Frilling sewing

The most frilling, uh I mean, thrilling thing about decorating these little tops is that it is very quick and easy, making it a rewarding sewing project.

I have lots of plain singlets and T's here and decided to 'pretty up' a few by adding some ruffles.

For this one I cut three strips of Anna Maria Horner voile that was left over from my kaftan and ran two rows of gathering stitches through the centre.

I gathered them up, then pinned and stitched them in place by sewing one line through the middle of each ruffle before removing the gathering stitches.

That's it. No hemming - I like that they are going to be slightly ragged after washing.

For the second one I did a rolled hem in the pink along one edge of each of the three strips then hemmed each end of the strips before sewing them to the top with the right sides together.

Then I flipped each strip over and ironed it down before topstitching to make them sit flatter on the shirt.

Too easy.

Of course the real reason I made these could just have been so I could test out my super-cute new crafty steam iron that my parents got me for my birthday!

It made pressing these little fiddly items a breeze, and I know it will be ideal for pressing the seams on the backpacks when next I make one.


It even has its own tiny water-measuring jug!

She's done it again...

I told you it wouldn't be long til I showed you all of this one...

Here it is - the Shearwater Kaftan, a brand new pattern just released by Toni at Make It Perfect.

I've never been one to sew much for me, but that is starting to change, with comfortable and easy to make up patterns such as this one.

This shirt is cool and comfortable and I plan to make another longer one to wear as a beach throwover.

It has little tabs inside the sleeves so they can be rolled up and worn short or left long.

I made it in voile from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks range and it's a lovely soft fabric.

If you'd like to check out the pattern further have a look at Toni's great pics over here and you can also enter her giveaway to win yourself a copy at the same time.

PS - thanks for all thr birthday wishes, the party was last night and we all stayed up well past our regular bedtimes!

It must be love, love, love!

Nope it's not Valentine's Day, it's my birthday!

It's a 'significant' one this year, not to say all the others aren't.
But this one ends in a zero - yep, I'm 40.

The man of the house has been going on secret expeditions with the small people, and what can I say but Wow, they have great taste!

Three different coloured gold hearts to represent each of my babies and the chain holding them all together, my lovely husband.

Needless to say I love, love, love it! (and him of course).

Hope something in your day is making you smile.

My new favourite...

My new favourite item of clothing is one made by me, for me.

It felt very indulgent the other night to spend time cutting and sewing not for someone else, but just for me.

I love the result so much I wore it the next morning, and one other afternoon and now all I want is for it to be washed and dry, ready to wear again.

It's from a pattern I tested for Toni at Make It Perfect, but don't worry - the wait on this one won't be long.

The pattern release is imminent (that woman is amazing - how she does so much with three kids is beyond me!!),and as soon as it's out there I will show you the full item.

In the meantime, I might just think about what else to make for me, or maybe another of these...

Swimmingly good

So I think she likes her new shirt...

It's the short-sleeved version of the Nina by Modkid that I showed you here.

Very quick and easy pattern to make with lots of variations to play around with.
The only thing I did differently was that I sewed the buttons on last rather than before the placket was attached to the shirt front as per thei nstructions.

I know this means you can see the button stitching on the inside, but it also means you can make sure the buttons are even, which would drive me mad if they were not!

Here's the back, and you can see her new haircut, which I know her Grandma will love!

Or you can tie it at the front... but we prefer the back.

I think Miss A likes hers too, but she's going through one of those 'awkward smile' phases, you know, the ones that look more like a grimace than a smile.

One thing I loved about making these is that I had everything I needed on hand to make them both, except the orange ric rac - that's it - that's all I had to buy.

I'm really enjoying have a decent enough stash of fabric now that I can choose a pattern and some fabric and start cutting away. No waiting for a trip to the fabric shop.

The only other thing I should have done was to add a bit of length to it I think.

Oh and the whole kinder thing - a breeze really.
A little bit of nervousness from Miss A, making sure I planned to come back and pick her up, then off they went with a kiss and a wave.

The only one who cried was their little sister who didn't want to leave them there!

My Creative Space

First one back for 2010 and surprise, surprise I am sewing kids clothing!

I'm hoping to turn this pile of ric rac, Heather Ross's Mendocino mermaids, Patty Young's Hummingbirds and some dots into two short-sleeved versions of the Nina pattern shown below.

This is a simple but quite versatile pattern, I've already seen a few lovely versions of the sleeveless top shown on the front here and here.

Head on over to Kirsty's place to see what's on everyone else's creative plate this week.

We're off...

to kinder.

Friday is a big day for our 'big' girls - it's their first day of Kinder.
It's a big day for me too, because after nearly four years of being their stay-at-home primary carer, I am letting them go into the world.

While I know this is good for them (and I guess for me) I feel a sense of apprehension that they will be exposed to some behaviour, language and let's face it, children that I'd rather they not be exposed to.

But then that's all part of learning I guess.
Learning when to join in or follow as instructed and when to stand up for yourself and assert your independence.


In preparing for their big day I finished their backpacks last night and they've hardly had them off today.
I think they're a hit.

The best parts of the bag, according to the girls, are the hook for hanging it up at kinder, and the sparkly plastic sqaure where I put a little slip of paper with their names.

I won't show you those, or th straps here, because you can see them in the last couple of backpack posts.

This time around I used medium-heavy weight fusible interfacing that I got from Nikki, which was lovely to work with.
It has given the backpacks great support and firmness, without being all stiff and hard. Will definitely use this again.

I also used template plastic in the base and some purse feet, which because this bag was not lined and it put together with an outer loop (the sides, top/zipper and base) joined to the front and then back, I will admit were a bit fiddly to do.

But I really love the final effect.



The finishing touch for these backpacks are a couple of cute heart and flower zipper pulls - which are on their way to me now.

Then we will be ready to go, well the girls will at least.