I love Elliott Heads

We spent a week at Elliott Heads for the school holidays, it is possibly my most favourite place.

Before we went on Good Friday, I sewed for 5 straight hours and only stopped because I ran out of overlocker thread!!!

I was so productive, not one unpick or mess up.  I made Lilly the outfit above, which is made from a gorgeous op shop tablecloth (the orange piece at the front) and doily I scored last time we were in Bargara.  I used lots of my bits and pieces on the skirt and got a bit fancy with the wasit band, adding belt loops and a belt.  The waistband also has elastic but the belt is so cute.  The heart appliqued singlet is part of the tablecloth as well, I love orange and pink!

This is an A line skirt with elastic waist and draw string for something different, using more of the cute orange tablecloth and another embroidered tablecloth I had.  Joe boy is modelling for me, this was a gift for one of our friends.  Lilly also got one of these skirts. 

I threw in a fine lacey doily on the side and at the back there is a bit more doily poking out from under the waistband.  Very cute.  Lilly also got a pillowcase dress made with a blue and white floral sheet with a ruffle around the bottom.  So she had lots of cool beachy clothes to wear that cost virtually nothing!

At Elliott I spent the week collecting shells, sorting shells, threading shells and tying shells onto fishing line to make long strings of shells which are now beautifully hanging downstairs from a piece of driftwood, this was my craft for the week.

Singlets and Skirts

Spotlight purchases turned into this cute skirt for Miss Lill.

It has a separate waistband which is hidden under that singlet but makes it sit much nicer than just folding over the top of the skirt and making a casing for the elastic.

and the same skirt style but for me in blue and white floral, again from the good old Light, I think this piece was $5, I only need a metre to make this knee length skirt.  I also did 2 Bonds skinny strap singlets for me the same as Lill's just by sewing on some pre-gathered lace but left out the ribbon bows. 

Amy Butler's Love for Mum

Happy Birthday Mum!She picked this gorgeous stuff out for me to make her a skirt, just the usual skirt!

We had a hard time choosing, Kelani have the whole range. Click here to see Amy Butler's website and the Love range, my favourite is the Soul group.
My BFF Kimmy ordered some today as well cause in her words "I just can't stand it any longer". I must admit that most of Amy Butler's fabrics don't grab me that much, but this is just so beautiful, up there with Farmers Market for me and that's saying something!
There was enough in the main skirt fabric leftover to squeeze a bag out, I have nearly put these things out for retirement (O.V.A.H. if you know what I mean), I've counted up at least 60 of these things I've made and am over it! But when I saw the exact amount needed for a bag leftover, it seemed a waste to fold it up for the shelf so I got the bag template out and did another. They are just the most useful bags and so lovely with gorgeous fabrics under shiny plastic! I am glad I did it now.

Happy Birthday to the best Mum

xxx

Yet Another Wrap Skirt

It's probably getting a bit boring, but here's another Versatile Wrap Skirt made with another old tablecloth.

Here's a few pictures from my garden, starting with my happy entry petunia's that are growing under the massive gums on our driveway.

My recent Hippeastrum purchases, love em!

A new miniature rose, so sweet.
My old wheelbarrow of Petunia's is coming along nicely too.

Vegie Garden Update

Sunflowers just sprouted.

These little things sprouted only 2 or 3 days after we put the seeds in.
Green Cucumber
Baby Golden Squash, these were really good.

Everything is growing strong and fast!
A night's harvest! 5 eggs, some beans, lettuce, squash and silverbeet...all eaten up for dinner!
And finally, another Versatile Wrap Skirt I finished off tonight. Made from an old tablecloth, not too sure about this one though.

Sickeningly Gorgeous Wrap Skirt

Yep, this is sickeningly gorgeous and all for the small cost of $1
A perfect condition tablecloth which I nearly didn't cut, but you can only have so many of these things.



