My sister joins the sewing community!!

My sister bought a sewing machine a while ago. She has made some beanies for my boys, and now she has made her first top.

I'm really impressed!

She didn't use a patter, but traced a top she had. I've never succeded in doing this!
Furthermore she stars out her sewing adventure with sewing with knit fabrics!

Great job sister!

Bread

Yesterday afternoon/evening I made some bread loafs with the kids.

I'm not used to the English language when it come to baking, so I will write in Swedish.

Jag skulle gärna vilja baka mycket mer av det dagliga bröd som familjen äter. Det går bra i perioder, men så känns det ofta som att det är svårt att få tiden att räcka till. Särskilt nu när jag jobbar under dagarna.

Det var dock en positiv överraskning igår att det gick att få ihop bröden under en helt vanlig kväll. Jag började redan på måndagen med att skålla rågdeg, sedan blandade jag ihop fördegen igår vid 17.00, och denna skulle jäsa en timme. Sedan var det dags att använda hushållsassistenten och knåda degen som sedan skulle jäsa ytterligare 1 timme. Därefter formades bröden, som jäste 45 minuter och gräddades 1 timme.

Jästid: 2 h 45 min
Gräddningstid: 1 h

Det var alltså 3 h 45 min i bara jäs- och gräddningstid! Om jag inte hade varit tankspridd och skållat rågmjölet kvällen innan hade jag ALDRIG gett mig in på ett sådant projekt en helt vanlig kväll.

Det visade sig dock att det gick hur bra som helst att baka dessa bröden! Arbetsinsatserna mellan jästiderna är små, och gräddningen kunde ske medan nattning av busfröna pågick.

Jag ska prova mer vardagsbak framöver!

 

Resultatet blev härligt fluffiga limpor!

 

Receptet finns i Jan Hedhs bok "BRÖD", och kallas Laputabröd.

Stain treatment - flaxseed oil soap

When doing laundry this week-end, I found a few clothes pieces that did not come out as nice and clean as I wished for.

These clothes had been in the laundry bag for quite some time, so the spots had dried thoroughly. I did not treat any of the spots in advance, they just went in the washing machine, 40 degrees Celsius.

 

I put flaxseed oil soap on the spots on the wet  garments and let them rest while I had dinner with the family. Afterwards, I put them in the washing machine again, 40 degrees Celsius.

 

The results:

 

The blood stain is almost gone!

 

The neckline looks better!

 

 

The corn stain is still there...

 

The deodorant stain is not as pronounced.

Felted wool mittens

I have just made my first felted wool mittens!

I thought these would be perfect for when I bike to work during the cold months.

The pattern and yarn is from a local needlework and wool shop, Fingerfärda  The yarn is by Ullcentrum, a company that sells local sheep wool that would otherwise have gone to waste.

Since the mittens are knitted with large needles they are very quick to knit.

Before they are felted they are huge. I put plastic bags inside the mittens and thumbs to keep them from felting together.

 I used flaxseed oil soap to prepare the mittens then put them in the washing machine together with some red bath towels, and washed them in 40 degrees Celsius.

 When the mittens had dried I used some wool embroidery thread and stitched some stars.

There is only one problem…

Lovely, warm, mittens for the kids!

Play clothes

This week-end I made some play clothes for the elder son. I haven’t made anything for the little guy lately, but he really has a lot of clothes. He is not interested in clothes either, but soon enough he will notice that his brother is getting fun clothes and then I will have to make clothes in multiple.

 

The tee is Biscuit from Tamanegi-kobo. The front and back are made from a photo print cotton jersey fabric, and the fabric for the sleeves is a really soft jersey from my stash. I made the first Biscuit tee a month ago, and it’s already time to adjust the pattern, to both lengthen the sleeves and the body!

The trousers are Kickin’ back sweats from the book Sewing for boys. I made the size 2/3 in with and 4/5 in length. Because the trousers are ment to worn at home I thought that I’d just cut the leg of at right length and leave it at that. But, the legs were very long, so I ended up folding the hems 5 cm and stitching them in place with a twin needle. Now, I can adjust the length as he grows.

Even though I made the trousers in sinze 2/3 the trousers are really wide! I have already cut and stitched another pair, but if I use this pattern again, I will certainly adjust the width.

 Excuse the wrinkles; I just have my sleeve ironing board at hand!

 

 

Dumper truck sweaters

My mother knitted these gorgeous sweaters for the little guys’ birthdays. They turned 1 and 3 late this summer, and now the weather is perfect for these warm and cozy wool sweaters.

I believe the pattern is from Sandnes garn

The boys love them!

Thank you mum!!

Tiger tee

We’ve had a wonderful autum so far, but it is getting colder every day now. While my little guy (1 year) is having lots of clothes his elder brother (3 years) is running short of almost everything!

I’m very pleased with the fit of the Biscuit tee (Tamanegi-kobo), so I don’t bother to test any other tee patterns for now. I have precious little time to sew so here is my next version, the Tiger tee!

 

 

The sewing went really well until I was stitching on the neckband. Suddenly I was stitching with too much seam allowance. Sigh! I figured that I would just go over the seam allowance with my overlock machine, but my overlock machine didn’t do a good job on the thick rib knit. In the end I topstitched the seam allowance and cut it close to the stitches.

As I mentioned before, the sewing went well up to that last point! I want to show how I get over the bulky seam allowances when stitching the side and arm seams.

I use a gadget for stitching buttons to lift the presser foot when going over the joint seams.

 

 

 

 

 

I use a stretch straight stitch on my sewing machine to stitch the tee together, and then I trim the seam allowances with my overlock machine. I’m not confident enough to simply sew the tee together using the overlock machine.