getting ready

this is yesterday. The mirror needs cleaning but I'm entering week 37, so I'm allowed to let it stay dirty for a bit... towards the end of this pregnancy I feel like a glass so full of water, that with every movement I might spill some. so I'm quiet relieved to reach week 37 with only reminders of the coming birth and not an actual beginning. Now I can be sure that this birth will happen at home, as the midwives only take a home birth from this pregnancy week and on.

both previous births took place at home. This time I feel less ready, less focused, so I'm trying to set my mind on home and family. I was very busy with getting as much work as possible done, drawing patterns, cutting fabric, sewing, passing some parts on to my seamstress. but somehow there isn't that much done...

Here are some things I was working on during the past few months:

a granny square blanket for the new baby. It's the first crocheting I ever did... it was fun. and the yarn is lovely soft Merino. I tried to save the knitting for any time when I'm outside or visiting someone, or at home next to my children, in short, any time I couldn't do more demanding work. It was fun to have strangers react on this activity in places like the dentist's waiting room or a playground. It's the kind of thing that immediately makes people feel friendly and smiley and talkative.

and now that it's finished, I feel the baby can finally come out.

This is Ayala. I participated in a doll making course organized and taught by Shiri, another mother in my daughter's kindergarten, who has the most wonderful talent for making beautiful things. it took quiet a while to make her, and my children were waiting from week to week to watch the slow developments. they were excited when she was done. here she wears some other doll's outfit, but by now she has a dress of her own and I'm hoping to find a moment to make some more clothes for her. Amalia doesn't want to part with her, so Ayala even tasted some strawberries once... I had to clean her and now her face is not as new looking. But it turned her (for me mostly) from some desired object that Mom worked so hard on, into a real toy.

new fabrics for an old design, these cord trousers are for ages 2-5.

Thanks to Amy Karol and her "Bend the Rules withFabric" book, I learned about the EZscreen kits for making home scale screen prints relatively cheaply and safely. so I ordered a kit and started playing with that. I made a bunch of these little blouses (ages 18 months to 4 years) and printed some of them with 3 different bird drawings. I only have this one photographed, the others are still at my seamstress' studio, being sewn.

A simple summer dress.

there are more clothes in the making, I hope to slowly be able to show more things. My strategy for these pregnancy months has been to just work and work as much as possible, and face the selling part later, when the baby will be here. so I might open an online shop sometime in the near future.

Jaffa port

Amalia (not mine, friend's daughter) and Elisheva both wear my sharwal trousers

new things

hello!

some new things I've been making lately. I'm quiet slow and my attention is spread over different projects of sewing and knitting + the famous everyday life that doesn't let me use my scarce working time for working. I'm 3.5 months away from birth and it's a hell of a deadline, so I'm trying to focus as much as possible on my things and my goals and less on spreading my efforts on gifts etc. but I'm not so good at that, so gifts continue to flow...

I made these twin cardigans for our friends Iris and Ishay's new twin babies, Netta and Hagar:

They're laid out on a beautiful huge tablecloth I found at London's Spitalfields market last month. we spent lovely 4 days, just the 2 of us, unbelievable as it may have seemed just a while before. All grandparents joined in the mission of babysitting, and we took our first vacation without kids since we have kids, that's exactly 6 years. and our last vacation for the next few years again... it was an important reminder to what life can be outside the parenting bubble. And it was wonderful to come back.

here are close ups of the buttons, vintage, once found on etsy or ebay, can't remember:

Just before leaving for England I ordered some lovely fabrics from sew mama sew, and they arrived shortly after we came back. In my studio, They joined (aside from all the "old" fabrics) a beautiful piece of ivory flannel that I had bought at a shop in Soho, can't remember it's name. this shop was so overwhelming and the prices were so high that I finally managed to buy only this simple but super soft and fine 5 meter piece of flannel.

