Boys Shorts

Who says Joe boy doesn't get anything made for him! After seeing these shorts made up here and here, I had to make them.I got this pattern and fabric today and went to work straight away (well after the ratbags hit the pillows!) I found the pattern very easy, the way they've done the waistband is so simple compared to others I've done.

Fabric Haul

These are for Glam Green Bag linings! and other projects of course, but mainly bags.

I got 2m of each and I have to say a big thanks Mum for keeping my ratbags so well controlled during the spendup!!!

Reversible Pini Dresses

This is a fully lined or reversible Pini in a size 6. It is a very old Burda pattern I dug out and very simple and quick! The inside is a bright red and white coin spot. I think I like the spot side better. The white shirred top I made last week and has come in handy for under these pini's!

The same pattern in Lill's favourite material at the moment... icy poles!

The inside is a pink with green spot, it is also fully reversible.

The Madeline Dress

This is The Madeline Dress in a size 7. The best part about this dress is the cute apron on the front which is sewn in. You can make your own apron or use an old special tea towel or part of a tablecloth as the apron. Lilly says it will be good for collecting the eggs when you forget your basket!

We went to our local Strawberry Farm yesterday.

Handy Kitchen Towel

I made a couple of these kitchen towels for a friend's birthday recently. They are just a tea towel folded in half, gathered at the fold and then a piece of fabric attached with a loop to hang. Nanny used to make these all the time, and I mean all the time! Except hers were the proper crocheted ones with a button. She taught me to crochet when I was 12 and not long before she passed away I got her to show me how to do the crocheted tea towels. We did one together and I've got a heap more to do, but they are pretty time consuming, the main thing is I know how to do them, thanks Nanny.

Oh, the background aqua spot is my new ironing board cover I made last week. I've got one more to do, sometime.

So this is what I've been doing all weekend...well not all weekend, but a good chunk of it! I just love the way these have turned out. It's the Pink Fig Lily Dress/Top yet again. We've also had a wild 15m plastic waterslide happening as well with a whole bottle of detergent gone! You can check out these dresses closer in my shop, where they are listed for sale! Click on the link to the right in the side bar to get there!

Icy pole Ruffle Skirt

This is a Grand Revivial size 5 or 6 Ruffle skirt, using icypole pink fabric and hot pink spot, both from Spotlight. As I was cutting it, I thought there's no way this is going to fit Miss Lill! I would say it's actually a size 4 or 5. She has been wanting and wanting this icypole fabric, each visit to Spotlight, she asks for it! I even bought the cupcake print one day with her there and ignored her pleas! So on my last trip there recently, I bought a metre and she spotted it on the messy cupboard yesterday and the poor little thing was so happy. So last night I made this skirt and hung it in her room ready for the morning (I always do this!!) I caught her face this am from my room, and it was pretty happy! She didn't mind too much when it was too tight, I can make another one and sell this one in the shop she says!! I'll put it away for a gift some day.

Pink Cherry Dress

How cute is this dress!Finally my Sandi Henderson Farmer's Market fabric order arrived from the USA, all 8 yards of it! It is all just so lovely, it was so hard to choose which fabric for which bit!

I have enough to make quite a few things.

First up was this PinkFig Lily Dress for Lilly. I cut the size 7 pattern a bit bigger, so I guess this dress is now an 8, it is quite a bit bigger than the first one I did in a 7. I have perfected my shirring, well I'm quicker at it now anyway. Also, instead of tying off the cotton good side threads in knots at the end of each line of shirring, I use a needle to sew each thread back through the fabric to the wrong side then knot it off there, so you can't see the start and finish of each line of shirring from the right side...make sense??!! It adds an extra step but is much neater. The pattern includes a sash which is not really needed to wear the dress, just a way of adding an extra bit of interest and using up some gorgeous material
...below is a pic without the sash...

Little Spanish Girl

Lill had to go dressed as 'something' from another country, there were about 6 countries to choose from. I called my friend Jen who is great at this stuff and read her the note. She paused for 5 seconds then said, ok, so you choose Spain, you get a white peasant top and a twirly skirt, put some flowers in her hair and give her some castonets (however that is spelt!) So that's what we did.

I made the white top with broderie using the Pinkfig Lily top pattern and the skirt I thought would be simple...can you believe there are hardly any flamenco or circle skirt patterns out there! I ended up at Spotlight and got a rock n roll skirt pattern from Simplicity. I chose a bright red material with yellow flowers, this skirt used 2 metres! It is a complete circle with a waistband, concealed zip and fastener on the side. It was a very good twirlable skirt indeed! I made a yellow triangle skarf to wrap around her waist. We put red roses in her hair and she was set. I don't know how Spanish this all is, but she certainly looked very cute and it gave me a very good excuse to sew.

PinkFig Lily Top

I have lots of good news! My sewing machine and overlocker went in for a service and came back today like brand new again, so exciting, the overlocker had been 'broken' for a long while and now its like a dream to sew stuff!

Yesterday my Kelani order arrived, super quick I might add and very nicely packaged. Amongst the goodies was my first Pink Fig pattern- The Lily Top. So I made it using stash fabric in case it didn't turn out, but luckily it did! I am not sure that Lilly will actually get to wear this dress, not for the bright yellow colour (she will think its the most beautiful coloured dress in the whole wide world knowing her) but for the size. I cut and made the largest size, a 7 and I think its going to be a tight squeeze. Somehow I should be able to make the next one bigger as the pieces were all very very simple as was the dress to make really. There is shirring around the neckline, the sleeves and the chest, 4 rows for each section and the pattern tells you to steam the elastic to make it pucker up even more which works a treat! Chelsea from Pink Fig has a great shirring tutorial here. I don't think it really needs the sash with the shirring around the chest but I guess it adds an extra contrast. I can't wait to make it in the Farmers Market fabrics I've got coming.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs- not sewing related at all!

Ever since I was little I have been fascinated by Snow White! I think it may have started back when we used to go here...every time we went to Port Macquarie on holidays. Fantasy Glades is now closed unfortunately, my kids would have loved it, I think my favourite thing was the 7 Dwarfs house (you could go in, upstairs and everything, furniture the lot- all cubby house size!) and the coin operated cars- they were great, oh the Diamond Mine, I could go on and on, maybe it was because the people that ran Fantasy Glades were all Dwarfs themselves, I don't know but I loved it all! It first opened in 1967 and closed in 2002, imagine when it was sold all the stuff up for grabs.
We found this set at the markets recently, made from the usual garden gnome plaster and painted, we spray lacquered them all so they last a bit longer without fading and peeling. They are standing under the big camphor laurel tree near the kids play area.

Thanks for reading while I relive my childhood memories! I am going to dig up some old Fantasy Glades photos from Mum's!