The Sally Dress

It has been a bit since I last blogged - I've been feeling like rubbish and so sewing has taken a back step unfortunately, while I nap on the sofa while zbl has her daytime sleep.  We've also had some unseasonably hot weather recently which has meant the sewing and computer area are like a sauna - not the place to be when you're feeling below par!

Anywho, enough blathering on about that, I'll be fine soon enough and Christmas is coming so my list of sewing has increased and I'd better get on to it!

In the mean time, here is the lovely dress I made to go with the fabulous Anna Cape by Big Little.

This is the Sally Dress. (Please excuse the individual pictures, our computer crashed recently (all my bookmarks - gone!) and all the software hasn't yet been installed by the fixer guy - ie tl) On another note - I took these pics a while back, and I swear she's grown another 2 or 3 cm since then!

Sew details:
Pattern: The Sally Dress by Very Shannon - I got this pattern as part of my Sewing Rabbit Pattern Membership - I made up a size 3T without sleeves.
Fabric: A lovely strawberry printed cotton from (surprise, surprise) Spotlight.
Other stuff: This is a lovely pattern to make up. You make up the bodice completely and there is a bit of that fabric origami required to get the shoulder seams to sit nicely, but the instructions are very clear on how to do this.  I think the pattern calls for 1.5m of fabric, and I had 1m, so I had to do a little bit of pattern laying origami myself and also reduce some of the bulk out of the skirt, but overall I think it looks lovely and nice and twirly - when zbl works that one out!
Because the bodice is fully lined there are no scratchy bits, which is important and the dress was really very popular and I was allowed to take pictures without having to show them all to the model for approval!!
I am hoping by having made a size 3, we might be able to wear this one for a couple of years, or at least a couple of seasons with layers.
I really enjoyed sewing this up, and have since made another one for a little friend who turned 2 - who also approves!

In other sewing activities - I made up one of these for my Mum, she loves it, altho it is huge (it is a OSFA) but she thinks it is super comfy so doesn't care :-)

So next thing on the list is a pair of hudson pants for myself, that I got through the most recent Pattern Parcel (worth signing up for their emails, as they do have some really good bunches of patterns) and a Christmas dress for zbl using this fabric - yes, amazingly I bought some fabric from somewhere other than Spotlight!

UPDATED next things - I'm participating in Ros's Sweet Pouch Swap - Christmas Edition which is very exciting, and also very nerve wracking - I have so many ideas for what I would like to do, but can I get them done in time, and will my swappie like them - only time will tell!

A Big Little Anna Cape Pattern Review

I was lucky enough recently to get to pattern test the "Anna Cape" for Lisa from Big Little.

zbl has not cottoned onto Frozen yet, but my sister is an Anna by name and nature, so it was lovely to try this out.  Also, as it is coming into summer here, having something to cover her shoulders will be great.

Lisa originally made her pattern up with a woolen outer and a lovely cotton lining, but gave us free reign to make it how we wished.  Since we are moving into a warmer time of the year, I decided to make a light weight one instead and chose the green based on the fabulous coloured pompom trim I found.

Sew details:
Pattern: The Anna Cape by Big Little - I made up a size 3T.
Fabric: The outer is a lovely cotton lawn, and the lining is a cotton broderie anglaise with strawberries on it :-). The fabric, pompom trim, ribbon on the collar and button for covering came from (surprise, surprise) Spotlight.
Other stuff: This is a super easy pattern to make up.  The instructions are so spot on too - the only suggestion I had was to mention when ironing to be careful of the pompom fringe (cos I may have melted the odd bit of mine - whoops!)  Lisa recommends a frog clasp for this cape, but since I couldn't find one to match my colour scheme I used a covered button. I used this tutorial to make my covered button, although I didn't have any tools, I just used the back of  a marker pen that had a hole in the bottom, and this seemed to work ok.

zbl really enjoyed wearing this especially with her new dress - I'll blog about this soon.

Overall a very enjoyable sew, and a great pattern and it has sizes from newborn all the way to 10 (my sister has requested one, so I might have to see what I can do to make it a bit bigger :-)).  If you would like to buy this pattern - and you should! Lisa is having a discount until the 31st October 2014 to celebrate the launch.  To get this 15% off, enter the code: ANNA15 at the checkout.

Yay!

I did it, fist pump! KCW Fall 2014, tick!

So there is quite a lot of self back patting going on here at recently!

I decided I would produce something for Kids Clothing Week Fall 2014, and I actually did it on time and kind of within budget! (I did have to buy some lining fabric and notions). 

