Latest Glam Green Bags

Finally, I've made some more bags...

This Spotty Leopard is already sold! It seems to be a favourite. And in the background you can see my cool not-so-new dresser I've added to my sewing room. I am yet to tidy it up and display all my pretty stuff on it.

And this Retro Summer Chocolate Check (which I've done a couple of times before) is up for grabs. It's listed in my SHOP!

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!

Round Tablecloth Dress

This turned out super cute! I found this round tablecloth somewhere or other, soaked it in nappysan and turned it into a Spring twirly shirred dress. Little Miss loves it. I cut a round hole in the exact middle, about 40cm diameter, probably could have been a smaller hole by the way. And then turned over a small hem and then did 4 lines of shirring, sewed on some ribbons for straps and thats it! If you get the cut hole in the exact middle of the circle then the hem of your dress (which was the original rolled edge hem on the tablecloth) will be fairly level. There is no side seams because it is a circle. Now I am on another tangent looking for more round tablecloths instead of making bags I've already got cut!

Pink Cupcakes

Cupcakes on a white background and hot pink with white spots lining. Our friendly chooks in the background: Henny Penny, Chicken Little, Thomas and Percy...don't ask me which one is which, but apparently you can tell!

And the sad news is...my sewing machine seems to have died after this one was made! So it looks like Nanny's machine will be coming out till its fixed, thanks Nanny.

Vintage Sesame Street Bag

Finally I got this one done. I have had this material for a couple of years, I think it may have been a small curtain, I made Joey a pair of shorts when he was a baby and saved the rest. I only just got a bag out of it by joining pieces for the handles. Since this one is ours, I put a zippered pocket in (to stop the rummaging problem), which was pretty simple but I think I can figure out a neater way of doing this next time.

Mr Joe thought it was pretty cool as you can see. The kids gathered up all the Sesame Street toys we had to go in the bag. They didn't understand why Elmo couldn't be in the photo despite me telling them Elmo was relatively new to Sesame St, and not in the original line up! I guess this shows how old the material is...

Melly&Me bag

Here is a bag I have been meaning to make since April, since my lovely Aunty gave me the pattern for my birthday, along with a stash of gorgeous fabrics, that I haven't cut and just stare at all the time. She says thats ok (not to cut the fabric) as she does that as well, just stares!

Anyway, this is the Melly&Me Dolcetto. There are quite a few others I'd like to do from them as well.

The last pic is of a kangaroo salt and pepper shaker I got at an Antique Fair a couple of months ago, I noticed it again tonight when I took photos of the bag. Isn't it so cute!

6 Random Things

I have been tagged by Ellie. I'll do my best to play along.

Here are the rules ...
1. Link to the person who “tagged” you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know your entry is up.

ONE
Last week, I decided I wanted to go on "Farmer Wants a Wife"!! My husband thinks I am very funny...I want to go out for dinner in a candlelit shearing shed and live on a farm. He is still laughing at me.

TWO
This has probably been my worst year of my life...losing Nanny and watching Lilly have her partial nephrectomy together with 3 hospital admissions at the RCH. In saying that, I don't think we have ever been happier now that we have moved to our little bit of acreage.

THREE
I went to Bribie Island for Schoolies week!

FOUR
I regret not making my then boyfriend (husband) come flying around the world with me and friends when we were younger.

FIVE
We had a beautiful wedding and honeymoon in the Maldives and Singapore. I have two beautiful children, I would love another but feel blessed as I am, so will leave that alone!

SIX
I have always owned Siamese Cats and Fox Terrier dogs since I was a little girl and still do, there is a cat on my lap at present!

Gee whiz, that was hard, I couldn't think of anything interesting.
I tag tigerfield, Tracy, Celia and when I think of some others, I'll tag you then, but all my sewing friends have been taken in this round of tagging!

Butterfly Glam Green Bag

I've done this one before, except I've used a pink and green spot lining instead of pink and white spot. This is a 5th birthday present.

Reversible Purse

I don't know if its the red spot fabric that I love or whether this bag really is just making me so happy! Either way I love it! Thanks Pink Lizzy for the inspiration and Marns for finding this on Martha's website. I have been at work tonight and I have been edging to get home and finish this thing, so I did.

I hope you like looking at the bag as much as I do! I just need to get my hands on some Anna Maria Horner Garden Party now and I will be really really smiling...

Martha's Bag, Mum's Pansies and My Muffins!

