Favourite things

There's a bit of talk about the new Sprout pattern from Make It Perfect so I thought I'd post a few more pics of the finished dresses that keep sprouting up around my place (yep - bad pun I know!).

As I mentioned previously I let the girls choose their own fabric for these, and they each chose some of their favourite things.
I have to admit I was nervous about the Michael Miller robot fabric, but I am really happy with the result.

It's a fun and colourful dress that Miss A adores and wants to wear constantly.

I also like that with black tights and boots to 'tone down' the colourful dress she is warm and comfortable while wearing it too.

These two dresses are size 5 that I shortened a little.
My girls are 116cm and 113cm, so the height of an average five (or six) year old, but they have a thing about dresses not being too long at the moment.

Knowing they would be worn with tights underneath I was happy to oblige and shorten them a little this time, rather than see them hang in the wardrobe unworn.


Here's Miss G who will be two at the end of July but who is the height of an average three year old (we grow 'em tall here!).

I made her the size 3 at the full length of the pattern (she's not as choosy as her sisters, yet!) and I think this is a great length for her.

Did you notice - the babushka's are not just scattered around randomly as I thought they were - but are in fact directional! All these little ladies have their heads down - oh well!


And here is the gorgeous child doing her own accessorising!
Looks comfortable that sparkly headband doesn't it!

This is a really easy pattern to follow with pockets and a hood for comfort and I like it so much I made another one babushka dress for the daughter of a friend of mine for her birthday.

Once you have made a few you can whip them up in a night.

Go on, give it a go.

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.

My Creative Space

Inspired by these ladies I am going to make something for myself.... soon....


I just need to finish off a few other items that are cut and ready to go...

And definitely decide what to do with the lovely Japanese cotton I picked up at The Cloth Shop this week...

And wash that other stuff I got at Lincraft...

Oh and fold the washing...

and put some more on...

There are lots of more decided folk over at Kirsty's place, maybe you should just check them out...

How do I explain....

I've been a bit absent from here of late.

Not intentionally - I just find that by the time I get through all the activities of each day there is not much time left over, and when I have projects on the go or gifts to make my spare time tends to be spent at the sewing machine.

But I want to do a very belated wrap-up of Sew It Together. It's hard to put into words what it was all about, and how great it was, but I will try.

Group photo of attendees by Susan

I know there's been a lot said - I just want to reiterate what a fantastic event it was - and to thank Sheridan and Donna for the incredible amount of work they did for it and for really giving people a chance to connect in a meaningful way.

What I enjoyed most was the chance to meet and spend time with a really incredible group of women, some of whom I had met before, others who I felt like I already knew, having 'chatted to' them online for a long time and some who I have only got to know in the last few months.

My lovely buddy Cass and I finally met!
(photo by Cass)

It was wonderful to have complete conversations about 'grown-up' topics with other like-minded adults.
And to speak of sewing to someone whose eyes don't start to glaze over slightly as the conversation progresses (sorry honey, but they actually do!).

The amazing thing was, we didn't just talk about craft. There were some very real conversations.

We spoke of things relevant to raising a family, from schooling to self-esteem and the teachings of the Dali Lama, to volunteering in the community to parenting twins and girls, and how to fit sleep, work and craft/time for us into our lives.

Mary Jane from NZ, Sheridan from Sydney and Renee from QLD.

(Photo by Mary Jane)

I also met some lovely new people who had come from near and far, some from very far to be involved! And put faces to the names of blogs I read.

Apart from all that I have mentioned, I also came home with a bag full of goodies.

The fabulous sponsors gave us all some crafty treats including patterns, fabric and buttons and I also won a copy of the Redondo skirt pattern by Studio Tantrum from Crafty Mamas which I can't wait to try out.

Sheridan made me the sweetest little tissue case embroidered with my inital for having a few things dropped off at my place to save her lugging them down.