Obviously in this neck of the woods we're in Spring, but it is still a transitional season, so I'm hoping what I've made thus far will be useful in Autumn too.

KCW this time round has a theme - storybook, which is very cool, but also made me feel kind of ahhhh, how do I still make what I want and have it a bit themey!

Well little did I know this theme would actually be the making of this project!  

I have finally started making a list of all the things I want to make and some kinds of deadlines, so I don't completely jump here and there, and then totally miss out on a season or a birthday or the likes.
Anywho, on this list for zbl was a vest, to wear over a couple of layers to keep warm on the way to places in the morning but not to get her all sweaty by the time we get there.

Anyway, long winded explanation for the Huntsmaidan vest. (self styled for this photo shoot with these pants, and her best yellow gummies!)

Inspired by Snow White and the Huntsman (it's a long bow I know, but...)

Sew details:
Pattern: This is a mash up of the Reversible Zippy Hoodie and a bit of self drafting (the collar and the welted pockets)
Fabric: This vest is made with corduroy - yes sis, corduroy! with a lovely cotton lining. Both are from trusty Spotlight.
Other stuff: As I said above this is a mash up - the front and back pieces come from the  Reversible Zippy Hoodie that I have made before. I drafted the stand up collar based on these pieces and I think it works quite nicely. I also made welted pockets for the first time - whoop, whoop!  And look how pretty they turned out - I should admit here that I only photographed the one that was perfect and not the dodgy one with the slightly unmatching welt.

I used this tutorial from the lovely and exceedingly talented Poppy Kettle to learn how to do it, and they seemed to work out just as she described!  To make the pockets, I cut out a couple of rectangles of each fabric with the width for the welt and the facing and the facing being a bit longer so to give a deeper pocket.  Let's just say these pockets are a hit with zbl marching around the garden with her hands stuffed in them this afternoon.  I also found this great looking collection of tutorials on 10 different kinds of pockets which I will use for future projects.

The other thing I did was to pop some buttonhole elastic in the back and make a casing for it to sit in so it gathers at the back a bit.  I decided buttonhole elastic as I made it up as a 4T length, in the hope it might last for a while, but gave it some shape so it wasn't too boxy.  I popped a couple of buttons inside it and drew it up a bit, and these can be loosened off as she gets bigger.  The armholes are probably a bit too big right now, and if I was to make this again, I would reduce these slightly, but overall I am very happy with the result and the model thinks it is ok too!

Anywho, I am so pleased that I got something up for KCW, and even more pleased when I realised this goes for 7 days and not just 5, so I can whip up some slightly speedier, less thinking about things that she also needs, like summer pj's :-) Yay!

I also just realised while editing this post, that it has been a year since I started this blog.  I have in that time written 12 posts (shocking), collected no followers or comments (also shocking), but had a lot of fun doing it - and that is the main thing!

Still further back in time - a Recess Raglan

So yes, I have been sewing some stuff recently, but some of it is pattern testing which is not quite ready for release yet, and I am actually forcing myself to do a wee bit of self back patting that I did actually do some creative stuff since March!

So we delve further back into the photo archive to the first sewing project I completed in 2014 - in July - shocking!

I eased myself back into sewing with a simple raglan t shirt for zbl.

Sew details:
Pattern: This is the Recess Raglan that I have blogged about before.
Fabric: The star fabric is a knit I got from trusty Spotlight and the white is some lycra from the stash.
Other stuff: This is a very simple sew and because I was using some firmer weight knit and lycra it behaved nicely.  The toughest thing about this was appliqueing the star on the front. I ended up popping a bit of the stuff I trace my patterns on to to stabilise it and then cut the excess off, which seemed to work well.  

I made up a 3T to give room for growth and altho it is a bit big, she quite liked it and we have worn it a few times. It needs to get back into rotation after having to get a bit of  extra washing TLC after a run in with something chocolate.

I should say this outfit is self styled, she was already wearing the pants, but added the shoes, beanie and ukulele to make a slightly grunge rocker 2 year old.

The (not quite) Reversible Zippy Hoodie

Oh my goodness it is cold today - after being 33°C on Sunday it is 14°C here today - but that is spring for you!

Speaking of brrrr, a while back I made my girl a hooded sweatshirt/jacket to get her through winter (and this spring!) and hopefully some of next winter, altho she is growing like a weed, so I might have been being hopeful.

