Coming up...

I've loved this border print since I first saw it, but initially it sold out really quickly and I hadn't got my hands on any...

From Sarah Jane's Children at Play range, 'On Parade'

The lovely Belinda mentioned she was buying some and ordered for me too.
It's every bit as lovely as I'd hoped it would be - the colours are really pretty.

I know, white and a small kid; not a great idea.
But I couldn't resist.
After all, there's a finite timeframe that small girls can get away with wearing a cute party-parade-themed border print for, and I suspect that deadline is fast approaching.

So I have something pretty planned for it...

Perhaps tomorrow will include some sewing.

PS - Hi Liz :-)

Drumroll please...

Using a highly technical number generating system, my three assistants came up with three winners.

Amazingly they chose three people who each wanted a different fabric bundle, isn't it nice when things work out!

Congratuations to Willy Wagtail who will soon be enjoying the brights, Aimee in Stitches who will soon have 'the Blues' and amummy who has fruity goodness heading her way.

Amummy if you could email me that would be great as I can't pick up your details from your profile.

Thanks for playing ladies.

Sewing in the city

I make no secret of it, I love fabric!

There's nothing better than a parcel of crisp lovely fabric from the postie to brighten up my day.

Soft, soft, soft stretch knits - really lovely

I've recently discovered quilthome.com and will certainly be using them again in the future.

Each week they have a newsletter special and an online special and the discounts are impressive.
20% of all Moda when I bought these Oliver+s City Weekend fabrics and just after it (damn the timing!!) 25% off all Amy Butler Lotus prints.

Bright, fun patterns for a Hopscotch skirt and 2+2 blouse

The parcel arrived in eight days and they have a capped $39.95 shipping rate to Australia, which is excellent.

A dress, a skirt and a shirt from this group

All this combined with a super-strong Aussie dollar and I knew it was a dangerous situation!

A Sunday brunch jacket and skirt to come from these

I approached my fabric purchase in a much more orderly manner than I usually do - referring to the patterns for required 'yardage' before putting the fabric in my trolley.

As opposed to just getting smaller amounts of something I like, then finding it was not enough to make what I wanted to, particularly as the girls are growing.

I'm looking forward to converting these to finished garments.

Sharing the love

The fabric love that is...

I was recently given some fabric and it prompted me to have a big huge clean-up of my stash.

Four hours worth in fact!

So now I want to share the fabric love with you.

These pieces of fabric are things that, I realistically have to say, I am unlikely to use in the forseeable future - because, well, I have too much really.

The Brights

If you'd like them to come and live at your place then just leave me a comment letting me know which set you'd like.

Fabulously Fruity

 All pieces are quite big - I'd say a metre minimum, maybe more for some of them.

Got the Blues

 So go on, live dangerously - leave a comment and say hi and maybe win something new for your stash.

I'll draw a winner on Friday November 19th.
Edited to add - I'm happy to send overseas so feel free to enter regardless of where you live!

Life in the jungle

I saw this fabric on the table at our kinder fete and quickly snapped it up.

It's a curtain, quite wide and a decent drop too - there were, of course, two of them.

I got them for the princely sum of $2.

Not each, that's $2 in total.

Bargain huh!

I couldn't resist the happy colourful jungle animals.

Thing is I planned on making little tunic-style dresses from it, but it's backed and so not really conducive to clothing.

The print is fairly large scale so I was thinking of bags, swimming bags because it would be a little water resistant too.

What do you think??
Any other suggested uses for my new friends??

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.

Feeling groovy

I am still going on the backpack making marathon - two down, one partially completed and one to go.

Here's the second one, for the music-loving brother of the little girl I made the mushroom one for. The fabric is Michael Miller's Groovy Guitars, a great boy-print that I think will grow with him.


This time I used some medium-weight interfacing that I had on hand and it made a huge difference to the end result.

These pics were taken with nothing in the bag (the previous one was stuffed with paper as I mentioned) and it stands up on its own quite well.

My machine might struggle a little with the next ones though as the canvas is a little heavier fabric than this was, so we'll see how we go.

I got this in the mail yesterday (from Hawthorne Threads of course) and have to tell you it is the most lovely soft and 'drapey' material I have ever bought.

It's cotton voile from Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks range and it's to make something for me, something secret of course! One day soon I will be able to reveal all.

I also think I have found the perfect use for this Echino fabric I have had in my stash for a while now, a satchel for my niece.

I ordered some bits and pieces for making this satchel and medium-weight interfacing and d-rings for the next two backpacks and I have to say that the service from Nicole Mallalieu could not have been better. (Hi Leah!).

I ordered before 3pm one day and had the goods in my hands LESS THAN 24 HRS LATER!

Admit it - that's impressive.

