new things

hello!

some new things I've been making lately. I'm quiet slow and my attention is spread over different projects of sewing and knitting + the famous everyday life that doesn't let me use my scarce working time for working. I'm 3.5 months away from birth and it's a hell of a deadline, so I'm trying to focus as much as possible on my things and my goals and less on spreading my efforts on gifts etc. but I'm not so good at that, so gifts continue to flow...

I made these twin cardigans for our friends Iris and Ishay's new twin babies, Netta and Hagar:

They're laid out on a beautiful huge tablecloth I found at London's Spitalfields market last month. we spent lovely 4 days, just the 2 of us, unbelievable as it may have seemed just a while before. All grandparents joined in the mission of babysitting, and we took our first vacation without kids since we have kids, that's exactly 6 years. and our last vacation for the next few years again... it was an important reminder to what life can be outside the parenting bubble. And it was wonderful to come back.

here are close ups of the buttons, vintage, once found on etsy or ebay, can't remember:

Just before leaving for England I ordered some lovely fabrics from sew mama sew, and they arrived shortly after we came back. In my studio, They joined (aside from all the "old" fabrics) a beautiful piece of ivory flannel that I had bought at a shop in Soho, can't remember it's name. this shop was so overwhelming and the prices were so high that I finally managed to buy only this simple but super soft and fine 5 meter piece of flannel.

Anyway, the package that arrived full of beautiful florals, one natural linen-cotton blend and one lovely Heather Ross mermaids fabric pleased me as much and sent me right into my little studio. I couldn't gather enough creative energy to come up with something of my own, so I used a pattern from a book, I think it's the first time for me to follow a pattern without any changes. here is the dress:

(my daughter does her own styling ever since she was 2 years old. I wouldn't dare to think up this combination, but luckily she's not as inhibited as I am)

this is the back side, with a beautiful vintage button I found at a Tel Aviv button shop once:

she looks so happy in that last picture, but in reality she took the dress off immediately after I took these shots and declared that she doesn't like it and that I should put it in my own closet. so I'm starting to seriously consider (again) opening a shop on etsy.

some new things

hello!

I've been away for so long. first we moved.

(watching the movers work, the old house)

(bidding farewell)

(grapes from the old house on the new one's deck)

That took a lot of energy, and a long time to get my studio back to a working state. Then to get myself back to a working state. And then I found out that this was happening:

...which explains some of the energy loss..

I'm happy but exhausted, waiting for the first trimester to finally end. I think it did, but I can't feel the difference yet..

However, I did manage to get working again.

here are 2 white blouses for the kids, to wear to kindergarten on fridays.

(for him, made of an old bed sheet)

a present for Annika, the new baby girl of my friends:

(her initials embroidered on the ribbon)

(the top, together with another larger one for my daughter. made of an old piece of fabric I had laying in my stash, which I suspect of formerly being a sheet)

thrifting and sewing

There's a little second hand shop/cafe where I sometimes pick up a coffee and take a look.

Last time they had a big box full of those dolls people used to bring back from a trip abroad in the seventies and eighties - at least that's my memory. They were mostly horrible plastic ones, but I found these three:

The swiss boy lost his arm thanks to my curious boy, I wonder how that can be fixed - the elastic that attached both arms came out of one of them and left a hole half blocked with dry glue.

I'm not sure where the middle doll comes from, some Balkan country I suspect. Her face is painted fabric and her clothes and shoes have lovely little handmade details.

A sweet white glass plate and a little vase:

and some sewing:

with trembling hands I bought some Nani Iro on sale from reprodepot - it was still so expensive and then the shipment and then customs to top it all, it really makes no sense shopping for fabric online when you happen to live in Israel. On the other hand if you don't you're in the hands of the very few reasonable fabric shops that can actually tell what the fabric content is, and then if you buy prints you're likely to meet the rest of the roll on someone on the street, not necessarily a nice surprise.

However, I bought 3 pieces of double gauze and when they arrived I fell in love and treasured them in the fabric stash, took them out once in a while to caress them with dreamy eyes, and couldn't really bring myself to cut them. But finally I gathered the courage and decided to make a skirt for myself.

The problem I have with how I sew is that I tend not to trust the material and a little bit of chance. I try to control everything. Felting has taught me to let go a bit, but still this is my automatic mode, in any kind of creative work. With this on my mind, I wanted to make an everyday summer's skirt, I wanted to make something simple that will just look nice (and wouldn't it with this fabric?). I love clothes that are very simple but a little twist makes them unique, and with all this controlling I rarely manage to make something like that.

At the same time I couldn't get out of my head a skirt that My mother once had, it was a very full pleated skirt with a ribbon that covers the seam that gathers the pleats and ties at the back. So I made almost that, and in doing so I repeated all my patterns - making a controlled, not so casual, not that simple skirt. still, the fabric is so lovely and summery, and I'll probably wear it a lot in the coming months.

Now I'm using the leftovers for a skirt for Amalia.

(and there are two other pieces left to drool on!)

