Closure(s)

These two dresses were awaiting closures for a short time - so I thought I'd better show you the "finished goods".

Oliver+s Ice-cream dress made with my material winnings from Amy at Badskirt.

It should be noted that Miss G did her own accessorising here, and automatically turned for me to take a shot of the rear view without being asked!

(note to self - am I taking too many 'modelling my new clothes'-style pics of the children...)

I have to say I agree with Sheridan's summation of two-year-olds.

And of course the Village Frock, all buttoned up.

Despite what I thought would happen ("it's not very pink or twirly, I don't know if I like it"), she LOVES this dress.

Phew!

Self-covered buttons in red - what you guys voted for.
They're actually done in the fabric that makes up the yoke and hem panel in the Ice-cream dress.
I want her to wear this every day.

Stay tuned in the next day or two for a 'bathers' post.
Yep, I tackled lycra swimwear! (and I think I won...)
PS - there was a sneak peek in yesterday's post...

The very lucky country

Some people have been through a lot of hardship lately in Australia, but there are many days when I get up and am reminded why this great land of ours is referred to as The Lucky Country.

We had a great time celebrating Australia Day, in what can only be referred to as, truly Aussie fashion.

By eating a giant Anzac biscuit my nine year old niece made (all by herself) in the shape of Australia

By throwing some snags on the barbie in a State Forest surrounded by gum trees and (I kid you not) laughing kookaburras, and following them up with marshamllows cooked over the embers.

By then taking to the surf and seeing on our daughter's face that moment of pure joy and adrenalin when you really 'get onto' a wave!

Or the pleasure of just enjoying a paddle.

We all know there are few things better than getting onto the same wave as both your sister and your cousin!

But it's Toni and Carli's bringing together a community of people and the amazing results (as indicated by the pink umbrella in my sidebar), that really make me proud to be an Aussie.

And to quote fellow crafty blogger Jodie "God help the next person who disparages crafters or "internet friends" in my hearing.


We all, collectively, when we are needed, are awesome."
Hear hear Jodie!

The official proceedings

The entrants were placed in the official 'mixing' receptacle.

The barrel assistant rotated them in a random fashion

Drew one out at her leisure and held it up to read it - but ahh she can't actually read

So she showed it to the adjudicator who verified, that it was indeed the lovely Tanya who won.

Congrats Tan, I later heard through the bloggy grapevine you parted with your $5 on quite a number of occassions so I'm pleased you had a win.

NB - I adpoted this less than technical approach to drawing the entrant as I wanted to be sure Samelia's Mum got the six entries she was entitled to.

In an effort to be really fair - I cut all the pieces of paper the same size first - then wrote the names on.

No, I am not kidding.

Yes, I am apparently a little odd!

We have a winner!

I'm enjoying Australia Day celebrations today and just had my daughter draw a winner from the hat and the winner is Tanya!

Congratulations Tan, so glad the dress is going to a lovely home.

Thanks everyone for your entries I greatly appreciate your involvement and am glad together we could make a contribution to the flood relief.

I'll post pictures of the drawing of the winner for you tomorrow.

Donate $5 and win this dress!

Please note revised closing time!

Raffle is now open until noon (AEST) on Wednesday January 26th.

DON'T MISS OUT - ENTER NOW

The devastation being experienced by people throughout Queensland (and now Victoria) is of an unprecedented scale and Toni of Make It Perfect has got the crafting community to band together and run a series of auctions and 'raffles' to raise funds to aid the Queensland Flood Relief.
At last count this numbered around 150 items.

I have made this dress and decided to 'raffle' it in order to give everyone a chance to win - whether they can spare a lot to donate or only a little.

Please read the following carefully regarding how to enter:

This giveaway is open to everyone, around the corner or around the world.

I will cover all postage costs regardless of who wins.

To enter this giveaway you must click this link and donate $5 to the
Premier's Flood Relief Appeal.

(scroll down for details of how to donate by phone or online).

You may enter as many times as you like but each entry / donation must have a separate receipt number. (eg: donate $5 ten times if you want to donate $50- then comment ten times with your receipt number, I know this is cumbersome - but that's how it works!)

After you have done this, return here and leave your comment with your receipt number.

If you don't have an account to leave a comment you can click on my profile and email me your name and receipt number and I will comment for you.

Please feel free to circulate the link to this page to anyone you think might be interested.

Together all our small donations can make a huge difference.

Ok - so what exactly is up for grabs!

This dress was made using the FRIDA pattern from MODKID (by Patty Young).

I’ve made it using two coordinating fabrics from Sandi Henderson's Ginger Tile range, and while this range is not sold out – it is a little hard to come by and I have been hoarding it for just such an important project as this!

The dress is made in a size US 6-7.

According to the pattern envelope this is a 116/122cm Euro size with the following measurements:

Chest 11.5 inches.

Length of the dress 27-29 inches.

The Frida features a little notched detail at the front neck, elasticised cap sleeves, two elasticised pockets on the front (for show more than practical purposes I suspect!) and side vents with ties for easy on and off – there are no buttons and zips on this dress at all.

The dress features  top-stitching along the neck, chest and hem band seams and I modified the pattern slightly to ensure the inside chest seam was fully enclosed as I felt it lacked that last little bit of attention to detail without doing this (anyone who has made this will know what I mean!).

I am in the process of making a matching hair clip so you will have the complete outfit ready to go.

Don’t have a daughter of this age or size, or any at all??

Buy a ‘ticket’ anyway and give it to your friend’s daughter, donate it to your local school or kinder for their next raffle, give it to that friendly kid up the road for her birthday.

