Sing a rainbow

When this gorgeous book arrived in the mail a few months back - my two older girls started flicking through to see what items of clothing their sewing slave, oops I mean, sewing-mad mother could make for them.

The thing that most caught their eye was this gorgeous rainbow coloured Redondo skirt, made by a very talented Sydney lady - the lovely Sara of Willow and Moo.

Miss L was so taken with it that she declared it to be the 'prettiest twirly skirt ever, it looks just like a rainbow Mum'.

With that in mind I contacted Sara and once she was happily ensconsed in her newly renovated home she set to work on making not one, not two, but three of these divine skirts for my daughters.

I have to say, as lovely as this photo is, you cannot truly appreciate how much work has gone into each of these beautifully made skirts.

The skirts are made of a series of panels, each of which Sara has hand-dyed several different colours prior to beginning the construction. Here are the three of them together.

My plan is to give them to the girls for Christmas, and the only thing that is stopping me from slipping them into their wardrobe now is that I requested sizes slightly larger than what they crrently wear, anticipating upward growth (probably not outward knowing these kids!) in the next seven months.

I recently received the Redondo pattern at the Sew It Together weekend, but even with this there is no way I could make these lovely rainbow skirts, so I am very happy to support a crafting-from-home-mum.

It also goes with my ethos of wanting to purchase handmade, or to handmake items, for my kids at Christmas and on their birthdays - and not get too caught up in the whole over-commercialisation of significant occasions.

Do yourself a favour and check out Sara's blog and the other amazing Farbenmix creations she is renowned for.

And think about supporting handmade.