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Showing posts from February, 2012

Another little bib

This is kind of an adjunct to the bag post.  The young lady for whom the bag was made is big sister to Ava, for whom I have previously made some bibs (apparently unblogged...). I had some trim left over and had already made her a bib out of some soft flannel (an upcycled pillowcase) with  flowers on it that I hadn't gotten around to giving to her mum yet. Again, I sewed this on with a honeycomb stitch and while it looks coloured, the little discs are really  more see through in real life. Before anyone points it out...those beads are probably a choking hazard.  I thought I would point out to her mum that this is a "show bib" for the birthday only - she can have a picture with her sister holding the bag or similar and then they can be cut off immediately leaving a nice ribbon / honeycomb trim :) For good measure - here are some of the other bibs I made her: A Valori Wells (I think?) flannel with contrasting heart applique And another pink

Tutu Bag

One of my little girl's best friends is turning five next week.  She is a very (very) girlie girl and they enjoy dancing and pretending to be ballerina fairy princesses together (no idea where she gets that from!). I have had this free pattern (the link to the free pattern google doc from vintagericrac is here ) sitting ready to make for a while.  Originally I planned to make it for Issy's 5th birthday in May but I saw it there last week and spur of the moment decided to make it for Bella.  I might still make it for Issy too, as she has already asked for one about a million times! Here is my version of the tutu bag: The bag is made entirely from my stash of somewhat grotesque fabrics which the less discerning ballet-obsessed five year old would love.  My friend donated most of this to me I think...the outside is pink ballet slippers on a sugar pink background.  The lining (not shown because I am useless at taking pictures) is a creamy coloured background with a sort

Ultimate Mum Action - School Trousers

So this week was a biggie in our house.  Thing One started "big school" on Tuesday :) This is the first of our kids to start school so we weren't really on the ball with the purchasing of uniform.  Seemingly the done thing is to buy the "branded" or badged items from the uniform shop (polo shirts, hats, rugby top) but to get the shorts / skirts / trousers from somewhere like Target or K-Mart as they are just cotton drill cargo pants or similar anyway.  This means those items sell out pretty quick at the start of the year and there are very few left by February (when I went to look), especially in the smaller sizes. So...given that I sew I figured I would make them.   Obviously Spotlight was out of cotton drill in navy (they had twill but it seemed too heavy to me).  I ended up getting some navy stretch bengaline (think work pants fabric - lightweight but with some stretch) which should be really comfy for her.  I made the Sewing for Boys suit pants without t

A quilt for my sister-in-law

My sister-in-law has pretty great taste in home decor stuff so I was fairly nervous when I decided to make her a surprise quilt for her birthday. At the Melbourne craft show (2011) I found this gorgeous screen printed linen from Duckcloth .   I chose the large scale floral print ("Rose Peacock and Seaweed"), the mergey blobs ("Stoney Peacock"); both shown above, the sticks ("Boardwalk Peacock") and the green and blue dots ("Connect Seaweed on Raw"); both shown below. I also bought some brown linen from Tessuti in Melbourne and some teal solid cotton from Patchworks in Hobart.   Initially I struggled with these fabrics more than I thought I would.  I wanted something to echo the randomy placement (technical term there) of the shapes included in the fabric, but that would also how them off to their best advantage.  I wanted one of those super modern bitsy quilts that I love when other people make them, but I really stru

PJs and Shorts - pattern comparison

This is a couple of things I made around Christmas time that I haven't got around to posting yet.  I was going to call this "Things I haven't got around to posting yet #5" but you can only take so much of that sort of thing :)  Plus I don't ever seem to post things promptly so technically all my posts could be those... Anyway!  I have a 4 year old girl and a 2 year old boy.  I have therefore more recently invested in boy type patterns and have been trying to redress the balance in terms of sewing nice things for both of them.  I have found a dearth of cute boy projects (free or otherwise) out there - when compared to the wealth of girl stuff; as noted recently on handmadebyalissa here and in various other places too. Just before Christmas I sewed a pair of PJ pants for my nine year old nephew and a pair of shorts for my two year old son in quick succession.  For both items I used a shorts pattern and I just lengthened them to full length for the PJs.  The PJs