Making, making, making…

samjane — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:14:01 +0000

I took a break after we did the I Heart Market in Durban last month, and then of course had to make like mad this week because the next market is suddenly upon us. We have a sweetie theme going this month, so I learned how to screenprint, printed some fabric and made these:

Screenprinted Sweethearts Totebag

Sweetheart Apron - for baking the sweetest cupcakes.

And then I’ve made a few dancing aprons. Black, some with detailing, some plain. I ran with 2 pockets only. They just don’t photograph that well so I only have a pic of the full length apron I’m calling Jumping Jellybeans. I used the Psychedelic Squares pattern from ‘A is for Apron’ – it’s a great classic apron style.

Jumping Jellybeans apron

And in between, I’ve been doing a little embroidery…

Vintage children's book illustration transferred to fabric using Dala Photo Transfer, with hand embroidery

Like a thought bubble, only embroidered...

A polite request

Let’s go dancing apron

samjane — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 10:28:41 +0000

A while back I made myself a dancing bag – a little bag on a belt to hold my money, keys and tequila while I’m dancing. It works well and I like it, but since aprons are so cool I decided to have a go at creating a dancing apron. I looked at various patterns for craft aprons (the pockets being very important, you see) and then created this little prototype. I’m rather pleased with it. You can’t see it in the pics but the smaller, right-hand pocket fits my hipflask just perfectly. The zipped middle pocket is for money, lipstick and Important Pieces of Paper. The slightly looser left-hand pocket is for gloves and things, since it’s winter in Durban now and my collection of vintage gloves is coming in very handy.

Dance apron prototype with cute red bow.

Sits fairly neatly on the hips. Gargh, I need to exercise more.

I Heart Market

samjane — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 07:20:07 +0000

This weekend we did our first market as a collective. My Little Bluebird + Jane the Clerk + Hot Buttered Toast = Kraftworks! The I Heart Market in Durban is a great little market held in an old church next to Beanbag Bohemia restaurant. It’s a lovely venue and a popular market, so it was a very social occasion for us. All our sweet friends came out to support us – special shout outs to Sarah for wearing that fabulous dress and Mike for the apple juice! We’ll be blogging our Kraftworks experiences in a new blog, though I’ll still be posting here for projects I do. I took some pics for the new blog, but I thought I’d share them here too, since it was an exciting occasion…

Setting up our stall.

All nicely laid out and signaged.

My Little Bluebird

Jane the Clerk

Jane the Clerk and Hot Buttered Toast

Red bags to match red aprons

samjane — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:15:55 +0000

I would like to introduce two new bags:

Nights At the Circus. She holds make-up, a tutu, a trapeze artist, several boxes of popcorn and a candy necklace.

Are We Having Fun Yet?: This bag is cheeky and friendly. She holds a red lipstick, an itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny bikini, a bottle of the best champagne and nights of wild dancing.

New Apron

samjane — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:24:09 +0000

Well, having broken the apron fear I have moved right on into serious apron love. I went off to the copy shop with A is for Apron and did some pattern enlargements. I decided to start out easy with the Psychedelic Squares apron. I have to say that even though the aprons in this book are really lovely, the instructions are not that clear. I got very confused by the instructions for this one, which should have been really straightforward. Maybe I’m just spoilt by Weekend Sewing and Bend the Rules Sewing, which lay out all the instructions so clearly with diagrams. I love diagrams. Anyway, after sewing the pocket on upside down first time around (not at all the book’s fault, purely mine for rushing to finish the apron before my class yesterday), I got it beautifully finished and I’m super-pleased with it. As an added bonus, I used a reversible shwe-shwe so my apron is reversible. Yay. On the downside, the reversible shwe-shwe is slightly stiff, even after washing. I’m hoping more of the starch will wash out with use. Pics once again courtesty of my seven-year-old daughter, who is loving being the official apron photographer.

Yes, I really like red aprons.

It's a little stiff but that kind of adds to the appeal.