Introducing...

My other packets arrived from FS on Monday. Gosh I love getting squishy mail deliveries like this. Wanna see?


This one is for me. I am going to make a bag with it. It's lovely.

This is some cute cord. It was on sale and I'll use it to make the girls some bits and pieces for winter.

The top 2 on this are the new bits I got from the Little Menagerie range. I photographed it with the stuff I already had to show you it all together. Ridiculously cute. Actually, checkout to see the entire range in its full glory.

The top one is what I ordered to go with the Delilah fabric I previously purchased to make that bag I was talking about. But it's wrong. It doesn't go properly. As you can see. So, not sure what will become of it. It is exquisite, though, all lovely and silvery.

The top one here is some flannel. It was in the sale bin for something like USD5 per yard and I do need some new winter PJ pants. The other 3 are fabrics I bought for the girls jackets. The pink is supposed to go with the lovely butterfly stuff I got from Two Little Fairies but it's the wrong pink. The bottom 2 are supposed to go together. But, I might put the pink with the very bottom one, save the middle green one for something else, and get something new for the butterflies. Probably just locally, though, so I can colour match properly. I'll also colour match something for the Delilah fabric so I can get the bag I want to sew with that done.

And that's all. One of these days (real soon, I promise) I'll be sticking up pics of things I have actually made rather than just me buying more fabric. Other than the 2 bits I just mentioned, I am setting a ban on fabric purchasing for a while. My cupboard is now overflowing and I really do not need to spending any more $$$$$.

Sneak Peak

Wow one packet of fabric arrived from the Fabric Shack on Friday. That was quick. Just 5 days. Nicer than the 6 weeks I waited for my fabric from FQS just before Christmas or the month it took to arrive from Melbourne. I was just on my way out to door to Spotlight to take advantage of their spend $100 get $40 off voucher when I noticed the packet sitting on the letterbox (for all to see - thanks Mr postman!). I ripped into it and was delighted to discover that of the 3 fabrics in the packet, one of them was for the Kids Clothing Sewing Swap on EB. YAY. So, now I have all my fabric and my patterns are cut and ready to go. Just need to wash and dry the fabric and get sewing!


(oh and I'll post a pic of the other fabrics that arrived with this later on. Haven't actually taken one yet).

Hats Hats Hats

With the Christmas dresses out of the way, it was time to move onto sun hats. So this weekend was sun hat weekend. I am making the girls 2 each and as they are reversible I get to use 8 fabrics for that. Yay for getting to play with some more of my stash of pretty fabrics.
I decided to do it semi-production line so first thing was to cut out the fabric and the interfacing for the hats. Here it is. I've laid the fabrics out with their buddies so you can see what each hat will be made up of.



I then decide to scale back the production line a little and just work on 2 hats at a time, so here they are with interfacings attached.

Next step was sewing crowns and bands together.

Then it was onto the brims. Once done I had a pile of crowns and brims ready for assemblage.

Here they are fully pined and ready for the last couple of steps.

I attempted to have the girls model them once they were done but they were just too busy trashing my house like 2 little whirlwinds and the hats were quickly discarded on the floor in amongst the rest of their trail of destruction before I even had a chance to get the camera out.

Finally I distracted them with some food and both a) kept their hats on long enough and b) stood still long enough for me to get a picture.

And just in case you are wondering, here's side A and the flipside of my hat all finished and on my head.

I still have another 2 hats to complete but I think that's gonna have to wait until after Christmas. Oh, and I finished the other pillowcase dress. It just needs it's ribbon threaded. I'll have to do that and get some photos up.