Surely there is a niece, neighbour, grandchild, acquaintance that you can give it to somewhere!

And it’s for a good cause.

Don’t forget to keep checking Toni’s blog throughout the week for the big list of auctions, it will be updated as new things are added.

If you are a quilter then head over to Corrie’s and find out about making a quilt block or an entire quilt to donate to someone who could really use it.

I'm leaving this open until Wednesday January 26th - noon Australian Eastern Standard Time, at which time I will randomly draw a winner.

Thanks for your donation and please feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Can you help??

At the moment, in Queensland, a north eastern state of Australia, there is devastating flooding occuring.

Thousands of people are without homes and businesses and farmers are preparing to face the new year with no crops, many of whom lost the same crops just 10 months ago.

If you have a craft business and can donate something or you can make an item to be auctioned to help raise money for the relief fund, then please go to Toni of "Make It Perfect's" blog, check out this post and offer your assistance.

If not, then please dig deep into your pockets and support the bloggers that Toni will list next week, by bidding for an item in their auctions.

I'll have an item of girl's clothing up for auction on Monday 17th January and so hope to see you back here then for details.
(I'm thinking maybe a Frida dress in some Sandi Henderson Ginger Blossom fabric that I have been saving for something special!).

Please help if you can.

Pettiskirts: The low down

In case you are thinking of taking on a pettiskirt - here are a few things I have learned along the way.

Firstly - the construction.

It's simply a two layered, three tiered skirt.

There's a top tier (the band - made from satin, lycra or cotton)

Middle tier (nylon chiffon or 20 denier nylon)

Bottom tier, same as middle tier but with the ruffle attached to it.

You have two layers, composed as above, joined together via the top tier.

Easy, right!??

Ruffler vs no ruffler foot

You'll get differing opinions on this depending on who you ask.

My advice? - go for the foot if you have one or plan to sew a lot of ruffles in the future!

The difference is you can do it all in 'one pass', as opposed to running a gathering stitch, teasing the gathers by hand to get a good fit then pinning and sewing it to the next layer of the skirt.

This is the gather that I set my ruffler foot to, it's pretty tight as you can see.

I used different coloured cotton for the bobbin and top-threads.
Using the ruffler foot you get a single line of stitching to secure the ruffle.

Before even attempting to use your ruffler foot - download this free guide to using your ruffler - it's a lot of help believe me.

The Fabric

I got mine from Crafty Mamas and also Trimming and Remnants, I think most 'dance' fabric stores would have it.

It's called (in Australia) 20 denier nylon.

If you are in Australia, DON'T GET POLYESTER NYLON as this frays terribly and is really stiff compared to the 20 denier nylon.

You have to cut it into strips - lots of them, so if you live in the US then buy it in pre-cut rolls from here, the freight is pretty prohibitive for Aussies.

(I have heard there will be an Aussie site selling the rolls soon so will update this once I know details).



This is the ruffle attached to the third (bottom) tier of the skirt.

 Here it all is in a big pile - I am talking a seriously long piece of fabric!

Keep in mind - this is one tier from one layer.

The Pattern
I bought a pattern, I didn't find it very helpful - at least not as helpful as this tutorial.
This is ace.
Construction is simply explained and there are great tips on how to set your machine up to gather if you don't have a ruffler foot.

The only things I changed were;
I sewed both layers together at the top tier (waistband) when I did the top-stitching as I wanted them to be secured together, and
I didn't do the thread through ribbon with elastic - I did an elastic waistband and a separate ribbon as I didn't want the small children to accidentally pull the ribbon through and out of the casing.

So I roughed out the waist measurements, based on other items of clothing, as the girls were not here when I finished the skirts off.

The only problem with this is that if you do lots of jumping on the trampoline holding hands with your cousin or aunt...

This may happen!

Unless you start with your skirt up here...

The other thing I learned is that no matter how lovely your skirt, at the end of a busy Christmas day you might still get grumpy and refuse to wear it for a family photograph, despite your Mum's best efforts!

If you have any questions - seriously do let me know, either in comments or via email and I will be happy to help if I can.

PS - that small girl looks to have 'ditched' the daytime nappies since Christmas Day - hooray!

Fluffy fun

It turns out pettiskirts are...

Ripper for running in...

Lovely for lounging...

Fantastic for the flying fox...

Just right for jumping...

Super for swinging in...

And of course, TERRIFIC for twirling!

Good fun all round I'd say.
(and, incidentally, worth the hours of ruffling!)

As Christmas slips away...

I am not sure if I showed this last year - I might have shown you bits but not the finished scene, anyway, if I did then bear with me!

This is our nativity.

The plan was to add to it each year.

I have to confess - I added nothing. The poor shepherds did not even get hair.

The backdrop is just some dark blue panne velvet with the stars glued on - I want to make some trees to stand in front of it to help it merge more with the stable.

The poor green King seems to be 'scalped' once each year! There must be something about his little sparkly sequin on the crown that is irresistible.

I did of course make two baby Jesus' last year as I was sure that one would go missing (which it never did).
The girls discovered it and declared "Baby Jesus has a twin sister too!"

They found it hiding at the bottom of the box again this year.
So while most of the time the crib looked like this...

I did find it to be quite a full crib on a couple of occasions!

And those poor bald, sheepless shepherds in their needle-felted robes.

One of my aims for this year is to make good on the "one new character/ animal for the nativity for 2011" pledge.

After all, a good bit of hand sewing is just what I need to take with me for Sew It Together 2011 in March, don't you think?