six and a half stitches

MY PERSONAL THANKYOU

From my family here at 6.5st, to you and your families, we hope you have a lovely Christmas and holiday season. To everyone who reads, comments, and passes through here, who has sent cards and presents - thankyou for a wonderful year full of friendship, support and love - you've all made this a fabulous place for me and I would trully be lost without this wonderful community. It's been a big year here, and I'm pretty tired, so we're going to have a little  time out with family and friends, ready for next year which I hope brings just as much promise.

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

cutting::sewing::gathering::wrapping::finishing::starting::cooking::marinading::cleaning::writing::knitting::
Getting ready.
Going away.

SIMPLE REALISED

I got the majority of the dress sewn last night. The light hasn't been good for photographing dark colours (too bright), and Pia is sleeping now the light is good. I'll try and get better shots, but for now this is what it looks like. I need to find a good hemline, and fasten the shoulder straps together, and we're done. I have a little problem with Pia in a dress - just looks odd whenever I try - bit like her in pink and frills (yeah, it's taking a while to get the hang of this girl thing)! So maybe this will be a long top instead, and I'll make some gathered bloomer pants for underneath. More photos at Flickr.

THE MAKING OF SIMPLE

In pursuit of simplicity:: Is simple something which is easy, quick, suitable for beginners, something that can be done without experience or much thought. Or is it something which has been crafted to appear simple but which hides a labour of love to achieve something refined and elegant, and is only simple because it has extrapolated all extraneous detail in favour of that which speaks clearly to define the object?

I often speak about the simple – simple ideas, notions, concepts, details, patterns. And I refer to both meanings above. Yet I know that to achieve the apparently simple, one must go through a process of refinement to get to that point. And therein lies the beauty of simplistic being for me. Something which has been honed, detailed, perfected till it becomes the essence of what it is supposed to be or do. I know that achieving this is often hard, and involved. So I know that when I strike upon the simple in something I do, it is not without thought, intent, and love.

I’ve said before that I do not consider myself a pattern maker. The thought of altering or creating a pattern, particularly a sewing pattern scares me completely. I can do simple modifications, but other than that, I feel lost. Doesn’t mean I can’t, or wont do it, just that I get very anxious about doing it. However: In pursuit of creating and furthering my skills, I opted to go the whole hog and essentially create my own pattern, based on a diagram in a book. I love Pattern Magic. I can sit entranced by the clever seaming and cutting and manipulating that goes on in that book for hours. Di struck out and made this amazing skirt from the book earlier in the year, and I took in everything she said about how hard, detailed, and exact it was. I’ve been wanting to try one of the other ideas in there, that of a dress with a gathered hole in the side. But for a baby. And with a pocket insert. All the patterns in this book appear simple – but actually involve a load of thinking, drafting, prototyping and refining. So I sat and studied the diagram, enlarged the women’s version to better understand how it is created, grabbed a pattern for a shift dress for a baby, manipulated that pattern, drafted out new sections, manipulated some more, and then made a prototype. Indeed – sometimes I make prototypes. I may not swatch wool samples, but I do sometimes make a study of what I’m trying to do.

And then I manipulated the pattern some more, ready for the final cut and sew.

Simple.

THERE'S SOMETHING WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT

This Pink thing. I think we need to discuss this Pink Factor thing that comes with having a girl baby. I have a lot of experience with boy babies. They’re easy. You can clean their bottoms with one wipe if you have to. A girl, she needs more care. Even from birth they are high maintenance. Boys may not have the widest choices of clothes, but at least you can never go wrong with a good green, grey, navy, red and denim.

But this girl domain is really difficult. Remember how I declared we would never wear pink? I still mean it, but I do actually like some shades of pink, and Pia does look nice in some deeper, stronger, murkier dusty pinks - the adult pinks, and usually worn with a liberal dose of red and white stripe, white to offset it all, or navy. I really don’t get head to toe pink, particularly if it’s a sugar pink colour, and while I concede some babies look great in it, I’m just not sure I can live with that. A little pink, yes, a lot, no.

Apparently though I misread the whole section in the baby manual which said that a girl can only wear pink, frills and frou frou to be called a girl in public. I hadn’t realized we’ve become so governed by gender identifiers that we rely on a mother dressing their kid in pink for the baby to register as a girl with anyone. I don’t think I gender neutralize Pia that much – I do try and get a stronger feminine feel to her clothes, and she does always wear something that signifies 'girl'. A knit top might have some stronger pinks in it, or a floral button, or a top might have some subtle scandinavian floral design on it or I might even get out the Liberty print things just to be extra sure, but no. She keeps being labeled a boy. I tried frills. She looks silly. She doesn’t have enough hair for bows and ribbon (OMG – Now there’s another post entirely) and really that’s just scary on an 8 week old baby anyhow.

So I’m on a crusade to get decent clothes for Pia, which don’t cost a huge amount, and have a new definition of ‘girl’ which fits with our design and fashion ethos, and which might set her up for being an individual later on. I know there are clothes out there which do this, but most are for 2 year olds and older. I want baby clothes which do this. The brain has been ticking away, and patterns have been sourced and resized and drafted out. Now I need to pray for the sewing gods to shine on me, and for the whole thing to work. And I’ll show the results eventually. Then we just have to work on her brother stopping introducing her as his little brother and calling her a he.

And what did Pia wear today?? Orange and white striped pants, a white singlet, and her lovely Toast top from Mariko (and printed by Mariko too, and that reminds me, I still need to blog about something special which happened before Pia was born and which hasn’t been publicly acknowledged yet) which is so damn cute I can’t stop smiling when she wears it.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO MAX #002

Conversation in two parts.

Max:: Karen, excuse me, Karen, excuse me
Karen:: Yes Max
Max:: Excuse me, but how long is it till the end of the world?
Karen:: Oh! Umm, well, it's a very long way away Max.

Max:: Mummy.
Mummy:: Yes Max.
Max:: After Santa Clause comes, then it will be the end of the world.
Mummy:: Oh. Ok. Right.....
Max:: But it's alright because then there will be a new world starting.

You must be all so relieved.

DEFEATED BY A SHORT ROW SHAPE

Attempting two socks at once to overcome my inability to start a second sock. And realising I really haven't a clue about short row shaping.

And that I don't really care.

THIS IS MY THIRD BABY

This is an invitation,

To an event where this, will take place,

These are the official tickets,

To the opening of this,

This, is my third baby this year. This is what I do when I'm not being a mother, or a crafter, and how I earn my living. I am very proud of this building and the involvement I have had with it. I am proud of the design work I have bought to the interior spaces, and the hard work I have put in to achieve good outcomes, and to have been given the opportunity to work with Kerry and Lyndsay Clare on their building. I am so thrilled I was able to go to the opening - to see it all complete, to see fruition of ideas, to see my clients again, and to see the magnificent job they have done with the 5th Asia Pacific Triennial. The artwork is superb. And the children's gallery with their interactive kids activities is fantastic. But the building itself is so lovely and elegant, and a true testimony to the dedication of design.