It’s been a busy bank holiday weekend for stitching and there’s been an awful lot of wittering going on as well. I invited my good friend and crafty blogger Tanya of Strikk hand knits over for a mini crafternoon of knitting and stitching yesterday. The plan was to gossip, cackle and get some projects out. And we did… before chicken stew and an evening in the best local in the world – The Famous Royal Oak in Muswell Hill. But not before refreshments were served…

Cherries and cava – awesome combination.

Tanya creates the most beautiful knitted items; cushion covers, hot water bottle covers… all sorts. Yesterday she was stash busting her yarn and making some gorgeous little baby blankets for her shop. Gorgeous colours, and the cats fancied a bit too…

I tried to take a picture of Tanya knitting but her hands move so fast it ends up being a bit of a blur!

I’ve been doing a bit of fabric stash busting too. Remember this polka dot top from Zara?

I bought it a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been wearing it to death. I loved the shape of it so much I was determined to recreate it. So during the week I got my greaseproof paper and my pencil out and traced (as best I could) each section to create a pattern. I ended up with this:

The original top has a zipper at the back but I can pull it on and off without opening it so I figured that I could leave that bit out. I made a wearable muslin to begin with, with some fabric I bought in Walthamstow market years ago. I think I bought about five metres at the time because it was so cheap! I’m amazed to have got to the end of it.

Once I made it I realised it needed to be reduced by about an inch at the front and back so I just stitched a seam at the centre front and back and pressed it in. Still looked ok! I’m hiding the front seam under a corsage in this pic.

I amended the pattern to reduce the width and evened out the neckline a bit for the next version – another polka-dot! But this time it’s black. I’m having some issues trying to gather/ruche it at the top – need to work on that…

Am really pleased with this pattern though – I could remake it again and again and it’s going to come in very handy for Self Stitched September. I think I’ll use my jumping bunnies fabric from FabricTales.com for the next version.

In other news my little baby Gracie hasn’t been feeling well. She was sick on Thursday night and not herself at all on Friday. She’s usually so chatty (I know – cats can’t really talk but this one witters all day – I just can’t understand what she’s saying) but she was so quiet and just lying very still, it broke our hearts to see her like that. So we took her to the vet on Saturday where she had a thermometer put up her bottom. She had a bit of a temperature so the vet has given her an antibiotic and we’re to feed her just cooked chicken once a day until she’s better. Keef isn’t too happy about the lack of biscuits in his bowl but he’s putting up with it for his sister’s sake. Here’s the patient having a wee lie down. Awh!

She’s starting to witter again and hopefully it won’t be long before she’s back to full strength. Got me thinking though about how much we depend on our pets. I really don’t know what I’d do if something happened to either Keef or Gracie, and I know that a lot of people will think that’s slightly hysterical and out of perspective but they really are part of our little family. Anyway… I’ll stop now before I start sobbing over my laptop! Have a fabulous bank holiday everyone! xxx