Showing posts with label bird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bird. Show all posts
Monday, August 28, 2017
Bird Print Summer Dress on a Winters Day
Bird Print Summer Dress on a Winters Day
Happy New Year one and all!!! Ah, I love the beginning of a new year for an opportunity to get my head straight with what my hopes are for the near future. And in terms of sewing and blogging, this year my aims are simple: to just to do some! The not-so-mini-dude is now three months old and lots of fun. His three-year-old big sister is awesome and energy-filled, and requires A LOT of attention during her waking hours, so mumming duties are plentiful and opportunities to do either sewing or blogging are currently very limited. But the boost to my mental health that they give me makes them all the more important, so I certainly will aim to get a some done when I can, even if its just 10 minutes here or there.
Im not going to make any promises as to the amount or frequency of my sewing projects or blog posts, as that would probably become one more thing to feel pressured by and frustrated about. I also endeavour to focus on sewing from my stash of fabric and upcycle-able garments, because Im feeling more than ever that it is important to use existing materials where possible rather than buying new. Plus, we could use some more space in our little home! I wish you all the best with whatever sewing or non-sewing related resolutions and aims you may have made for 2017.
I want to start this blogging year by tying up a couple of loose ends and posting about some garments I made in 2016. And whilst the UK is currently in post-Christmas winter dullness, why not start with a sunny summer project that I made back in August as part of the last KCW challenge that I participated in?
Pattern:
To be honest, I often find the Big Fours childrens pattern to be fairly uninspiring. The fabric choices and styling on the envelopes often look so cutesy and twee, particularly compared to Ottobre magazines and independent pattern companies like Oliver + S, that I find it hard to get excited about using them. However, I could see some real potential in the pattern pictured above.
This McCalls M6059 was generously sent to me a couple of years ago by Adey from The Sew Convert, along with lots of other patterns. Ive had a whirl at the cute cuffed, puffy shorts (unblogged) from this pattern and they came out really big. So even though at the time of making this dress Dolores was about to turn three, I used the size 2 dress pattern, but combined it with the size 4 length to get a couple of years wear from it. It was generally an easy make, with a bit of fiddly concealed zip insertion and some hand stitching round the yoke.
This McCalls M6059 was generously sent to me a couple of years ago by Adey from The Sew Convert, along with lots of other patterns. Ive had a whirl at the cute cuffed, puffy shorts (unblogged) from this pattern and they came out really big. So even though at the time of making this dress Dolores was about to turn three, I used the size 2 dress pattern, but combined it with the size 4 length to get a couple of years wear from it. It was generally an easy make, with a bit of fiddly concealed zip insertion and some hand stitching round the yoke.
Fabric:
The bird print fabric was a small piece of secondhand, silky, synthetic twill with a tiny bit of stretch that I got whilst working at TRAID about four years ago. The print features blue tits as well as paler versions of the same blue tits, which kind of make the fabric look semi-translucent, which it isnt. All told, this is rather odd but fabulous fabric that Im guessing was originally intended for lingerie or nightwear. If Id had enough of it, it would have made for a lovely Tilly and the Buttons Fifi set.
The outer yoke is made from leftover washed denim from my Tova top, and the yoke lining is leftover cotton lawn from my Mimi blouse. The whole thing was looking a bit plain so I added these gorgeous little shell bird buttons which were kindly given to me by Maggie from Textile Garden (you can find a black version of them here).
The outer yoke is made from leftover washed denim from my Tova top, and the yoke lining is leftover cotton lawn from my Mimi blouse. The whole thing was looking a bit plain so I added these gorgeous little shell bird buttons which were kindly given to me by Maggie from Textile Garden (you can find a black version of them here).
Thoughts:
I, personally, was really happy with this creation; it is pretty without being super-sickly/girly, plus it busted a treasured piece of stash fabric that I previously couldnt work out what to do with. However, it took a couple of weeks for Dolores to accept it. I want her to be free to dress as she wishes (which is almost always in a dress), but she needs help with choosing weather and activity appropriate outfits, so each morning I offer up a few suitable options for her to pick from. It took quite a few rounds of outfit choosing before this dress beat its competitors for the honor of being worn that day. Im glad to say that, as long as it remains in Doloress good books, it should hopefully have at least another two summers worth of wears left. And now that Ive got three bodies to sew for, longevity is key in the garments I make.
