A hint of spring...

There was a hint of spring here in Melbourne yesterday, so I took the chance to photograph the girls in their new Miss Madeline dresses.

You can see they were pretty happy to put them on, I didn't have to ask twice...

And because her big sisters wore theirs, the smallest child had to get in on the action!

Miss A chose some Farbenmix mushrooms with a simple red dot for hers and is pretty pleased with her selections.

While Miss L stuck with a tried and tested combo - Patty Young's Modkids Flora and Fauna prints. The exact same prints she chose or her party dress!

You can tell by the gumboots peeking out in a couple of the shots that there really was just a hint of spring, the grass was pretty dewey even though the sun was shining.

You might notice the rather large hems I have left, that's because the girls have a tendency to grow too tall for their clothes rather than too wide.

Priceless...

Plastic compartment box - $2.98

Pack of coloured toothpicks - $3.97

Googly eyes of assorted sizes - $5.67

Spending 40 minutes chatting with the 4-year-old while we sorted it all into compartments - Priceless!

Topping up the crafty supplies for the kids crafting space with the above and some holographic paper cut into squares, triangles and rectangles (disco paper according to Miss L!), and a pack of cut out puffy shapes that include ducks, flowers, hearts and rabbits.

All from Officeworks.

My Creative Space : Slumber party

It's PJ's galore in my creative space this week.

This parcel of PJ's landed at its Sydney destination yesterday so I am safe to blog it now.

Firstly some love heart 'Superwoman" jammies for my sister.
With all that she does in a week she deserves a Superwoman shirt - so I made her one!

It's done using a reverse applique. So I pinned the flannelette to the inside of the shirt, traced the logo onto the front using washable marker then stitched around the logo.

Next you carefully cut out the hirt from the sections you want to appear in colour and you're done.
Check out this tutorial from "That Darn Kat" which I used if you want to see more.

You can use this technique for any shape you like, they're easy and fun to do.

Next up some yellow birds for one of my nieces - I sent her a shirt and some fabric to make up her own shirt design as she had some great ideas for herself.

She's a clever and crafty kid so I hope soon to post what she has made (hint hint, Imogen!)

This green and purple combo is for my other niece - with an extended cuff as she's quite tall! These are her favourite colours, what were the odds of finding this fabric!

And last. but by no means least, some snowboarders for my nephew. I did reverse appliques on his shirt as well, cutting around the figures.

I love the checked cuffs on these, and was really pleased to find a coordinating contrast for him.
I used black twill tape instead of ribbon in the top of these pants so it's not too girly!!

All pants were made using the Sweet Dreams pattern from Make it Perfect.

I just appliqued onto store bought tops to make it faster and easier.

For reference - the small size was a perfect fit for my 12 year old nephew, and I used the medium for my 14 and 16 year old nieces - adding an extra 2 inches onto the pants for the tall young lady!

The kids prefer the elastic to be attached to the waistband so it has no chance of rolling, so I did this for theirs. I sewed the elastic on before folding over and securing the waistband and then inserting the ribbon.

It has made the waistbands more stiff, hopefully it will loosen up but I have to say I prefer the finished result doing them the way Toni states in the pattern, by putting the elastic in a casing.

Now it's on to more summer sewing for me, though there are still one or two winter projects calling my name...

Find the more decisive crafters at Kirst's place, where she is deviating from her quilt for a bit of speed crafting.

A dress for a princess

We're going on a holiday in a while and it is in a place that will hopefully require some summery clothing!

I realised that none of the clothes from last summer will fit my rapidly growing gaggle of girls so got started on summer frocks.


Miss G has a lot of hand me downs, but at the moment she is the wrong size each season compared to what her sisters were, so there is still some need for me to sew (that's my reason and I am sticking to it!).

This is the incredibly easy to sew (and I think easy to wear as the girls love them) Miss Madeline from the Handmade Dress.

This is made in some deliciously soft Far Far Away 1 fabric by Heather Ross, the Princess and the Pea.

I got this double gauze at the Amitie sale a bit over a week ago and cannot believe how lovely it is.

So soft and really easy to sew, would love to get some more...

Excuse the lousy 'end-of-the-day-not-very-bright-singlet-poking-out-from-under-my-dress' photos.

The art of play

Warning - pic heavy post ahead!!

I've mentioned before that we ascribe to a theory of "learning through play" here at chez 'And So I Sew'.

Put simply, this means that the girls are encouraged to make, create, explore and discover through open-ended play experiences.

