Kids Swap Posting Day

Posting day has arrived and I will be trotting down to the post office to send my package to my Kids Clothing Sewing Swap recipient. Here it is all wrapped and ready to go. The little paper on the front had the child's name so I have smudged that out.


And here is a sneak peak of the finished items. I'll post a full photo once all us swapers have received our items and opened them. Gosh I hope my little guy (and his mum) like what I have sewn. Hope it fits. Hope their eye sight is a little poor so they can't see the crooked lines. Whilst the darker contrast thread looks effective, it sure is obvious when it's not perfectly straight and I was so nervous sewing it I went really slow, which I think made it a little shakier than normal even. D'oh!

In other news, I have started working on my girls' Little Uptown Girl winter jackets. Cut them out yesterday. I'll get some photos up in a couple of days. Finding it harder to sit down in front of the computer and do all this now that I'm not working anymore and instead am messing around with 2 gorgeous girls all day every day. So, sorry this is so few and far between now.

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).

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!

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.