On a completely different note, my fabric from Two Little Fairies never arrived. It was posted 2nd Dec and only had to get from Melbourne to Sydney then onto my place. Usually that takes 1-2 business days. Somtimes my mail goes a little crazy and gets sent to somewhere in Western Australia that has the same suburb name as me (yes, the postal workers, I assume, cross out my state and postcode and write in the WA one over the top then when it gets there and my street name doesn't exist in that suburb someone writes back in the correct details again and it eventually gets to me. I don't know how long this generally takes as the first I know if it is when I pick up a letter from the letterbox with all this stuff scrawled across it. Perhaps this has happened to my package and it will eventually find me. I hope so but for each day that goes by I am losing hope. I am very sad.

Another Day, Another Package

Don't you just hate it when you're stark naked in your bedroom deciding what to wear for the day and a delivery man knocks on your front door? Yikes! Threw the PJs back on (which isn't how I usually like to answer my front door but hey, better than naked) and ran to collect my next bundle of fabrics from him. Seems they've decided to drip feed them to me as only the second package arrived today. Another one tomorrow I guess. Lovely, aren't they?!



Oh, and here's a shot of my new cushions for the lounge. I have just one green one left to make. I have decided I'm gonna do it as a tutorial. Feel like a bit of a fraud given I'm not really a master sempstress or anything and it's probably not done correctly from a technical perspective but I did make the pattern up myself just by looking at some other cushions we had and it is REALLY easy so can't hurt to share. Maybe someone else can make use of it. Anyway, I'll sew the last one when I've time to also sit and photograph and take notes along the way.

And last but not least, Hanc**k's of Paducah are running a free shipping promotion. Just posting that in case anyone does stumble upon my blog and would like to take advantage of it.

Breaking the seal

I am about to embark on a basic dressmaking course at a local community to college to sharpen up my sewing skills. So far I'm pretty much fully self taught (read - make it up as I go), which kinda limits me to straight or zigzag stitch. I have 2 very beautiful 16 (well, almost 17) mth old twin girls and I have discovered that the world of fabrics availabe online is immense and beautiful. I want to dive in headlong and fill their wardrobes with such delights. But, if I want to be able to produce for them items that I'd be proud for them to actually wear out in public then I need to do some learning.

I have been encouraged to start a blog about my adventures. So, here it is. Let me start by giving you a full list of everything I have sewed in my life to date (which, I might add, I think is non too shabby given I have no freakin' idea what I'm doing with a sewing machine - okay, maybe not quite no idea but definitely very little).

1. a tissue box cover (the obligatory first year high school item)
2. my finger (whilst attempting to produce above obligatory item)
3. a dress (in my final year of high school - nice dress, nice fabric, not so great a job, wrong style for me to wear but I wore it, once)
4. recovered some dining chairs (very easy, cut out squares of fabric, put over the seat, stable underneath)
5. covered a really ugly lounge in a semi-furnished apartment I rented (also really easy, kind just hemed a large piece of fabric and tucked it all around)
6. another dress (well, I've never actually finished it but it's really just a tie on the back that it needs; I'll get there. Really I will)
7. some cushion covers (was quite proud of myself - worked out the pattern on my own and even included a hidden zipper)
8. a bunch of peanut shaped little pillows (this is my grandmother's design. She used to make them for us as kids - great for sticking behind your head when watching tellie or for cuddling in bed at night when you are too old for a teddybear to be socially acceptable. Oh, and they squish down really well into your backpack if you are travelling over seas. Great for sleeping on planes and other forms of public transport - I've made them for me and other people who have seen mine and wanted one/some).
9. a couple of maternity wear items (a dress and a top)
10. some curtains for my babies' room - twice (we moved when they were 5 mths old and I had to sew some more)
11. some more cushion overs (a bunch of them in varying shapes and sizes)
12. some cloth nappies (REALLY proud of this effort and oh the $$$$ savings not buying disposables for twins)

Umm, well, I think that's everything.

Updated to add - no, it's not all. 13. I also sewed my mum, my sister, myself, a friends new born, and my girls a dress each last year from some shirred fabric I bought at spotlight (the newborn got some little bloomers too - damn they were cute and even better, they fit!).