birthday button

I was given this button for my birthday from Eleanor, my mum's friend and co-teacher at Dublin Creative Textiles - isn't it stunning?

This embroidery technique is called blackwork and it goes back to the Elizabethan era.  It is basically black embroidery on white evenweave linen. The stitching is really precise and the tiny stitches are just so beautiful. 

Now I just need to make something deserving enough that will show this off... Thanks Eleanor!

miuccia prada does gatsby...

It's out already in most other countries but The Great Gatsby is released here next week - so excited! I read the book years ago and loved it so much, I can't wait to see the film. 

For all those getting caught up in Gatsby-fever, I came across this video on the Prada website all about Miuccia Prada's collaboration with Baz Luhrmann and costume desinger Catherine Martin for the costumes in the party scenes of the film. 

Worth taking a look at if you're looking for ideas for a Gatsby inspired dress or for a fun nosey peek!

 

liebster award!

Stephanie from Mabel Makes has very kindly nominated me for a Liebster Award! Yay!!! It really did make my day when she told me!

This is a lovely way to find out about other blogs out there... and finding my own nominees has been lots of fun! 

So first up, my answers to Stephanie's questions: 

1. Tell me a few things about you and why you sew or knit?

I think above all, it's because I just really really like making things! I've tried to figure out exactly why I get so much satisfaction wearing something that I've made and I'm not 100% sure why! 

Sewing is engrained in me by my creative mother who sewed so much throughout her life. She made tonnes of clothes for me when I was growing up, right from little dungarees and teeny tiny dresses to my Debs dress for my leaving school ball. 

I shall go to the ball... 

 It's nice to feel part of keeping the craft of sewing alive and it is really exciting that sewing seems to be becoming more popular. 

As we all know, it's not like it used to be when sewing was more economical than buying clothes in shops but I do think that sewing gives me the opportunity to make really special clothes from beautiful fabric. And I do like the fact that it is an antidote to 'fast fashion' and the modern worldwide system of clothing manufacture. 

2. Why did you start your blog?

I honestly just couldn't resist joining in! Once I started looking at them (Tilly was my gateway drug)I got a little obsessed. The whole thing was just ridiculously inspiring and I wanted a piece of the action! 

I used to write for newspapers and magazines and now that I work in radio, I miss writing a bit so that's an added bonus! It is a novelty for me to be writing in the first person and something I was never that comfortable with so it's nice to be pushed a bit outside my comfort zone. 

3. What is your fashion style? Does it match your handmade style?

My style is quite eclectic. Depending on my mood I'm drawn to vintage style or something completely modern but I like clothes that have something a bit different about them and I'm a sucker for beautiful fabric. 

I think I've tried to make things that I know I will wear and that will fit in with my wardrobe rather than making too many 'fantasy' kind of outfits. While I absolutely love so much of the vintage sewing that goes on out there, the reality is there's a lot of cool '50s dresses that I think would end up hanging up in my wardrobe waiting for the right occasion to wear them to! Having said that, I think I would like to be a bit more adventurous with my sewing and I love wearing dresses and skirts so I think it's time to get more of them on the sewing table!

4. Where do you get your inspiration for projects from?

Definitely looking at other sewers online and how they have interpreted patterns. I also find myself buying magazines like Vogue and looking at them with different eyes. 

5. Where did you learn to sew/knit/crochet?

My mum. Basically everything I know about sewing came from her. I don't ever remember her sitting me down and teaching me to sew but I do remember the first time she let me use the sewing machine. My cousins and I were I think probably bored and being annoying so she got us cutting up little squares of fabric and sewing them together - they weren't very even but I think they may have ended up as very wonky cushion covers!

I don't think I'll ever be finished learning!

6. What is your process – for sewing do you make a muslin, for knitting do you make sure to swatch? Or do you just make it up as you go?

I have never made a muslin! I know I should try it but I'm so bloody impatient. It takes me long enough to make a garment as it is, the thought of adding in the extra step of making a muslin does not exactly thrill me. 

When I start to make muslins, I'll know I'm a grown up. 

7.  Where do you buy your fabric or wool? 

We don't have a huge amount of choice in Dublin. Murphy Sheehy is my favourite shop in town. I like the Cloth Shop but it is expensive. I'd like to investigate buying fabric online. 

I like to try to buy fabric if I'm in another country. Apart from having access to more fabric, I like that it adds to the 'story' of the garment. A spate of African trips means that I have quite a lot of African prints that I need to use! 

8. What technique or item of clothing are you afraid to make?

Oh god where do I start??!

The overlocker still eludes me. I have the convenient excuse that when I was moving house I slipped and a part of it broke off so I need to get it repaired, but it's a bit silly not to use it! 

Altering patterns is a bit of a mystery to me and I would love to learn more about doing this. 

And in terms of items of clothing that I'm afraid to make - trousers!! The scope for failure is just so stratospheric!!! 

9. What was the first thing you ever made?

I actually found a photo of a top I made when I was about 16, which I think is the first garment that I finished myself. In truth I think I got a lot of help with it from my mum but I was really proud of it at the time. 

