Giant Doily Rug

Two posts in one day!! I thought I would share with you another finished job, its taken a long time (like 6 months!!) from start to finish. Anyone who has been over to our place within that time frame would have seen this project in various stages of construction.

And here it is finally completed. Our giant doily floor rug.

A 15mm hook was needed for this project and the inspiration came from here. The woman made her rug without a hook!!! The cord I used was actually 10mm cotton piping from the upholstery place where I used to work. I started with a reel that was given to me when I bought my industrial sewing machine from them, but that didnt quite make it large enough for my liking, so another reel was purchased to complete this. I would say approx 900m was used for this rug. Here are a few more shots while it was a work in progress:

 

Here it is completed and having a soak in napisan for a couple of days.

I needed to get the wheelbarrow in to get it out, once it was soaking,

it was impossible to carry on my own!

It then spent a day out on the trampoline to dry,

only then did it make its way back inside.

And a couple more shots of the FO!

That's all for today!!!

xx Emma

Baby Waves

Hello all our lovely blog viewers! Im back again to share another project with you all! I must admit that it is not exactly completed but you can almost not tell by the photo. Its a baby blanket that Ive decided to make out of the left over yarn from the Wedding Blanket that was made for SIL and her hubby. Omitting the red and black. The pattern is from this beautiful blog called Attic 24, I love Lucy's use of colour! And here is my version of it.

Its got about 15 more rows to go and I strategically hid all the 50 odd ends that still need to be darned in, just to take this picture!
As you can maybe tell, there is no particular order to these stripes, as I used this random stripe generator that I found online to determine the sequence of colours. It actually makes the whole process a lot of fun! You just need to pick your colours, punch in details such as how many stripes you want and stripe widths and it comes up with a pattern for you. If you dont like the pattern it makes, you simply refresh the page till one comes up that takes your fancy! Its been really nice to watch the colours grow on the blanket with every new row... I think I'll be using that application again!

Well till next time, happy crafting!
xx Em

Summer Dress

Yay, Im busy working on some new projects, for a minute there I was stumped with what to start on next! Here is a dress that I have finished for my eldest. She ADORES her new outfit as it apparently twirls really well.
Here's a bit of a description of how I put it together. First, I started with some beautiful soft acrylic yarn- it was vitally important NOT to be itchy, seeing as it would be right on her skin. This 100% acrylic Little Grins from Spotlight fit the requirements perfectly, and the colour was a bonus! Then I found some printed cotton to match. This stuff that I picked up was acutally in the quilting section, a little heavier than your average cotton, but I couldnt go past the pattern and colours!

The crochet stitch that I decided to use for the bodice was found in a book on my shelf called 'The needlework Book' and it was called the 'close shell stitch', which describes it nicely! I basically just designed the shape as I went, no idea of stitch count or rows or anything, so please dont ask! ;) A tip though, I had a singlet of hers handy to keep a guage on how the shape and size should go, and having her close by for the occasional fitting helped too!

(Edited to add a closeup shot of the bodice here for Denise dV)

The next thing I did was to calculate roughly how long I wanted her skirt to be, and then added about 20cm onto that (I repeat, roughly!) With this measurement I cut the skirt pieces to size. Which is simply 2 squares that measure (in this case) 65cm from centre out diagonally to the corners. Then I measured her waist, and cut out a hole of that dimension in the centre of each square. I then offset the 2 squares diagonally to eachother and stitched the two holes together, then they were stitched to the top. And that's it! I made a waist band to go round the middle, hemmed the skirt, added a little ribbon, and ties on the shoulders... voila!

One very pleased little girl! :)

xxEm

Update from Henrietta

 Hello its me Henrietta again! Thought I better post a few before I forgot all about them! I made this for my Oma for her birthday! They are moving house and so thought I would make her something special for their new house. Its turned out really nice and wanted to keep it but I thought stop thinking selfish and when I gave it to her she love it! Just seeing how much they love these things that is more than enough to see why we make things like these! I even used some of my Bali material and that worked really well.

 another shot!

A bag a made for a girl up in perth! I made one for my sister and she really wanted one and so she emailed me and I went out straight away to look for material! I was quite excited to make one again seeing as I have not made one for a while! but it turned out quite nice and I was happy with the colors! Can't wait until she gets it!!!!

My beautiful flowergirl

Wow, what a weekend! The wedding was beautiful SIL looked stunning and Halle did a great job as flowergirl. The dresses looked the part and just survived the day. Both girls managed to rip out most of the flounces that we had made, by accidentally stepping on the skirts, but nothing that could not be fixed by a quick slip of a safety pin. So here are some pictures to share of my girl.. isnt she just the cutest!?!?

 I didnt get a good shot of Halle walking in, but heres a quick snap as they left.

Halle on the left.

 Flounces all still in tact at this point in time!

Rear shot, see that little boy in the background admiring her.. lol

 Any real princess dress needs to stand up to the pirouette test

(which I fear it didn't, I think at this point she stepped on the back of the skirt and ripped out a flounce!)

Here are the girls with their beautiful Aunty