Anyway, the package that arrived full of beautiful florals, one natural linen-cotton blend and one lovely Heather Ross mermaids fabric pleased me as much and sent me right into my little studio. I couldn't gather enough creative energy to come up with something of my own, so I used a pattern from a book, I think it's the first time for me to follow a pattern without any changes. here is the dress:

(my daughter does her own styling ever since she was 2 years old. I wouldn't dare to think up this combination, but luckily she's not as inhibited as I am)

this is the back side, with a beautiful vintage button I found at a Tel Aviv button shop once:

she looks so happy in that last picture, but in reality she took the dress off immediately after I took these shots and declared that she doesn't like it and that I should put it in my own closet. so I'm starting to seriously consider (again) opening a shop on etsy.

summer clothes for little friends

Two friends of mine asked me to make some summer clothes that they would buy for their daughters (9.5 months and a year and a half). As it was so late in the year and I hadn't even begun working yet, I decided not to work with a seamstress this time, and to skip this summer season but for making this small batch. It took me two or three months, I began very slowly and hesitantly. surprisingly, when we decided that our son will stop going to his kindergarten and stay at home with me, I managed to put more effort and more creativity into this project. I realize now that I have been more focused on him than on sewing, and therefore put less importance on how special and wonderful it will turn out. and it was that different energy that allowed me to get busy, to enjoy sewing, and to find ways of being original and creative while working and not while planning.

When I was at Art school I was always imagining and sketching projects, but didn't have as much patience for actually making. Thinking seemed to be enough for me... It was a rare thing for me to be able to confidently and unthinkingly dive into the realm of physically making without worrying. So this time I felt so relaxed and happy to be just working and not so busy with how good it will all be.

A great crafting experience.

sewing and messing

When Amalia was born I "inherited" some clothes from some friends with older girls (we still  get a big bag of clothes every now and then, so much quicker and cheaper than sewing ;-)). There was this one very sweet apron shirt that's made in one piece. I love it when something seems very simple but the making of it is clever, especially clothes that are made in one piece - when they work and look good they are even more beautiful for this elegant solution in their making.

Anyhow I worked out the pattern more or less and since then made a few sizes. But being the chaotic crafter that I am, there seems to be no real connection between the patterns of the different sizes, god knows why. I found that out only recently and kind of late in the season for making anything to sell...

I realized that I had sort of missed the summer season about 2 month ago, when everybody started to show off their summer collections and I had done nothing all winter (but watch lots of downloaded films and TV series - hey, it was cold where my sewing machine stands).

A friend phoned me and asked to buy some summer clothes for her daughter, and then added that some friends of hers would also be interested, and should we organize a home-sale at her place before Passover. so I thought, OK, no big plans, I won't even phone my seamstress, I'll just dig up the few pieces which patterns are finished and checked, make 3-4 sizes of each, and make very few pieces to sell. and then start immediately working on winter, since I'm soooo sloooww. I started with this shirt, and drowned in this pattern mess, had to draw it all over again and try on my house model to check it works fine. so much work! I might have some things finished for the girls to buy around September... luckily, Israeli summer runs until about late November.

*It's not so well photographed, it was windy.

+

here's a cool video clip of Israeli musician Oren Lavie.

Happy Passover.

spring swap

While wandering through Flickr, as I often do, I stumbled upon the beautiful clothes by Amanda of Mannagryn . I asked if she sells, she offered a swap. I'm still waiting for the little note from the post office, she already got my package, and so I can share what I had made for her son.

edited: I'm kept waiting because of the Israeli post services, not because of Amanda of Mannagryn.

Not only does Amanda make beautiful clothes and uses the most gorgeous vintage fabrics, but it seems from her photos that her sewing is impeccable. Naturally I became very concerned with the quality of my sewing and of the patterns and fitting. I found myself making the trousers twice, as I did the light grey shirt - only to decide that the fabric doesn't fit the pattern. and so I embroidered it and made the darker grey version with a much finer fabric. only the red Tshirt was already made in advance, luckily... so there you go, a confession of a neurotic crafter.

Amanda has posted photos of her son wearing his new clothes on her stream.

I'll post about my half of the deal as soon as it arrives.