bee handmade

brief absence

The small interlude was due to the fact that we were on holiday for a week.

Here are some snippets.

Tavira

Swimming pool

Fresh fish ready to cook

On the crafting front I've been going through a pouch experimentation phase which has consisted of trying out various methods of construction.

Here are some of the fruits of my labour

The two on the bottom left are ipod pouches. I stumbled upon this brilliant tutorial, modifying the instructions for my final version to include a second pocket to house earphones. I'm really pleased with it so thanks to Petchy for sharing.
 

More details from my production line.

central zip

quilted and boxy

purse

small and boxy

All the techniques were gleaned from books and these tutorials: Skip to my Lou, Sew, Mama, Sew!, Twelve 22 and Kerri9494. I've really been struggling with achieving neat, squared corners on the purse style pouch. Any tips would be be received with gratitude and relief!

easter

It's been rainy and miserable outside.  Typical holiday weekend weather!  Nevermind, I've been sewing and cooking. I made chocolate and banana bread but we were so intent upon eating it that I forgot to take a picture.

Easter chickens courtesy of a tutorial by the extremely witty Molly Chicken.

Cheeky looking ladies aren't they?  Here's a picture of one of the baby chicks.

I've also been making more crochet hexagon progress.

My plan is to do some joining and sewing in of ends in stages so I'm not faced with embarking upon the most tedious bit in one fell swoop!

Bye bye, happy Easter.

breath of fresh air

It was lovely and sunny this weekend so we went for a walk. After many years I STILL can't get used to how flat it is down south!

Sunny Cambridgeshire.

The top of an old nuclear bunker. The ladder inside was still intact. We obviously didn't venture inside though (far too creepy and probably not allowed).

I also did some crafting. I have an old jumper which I like the shape of but it's hot and not made of natural fibres so positively crackles with static and drives me bonkers.  I bought some eco bamboo jersey from Wazoodle and reinterpreted the design.

It was a pretty steep learning curve as I have never made an item of clothing (not counting doll's clothes when I was a child and crocheted hats and scarves) and have never sewn jersey before. I don't own a serger so after various disastrous experiments with zig zag stitches I called it quits and just used a straight stitch on a rolled hem. I then pleated some narrow ribbon and attached it with straight stitch to embellish the neckline. It's wearable but I think I can improve it so might have another go.