Fabric love

Today Corrie and her gorgeous little girl Keira came around for a play and a walk to see the ducks.

Corrie bought with her a humungous bag of fabric, buttons, trims and patterns that she no longer has a home for, as she culls her stash to return to Sydney.


There were lots of pieces of gorgeous Japanese fabric with cute characters from her online range which will be perfect for appliques.

I spent a wonderful afternoon sorting through and folding up all the pieces of fabric and browsing the patterns. One book includes a little girls smock which is perfect as I soon hope to make one for the girls as they are getting more into painting.

Thanks Corrie - it was very generous of you to share the fabric love! Your fabric has come to a home where it will be loved and appreciated.

Introducing... Anna

I've had my eye on this pattern for a while and bought it a few weeks ago from Crafty Mamas when I got the Ottobre Creative Workshop pattern.

It's called the Anna dress and is the first Farbenmix pattern I have bought.

I made it up yesterday morning for a birthday party that was on in the afternoon, and once I read (and I will confess re-read) the intructions I found it surprisingly simple to put together.

There will be lots of ways to embellish this dress - make it up using a variety of fabrics, add strips of fabric as frills, put on multiple rows of ribbon, rick rac and trims or do fun appliques, but for this one I chose to keep it simple and used the same crocheted flower I used a few weeks ago for my niece's skirt and top set.

Novy of Little Munchkins has assured me that it can easily be made into a reversible dress too - as she did when making one for Kylie.

I think there will be more of these made in both summer and winter weight fabrics, in in good time of course!!

Da-glumph

Come on sing along, if you've ever watched Play School you know the song, the one about the little frog!
Well here he is making an appearance on some PJ's for a friend's little boy.

As a fellow mum-of-twin-toddlers, I know my friend will be going through lots of pairs of PJs in winter so thought some frog ones would be handy to add to the collection.

I was really disappointed with the range of 'boy' flannellette in Spotlight until I saw this little fella, he's pretty cute I think.

For once I didn't cheat and put an applique on a bought top - this one was made using the Ottobre Creative Workshop 301 pattern - billed as the only T-shirt pattern you will ever need.
After using it I see why - the one pattern comes in sizes 92-170cm in wide or narrow fit!
I picked mine up at Crafty Mama's.

Now I better hop-to-it and make something for his sister.

Pleat it, just pleat it!

This is the second birthday gift for the week which is now on its way across the city with the postal service.


I have to say I love, love, love this pattern and will definitely be making more of these skirts in both summer and winter weight fabrics.

It's from Ottobre, edition 4/2007 (as was the previous skirt) and is pattern 14.

Once you master the pleats it is a very quick and easy skirt to whip up but I have to say that the basic Ottobre instructions defeated me on this one.

I enlisted the help of wonderful Novy from Little Munchkins who ever so kindly took photo's of how to make the pleats up and sent them to me. How's that for helpful!

Don't you just love the generosity of bloggers! Thanks again Novy.

The flower on the top is made by fusing two layers of each of the fabrics together then cutting out the shape.


Then I just put a few stitches around the centre of the flower to shape it a little and added a button. It's one of the buttons sent to me simply in the spirit of sharing by Cass.

I know that the white top is not the greatest colour choice for an adventurous four-year-old but it best matched the skirt and I couldn't resist!

Gifts given and received

Well the machine has been humming here with two lovely nieces having a birthday three days apart there were twice the gifts to make.

All my sewing at the moment feels more pleasurable as I now have this little beauty in my possession.

Have you ever seen anything as lovely for sticking pins in!

Thanks to the talented Adds at The Humming Cat for this beautiful pin-cushion I won on her blog.

It's made using Denyse Schmidt fabric and one of my toddlers is particularly impressed with the 'butt' on top! (Button of course!). I'm just impressed with it fullstop.

If only I had more attractive pins!! Thanks Adds.

For Miss 7 I made this set using an Ottobre pattern I had never tried before from issue 4/2007, pattern 20.


My husband said I need to continue to challenge myself and not just do all the easy stuff I already know how to do, and what do you know, he was right!

It does feel more rewarding to try something new and different - particularly if it works.


This skirt has a yoke front and back and proper little pockets (which I lined with a heart-patterned material) and is all top-stitched, giving it quite a professional-looking finish.

(Please excuse the night-time photography and flash - it had to be wrapped ready for giving!)

Of course I cheated with the top and used an existing one to which I simply stitched a decorative flower.

I must confess I didn't make the little crocheted flower - I found a little bundle of them at a market years ago and have been saving them for just the right project, which turned out to be this one.

The other big project I have been working on it slowly coming to an end - with only ten weeks now til our baby is due. There's lots to be done before then so stay tuned.

Is this nesting???

I'm in 'finishing off mode'.

You know - getting to all those things you'd planned to do but not yet found the time for.

Like finishing the apple dacks and matching top that have been underway for a while for Miss A

and two more of these tops from Ottobre.

And things like shortening some pants for the girls, repairing some little cute pink bathers with leg stitching undone, at last tracing a pattern and sending it off to Charity (it's on its way!!) and finally fulfilling one third of the Pay-It-Forward promise made way back here.

This parcel has now been received by Jen. Some pants and an appliqued T for her little man and a tissue pouch and some coasters for herself.

I am working my way through the last two parcels, but let's not state a sending date!

I also cleaned out my sewing room - figured I should make some space ready for the new purchases I hope to get in a few weeks on my very first fabric shopping tour (hell on a bus according to my husband!).

Then we had a hailstorm - so that gave me something else to do, clean up a few odd leaks from what was a huge deluge and calm a hail-fearing screaming toddler.

So what now?

I'll have to see where the sewing whim takes me I guess.