Hood things come to those who wait

For ages I've been meaning to make some little hooded dresses for my girls.  You know the ones that you can wear before and after you go swimming.  Katherine used to have a little Dora one a couple of years back, and I went looking through boxes of her old clothes to see if I could find it for Ellie to use, but I must have given it away to one of my nieces as we don't have it any more.  Then the other day when I was out I found a bunch of terry towelling for $3 a metre.  It was perfect for this project.

I had a look around online for a tute, but couldn't find anything like what I wanted (plenty of hooded towels, but that was about it).  So I decided to wing it.  I used one of the dress patterns I have lying around to cut out a simple A-line dress shape and then traced around the hood part of a hoodie in their current size.  Then I cut out the hood pieces about an inch bigger all the way around.
 
They came together really well, and the girls and I are pretty happy with them.

  
No more shivering while we wait for our swimming lessons to begin!

Autumn Dress Fest

I was recently inspired by this blog post to create a lace dress for little Miss K. The tutorial can be found here . As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make one.

I used an old lace curtain that I picked up at a secondhand store for $4, and an old calico tab top curtain that I had lying around in my stash. These curtains have served me well - years and years ago we were in a rental that didn't have any window dressings, so I went to Spotlight and bought a whole bunch of these calico curtains for next to nothing to put up throughout the house. We haven't used them as curtains for years but I have kept them for sewing projects and they are awesome!

I dyed both curtains (the calico and the lace) with a pack of Rit dye in 'Rojo Escarlata' which is apparently Spanish for 'pale apricot.' Who knew? Actually, it was supposed to be scarlet but I'm not unappy with the colour. It's just not as vibrant as I imagined.  I put a bow on the front of the dress, which wasn't in the original version but I just felt it needed something extra.

Invisible (ok, partly visible) zip in the back.  Still learning how to do these properly, and it's not my best effort, but it's ok.

I also found an old skirt at the secondhand store, a ladies skirt which I loved the print of and thought it would make a lovely peasant dress. I cut it down to size and made some sleeves from the off-cuts. I kept the original hem and lace trim, and it was lined - bonus - so I kept the original lining in the body of the dress, but not in the sleeves.  I thought it would make a nice Autumn dress, and then in the Winter she could rock it with a little skivvy underneath, some tights and her brown boots.

I also made a little matching headband out of some brown ribbon and some vintage lace I pinched from my Grandma.

I am in love with this next dress.  This was today's project.  The pattern is New Look 6088 and it is super sweet.  I already have more of these dresses in mind and can see myself making them over and over.  I also learnt some new things with this pattern - like the hem facing, and the long sleeve tabs. 

The back has a little button tab opening, which is great as I'm not a big fan of zips. 

Katherine chose the buttons for the front placket, and the ric rac.  I picked up the chambray fabric from Spotlight, on special for $5 a metre.  It was the last metre and half on the roll. 

I did deviate from the pattern a little, with the extra topsticthing and the ric rac on the pockets.  I also shortened the sleeve tabs as Katherine has short little arms.  And I added a little flower iron-on motiff on the pocket too.  As with the lace dress, this little dress looks so cute on - it is a shame I didn't think to take some photos while she was wearing it this afternoon.

Change of a Dress

It's been a while since I've blogged and loads has happened while I've been away.  We've moved interstate, for a start.   Then there was Christmas, and Katherine's birthday.  I've changed jobs.  And in between all of that there has been much sewing... just not much blogging.  Sorry about that.

A while ago, long before any of this stuff happened, I made this dress for Katherine.  Which I also failed to blog at the time. Whoops!

It was supposed to be the Rosy Posy dress from Ottobre 3/11 but I made a few changes and in the end it was not at all like it had started out.  It was quite wide in the bodice and a bit too short. So I trimmed it in at the sides and added a bit of length at the bottom, in the form of a pretty little contrasting strip (not pictured - must have added it after I took this photo). Also, I decided to do a full lining instead of interfacing, and I put buttons in the back because I didn't have a zip on hand and couldn't be bothered making a last minute trip to Spotlight.  Oh, and I left off the ricrac trim, and instead of a ribbon I made my own sash.

So in summary, I made a dress.  Then just after Christmas my Mother-in-law came to stay with us for a while and was kind enough to feed my fabric addiction by buying me some fabric to make the girls some dresses with.  I hadn't done anything with the fabric other than stash it in a drawer in my new sewing room, but then we were catching up with her over the weekend just gone and I decided I had better make one of the dresses up, lest she think I was just hoarding the fabric for all eternity.  So I scaled down the pattern I'd used for Katherine's not-quite-rosy-posy and made up this dress for Elspeth.