That is, they are (largely) given toys or items that have no one set way of using them, but rather can be used in a multitude of ways based on the extent of the girls' imagination.
This is aside from those that encourage role play - such as their home corner with kitchen stove and the like.

I try to learn as much as I can about how to help the girls learn in a play-based way and came across this book at the library.

This book is an absolute winner as far as I am concerned.
In it the author explores the relationship between work, play and love for children as well as adults.

I knew it was my kind of book when early on I read this:
"Play, then, is the dominant and directing mode of learning during this age period (2-6 years), and children learn best through self-centred learning experiences.

We also don't push alpha-numeric learning - so no charts filled with numbers and letters.
That's not to say there are not puzzles with the alphabet on them and cards with characters to count - the older two girls are madly into all things letters and numbers and when they ask - their questions are always answered.

But we don't push it.
It's at their pace, self-directed.

I know I could have them doing basic math by now but that's not what we want for them, there's plenty of time ahead for that.

To again quote David Elkind's book "Certainly young children can learn letters and even sight-read a few words. But this is work and should make up only a small part of an overall hands-on, self-directed early childhood curriculum."


We are also very lucky to have the girls in a kindergarten that teaches according to Reggio Emilia principles - so it supports the type of learning we want for them.
(A Google search will bring up lots of references if you want to read more about this.)


Our older two girls will continue to go to kindergarten next year rather than starting school.

This was a decision we deliberated over and we decided that while they are certainly more than ready to start school next year, it's not just about now, it's about when they are 13 and 14 and 15 years old and could be up to 14 months younger than their peers.

If in a composite class where they are in the younger group, this age gap could stretch out as far as 3 years.
We felt that they were going to be better off in the long term being among the older children in the class (we have found that it is likely there will be a number of children who will be older than them anyway), rather than younger and maybe having to work a lot harder to keep up.


(Fabulous vintage swap cards mounted and framed for Miss G for her birthday by our friend Blogless Judy!)

This means I will have the pleasure of their company for three days a week next year as well as the 4 days they are home this year. For this reason I felt it was important to have space in the house where they could go to create what they want, when they want to.

So out went the old bookcase and a table that was really a dumping ground, and in came the new children's creating space.

I got the table and stools from Ikea, they are called Sansad and with a personal storage area under each stool where they can keep their treasure, the girls love them.

I also picked up a Trofast drawer tower and drawers and in this there are things like coloured paper of various sizes, pieces of fabric and ribbons, pipe cleaners, sequins and beads, flowers, large blank drawing books, envelopes and stickers.

In the highest red tub are the things that require a little more supervision such as paints and beaded bracelet/necklace sets for threading.

The lower red tub is filled with puzzles.

The bookshelf contains magnetic storyboards, more puzzles, exercise books and threading beads and the things they are most excited about - their own stapler and sticky-tape dispenser.

There is a magnetic board on the wall with a string underneath it where they can peg up or display using a magnet, their many artworks, drawings and puppets and cards.

Or to hang things they find interesting such as coloured leaves or things they find outside.

Under the magnetic board we got an Asker rail and three ceramic pots where the pencils,scissors, pens and crayons are stored. This is from Ikea's kitchen range, I pinched this idea from a friend.

Now each morning (and afternoon, and evening) the girls can be found at their own table making things, doing fuzzy felts, playing with magnetic storyboards, putting puzzles together or enjoying playdough.

It's their own space and they can come and go as they please, and they are responsible for tidying it up at the end of the day too.

It's been a huge hit, they have taken real ownership of this space, and if you are going to have small children at home with you for an extended period I urge you to set up a small space just for them, I am sure it will be appreciated.

No like!!

That's the response whenever I try to get the smallest child to wear these pants!

It doesn't seem to matter that they have pockets, which she loves right now.

Or that they are great to wear when riding your bike.

In fact the day I took these pictures was one of the few times I have been able to convince her to wear them.

Obviously they match the Make It Perfect jacket I made, a little matchy-matchy, but I could live with it, if only she would put them on....

Carried away

Sorry this took a little longer than expected but here I am with a house wrap-up for you.

Firstly let it be said that this is not a difficult project - just a fiddly one as the house is quite small.

I should have taken a shot that shows perspective but I forgot!

Anyway it measures 18 cm tall to the peak of the roof and the width is about 15cm. Yeah, see, it's small.

I'm just going to put down a bunch of random thoughts and if there's anything I forget or you have further questions please feel free to ask them, happy to help.

Pattern - I used the pattern from the book One Yard Wonders - though I think it is exactly the same as the one that is online here.

