of the colour of mangoes

Hello there!

School has ended, it is ridiculously hot here, and we are heading to Pune very soon!! I really can’t wait, neither can N and M.

I cut the paper pattern for this a long time ago. I mean a seriously long time ago. Then I never did anything about it. When I retrieved it recently I realised that the length and possibly the dress in general was going to be way to short and perhaps even tight for N. But what can one do when one has spent so much time cutting paper patterns, right? I had to make it! Of all the things tracing and cutting paper pattern is something I wish I could have someone else do for me. But, there was no way that I was going to waste all the enormous effort that had gone into doing my least favourite task. So. Length was added, cloth was cut, and voila we have a dress!

It’s called the “birthday party dress,” so the plan had been to actually make it for the last birthday. Umm… which was last July. So you get the idea.

But, I can’t believe how well it still fits her. Or rather I should say, I am happy she can wear it for a few months at least, because it is a bit fitting around the chest and she may not be comfortable in it for too long. Although I am lucky because N is right now mostly growing vertically. (Yeah, she still fits into the 18-24m tee shirts, only they are really really short:-). So, anyway, that is the long story of this elegant dress.It’s one of those patterns where you wonder how everything is going to come together in the end, but it does, and of course like with all Oliver+S patterns I want to get down to making exactly another dress in the same pattern right after I am done with one. Well, maybe this time in a larger size? The fabric is beautiful khadi cotton. The colour reminds me of mangoes, and it is a good season to sew in this colour! The fabric for tabs in the front, the yoke and hem facing is from old leftovers.

And here is N enjoying the sun!On a different note, I got so many “likes” for the bag that I made (of the real variety from the people I have met, not the facebook one:-), that I have been thinking that I should make more of this. You know, make things for me, which might um…include clothes? Let’s see, it’s a thought.

And while I have been vaguely thinking of this, I happened to read this post. I chanced upon this really randomly a couple of months ago, and she writes, sews and draws beautifully. But more importantly, it was this post that really made a lot of sense in this world of sewing, because there is such a intrinsic relation between “body” and “clothes.” Take a look when you get a chance.

And with this, my friends, I will say bye for now. More from Pune!

Asmita

something for me

Hello everyone! This is my long overdue, made for myself birthday present.

Making bags has not been my forte. I have made a few pretty bad ones which are right now lying somewhere in the deep recesses of my cupboard where I can quite conveniently avoid seeing them. Nothing dramatically wrong, either just a bad choice of fabric, not strong enough interfacing, that kind of thing. Mostly of the variety, where once I was done sewing it, I felt like I couldn’t care to take it anywhere with me and was already thinking of ways to recycle of the fabric.

But. As it turns out I have a short term memory. So, not so long ago I decided to make yet another bag, very conveniently, and perhaps luckily forgetting the earlier disasters. Maybe it’s all about, try try try and you will succeed?

In any case, here is the latest one, and this time with only one glaring mistake. This is the back-Another view of the front (I love the divided pockets)And the mistake. Can you spot it?But anyway getting back to the positives. I love the inside, in which I can fit in a fair bit of stuff.I even used it today. Definitely a first for any bag that I have made!

The fabric on the outside is by Heather Ross. The orange one is a really nice and light cotton from Commercial Street in Bangalore, and the Green is handspun cotton from Khadi Gram Udyog.

The pattern comes from here, and and on her blog there are also some fabulous tutorials that are worth checking out. I am even tempted to make another one.

Anyway. Lovely rainy weather here. And looks like a storm is brewing up. I am off to enjoy it! Hope you all have a nice evening.

Asmita

 

in one afternoon

I can hardly believe that I am posting again so soon, but I got some unexpected sewing time this afternoon. And, so, hello again!

The thing is that I love scraps. I save the tiniest bits thinking and dreaming of what I could do with them. At times, I think I like them more than all the unused fabric that also occupies plenty of space in the house.

I was sorting through this stuff yesterday and making N help me out (not an uncommon feature of our afternoons), and I decided that I could do well to use some of it to make binding.

A few weeks ago, I was at Khadi Gram Udyog (located in Connaught Place) where I bought a lovely thin cotton towel for N to take to school. At that point, all I was meaning to stitch the sides to give it a finished look, but then yesterday it came to me that a colourful binding might do the same job nicely. And put some scraps to good use.

I am pretty pleased with what I got, and the best part was that it got done in one afternoon. Actually, one smallish part of the afternoon, so it was instant gratification. I know I should be getting down to that thing that I am making for me. But I won’t be too surprised if I just keep making more of these!

summer wear

So, I have been on a roll ever since I started doing the one-hour-of-sewing-everyday thing two weeks ago (thanks to kcw), and made a couple of things in quick succession after that. Here they are-

These have been already worn a fair bit this week but Ms. N has been somewhat unwilling to model for me, and I haven’t been able push for it because well…it is too hot to do anything. Least of all to get up and tell your child to pose or any such sort of thing which requires any bit of cajoling.  But, anyway, here is few photos from yesterday and today.

