Mozaik and the fun of the creating process

I have always felt the need to be creative. When I was a small kid I naturally could not buy the materials I desired, and had to be creative in the true sense of the word. One of my all time high creative adventures is probably when I was around 11 years old and saw in a book a picture of a glass painting. I remember that it was a flower, but no other details. I lacked several of the needed tools, for one glass and the other glass paint. I did however owned a stash of puffy textile paint (which I never dared to use because of my lack of drawing skills) and like most families we owned clingy plastic and cardboard boxes. I simply made a cardboard frame with a cut out window, glued/stick the clingy wrap to it. I put the whole thing on glass picture example and copied the lines with textile puffy paint. It turned out great and my mother put it on the mantle piece. That evening a guest came by and was curiously toughed the paint (which had not dried yet) and smudged the whole thing. My mother was afraid that I would be upset and almost did not dare to tell me. I was not upset, I liked the journey of creating it, not so much the finished object. Although I liked the "painting" I did not redo it.

I usually have a urge to try something new and the finished project sometimes even becomes a burden. A few weeks ago my sister and I went to a mosaic workshop (the workshop part was massively overstated). I did not have a clear project in mind about what I was going to make but I did decide beforehand a fruit bowl. I very much liked the process and was not dissatisfied with the result (the picture was made directly after filling the whole with cement and therefore the whole thing is still a bit white) but the bowl did end up in the trash yesterday. The whole thing was simply not that practical and did take up a lot of space on our dining table. I could have stored it somewhere, but I knew from experience that it would had to go somewhere in the future. Somehow throwing away a finished project is much easier than throwing out a failed partly finished project. When throwing away a failed not yet finished project I am reminded of the failure and feel like failure, throwing away a finished project just provides space to try something new. Is that just me?

New coat

When I was browsing through Ottobres for the first time I saw some coat patterns. I loved several of them but I could not imagine being able to sew those. Now I have come at that stage that I feel comfortable to try any type of pattern and was feeling up for a coat.

I was triggered to think about  a coat because when I asked my daughter what to sew for her she requested a coat-dress. I did not get more information out of her besides this fancy name. I understood it to be a coat that looks like a dress, so a coat that can twirl.

The winter is kind a leaving us which made me decide to make a lined rain coat. I bought some laminated fabric and let my daughter choose a lining from our stash. The pink polka dots combined with the yellow fabric did make think twice about my decision to let my daughter choose but in the end I love the combination. I used a coat pattern from Ottobe 1 2010 (adding a hood myself). I made the picture inside with flash which is why the coat looks very shiny, usually it does not shine.

I decided to close the coat with three snaps only. My daughter ruined her winter coats zipper because she is always squatting on the playground. This way of closing the coat makes squatting possible.

Jersey patchwork dress based on Ottobre design

Ottobre 6 /2013 contains a very pretty patchwork dress. Unfortunately the sizes Ottobre provides were way to big for any of my girls and I therefor just hand drafted a pattern from an existing dress. I used scraps from projects of her older siblings and I think the dress looks great. It could have been a bit wider and also the head opening is a bit small. Fortunately we have an even smaller girl that will fit the dress in two years from now.

Creative mending

As a mother of one boy and three girls (and being an academic) I know I can not statistically sound test if the behavior of my son is stereotypical boy (I would need at least 30 kids) but I do have a hunch that holes in trousers is more common with boys. I think my eldest daughter never had a whole on her knee and my son seems to have at least one per week! The pile of trousers that had to be mended was growing and the wearable was shrinking in a dangerous rate. Is it just me or is creating something new much better than mending something, even if mending takes less time? I seem to keep avoiding the mending-pile as long as possible.

I had not mended trousers yet, but I did pin a few nice patches already. I challenged myself to patch every trousers in a different way (not all got pictures). Both me and my son liked the results a lot, and I suspect him of purposely creating a hole in the other knee of green trousers a few days later because he wanted another monster (which he got ofcourse). My monster is not as pretty as many others on Pinterest, my main goal was quick mending (especially because I suspected the trousers knees to re-die quickly.). I have to say that the monster holds up surprisingly well, no new mending of that knee has been necessary for a few weeks (knocks on wood).

