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.

Complex Cable Surgery

I realised yesterday that I'd crossed a cable the wrong way about four rows back. To rip back four rows would mean ripping out my 92 stitch sleeve. Wasn't going to happen. So I dropped back just the stitches involved to fix them. I do this quite a bit in lace and knit/ purl patterns, but I'd never done it in cables before. And while there's plenty of great advice about fixing cables by dropping back the stitches (or cutting and kitchener stitching, or overstitching), the illustrations only ever deal with very simple cables. My mess has other cables hanging about, other crosses to make before I got back to the top, and one pair of stitches were knit on the right side while the others were purl on the right side. It took a while to work out what I was looking at.
My cable surgery took an hour or so, I think. At one point seven needles were involved. Don't you love that despite my awkward situation I still grabbed the camera? I fixed it all up so it looked fine at the front, but there were a couple of weird loops at the back that concerned me, so they all got dropped again. That lengthened the process a little. And a couple of the knit stitches are still 'open' (you know, the oppposite of twisted), but I'm zen with that, all things considered.

I also got another good mail day. Duckcloth/ Kristen Doran fabric. Nicely packaged, and I like that the care instructions were included (machine washable, yeah!).


The fabric is actually a darker brown than this. I'd almost call the colour donkey, or light cocoa. The print is that slightly rubbery kind that sits above the fabric, you know? The detail is very crisp though. The fabric is interior decorating weight - cushion cover or tote bag weight. It's got a kind of sheen to it that I can't quite work out. Different.
I'm thinking it doesn't work quite so well in the living room as I'd hoped (too brown), so I'm thinking the feathers may be part of my placemat/ tablerunner campaign (I'll explain another day); and the flowers maybe will be bag. Because I really like the flowers. And then my Lara Cameron Kawaii (I bought the red) fabric can be the cushion cover (if it isn't too brown as well... hmmm...).

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).