The pants are my favourite; they are the same sailboat pants that I made during the kcw challenge. The more I make them the more I adore this pattern, and after having made three this fourth one came together pretty quickly.

The fabric is a really light ikat look alike. N is not very keen on it, but I really like it especially for school.

After making the pants the next item on agenda was this.

The top appropriately titled “round neckline blouse” comes from this book. I did the same thing as for the “balloon silhoutte blouse” which is line the yoke, and it fits pretty well.Perhaps not the best choice of fabric because it does not have as much drape as I would like, but N likes the way it stands up. Plus, she can also wear this to school. And I love the faded look and lovely print. Oh and can you see that little bit of topstitching?Pretty subtle right? I was thinking of doing it in red, but it worked out better in grey because I have a few wonky lines there.

So there. I am done with kcw for now. It has been totally fabulous, and if you haven’t yet done so please check out the lovely stuff that people have made on their blog. Very lovely and very inspiring.

And now I am taking a bit of break from stitching for N. Which means I have something nice coming up for me!Have a lovely Friday. And if you are anywhere in these parts stay cool!

Asmita

some sewing to show (thanks kcw!)

Yay! I am sewing again. And this is the lovely pile that got made. So, in my last post I had mentioned that I am signing up for the kids clothes week challenge. After I did that, I realised I wasn’t going to be in Delhi all days of the week but I couldn’t possibly quit. Not this time. And so, I did my one hour bit everyday and what fun it was! Which means that while I haven’t been posting, I have been doing what I promised myself, which was not to give up and do things half way.

Ahem… unlike some of the promises that got made in early January and weren’t kept.

And so without more talk here is what got done.

Pants and a top that N can wear to school. I am not much into matching “outfits” and I didn’t choose the fabric for both with that in mind. But I kind of like how they go together. The yellow fabric is particularly nice; it’s light cotton, perfect for summer, and I think we are going to get a lot of wear out of this one.

Both patterns come from my all time favourite Oliver+S. I’ve made the sailboat pants before so there were a breeze, although the swingset tunic gave me a fair bit of trouble. Somehow the fact that the lining piece and yoke didn’t match gave me enough room for pointless contemplation and this one required a fair bit of help from the seam ripper. No matter! You can’t really tell that from the photo can you, because the minute the dress is ready it looks so great and perfect like all O+S patterns that I immediately forgot all about my swearing.

Needless to say that resulted into cutting fabric for one more swingset tunic.

Another light and lovely cotton with N’s current favourite colours. One nice thing about this top is that the spaghetti strap construction is really good. It’s very annoying when the strap slips off and I was a tiny bit worried that these may fall off too, and N somehow might refuse to wear it. But they don’t, and that’s a huge plus and also another reason to make another one.

I have to admit that this didn’t go a whole lot faster than the last one, and while it looks nice and N was happy enough to wear it, I think I am done with the swingset tunic for a bit.

Finally the last thing I made was another top from this book.           

I love the way this has turned out, and to think that I almost left the “balloon” part out. I am glad I didn’t in the end.  The yoke is lined which gives it a better fit I think, and if you ask me it looks fabulous on my little model.

N is totally into the balloon shape, and I think for her sake and mine I am going to have to make a few more of these.

So, this is it. All wearable and N went to school last week wearing new clothes almost everyday. And I am really happy with all that got done. I am dying to do some more sewing now, and I am glad that this week got me out of all the dilly dallying that I have been doing for quite a while now. So, expect more soon!

Oooh, and I almost forgot. Remember I said earlier that I was traveling for some part of the kcw challenge? Well, I forgot to write about what I did on the two days when I didn’t have access to the sewing machine.

Well, some hand sewing of course!This “jelly rolls” that you see there are a part of a patchwork wool blanket that I have been making for the last three years. Yes, and the one that I am determined to finish this year before the cooler months come our way.

So see, all days put to good use. Thanks kcw challenge!Have a nice Friday rest of the week, and thanks for visiting my corner of the world!

Asmita

summer is coming

It’s getting warmer and warmer by the minute, but people who have gone through a few (or many) summers here laugh at me and tell me this is “nothing.” Nothing. Its only after all mid April. I do wonder what is coming while I am keeping myself busy planning various escape strategies. True, I have very little tolerance for heat, I mean how many clothes can you take off, or specifically I would be willing to take off before I feel a little cooler. Not that I think you would want to know, but all this to say, that I prefer winter to what’s coming my way. Yeah, the same winter I complained about about three months ago!

Ok, so now that I have got my weather related complaints out of the way, and there might be a few coming your way these next few months as I figure my way to beat the heat, let’s move on to what’s happening here.

