Double the Dino

Thanks for all of your fabulous suggestions about what to do with the dino print cotton! So many ideas and such encouragement.

Sadly, not everyone thinks this is such a great investment. I don’t want to point fingers in any particular direction (like, Scotland) but fellow bloggers who shall go unnamed (beginning with ‘Roo’ and ending in ‘doo’) have gently questioned (nay, openly mocked) my dino print cotton.

All I can say is: ‘Tell me I can’t do something, and by all that is legal, I shall!’

Fortunately, other readers are more attuned to my … aesthetic.

Lynn sent over the above knitting pattern* and suggested I could make use of it. A dino sweater to go with my dino skirt/pyjama bottoms/tote bag? Spikes running down my arm? Dino spectacles on my hip? What is not to like people?!!!

Lynn, you’re a woman of vision. My sewing and knitting may be about to come together in beautiful union…

Roobeedoo? Don’t say a word. Not. A. Squeak…!

*The pattern is Paton’s & Baldwins Canada Inc. published this in 1988. It was distributed in the U.S.A. by Susan Bates, Inc.

The name of the pattern is Seriousaurus. Yarn specified is Paton’s Beehive Sheland Chunky. It takes 8 balls color A, 4 balls color B and 6 balls color C for the Medium size; and 4.5 mm and 6mm needles are suggested to achieve gauge. The pattern notes “This is an oversized garment.” [Note from Ed: No Kidding!]

British Library Spring Market

Sadly, my job means I can’t attend the Spring Market that the British Library is holding next Thursday, but I can at least live vicariously through my readers.

If any of you are free and looking for a jaunt out, this event looks really fabulous. Pack yourself some sarnies and make the trip to Euston Road. (You might want to arrive via Euston station and pop into the Wellcome Museum on your way over.) Then go and sit on the British Library’s plaza, eat your sarnies, and mosey around the stalls. Heaven!

You could even bob your head inside the library itself and check out its collection of vintage knitting patterns.

Once you’ve finished there, you might consider walking ten minutes down the road to Drink Shop & Do to have a slice of cake for afters.

Drink, Shop & Do

Do let me know if you pop along. I’d love to hear all about it. Sigh. Put some money in the juke box for me…

Sewzilla Roars

Description: Money-eating craftivore

Period: The Late Fantastic

Oh, good lord. I’ve only gone and bought two metres of dinosaur camouflage fabric. (You can find it here.) I have no idea what I’m going to do with this, but it was too entertaining to resist.

The cotton is listed as clothing fabric, but would I really want to walk around the streets of London with people squinting at me saying, ‘Are those … dinosaurs?’ I suspect this may be fabric for ipad covers and wash bags and the like.

It would, however, make a great lining in a second Minoru jacket. Or blinds for a dino-mad boy’s bedroom. Except I don’t have any little boys to make blinds for.

Help me, please! What would YOU do with fabric that makes you want to roar?

Wood Street Market – E17 Extravaganza!

This is getting beyond a joke. To answer Tasia’s recent question, I can tell you exactly how close my nearest fabric store is. Ten minutes down the road, with more fabric than Project Runway can dream of, some of it as little as £1 a metre. But this really takes the biscuit. I mean, who decided to put the devil quite literally on my shoulder?

Two minutes away from my house is an indoor market. It’s a fascinating warren of record shops and second hand furniture, cake bakers and book sellers. But it has always been on the neglected side of vintage and creative. Until now. Someone’s only gone and made a significant investment in the market. They’ve only had the audacity to encourage local creatives to set up stall here. They might as well start printing T-shirts saying, ‘Lead Karen in here and empty her purse, please.’ or ‘No, really, Karen doesn’t have anything better to do than nose around all day.’

So I went and had a nose around, didn’t I? People, I have to pass this place to go and buy a pint of milk.

Forsaken Dreams

Forsaken Dreams were the first people I met. They were lovely and extremely welcoming. We chatted about the initiative at the market and I could see straight away that some very lovely people had moved into my hood. (Yes. I just wrote ‘hood’. I know how old I am, you don’t need to remind me.)

Next up was a visit with Galina Sherri, henceforth to be known as the woman I must avoid at all costs if I don’t want to buy up half her shop:

IF I was ever commissioning a book on all things vintage and IF I was organising a photoshoot and IF I needed a props supplier, I would be hammering down this woman’s door. She’s good. Very, very good. When I mentioned my love of cocktail rings, she whipped out a bejewelled vintage Christian Dior. I admired politely and declined. But, of course, she already knew she had me. I bought something else instead:

Just so much trash. Not!

