Linen

Amidst a week of activity; school netball grand finals, work and play, I decided to alter the bedroom curtains. I initially made ground sweeping beauties from Ikea Aina linen panels, unpicked and sewn with a hand pleated heading and a border of Designers Guild fabric that I had carried around for over 10 years. Finally, as I was about to pass this fabric on, I realised it was a perfect for our bedroom. The beautiful cobalt blue giving the donkey coloured walls that little touch of excitement. The two linens met remarkably well and all was happy.

Unfortunately, we somehow managed to trip over the folds and an inconveniently placed heating vent was cause for a fire hazard. So, I decided they needed to be raised. Like so many great ideas, the execution takes so much longer than the thought.....

The panels have been removed, (unpicking taking ages!), the curtains shortened and now they have to be re-attached with the trim on top. So close to the end. It will be worth it!

Knitting

I finished this shawl several weeks ago but needed a decent photo.

Such a lovely pattern! Everything I need in knitting: fast, interesting and lovely to touch.

You can find the Pattern on Ravelry here and the wool is Sublime Baby Cashmere. Cashmere and silk - beautiful.

Have started another in cotton in anticipation of the warmer weather....

Hope everyone has a great week!

yellow smock

yellowsmock2, originally uploaded by mosswoodstudio.

As I look at this photo of a yellow dress against a grey wall with a piece of liberty at the neck, it's hard to see what's wrong.
No visions of Vicars are floating past.
Maybe it's the colour against my skin.
Maybe I need to alter the pattern more.
Am I ready to pull it all apart and start again tomorrow?...

Alice

pdolls3, originally uploaded by mosswoodstudio.

paper dolls

pdolls, originally uploaded by mosswoodstudio.

I was lucky enough to have a weekend in the city recently. A good friend offered to have the children and our hotel was gratis. So, I spent a lovely sunny Saturday afternoon wandering around Surry Hills. These shots are the window display at paper2. Isn't it beautiful?

I loved paper dolls as a child and spent hours cutting out the clothes and swapping them around. No, I didn't puchase any of these, but what lovely eye candy.

The Victorian looking Alice in Wonderland characters are my favourite.

voila!

"I want to make you this dress", I said.

The little one replied, "only if I can choose my own fabric".

So we searched through the cupboard and this was what she chose.

In many ways it couldn't be a more obvious choice, and yet it is so perfect.

The end of roll piece I picked up some time ago when on sale.

Sweet Suzanne is now complete.

Just waiting for sun to shine so we can go out to play.

the smocks.....

What is so seductive about these sweet little patterns? I could barely contain my excitement when a package arrived from Paris.

Suddenly they are flooding blog space. I first saw them on itty bitty's blog and also here. I have had a few issues with the French translation and thought the diagrams would be enough. The lack of finishing instructions has been a bit of a challenge.

So you will have to wait a little longer for the real thing to appear! Not far off....

This is Albertine. I ran up an adult version for myself yesterday and the children just shook their head. One daughter told me it looked like something the Vicar of Dibley would wear. So back to a few alterations and resizing ( I have discovered that they are a bit notorious for being larger than stated on the pattern)

For more beautiful and totally French images go to Citronille.