Getting some sleep

I realised today that the reason I was hesitant to sew anything with my new machine was that I hadn’t had enough sleep and my brain was broken. I took the day off work today and after seeing the doctor, sleeping for an extra 8 hours and drinking almost 3 litres of water I pulled out a pattern I’ve been wanting to make up for a while now.

A sleep mask!

I’ve always had difficulty getting to sleep and staying asleep… especially during the day. Now I needn’t worry anymore!

The pattern is one I got from the Burda Style website but unfortunately doesnt have any real instructions. This isnt too much of a problem because it is truely a simple project but I thought I’d do a bit of a tutorial for those that may be just beginning and not too sure of the way to approach this.

Please note, this is not my pattern and there is no ‘correct’ way to make it up. This is just how I’ve gone about it.

Burda Style – Marcel

1. Place pattern on top of all fabrics at once and pin in place. Seam allowance is included in the pattern so now additional measuring is required.

Top layer – Quilters cotton
Middle – Purple quilters cotton
Bottom – Cream thin fleece – DOUBLED

2. Cut two 3cm wide x 20cm long strips of cotton for elastic casing. Stitch the two

pieces of cotton together on the short seam and iron in half with right sides facing.

4. Stitch the long edge and then turn in the right way using a bodkin or needle. Thread elastic through casing and stitch at both ends to secure.

5. Attach the casing with elastic threaded through to the top two layers of fabric. Pin an inch in from the edge but ensure that the casing overlaps the edges to allow for sewing of all layers together.

6. Pin the two layers of fleece to the top fabrics right side leaving a gap at the top for turning. Note the casing should overlap the edges.

7. Sew around the edge of the eye mask ensuring you get all layers. Leave the gap at top for turning.

8. Snip around the curves and the nose shaping to allow for turning.

9. Once you have turned in the right way press the remaining seam and stitch. At this stage you can stitch around the entire eye mask if you wish. I have chosen to leave it once the remaining seam was stitched.

10. Have a good nights sleep!

Click the photos for larger images.

Suffering but getting things done.

This last week has been spent getting progressively sicker. My fiancee and I are both suffering from the throat virus thing thats been going around and basically there isnt much sleeping going on so we’re tired and snotty. I’ve been keeping up the craft though and knit up a super long scarf for a visiting friend in a few days with some nobbly acrylic and two odd sized needles. I love the way it turned out so much that I’m going to go buy more yarn and make myself one! in black though… because I dont wear enough black

In other much more exciting news – my sewing machine arrived last night! Finally! Due to the ‘feeling like death’ I left it in the box for 12+ hours before releasing it from all the foam and cardboard… and now its sitting all pretty and shiny on my clean crafting desk. I’m going to wait till later today to actually sew something with it.

While I was staring at the sewing machine box last night I was also getting started on the NIN Presence illusion knit scarf for my boy. He’s been banging on about how I haven’t made him anything so I thought why not continue as I always have for him and challenge myself! So illusion knitting it is! I got about 20 rows in before I realised I was totally counting incorrectly and although the image was working it was going to look b0rked when it was finished. So it got frogged (rip it rip it) and I’ve just finished creating a clearer pattern and am ready to start again (using the cute short #8 needles I picked up at Lincraft today).

I’ll post a link to my version of the pattern once I’ve gotten permission from the original creater.

A scarflette to call my own

A few weeks ago I went to a not so secret gathering of craftminded folk at the Handspinners and Weavers Guild in North Carlton.

And even though the gathering wasn’t a secret the K2tog project being organised by the Melbourne Fringe Festival is!!

So TOP SECRET in fact that we all had to take an oath of secrecy before being allowed to know what the project was…

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Since then I’ve been steadily working away on my part of the project and am really excited to see it come to fruition! Its going be awesome.

In the meantime though, at work a few people had noticed me knitting during my lunch break and asked if I could teach them… Since my knitting skills are still fairly average I asked around and enlisted the help of some extremely crafty women and now we have a Thursday lunch knitting group.

Each of us in the group is at a different skill level and are working on individual projects at the moment. I’m hoping that in a few weeks I can discuss a group project with them that we can donate to a charity… or sell to raise money for one.

Something that I’ve been working on during these lunch sessions is a scarflette. Just a simple rectangle of a mottled green/grey/purple mix that I worked in seed stitch and finished with an inch or so of plain green then cast off with a picot stitch.

I’m clasping it with an old key that I purchased on Etsy as part of a necklace until I can get to the store and get a button or other pin of some sort.

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This weekend I’ve been plodding along on my gift for Clairs baby… which I’m still keeping a secret but I have taken a photo of the materials I’m using as a teaser!

I fell in love with these cheeky monkeys months ago and knew straight away that they’d become a birth present for little Daniel. I’m getting closer and closer to being finished and am hoping to have it done before my trip to visit them in September.

I think that brings me up to date on the craftiness… I’m thinking of a few other things to start working on soon and gathering inspiration. I’m also starting to plan a wedding so there will be plenty of discussion about that soon I’m sure!

Still here!

Thats my cake!!

Yep. I’m still around and as of this morning feeling very popular thanks to Nikki and the folks at Craftzine.com and their linking to my Guitar Hero cake.

Its great to see you all here and I hope to find some more GH cakes being made now! With my fiancees birthday coming up I’m starting to think of new ideas for this years cake… Suggestions are always welcome!

Other than seeing a huge spike in my blogstats I haven’t been doing much at all lately. I’ve spent most of the last two weeks laying on the couch recovering from a minor back injury watching movies and improving my knitting skills. So there are photos of projects to be posted this weekend and some more progress made on my secret project for my best friends baby.