christmas dress?

I spent a few nights earlier this week with my mother in law. She's such a wonderful lady and always willing to help with anything I ask.  This generally includes babysitting duties, or housework, but the other night it was a 'sewing' request along the lines of 'can you help me work out how to make this dress?'..

Not only did we draft a pattern from an existing dress, but over the course of 2 nights, we made 4 dresses (yep, I can never just make one of anything!).  There were 2 slightly different styles - one tied on one shoulder (we made 3 of these for my cousin's gorgeous daughters), and the other tied on both shoulders (as seen modelled below by Lola). I plan on making one of these styles for Lola to wear on Christmas day out of a gorgeous red gingham linen that I bought at Spotlight.

Thank you Lily for all the teachings and the encouragement. oh, and the unpicking :)

Lola turns 3 - the birthday dress unveiled..

Our beautiful daughter turned 3 a few days ago.

Invitations went out weeks ago

and we had a lovely little backyard party for her, and she celebrated with close family and friends.

The day was a classic Qld weather day - hot and humid, followed by a thunderous storm about 5pm that afternoon. Fortunately for us, there was no rain so we were able to put up our jumping castle and let the kids run free in the yard.

The cake was a huge hit. She loved it and I must admit it was fun to make (only because my awesome sister came over for the night to help me decorate it, and we made a dash to the bottle-O before we started).

And, if I do say so myself, Lola looked awesome in her birthday girl dress. She got lots of comments about how gorgeous she looked, and Poppy even told her she looked like a box of smarties (that comment could well have gone either way, but she was happy with it!)

and her party bags/thank you's were ever so cute.  My clever friend Hsuey drew this up in minutes, and they were printed and stapled onto clear bags with a giant chocolate freckle inside (sorry no pics - I realised just as I was breaking into the last one that I hadn't photographed them! I looove freckles).

I love having parties at our house. It's part of my personality that I love having people around all the time - and a party in my own 'environment' makes me very happy.  And we have a great house for parties.. It's finally coming together and most of our clutter is finding a home. The outside to inside flow makes it easy for the kids to come and go as they please.  And fortunately for me, we get to do it all again in about 6 weeks for Andrew's 1st birthday.

ruffles, ruffles and more ruffles

oh my lord, this top was a mission and a half, but doesn't it look sweet? I followed the tutorial here, but ran out of fabric in the end because I didn't realise when she said you need 'half yards of fabric' - that she really meant - you need like 'loads' of half yards!! I had just over a metre of fabric - and towards the end, my ruffles had to get less full to finish the top.

I made this as a practice top because I planned on making one each for 2 special little 'soon to be' birthday girls that I know. Half way through making this, I decided I'd buy them a present instead of sewing this damn top again - but at the end, I love it so much (and of course I love them dearly too) so they'll be getting one too :)

Thanks for the link libs, but next time you make it first and let me know how it goes eh?

the 3rd birthday dress

Lola will be 3 in less than a month. I love that she's crazy excited about her birthday this year.  I've been thinking about what she'll wear to her party for a few months now (is that strange? I don't think about what I'm going to wear each day until I'm actually throwing the clothes on - but I love dressing her!)

So when I found this spotty, satiny type fabric at Spotlight on the $5/metre sale table - I knew it was what I needed.

And last night I sewed her dress.. I don't want to show it to you just yet (I think it will look much prettier on the birthday girl herself), but think 'Amelia top', but longer, with a pretty belt/sash :)

She tried it on this morning (so I could get the length), and had a bit of a meltdown when I told her she couldn't wear it yet.. I took that as a very good sign that she liked it.

swingin' top..

I found a pattern on Etsy recently for a gorgeous little girls top. I'm pretty sure it was a 'wild' Friday night at home when I found it, and had no real 'need' for it, but just liked it instantly.

The Amelia Top pattern was perfect for me. It was clear, concise and I was able to knock it up in a couple of hours (I take things like this very slowly, and follow the instructions to the letter... the first time I make something anyway :)).. There was ironing AND pinning (which is probably why the top worked out so nicely!)..

Lola liked it when I gave it to her a few days ago, but when I asked her if she wanted to wear it that day she said "no thanks mum".. It's now 2 days later - and I'm not proud to say this - but emotional manipulation finally won out and she put it on for me (I actually said 'so you don't want it, but you don't want me to give it to someone else?' and she said 'yeah..').

But she wore it for me this afternoon long enough to take some photos.. Hopefully it won't be the first and last time she puts it on :)

My first Ottobre project

This week I sewed my very first item from the Ottobre magazine. My girlfriend and I bought a subscription between us and we're going to share them (we agreed beforehand that in the unlikely event of a separation - we'd split them 50/50 :))

I started simple, and made my 2 year old daughter the Cocos ruffle skirt from the 2011 Spring kids magazine.  I bought the fabric from Lincraft.