So what have I been doing? Getting ready for summer of course. The absolute first thing has been to get these done-

I know pretty much all of Delhi has them, but I love them, and they have such a charming look. Their job is to keep the sharp rays of the sun out and makes the living room just a tiny bit cooler. Apparently this is not going to enough, but I feel so unwilling to invest in an AC. As yet.

And do you see the little garden that is coming up?

No fancy plants here, because while I am not a plant killer I am not too sure around things that require a lot of care either. But it looks truly lovely; it is the largest garden I have ever had, and this is all entirely thanks to my mom who was visiting us for two whole weeks. And while it does not exactly contribute to keeping the house cooler, I predict it is going to be very soothing to stare at some green for my soon to-be-irritable-nerves. The nice part of this was also that N got to spend a lot of time with ajji (“grandmother” in Marathi, i.e. my mom). They have planted some leafy veggies (more about it soon) and here is N with her special little plant.

Some time off meant that despite N having school holidays, I could finally get back to some sewing. Remember I had said that she does not have a stipulated school uniform but needs to wear shorts and tee shirts?

So here is what got made-three pairs of shorts in quick succession.

And this is my little review of the three patterns, for anyone interested.

The blue stripey shorts are from pattern “s” (half pants) in this book.  True to their look, they are great on style but a little on the slim side. 110cms in usually pretty roomy for N, so I thought they would be okay for school, but probably not because there isn’t much room for movement. I suspect part of the problem might be due to the fabric I chose; it’s “shirting” material which completely lacking in any stretch-ability.

The other two are from here. The brown one has back pockets, is roomy and super comfortable, but a little bit too long to be called shorts. But that’s easily rectifiable. This is pattern “m” appropriated titled as pants with a back pocket. I had made a longer version of this earlier (as pants), and I would just say for those who care for things such as flare etc. the longer ones fall better than these short pants.

My favourite of the three, if I had to choose, is the last one. No pockets, but I love the little flare in the bottom. (Pattern “d” flared pants.) They are also on the longer side and almost like those divided skirts that we had to wear in school but far more stylish. They are also the fastest to make. Only two pattern pieces!

That’s the thing about Japanese sewing books though. They are great on style, and the cut is always almost fabulous in my opinion. For anyone wanting to try out Japanese patterns these are good books to start with if you have no Japanese at all. Lots of pictures that are easy to follow. And speaking of books, one of my favourite blogs just did a Japanese pattern book post here. As did this blog here which has an entire series of posts on sewing from Japanese books. I do read Japanese, but still following pattern depending on one’s sewing experience can be really challenging. There is tons and tons of good advice here and definitely worth taking a look.

And so, coming back to shorts, of which I need to make many more. Does anyone have any favourite patterns for shorts? I might make more of them during next week with the kid’s clothes week coming up. Yes, I am very excited to be participating in it for the first time after having been a quiet observer for the last few years. Excited and a bit nervous with the hope that I can manage an hour a day. Well, you remember what happened to my last resolution! But this time I am getting myself ready with plans to stick to my resolution.

And here is the last photo of the day, in honour of my mom who not only gave me time to recoup my energies, but also made N so happy with this instant dress that she produced for her. Out of newspapers, no less!

Whew. That’s a long post. Hope you are all having a good week and getting some sewing done!

Asmita

 

 

holidays

Boredom is visiting our house often these days. N started her holidays a week ago and we still have two more weeks to go before she begins going the new school. My mom is visiting for a few weeks and N is happy playing games with her grandmother that she never wants to play with her parents (apparently “train train” is one current favourite). As I recoup my energies, we haven’t been doing much other than going to the park and a forest behind our house once in a while, collecting flowers and leaves and playing around the house.

So once in a while, there is the question of “what should I do next?” and that’s when we need activities.

A few days ago, I finally finished the play kitchen that N and I started a while ago.

That thing with a bit of foil is the kitchen sink by the way. Just saying…

To tell you the truth I thought a bit before posting about this here. It’s not perfect and lacking in many things. Well, too many things if you ask me. I wanted a better kitchen sink, nice paper to cover up our tape, better looking shelves and just generally something looking nicer.

But then again…I think it is good to keep things real. I am too tired to make it look nicer. And that way it would have been lying on my table forever when N is perfectly happy with it, and dying to get her hands on it. So lesson learnt: sometimes things don’t look as pretty as I think then should, but they are still functional and liked!

Then a few days ago, I found some interesting art related activities here. N loves any kind of art and craft and yesterday we got down to to this. After some supervision  she pretty much managed it one her own.

Here is the artist with her collage. Complete with rain and all.

I have a few more ideas. But we have another two weeks. So any and all suggestions will be welcome!

Another two weeks to school also means another two weeks for me to make a few shorts. I  think I’ll have something to show soon.

Until then!

Asmita