Motif 14: Suncatcher (not a snowflake)

How do I know it's not a snowflake? It's got 8 arms!

This is one of the 'window pictures' in the Burda Tatting book, done in DMC Cebelia 20. I really want to make the block tatted doily on the cover of the book, but I'm a bit intimidated. So I'm warming up to it with the smaller motifs. Maybe next year I'll try the doily.

Motif 13: Crossing snowflakes

Tatman showed a tatted cross and challenged people to figure out how it was made. I was intrigued, probably because the instructions sound like origami. In tat-talk: "Use two shuttles, no cutting". In origami-talk: "Use a square paper, no cutting". Origami is the first craft I ever learned, so the terms are stuck in my brain forever.

Crosses really aren't my thing, so I added two more 'arms'. I asked for permission to show a picture. I think he said yes, but if I misunderstood, I'm really, really sorry and I'll take the picture down. It counts as one motif, because it involved quite a lot of head scratching. It's done in Anchor perle 8.

It's done pretty much as he outlined except that one arm is just normal split rings, simply because I like making chains of split rings. Tatman promised a pattern. I'll put a link here when it's up.

Motif 12: Chunky snowflakes

I finally got around to buying Jon's snowflakes book last week. I paged through trying to find a favourite to do first. I couldn't pick one, so I decided to them in order.  I've been working with black thread, giving myself eyestrain and realizing that my eyes (if not the whole of me) are not as young as they used to be. So, to save myself pain, these are done chunky and not actual size.

The first one is Alladin, done in 3 strands of DMC metallic floss. I am never tatting with this thread again. It's like working with tin foil. My teeth fillings are still zinging.
The middle one is Effloresscence done in multi-colour Anchor Perle 5. Even though it looks like an exploded clown, I rather like this one.
The last one is Sweet Rose in DMC Cebelia 20.



It's the last month of the year and my count is 13 motif's short of 25. I've decided that failure is an option, so these are grouped, just like I normally would. You never know though, sometimes I work well under pressure.  We'll see how it goes.

Motif 11: Pair of hearts

I have a copy of 'The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye' by A.S. Byatt. The first story, 'The Glass Coffin', has a certain crafty charm.

In this story, a tailor has adventures and gets the girl. In the end, he misses being a tailor. So, according to the story, 'He ordered to be brought to him the finest silk cloth and brilliant threads, and made for pleasure what he had once needed to make for harsh necessity'.

Silk cloth? Thread? Now that is a proper happy ending! Today I have some silk to show, and that happy ending is tumbling around in my head.



Here's the first bit of silk. It's a pair of tatted hearts, in chunky silk thread. The one on the left is Jon's Mother's Day heart . The one on the right is from Iris Niebach's site. Hmm, looking at it now, it's a bit wonky. I think I'll have to try it again in cotton. They are both technique hearts, one has daisy picots and one has dimple rings.

The next bit of silk is a pair of Japanese thimble rings for Chloe Patricia's monthly photo sharing. I like making thimble rings, but making them with silk thread is positively addictive. Chloe Patricia is working hard to promote this wonderful craft, so if you have the time, please do visit her site and look around.

Random

Today, I just have some random crafty bits. Here's a monthly thimble ring from a few months back. It's stitched in unravelled bunka thread. Bunka is a strange thread to work with. It has kinks from being unravelled, so it pop-pop-pops as pulls through. Very disconcerting, but it works up quickly. Great for crafting when deadlines are looming.


Next are the little lady's pants. She was a bit annoyed because her brother was showing off his 'baju melayu', with 3 pockets in the top, 2 in the pants. She told me she wanted pink pants, WITH POCKETS. Personally, I agree with her. Why don't they put pockets in women's clothing? Anyway, these are the results. My pink tolerance is quite low, so I opted to mix and match.

Motif 10:Lacy medallion

The last time I tried this motif, I lost a row. I managed to redo the row, but in the process, I found 3 little mistakes. Then, managed to add 2 times as many chains as was needed, resulting in a ruffle. I told myself that I liked the ruffle, that no one could see the little mistakes. I took a deep breath, and tried to accept my little doily...


It didn't work. So here it is again, lying flat like it should. (This is the Lacy Medallion from the Tatter's Treasure Chest. The first attempt is done in Olympus perle 8, the second is DMC Cebelia). It seems I have to tat everything twice to be happy.




Here's another little top for my little lady. I should call it the 'Jon' dress. The larger snowflake is 'Featherline' in DMC cordonnet 20, the little ones are 'Hearts in a Snowflake' in DMC 80, both from Jon Yusof's excellent site.


I tried a different approach to finishing this dress. Instead of facings for the neck and armholes, I lined them with contrasting satin bias binding. I like the little splash of colour it adds, but I'm not happy with how it puckers the armholes. Oh well, live and learn.

Baju kurung onslaught

It's the day after hari raya and I'm watching the sunrise after a quiet/busy celebration yesterday; quiet because we didn't visit too many people, busy because small children (my pair and my brother's little guy) lend a bit of chaos to any event.

It's traditional to have new clothes for hari raya. In my parents' time, it was a big deal because this might be the only time in the year you get new clothes. Now, we mostly keep it up for the kids.

This year, I made quite a few baju raya (hari raya clothes). For some reason, I feel compelled to document my endeavours. I'll give a warning first: "Boring post ahead, many ugly pictures"

First here are 6 sets of baju kurung I made for my friend. She asked me if I'd tailor for her little girls, and I said yes. I spent a lot of time worrying as I was working on these. I worried I'd run out of fabric, that I wouldn't finish in time, that I'd ruin some little girl's hari raya by making some terrible mistake with her baju raya.


In the end, it worked out Ok, and I actualy managed to turn my handiwork into profit. The last time that happened, I was 9 years old, selling origami models to my class mates for 5 sen. My school was a bit strict, so my mother put a stop the enterprise, but it was fun then. It's still fun now.

Next are the ones for my family, in all their unironed glory. They are unironed because I was in a hurry to get a group shot before my newphew's set went home with my sister-in-law. Year after year I tell myself to buy something that doesn't need ironing, but then I go the Kamdar, and hear the siren call of the cottons. I'm a sucker for natural fibres and can't resist the wrinkly stuff.

There's one big one for my brother, one with sparkles for the little lady, two baju melayu for my big guy and my nephew and one inadvertant extra. The little lady's has beading on the neckline (I'll get a close-up when it comes out of the wash). The extra is because I mismeasured my nephew and made his too small. There was extra cloth so I opted to just make another one. I'm not sure what to do with the extra. If you've got a 2-3 year old boy and would like a baju melayu, drop me a comment.



The next one is my current favourite (you can tell by the extra wrinkles). The skirt is linen and the top is Japanese cotton, a really yummy combo.


This last one is a mother daughter set, one for the little lady and one for me.


So there we go, 14 baju kurung, 11 of them finished in the last 3 weeks. Hari raya is a time of forgiveness. So, if any readers made it this far, I beg your forgiveness and wish you grace on this fine day. 'Selamat Hari Raya, Maaf Zahir Batin'.