Always take a ball of string...

...and a carrot for the minotaur!
Ok, we didn't find any minotaurs - but we were the best dressed maze followers in the Saffron Walden turf maze.
This maze is laid out in brick work and is based on the ancient Celtic mazes which were inscribed on mirrors, jewellery and stone carvings. Their true meaning is 'lost in the mists of time', which means we don't really know if they were just pretty, or served some deeper purpose, but they are still fascinating.
For the Maze event, a group of knitters had knitted a very very very long scarf, which traveled the length of the maze - which is a mile, if you follow it carefully round.
As this is England, it was gently raining as our intrepid junior Minotaur hunter set out - but then I suspect that the ancient Celtic peoples often got a little damp around the edges. I imagine them looking out over the green lands of ancient Britain at the epic monoliths they had constructed in order to commune with their Gods. I imagine it was raining then too, and the first thing they were really keen to find out about was a neolithic pack-a-mac. Oh how less dignified though, if the heart stopping rituals of blood and fire were accompanied but the all consuming rustle of rip stop nylon, so reminiscent of summer holidays in England. One wonders if the common Celtic man was less worried by the Roman invasion when he spied his first sauna.
Anyway - the maze seekers set off - not daunted by the drizzle, and follow the ancient lay lines and the jolly knitted scarf.
The mini mazer looked lovely in her Union Jack Kimonii, and stands out against the green and pleasant land.















Keep going - it's not far now - well, it is far if you only have short legs, but she's doing really well. Even so, the whole mile may have been a bit of an ask for a two year old, even a two year old who is nearly three - so in the end, a short cut was employed...
And like and all good mazes, there was treasure at the end, even if we didn't get to see a Minotaur.










If you want to learn more about the Kimonii, please click this link.

Amazing Maze

We're off here today - to visit friends in Saffron Walden and to see some Mazes - It's a free week long events and seems to be mostly free, so a great way to spend what might be a reasonable summers day.
I think it may be reason enough for Wednesday - to wear one of these!

Do you Squidoo?

I do - this is where I write in-depth articles about how to do some of the things I do - have a look at this very interesting post about cocktail cup cakes!

New threads!

It has been a while since I blogged, but I have been very busy. I had my first trade show which scared the life out of me, but I did manage to get a few wholesale orders. I learned a great deal, and I have decided to push ahead with retailing my children's wear as well as supplying shops.
To that end, I will be at the Thames Festival on the 10th and 11th of September with the lovely 'We Make London' craft collective - so do try and come down. It's all free except what you buy from the stalls!

This is one of the new styles I have been working on - a bubble dress with harem pants. This one was made from a sari I bought in a charity shop, and I hope to have some more made in a range of fabrics for September.
It's a lovely pattern, and it's made of a half circle of fabric, with one seam at the center back, as shown her, and button straps. I just wanted to see if I could spread my usual dress pattern into a half circle, and this is the result!
It's fully lined, and the lining is attached to the hem and it both more narrow and shorter, to create the bubble effect.
And I've been making these - little waist coats all based on my favorite asymmetrical pattern, with my big round patch pockets - they are so useful to add warm layers and cover up ice cream on t-shirts!

Will blog more soon, on how my preparations for September are going, and I should have new pictures of my corduroy coat soon! 

Oriental by accident

 

This Kimonii was an experiment to see what an all cotton version of the style would be like, and also to try out my apron skirt idea.

 

The colours though suddenly look  very traditionally Chinese, I think it's that clear sky blue and the cherry red; and the straight skirt.

 

I finished the skirt edge by using mitered corners, which is my new lasted rave; it saves binding the skirt and makes the hem really neat - or it would have done had my sewing machine not slightly pulled the bobbin thread, meaning it didn't press very well!

 

But I do think it's very pretty, I think though I need to make the skirt a little more full on this little size, this straighter style would be better on the slightly older age group.

 

This is an idea for a little smock top, I really like this simple, triangle shape on little kids, 

 

The fabric is too heavy, but I like the colour, I wish I could get some linen look cotton which would hang perfectly for this idea,

 

I love circular pockets, bit tricky to line up though!

 

Hello my three fans!

Hello gang!
I am planning my next sewing exploration, and I have ordered some turquoise Chinese satin from a budget ebay supplier with the aim of making Kimonii for myself,Lisa and Andy to wear at TG.
I have adjusted the pattern to include a more traditional Japanese drop shoulder, which in fact makes it easier to make as this is a far simpler shape than a western sleeve; the down side being that you have no where to hide when it's not perfect - Western design allows for easing, squeezing, adding in decorative pleats when inaccurate pattern measurements trip you up - so we'll see.
As they are for TG, they are a little more 'out there' then I might pursue for day to day wear, I have gone for turquoise satin with a gold faux leather belt for Lisa and I, and black Suedette for himself; and I have added some other details,including delightful exaggerated sleeves and much shorter pants than I would normally have!
I will post pictures as the project progresses!

And now with pictures!

The first one a sweet all corduroy Kimonii play, with a trim of a vintage print of deep red cherries on a cream cotton back ground. Ideally I would have put all the press studs in, but I am waiting for a new press stud tool and the ones I've got don't give the best finish; so I've left them out for now.

The second one I wasn't planning to make, but then I spotted some olive green fabric with a floral print my Mother in Law had given me, and the olive tweed wool, which went together perfectly; and I wanted to try out my new apron skirt idea, so here we are...

Front view, with buttons in place of snaps.

 I do love the binding on this, and the back view is so sweet!

So, listen out for me on the radio - I'm on three counties radio tomorrow (Thursday) between 1.30 and 2.00, sx!