A Productive Night of Craft

Occasionally, when our busy schedules of mothering, wifing (being a wife) and working allow, we get together and have Craft Night. This involves a night off cooking, wine, gossip and crafting. For me, at least, this is a night to look forward to. Last week we probably had our most productive craft night ever.  A flurry of ideas and activity meant that we all went home with various completed projects. A fabric sale up the road had meant that we had a surplus of new fabric and a tracksuit pant making frenzy began. With us all having small children we set about creating some great pants. We opted to cuff them with an alternate fabric. There was also some bib making and some neat cuffed leggings. On Craft Night we have access to a doming machine (snaps) so we went about snapping everything in sight as well. 

We used a very simple pajama pant pattern for the trousers and the bibs were made in a variety of shapes. The backing for the bibs was toweling cut from sale towels. A much cheaper way of getting toweling than buying by the metre. In addition to all this, a few coffee sack cushions were made too. You can often buy coffee sacks from cafes for a nominal price and you will find that some are softer than others. 

So, as you can see a VERY productive evening. 

Well, here are the fabrics for my first project, I am going to make a little girl's dress from the Liberty cord and the cream cotton. I am going to attempt a Japanese pattern which seems rather complicated but looks amazing.

Am struggling to manage this programme and can't seem to rotate the picture. Gosh, who knows how the dress is going to turn out....

To help me on my way, I have had to purchase some new inspiration. These 4 books filled with Japanese pattern goodness have winged their way from the Land of the Rising Sun to the Land of the Long White Cloud. The fact that I don't speak a word of Japanese has not deterred me in any way and I look forward to the added challenge of negotiating my way through patterns with no instructions.

Acknowledgment is the First Step

I think it is time to admit that I actually have a medically diagnosable condition. Having been coerced (yet again) into a trip to the fabric shop I have come to accept that it really is time for some kind of intervention. I have decided to partake in a Julia and Julia type situation where I am only allowed to sew with fabric that I actually already own. This blog is going to showcase my journey through my fabric boxes. It will be a record of my personal discovery, mostly of fabrics I never knew I owned and an experiment that will push me to new levels of creativity (there really are some fabrics in there that show a lack of good judgment).