What have I been up to?

Hello again!  A lot has happened since I blogged last.

We've moved house!
I've changed jobs!
Katherine has started school!
Plus I have done a fair bit of sewing.

I never intended to neglect my blog for so long.  At first we were busy with the move, and setting up the sewing room was fairly low on my list of priorities.  And then I was busy sewing Christmas gifts, and I didn't really have time to blog.  I still followed other people's blogs and saw people doing things that I just didn't have the time to do - seriously, the effort some people go to is amazing.  Sewing and blogging isn't my life, it's just something I do when I get time, and I kind of felt like maybe I couldn't keep up.  But I've decided that I don't need my blog to be what other people's blogs are.  It's just somewhere where I want to share my ideas and my projects.  I love searching the web for ideas and it's kind of nice to think that maybe someone will stumble across a project of mine one day and that will help inspire them to create their next project.

On that note, here are a few things I've been creating these past six months or so.

For the girls:

Dresses for the girls to wear to their Aunt's wedding.  These were based on the Ottobre Rosy Posy dress that I love, but I left off the sleeves and added a peter pan collar.  Oh, and a tie at the back.

I picked up a cute fat quarter pack at Spotlight one day and made the girls some little skirts, with little twill ribbon belts.

For the home:

The girls helped me make this bunting to help dress up their new room.  It was my first attempt at making bunting and I really love how it has turned out.  It was also a great way to use up some scraps I had lying around.

These cushions for the girls room, to sort-of-match the bunting.  My mum helped me to make these when she visited us for Easter :)  Thanks mum!

These button initials that the girls also helped me with.  I got the idea from something I saw on Pinterest.  We used craft glue and cardstock and popped them in some frames I had lying around.

Following up on the cushions I made for the girls room, I made these ones to add some colour to our lounge room.

For me:

I don't sew for myself much, but I recently bought a dress form and have been having a go at making more things for myself.  This skirt was made out of a remnant of funky-patterned jersey I picked up at Spotlight for $2!  All I did was overlocked it to some wide elastic.  It took me all of about 15 minutes to make and I love it!

This dress is New Look pattern 6070.  I really like how this turned out, and I think I got a much better fit by using the dress form.  Plus, I didn't have to constantly try it on throughout the process, or try and pin behind my back!  Bonus!

The pattern didn't call for a lining but I added one anyway.  This satin was left over from the little lace dress I made Katherine for the wedding, and I had just enough!

Now that I'm all caught up, I'm going to try and blog more regularly, but even if I don't, I will be back.... eventually!

Here fishy, fishy...

I usually sew for Katherine, as she is usually the one in need of new clothes, and Ellie has so many of her big sister's old things that she doesn't really need anything extra.  Katherine probably doesn't need half of the stuff I make her either, but that's neither here nor there.  Anyway, today I was going through my fabric cupboard - sometimes I like to do this when I don't really know what I want to make next - and I came across this fish fabric that I bought at Spotlight a while back.  I don't even really know why I bought it, it was definitely an impulse buy, and I didn't really have any particular project in mind for it.  But today I really wanted to turn it into something.  First of all I was going to make a skirt, but then Ellie said she wanted a dress.  I thought I might make a singlet-style bodice with little bias straps that tie up at the shoulders.  But then Sensible Mummy decided it would be better to make it sun-safe.  So in the end I churned out another Rosy Posy dress (I just can't help myself).

There wasn't enough fishy fabric to make the whole dress (I only had half a metre), so I made the bodice out of white poplin and just used the fish fabric for the skirt and sleeves.  I was under strict orders to save enough fabric to make a matching dress for dolly as well!  

I think Ellie enjoyed having a dress made just for her - she was much more enthusiastic about trying it on at fitting time than her big sis, and she loved having her photo taken.  I did have some trouble getting her to stay still though, she wanted to run and twirl and race over to me to see the photo on the camera before I'd even had a chance to take the shot.

As always, I put buttons down the back instead of a zipper, plus I lined the bodice, but not the sleeves or skirt.

The dress was a big success and she wore it all day!   