Carmel whipped up these super gorgeous gifts for me using that adorable Let's Explore Britain fabric as we were roomies for the weekend (yep she got the luxurious accomodation of my loungeroom floor!!


And I joined in Cass's sample swap so got six lovely creations from the other swapees!

Gorgeous pear pin-cushion from Lizzie, Cass made everyone a bag (and gave us some other goodies I forgot to photograph), Sheridan did linen tea towels (which she individually named!!), Donna crocheted us all a colour-themed dishcloth, Sophie made very sweet pin-cushions in a little ramekin and there was a super-crafty pouch from the hilarious and super-crafty lady herself, Trash.

Phew - can you see now why I have needed time to recover??!

What with cocktails and a chance to explore Nikki's studio on Friday night and then dinner out on Saturday night where I met some lovely ladies who didn't come to the crafting session, it really was a fantastic time.

I will definitely be making the trip to Sydney next year to be involved again.

Something to SPROUT about

Time for the big reveal, here is Toni's new Make It Perfect pattern, Sprout.


I currently have two girls who insist on wearing dresses all the time, so this little dress is perfect for our upcoming cooler weather.

Sprout is fully lined with flanellette so the girls will stay warm in winter but still be comfortable, and happy.


It has pockets on both sides for all those pieces of treasure you find while walking to the park, and a hood for keeping the wind at bay.

Not the greatest pics but my 'models' are having a rest so I will try to get modelled pics at a later date. I am 'recovering' from a big day yesterday of chatting and meeting an amazing group of friendly and entertaining women, some of whom are great dancers (if there is cheese or pina colada's involved) and will be back tomorrow to tell you more about the big Sew It Together weekend!

In the meantime - head over to Toni's to try and win your own copy of Sprout.

Bags are packed

My little brown bags are packed and ready to go to Sew It Together tomorrow.

Just one simple word on the front of each 'EAT'.

In case you 're not up on what the swap was about here are the details.

Cass signed people, and you then make six of one item to be given your group members who will be randomly drawn tomorrow.

They in turn make six of something else so everyone comes home with six lovely handmade items.

Cass explains it better here.

I can blog this because the groups are random and many of the ladies are already either on planes ready to get here or about to get on a bus and go for a fabric shopping trip.

So I made six lunch bags, all lined with insulbrite so they are insulated for heat and cold.

I tried the vinyl lining but without a walking foot it was truly close to nightmarish to sew. Negotiating the sewing with baking paper against the vinyl so it didn't stick - matching corners and holding everything in place, not fun.

Also I didn't know about the properties of the vinyl and whether it would be food safe.

And what's a lunch bag without something in it to eat, so there's a little pre-lunch snack included!

My Creative Space

Was looking like this on Monday night.


There are a lot of my favourite fabrics in there - a bit of something for everyone, I hope.

Let me say that cutting out the inner body of each bag x 18, the outer x 18, the insulbrite x 18, the Shapewell x 18 and then all the sides, handles and velcro took, well, considerably longer than anticipated!

A number of these are now completed - but there are still a couple to go to be ready for the big event this weekend.

Can't wait.

There's also this fabric floating around in my creative space.


Seems I have another addict in the house, of the fabric variety that is.

The smallest chose this herself, saying "babus".
The little not-quite-two-year-old person then carried it herself to the counter and, get this, returned it to the shelf after cutting!!

Too funny.

It's for another of the new pattern from Toni. can't wait to show you.

Hope your weekend is as good as I just know mine is going to be!

Check out Kirsty's place for the crafters with it all goin' on.

Oooh look!

It's all finished, soon to be revealed.

Another sneaky peek here.

Full details to come from Toni, keep checking! (PS - she usually does a giveaway with each new pattern launch).

Thoughts on mothering

Today we celebrated Mother's Day.

It's never been big in our household, we sort of regard it as a bit of 'Hallmark' event.
But there are some small people who now feel otherwise and were counting the sleeps til they could give me their very secret gifts.

