More about Birthdays!

This is the most important birthday post thought - because it's about me! *snort* No, really.

I haven't had a lot of either sew or update in the last week due to the birthday month that is May. This 'round of birthdays includes my own AND my daughters, both on the same day - today! My sister is up from Tasmania which puts a dint in the sewing time while I spend some much missed time with her, however I couldn't let the day go without sewing Eva something. I've been dying to make myself a skirt but I decided to do as Mythbusters does and small-scale test first and after finding a Minnie Mouse skirt for Eva I knew I had the best material sitting in my stash for a matching skirt.

I made her a tiered skirt, there are a few tutes around but I liked the no-nonsense of the indietutes skirt. Worked perfectly (if not for a bit of swearing when I was trying to spread out the gathers a bit more) and I'm very much in love with it! I can't wait to get my hands on some material to make me one too!

Now, to be honest it's probably a bit too long to be a 2 year old's skirt, and I know the top tier is a weeny bit bigger than it should be, but it was very sweet. It's very much the kind of skirt that I'm always in.. And Eva loves it so that's that!

Here's a photo to show the length (although it'd slipped down a bit) with Poppy (My dad) I haven't perfected the art of finding a nice place and snapping until I get a beautiful, flawless photo ;) Or maybe she has perfected the art of being a 2 year old and not standing still for a photo?

Happy Birthday, Moo.

Warm Feet.

They say "Cold Hands, Warm Heart." - what do they say about feet? My feet have been cold of late, not in a nervous kind of way, but in a.. well it's just about winter kind of way. Normally every winter I have a 'thing' where I go out and buy myself the fluffiest slippers I can, but this year I came upon (yet another) Prudent Baby tute, this one for me - for slipper-socks!
I'd love to tell you how long it took me, I really would, but I've mentioned in another post - I can be a bit all over the place, I sat down to cut out the pattern while watching An Idiot Abroad and managed two episodes before I sat down at the sewing machine, and then I did that in bits and pieces. I really should commit to sitting down and doing something in one go! They really didn't take me very long though, and I'm quite pleased with the fit.

I didn't use the 'Jiffy' on the bottom, mainly because I don't know what it was and I hadn't had a chance to get to Spotlight or Lincraft and find what it was - when I received all the material from the co-worker there was a lot of curtaining.. so I used that for the sole, I figured it might be a bit heavier duty than anything else I had. I used an old polar fleece cot blanket for the soft inner and the fun spots for the outer! :D All in all these babies cost me $1.15, as that's what the inner-soles cost!
Much fun, and very nice and warm to wear! I might have to try them again!

New Babies and Big Sisters!

How exciting! A babe has been born! Wendy & Jim welcomed their newest daughter, Kate, to the family! Tonight I get to go and hold her and squish her and sniff her! Oh, I cannot wait! I'm so incredibly clucky and I'm so glad that one of my dear friends is on that delicious baby-moon right now!

Of course I had to sew something for the new baby, but what? I've lamented on this for a few days. I made a tagged, stuffed letter K... but that was a fail - Ks are a bit weird and it just wasn't up to scratch! This morning I took 15 minutes to make a tagged triangle instead, to make it just a little bit different I cut some of the backing fabric (fleece) and put it to the front, and put the front (corduroy) to the back.. it looks good, just that little bit funky, one might say? :)

I also saw on Prudent Baby the DIY Baby Shoes from jeans. Instead of jeans I used the same fabric as the tagged triangle - cutting one lot of tops out of the corduroy. So cute! I almost want to make these in my size. (Okay, so there's no almost about it) They turned out alright - The heel seems a bit big, possibly with my lack of properly measuring the elastic tube or maybe just using the fleece instead of the denim. Either way it's a nice gift for the new little bubba!

Not to forget the other children of the family, not only was a baby sister born, but a big sister and a biggest sister! I used Jan's tutorial for a Kid Sling to make a ring sling for the new big girls.
Here's my fantastic little boy, Cobey, modeling a sling, he wants to know if I can make him one now - (he models along with his rag doll, Billy - who he begged me to make and now sleeps with every night, bless)

(Don't mind the mess!)

I had best be off to wrap these gifts now before visiting the newly expanded family tonight!

Memories of Memories.

I've been sewing up a storm this weekend! I have a few friends who are pregnant and two are due... well any day now! How exciting! Not only does this mean new babies to sniff and to sew for, but also big sisters (3 in total!) needing gifts for just being them! More about those later, however.