Spot the obsession...

So this is the third and last spotty dress I will make for Katherine this year... I think.  She actually chose this fabric on a recent trip to Spotlight, and I knew it was going to be a Summer dress of some description, but I wasn't sure what I was actually going to do with it.  Well, I've been seeing all these Peter Pan collars around the place and then I came across this super sweet tutorial on Craftiness is Not Optional that shows you how to draft your own collar using the neckline of the top.  Oh yeah, that dress is totally on my to-do list now as well, I just won't be making it out of spots!

So I used the Rosy Posy dress pattern again - you really can't go past it for a fitted bodice and lovely full skirt.  I made the bodice a little leaner and the neckline a little higher at the front.  I also left off the sleeves, but as the bodice is fully lined in my version I didn't need to worry about bias binding or anything fiddly like that.  I used the method outlined in the tutorial to create and attach the collar.

Am I the only one who buys those cheap bags of "craft buttons" which are all mismatched singles and factory seconds? Sometimes buttons can be so expensive so I try and use up my mismatched buttons wherever I can! This dress was perfect to use mismatched buttons on, because of the different coloured pink circles. Even my husband said, when I showed him the dress, "I like how you've done different coloured buttons to match the spots on the dress." You can tell he has been spending too much time with me!

I have been trying to take a bit more care with my sewing and really concentrate on matching patterns up - I think I almost managed to get it right here too.

A spot of sewing

I have been doing a spot of sewing lately, just a little bit, in preparation for the warm weather that will hopefully be coming our way soon. I was also lucky enough to have a week off work last week, so I managed to tick a few things off my to-do list.  My plan is to try to ignore the temptation of all the cute clothes in the shops (and there are so many!) and try to make most of the girl's wardrobes this season.  We'll see....

I bought this red and pink spot fabric a while ago with the intention of making a dress for Katherine.  Well, I had actually forgotten I had it stashed away, but I came across it while I was searching for some green polka dot fabric I was sure I had (which I couldn't find anywhere).  This prompted me to admit to my husband that maybe I did have too much fabric, since I am always coming across things I had forgotten I had.  I'm pretty sure he realised I wasn't being serious.  You can never have too much fabric, after all.  But anyway, I dragged this fabric out of the cupboard and decided to finally make that dress.

I used the Rosy Posy pattern from Ottobre 3/2011.  For a while I was tossing up whether to make up the Oliver & S Family Reunion Dress instead, since I haven't made one of those yet, but in the end I went with the Rosy Posy as I've made it a few times now and it always gives such a lovely result.  The only thing I like to do differently is to fully line the bodice (and sometimes the skirt, but not this time), and use buttons down the back of the bodice instead of a zip.  With this particular dress I also added a gathered sash and tie, which I sewed into the bodice/skirt seam at the front, rather than use a detachable ribbon tie.

Continuing with the spotty theme, I decided to make a beige and white polka-dot dress as well.  I was inspired by a dress I saw somewhere but unfortunately I can't remember where.  I actually thought I first saw it at Target but when I went back to have a better look they didn't have it.  So I don't know if they sold out of them or whether I saw it somewhere else.

The pattern I used was Simplicity 2683, and I made view A.  It was the first time I've used the pattern, even though I've had it for a while.  I made it up in the size 3 but with an extra half inch of length in the bodice and an extra inch or so at the hem, for my bean-pole 4 1/2 year old.

At first I was worried about the sleeves as they kind of look funny on the pattern cover.  I was almost going to make up some Rosy Posy style elasticised sleeves instead, but I stuck with the original design and I am glad I did, they are lovely.  The only thing I did differently was not line the sleeves.  I just overlocked the sleeve edge and turned it up to hem it instead.  I figured it would be cooler for summer this way, plus I didn't want to fiddle around with a lining.

Excuse the wrinkled sleeve, I haven't quite figured out how to iron something that small with that many gathers!

The dress has buttons down the back (yes, zipper phobia strikes again!) and a salmon coloured sash and tie.  I really like this dress, but the fit is snug and I am hoping she won't grow out of it by summer.  Although at the moment she only seems to be growing up so maybe it won't be an issue.

