Life-drawing at Candid Arts, Islington

Happy new year!

I spent the first day of 2013 in Brentwood with James and we encountered a little piece of yarn bombing outside the Chicken and Frog Bookshop.

It seems to be the work of Claire Mackaness, proprietor of craft business Beautiful Things, who teaches classes at the bookshop. She has a blog post about the yarn bombing here, although the wool in her photographs is quite clearly different to the wool in my photographs. Presumably it was replaced at some point, but I can't find a second post to confirm this.

Here's to a fun and warm 2013!

P/hop and a knitted reindeer pattern

P/hop is a fund-raising initiative supporting Médecins Sans Frontierès. Designers create knitting patterns which anyone can download. If you download a pattern you're asked to donate based on how many hours of pleasure you'll get from knitting the pattern – pennies per hour of pleasure! There is no set donation amount, it's entirely up to you.

Their most recent pattern was designed by my mum! Rudolf, That Reindeer! is a pattern for a cute, little reindeer. Look at how adorable they are!

Download the pattern, donate some money, make some reindeer to give as Christmas gifts and help MSF provide medical aid where it's needed the most.

Mad as a March Hare

I've been waiting to write this post since September!

I've just got back from a costume party based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I went as the March Hare, my favourite character from the Alice books. (The phrase “mad as a March Hare” apparently refers to their strange behaviour in the spring, when hares appear to box with each other. This isn't males competing over territory or mating rights as you might expect, but female hares rebuffing the advances of males.) I decided to put together an outfit loosely-based on the version of the character from the 1951 Disney animation. I didn't want to end up buying clothes that I'd only wear once so I tried to only spend money on things that I thought I'd use after the party.

Pattern Magic, part 2

So here's my attempt at the takenoko (bamboo shoot) bodice from Pattern Magic.

I love this design. I want to get some more of this fabric and make a proper top using this pattern.

(Not pictured, the pieces of calico that could be used to make the hideously ugly crater bodice, if I could get them to line up correctly, and the many, many, many bits of paper used to work out the patterns for both.)

This was an interesting – and occasionally frustrating – course. I've only ever used shop-bought dress patterns before so this was my first experience drafting and manipulating my own patterns. It's possible that I could have done with an interim stage as Tomoko Nakimichi's approach to pattern design is very technical! However, it was really useful to see how the shape of a pattern can be changed by adding or deducting space. I really hope I can apply some of this knowledge when using shop-bought patterns in future, altering them to create a better fit. (Although that kind of alteration is definitely made easier with access to a tailor's dummy.)

Pattern Magic, part 1

I'm doing a two-day course at Morley College taught by Manisola Omotoso called Pattern Magic. It's based around the book of the same name, which is full of amazing ideas for creating sculptural effects on sewn garments, but doesn't exactly hold your hand and guide you through them. The idea behind the course is to offer more detailed instructions for carrying out the techniques in the book.

I thought I'd have more to say this evening, but today was taken up with drafting a block for a bodice and then using that to create a pattern for one of the designs in the book. I have a lovely collection of bits of paper with sums and shapes drawn all over them, (this book is math-tastic), but no textiles to show off yet and no idea if I'll have any time to work on this before next weekend.

Frustratingly, there's lots of stuff I'd like to blog about right now, but it's all either unfinished or intended as a surprise for people who I think read this blog! Maybe in December I'll finally be able to post some pictures.

Bow-tie

I needed an orange bow-tie for a costume party I'm attending in December. Obviously there are many serviceable and affordable versions available to buy, but while I was looking for wool for another project I uncovered a large piece of orange fabric left over from my course. It was supposed to have been yellow, but I'd dyed it for too long and then set it to one side thinking it would come in useful for something else. Here was that opportunity! I would make my own bow-tie and save myself £4.