(My mother saw it and said it reminded her of an old skirt of hers... she asked me to make one for her. What I would make differently is sew the ribbon a bit lower on the pleats, so that there's a bit more of them showing on top.)

cheesyness

Last week we celebrated Shavuot, my favorite Holiday that is all about the first harvest of the spring and, for some reason, about cheese eating. It seems that in all the kindergartens the kids did the same thing this year: making Labane balls. My son brought them back from his kindergarten along with some bread they baked, and we ate it together and it was so nice that I asked his teacher for the recipe and we did it again today with our good friends from the north that were visiting. Labane is made by placing yoghurt in a sieve that's covered in thin cloth and letting it drain most of its liquid overnight. in this recipe I added about 1 teaspoon salt and the juice of half a lemon to each liter of yoghurt. after the Labane was ready, I gave the kids plates with Zaatar, flax seeds and turmeric (didn't have sweet paprika powder for the red color ones, sadly), jars, olive oil and some rosemary and zaatar branches from the garden. They rolled little balls of labane in the different spices and drowned them in olive oil and herbs. in 2 days they'll be ready.

working hard:

labane and turmeric mixed together into a funny colored paste:

slowly it became less and less appealing...

that's what the table looked like when they were done:

but all for a good cause:

let's hope it tastes nice.

some inspiration

I've been thinking a lot about presence in parenting throughout the years I've been a mother. I feel often like I'm not really there, with them. My thoughts are always somewhere else: with the house chores, planning the day and routine, and thinking and imagining ideas for my work. I'm almost always in a hurry but can't get much done. The house is a mess, I'm hopeless with paperwork and so few things have a real place. And I don't even get to cook complicated things, which is OK since we like simple food and it's often healthier, but it also feels as if cooking too became something on the far end of the to-do list, instead of a creative, loving action.

I'm reading soulemama's book "the creative family", and she shines a new light on these matters - well, new to me, even though it's a simple change of focus. ("simple" can be so important, don't you think?)

Her idea of assigning a specific time for just being with the kids wholeheartedly, without a thought about anything else, and even using a timer for that is so simple yet so focusing in itself. The change in perception of creativity that is offered in the idea to create with them rather than saving all the creative energy till after they've gone to sleep (maybe that's just my interpretation) is so refreshing. I tend to treat my work as a separate thing, and I think Hilel is coming to hate my sewing. In the chapter about imagination games she talks about getting involved in their imaginative play. I'm not sure about that, I always felt that I could never come close to their psychedelic way of thinking, and that my way of playing will limit them to my much poorer imagination. I also felt that it's just not really my job to play with them: I'm not their age, I have tons of other stuff to do, and by being left alone to play they can get much further in their imaginative travels and in gaining self confidence. However, it is a good idea to try and think of it differently, see what happens.

I haven't yet finished reading, but I'm really enjoying putting question marks on my ideas and conceptions of education. It is so inspiring.

Today Amalia stayed home with me, she only goes 3 times a week to sort of a day-care, and I tried to dedicate more time to being with her, although I had other stuff to do, as always. But I think we both gained so much from this: I got to do my things even more than I normally do, and she got to play with me. First she wanted to do some puzzles together, and we did, but I said I'll have to later do some sewing, so she said: "I have an idea: we'll do two together, and then I'll start the same two over by myself". that worked. Then I let her play with the buttons while I went on with sewing. After a while I thought I really have to start making lunch, so I offered to bring her oven to the kitchen, to cook next to me. We got her a beautiful wood oven for her birthday and it's standing in the children's play room, where they of course rarely do play... she has all those little pots and plates and cups from Ikea and some felt vegetables I made, but she hardly ever uses it all because their room is too packed with stuff to be inviting for play. Bringing it into the real kitchen was a big success, we cooked next to each other and she really engaged in this.

lentils cooking...

...or was it water?

cutting vegetables

then cooking them

and finally we even set the table with both the real food and her play food. She even wanted to put "her" food in her plate next to the quinoa...instead of any real vegetables of course... we'll have to work on that some other way.

A package arrived yesterday from Sara from studio bella. We swapped summer girl's clothes. We got these beautiful linen blouse and pants, airy and natural and sweet.

Amalia wanted to wear them together, although I thought they might each work better with something else. well, Amalia is not someone to be taught anything about style - she has her own definite taste and the confidence to stand for her ideas. it is however a very sweet combination. Thanks Sara!!

summer clothes for little friends

Two friends of mine asked me to make some summer clothes that they would buy for their daughters (9.5 months and a year and a half). As it was so late in the year and I hadn't even begun working yet, I decided not to work with a seamstress this time, and to skip this summer season but for making this small batch. It took me two or three months, I began very slowly and hesitantly. surprisingly, when we decided that our son will stop going to his kindergarten and stay at home with me, I managed to put more effort and more creativity into this project. I realize now that I have been more focused on him than on sewing, and therefore put less importance on how special and wonderful it will turn out. and it was that different energy that allowed me to get busy, to enjoy sewing, and to find ways of being original and creative while working and not while planning.

When I was at Art school I was always imagining and sketching projects, but didn't have as much patience for actually making. Thinking seemed to be enough for me... It was a rare thing for me to be able to confidently and unthinkingly dive into the realm of physically making without worrying. So this time I felt so relaxed and happy to be just working and not so busy with how good it will all be.

A great crafting experience.