The (not so) Incy Wincy Spider.

Incy Wincy, Itsy Bitsy.. what do you know it as? I was brought up (I'm sure) with the Incy Wincy Spider but I often see the Itsy Bitsy Spider hanging about. And sometimes he goes up the water spout and sometimes the garden spout! Tsk! Can't keep up!

When I'm not chasing after my children I'm working at a primary school as a teacher aide. I love my job immensely, I love every bit of it- the relationships I form with the kids as I watch them grow, the staff at my work are just these wonderful people, so smart and dedicated to the cause of educating children, we're all very passionate about it. I love educating children and educating myself in the process- kids can teach you so much!

Another part about my work that I love is being a kid again. Nearly all aspects of my work involves me getting in touch with my inner-kid- whether it's joining in conversations with them and understanding the trends and slang and then relating with something from when I was a girl, or getting into their heads and realising just how a child thinks and why they learn the way they do. Then there's the very obvious 'being a kid again' aspect of my job. Dress ups.

You can't avoid dress ups with a school job and it's one of those work requirements I particularly love. Our theme coming up in a week or so is Fairy Tales & Nursery Rhymes. I tossed up a bit of Cat & The Fiddle, I even thought about fashioning a spoon and coming with a dish to run away with, my next thought moved to the Incy Wincy Spider - can't be too hard, 4 more 'legs' and I'm done. I googled a bit to find the easiest way to do it and I found this. Thank you, Martha Stewart. So today I set about it. I made a quick black A-Line skirt with an elastic waist, taped two coat hangers together and then onto a hook, (Husbando wouldn't be a sport and wear it to make this process easier) then used some white yarn to turn it into a web, which was a bit  fiddly and time consuming but I'm pleased with the end result.

I love the actual Incy Wincy Spider I made as well. Can't wait for our dress up day!

More Tiered Skirts (In fact more birthdays!)

Yes, another birthday! Today marks another little girl turning two - my family day carer's daughter's birthday. Following the success of Eva's much loved skirt (and more success following it not falling to bits in the washing machine and tumble drier!) I decided to make Dee-Dee a little tiered skirt too! Eva eventually understood and resigned herself to the fact that it wasn't going to be hers, but as soon as it was time to get dressed this morning she pulled out her birthday skirt so she would be wearing the same thing. Suited me fine because it meant I could get another couple of photos!

Dee-Dee's skirt is a little more consistent in terms of tier sizes, especially the top tier, and I love the fabric and it really suited her skin tone. I lessened the tension on the machine to make the gathers a little less tight (Thanks for the tip, Oma! Or I was meant to lessen the stitch length? eek!) so that helped in that I didn't need to swear quite so much when I was doing it.

It's so very cute, I think I'll be making a few more! hee! There -was- going to be a matching headband, but time and patience were growing short.. maybe next time!

We've been commenting on how tall it makes them both look!

Hanging out to find the perfect fabric to make myself one!

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!