Cost:
Pattern: £0 (a gift)
Fabric: approx. £1 for the bird print fabric (we had a karma tin that we contributed to when we took a piece of fabric for our personal use), the rest were scraps whose cost was factored into other projects
Buttons: £0 (a gift)
Total: £1
Available link for download
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
Saturday, June 3, 2017
Bird mail custom label
Bird mail custom label
Bird_mail, originally uploaded by MAUstudio.
I created this design for my new store MAUpromos on ETSY. I love the color combination and the cute little bird character. What do you think?
Available link for download
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Bird Play
Bird Play
In the winter we really appreciate birds. For the most part animal life outside is sparse. We may see tracks but dont get to see much other than that. We appreciate the birds that brave the cold and long winter to stay here. We enjoy filling up the bird feeder and watching them gather and eat, and it feels good to help another living thing in this small way.
Bird seed is a fun sensory experience weve put in the sensory tub (which is usually sand or water for winter play).
Most of the same objects and utensils work just as well with the bird seed as they do the water or sand. The funnel, of course, is always a favorite.
And there is bird play at the play stand too. We have quite a few of the Audubon Birds. My daughters enjoy listening to their bird calls when squeezed and theyve helped us learn many of the calls we hear outside. In addition to the birds, the play stand has white fabric, a round basket (as a nest) wooden eggs, a few tree branch blocks and pinecones and acorns for "food."
Available link for download
Monday, January 30, 2017
Bird Mail PRO Email App v2245 49c Apk
Bird Mail PRO Email App v2245 49c Apk
(Poem #1948) The Grammar Lesson A noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does. An adjective is what describes the noun. In "The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz" *of* and *with* are prepositions. *The's* an article, a *can's* a noun, a noun's a thing. A verb's the thing it does. A can *can* roll - or not. What isn't was or might be, *might* meaning not yet known. "Our can of beets *is* filled with purple fuzz" is present tense. While words like our and us are pronouns - i.e. *it* is moldy, *they* are icky brown. A noun's a thing; a verb's the thing it does. Is is a helping verb. It helps because *filled* isn't a full verb. *Can's* what *our* owns in "Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz." See? There's almost nothing to it. Just memorize these rules...or write them down! A noun's a thing, a verb's the thing it does. The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz. |
What always fascinates me about villanelles is the various ways poets deal with the repetition inherent in the form. The one inescapable thing is that this repetition *does* have to be dealt with, and that it is often a major force in the shaping of the poem - pronouncements about form not dictating content notwithstanding. Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" is without doubt the most celebrated example of the English villanelle, and with reason - it is, to my mind, a perfect study in how to make the form work to reinforce the content and tone, with never a hint of awkwardness or constraint. Along other axes, humorous poets have used the structure of the villanelle to poke fun at itself, experimentalists have seen how much they can bend the form without it breaking, and, of course, countless poets have simply ignored the fact that the form does and should influence the content, and repeated the end lines mechanically and without regard to their contribution to the flow and progress of the poem. Today's poem caught my eye for yet another clever take on making the repetition work for the theme - in the context of a grammar lesson, repeating a sentence again and again with minor changes rung upon it makes perfect sense - is, indeed, almost inevitable. I love the way Kowit makes it seem that the villanelle form itself fell out of the requirements of the subject, rather than the other way around. In the grand scheme of things I'd say this poem falls somewhere between 'serious' and 'intellectual exercise' (with a dash of humour in the unexpected image of "this can of beets is filled with purple fuzz") - not by any means an immortal poem, but a very well crafted one, and definitely worth reading. martin [Links] Biography: http://www.flagstaffcentral.com/bookfest2000/Authors/kowit.html Kowit on deliberately difficult poetry [long but brilliant essay]: [broken link] http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/press/kowit.html
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