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Ok. That’s all folks.

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You know that feeling you get sometimes, when you just know things are changing, should change, are about to change? Yes. Perhaps you are having it right now. It would be appropriate.

To cut a long story short, or shorter at least, after three years this entire blog is moving. My interweb host prompted it, but now it feels like the obvious thing that I ought to have done a good while ago; something that might better fit where I am, if you like.

The new home is still a little bare, but the kettle is on, and the cushions are plumped. I’d love it if you popped over to join me on Today We Made – it’s the same, but slightly different.

Thank you!

Finally…

So work can continue on the boy’s quilt. My original thought was that I’d be finished by March, but here we are in almost June and I am running to catch myself up again. Time is becoming a preoccupation: there isn’t enough, what there is disappears so quickly, and lately I’ve been thinking that I somehow seem to time everything wrong, which is just a way of saying that I feel out of sync. As usual things are afoot behind the scenes but nothing is quite ready for sharing. This long weekend won’t help – we’re off to Anglesey and the sea zoo. Take care of things til I get back.

I really like where I live. I’m in London, but everyone knows that London is just a network of villages, and you can change your village to suit your current lifestyle. In five minutes from my front door I can be on my local high street, where I can pop to the deli, a proper butcher’s,a greengrocer, the fishmonger, the bakery (with cafe attached), two proper wine shops, and several pubs that will serve me lunch and are happy to welcome little people. There’s a White Stuff and a Co-Op supermarket, and a GBK and a caffe Nero, two toyshops and two banks, and lots of estate agents. There’s the best independent bookstore, which looks crumbly on the outside, but has the most interesting selection of books. There’s a locksmith, a health shop,  a post office, a cookware shop, little gift shops, diy shops, homewares shops and a bathroom shop.

But the shop I love the most is the funny little everything shop. It doesn’t have a sign outside but we all know its name. Out on the pavement when it’s dry there’ll be buckets of dishcloths and cleaning products, and stepladders and sweeping brushes to buy. Inside you make a circuit of the shop, regardless or your purpose in going there. Up one aisle you can get clothing dye, cleaning things, muffin cases, silicon teddy bear molds, enamel pie tins, cookie cutters, baking trays, sieves of many sizes. Down the other aisle you can get kilner jars, foil trays, party hats, party bags, bath plugs, doorstops, toiletries, colouring pencils, toy cars. They have much more than that, but there’s no way one person could remember it all.

Last week one of our fuses went. We have an old fuseboard that we should have had replaced, but never quite got round to, so instead of flipping a trip switch we have to take out the fuse, thread a new length of fuse wire through it and pop it back in. Only this time we’d run out of fuse wire. Which shop would have such a thing?

It’s amazing considering the power of the shop and its things that I only came away with this small haul, but while I was there it was indeed an imperative that I add a gingerbread man to my collection of cookie cutters, and get foil trays for freezing single portions of food. And of course they had the fuse wire, so we can toast without fear.

I try to shop there as often as I can, because I truly think we would be lost without it. Do support your local shops whenever you can. They are unique, and you would miss them if they went.

I know!

Having taken a couple of months to make a top for myself, during which time my body changed enough to make the exercise almost futile, I decided to put down the needle with regard to clothes for myself for a while. I’ve still got a hankering to make garments, and realised I have the perfect recipient: Fitz. Being small, his clothes are too, which translates as super-quick to sew.

I was gifted this wonderful book by Kyoko when Fitz came along, which is a japanese pattern book dedicated to sewing with knits for babies.

Knits are wonderful for little ones, especially once they get to the wriggly, shuffly stage that Fitz has reached (so quickly!). It’s also good practice for me to work with the overlocker (or lock machine as they call it in Japan), since I realised that my skills aren’t quite as smooth as I’d like them to be, though I think in part the trouble is confidence, for which the only remedy is more practice.

I decided to make the little trousers on the front cover, since they have a gorgeous flared hem, and a cute inset bottom. Sadly I didn’t have contrast jersey so it’s all one colour, but Mr J offered one of his red t-shirts for next time. I’m yet to be convinced… The sizes in the book are 60, 70, 80 and 90 cm, and I made the 80cm – wonderfully, even if they did turn out to be a little long, Fitz is going to continue growing. Rather splendidly, the trousers are called Monkey Pants, which I was compelled to call out several times during the making of, just because it sounds so joyous. I’m still compelled to shout it whenever I put them on him. I really ought to find other ways of being entertained.