I have a couple more dresses I want to make before I'm done yet.  How many dresses should a little girl have?  Is there a limit? Or is is like fabric, and there is no such thing too many?

One pattern, two dresses

Pumpkin Patch, one of my favourite children's clothing stores, had a sale on the other day, so I went in for a browse. Before I started sewing for my girls I would spend a fortune at this place! The sale was a good one, but I just can't look at anything any more without thinking "I could make that myself." I actually did buy a few things - leggings and tees, because I prefer to sew the "fun stuff". But there were a couple of dresses that caught my eye and when I got home I whipped up my own versions of them.

These were the dresses I saw in the store:

For both dresses I used a simple A-line pinafore style pattern, in this case it was the Winter Plaid dress from Ottobre 6/11. I hadn't made this dress before but it looked like a good starting point that I could customise pretty much any way I wished.

I loved how the red dress was such a simple design but with the interesting effect acheived by cutting fabric on the bias. For this one I cut the pattern across just under the armholes, and then down the front of the skirt, to make a bodice and two skirt sections at the front. I cut the skirt sections on the bias and I also cut an extra skirt panel about 3 inches wide for the inside of the pleat. The back of the dress I also split down the middle, and cut those pieces on the bias too.

The dress was supposed to be fully lined and have a zip in the back. I only gave it a half lining and I used a simple single button/tab closure at the back, as I really couldn't have been bothered with a zip!

I decided to make some little hair clips to match the dress as well. They were a big hit!

The navy blue dress inspired me to try something I'd been thinking of for a while. For this dress I kept the pattern pieces as they originally were, but I added a couple of little panels on the front to give the dress a bit of a nautical/military feel to it. I made this one out of some winter-weight navy blue jersey knit and again gave it a half-lining and finished it at the back with a button/tab closure.

I thought about lining it completely, but didn't want it to be too heavy, as I figured Katherine could wear it in the Summer if it still fits her then. For Winter we will just layer it with a little skivvy and tights underneath.

I'm very happy with how these turned out. I can see this Ottobre pattern becoming my go-to pattern for A-line dresses.

My Little Ladybug

My littlest lady is turning two this week and we celebrated yesterday with a ladybug themed party.  We had already decided on a theme, and then I was lucky enough to stumble across a fat quarter of some super cute ladybug patterned faux fur at Spotlight, so I decided to make a little fur vest for the birthday girl.  Of course, the only thing missing then was a red tutu so I made one of those too (too), and then she was set!

Isn't she the cutest bug ever?  Here she is eating cake with her Great-Grandma.

And slipping into a cake-coma.  Sometimes I make this face when I eat cake too.

My sister dressed her girls in red and black, to match the ladybug theme, and so I managed to get some nice photos of Ashy wearing her Oliver + S Secret Agent Trench, finally.  And just between you and me, that grey dress of hers is currently on my "dresses to copy" list for Katherine!

It was a lovely day and we were so lucky to be able to share it with so many of the people we love.  

Happy birthday, my beautiful girl!

      

Better Late Than Never...

This year I was lucky enough to spend Mother's Day with so many of the wonderful Mums in my life. I don't get to catch up with family as often as I should, as both my family and my husband's family live a couple of hours drive away. Today we decided to meet up "half way" and have brunch together. We went to this beautiful little coffee house/gift shop at Kilcoy, then went out and enjoyed the amazing sunshine at one of the local parks. The kids had a ball, and were relatively well behaved, which was the best Mother's Day gift any of us could have asked for.

My beautiful niece wore a dress I had made her for Christmas, and I took the opportunity to get some photos, as I never blogged it at the time. It was all for the best anyway, as it's a much better fit than it was back in December.

If it looks familiar, that's because is the same as the blue striped dress I made for Katherine last year. 

(Incidently, today Katherine wore the other dress in that post as well!)

 

Ellie also wore a dress I'd made her, and I know I have blogged this one before but she was just so cute today that I have to share some photos of her with you.