I started the day being given two bracelets made of coloured glass bead (from Kinder) and three little sachets of dried rose petals (from playgroup!), along with cards that praised me for giving lots of kisses and cuddles and of course taking them to the pool with the big red slide.

And I guess that's what stood out for me, it's the very simple things we do that our kids remember and appreciate.

So there were no fancy restaurant meals or big expensive presents in this house.

We grabbed some hot chips and ate them at a park just up the road (always a big treat!).

Then we ran, climbed, slid, swung, laughed and played hide and seek in the sunshine.

And it all made me so very grateful for the three happy, bright, engaging, kind and thoutful little people that I am so proud to have me call their mum. (and their ace dad of course who did get me a cookbook and an electric toothbrush!).

Hope your day was great, whatever you did.

Dortjes... done!

Kinder dacks all finished.

These were lovely to make - the pattern is very easy and explains everything well if you aven't done pockets before.

I'd never done a faux fly and it was really simple, so don't be put off by any of the elements involved.


The girls wore them the day I finished for a walk in the rain and gave them the thumbs up!

The good news is that the dress-mad one even wore them to kinder today, she changed into a dress about 2 minutes after getting home, but she wore them with no fuss or bother.
A victory, I think.


I didn't mention previously that all the fabric from this (Purple cord, purple floral cord and red floral poplin) was from Spotlight. So if you're an Aussie and want some that's where to find it.

There was someone else who wanted in when I was photographing the back of the pants - can you notice her so unobtrusively sidling into the picture there!!

Excuse the dull pics - it's been a dreary few days here in Melbourne.

My Creative Space

Lots on the go here this week...

This is the first of six items (and fabric slected for the next one) I am making for Cass's swap at the Sew It Together crafting day next week.

It uses Insulbrite insulation batting and this first one has some vinyl, which I will use on all of them if sewing this one ends well!

Also, there is a pattern I am testing for Toni which will no doubt be available here very shortly as she is very quick at releasing patterns to market after testing.

If you have girls and live somewhere cold - keep an eye out for it.

The girls chose their own fabrics for this project .

I will admit I attempted to talk Miss A out of the Michael Miller Bot Camp that we found at Spotlight, but she was adamant.

The girls have since spent lots of time spotting various robots and items in the fabric, so they are having fun with it.

It will certainly be a fun, bright item of clothing, which she assures me she will wear.

Lose yourself in the many other crafty places on the big list at Kirsty's.
But don't procrastinate too long - I am sure you have lots on your own list!

Going quackers

At the ripe old age of 'not-quite-two' the smallest in the house is having a love affair.
With ducks.

So when I saw Sally's very sweet ducky PJ's I couldn't resist the urge to make some for the little one, despite the fact that she has hand-me-downs from her two older sisters.

The look on her little face and the loud exclaimations of "DUCK" heard around the house when she saw them made it well worth the little effort involved.


I used the lovely O+S bedtime story PJ pattern but am yet to make the top, in the meantime I did a quick applique on an existing shirt.

This also reminds me to express long-overdue thanks for another lovely duck that arrived in my letter box, a very long time ago from the lovely Kate.

I mentioned to Kate that I wanted to get a duck shirt for the duck-mad one and she sent me not only a duck shirt but a mushroom singlet and some cup cakes ones as well , all wrapped up in a fabulous 70s cafe-style kitchen curtain.

(Photo from Kate's blog)

I planned to wait and thank Kate using a picture of said shirt, but I'm unable to show you the actual shirt because despite now being slightly snug on her rather round little belly, the duck literally goes from the wash onto the child, back to the wash, back onto the child.

You get the picture.

And each time it emerges from the washing basket a shout of 'duuuuuck' echoes through the house.

So thanks Kate, sorry this is so belated but I can't tell you how much your shirts are appreciated, and I think soon duck might migrate to a new larger shirt.