A crochet rug

This week I finished a crochet rug that I had been mucking about with for a while.
Its made from Zpaghetti yarn, which is kind of like tee shirt yarn.  I got the yarn early last year because it was on sale and after having had a bit of a play I put it away feeling very uninspired. 

Since I've had time to have a good look on pintrest well....

I quite  like how it's turned out :-)

My first non granny square blanket

I found this pattern in an Inside Crochet mag, and it looked so pretty I decided to give it a go.
Normally I am put off by lots and lots and lots of motifs joined together, it all seems too hard and fiddly. I am glad I kept at it, so happy with the result, and I am unashamedly totally proud of myself for finishing it.
My mum bought me a great basket which sits next to my chair in the lounge, and leaving all the yarn and the blanket bits in it made a big difference to my motivation, it was harder to put away than a wee canvas bag :-) I had three other other projects on the go to which also helped me not to get bored:-D

Back to blogging!

I am inbetween jobs at the moment, so I have no excuse not to post about all the crafting I've been doing to  fill in the 'when I'm not job hunting' time.

Rather than tell you all about everything all at once I thought I'd stretch it out a bit.

Todays pics are fowers made from egg cartons which I think turned out alot better than I thought they would.

I got the instructions from watching a few different YouTube videos.

Cushion cover and a Cosy

These are my creations from this weekend.

I had promised a couple of cushion covers to a lovely lady before Christmas so I thought it was time to get my A into G and get started. One is going to be a hexagon motif and the other a granny square one.  Should have them ready to pop in the post next week :-)

And for a break in between motif crocheting (cos I just have to have more than one thing on the go) I replaced my tablet cosy after if went missing a couple of weeks ago whilst I was zipping up and down the country.

And I  sewing news..... I did something to the machine so its been at the shop for a couple of weeks. (So you can guess it wasn't a good 'something') and I'm just waiting for another Cake pattern for a skirt and wraparound cardi.   Cool!

I Made A Frock!!

Totally amazing, well done me :-)
Might have noticed I'm feeling a bit chuffed with myself.
I won't tell you it was easy, and I can't pretend its been done correctly,  the facts are though, that it looks like a frock and almost fits right :-D

Sewing Cake.com had great tutorials. The hardest bit was the edging around the neck, probably not helped because I'd cut it out the wrong way around, which I could have fixed, except I'd sewn the blumin thing on about 5 times because my thread kept breaking (I also learnt there is a right and a wrong way to change a needle)

So I think this was my prototype. The material was $4 a metre so I'm quite happy for this to be a wear around the house frock.  I will take what I've learned and make one that can be worn out in public with pride.

Also, next time I won't choose a rib, it was so hard to cut out and it wriggled constantly when I was sewing.

Now back to the crochet.....

Sewing Adventures in a Cyclone

Eager to begin my Tiramisu frock, I braved the beginning of Cyclone Lusi and took myself off to Otara and The Best Fabric Outlet Shop in Auckland

Fantastically helpful.  The chap there let me know if the material I had chosen was one that the pattern recommended and also helped me to pick the right interfacing, (which I learnt had to be stretchy to match the fabric).

Feeling comfortable with his acceptance of my ignorance I even asked him to show me what the selvage was, and he didn't bat an eyelid at how little I knew. 

His disclaimer for helping me so much: If it didn't work out right don't blame the guy at the fabric shop!  I assured him that if it didn't work out right it'd be the sewing machines fault, so that's fine.

I might try cutting it out tomorrow......

Scary Sewing Stuf...... dum de dum dum duuuum

Kat over at  Modern Vintage Cupcakes and I run into each other in Wellington occasionally.

I adore her sewing. Good grief this woman whips up a frock in a matter of minutes I swear!

I have admired one of her frocks in particular and after double checking with her, she is certain I can master it. Yes, I was very honest with my sewing machine exploits, still, Kat encourages me.So in the mail today was this:

Now to shop for material :-)