Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

Kelly

Bamboo velour pads instore now

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This pad is a bit special. The outer fabric is hand painted then block printed using my fabulous husband’s lino cuts and eco friendly water based screen printing ink.

On the flip side (the side you use šŸ™‚ is hand dyed bamboo velour which is a lovely rich purple.

Making it a very unique pad! But it’s not just beautiful, it’s also highly functional. Pop over to my Cloth Pad Shop for more details but you’d better get in quick – I don’t expect this one to be there for long. 
If you miss out don’t worry, I have more bamboo velours coming šŸ™‚

Cathedral windows pin cushions

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Odd fact : I’ve never owned a pin cushion. I’ve been sewing and embroidering for years sans one of these cute but practical sewing essentials. I’m glad I decided to remedy that!

Finding this great tute gave me instant ideas on how to use some of the Blueberry Ash fabric I won recently.

And to test out how our screen printed fabric looks in action (see the purple print?)
Pretty darn good if I do say so myself!

The backs are almost as cute as the fronts! Don’t you love the red and white print (Blueberry Ash screen print).
Now I’m left to ponder several thoughts.
1. Why did I never make a pincushion before?
2. How did I miss the wondrous possibilities of cathedral windows?
3. Who will I give the extra pincushion to? (Actually, I already have someone in mind – someone will be getting some mailbox candy very soon šŸ˜‰
4. Which one can I bear to part with?…..

New pads

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Just to let you know I have a couple of new pads in my Cloth Pad shop and even managed to get some outdoor photos before it rained!
This Blue Sky maxi pad is my largest design and has a hidden layer of PUL, so it is waterproof.

This is my favourite type of pad. It’s a regular, so for light – medium flow and has 2 layers of flannel in the middle core as well as bamboo cotton fleece. These are just so comfy!
Don’t forget, all purchases this month go in the draw to win a prize pack worth $80!

Reluctant draw-ers?

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My children go through periods of apathy with their drawing and as it’s important to my husband and I that our kids are “arty” like we are, we try to keep them inspired.

There are so many ways to inspire a children artistically, but here is a simple one that has worked a treat in our home. I bought some simple but nice quality sketch pads to make into art journals. Then the kids and I went on an outing to our local scrapbooking store where they selected paper, stickers and plenty of bling!

They were so excited about all the pretty things we bought (most of which were $2 packets) that they set to work on decorating their art journals straight away. We covered to boring front cover with scrapbooking paper and the rest was just sticking on whatever they wanted.
They’ve been given free licence to make their journals their own – they can draw, write stories and prayers, stick in pictures they like, really just whatever they feel inspired to do.
They are so thrilled with their art journals that they’ve barely left them out of sight and they’re already being filled with beautiful artistic works that they can keep and look back on.

Spelt, honey and linseed bread recipe

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Once you have a basic bread recipes you can tweak it in so many ways to make different loaves. My husband bought me some beautiful organic spelt flour recently and I already had the linseeds plus some local honey. Voila! New recipe šŸ™‚
This will make 2 regular loaves.
I mix my dough with the mixmaster but of course it can be done by hand also.

100g spelt flour
900g unbleached bread flour
2.5 tspn dried yeast
2.5 tspn salt
2 tblsp canola oil
1 tblsp honey
3 tblsp linseed
600ml warm water
Place flour and yeast in a bowl, add yeast and seeds. Measure water into a jug and add in the honey and oil. If using mixer with dough hooks start the machine and gradually pour in the liquid. Allow to mix until combine. Sprinkle salt on, one spoon at a time and leave dough mixing for 5 -10 minutes. Turn out onto oiled kneading surface and knead for a couple of minutes.
If mixing by hand add the wet ingredients to the dry in the same way and mix with a wooden spoon, adding the salt after dough is a little combined. When it’s too hard to mix with the spoon, turn the dough onto your kneading surface and begin to knead for about 10 minutes or until your dough is soft and elastic.
Place dough into oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave until at least doubled in size.
Turn out onto your kneading surface again and press the air out. Cut dough in half and arrange each one for the bread tins. Cover loosely with the same wrap and turn the oven to 240 degrees (C). Leave dough in tins for about half an hour.
Slash dough with a sharp knife and place in the oven for 15 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 190 deg. (C) and bake for a further 20 minutes. When cooked, turn the loaves out of tins onto baking rack.
TIPS FOR BAKING BREAD
*There is no need to wash your bread tins after each baking – I rarely wash or oil mine and the bread does not stick.
* To get a nice shape in the bread tin I flatten out my dough piece into a rectangular shape, fold in the longest sides to meet in the middle, then roll up fairly tightly.
*One of the most helpful things I’ve learned is that a moist dough is a good dough! I used to keep adding flour to the dough if it seemed sticky but that resulted in a dry loaf. Now I oil my working bench and my hands to make the dough workable.
If I’ve missed anything please let me know – all this stuff is in my head and it’s a challenge to actually think about my methods and write them down.
Happy Baking!

A new venture…

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I’m very excited to announce that I have a brand new shop at the Cloth Pad Shop!

Here you will be able to purchase my trademark tie dye cloth pads. I am also now an agent for DivaCup.

And here’s the cool part. Any purchase from my shop during the month of July or August will go in the draw to win this prize pack which includes: 
1 DivaCup
1 hand dyed liner
1 hand dyed regular pad
1 hand dyed maxi pad
Head on over and take a look! It’s a little bare at the moment but I’m working on it šŸ™‚

Mareen dress

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A new Winter dress for a little one who has just turned 3. The pattern is “Mareen” from Cinderella Zwergen Mode. There are a number of options for different styles dresses or tops. Great pattern, very easy and quick. I do so love a pattern I can just cut and sew without needing to follow the instructions.

The floral print is a beautiful soft velour from Stenzo and the plain co ordinating knit is Indigo from Stella (from the Crafty Mamas shop).
She loves it, and it’s so nice to be able to wear a dress in Winter with warm and comfy fabrics.

From the print studio..

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… aka our dining room table! But who cares if we’re printing from the table and washing equipment in the bath, the main thing is that we’re printing at last!

We have thought, talked, thought more, talked more and saved money for this for many months and it is finally a reality, we have our first screen and today we printed some fantastic looking fabric!

Husband finally gets to see his designs being used and appreciated and we begin, in a small way, to work on our dream of building something together, making, designing and maybe even one day providing an income for us outside of a “regular” job.
In the meantime we’ll continue to hone our skills until we’re really satisfied with what we’re producing, but these sure are exciting times!

Little wool felt purse tutorial

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My 6 year old and I were designing a wool felt purse for a sewing machine project and she thought it would be a lovely idea to share a simple tutorial for any other young people who would like to give it a try. The template is at the end of the post.
Oh, and I apologise in advance for my less than perfect photos, but as time is of the essence I didn’t edit šŸ™‚
Cut out your 2 pattern pieces. We used some lovely hand dyed rainbow wool felt.

Pin them together like this.

You can machine or hand sew. If you’re machine sewing make sure you have an adult there to work with you (this is a photo shot, you need to actually look at what you’re doing!)

Sew down either side and across the bottom like this.

We used a snap press to apply a snap closure (a snap press should only be used by a grown up) but you can make whatever closure you like eg. a button, velcro.

Here is another idea for your purse – a ribbon handle! Just stick the ends of the ribbon in either side like this before you sew. You could also cut your pieces of felt out with pinking shears for another pretty effect.

My 4, nearly 5 year old made one too!
Hope you enjoy this tutorial and use your purse for coins, jewellery or any other special trinkets you need a safe place for.
Template. Cut 1 of each.