Tuesday 23 April 2013

::Show & Tell:: Craft Room Shuffle

Sooo. You know how I was talking about getting a sewing cabinet here
WELL IT'S IN MY CRAFT ROOM! 

Mr S and I collected it in the form of 3 flat packs from the shop a couple of weekends ago on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day putting the beast together. The arrival of my new sewing cabinet instigated a shuffle in the craft room (I forgot to take before shots - woops).

Here is the first peak into my craft room as you enter the room.

Here are my pair of Poang chairs. There's my pillow mum bought me for my birthday (posted about here)
This is where you will find me reclining with a good sewing book or with my trusty seam ripper.


In the corner behind where I will be sitting to sew is my Expedit bookcase with a few inserts. There's my thread spool holder and trusty stereo of course. I'll need to give this a tidy because there is still a lot of stuff in there that belongs in the study.
Now here is the main event. So this is my new Horn Kensington cabinet. Here he is all folded up hiding all my goodies away. Then....

...he folds out to a massive amount of room! I'm most excited about the back swing table. It's lovely and wide and pretty simple to setup and pack down. So great!


You may have noticed that I don't currently have a seat to sit at my sewing machine with. I was contemplating getting a sewing chair from Horn, but then decided that for a similar price I would be able to get a more ergonomic chair. But I haven't got one yet. At the moment I'm using one of the foot stools from the Poang chairs. Not the best but it does the job. I've got my eye on this one, but we will see. I'm saving up my pennies for my chair.


It the sizing of furniture worked out perfectly. I'm able to open the doors on both the wardrobe and the expedit without hitting the sewing cabinet/table. But I do pop the foot rests up on the arms of the Poangs just to give me a little extra room to move around.

I was running out of room so I stashed my Malm drawers in the wardrobe. Ignore the mess. I SAID IGNORE IT! :) Obviously this picture was taken at a different time to the rest. I forgot to take a picture of my wardrobe/drawer combo the other day and quickly ducked in there to take a quick piccy the other evening :)

The reshuffle has made it start to become a place I quite like hanging out in. So I'm really enjoying the setup now. I'll like it even better once I've got a chair.

Until next time, I hope you're enjoying your creative space,
Vanessa xo

P.S. I have no affiliation with any of the companies that I have linked to in this post.

Thursday 18 April 2013

::Sewing:: Housewarming Hot Pads


About a month ago I went to a friends housewarming. I wanted to made her something, but it had to be something useful. I'm not a fan of giving people frivolous useless things. I like the idea of people using the things I give them and thinking "Ooh, that's right, Vanessa gave me this"

So I wracked my brain, "What could I get someone who has just bought their own home..." I finally came to the conclusion that I'd make some hot pads. You now. The things you put under a hot pot to protect the kitchen bench. I've found that you can never have too many. Especially when entertaining.

I stumbled upon this great video. Then along my journeys I found out about Insul-bright. So I popped down to my local Spotlight & picked up some Insul-bright and some lovely fabric then got
home & set to work. After lots of cutting, struggling with sewing lots of layers and maybe a little (read: a Iot) of cursing l made 2 hot pads.

I ended up sewing the layered top together first then sewing all the layers and Insul-bright together. The hot pads had 2 layers of Insul-bright to make sure that as little heat as possible got through. I wouldn't want my gift to be faulty! I think next time I'd layer the top, then a layer of natural batting-like cotton or bamboo, a layer of Insul-bright then the bottom layer.


I sneakily (or lazily) popped the gifts into a container I was returning to the hostess. She didn't find them until the next day when she had sometime to do some tidying. :)


Until next time, I hope your making gifts for friends,
Vanessa xo

Monday 15 April 2013

::Show & Tell::Books


Back in February I thought I'd treat myself to a few of my favourite things. Reference books :)
I'd seen Fabric for Fashion: The Swatch Book mentioned on the blogasphere somewhere. I want to get familiar with different fabric types seeing as it was my birthday I thought "I'm going to get it because I can and you only live once".


