether it be colours, patterns or techniques.

One final note, I’ve created a Facebook page for Chrissie Crafts, please check out the sidebar and give it a click!

Please link up your mandalas below and share your tips and favourites!

Chrissie x

An InLinkz Link-up

April Fool!

Bunny’s typical lunch for school:

Bunny’s lunch today:

I even included a crochet chocolate chip cookie:

Because that’s the kind of mom I am!

*For those concerned, Bunny’s teacher had her “real” lunch tucked away; I made sure that, following a sufficient period of bewilderment, merriment and mild embarrassment, Bunny would receive it! 

Are you fooling anyone today?

Chrissie x