The thing I didn't like about the pattern is it does not give the dimensions very clearly, so when you want to make the roof one colour and the walls another it is a little fiddly - worth it though for the effect.

Inspiration - Before you start you should definitely visit the Flickr group for inspiration.

There are beach houses, garages, barns, farm houses, country cottages and all sorts of cute little houses to get you thinking about how you want yours to look.

Buttons - I used self-covered buttons to secure the house but if I were to make it again I would use velcro as it is too hard for my two-year-old to get it open by herself.
I'm going to move a couple of the buttons in more toward the centre of the roof, just so it will be more secure - it's gaping a little at the front and that annoys me.

Elastic - I used hat elastic and if you choose to use elastic then don't use this as it's a little stiff and brittle. Go for hair elastics instead I think.

If you use elastic make sure the loops are being placed so they are positioned to secure the front of the house, not so that they are on the back walls - which are sewn in place and don't need buttons.

Walls - The wall structure is provided using plastic canvas as per the instructions.

This works quite well and I padded it with quilt batting.

To secure the batting, I sewed it on with my machine. I was not sure how this would go but it worked really well and was quick and easy to do.

The walls bow a little so you could use something stronger if you wanted - but then it might not be so easy to secure the padding - this is worth thinking about before you decide on what to use for your walls.

Decorating the house - I secured all the interior 'furnishings' before I sewed the house together as they were easier to iron on this way.

I drew the items, cut them from felt then secured them to the walls using Heat 'n Bond Ultra (you can buy it on a roll from Spotlight).

The button flowers were just glued on with fabric glue.

Photo and painting - For my own amusement I included a photo of our family and also a copy of Van Gogh's 'Starry, starry night" painting over the fireplace.

To do these I shrunk the files on my computer, put them in reverse (so flipped them horizontally) and then printed onto Ausinc light T-shirt transfer paper (from Officeworks).

Then I ironed some of the Heat 'n Bond onto plain white fabric and ironed the images on the transfer paper onto this fabric.

Lastly I ironed the finished result onto the house.

Animals - were all from Shelley's shop - The Little Sparrow Shop I was rapt to find a duck that fitted so perfectly! And how cute and fat is the pig.

Furniture and 'baby with a bowl-cut' - This set came from Windmill Toys but you could pick them up at any good toy shop.

My little one is very into babies at the moment so I knew she'd love having the nursery furniture in her house.

Also this means it can be changed over with any of the items in our doll house without doubling up.

It's a bit bigger than I would have liked - but I can live with it!

Seriously though - how bad is that baby's hair!

Outdoors - I've only shown you the outside front but on the sides I cut out a couple of pictures from some Maisy Mouse fabric and put them on with Heat 'n Bond too.

There's a butterfly, duck, watering can and then on the front is little black cat.
I thought if I wanted to I could always do more external detail later - but the internal detail was best done before sewing it all up.

Thread - One of the last things you do is put the wall structure (the supports) into the fabric and then sew it closed and I did this using invisible thread.
This way, the line that runs straight through the middle of my pond was not made too obvious.

So that's about it.

It was a fun project to do and I am delighted to tell you that all three girls and their friends are playing with it all the time.

It's small enough for Miss 2 to carry around by herself without effort so she has really taken ownership of it and the night we gave it to her she took it to straight out to dinner and had a lovely time with it.

My Creative Space : Lurgy alert

There's been way too much of this in my creative space for this week...

Sick kids + sick husband + sick me = too little serious crafting.

Being indoors a lot means there's been some kid-based craft though.

Apart from stamping, play dough-making and drawing there's been some scissor action.

A new cooktop for in the 'home corner', inspired by Childhood 101's efforts with boxes and stuff you find around the house.

If I had the space I'd be attempting something far more grand like this one on Childhood 101.

(If you are a stay-at-home parent and haven't checked out this blog then seriously - do it now!)

One of the girls asked for a computer, which she has now set up next to the Mickey Mouse phone to make up her study, where she answers very important calls (of course!).

The other asked for a TV, for which she then made up a remote control and a series of changeable programs which include Spot and a beach scene.

The sporting program that's on was chosen especially for Sal!

I love that the girls will play with these 'household' things in an imaginative way - something you can't get from a battery operated version of the same thing.

Watching how they make-up new games all the time with such simple things is really inspiring, and part of why I love being able to stay home with them and watch them grow.

Check out some folk who are into more grown-up creative pursuits over at Kirsty's place.

I will be back soon though with that wrap up of the little carry-along house - as soon as I can drag myself out from under the pile of tissues here!