The Sofia Coppola Collection - Lost in Translation

Yep, that's right. My week of sewing has been arranged into themese based on Sofia Coppola films. I don't actually love her films that much (Badly Coloured Boy does), but things did kind of fall neatly in categories.

Using Japanese (Echino) fabrics to make homewares, the Lost in Translation collection.

I really, really like this cushion. The colours look awesome against the couch. Obviously, it also uses my Kristen Doran fabric too. The back has two panels (lined in cream cotton) that overlap, through which the cushion insert can be stuffed/ removed. No sewn in insert for me!


Placemats out of Echino too, and backed with the olive floral sateen I made a dress out of a while ago. I only made two because eventually a table runner will take the place of these two placemats, and the placemats will sit on the other two edges of the table. I'm so-so with these. They were based on the Amy Butler In Stitches placemat pattern, and damn they are huge! Look at them! I would suggest shaving an inch or two off the finished measurements should anyone else want to try out this pattern.

Here is where I had to handsew part closed, because my dodgy topstitching didn't catch the backing.
To think they failed my ability to slipstitch in compulsory Year 8 Home Ec! (I also nearly failed cooking, because I burnt a beef burger which my vego cooking partner/ best friend refused to touch, and we both had tantrums about having to make devilled eggs (neither of us eat eggs and spent the class gagging over the whole ordeal. I have never cooked an egg before or since). Honestly, who eats devilled eggs these days? It's like the course wasn't revised since 1953. My friend did fail outright, because in the written exam she labelled a colander a 'lettuce drainer' and a ladle a 'soup sharer'). I wonder what Mrs Feathers would think of me now.


And, um, last up, here's my mushroom kit. It's such instant gratification compared to gardening. I've had this thing maybe two or three weeks. Look at all those edible funghi! The largest is about the size of a 10c/ 10p piece.

Still Life with Owl and Grafted Cable

Alright, it's a pretty lousy shot, but in my defence it's overcast outside and a single energy-saver bulb lights the living room. And I have a rent inspection in half an hour, so I wasn't going to get too creative.


Owl is my Owl from Sugarloop. Framed in a cheapy Ikea frame. He lives propped against the wall on top of Badly Coloured Boy's chest of drawers, because the hook I bought to hang him off is too big to shove through the little picture hook hole on the frame clip. It's an awful photo. I promise he's amazingly crisp and detailed in real life, and I am quite the Sugarloop addict now (as is my mum. Every time I speak to her she manages to bring up how great my print is. I see a Christmas present coming on...)

The fabrics are my newest echino fabrics from Duckcloth. The green dots will pair with the Kristen Doran or the Lara Cameron to make a cushion. The other will be used up in the Placemat Campaign. I really, really love the deep red on natural colourway. It's sort of crisp and retro and rich at the same time.

And you're also looking at a completed left front/ left sleeve for the cardigan. Right side up is the point at which I kitchener stitched the cable together, and the entire sleeve. It isn't perfect, and blocking will help, but I think I did a pretty good job. The whole sleeve had a provisional cast on, because I hate picking up stitches. The instructions called for a regular cast on, then you picked up some ninety odd stitches and kitchener'd them. Figured I'd skip the picking up bit.

There may well be silence blog-wise for a little bit. I'm on study break right now and, lo and behold, am actually studying. Turning off the router during business hours does wonders for my productivity.
Oh, and I'm on Ravelery now. Same username as ever. No pictures yet, as I don't actually have a Flickr account, and the thing is set up to take images from Flickr.

hip, hip hoo-duckcloth!

Three cheers for my new favourite online fabric store, Duckcloth! Not only do they stock Kristen Doran and a ginormous range of Echino but they have free shipping anywhere in Australia! Yeah, free*! And they’re sooo quick and helpful with the Queries and the Orders and the Customers and the Shipping! And you can get 20% off your order until the end of May if you visit MissyConfidential and find the promotional code! Stop looking at all my exclamation marks and go buy stuff already!

I was also told in response to some comments that I added to my order that they’ll be stocking a couple of other indie fabric designers in the near future, but it’s not very fair of me to say more before they do. You can sign up to their newsletter.

My good self got some Kristen Doran Botanical and Feathers to make a cushion cover for my nekkid cushion. In biscuit and red. But now I wants me some Mollybird print too.