I turned it into a Make It Perfect Versatile Wrap which you can get from Kelani, which I've done a few times before and love it as does Kimmy. I dropped off a car load of gear to the Op Shop yesterday and had a quick browse of the 'Vintage' linens, cause you just never know, sometimes you score big time. I scored yesterday, there is another 3 tablecloths downstairs, one is almost finished into another wrap the other intact.
If you are clever you can get away with the original hem on the tablecloth for your skirt and I decided this skirt didn't need the contrast band around the bottom so left that off. I used up every last bit of the tablecloth(almost, the scraps left were not even worth the scrap pile) making the ties, and I make my ties longer than the pattern says, the longer the better.

Quick Skirt

This is a Burda skirt I quickly made for myself using Spotlight $3.99/m fabric! So for $6 plus the cost of the zip (the doily is from my stash and the buttons thanks to Nanny's stash of which I've got a few things and treasure sooo much) its a pretty cheap skirt, and very comfortable I might add. Unfortunately this fabric is fairly see through, whoops, so I either add a lining or save it for round the house!!! I quite like it, so I might line it...

And here is the cutest little Royal Doulton teacup in the pattern of 'June'.

My second best friend Kimmy found it down near Iluka during her week long family beach holiday, she is so good to me, she loves teacups as much as me, but she chose to give it to me!!! It is so tiny and very old, I love it Kimbo! What am I going to give you for your birthday next week old girl!!??

SHFMOCD...

...nope it's not a mistake!!!

Those letters stand for:

Sandi

Henderson

Farmer's

Market

Obsessive

Compulsive

Disorder/Disease

It's a very serious condition I've developed and probably will never recover from! I just love all this fabric so much, so finally I've made something for myself in it.

I've ordered some more Vintage Cherries from Kelani, since she's just got a new shipment in stock, to make myself another wrap skirt and canvas some for my bedroom wall so I can stare at it forever. Is that abnormal!?! Make sure you check out Kelani, there is an excellent competition on there at the moment, which is really easy to enter.

So anyway, this is my second Make It Perfect, Versatile Wrap skirt, and the info on the back of the pattern is 100% accurate in that this skirt would indeed have to be one of my favourite items of clothing. It is so comfortable and you get to wear your favourite fabrics. I've got another cut ready to sew in Anna Maria Horner Garden Party and so does my second best friend, I'll be blogging her creation as well. For this skirt I cut the 5 panels to make the contrast trim and tie an inch wider than the pattern says, I think this gives you a little more of a look at the contrast fabric!

L O V E purple

I am not sure that many people are going to like this outfit (no particular reason, just not everyone's cup of tea)...but that's ok, cause I DO!!! And so does Kimmy (my second best friend, that is a joke by the way!) who hung out with me while I made it. We had heaps of fun and I made plenty of mistakes due to laughing so hard at Tonia Todman jokes and remembering our old days of making hairclips using hot glue guns to stick massive flowers to stuff. We are sure the glue fumes made us go troppo.

So this is a vintage tablecloth turned into a twirly size 5 Simplicity skirt like this one and a matching chesty bonds singlet in size 8 with LOVE appliqued on.

Luckily I decided to make a few things that are not in Lilly's size otherwise this one would definitely be going in her wardrobe. And during the fun of making this outfit, we came up with heaps of other ideas for cute singlets using simple words. So watch this space cause there are a heap more coming...

Ella's Outfit

My friend Wendy gave me this (Sesame Street) sheet, actually I took it! I said I'd make a pair of Sesame Street shorts for her son, which are cut ready to go. And with the bits left over I made this Simplicity skirt and matching ruffled singlet in size 6. She also handed me this doily which I added as an apron.The idea for the ruffled singlets came from my friend Bianca, who makes the most amazing stuff with Maria. The sheet was actually a Sheridan one and in perfect condition apart from being a little faded. I'd say there is enough left to make another skirt/singlet outfit or a small bag. I hope you like it Ella!

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.

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.