Much to Catch Up On!

Whilst I may have been neglecting my blog (REALLY missing that old work laptop and the freedom it gave me to access internet anywhere in my home at anytime) I haven't been neglecting my sewing. In fact I have been collecting projects (and more fabric but more on that later...). Here's a list of what I've got on the trot:

1. outfit for EB kids clothing swap
2. 2x Little Uptown Girl winter jackets by Make it Perfect (gotta get my butt into gear and buy me the pattern)
3. 2x little over shoulder bags for my girls (using some of the little menagerie range of fabrics)
4. A few bags for various people (not least of all my lovely, lovely friend - am off to spotlight tomorrow to get the fusible fleece and interfacing so I can hurry up and get started) - I have 3 in all so far but may do some more
5. some winter outfits for my girls
6. A table runner for my table (my lovely, lovely friend was going through her fabric scraps with me and I 'inhertied' a lovely piece that will be perfect for the top - waiting on the backing to arrive from the Fabric Shack)
7. A soft case for my new pink Dell Inspiron mini 10 that I ordered yesterday for my birthday (so then I can internet anywhere at anytime again) and I might make one of these also for my sister who received a little netbook from her husband for her birthday last year

And then there's the cute tutorials and patterns that keep cropping up on CraftGossip (oh my, discovering this site has given me SO much inspriation) like some gorgeous retro rompers (next summer, I think) and some cute dragon slippers (I have nephews, you know!). It's also where I found the pattern for the bag that I am making my lovely, lovely friend (no link to this one people's until after - gotta keep it a surprise) and the pattern for the softcase I will make for my netbook.

Speaking of my lovely, lovely friend, she asked me to sew her a bag for her youngest son who was about to start daycare. In all honesty, most of my fabrics are all pretty and girly but I was determined there must be SOMETHING in my collection. Turns out I was right. Here is a shot of everything I could pull together that I thought would be suitable (some of this came from the scraps that I 'inherited' from my lovely, lovely friend when we went through her stuff).

And here is what I did with it. She justed wanted something basic so I went with drawstring but made straps from the strings and added a pocket.

Then I made it reversible. The strings/straps have snaps on them to attach to whichever side of the bag she wants externally facing and with a pocket on each side it means she has an external pocket and an internal pocket. Perfect for any items that need to be slightly safer from little hands.

While we are talking drawstring bags. Here are the little ones I knocked up a few weeks back for my own girls to store the sheets they need to take to daycare these days.

I thought I would share some new fabric that just arrived from Two Little Fairies Fabric. The top one with the lovely butterflies will form one side of one of the Little Uptown Girl winter jackets. The two underneath that are part of the Little Menagerie collection (I won/purcahsed them in a charity auction for flood affected victims in QLD - what a great way to raise money. They get my $$$ and I get some lovely fabric!). The back 2 is some really sweet and divinely soft flannel. Not quite sure what to do with that yet other than that I have this lovely fabric that my lovely, lovely friend gave me as part of my baby shower gift. It's a velveteen type fabric with little silver ballet slippers printed on it. I have it in dark pink and light pink. I though the flannel might make a nice lining for the hood or something. I also though it might make a nice lininig for the softcase for my netbook. The outside will be some lovely japanese print scrap fabric I picked up from Spotlight the other day. I'll get around to some photos in due time.

And last but not least, as mentioned, I'm awaiting a delivery from the Fabric Shack.

Contained in this order is some of the fabric for the kids clothes sewing swap, fabric for bags, more Little Menagerie, the backing for my runner, some sweet cord that was on sale for some winter outfits, and the rest of the fabric for the Little Uptown Girl jackets. I think that's all. It left there Friday last week so hopefully it'll be with me mid-late next week. Oooooh, how exciting! Oh, and I might have trawled the scrap bin at spotlight and picked up some cheapies. See, I told you we kinda created a monster!

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.

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.