a jinzenji skirt

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jinzenji-skirt-3

look what we made on friday!  a skirt based on liesl + co’s everyday skirt pattern and yoshiko jinzenji’s simple quilt fabric!   looks sort of avant-garde, no?  the best part is that making the skirt out of this particular fabric is a bit like opening up a box of chocolates  . . . you never quite know where the patterned patches are going to fall on the skirt until you’re done.  every skirt ends up being totally unique!

closeup-pocket

plus . . . it’s super comfy,  and has got these wonderful pockets for when you don’t know what to do with your hands!  although we’re going to have to find a live model one of these days to properly bring the skirt to life . . . one of these days . . .

 

nani iro toddler pants (free pattern and tutorial)

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3-hanging

remember those nani iro pants we made for our favorite rambunctious toddler?   well, the kid liked them so much we decided to make him another pair (albeit in a larger size – the gray version).

3-flatwe also stitched up 2 more pairs for E & M, our favorite set of fraternal twins to wear a few months down the road.   E is quite a bit larger than M, and hence he gets a 86 cm pair while we whipped up an 80 cm pair for M.

3-folded

we made a few modifications to our original pattern — mostly replacing the elastic leg cuff with a simple stitched hem and making the pattern available in 4 sizes.  there’s a size 92 cm (for 18-24 month olds) that we didn’t sew up (since the kid’s first pair was a size 92cm).

pants-in-action

photo above of the pants (size 98cm) in action.  they’re a bit long on the kid, since he should be wearing a size 92 cm — maybe we’ll ask him to model again in a few months when he’s grown a few inches.

as soon as ‘lil dumping put the pants on, he wouldn’t stop moving, climbing and wiggling around. we take that as a sure indicator that said pants are super comfortable and non-constricting! pants that allow kids to be kids! hooray!

the double knit nani iro fabric we selected has an incredibly soft hand . . . even fluffier than some organic cottons we’ve come across.  the colours wash beautifully and the fabric remains just as soft post-wash.  we threw the fabrics into scalding hot water, dreft baby detergent, and the extra dry setting in the dryer prior to sewing.

the fabric does shrink down quite a bit lengthwise.  our 36″ cut shrunk down to 30″ post wash and 31″ post-ironing.  The 27″ cut shrunk down to around 24″ post-ironing.  you’ll need about 1 yard for the largest size and 3/4 of a yard for the 3 smaller sizes.  the fabric costs out to around $18-$24.  admittedly, that isn’t exactly bargain basement but a great deal more reasonable than paying $50-$70, which appears to be the going rate these days for a pair of avant-garde designer toddler pants.  plus, you get the sheer pleasure of telling people when they ask you where you got your kid those great pants, that you made them!

so here’s what we did . . . free pattern and tutorial ahead –> (more…)

meet the new liberty classics

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Lib-Classics-AW14-Prince-George

the design team at liberty has refreshed their tana lawn Classics collection, introducing some entirely new prints, re-colouring existing prints in an unexpected way and editing out some long-time favorites.

examples of new prints include Prince George (above in color ways A and D), issued to celebrate the birth of Prince George to the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge and Ciara (below).

Ciara-A-BIG

we were surprised at how different some of the re-coloured Classics are.  check-out the new Strawberry Thief palates — the 3 new colourways we selected for our shelves are on the right side below:

Lib-Classics-Strawberry-Thief

A few more examples of Classics in new colours:

Chive  . . . . (both colour ways are new)

Lib-Classics-AW14-Chive

Thorpe . . . . (W on the far right is new)

Lib-Classics-AW14-Thorpe

Edenham in purple . . .

Edenham-D

 

Ros in violet . . .

Ros-T

Tatum (new colours center and right) . . .

Lib-Classics-AW14-Tatum

a great big box of these Liberty Classics landed our way late last week.  we have all of these new Classics in-stock . . . as well as re-orders of existing patterns that had sold-out and a few previously existing prints that are new to us!

check-out our entire liberty collection here.

 

 

aire: a preview

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worn-long

done at last, and in the midst of writing up the pattern . . .

Aire-long

it seems like a mile long! well actually 24″ x 80″ . . . too long to fully lay out on the bed . . . and as such, we’re using the floor instead. 

closeup

thoroughly enjoyable to knit . . . as the pattern is really quite simple (as lace patterns go)

entirely knit by hand with joie de cashmere in arctic hyacinth . . . coming soon!

 

 

 

nani iro for ‘lil boys

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hanging

fresh off the sewing machine . . . double knit jersey pants for our favorite ‘lil dumpling . . . stitched out of nani iro’s herring bone painting double knit fabric.

first-step

and here’s our mini fit model . . . off to the races in his new pants . . .

sprawl

. . . it seems the pants are good for sprawling on the carpet . . .

lounging

. . . and not too shabby for lounging around to read a book.

check back soon for the pattern and tutorial . . . need to make one quick fix to the pattern and prototype #2!

 

 

 

 

 

liberty ss14

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nyc might be covered in snow but liberty’s spring summer 2014 collection has landed!  yipee! we selected 16 delicious prints:

 

at last . . . warm ears

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our sartorial-minded friend (you know, the one that commissioned us to knit somerset) has been hounding us for the past 2 years to make him a pair of splendid earmuffs.  of course, he didn’t wear the over the head variety . . . the ear muffs had to be the sort that went behind one’s neck.  when we actually set about the task, it took us about 6 months to track down a “behind the neck” ear muff frame supplier . . . but we did and the frames are in the shop! the frames are collapsible and fold up to a somewhat compact size.

our sartorial-minded friend is possibly a more ardent fan of liberty fabrics than ourselves.  so naturally, we decided to fashion his splendid earmuffs out of liberty’s joy and sorrow fabric.  we liked the results so much that we decided to make another set of muffs out of liberty’s truly scrumptious design . . .

. . . and then, we decided to whip up a whole bunch of DIY Liberty Ear Muff Kits, so that you can keep your ears warm a la Liberty!

read on to find out how to make your own liberty ear muffs! (more…)

sheep of steel super speedy beret

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it’s a bird! it’s a plane! it’s our super speedy sheep of steel beret!  we opened our box of sheep of steel twisted bobbles handspun yarns yesterday and got straight to work.  we knit the entire 36 row beret in about 2.5 hours — no doubt less time than it would take to walk to madison avenue, battle the crowds, and buy a beret (much needed these days, given that it’s FREEZING in NYC!).   irem, the british textile artist that spins each skein by hand, has pretty much done all the hard work for you.   we think the resulting fabric is intensely mesmerizing!

knitting with sheep of steel’s handspun twisted bobbles yarn is a sensory pleasure. it’s soft to the touch, lushly coloured, and has got these overtwisted bits that are just a lot of fun!  the trick to knitting with the yarn is to not straighten the yarn out as you knit it; rather, keep the little twists whole, letting them add bits of squiggly delight to the finished fabric. we paired it with our clever camel yarn, as the contrast of uniformly spun yarn underscores the strange and beautiful texture that flowed from irem’s hands.

best of all, the beret is entirely reversible!  you can wear it on the stockinette side on the way to work, and then flip it inside out and wear it on the reverse stockinette side for the walk home!   it’s like 2 hats in 1!

we had about 39g of sheep of steel yarn left over, and are working on another quick knit project!  read on for the beret pattern . . .  (more…)