I reluctantly bid goodbye to Galina and went to stroll around the rest of the market.

Craft Guerilla are already firmly established in East London and organised the Debbie Bliss talk I went to, but I’m really pleased to see that they’re now right on my doorstep.

Question. Why is this woman texting instead of sewing?

So, I thought I’d had an okay time. Then I turned the corner and saw this:

 Anja Jane

Anja is an amazing artist, who also happens to live across the road from me. But she’d gone travelling. But now she was back, the proud owner of a space in the market. And I hadn’t seen her in over a year and – wheeeee! This was a total surprise and the icing on the cake. Anja hosted the first ever group sewing evening that I attended, blogged about here. Lots of lavender and wine was involved on a balmy summer evening – no wonder I fell in love with sewing.

Well, I don’t know what to say. I’m really not happy with this state of affairs.

Actually, I have two things left to say. Come on down to the market! And, um, I’m sick of dropping hints. When are you all gonna move to Walthamstow? Innit.

Central Saint Martins – Week 7 In Pictures

I threw this together during last night’s class… No, I didn’t! The final year students are getting ready to share their toiles for marking, so they’re working like trojans. Isn’t this amazing? Knocks my Gertie Bombshell Dress out of the park in the va-va-voom stakes.

I’ve often been concerned that I simply don’t have the creative imagination to design anything on the back of my pattern making course. But it’s interesting to see how ideas start to form and you find an aesthetic. Apparently, I like curved lines. A lot.

Last night I dreamt about drafting a top I’ve sketched. I foolishly left the sketch out for my tutor to spot, which means I’ve had to chat about my ideas, which means I can’t pretend I’m not thinking about anything. But dreaming is my real litmus test. When I dream about a project, I know I’m getting seriously drawn in. Any tips for UK supplies of pattern drafting paper? At the very least, I’d like to knock something up in calico. I can always throw it in the bin afterwards.

Oh, and don’t be fooled by the evidence of hard work. Those pesky fashion students are still having far too good a time for my liking. This, spotted leaning against a classroom window:

Choo-choo! Train Coming Through

Ola! As you may have detected from my last blog post, I’ve spent the last week feeling horribly out of control of my own life. Which, for a control freak, is not a good place to be. Thank goodness, this weekend I’ve steered my train back on track and feel much more serene.

I had three aims:

• Get a bit of sewing done, no matter how tiny.
• Do some writing! (Not blog writing. The other kind.)
• Squeeze in a 9-mile run for my half marathon training.

My favourite sewing moments happened early in the mornings. I’ve made good progress on my Minoru jacket and have even been experimenting with patch pockets to go on the front panels:

It’s so nice to have actually – you know – done some sewing.

I spent Saturday on the South Bank writing. I was in the Royal Festival Hall where some Weirdness Of Interactive Creative Something Mad was going on:

There were a lot of these adolescent theatre students prancing around with light fittings on their heads. My favourite moment was when a toddler cocked her head back to gawp at me in the way only a very young child can entirely GAWP. The expression on her face was priceless, as these actors pranced around: ‘What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?’ Her father (who I didn’t know from Adam) and I burst out laughing.

And today I got out for my run, taking in Hackney, Bethnal Green, Brick Lane and Liverpool Street. Top tip for avoiding running boredom – take lots of snaps on your iPhone:

Ten out of ten to Fehr Trade if she spots a certain logo in this shot!

Columbia Street Market

Finally, I should mention some lovely gifts I received for my birthday. A clapper!

And this gorgeous card from Handmade Jane:

 I’m so getting this card framed. Isn’t it to die for? 

Yes, that is a little scrap of fabric sewn onto the card. Sweet? So sweet my head could explode with happiness.

Right, I’m off to eat risotto. I think I’m officially back in the groove! Hope you’ve all had good weekends, people.

The Time Traveller’s Strife

The prospect of an empty mid-week evening usually has me rubbing my hands together with glee. Just think of all that sewing I can get done!

But by the time I get home from work, and allow someone else to cook dinner, and lay the table, and eat and clear up and have a bit of a sit down, and feel tired and – oh, look, Masterchef is on – it’s creeping up towards 10pm and that is my time when I know I will be too tired to do anything sensible. The three-hour stretch of sewing I anticipated has become a snatched 45 minutes and, sigh, not much progress has been made.

Then I go to bed, get up, and do it all again and wonder if I will ever, ever beat the clock. I swear to god, someone is pushing the big hand forwards when I’m not looking…

Baby steps, baby steps…