Today I sat down with my husband's Nana and we were talking about various things crafty - see this was at a card making party and I spend most of my time at those things sighing, moaning about how bad I am at crafts and furrowing my brow until someone feels sorry for me and gives me step-by-steps. And while that all happens someone tries to reassure me that I AM creative in some way and "Don't you look at your own sewing?". Today it was Nana who was telling me this, and then she complimented me on how good I'm getting and she mentioned the polo shirt that Cobey was wearing- which I'd repurposed from an adult polo. She asked if I was enjoying sewing, I nodded enthusiastically and then pulled out my phone to show her some snaps of Eva's tunic dress of last weekend - I looked back to her and she was smiling back.. she told me how she used to make all her kids' clothes and how seeing my enthusiasm and making my kids' clothes brought back memories of the pride she felt when her kids would put them on.

She even shared with me that her son (My husband's dad) was the one who first boasted of my polo-job, and said "Remember how you used to make our clothes."

It makes it worth it, the sewing, the swearing at the cursed machine, the pain of picking up a pin the wrong way - so worth it, not for just the pride of making something that usable- but for the memories I'm creating for my children and for the memories I'm evoking from others. So very worth it.

Birthdays.

As soon as I saw the Scoodie on Indie Tutes I knew I was making it. And as soon as I knew I was making it, I knew it would be for my big sis. Not only because she lives in a cold climate, but because it's something I knew she'd like and wear.
Her birthday is one of the gazillion in May. This coming Friday in fact. I had first thought about making her one that was like the picture, however I don't know what fabric's like elsewhere but anything decent is expensive here, so I thought I'd be better to make her an indoorsie one, pyjama one. I had some spotty fabric and went in search of flannelette, finally finding the cutest sheepie stuff at Lincraft.

It didn't take me long to make the scoodie and I was very pleased with the finish! I later made her some PJ pants in the flannel with spotty cuffs to go as a set. And while her birthday is still 3 sleeps away, she couldn't help but open the package that arrived for her today

Not the best photo to show off the colour, but it shows off the scoodie a little! :D 

She's already asked if she can post me some material so I can make her an outdoorsie one! Yay!

For more of an idea on the colours, here's her PJ pants!

Too cute!

Turning two.

My darling daughter is due to turn two in 3 short weeks. Where have the last two years gone? Every mother says that - growing up too quick etc; and it's so true. I remember like yesterday walking out of the hospital with my 4 hour old snuggled in my arms, wearing a pink Bonds wondersuit, smelling that wonderful, fresh smell that you can only indulge in when holding the newest of new babies. I'm sure that was yesterday.. or maybe lst week at a stretch.. nope, it was 101 weeks ago. 101 short, short weeks.

Today we had a birthday party, not only for her but for two of her friends who were born around the same time - one of her friends is actually a mere 3 hours younger than her, while the other friend is 8 days older. We held the party early for a few reasons, the main one being that Sibi's mum is due to have another baby in the next few weeks! It was a great day for it too, lovely warm autumn in Brisbane, the sun was shining, the grass was soft and the company was great.

On Thursday night, starting at about 10pm, I made Eva the dress she'd wear for the party - I was very happy with how it turned out! She loves it too and was quite put off by me taking it off her to have a bath this evening.

The fabric had been given to me by a parent at the school I work at when she heard I had a sewing machine! I felt bad as it'd been sitting in my material-hoard without a project to do with it. When I found the tute I straight away knew that this would be the material to use! The tute is, of course, the 20 minute Tunic Jumper (or dress as I'd say in Australian) from Little Bean Workshop.

I can see myself making a few more of these! Not least for a birthday that's coming up soon (Another! I know!)

The corral.

I finally finished the hobby horses I was making for the girls' birthday party on the weekend. I say "finally" like it took me ages, but it didn't, the problem is I'm a bit of a scatter-brain and I get distracted easily - so I'd do a bit then do something else... including an 11th hour dash to spotlight 10 minutes before close to buy ribbon - oops.

I used this template from Lincraft [PDF] but I didn't do it the same way, I now have my near-5-year-old begging me for one, so I'll make another one in steps and do a tutorial! They were fun to make a really fun to look at! I can't wait until Saturday to (hopefully) see the three girls galloping at the party! The most fiddly part of them all was the bridle - I said a few naughty words to my hot glue gun for every time I managed to burn my thumb or drop glue all over the bench.