* For the Perth girls who avoid a Certain Fabric Store, this free shipping means you can get the same products delivered right to your door at no extra cost! In fact, the Echino fabric is actually $2 less than That Certain Store charges (though though they don’t have fat quarters, admittedly).

stop that door!

echino fabric mark two:


a pyramid doorstop. i'd intended to put up a bit of a basic pattern and instructions, but getting the points to meet and the little grabby loop to fit in as well turned out to be astonishingly difficult. no instructions could adequately describe the sewing and ripping five times over that i suffered. for this:


(also proof that i made two endpaper mitts. bonus points if you spot the nekkid lady on my singlet before you read this sentence). the doorstop was based on one by Holly Daze, that i saw in a magazine. retailing at $29, and in limited edition hand screenprinted fabrics, i'd recommend a purchased one, if they're sold near you.

in other areas, i have nothing to knit. i'm waiting on yarn from the knithappens sale, i've decided my mystery project (a swing coat) is not really worth my time anymore. i've lost interest. i was thinking of using this up out of my stash: the mystical creations yarn i bought before christmas


silk/ wool blend, and so sticky i think frogging is not really an option. i have about 140 yards. and this yarn reminds me of the ocean. my ideas so far are a lacy capelety thing, a one skein wonder, or a wavy lace scarf... i'm rather leaning towards the cloud bolero... i wonder if a 34" bust could get away with 140 yards? any other suggestions?

i gots a bag!

ta-da!
all finished! i did get the extra fat quarter from C&I. They don't normally sell single fat quarters, but the lady felt sorry for me, so pulled the quarter i needed out of a pack. so or meshell or kita, can one of you make a point of buying the set of three fat quarters when you head down there for some echino goodness?

here's a picture of the other side (BCB still having problems with exposure times on the camera).


the straps are a dark denim-type fabric. they're the ties off a pair of pants i've had for years, and don't wear anymore because i don't like the ties. so i cut 'em off. they were covered in white topstitching which i had to unpick (and replaced with purple). it took a few hours to unpick it all, but, taking a metaphorical leaf out of ysolda's book i downloaded and listened to the first seven chapters of dickens' oliver twist.

it was such good fun. i enjoyed great expectations when i read it (for uni), but dickens works so much better aloud. which is how his work was intended to be enjoyed. his books were originally sold as serials, a chapter a week say, with the idea that everyone would gather round the family patriarch after dinner and listen to him read. in fact, its suggested that dickens didn't plan the entire plotline but rather made it up as he went along, deciding who lived and who died based on how popular certain characters were. just like a modern soapie. the convoluted sentence structure dickens uses is not so disorienting when heard, which means you 'get' the jokes more easily. i was laughing aloud. though, aloud you also notice the cheap sentimentality dickens employed more easily. i finally understand what my lecturers were on about. i wish i'd known about this site before i finished my arts degree.

most of the readers have strong american accents, but i got used to it. they were generally of very good quality. the only reader that took mildly irritating pauses and stumbled on the odd word also did the best character voices, so i forgave her.

the selection of stuff available is okay. i'd love to volunteer to read The Picture of Dorian Gray. or maybe get together with someone to do The Importance of Being Ernest. When i was sixteen i and a friend read Ernest entirely aloud in one go (assisted by a bottle of toffee flavoured liquer), splitting the cast between us on a haphazard basis, so it's certainly doable.

back to uni on monday though, so back to having no time at all.

oops.

i was cutting the fabric for my bag (1 and 3, incidentally, after much handwringing), and i cut the tree & bird panel on the left of design 1 rather off centre. it wasn't my fault. really. because when you turn it over, you can see the red tree print through the fabric, but not the paler, leafy outlined tree. so i cut centring the red tree. which means in order not to sew over parts of the leafy tree, i have a seam allowance of, oh... 2mm?
so i'm going to see if i can get another fat quarter of that print. stupidly expensive, but i figured i'd rather do that than have my fabulous bag bugging the hell out of me every time i used it.
plan b is just to lop half an inch off the bag width, so the bird and tree print is centred on a narrower-than-intended strip, with a little off the leafy tree lopped off, and the red tree butting up against the seam.

i'm also going to topstitch round every square i think. though i'm worried this will look too busy. i'm more worried the weight of my laptop will rip out the seams though.

a library bag

i've decided that's what my echino fabric will become. not tremendously exciting, but fact is i carry my laptop and papers to uni every day in a calico tote bag/ shopping bag (you know, two rectangles with handles). it is getting so gross and old it is actually worn and discoloured from where it rubs against my hip when i walk.

a swanky new version of the two-rectangles-with-handles is in order, i think. i've decided against a base and 'sides', unless someone can give me a compelling reason why i shouldn't just sew my two rectangles together. it will be lined with pale blue striped shirting fabric.

now, here's where you all come in. i can't decided what patchwork design i like. the front and the back can be different, but here's the options i've narrowed it down to.






i think i like the first, fourth and fifth best. which do you like?