Friday, November 30, 2007

Reluctantly acknowledging Christmas

I was looking for some easy crafting satisfaction a couple of nights ago, at which point I remembered something I had told myself I would definitely, absolutely do this year.



A giant hankie for everyone in my family! Ha! No, not really.



It's a furoshiki. I don't want to sound Japan-obsessed, but it's a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth. I first read about them on a blog a couple of years ago, so apologies if you've seen them before.

I think they're a lovely way of avoiding using wrapping paper while simultaneously ridding yourself of quantities of fabric you don't know what to do with and don't like so much anymore. That said, I do like the fabric I used for this one, from Rowan, bought at a Liberty sale.



I made it 27"x27", sort of. It's a bit wonky because I wasn't too precise in my measuring or sewing, but that doesn't make much difference to the wrapping. They traditionally come in two sizes, but I think you could make them any size you wanted.



You can see some of the different ways of folding them here, which would also make a lovely poster, I think.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Cheer yourself up with chiri-men!

I posted ages ago about the Chiri-men Craft Museum in Kyoto. I couldn't find the website for it then, but have finally stumbled upon it.



These are the hanging mobiles I fell in love with, but in a fit of misguided restraint, decided not to buy. Each of the strands is a string of little animals and shapes made of chiri-men silk - a traditional fabric to Kyoto, which is textured like crepe. I think they are for babies, but I'm not sure.

You can explore the website to see what else they do, but I was particularly taken by this autumnal scene with the king of the cute fall animals, the squirrel.



I'm not a huge fan of seasonal decorations, but this is irresistible, and I am excited to see what they have for Christmas.

There are lots of pictures of chiri-men objects from the store on flickr, here. A lot of Japanese "cute" stuff feels a bit old these days, but I can't get enough of these.

In other excited news, I have the day off work and the baby's at the childminder's, so I plan to spend the day planning what crafting to do next. I might even post twice in one day...

Monday, November 12, 2007



I recently made this hat, from Amy Karol's Bend-The-Rules Sewing. I had a purple sweater, which I had felted, neatly folded away, and it was perfect for the job - and matches the hat in the book.

The pattern calls for a flower embellishment made out of felt, but I opted instead for a fabric flower with a pair of green buttons in the middle.

As for the finished item... it's lovely, but I'm having trouble convincing Moot that it's suitable as a piece of clothing. To get these pictures, I had to let her play in spice drawer in the kitchen.



Two seconds later, the hat was on the floor.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Music to work to

Am I the last one to have heard of Alela Diane or am I ahead of the crowd? Not sure about the video, but it's a fantastic song.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Omigod I'm blogging!


While I have maintained radio silence for a very long time, I have not been idle.

The most recent bit of crafting has been a top for Moot, pattern L from this book. It's too big for now, but should be just fine by the spring. I think I copied the pattern slightly wrong, but managed to make something presentable after


The fabric and Nani Iro bias tape are my only-ever superbuzzy purchases. The heart button, which is sewed wrong-side up, was a gift from my mother but has a check pattern on the right side.

The crochet cherries come from Le Bon Marche in Paris, which has a branch of La Droguerie on the top floor.

La Droguerie operates a mind-bogglingly ancient style of customer service, whereby you write your name down in a book, and when the mood takes her, a shop assistant will call your name (always prefixed with Madame) and then stroppily take you round the shop, putting what you want in a tray - no touching! - wrapping it up and then passing it on to another grumpy woman who then tells you how much you have to pay. It's too Parisian for words. I dared to ask whether they had safety pins with a rounded end, and I was left in no doubt that it was the stupidest question I could have ever asked.

On the plus side, La Droguerie have nice buttons, four of which were used to perk up this cardigan I found in a charity shop for 50P, discarded because it had been shrunk and felted in the wash. It fits Moot perfectly.





And I got to scan their Citronille catalogue. I saw a book in a Fnac which has Citronille patterns, but I was too well behaved to use a nail to slit open the plastic wrapping and peek inside.

It's 8.54pm, the dishes haven't been done and I haven't had dinner, so I will leave for next time the story of the amazing bag of patterns I found on the street...

Monday, November 05, 2007

for anne

Apologies if you did not grow up in North America.

The Yip-yips:



My personal favourite:



Pictures of some proper crafting soon.