While I was buying books; I've been doing some research into a few knitting topics lately. Knitting techniques to make knitting faster, like continental knitting. Also, knitting socks, but I'm pretty sure that I'd suffer Second Sock Syndrome. So I've been looking into ways to knit 2 socks at the same time.
I came across the technique of knitting 2 socks using the magic loop (I think that's right). Anyway, I bought 2 books on the topic, both by the same author - Melissa Morgan-Oakes,
2 At A Time Socks


Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks


I decided that I was going to start knitting practice socks over the Easter long weekend. I didn't have a suitable circular needle so the Thursday before Good Friday I traipsed down to Tangled Yarns at Newstead after work and got myself a set of 4mm KnitPro Sympfonie needle tips and a 150cm cable (the book recommends a 100cm cable, but I thought maybe having a longer cable might make things easier)

If you follow my facebook page (like my page if you wanna :) )you'd have seen I've just finished knitting the practice sock out of the first book, 2 At A Time Socks. They are over on Ravelry.


I think I'll knit the practice socks from the second book in the same colours and give them to the Mister's nephew.

If you're interested in knitting 2 socks at a time Very Pink knits has a couple of great videos.
Knitting 2 Socks at-a-Time, Magic Loop, Parts 1-5
This tutorial is good if you have a super long circular needle.
2 Socks at-a-time on 2 Circulars
(Techniques to note: German Twisted Cast on; New Heel turn)

Until next time, I hope your on a creative kick,
Vanessa xo

Saturday 6 April 2013

::Show & Tell:: Stitch & Craft Show - March 2013

Things have been a little quiet around this blog as things have been happening behind the scenes. I've got lots to catchy you up on so lets get straight into it. :)

In the last weekend of May I went to the Brisbane Stitch & Craft Show. I had suggested to go as part of the monthly Craft Group (formally the CWA group I mentioned here). So I met up with a couple at the craft group ladies before we went into the show. My friend Sarah & her mum met us in there afterwards (read Sarah's post about the show here).

The badge that you got when you paid your $15 entry fee

It is the first time that I've been to the show and there was a lot to see. There was a lot of damage to the wallet too.

l bought a small book of scrap-booking card. I think it would make great gift tags. I like the paper because it's not too girly.

The not too girly scrap book paper that I got for $3 - Score!

I ducked over to the Voodoo Rabbit stand asked them if they had any nautical fabrics. The lady who served me was fantastic. I've been wanting to visit their store in West End for aaages. I really should go.

The lovely 'nautical' fabrics from Voodoo Rabbit - $5 a pop. So worth it they feel lovely and soft

I also bought a daylight lamp from 'The Scissorman'. At the moment my craft room gets really dark at night and I have to turn on like 3 lights to barely see anything. So I just did it.
$50 folding lamp for my craft room

I bought a bobbin tower and silk pins from Punch with Judy. I've wanted the bobbin tower for years. YEARS. I had never come across these in the flesh so I jumped on the chance to buy it. Then when I brought it home I realised that it probably wasn't the best choice seeing as now I'm storing my thread and bobbins in the rack I showed you back here. Oh well. It will come in used in future no doubt.
I've been lusting after silk pins ever since Susan Khalje mentioned them in her 'The Couture Dress' Craftsy class.
Bobbin Tower $24.50 and Silk Pins $8

On our way out Sarah and I skipped by Patchwork Collections and I came across this lush fabric. So I just HAD to buy a couple of 1/2 metres.

Luscious quilting fabric $11 each


The big purchase of the day was a sewing machine cabinet from Horn Australia. I've been thinking about buying one for ages. I looked on Gumtree to see if there were many for sale. There were a few, but it was very hit and miss (mostly miss) I decided that I'd prefer to buy a new one. It so happened that they had a special for the show - a discount as well as getting the sewing machine insert thrown in as well. So I bit the bullet and bought it there. It hasn't been brought home yet, but I'm very much looking forward to it :)
new sewing cabinet yet to be delivered-$799


If I were to go again I think I'd do more planning. I would have liked to participate in a few of the workshops and make sessions.

There is another show later in the year. I don't know if I'd go to that one too, but we'll see. Only time will tell :)

Until next time, hope your doing new and exciting things.
Vanessa xo

P.S. If you follow my via an RSS reader you may have noticed a draft version of this post got published by accident. Woops! Gotta enjoy a bit of technical difficulties between the seat and the keyboard (read: human error)  :)