I tried really hard to follow the instructions - but I'm not entirely confident with 'sewing lingo' so I struggled somewhat with the minimal direction. And I have made a skirt before that is similar to the design of this one - so I ended up going off on my own and piecing it together. It worked out ok - but I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't get it perfect. I am going to ask the next experienced sewer who enters my house to please explain for me the instructions that I couldn't quite grasp.  And also - the smallest size in the pattern was a bigger than my daughters measurements - so the skirt is gathered a fair bit more than it would be on a bigger child (and I tell myself that's why it looks different to the picture in the magazine!). But I think the extra ruffles look really cute - and Lola does love to spin..

new dress pattern - thanks to Soulemama :)

I'm a bit excited (although I feel like a bit of a stalker whenever I talk about Soulemama) but she's blogged about a dress today - and it's something I've been looking for.

I made Lola a 'pinafore' dress recently (which I drafted up from one I bought) and I love the style (I blogged about it here and here). It's the type of dress she could wear all year round (only a few months here in Queensland require any warm clothing).

Only problem with the dress though, was that it didn't cover her bum. Which is all cute, and sweet when she toddles around in her cloth nappies - but I wondered whether I could modify it or find a new pattern where it was more of a dress/dress (if that makes sense).

And today while I was doing my daily check of Soulemama's blog (yes I know, 'daily' - sometimes even twice daily) - I found that she'd made this dress for her daughter:

Image from Soulemama's blog

And I linked off and found the pattern at Nearsea Naturals:

image courtesy of Nearsea Naturals

image courtesy of Nearsea Naturals

So of course I had to order the pattern. I wonder how long till they sell out now that Soulemama has blogged about it?

Christmas eve sewing...

I woke up on the morning of Christmas eve wondering what Lola would wear for Christmas this year (it's a good sign that there's not more worrying things on my mind isn't it?). And because she had 2 christmas days to attend, I wanted something special that she could wear to both without being the same outfit. Brilliant idea - the reversible pinafore!!

So early afternoon, I made the dash to our closest fabric store to find some fabric that was Christmassy-without being 'Christmassy' (if that makes sense). I very happily found some green fabric with Ho Ho Ho print, and then a gorgeous red and white floral fabric.

That afternoon I washed and dried the fabric, ironed it - then sat down to start sewing around 9.30pm. I made a makeshift sewing table in the lounge room so I could watch the Christmas eve carols, and I had to sew super slowly so my makeshift table (aka ironing board) didn't wobble too much :)

I had a lovely time sewing and ironing, then sewing and ironing, then choosing buttons (hardest part?!) then sewing and ironing some more - all while my little family slept in the next room (yes, I've finally decided that ironing while sewing does make a huge difference to the end result).

By 12.30 on Christmas morning - the outfit was done (complete with a modified Bonds denim skirt which I sewed a row of broderie anglaise to make it christmassy).

Here's the little Christmas angel in her cousin Mikayla's bedroom on Christmas day number 1:


And here she is being 'centre of the universe' on Christmas day number 2



We had a lovely extended Christmas with our family, and we're looking forward to 2010. We hope to slow down in the new year, finish renovating and enjoy our little family and home.

Reversible Hats

I lost Lola's hat and she needed a new one - but I thought they'd be pretty easy to make so I didn't rush out and buy another one. Instead I bought this pattern off Etsy http://blog.betzwhite.com/2009/08/reversible-bucket-hat-pattern.html

It worked out really well I think? It took me about 3 hours to make the first hat (in light pink corduroy and calico), and 2 hours the next night to make the 2nd hat (the bright pink 'nana' fabric with purple flowers on the other side). I was watching tv while I was pinning and ironing though..

Lola does not like wearing any hats. so getting photo's was a mission..

Pillowcase dresses

Here are some of the pillowcase dresses that I've made recently.

This one is a favourite - it's from one of Nana's old pillowcases (I remember them from when we used to stay over at her house). There were yellow, pink and purple pillowcases. I made 2 others for Nana's other great grandchildren. I kept the yellow for Lola. It's still too big - but that's the beauty of these dresses - I can just do big bows to keep it on her :) and yes - she has worked out how to undo the straps..
And here is Lola reluctantly modelling one of the dresses I made for my cousin's baby's first birthday.

This is a better shot of the dress (I think this photo was taken before the screaming started)..

This was the very first one that I ever made. The pattern I used is from http://madebypetchy.blogspot.com/search/label/Children%27s%20Stuff

After making this one - I stopped using that pattern though, and modified it slightly. I put elastic across the front instead of threading the bias binding the whole way across.

This is the same dress on a hanger :) (showing the 'stitched with love by me' tag that my Mum bought me when I started sewing)