Check out that moody teenager! Not to mention those jeans! 

10. What is the best thing you ever made?

Ooh, I'm not sure. I once made a bag that involved sandwiching dried flowers between layers of fabric that I was really proud of. Of course eventually the flowers started to disintegrate but I was quite pleased with how it turned out and it completed an outfit for a wedding! 

I think my last Lisette top was a big step for me - conquering that neckband! I love the Liberty fabric and I've really been enjoying wearing it. 

11. Do you work in a creative industry? If not do you plan to eventually make a business out of your crafting or do you want to keep it a lovely hobby?

I work in radio, making radio documentaries so I'm lucky that there is a creative element to my work. I find the creative process quite challenging sometimes but it's a 'good challenge'! When I first started making documentaries I would have a week of absolute despair that it would be complete rubbish but now I've come to realise that things generally work out okay and there is a certain amount of mulling things over in my head that needs to happen before I can properly start. And that's helpful to me for sewing as well. 

As for turning sewing into a business, well apart from the fact that I'm a long way off that, I do love it too much as my hobby! 

And now for the next bit! 
My boyfriend (who is quite bemused by this parallel universe that is the sewing blogosphere!) says it's like a Ponzi scheme for sewing bloggers because I am now nominating eleven people. I'm supposed to be nominating people with less than 200 followers but actually I'm not 100% how to do that! I can see the amount of followers that people have on bloglovin but apart from that, not sure if people are being followed else where... any hoops... here goes: 

Rue de Renards by Tassadit from Brussels. I love 'Daddy's Datura' - a beautiful Deer and Doe Datura top made from two of her Dad's old shirts. 

I recently came across a big blast of colourful creative goodness at Kitschy Krafter Alysa is into sewing, knitting, crochet and all sorts of fun crafting and I love the design of her blog. 

If your feeling in need of a bit of inspiration, head for  Scavenger Hunt. Californian Melissa at loves trawling through thrift stores and flea markets. There's tonnes of DIY, found objects and some really beautiful dress and clothes she has made. She may well have more than 200 followers but like I say, I'm not sure how to tell! 

Lola at Lola Couture is only 15!! She has been sewing since she was 8 and she is seriously impressive, even if my French isn't good enough to understand everything. 

I would also like to give a Liebster shout out to two Irish ladies: 
helen at The Busy Mamas who has organised what sounds like a fantastic knitting and sewing creative monthly meetup in Marino on the northside of Dublin - hopefully I will get to the next one. 

And La Creature and You by Raphaele is a French Dubliner who sews and has fun crafty tutorials.

Schmidt Happens is the blog of funky girl Carolin Schmidt from one of the coolest cities in the world, Berlin.

I suspect Seattle gal Morgan at Crab and Bee of having more than 200 followers but anyway... She recently gave herself a birthday week off work just to do nice stuff at home - like yoga, cooking and sewing! Definitely going to do that for my birthday next year! 

Brittany at Lavender Revenge started up her blog earlier this year. I love her version of Simplicty 1609.

Layer, Stitch, Repeat Rachel is originally from England, but lives in Brooklyn. I love that she photoshopped herself into Don Draper's office for the Mad Men Challenge!

Katy and Laney are two girls who love to sew in Boston. I love the African print peplum top - inspiration for my extensive African fabric stash! It's a fairly new blog, and I look forward to following it! 


And so my questions to my nominees: 

1.  How long have you been stitching?
2.  Where did you learn to sew?
3.  Why do you sew?
4.  Which blogger has had the biggest impact on you? 
5.  What is the thing you have made you are most proud of? 
6.  How do you balance the rest of your life with sewing? 
7.  What piece of advice would you give to a novice stitcher? 
8.  What sewing skill eludes you that you would like to perfect?
9.  Why do you blog? 
10. Where do you look for inspiration? 
11. Tell me something about yourself that people would be surprised to know!

Phew! That's the longest blog post I think I've ever written!

Thanks again Stephanie!

thoughts on a year gone by!

I realised that it is my blogiversary and it is a year since the little baby Reckless Needle shyly made its way on to the big bad world wide web. 

Happy blogiversary to moi!

I've been incredibly secretive about the fact that I have a blog to the people I know - it took me 6 months and a couple of drinks to finally 'fess up to my bestie that I was doing this! 

But after a year of really enjoying doing this, I realise that the blogging and sewing are making a pretty good partnership and are ambling along together very nicely indeed! Before I started this blog I literally spent years thinking about taking out the sewing machine but never got around to it. Blogging is helping me set goals - and actually achieve them! 

Also, it has been just so cool interacting with other sewers out there and it gives me such a buzz when I see that someone has commented on a post or somebody new has started following the blog.

There have been challenges of course - keeping it going regularly sometimes, especially when other bits of life get busy doing late-night editing sessions or trying to do up a house in my free time! It makes me appreciate how hard some bloggers work at posting regularly and I am in awe of the sewing productivity of some people. It can be really hard not to compare myself to some of the fabulous people out there and I've had to tell myself to just enjoy my own sewing sometimes! 