For those who do not recognise it immediately (I would be among those people) the purple "thing" is a squirrel. I clearly have to practise my embroidery skills, I suspect that my son will deliver enough practise material for me to quickly become a pro. Fortunately kids have a big imagination and a squirrel is a squirrel if mommy says so.

Another reoccurring cloth problem in our household (and I presume with most household with eating kids) is folds! My kids seem to love ruining especially new cloths with folds that do not wash out anymore. Last week I tried something new, I simply cut small harts out of transfer foil and ironed them on some black spots. Like with the trousers I think the shirt became even better.

Cochet sun rainbow mobile

I guess that all of you that like Pinterest and crochet have seen the mobile of a sun, rainbow, clouds and raindrops. The usual pins state that this is a free tutorial. I also had seen and pinned it but when I decided to make one as a gift I could not find the free tutorial anywhere. I did found a website that wanted a subscription but I was not in the mood for that. I simply eyeballed the design and created a 3D rainbow to mix better with the sun. I kind a messed up the amount of increases but with a bit of creative sewing all worked out fine.

The mobile was a gift without occasion due to a post I shared on Facebook at the beginning of the year. One of my friends was sharing a "pay it forward" creativity post. The first five people that would react on her post by sharing it on their timeline would receive a home made gift (if they would also make 5 home made gifts for people that would react on their message).  I loved the idea and shared the message but omitted the condition that people has to get creative themselves. My Facebook crowd it not that into creating hand made gifts but I was positively surprised which people were delighted to receive those type of gifts. I did not create all the gifts yet but I will (once).

Did anyone else also join this nice alternative home made swap movement?

Knitting children clothes

After knitting Christmas decoration and dolls I kind a was up for knitting clothes again. I felt more confident I could finish a bigger knitting project. But baby steps, I decided to first knit for my kids. I have fond memories of knitting on the couch in front of the television (especially during the winter). When I told my mother my plans she also became enthusiastic and together we bought yarn online and looked through old knitting magazines (which I kept from 10 years before), instant fun! Besides the old magazine I drooled over Phildar magazines that I bought but never used.

The actual knitting went faster than I hoped and I quickly created two sweaters. The bear application is from a Phildar magazine and and red shirt is an adjusted version of a grown up pattern. 

The red yarn ran out before the project was done. We had bought the yarn on sale in a mixed surprise package and I therefor had to be creative with a different color. Although unplanned I think that it spices up the sweater in a positive way. 

I like knitting (or crocheting for that mater) because it is more social than sewing. Although sewing has stolen my heart, when I sew, I sew I can not talk to somebody at the same time, let alone look at them. If I have people over sewing is not possible. Knitting and especially knitting clothes (more repetitive stitching without complex counting) is perfect. I now even have some friends that regularly come over to knit (and talk).

Felting

Okay, I admit it, I am easily distracted and easily excited. Every time I see some new craft I kind a have to try it, and own all the things that are needed (I have a feeling more of you share this problem). A few weeks ago I came across felting crafts. I spend some time searching the web and found both needle felting (dry) and wet felting. The second type can be done in several ways, but the way that intrigued me the most was knitting wool and then wash it in a regular washing machine. I bought a small starting kit for needle felting and bought some felting wool.

The needle felting I used to spice up some crocheted ester eggs (this had been the original plan) but it was not as fun as I anticipated. I had read that you should not watch television at the same time while needle felting and this indeed seems a good idea. I of course tried it and hit my finger (a few times) with the needle. I also understand the appeal to watch tv at the same time because  the felting takes much more time than I anticipated. I did not fell in love with the craft.

I did use the material again a few weeks later when I bought my daughter a shirt of which I cut of a bow that I did not like. It turned out that the one that had sewn on the bow has not that great with the machine and had created hole while applying the bow (all shirts had the same bow so probably it was not put on to conceal the hole). I therefore ended up with a hole on her shoulder. I needle felted her initial on the place of the hole (I had seen on Pinterest that they directly needle felted on shirts to create an application). The T now perfectly conceals the hole, perfect.


The second felting project I tried was knitting myself a pair of slippers. It was a fun and quick project, I immediately bought a small package for a friend. If you have smooth floor like us (wood) then you will need to add some rubber patches on the soled of the feet to avoid slipping.