Short sleeved funked out peasant blouse

I used to have a long sleeved white funked out peasant blouse, but the long sleeves seemed too heavy on me, so I converted it to a short sleeved version. I do like this version much better.

I still really like peasant blouses, but I think I´ll try some different versions. I think I have enough of the Funked Out Peasant Blouses (pattern by Lila Tueller) now!

Featherston, North Island, New Zealand

Green funked out peasant blouse

Mmm. Not sure about this one. In the fabric shop this looked like a nice shade of green, but having sewn it up, it seems a pretty drab shade.

I´ve also realised that the long-sleeve funked out peasant blouse (great pattern by Lila Tueller), doesn´t really suit me. The sleeves puff out too much and just make the whole thing look too heavy on me. I didn´t take a photo of the unaltered ¨before"version unfortunately; I only realised after making the blouse, that I needed to reduce the sleeves. I felt a bit like a clown, or a milkmaid or something (its not the pattern´s fault, just my build). I didn´t want to completely unpick the whole thing, so I just took out 2 inches from the outside of the sleeve and shirred it a bit. (If I made it again, I´d just take 2 or more inches out of the width of the sleeve when cutting it from the fabric). The seam is very obvious, but hopefully the shirring makes the seam look intentional? Or not. I definitely like the blouse better with the sleeves de-puffed (as per this photo). Although, due to the bad choice of fabric, I´m not sure how much I´ll wear this.

On this version I also halved the width of the empire band, and made it end centre front, leaving the join open. I did a very thin string of the same fabric and this means I can get it over my head without needing a zip and tighten it slightly once its on.

Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

A-line skirt I designed

Here is an a-line skirt I drew up the pattern for after reading Cal Patch´s Design It Yourself: Patternmaking Simplified book. I followed the drawing-up instructions, but in the end I just tried on the skirt and adjusted it to fit correctly that way (which is also part of the instructions). After having kids I´m not the regular shape anymore anyway, so making my own skirt pattern seems the best way to go. The fabric is a very, very lightweight denim. That makes it comfortable, but it doesn´t seem to sit the same way all the time (sometimes it ruffles, sometimes it sits flat etc). Next time I would use a medium weight denim, possibly with less sweep.

Porangahau, North Island, New Zealand

Retro apron

This is really a ¨wardrobe refashion¨ of an emmeline apron I did a few years ago which used a pretty overpowering over-retroed fabric. My husband couldn´t eat his dinner while I was wearing it. So I made it into a half-apron. Its still a bit too retro, but as a half apron, its not quite as overpowering hopefully.

Kaikoura, South Island, New Zealand

Another art pencil carry case

Here is another art pencil carry case from Soulemama´s Creative Family book. I should have taken the pencils out to take the photo - they kind of bunch it up a bit at the bottom! It does sit straight when there are no pencils in it. I made this for a friend´s daughter to say thanks for giving me a skirt.

Near Porangahau, North Island, New Zealand

Wardrobe refashion: brown vest

This is a wardrobe refashion of a brown knit collared top. I had intended to make it into a sewn version of the Cavern cardy on Ravelry, finishing it off with handsewing like in the Alabama Chanin book. However, I rather liked how this looked with the collar and sleeves cut off, so I left it like that (sides taken in though). So, another time for the Cavern cardy. I didn´t hand sew the edges as I preferred this with a clean, unadorned edge. The ¨before¨ pic is below.

Linocut ruru owl

Again inspired by Lena Corwin´s wonderful book Printing by Hand, I´ve tried some test samples of another linocut stamp I´ve designed and cut. Its about 8cm tall.

This is a Ruru, a native New Zealand owl. The Māori legends have the ruru often as a watchful guardian, associated with the spirit world. Its high call can mean bad news, but its more common ‘ruru’ call means good news. We can hear them from our house at night saying ¨morepork!¨ (that´s what it sounds like to me).
The left-most owl in the row of 3 is the final one, with the stamp edges progressively cut off (as I realised they were showing - I hadn´t cut quite deeply enough) and was pressed on the fabric the longest. I´ve been using a mixture of Pebeo and Fas Fastex fabric inks, which both seem fine, although these particular owls were purely done in Fastex black ink with a brayer. I like how this has turned out and I´ll print these on some bags.

The row of 3 owls looks quite nice, I think. I might cut another owl in reverse so I can print them in pairs. [I´ve since used the stamp on some feet wheat packs as a gift].

The Seaward Kaikoura Mountains, South Island, New Zealand