Having said that in the next year I would like to increase my productivity a bit and finally conquer my procrastination (not just in sewing!) and also to not be so intimidated by so many sewing processes. 

So I decided this week as a birthday present to myself (my blogiversary coincides quite nicely with my birthday!) I signed up to a dressmaking course in the Grafton Academy who are a very reputable school. 

As part of the course you pick a pattern and make it up under supervision. I have chosen the Colette Eclair. It is Intermediate and I thought that there would be quite a few things in there that would challenge me, like an invisible zip, boning and piping. 

 

I'm using this cotton linen fabric which I got in the Cloth Shop and I will be demanding that the sun comes out when I get this finished! 

Also - it's a dress!! Very exciting, as I feel I've been the converse of 'too much frosting and not enough cake' - More frosting please!!!

Another little thing I decided to do to mark the blogiversary is to buy the domain name www.therecklessneedle.com which will be up and running very soon. It's such a ridiculous name but I think I might be stuck with it now!

I'm also completely thrilled that my blogiversary coincides with  Stephanie of Mabel Makes putting me for up a Liebster Award - and I'll be back spreading the Liebster love soon... 

To those who do, thanks for reading my blog!
Nicolinexx

april blog crushes...

These are a few nooks and crannies of the Internet that I've been admiring this month! 

My handmade wardrobe doesn't yet stretch to Me Made May unfortunately. Well maybe it could but I'd probably be putting on a lot of washes to keep up! Next year, next year... 
But I think I'll try in my own little way to wear the clothes I've made this  month, and I liked Portia's Miss P's 10 tops for MMM

I don't really knit - I have some vague aspirations to knit and I do possess random knitting needles and balls of wool that have moved house with me several times but this very easy looking necklace could be just the thing to get me clickity-clicking.  
I found it on a site I'm still exploring called Kollabora that is a community website - ie you need to join it - and it has lots of inspirational projects.







 I have a bit of a thing about dying, and I found this nice little method of making flowers with bleach on Paula Deen's website. 

I found a tutorial for this cool dress (for skinny days only) on From Head to Toe - who is one of my fellow nominees for a Liebster Award which comes to be courtesy of the lovely Stephanie from Mabel Makes - yipppeee.... more on that soon...!

And... Abby at Blue Ginger Doll has released a very minxy vintage dress -  the Billie Jean. 

it's straight it's great

I revisited Rosie Martin's DIY Couture book to make this straight skirt.

I know this is not that exciting in terms of fabric but I actually just really wanted a black skirt. So many mornings I've wished that I had a black skirt that I could wear to work or out to meet friends and I have been on the look-out for one in shops - with no joy! 

I made this with black wool that I bought a few years ago to make a giant snood scarf for a friend at work. At the time, I did start it but my sewing machine broke (it was a sewing machine from Lidl that I have since parted company with)and the scarf unfortunately never got made. 

So it actually is a bit of a stashbuster which is quite nice - although somewhat the opposite of the 'vibrant' April theme for the stashbusting sewalong challenge! 

I wonder can I get something vibrant made by the end of April??! And a Laurel??! There's no shortage of things to do in sewing land that's for sure. 

Anyway, back to my skirt.

 I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And I do really find the DIY Couture approach fun. And because you are doing it from your own clothes and fitting it on, you end up with a pretty good fit. I love how this skirt fits me around the waist and hips because it's just right. 

There is also a nice concealed zip flap that I really like. The pockets are also kind of fun, but the buttonhole is kind of a car-crash. I can't even bear to photograph it and show it to you - the shame! It does function; it's just not pretty. Luckily my covered button hides it a bit! 

the big nautical craft swap reveal...

Sooo.... I have been reliably informed that El Postie has delivered my own little crafty parcel so now it is time to reveal what is inside. 

Tea-towels! 

The rules of the International Craft Swap, run by the fabulous Rachel of House of Pinheiro were that it had to be a nautical theme and only white, red and blue could be used.

I was paired with Catherine of Clothes and Sewing and I was trying to think of something that she might like. I could see that Catherine had kids and that she likes making things for them and I thought something for the home might be nice...

These are similar to the chicken tea-towel that I made before. This time I used a medium-weight cotton. 

I made my stencils from freezer paper as before - printing the stencil on normal paper (there are tonnes on the Internet), cutting that out, then tracing it onto freezer paper and ironing the paper onto the fabric and gently brushing the fabric dye (I used Speedball) on. You need to let the first layer dry for a few hours, then do another coat. 
When it's finished and dry you need to iron them loads to fix the dye, otherwise the pattern will wash out. 

I had a bit of a major fail with my first attempt at this anchor stencil. I had cut my stencil into a square of freezer paper but accidentally managed to use the edge of the square as a stencil - doh! Anyway, I learned from my mistake and took a bit more care for the second attempt and I think it has come out pretty neat! 

Aaaar!

The third one is probably the one I am least pleased with - the letters were kind of hard. 

It was really fun to be part of this and all of the brilliant nautically themed goodies are appearing up on the flickr page. Thanks Rachel for organising! 

And thank you Catherine again for my lovely goodies!