Thursday, June 24, 2010

A Dress for Me!


Simplicity 3835, a mash up of views B and C


I've made this dress before in View A, but only starting wearing it recently.
In reality I will wear this over Jeans with a cardi or coat for cold days.


I love shoe photo's so here are mine with Mark's


And the gorgeous Miss Jocie with Daddy.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Coats for The Big Girls..


How cute are these coats!! Made from some Boucle jacketing on sale for only $8 a metre, and some sweet and cheap, only $3 a metre! fabric for the lining, These coats work out really cheap, even factoring in the cost of the pattern, $5.99 USD from Dear My Kids on Etsy, (Quick go and have a look they have lots of very cute kidlet clothes!) They are way way cheaper to make then they would of been to buy!


For the front closure I went with just one lining fabric covered button with a snap sewn on underneath for the proper fastening, It would of looked good with two buttons too, but heck they are expensive and I was going for economical!


I love the lining for Charlies coat, It picks up the blue tones from the outer really nicely, and it suits her very well I think!

The back has a curved yoke to echo the front, which is hard to see in this fabric, but would make a nice feature in a solid colour.


Of course Imogene got the pink one, nothing surprising there! 


I love the lining of hers too, I am absolutely going to use the leftovers for facings in a skirt for myself at some point!

Can you sort of see the curved yoke at the front here? I love the peter pan collars too, so girly and sweet.


The girls love there new coats too thankfully, and in a couple of weeks time they are going to really love them, As we are leaving our temperate town for a 2 week holiday south, Yep we are driving south for the winter, crazy huh?!, Off to Bendigo, Ballarat, then Melbourne!! I can't wait!!
In the meantime I have a heap of winter sewing to get done, Laura's coat is finished but needs a pic or two taken, and Miss Jocie's is cut out, ready to sew, I also need a skirt, and Charlotte and Miss Jocie need some new pj pants *sigh* so much to do, so little time!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

A Dress for Miss Jocie


The only way to keep her still these days, is to attach her to a parent!


I made this dress a couple of weeks ago using some wool flannel suiting I had in my stash, I didn't have a pattern so made one myself! There is way too much ease in it though, but at least it will last a couple of winters!, I finished the neckline and armholes with purple bias binding. 


It zips in the back with a repurposed grey zipper.


And a little doily embroidered with a Mummy drawn mushroom. (click to enlarge)
It should keep her toasty on blustery days! 

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Charlotte's Coin Quilt ~ Officially Finished!!


Click on any photo to enlarge.








All wrapped up!

Click HERE for all the posts about this quilt.




Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Such a Teaser!


Charlotte's quilt is finished!!! Just needs a run through the washing machine, and a proper outside photo taken!
All the details to come in one final post, soon!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Quilting by hand


So this is my first ever attempt at hand quilting!! I'm using perle 8 cotton and an embroidery needle. 
It's going along quite quickly, and I'm starting to get hopeful that Charlie may just have her quilt by her birthday next month! Mind you between now and July, I have a mammoth list to get through, so maybe not.

To do list:
(in no particular order)
  • Laura's Coat
  • Jocie's Coat
  • 3x Kids scarfs
  • PJ pants for Charlotte aka the knee ripper!
  • Skirt for me
  • Tunic for me
  • Rip up Vintage sheets for swap
  • Extend 2 crocheted cardi's for Jocie


If I can keep up the momentum that I've had the last couple of weeks I should be right!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Calling all quilters!


Or at least those that are interested in a Virtual Quilting Bee! I've joined another bee, this one is called Bee Seam Piecing Downunder So if you are in Australia or New Zealand, pop on over and have a look, We would love to have you!!

(just a random pic from my "things ive made" file)

Monday, June 7, 2010

June block for Australasian Bee.


This is Monika's block for June for the Australasian Bee, I love the fabric combo she chose, this quilt is going to look fab! I still have to make her a signature label.

I had some good luck this morning, I managed to score another vintage sheet for only $2 at my fav local oppy, as well as a gorgeous teal and coral jacket for Miss Laura for only $3!! I went to a couple of others this afternoon but despite it only being 3:45pm they were closed, they were supposed to be open till 4pm, I admit I was pretty annoyed, getting all 4 girls in and out of the car is pretty tedious, At least only 2 need me to do them up these days! Anyway, I'll pop back in to the other ones later this week, I want to get more vintage sheets before the swap in July! 

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Progress Pic ~ Charlotte's Coin Quilt.


I spent every spare moment, (plus a few that weren't so spare ;-) ) machine quilting this weekend, Charlotte's quilt is now up to the tying the ends in part, which will be followed by a spot of hand quilting! It looks absolutely fantastic, even if I do say so myself!! Though I will admit to having a heck of a time with my walking foot, until I gave up on it completely and switched to the standard foot for my machine, I didn't have any issues with the fabric puckering after that though, which I thought was odd! You would think it would be the other way around!




And an awwww moment, all four girls dressed neatly with hair done at the same time! All wearing the beautiful Blossom hair clips that the lovely Jess sent to us.
Just for my own future reference, and in case any one was wondering, from left to right:
Laura 4 yrs 4 months, Jocelyn 18 months, Imogene 7 years 4 months and Charlotte 8 years 11 months.
(give or take a couple of days)

Friday, June 4, 2010

Sewing for boys.........


Or more likely in this house, Sewing for a man!, Actually this is the first time I've sewn anything for Mark, I finally convinced him of his need for a pair of "mummy make Pj pants", except that sounds a bit wrong, I think we will call them "wife made"!
I used the "Pajama's for Everyone" Pattern from "Weekend Sewing" by Heather Ross. I settled on the large size, but didn't have quite enough fabric for the length so I chopped 3" off the bottom of the legs, and was intending to add a cuff after Mark tried them on, I'll mention here that Mark is approx. 6'4", so in no way even average sized,  When he tried them on, It was obvious that a quick Hem and no length put back on, would finish them!


I cut two pair out at the same time, the other pair are the same just in a green camo. Surprisingly Mark loves them, says they are comfy, and is even wearing them to bed! I think he is a little chuffed to finally have something I've made all for himself! Can you see Miss Laura in the above photo? she thought it was terribly unfair that I was taking photo's of Daddy without her in them!!

Thank you all for the advice on my last post, I've done some test quilting, and settled on a Pale pink for the front and white for the bobbin, and if I do say so myself, it is looking awesome!!! I can't wait to show it off!!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Quilt Sandwich. and a question!


Last night I finally got around to laying out, and sandwiching Charlotte's quilt.


Pin basted, and ready to go.


I'm going to quilt it with wobbly lines running vertically, but not evenly spaced, except for around the applique's and a couple of other spots, which I am planning on hand quilting. 

Now for the question, What colour thread should I be using? I'm tossing up between, pale pink, pale green, white, or a variagated pink, what do you think? or something else entirely?