The Washi Dress

All I can say is that I LOVE this dress!!!

The Shirring!!!!

Here it is my "fashion pose"

The lowly granny square...poor benighted granny square...

See?  Kinda like a little bug....

Actually, deep down I think every granny square afghan  I have seen is pretty ugly.  Ugly colours, just ugly.  But when you take up crocheting, eventually you will have to learn how to make granny squares.  They begin as such a lowly little thing, kind of like a bug on a leaf.  About 10 minutes later, there it is in all its adorableness.  Bang...addicted.  So now, the problem, what to do with them.  So here, in pictures is the genesis of the little "shopalong" purse I just finished.  I love the colour and I got really skinny yarn and learning to use a much smaller hook was actually fun! The pics show the fabrics I auditioned for the lining and then I braided some macrame twine for the handle.  Love it!!!

Such humble beginnings

Eventually I joined the squares all together, but I had to make some more because then I decided on a flap!

Here are some of the lining candidates - icky inside yellow light tho..

Here she is - and I love her!

Fabric bowls

Well, I don't know when or how this started...upon reflection, yes I do.  Trolling through crafty blogs I came upon this amazing list of tutorials for everything handy/girly/easy to make.  Lo and behold - the fabric bowl.  And that was it.  They are reversible, pretty and useful - what's not to like?  I added a reversible disc in the bottom for me to play with and change the look.  I use mine for bulldog clips and paperclips on my desk and I sigh with happiness when I look at them!

Oh so exciting - shirring

Shirring in process

And here it is in all its glory!

I must confess that in all my sewing hacking around career, I had never shirred anything at all!  I know...how is this possible??!- especially considering how amazingly fun it is to do.  Off to Youtube to find out how to proceed and voila, it is as easy as pie.  Handwind the bobbin with no tension, pop it into the machine, pull up and away you go BY MAGIC.  And will you just look at the result?  Fabulous I say.  Pish, tosh, done like dinner.

The Washi dress begins...

 Here is the first step in the Washi dress creation saga.  For some reason I bought a pattern online.  Strange name, "Washi Dress" but very stunning.  So how does one get a pattern through the computer and onto the fabric you ask?  It comes printed on numerous 8x10 sheets and one cuts out the sheets and puts them together like a puzzle.  Then cut out the pieces as usual, pin to fabric, cut out and away one goes.