Ugh, sorry!

I've been a bit busy. Not much sewing. Not much blogging. I did knock up a couple of drawstring bags for my little girlies. They returned to daycare this year in a new class (they've been kicked out of the babies room - are they really not babies anymore already? I guess so!) and I now need to send along sheets for them. I also found and sewed the finishing touches on my dress. It's crooked. D'oh! Gotta unpick it and do it again. Other than that, I'd been filling my time with work, housework, and caring for my girls. It'll be different now though. My work kindly advised me they have no further need of my services and made my role redundant. Oh well, more time for sewing. More time for blogging.

To celebrate, I've joined another sewing swap on Essential Baby. This one is for a kids outfit. I am sewing for a boy. A bit scary as I didn't even know where to start looking for patterns. Then I heard that Spotlight was having a 50% off sale on patterns. So I wandered on over there yesterday to find me one. Can I just say that the boys pattern section in most of those pattern books are ridiculously boring and disappointingly small. Seriously, have these people no creativity? I did finally find something. I felt a bit limited as some of the patterns called for fabric I've never worked with before and I'd rather not experiment too much for someone I don't know and who is hoping for something really lovely. Plus some of the patterns I liked said they were really difficult. Not sure if I'm ready for really difficult yet. Again, rather not use this as an experiment. So, I'm sticking with some elastic waist trousers (his mum asked for something that's easy to get up and down so the little guy can take himself off to the toilet without too much trouble) and a shirt. I'll do the trousers in some corduroy and will find a funky print of some kind for the shirt. Need to order me some fabric for the handbag I want to make, which I have found in stock at Fabric Shack so will find something to order along with it for my new little buddy.

And while we're on the topic of handbags, my lovely, lovely friend and I are going to have our own mini swap and make each other a bag. She's been bombarding me with pics of bags left, right, and centre that she's been finding patterns for on the net. Boy oh boy there are a lot out there. I'll need to settle on something and get started. I'm going to do it all stealthy like and just surprise her with it. No hints, no clues. This will also mean no revealing updates here 'cause she reads this blog! :D

So, a few things to keep me busy over the coming weeks as I get over the rejection of my workplace not wanting me anymore. What a great way to heal!

He Must've Walked

The postman that is. The one who had my package from the Two Little Fairies fabric sale. It arrived on my doostep the morning of 29 Dec - just 4 days shy of taking a whole month to get to me from Melbourne. Yes, normally a 2 business day delivery - overnight if you are lucky, 3 days if you are a little unlucky. I had pretty much given up on it ever arriving but still kinda had a flame of hope that maybe, just maybe it would eventually turn up somewhere. Yay, it did and that somewhere was my house.

Here it is. Just a couple of things that were pretty and on sale. I LOVE on sale. The top right fabric I have decided to use to line a sunhat I have that is straw and not really sunblocking, the top left (Delilah - Antiquity by Michael Miller), I will probably use towards the bag I want to sew but I have almost 2 yards of that so I'll be able to do something else as well. The bottom 2 fabrics I might turn into long PJ bottoms for the girls for when the weather cools. I don't have enough for a full set of PJs so would then do probably a knit top to match. Unless of course I think of something else alltogether. It's very pretty fabric.



Here's the hat. The holes means the sun comes straight through so not the most practical of materials from which to construct a hat thats meant to shade you from the sun. It's Roxy, though, so I suspect the intent of the hat is more fashion accessory than sun safety device.

And here with lining cut out, ironed, and pinned. Just gotta sew it and then attach it to the hat. I think I need to alter it a little at the inside of the brim where your head goes through. I traced the hat for the outside edge and traced a bowl for the inside edge but have realised that it's actually not round but oval. Dang! Shame I thought of it AFTER I'd done all the cutting, pinning, and ironing. Not hard to fix, though, just requires time. I will eventually find(/steal) some of that. The sun seems to have hidden itself away again for a little while so there's no urgency. Plus, I have my other new hat.

A Bit Slow

Sorry. It took me a little longer to get to this than I initially anticipated. I ended up taking a holiday from my larger computing devices and I can't upload to this blog via my iPhone (which I think my husband also wished I would take a holiday from).

Finally, Christmas morning and here are a few snaps of the girls in their dresses. This first one is of D with her daddy putting her hat on so she could go outside and play. She insisted on the gumboots.

And here she is pushing around her new trike. Apparently pushing it around is much more fun than actually riding it yourself.


S thought she'd have a go of sitting on it

But that too turned to her pushing it around. And when "cot teddy" (no idea why he is called that, D decided on it) is involved, it's even more fun.

Here they are begging plum pudding from their grandmother. Note the bibs. I managed to keep the dresses clean all day. Yay for no washing.

And while I'm showing them off in dresses I have made, here they are in their pillowcase dresses. This was a mere 5 mins before D ran outside, pulled hers of, and removed the ribbon. She was running naked (well, there was a nappy) around the garden with the ribbon slung over her shoulders. I will have to alter the design. I really like the ribbon tied on one shoulder thing but it's not going to work until they are old enough to understand not to pull it out. So, will have to settle for a tie up on both shoulders thing and that way I can pull the dress in at the front the way it is supposed to gather and stitch the ribbons in place.

And last but not least, I am working on a dress for me. I cut out half of it about 2 months ago. Then yesterday while the girls were sleeping I decided to cut out the other half and stitch it together. I've made this pattern before - once as a maternity top and once as a maternity dress for a wedding we went to when I was about 34 weeks pregnant with the girls. The pattern is for a knee length dress but it's easy enough to cut it off to a top or make it a longer dress (as this one is). It's stretch fabric, which is rather painful to work with but I've had a little more practice since last time so it's MUCH neater than my first go (the top) and I didn't end up thumping the table and swearing in frustration this time (always a much more enjoyable sewing experience minus those things). I need to buy one last thing to finish it off, which will be something decorative to sew over that gathered bit and it's also sewn for the straps at the top of the shoulders. I've been mulling over what to use and I think I might go for something lacey and either cream or white. Should be able to get along to either Spotlight or Lincraft on Friday. Wish there was a sewing supplies/fabric shop closer than a 20 min drive away as I'd really like to go buy it and finish it now.