what's in the making

First something that I managed somehow to make last month, with Maxime in his bouncinette. He was fine as long as I sung the whole entire time...! I had to scrape my brain for kids songs that I didn't even know I knew!!
A tag blanket and Maxime's best friend Jeannot Lapin :)

I picked the craft fabric with him. He giggled when I showed it to him, so that was that. I backed it with some lovely soft red flannel. (As you can see it has been well used already. Sorry for the bad photo, but there is no way I was going to wash it, iron it, make the photo... and I mean, iron it??)



And here is a sneak peak at what I am working on at the moment...


A bag... I'm stalling on the handles so during the meantime;


I'm playing with some old battered story books. Quick craft, easy stress relief for late night teething :)


J'ai fait cette petite couverture pour Maxime le mois dernier. Il etait content a condition que je lui chante toutes les chansons de mon repertoire pendant que je cousait! Pas question d'arreter!
En ce moment je coud un nouveau sac, mais je bloque sur les anses donc en attendant que l'inspiration ne me vienne, je m'amuse avec de vieux livres d'enfant (parfait pour les soires ou Maxime fait ses dents, ca aide a passer le stress!)

Making

Back to my blog!
I have been wanting to and planning to do so for a while now.
It feels like I am starting over completely after being away for more than a year!
Time went by so quickly, I have been making yes, but not that kind of making :)




Maxime is now almost 5 months old and he is keeping us busy, awake, on our toes, walking up and down hills, and rocking for hours... aaaah the joys of parenthood!
He is amazing and surprises us everyday (and he has the yummiest little toes, hehe!!)
He has already been quite inspiring for my craft, though my ideas seem to be more functional with him around! I have been working on a pattern for some trousers, getting ideas for toys...

While I was away from this space, I still managed to create and craft here and there.
Just after my babe was born, a craft shop opened up down the road, and the owner was looking for crafts to expose in her shop so that helped me get myself motivated again to get back into having that little time dedicated to creating.
I supply her with hairclips like these:







See, I have loads of hair, and was really bored of the hairclips I could find in shops. I also found making my own a really good stress release after a long day hehe!! I made some for myself first, then for friends. I am working on making them available on etsy and felt as well soon. Well, hopefully soon...

I also supply the shop with embroidered felted scarves and bags similar to these and these.
I have plenty more that I would like to post but no photos at present. I have to find a moment when it's daytime and the little one is willing to sleep for long enough that I can get to my camera!!



Retour a mon blog.
Maxime a deja presque 5 mois!
Je continue a fabriquer autant que possible.
J'ai commence a vendre mes barettes, echarpes et sacs a une boutique du coin. Cela me motive.
Il ya beaucoup d'autre choses que je voudrais montrer mais il faut que je prenne des photos et pour cela il faut que je trouve un moment quand il fait jour ou le petit veut bien dormir assez longtemps!

Slow Crafter

Today was a day off for me, and it was deserved indeed as I have been working very hard over the last few months.
Time has flown by, and I now find myself preparing in my head for spring already. Where has winter gone? I do vaguely remember some very cold days, driving my car to and from work in the snow, but the weather of this last week has been so beautiful, it's hard not to think about spring things... Like lighter clothes to be made, walks around the hills, a holiday maybe, and growing some veggies...

That last one has been in the back of my head quite a bit lately. With the cost of living going up so much, and with the impression of having been on a cabbage-carrot-onion-pumpkin-potato diet, we both got up on Sunday with loads of energy for gardening (a very rare thing for us).
Of course it's too early, so we just started to make A space to where will be our veggie garden. So far, it looks like a very promising black patch at the far end of our garden!

And since winter is not really finished, I had to make up this little dress. Actually, as you can see the wool and craft cotton used were chosen in Autumn, and it took me over two months to complete it! Oh dear! Quite a nightmare actually. The arms were somehow to tight (like if it was made for an 8 year old tight?? stupid pattern!) so they had to be undone, and a bit added so I could fit my apparently very fat arms through...grrr...
This is a build by wendy pattern . I had already done the short sleeve dress without any problems, but these 3/4 sleeves are to watch for.




And a close up on the pocket. I really love that fabric.




And today I found this...



I have been wanting one of these for ages. The picture is not too good because it was already getting dark when I took this snapshot. It's one of these very old sewing box that open in accordeon and can also be wheeled around. It's so cute and also very practical. It is missing a couple of screws and being very ambitious I am also thinking of sanding it down. But go and tell that to the old chair I'm sitting on: I sanded ONE of its leg 3 years ago...

