In the 'olden' days...

We are in the midst of school holidays at the moment and I have very much been enjoying having my girls at home. We had a lovely week at Phillip Island that I am yet to share and in the past few months I have had two wonderful craft retreats - both of which I still need to report on!

I am also yet to share all the details about my huge crafty haul that I split with a few other lovely crafty chicks as touched on in the past...

In the last term at school the girls were focussing on how life was lived in years gone by, or as they repeatedly said "In the Olden Days!".

The studies culminated in a day when they all came dressed in their "olden days" clothing, had a group assembly and then spent the day moving from one are to the next participating in old-style school activities, making pikelets, playing old games and doing other activities.

My two old-fashioned girls.

The night before, I whipped up these two skirts!

They are super-simple, a large rectangle gathered onto elastic waistbands.

I had a stack of pre-gathered broderie lace that I added to the bottom of each so it looked like a petticoat peeking out.

Then I made an apron for Miss L and Miss A grabbed the striped one from the dress up box.  Teamed with their black boots (Melbourne winter staple!) and a long-sleeved cotton shirt and they were good to go.

They learned how good they have it at school these days!

This was a fantastic unit of study as it got the girls engaged with their own history too, from family tree to interacting with their grandparents about what life was like for them as children.

Some more of the 'new stash' lace on the edge of the apron.

It also generated numerous jokes (well for them at least) about what life was like for their dad and I in the olden days, despite telling them repeatedly that we didn't grow up in the olden days!!

So there has been a little sewing here!
More to come...

Flowery fun

I was supposed to have this finished before Christmas to go with the pettiskirts - but you know how that goes, Christmas madness and all.

On Saturday night we had an engagement party to go to so I whipped out all the pieces of satin I had previously cut and curled the edges of and put this together with the hot glue gun in (literally) ten minutes - maybe less.

I asked Miss L if she thought it should have one flower or two - she went with two of course, she's a girl who believes more is more, and who can fault her.

It looks seriously adorable with her pettiskirt and amazing blue eyes the colour of the small flower - really.

Whip one up for yourself - it's Ashleys great idea.

Frilling sewing

The most frilling, uh I mean, thrilling thing about decorating these little tops is that it is very quick and easy, making it a rewarding sewing project.

I have lots of plain singlets and T's here and decided to 'pretty up' a few by adding some ruffles.

For this one I cut three strips of Anna Maria Horner voile that was left over from my kaftan and ran two rows of gathering stitches through the centre.

I gathered them up, then pinned and stitched them in place by sewing one line through the middle of each ruffle before removing the gathering stitches.

That's it. No hemming - I like that they are going to be slightly ragged after washing.

For the second one I did a rolled hem in the pink along one edge of each of the three strips then hemmed each end of the strips before sewing them to the top with the right sides together.

Then I flipped each strip over and ironed it down before topstitching to make them sit flatter on the shirt.

Too easy.

Of course the real reason I made these could just have been so I could test out my super-cute new crafty steam iron that my parents got me for my birthday!

It made pressing these little fiddly items a breeze, and I know it will be ideal for pressing the seams on the backpacks when next I make one.


It even has its own tiny water-measuring jug!

Letting go

Sometimes I am so intent on doing things the 'right way' that I end up not doing them at all.

I've wanted to make the girls felt food for some time as they are really into playing restaurant and kitchen games.

I hadn't done it because the thought of all the hand-sewing involved really put me off. Then a couple of nights ago I had a look around Flickr and Etsy and found all sorts of great felt food that didn't appear to be hand sewn.

Googling 'felt food tutorial' found me lots more examples of food to make and so I decided to give it a go.

I knew what shape I wanted the bread to be so just freehand drew the template then cut out a long strip for the crust. I stuffed them gently with polyfil.

Eggs and bacon were the same - a few rough sketches til I was happy with what I had then cut and sew. Easy peasy!

Each of the girls has two eggs, two pieces of toast buttered on one side and one rasher of bacon ( I ran out of the burgundy coloured felt!).

I sat them on a plate when they came out for breakfast and I have to say I don't think they mind the less than perfect sewing or occasionally choppy cutting.

So I am letting go, understanding that all doesn't have to be perfect, that for some things (and I stress I can only do this with some!) a little wonkiness is OK.

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.