And lastly - the smallest decided today was the day she would try on her 'Dorothy' dress as made by Grandma for her for Christmas, so I thought I'd grab a snap of the three together.

Oh - and by the way- that rabbit is apparently called Toto and I was told he was smiling when this was taken, in case you aren't good at deciphering the facial expressions of stuffed rabbits!

My creative space

Freshly washed fabric flapping on the line.

Plans for some of it - some as yet undecided.

These are from the Laura Gunn range Lantern Bloom.

All the designs are taken from her original oil paintings so they have a textured look to them.

Find out who else is playing along with Kirsty this week as she digs herself out from under metres of red work.

Happiness is...

Some of this just came to live at my house.

Needless to say I am pleased, very pleased.

Pick some up for yourself here or here.

Picture from Kelani Fabric Obsession.

Undercover work

Lately I've been noticing small girls pulling at their knickers far too often for them to be feeling comfortable in them so decided it was time to pull out the That Darn Kat undies pattern again.

I made the girls one pair of these each when I first got the pattern to try it out - and they must be comfortable as they no sooner go back in their drawer after washing and they are being worn again.

So this time I cut out four pair each in reverse colours. I picked up the pink fabric at Spotlight on the bargain table a while back and by coincidence Corrie gave me some of the blue when she was de-stashing to move back to Sydney after a stint in Melbourne.

I didn't plan to do white trim but it was the only colour that worked with the pink and blue.

So why make the girls knickers you may well ask???

These undies have no elastic in them, just the rib trim. Comfort factor is high.

I don't have to go through the "but I want pink/Elmo/Dorothy/pony ones the same as she has" each morning.

They are a lovely cut, modest but not neck-to-knee.

When you are making a lot they don't take too long to make and so are very inexpensive.

I know they will last!! The leg elastic will not pull away and neither will they wash badly/discolour or become misshapen.

I can custom fit them for long bodies that are not very wide.

Give them a try - you won't be disappointed.

One more sleep

Til the babe's birthday.

I recently met Leah at Kirsty's HAC session and on perusing her blog found a little Russian doll was the motif of choice for her little girl when she recently turned one.

Leah kindly said I could 'adopt' her idea if I wanted to, so on the weekend I made a shirt for the little miss to wear tomorrow - the actual day of her birthday.

Because my machine sewing in the contrast colour looked seriously crap on the small letters, I opted for some hand sewing in front of the telly on Friday night with a friend.

Wonder how long it will take for it to get covered in cake?

Thanks Leah for your great idea!

A touch of Spain

Plain long-sleeved T's are practical for everyday play but pretty boring to look at.

I 'prettied' these two up using some of my Andalucia ribbon and some ric rack and some appliqued pieces of Andalucia Mod Blooms fabric.

Big hits with the three-year-old crowd at my place.(Please excuse the post-dinner spots, I no sooner wash these than they are back on again, so hard to get a pic of them clean!)

If you want to pick up some ribbon for yourself, drop in at Little Munchkins. Different prints but every bit as lovely.

A touch of pretty

Mum and Dad visited yesterday and had with them a parcel of goodness, of the fabric variety of course.

There was one yard of fabric to come to make up the Andalucia birthday gift they got me, so of course it made sense to add a few extra yards to the bundle and a bit of ribbon too.


So this is some more Andalucia - Mod blooms with Mod Dot and Birdie Damask ribbon.

I plan to use the ribbons on the bottoms of pants and skirts and perhaps to trim the bottom of tops as well. It is thick and feels silky smooth and the colours are really rich.

Also some of the Flights of Fancy range by Paula Prass - this is Par Avion and Cobblestone in the summer colourway - can't wait to use this.


The details in the print are really lovely.



Paula has just released her new line of fabric called Summer Soiree and Patty Young has just released her new line too - Mezzanine.

Add them to the wish list I guess!

And I couldn't go past some more of the Sandi Henderson Ginger Blossom range, the print Ginger tile in both avocado and caribe.


This shirt I made in the avocado (the second one, scroll down a little) gets more comments than almost anything else I've made from the mum's at the park and playgroup - so I wanted to have a little more up my sleeve.

Plotting and planning

My husband says I am strange.

But surely I am not the only one who lies awake working out which of the pile of new patterns they bought from Crafty Mama's they will try first;

or what project to make with the stack of gorgeous coordinates from the Andalucia range by Patty Young that their mum (and dad, but let's face it, this was mum's doing!) bought them for their birthday;

or which of the projects currently underway will be set aside in order to dive into this Joel Dewberry Ginseng fabric from Amitie destined to be 2+2 blouses from Oliver +s.

and surely thoughts of making up this gorgeous top from Ottobre with some sweet Amy Butler fabric would be enough to make anyone toss and turn just a little...

I am normal aren't I??