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!

A couple of hopscotch skirts

I have made a couple of hopscotch skirts this past week, as hubby has been working nights and I needed some quick projects to work on after the girls had gone to bed.

The first one I made out of some more Out to Sea fabric and the second one I made out of some scraps I had from a dress I'd made myself a while back (yes, it remains unblogged as do most things I make for myself!).  I only had half a yard of the Out to Sea fabric and I ran out of fabric to make the pockets with, which was ok as I wasn't quite sure how I was going to match the print anyway. I made a mistake with the plackets, forgetting that you actually place them after you have sewn the hem, so the print didn't line up - oops! But you can't really tell so it's not too big a deal.

I could have added pockets to the second one, I had plenty of fabric I could have used, but I really just wanted to make something quick. Plus both girls have developed a habit of bringing home pockets full of sand from kindy. No pockets, no sand. Well, they can always bring home sand in their shoes, but at least we can take these off outside before we come into the house!

Of course, with my husband working nights that means he's home more during the day. The girls loved having Daddy around a bit more earlier in the week. I snapped these photos while they helped him wash his motorbike.

Katherine seems to like the skirt - she picked it out to wear to Kindy today as well, along with her red striped shirt, and she got lots of comments from the teachers about her outfit when I dropped her off this morning. She told them she was dressed as a pirate!

I took some quick photos of the second skirt the next day - the weather can change so dramatically here from one day to the next, it really is insane.  It was so cold and windy here that we almost needed jackets!  The day before it had been almost unbearably hot.  

Not sure what we are going to do with all of our warm clothes when we move north - I doubt we'll need many jackets up there!

Nautical but nice

I've been eyeing the Sail away school dress tute off for a while, and last night I finally sat down with my just-arrived Sarah Jane Out to Sea fabric and got to work!

I didn't have any old shirts to upcycle, so I made my own shirt - using the same basic method of cutting around a tee.  I just made sure to add an extra couple of inches to the center of the front panels so that I could make a placket there.

She told me she was doing some sort of pirate dance here!  
Apparently the striped shirt is a "pirate shirt."

I also did a couple of little things differently.  I added some darts at the back of the shirt as little miss has her mother's sway back (poor thing, welcome to a lifetime of ill-fitting shirts!), and I attached the shirt bindings and skirt waistband a little differently to give a neater finish as I wasn't keen on the exposed seams.

The buttons on the skirt are some cute little metallic shank buttons that I was recently given from my Grandma's stash.  I remember fossicking through Grandma's button tin when I was my girls age.  I love that I can use these on their clothes now.

Just make it up as you go along...

That's what I like to do, sometimes.

After I made the girls dresses the other day, I had some of the fabric left over - from the bottom founce on Ellie's dress.  There wasn't much of it, more than a fat quarter but less than half a metre.  Anyway, I thought I should do something with it rather than put it back in the scrap box.  I really wanted to make it into a skirt but it was an odd shaped piece and I wasn't sure I would get a decent panel out of it.  Also, it's getting quite cold here so I wanted a Wintery-type skirt.  Something lined.

I was able to cut a few rectangles out of it, and piece them together kind of using the technique used in the Oliver + S Hopscotch skirt.  You know, with a flat front and an elasticated back.  I added a faux placket at the front, and some cute vintage buttons.  There is actually no opening at the front of the skirt, I joined it all together.  I used an old sheet for the lining (not the first time either, I have a couple of old sheets that I like to use for lining things - more economical I suppose, and I don't see the big deal in using a boring old sheet if you're not actually going to see the lining of something).  Because the back panel came up short (I didn't have enough length in my original peice of fabric) I cut some smaller strips and made a ruffle for the back. 

You can see what I mean in this photo here, with the ruffle at the back hem.  I think it looks pretty cute actually.

There must have been something interesting in the garden when I was trying to take this shot!  Four year olds are so easily distracted!

 

You can see I was having some difficulty getting my little model to stand still, so here's a photo of the front of the skirt to show you what I did with the faux placket.  I am also pretty happy with the way the plaid matched up in the middle.  Actually, it was just pure luck that it matched, to be honest.

I like it when I actually have the energy to do something a bit creative.  Following a pattern is all well and good, but I think it's these "one-off" projects that I have the most fun with.  They don't always work out the way I expect, but occasionally I will have a little win like this and make something I am really pleased with (and most importantly, something that my daughters are pleased with!).

Bugs and Flowers

When we were out and about the other day, Katherine insisted we buy a packet of these cute ladybug buttons. I already had the red fabric to make my niece's trench coat with and thought to myself that if there was any left over, I'd make a hopscotch skirt for Katherine with ladybug buttons down the front.

It wasn't until after the skirt was made up that I realised the buttons were far too big. But by then I had my heart set on a ladybug skirt and so I found some cute buttons on ebay specifically for that purpose! I'm glad I did - Katherine declared the end result "so toot!" and so in the end it was all worth it.

I really love the Oliver + S Hopscotch skirt - I've made it quite a few times now.   I love how it's got a flat front and the elastic at the back. I really like the buttons down the front too.  The pockets are a bit of a pain to get right so if I just want to whip something up quickly I leave them off.  Shhh, don't tell anyone!

This was one I made out of some drill I saw in the remnant box while standing in line at Spotlight.  I think it cost me $2.  I had just enough to make the skirt - without the pockets. 

Both skirts were a size 3T with a bit of added length.  They are still a bit big on her but this way they will see her through the year.  I think the ladybug one will look adorable in winter with the tights and just the right top.  Any suggestions as to what I could pair it with?

A frilling afternoon...

I'm really happy with the way Katherine's winter wardrobe is coming together, but I am a little concerned that some of the colours might be a little bit boring for a 3-year-old who adores everything pink. Last week I tried to inject some colour into the mix with the watermelon cardi and stripe-sleeve tops. But I had a niggling feeling that there was something else missing... of course, skirts!

I really only had the Oliver + S hopscotch skirt on my 'to do' list. I decided to put together a couple of ruffle skirts - I thought these would be good as the ruffles would add bulk and help keep those little legs warm. Add tights and boots, I thought, and she will be cozy all Winter. They are also so easy to make! I knew that I wouldn't even need a pattern.

I followed this fantastic tutorial for the bottom half of the skirt. It's for a size 5-6 but I knew from experience - I've made two or three of these in the past - how to scale down the measurements to suit Katherine. I decided to do something different for the top half of the skirt though, so I cut into my never-ending (it would seem) piece of chocolate corduroy.  I decided to put some cute little pockets on the front, and a mock fly.  I added elastic at the back only.

This was the finished product:

Until I decided that my finished product was a little 'unfinished'.  I really felt like it needed another ruffle underneath there somewhere.  So this morning I fetched it out of the laundry basket and got back to work.  Two ruffles are much better, see?

And then of course it needed a belt.  Now it is complete (and very cute, if I do say so myself)!

Please excuse the state of my floors - I was sewing today 
when I should have been doing the vacuuming!