ocean
Small things
Holidays are right around the corner ans I’m so excited! My Christmas tree is already up. What about you? Somehow this year I skipped Halloween entirely and went straight to Christmas mood, and honestly I’m all in for it. The past few months have been a blur and I gotta say that very much I’m looking forward to a well deserved break.
I haven’t had much time for crafting but did make a few small things – baby things that is. And I wanted to show them to you today. The set I’m showing you was made out of beautifully coordinated jersey print from Katia Fabric I bought a couple years ago when I was on maternity leave. It took me so long to finally get around to using it (life is busy you know!) but I’m just so glad I did. This fabric designed for kids comes in panels with 2 or 3 coordinated patterns you can use to make shirts, sweaters, dungarees or whatever else your mind can think of.
I opted for a simple sweater – pants combo as I felt that was the best way for me to use up as much of the fabric as possible. The shirt is a basic raglan top (you can head here for the FREE printable pattern from Jamie – Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom) and the pants are the mini modern joggers from Brindille & Twig.
Both of them were made in size 2, and I mostly used encased seams for my sensitive daughter who doesn’t like tags, threads and seam allowances.
Aside from using encased seams instead of regular or overlock seams, I did almost everything as per pattern. The only small mods I made were to omit the neck binding on the raglan top and omit the knee patches and the drawstring at the waist on the pants.
My daughter absolutely loves this set, and I gotta say that I love it just as much. It is so adorable!
The things we love most
After spending so much time home recently, I came to realize that it’s very easy to establish our own little routines, and get comfort from the small things. One of the things I noticed the past few weeks is that I truly love the handmade pottery pieces I have, and that I keep using them all the time. I even see it on my instagram feed, as most food pictures I post on there also happen to feature some hand made items.
Seeing that, I thought I could present you guys the last pieces I finished in 2019, talk a little bit more about the process and show you the full collections I’ve been using constantly since then.
First off, I think the last time we talked pottery, I told you my favorite part of it was actually applying the glaze, because it was always kind of a surprise how things were really going to turn out. Here’s a very good example of what I mean by that. Left picture is just after applying the glaze, right is the same pieces once out of the kiln.
You can tell it’s the same pieces, but man do they look different! Sometimes you can try to imagine as much as you want, but it’ll turn into something you never expected, especially if it’s a glaze you’ve never used before. Now since I’ve been using the same colour combos for a while now I sort of know what to expect, but I still do get surprises every now and then nonetheless.
The two main “collections” if you will, that I’ve been working on are this classic black and white (my Moody set) and the wavy white and teal (my Ocean set).
This black set basically starts with an even black base, then the pieces are dipped in white glaze on one side as an overlay. Except for the onces with the interesting texture, they’re pretty much all the same. The two small plates have specks on them, something I tried here (but didn’t quite like in this palette) but exploited a lot more in the second set I made, that I affectionately call my Ocean set.
Half of those pieces (mostly the bowls) have a gradient-ish exterior and a plain white interior. The other ones (mostly the plates) have a basic white glaze with a bold teal brush stroke and a few specks here and there, reminiscent (to me) of the waves of the ocean.
I love those two sets so much I’ve just been using and washing and reusing them non stop since the holidays, and I really don’t think I will ever stop. They are very close to my heart, and although I do (and will probably continue to) experiment with other colours, just like the yellow ones in the first picture, I think I will definitely keep making pieces to add to these two collections as I go.
Talking about experiments, I tried something fun and different with these 3 pieces right there, as they were meant as a gift. There is some texture to them as I added some stripes on the side, then used a dark blue and green scheme with a lot of splashes of colour.
Overall I’m pretty happy with the result, and I hope the intended recipient will be too!
That’s it for today folks, new post knitting post coming soon 🙂
Cheers!
Crafty Effie 