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 Pinafores - Lola's wardrobe is now complete..

Lola and I got up early this morning and headed off to Ipswich to visit the Handmade Expo markets at the Ipswich Turf club. I really wanted to get there before anyone else arrived so Lola and I could wander and see what was available (she wants to walk everywhere now as well, so that was another reason I wanted to avoid big crowds).

So, did we enjoy ourselves? Yeah - I'm really glad we went. There were a LOT of stalls, and I'd say there were a handful of ones I really liked.

First thing we bought was a little hand whittled-wooden puppy dog for only $3! I couldn't believe it was only that much considering the work that must have gone into it? so Lola held onto that while we wandered around.

Then I found this gorgeous reversible Pinafore from Rod n Lil (etsy store here).

The hardest part was choosing which fabrics I liked the best (there was a lot of "I like the front of this one.. but the back on that one..) For only $20 - I can see Lola getting so much wear out of it this summer (and even next summer - it looks to be one of those items of clothing that will grow with her..)

And lastly we picked up a Sandwich wrap from Mumatopia (her madeit.com store is here).
We bought it for Si actually - he's the 'sandwich king', and I've hidden it away and we'll wrap it up for him for Christmas. It's lined with PVC table liner on the inside, and has velcro so you can wrap your food up nice and snug. And the lady had an awesome 'felt sandwich' which she used a to demonstrate her product, which was cool too.

So, that was our visit to the Handmade expo. Definitely worth the drive to Ipswich.. It even got me motivated to do some sewing this afternoon. More on that next week :)

Sweet Emmeline

Emmeline is turning 1 soon, and we will be celebrating with her next weekend. I'm ready in advance with her present - it was made and photographed last week.

The fabric is from a set of my old bed sheets that mum gave me recently. I'm sure I went through a phase of loving it - then hating it when I was younger, but I'm back to loving it now :)

Having a baby girl has done unexpected things to my tastes. The more cutesy the better these days.

Melt your heart moment..

I couldn't resist capturing this moment and adding it to my blog (I can't wait to show Si the photo in the morning). I am going to go climb in bed beside them now (for once, there's plenty of room for me :))