Some Sweet Day...

...I'll make her mine, pretty flamingo
Who else here is old enough to remember that song?
It was love at first sight when I spotted this Michael Miller flamingo print fabric. Unfortunately by the time I spotted it, it was sold out pretty much everywhere.
I spent hours trawling the internet and eventually I managed to track down a scant metre remnant from a UK online shop, and another metre from a shop in Germany.
My mother, who was a genius at this kind of thing, could take a slab of fabric and a waist measurement, and by application of some form of arcane mathematics make a perfect pleated skirt without a pattern in about ten minutes flat, so I thought I'd see if the eldritch seamstress maths gene had passed down to me
I haven't quite got her knack for it, because it took me the best part of an afternoon, but all in all I'm pretty chuffed with how it came out.

I added a some white ric rac to the hem, because, obviously, a flamingo border print skirt isn't anywhere near kitschy enough on its own
Now all I need is some sunny weather to give me a chance to wear it

Gifted Gorgeousness in June

It's time for June's Gifted Gorgeousness, the brainchild of Jo from Serendipitous Stitching, where we show off anything we can remotely shoehorn into the category of a gift.
I'm kicking off this month with this stitched bracelet.

Double GG points for this one as it was a cover gift with Cross Stitcher magazine, and I've stitched it for Naomi.
I swapped out the slightly loud colours in the original kit for a cooler palette of blues and turquoises with white, and left a few rows blank as I liked the effect of the "leather" showing through.
Second up, is this handbag I made from a vintage souvenir scarf depicting scenes of  Rome.

I'ts got the Colosseum on the other side.
This is another double pointer. Again it's a gift for Naomi; who is going to be living in Italy next academic year as part of her degree, and consequently needs an Italian handbag; and the pattern to make it came from a book which I received as a gift from Julie a couple of years ago.
And finally, just so you don't think Eloise is being left out on the handcrafted gift front, here is my progress on a cardigan I'm knitting for her.

The pattern is "Mizzen" from Classic Elite Yarns. It's a raglan sleeved cardigan knitted in one piece from the top down, the line of lacy holes you can see is one of the raglans forming.

A Spot of light Summer Knitting

I don't often knit for myself but I couldn't resist this little raglan sleeved summer jumper (Pattern Number 4772) in King Cole Cottonsoft Crush.

I do love a self striping yarn. Lovely mindless, in front of the TV knitting.
One small problem. As you can see from the pattern illustration it's meant to be quite a wide neck. Well their model must have shoulders like an all in wrestler because knitted up as given it falls clean off mine. I remedied it by threading a few rows of shirring elastic through the ribbing to pull it in so mine's a bit more scoop necked.