Florence has just done a great post about japanese pattern books, so I won’t repeat anything about how simple they are to follow, especially since I hope you can see from this picture how indecently easy these were to make. (One thing I will mention though – I so want the little plastic clips used throughout this book instead of pins. So clever!)

Monkey pants! A little long, but no matter. He seems happy enough in them, and in all I think they took less than an hour to make. It might have seemed longer but that’s because I made the pair of shorts on the facing page at the same time. See? Indecently easy.

They’re not pressed due to ‘must make the baby wear them immediately’ excitement, hence the slightly wibbly looking seam – it’s not wibbly really. I’m going to make another couple of pairs, which will hopefully save some more of his better going out of the house clothes from weaning disasters (weetabix, tomato based sauces …) and give us go to house pants for days when we can’t be bothered to get dressed. Cheap, cheery and above all, replaceable.

You know, I kind of want some for myself…

It seemed as if this tunic would never be finished, but it is and I’ve learned some valuable things in the making.

The most important one is that the adage ’sew for the body you have’ does not apply to new mothers. Your sewing time might not come as frequently as you desire so it will take you much longer to sew a garment than you anticipated. This means two things. The first is that the winter top you were making might seem a little warm when you finally finish the top well into spring. The second is that in between starting and finishing you might do something radical like finish breastfeeding and discover that your bust measurement is now a good three inches smaller.

Dear me. It flaps about a bit. Which is a shame, because I do like the fabric and I do like the design, but I may as well be wearing a kaftan for how glamourous I feel in it. I remember reading somewhere that Hot Patterns sometimes make up big, which is another way of saying they have a generous amount of ease, but in this case I could do with rather less. I’m thinking that I might have a go at taking the side seams in a bit, and see if I can give it some shape. Another thing, which is possibly related to the general tent like proportions, is that it is rather revealing in the boob area and could not be worn out without a cami underneath, lest I wanted to get myself in trouble. (There is an option for a modesty panel but I declined to add it.)

Pluses are that I like the tunic length, I like the gathering for skimming over my  midsection, and I like the rouleau loop and button fastening on the sleeve. Would I make it again? Possibly, but about three sizes smaller…

I also realised that I need to practise a lot more with the overlocker, and with knits in general, which has led me happily to my make for May. Perhaps that’s the other lesson I learned – sewing begets sewing, and the more I do the more I realise my potential and limitations when it comes to sewing time, which is making the whole process much less fraught than it was a couple of months ago. Onwards!

Don’t forget to vote today, UK folks!

Yes you are still waiting for February’s, but not finishing one thing has never been a bar for me moving onto something else. This week I decided that Elizabeth’s idea of sewing for 30 minutes at a time was a good one, given, oh you know, everything. I also figured that it was about time I sewed some bibs for my dribbly boy, who has entered a new phase of teething. The previous phase was mainly about red, hot cheeks, but this one is all about soaking the outfit in fifteen minutes flat.

I know I made them, and therefore should display some English modesty, but I love these bibs. They really look like part of his outfit, rather than just something flung on to protect the outfit from drool. I made a little batch in various fabrics so that he has something to go with all of his different coloured tops and trousers, but I could do with making another bunch of them since he gets through them so fast…

This was taken later the same day, as we were on our way out to our baby group. I just love that fabric, which was part of my japanese haul. I have also been loving the weather this week, which has been warm enough for picnics in the park – we’ve had three so far and it’s not even May. Naturally, with it being a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, the temperature has plummeted and the rain has returned. It doesn’t matter at all – we’ll just have fun in the ball pond at home.

Wherever you are, whatever you do, long weekend or not, have a great time!

Just a couple of tips from the sewing desk today. I’ve been making progress on February’s make, so much so that there is only the final hem to do. Sometimes I have to leave the final hem for a couple of days, pulling on and pulling off the almost finished garment, seeing how it stands up and trying to decide if it’s worth the effort of the final finish – a weird seamstress’s superstition I have invented, I think.

On to some little things that have made all the difference to this project…

This is a trick I first saw in one of my japanese sewing books. It is especially tricksy to turn up the hem of a knit fabric evenly, since the best thing about knits – their fluidity – is also what makes them a pita to sew with. Instead of having to re-measure your folded hem allowance constantly, simply draw a line on a piece of card and fold the fabric over the edge up to your mark. Nifty and quick – I had my sleeves pinned in mere moments.

