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.

thrifting and sewing

There's a little second hand shop/cafe where I sometimes pick up a coffee and take a look.

Last time they had a big box full of those dolls people used to bring back from a trip abroad in the seventies and eighties - at least that's my memory. They were mostly horrible plastic ones, but I found these three:

The swiss boy lost his arm thanks to my curious boy, I wonder how that can be fixed - the elastic that attached both arms came out of one of them and left a hole half blocked with dry glue.

I'm not sure where the middle doll comes from, some Balkan country I suspect. Her face is painted fabric and her clothes and shoes have lovely little handmade details.

A sweet white glass plate and a little vase:

and some sewing:

with trembling hands I bought some Nani Iro on sale from reprodepot - it was still so expensive and then the shipment and then customs to top it all, it really makes no sense shopping for fabric online when you happen to live in Israel. On the other hand if you don't you're in the hands of the very few reasonable fabric shops that can actually tell what the fabric content is, and then if you buy prints you're likely to meet the rest of the roll on someone on the street, not necessarily a nice surprise.

However, I bought 3 pieces of double gauze and when they arrived I fell in love and treasured them in the fabric stash, took them out once in a while to caress them with dreamy eyes, and couldn't really bring myself to cut them. But finally I gathered the courage and decided to make a skirt for myself.

The problem I have with how I sew is that I tend not to trust the material and a little bit of chance. I try to control everything. Felting has taught me to let go a bit, but still this is my automatic mode, in any kind of creative work. With this on my mind, I wanted to make an everyday summer's skirt, I wanted to make something simple that will just look nice (and wouldn't it with this fabric?). I love clothes that are very simple but a little twist makes them unique, and with all this controlling I rarely manage to make something like that.

At the same time I couldn't get out of my head a skirt that My mother once had, it was a very full pleated skirt with a ribbon that covers the seam that gathers the pleats and ties at the back. So I made almost that, and in doing so I repeated all my patterns - making a controlled, not so casual, not that simple skirt. still, the fabric is so lovely and summery, and I'll probably wear it a lot in the coming months.

Now I'm using the leftovers for a skirt for Amalia.

(and there are two other pieces left to drool on!)

(My mother saw it and said it reminded her of an old skirt of hers... she asked me to make one for her. What I would make differently is sew the ribbon a bit lower on the pleats, so that there's a bit more of them showing on top.)