I think the yellow really suits her sunny disposition.  

And just because I feel bad whenever I post pictures of one daughter and not the other, here's a pic of Katherine wearing yet another dress I made last year and have yet to blog.

I might get around to it one day!

'tis the season.... well, almost.

Just sharing a couple of little dresses I've made for my girls for Christmas.  I cheated and used a couple of little t-shirts I picked up at Target for $4 each.  I cut the bottoms off them and then attached a gathered skirt and a contrasting waistband with ties.  The fabric is some Riley Blake Quite Contrary that I've had lying around for ages. I loved the reds, pinks and greens and figured that even after Christmas was over they might wear them again.  I also embellished the bodice with a little yo-yo made out of some of the t-shirt material.

Oh, and I couldn't resist making some sweet matching hair clips!

Katherine Does Colour Block

I went shopping the other day to buy some Summer clothes for myself.  One thing that I saw a lot of in the shops was colour blocking.  I love the look of it but really don't know if I could pull it off.... however I was sure I knew a certain mini fashionista who could.

I had a couple of fat quarter packs in various solid colours that I'd picked up at Spotlight a white ago.  The girls had appropriated them to use as sheets in their dolly's cot, and I was happy to let this arrangement continue until I found a use for them!  Sadly, Dolly no longer has any sheets (well, she has a yellow one somewhere, as nobody was giving up its whereabouts), but Katherine does have two cute little colour block maxi-dresses for her Summer wardrobe.

My favourite is the pink and orange.

I swear the hem is even, she is just standing awkwardly (honest)!

Back view.

I made a crossover front for this one, just for something different.

Skipping!

Side view.  I put a little split in the back of the skirt as it wasn't as full as I'd like.  There's still plenty of room for her to move in it though.

She picked these "flowers" for me while we were outside, and brought them in.  Now the house smells like onions.

Been baking

We've had some glorious Spring weather these last few days.  Today, in particular, was a scorcher, topped off by a nice little thunderstorm this afternoon.  So what do you do on these toasty, almost-Summer days? Well, according to Katheirne, we were baking today.  It wouldn't have been my choice to stay inside with the oven blaring, but it was probably still cooler inside than say, going out to the park.

We made Anzac biscuits, date loaf and biscotti.  I'm going to share the biscotti recipe, because it's something that is dead easy to make, is delicious, looks a little bit fancy, and let's face it - is probably a whole lot healthier than the other two.

Cranberry & Pistachio Biscotti

Ingredients:

3 egg whites

1/2 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup pistachio kernels (unsalted)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup plain flour

Method:

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.  

Add sugar and continue beating until dissolved.  The mixture will be thick and glossy.

Fold in pistachios, cranberries and flour until mixture is just combined.

Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake at 180C for approx 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, and when cool enough turn the loaf out onto a board.

Slice thinly with a very sharp knife - the sharper your knife, the better the result (I use a very sharp bread knife, but I have heard electric knives are great also).  

Place slices in a single layer on a baking tray and return to the oven for around 15-20 minutes, or until crisp and just starting to turn golden.  You might want to turn your oven down slightly for the second bake if you have a very hot oven - mine burns everything. 

Allow to cool and then enjoy with a cuppa.

Biscuits will keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight container.

I love making these at Christmas time with a little cinnamon and orange peel in the mixture.  It also makes a great little Christmas gift (for teachers, neighbours, workmates etc) if you package it up nicely in some cellophane bags with a bit of Christmas ribbon.  

Mummy's dress into little girls dress - part 2

I had so much fun cutting up my old blue dress and giving it a new life that I went rummaging through my wardrobe to see what else I could transform.  I've got so many clothes that I never wear - a mixture of poorly thought out impulse buys and old favourites that - let's face it - will probably never fit me again.

I found this dress that was a favourite when I was pregnant with Ellie.  Now it just makes me look pregnant.  It wasn't expensive, and I couldn't see myself wearing it any time soon, plus I really loved the fabric.

I had also seen this dress recently and really wanted to achieve a similar look. Yes, of course it is Pumpkin Patch!

I used this Pumpkin Patch dress for inspiration

I cut off the dress at the waist and made the dress the same way as the previous one, except for this one I didn't worry about the flutter sleeves, and I added a sash. The fabric was quite thin so I used the existing lining to line the dress. I also kept the original hem of the dress as it worked out to be a good length anyway and didn't really need hemming.  Here's the front:

And the back:

I also made a little headband with a yo-yo flower out of the scraps.