I guess I could say I'm a slow crafter - with maybe a sprinkle of procrastination ;)

winter work

Yay, finally I manage to put some time aside to post!
Since we have moved into our new house, I have had plenty of distractions.
Starting with some work on the house, and, a bit more interesting, this little one....




How cute is she?? She is about 4 months old now and into everything, as kittens are.
My sewing room has never been that tidy. I'm so scared she's going to sneak through the door and play with pins!
Every now and then, no matter how carefull I may be, I find tiny scraps of fabric in strange places... I guess it reminds me to keep sewing though ;)





Wool is my obsession right now. Not just any wool, but felted wool, blanket wool...
A few weekends ago I made this little bag. It has turned out quite cute, I love the mix of wool and linen. That piece of linen was an old tablecloth that I got from a second hand shop. It has some stains but still heaps to use. On the side it said 100% linen, screen printed in Belgium. I love every bit of it.





And another scarf. I am liking playing with felted wool, and embellishing it. This one I've kept really simple and made a brooch with yoyo to close it. I've got another one in mind which will be embroidered.




So I'm busy, but still seem to find a bit of time for crafting, and very gratefull for it.

House! (continued...)

Well that's it, we're all moved in to our new house and loving it!
It's been a pretty full month, we had a holiday that had been planned about 6 months ago, so we were away for a week just before moving!! Crazy I say! So I have been doing quite a bit of sleep walking at work in the last few weeks and just starting to feel normal again.


Not much crafting has been done lately, though I saved some pictures from before our move...
This little bag was for a friends birthday.




The material is a recycled sheet that I got at some thrift store not long ago and really love. The pattern is quite crazy for a sheet, very retro, the colours are not too agressive though so I thought a bit of crazy but toned down by some blues and greys wasn't a bad mix!



And this next one comes with a story. Back in February, I sent a parcel to my mum, full of goodies.
Before I sent it I took some pictures of this scarf I made for her. The parcel was supposed to take 10 days to get to France and took 6 weeks!! I was so sad and sorry, thinking that all my work had been lost, but no, one day, I got an email saying it finally arrived!!




It is made of felt wool. I was quite happy with the embroideries as I haven't done much of this at all. I really enjoyed doing it and I'm looking forward to doing more embroidery in the future.




My sewing room is not sorted yet. I have scored a nice room, with a view on the water, but I'm still organising it. Since there is only one power plug in a very strange place near the door, I need to do some thinking on how I'm going to plug in my machine. I'm off to do this now...

House!

First day of March already! I can't believe how quickly February went for us.

We just paid a deposit on our house yesterday, yay, it's official!
So I think I'm happy, though it hasn't sunk in yet. I think I'm one of these people who will stop stressing once I'm sitting in my couch in my new house.
Well, another month to go!

I haven't done too much crafting lately as on top of the house business, work has been very busy and I have been doing pretty long hours.
But while I needed something brainless to do I came up with this:

It's a scarf that I am knitting with circular needles. The idea is to use remnant fabric, ribbons etc, as well as diferent wools to mix the textures. I had some scrap fabric that I made into skinny long strips and knitted in.
Not sure how it is going to turn up, but really enjoying the simple garter stich and changing color randomly.

I think my next project might be a top. My clothes are starting to look all old and boring to me, but I am not really in a spending mode since we just emptied our bank accounts into the house! Ha! It's a good excuse to make myself something... Hopefully I will post on that soon.

Rain and Inspiration

We have been house hunting lately, and have had two very busy and quite stressfull weeks, as we just put an offer on a house (first one!). We have another week before we know for sure if we are getting it or not.
All this being busy and preoccupied doesn't leave much space in my poor little brain for crafting! I find that I would love to make something, because it would take my mind of things, but I am mentally too tired and have given up a few projects half way through in the last few days. Oh well, I think it's like that, it won't last.
Saturday was a very quiet, lovely day. The rain didn't stop pouring, the streets were under water, and the wind was blowing so hard that the roof seemed ready to fly off. So a good day for a trip to the library to have a nice hot coffee and flick through magazines.
I was very lucky to find some really good books too, so I spent the rest of the afternoon dreamily paging through them. Mmmm, I've got loads of ideas in my head to put into practice once I'm back to a normal pace!
First I found Stiches, which I really recommend, just to flick through. It's amazing to see what some designers are up to, what techniques they have come up with....
Melissa from Tiny Happy wrote a post the other day, where she mentionned Lotta Jandsotter, so I was very surprised and happy to find Lotta's book and to take it home with me for a good look.

I love everything about that book, the simplicity of the designs, the fabrics she uses...




And last a cute little fellow that I would soooo like to make. Just for myself (yes I can be a bit of a kid sometimes... )




He is from this book:

Happy reading...