If you are coming to dressmaking from more crafty kinds of sewing you may be used to fitting your machine with a standard needle and zipping away with no problems at all. Different fabrics present different challenges – what to do about a perfectly functioning machine that is suddenly skipping stiches? The answer is most likely not that your machine is broken, or even that the tension needs adjusting,  but that you need a different needle. The topmost line of sewing is done with a standard needle (90/14), and I had a few skipped stitches, so switched to a stretch needle. But lo – more skipped stitches. The skipping only stopped when I used a finer stretch needle (75/11). It’s a small thing but it might save you some grief – they aren’t expensive, and they can make a difference. I would probably now add needles to interfacing and pressing in the list of ’seemingly unimportant things that matter’. Never too late to get even more geeky about your sewing…

Which, when you think about it, is logically the next step after reidentification.

Yesterday I met up with Florence, Helen and Lisa, for a long awaited afternoon of tea and chatter. It’s been almost two years since the first time we all met up, and so much has changed for all of us. Little shops have been opened, babies have been/are about to be born, and there’s a whole book on its way. (Speaking of which, we had a sneak peek of Lisa’s bag making book, and oh boy, you are just going to love it. It looks lovely, but even better than that it will be so useful you’ll wonder how you ever sewed without it. Really. Pre-orders in now, I insist…)

As you know, the changes for me have been vast, and though my life feels as though it has always been this way I do have a lingering memory that it once wasn’t. Having tried hard to accept the change, I was finding it harder to reconnect with the other bits of myself, and make them part of my everyday again. I think anything is hard if you are trying to do it through an effort of will, rather than with excitement and enthusiasm.

What helps, of course, is some jolly conversation, to be reminded and told of things you’d be interested in if only you knew about them. (How I missed this Joel Dewberry new line is beyond me, but sometimes I have difficulty breaking out of my old bookmarks. But if you look here I think that dogwood bloom lake would make a very pretty dress. Perhaps this colette dress. I may be punching above my weight with that one, but it looks so lovely.) Then you need a trip to a nice shop, where through gentle persuasion you may end up going home with a new cardigan (I got the light grey, figuring it would go with pretty much anything, and therefore was highly justifiable instead of shopping folly).

And what happened the day after is that I woke up and was filled with energy and decided that today was the day I was finally going to get in those cupboards. We’ve lived here for five years, and since the first days of unpacking, the kitchen cupboards have never been meddled with, so that one thing was being piled on top of another, and getting a pan out to cook dinner was becoming a precarious event. For a few months every time I’ve opened a door to one of my scary cupboards I have muttered the same phrase: ‘I’ve got to get in these cupboards’. It’s become a bit of a joke, but it’s also become a bit of a quagmire too – I could move neither forwards or backwards, because I never seemed to have the will and the energy together to get into the cupboards, and yet the idea of them being so rooted in the past and clutter was, I realise, powerful enough to create inertia where everything else was concerned.

But now the cupboards have been got in, and there is a pile of stuff ready for the recycling centre (well, if you haven’t used a thing in five years the chances are you don’t really need it), and I cleared the sewing desk of things that had been piled onto that, ordered some things for the boy’s quilt, and began to think that I will need a summer skirt. Skirts are good. Quick. Easy. Wearable.

I hope this little burst of energy and enthusiasm continues, but while we wait and see, thanks are obviously due to my dear crafty companions, who proved to be the best tonic. Onwards, to August.

It’s been a busy month at Joleo Towers, some of it good and some of it not so good (another bout of the winter sickness bug anyone? Sheesh.) There have been hundreds of photos taken, but I refrain from posting them because who needs to see billions of pictures of Fitz chomping on pear or broccolli or pasta or peach or yoghurt? Aside from proud grandparents and obsessed parents naturally – look! he has a mouth! look! he puts things in it!

(Although his ability to eat a peach is quite spectacular…)

We did make another simnel cake this year. Instead of moulding eleven balls of marzipan to represent the apostles (minus Judas of course), myself and Mr J, godless people that we are, take the opportunity to mould animals and bottles of wine. We also added a baby in a moses basket, in honour of our Easter guests, who are expecting a baby in the summer.

As for A Make a Month, you can also see that in this picture. Yes, the table cloth is a piece of oilcloth that has been sitting in my stash for almost two years, so even though I technically didn’t make anything, I did unfold it and put it on the table for Fitz to smear with fromage frais. I’m staying within the rules (just), since the aim of the game is stash busting, and this piece is now well and truly busted. February’s make is also almost complete (oh a long sleeved knit just in time for the warm weather), and I have turned my attention to April’s project. You should expect that sometime in June I think…