Well tonight was fairly productive! I made this awesome bag thanks to inspiration from Pink Lizzy Sews and a pattern from Martha Stewart's website. I used old scraps on this one, and no co-ordinating lining, but tomorrow, hopefully, I can have a go at something nicer in fabric terms!

Mum turned up with a pot of pansies she had potted up for us, isn't she nice! They'll be going out on the front verandah tomorrow morning for us to enjoy.

The muffins are my Prep Muffins! Mixed and cooked in a flash and these ones are Raspberry, Banana and Choc Chip, dusted in icing sugar.

Thomas Flannelette Pants and a View

Another pair of the same pants pattern for Joe, this time in Thomas Flannelette, which he picked out himself! And a shot of what we can see between the trees that line the river now that our neighbour chopped down a few pine trees! They are the aerials on top of Maleny.

Cord Train Pants

Finally, I have figured out a great pattern for pants for Joe boy!

This is a combination of a 70's vintage Size 1 Simplicity 5103 PJ pants pattern together with my skills as a novice pattern drafter! I made 2 try out pairs out of old flannelette cot sheets before I was happy with this shape.

I used this tutorial...here...for the idea of keeping pants simple by essentially having only 2 pattern pieces. My pants would be a size 2 to 3 I'd say and I finally had a real proper go at applique! I did a train of course and the lesson learnt is 'applique before you sew up the seams'. You may think you can manipulate the machine inside that small leg hole, but NO it's very very tricky. I need a one on one with Mum to get tight circles happening, check wheels and you'll see what I mean.

Previously, I have made Lilly pants with pockets that turned out ok and Joey some cargo style pants that were absolutely horrendous, but because they were and still are Thomas blue in colour he just loves them.

These navy ones on the other hand are just right. The waist hem was a cinch given I allowed for 2 big turn overs, much simpler than small amounts to turn over and fiddle with. Next time I will add an inch to the hem to allow for a larger turn over. I have the master pattern in my drawer so I better get moving and make some more.

This is a very long description considering it is about one very ordinary pair of pants, but its the simple things that are often the best...oh you have to excuse the poor pic's and fact that these are dirty from wear today, but I just had to show you all.

Lady beetle cake

Chocolate lady beetle cake with 20 mini lady beetles for Lill's teacher.

Chocolate Factory Party

Happy 3rd Birthday to my beautiful little boy!

We had a chocolate factory party for Joey complete with Golden Ticket invites. The factory was made out of fridge boxes, alot of them! It had purple and gold double doors leading into a crepe paper choc waterfall, then a turn to the right but before that- a pull-out chocolate drop trap door, then a pretty painted room, another couple of turns, another waterfall, a bubble room, more turns, then another slide-out chocolate trap door, more turns and finished with a piece of twisted pipe where after pressing a button (a battery operated door bell!) a gob-stopper came down the pipe and into your hand if you were ready, then out the flap door...and line up again! I had 4 adults working the factory, one letting the guests through in turn so there wasn't a stampede, and 3 on the trap-door and door bell lolly drops!

We also made a 'lolly shop' which my daughter and my nephew were in charge of. Hidden around the garden were tiny golden tickets for Joey's Lolly Shop. The shop had an open and closed sign, so when the shop was open you could line up and exchange mini tickets for free lollies. We had those noodle boxes for all the kids to get filled. They did a good job of the shop, it is still a shop here in the playroom but it doesn't sell lollies anymore!

We had a 'lolly pop tree' in our mango tree and a freddo frog balloon pop. The cake was a double batch mudcake covered in thomas track with every imaginable choc coated lolly you can think of on top. He had a great time, completely chocced out! When asked what his favourite was at his party, he said 'going in the factory and opening pessents'. So cute Joey. I love you.

Butterfly Bag

This is my latest bag, I gave this one away, actually it was payment for a Shannon Noll concert ticket!! Which I might add was very very good, Shannon that is, but he always is!!!

Beats me why that pic is on its side...tried twice, I give up!

Cowboy Recycle Jeans

Here are Joe's jeans, originally a size 1 Bonds that now fit him as a 3 year old! I love this print so much.

Rock Chick

Here is my little Rock Chick! I just sewed on the pink sequins to the top and leggings and made a matching small hair tie. She did the glitter makeup...and danced the night away with her mates!

Apron and Egg Basket

This is for a little friend for her 3rd Birthday. She is getting her very own chooks very soon so I thought an egg basket was in order! The eggs in the photo are from our very own chickens...Chicken Little, Henny Penny, Thomas and Percy!