Quite cute, don't you think?

Today Today.

Today is my day off work, and I'm trying to work out what to do. I have a few things in mind...
On Saturday we're having a birthday party for Eva and two of her same-age (down to the week) friends, so I've been contemplating sewing her a dress.
But then (in looking for the link for that dress) I just spotted this tunic jumper... that looks party-able.. and cute! I like it!

I also am thinking of sewing Cobey another polo, hot on the heels of my last, successful, big polo to little polo project. I'll have to raid the husband's wares or hit the oppy! That one takes me next to no time - I wonder if I can do it with long sleeves, would that look too dorky?

Lucky last thing to do today - and this is a MUST DO it finish the girls' birthday present - remind me, I need to buy some cards from the shops today! I'll post about those more in detail after the weekend.

Sewing for Charity.

I was given a lot (and I mean, a lot) of fabric from a workmate recently. It ranges from large print to small print, remnants to a chunk of a bolt, dress knits to curtaining - and there's a lot of Pooh Bear.

And look, to be completely honest there's a HEAP there but a lot of it is taking up room in my wardrobe (I only have a small house) so I've been trying to think of ways to use it. I'll make a hodge-podge picnic blanket for us, eventually (Lots of things to craft in May, it will settle down soon) but I'm thinking of sewing for charity - problem is I have no idea what's 'good' in Australia & a lot of things I find on google are about knitting. IF anyone is reading this and you have any ideas, please feel free to link it to me! :)

A short journey..

I was going to make a long, boring post with all the things I've been making for the last 6 months. I got halfway through that when I thought "As if, how boring." So I decided to, instead, do some links of some of my favourites that I've done and later I'll blog ones that are on my 'to do' list. I'll get a bit more involved in a few more projects I really like!

The second thing I sewed, and one of my favourites, is the beautiful Button Shirt to Toddler Dress (you'll see a theme, I love an upcycle/repurpose!) I sewed it for my daughter (Eva, she's almost 2 - in fact so close to 2 both her and I could burst!) however made it a bit big! That's okay, It'll last until next year, actually that reminds me - I should zig-zag the seams, it's only been recently that I've been told I should do that! Anyway, I loved doing that, I used a horribly ugly shirt my husband had bought for an Old Foogie themed party - it made a very cute dress!

Recently I had a friend have her baby baptised so I wanted to make her something special. I took some inspiration from the Softies book and made her a Polly and a Tag Blanket - this was slightly nerve wracking but in the end I loved it - it was the first thing I'd made for someone other than my own kids! Also for that occasion I made Eva a "church length" dress - I was quite chuffed with this one because I didn't use a pattern, a tute nor a sew-along! :D That one's even lasted a couple of wears and a few trips in the washing machine! Quite proud of that one!

Back to repurposing, one of my more recent efforts had me sewing one of my Father-in-Law's polo shirts into a Cobey sized polo shirt. I love this one! He's worn it a few times, it just fits so nicely and WORKS! I used this tute and loved it. I'm definitely about to dive into The Husband's wardrobe and pull out some more polos! The times he's worn it no one's asked if I made it - which I find a huge compliment, it's not until I tell them or show them the photos that they go "WOW!" :D

I have a few other projects on the go at the moment, I won't post them just yet as they're mostly gifts (Yes! I'm branching out doing more for others!) and while I'm not going public with this blog just yet, if they find it I'll be gutted.

I do like to sew.

My dad's wife, who I'll refer to as Oma (what my kids call her) gave me the sewing machine for Christmas. I hadn't sewed before then - well, wait, I tell a lie. I had sewn. There was a term - around 10 weeks - in year 8 at school (1995) where I did Home Economics and I 'learnt' to sew. I made the pencil case and then failed dismally at sewing a straight line to make the pillow case.
So yeah, that was the first and last time I used a sewing machine. Fun, right? I dipped into needle craft - I'm pretty good at cross stitch but most.. wait.. all my projects go unfinished. I started paper piecing and that went the same way as the cross stitch, so Husband was quite nervous about bringing The Sewing Machine home, and - indeed - taking me for a trip to Ikea to buy a table for it. But here I am, 6 months later, still sewing and sewing quite a bit. Fabric is starting to take over my (small) house and my kids are getting used to not touching the machine.. it's not gathering dust!
I love reading all the blogs around and decided to start my own. I haven't made my own creations yet, but I do make a lot of other things from sewing bloggers!