Sew details:

Pattern: Reversible Zippy Hoodie that I think I got as part of a pattern bundle a million years ago (or probably last year)
Fabric: The outer fabric says its a Platinum Fleece (what I would call sweat shirting) that I got at trusty Spotlight becos I knew that zbl would love the foxes on it. The lining was an old Mr Vintage t-shirt that I got for tl, that he never wore, so it was in perfect condition, and the orange went with the outside nicely.
Other Stuff: This is a very clever pattern, you basically make up the outer and the inner hoodies and then sew them together with the cuffs and zip and turn them out through a wee hole in the side seam of your inner hoodie.  There is a little bit of sewing origami (a saying I've pinched from someone but I can't remember who!) but it makes for a very neat sew up.  The only thing I did differently - and this was largely becos I thought I knew what I was doing so didn't consult the instructions - was to attach the hood to the outer and inner pieces before joining it together, whereas the patter calls for the hood pieces to be joined together and then sewn to the rest of the body (if that makes sense).  I think this is so that the body pieces are not completely separate aside from the joins at the cuffs and zip.  I fixed this by topstitching around the neckline at the end when I topstitched along the zip, over the hood and along the other zip side.  I also didn't put pockets in it becos I am lazy, but I really must do this more becos she does love them.  Additionally this isn't reversible becos the zip is not reversible, but honestly a white outer on a 2 and a bit year old would be a nightmare for my washing lady (yes that's me), so not a big deal!
I made a 3T, so to hopefully last longer than 5 minutes (as mentioned above), but with a 2T arm as she seems to have her fathers dinosaur arms rather than my Mr Tickle ones.

I think I'll use this pattern again to make her a sleeveless version for this lovely inclement weather we're having, but maybe with a collar rather than a hood, I'd better get on to it before summer hits (which could be this weekend based on the weather forecast!)

Oh yes, and here is the model in her favourite jacket, on the train with tl to Mexfest at Fed Square.

Going back further in time

So, I've just consulted my trusty phone pics to see what else I've made "recently" (meaning in 2014!) and found the next thing on the list is the Mara Blouse.

The weather is still getting warmer here, so zbl hasn't worn this yet, so just on the hanger photos:

Sew details:
Pattern: The Mara Blouse
Fabric: I upcycled two of tl's old business shirts to make this wee blouse.  The cutting out was great, the sewing up not so much, which I was quite surprised about.  The plain coloured fabric particularly made me think my sewing machine needed a service, which it probably does, but the next thing I sewed definitely did not create such clanking and stitch missing as this one did!
Other Stuff: I love Marte's patterns (I've made one before), they are always so beautifully put together, and packed with great instructions. They also allow for so much personalisation, be it colour, adding piping or bling, or changing things to suit your style.  For this one I used some store bought bias binding to make a faux piping around the yoke, to match the buttons which I think really makes it pop.  I used the side sections of the shirts for the front and back sections to have a seam up the middle, and this cool panel called a hem gusset (please excuse the fuzzy picture).

Because the front seams were french seams, I thought I should carry on the trend and french the side and arm seams too, and then top stitch them down to keep them flat.

For the arms I used the end of the arms of the shirt so they open with a placket.  I made some bias using the plain blue shirt and elasticated the binding slightly to gather it on cuff, and finished it with a button and loop, like on the front - I need to take a picture of this to show you.

All in all a very fulfilling sew up.  Hopefully zbl likes it!

BTW - Marte has just released a new pattern - the Charles Pants - which I am totally going to buy once I have completed a few more projects.

Long time, no hear - part II

So, where were we?, Christmas I think.

As you can imagine once the fierce sewing fest prior Christmas finished, I did nothing crafty at all - it was lovely to take a break, smell the roses, read books and lounge about as I am want to do when we're home (in NZ) for a break.  Probably the most creative things I did over that time were to help put up tents and stuff a whole lamb to popped on a spit - which incidentally was delicious - I must check if I have a picture somewhere and I'll add it here.

When we got home from the Christmas break Melbourne weather turned fierce - what seemed like weeks of over 38°C temperatures over the day, dropping to ~24°C over night if we were lucky.  Needless to say the air con was going all the time (thank goodness I had the forethought to put some in the bedrooms in November before the heat wave.  Crafting and cooking were put aside as my sewing table is on a mezzanine floor above the kitchen (so gets quite warm despite air con and fans going steadily) and the last thing I was going to do was turn on the oven and counteract the air con! I spent my days thinking of creative ways to make dinner that didn't involve heat (much easier said than done with a 17 month old who at the time was not remotely interested in salad or veges of any kind!) And watching tv under the blanket directly under the air con unit - ridiculous how cold it gets when you sit there!)

zbl & I also spent a bit of time in shopping malls organising her a bit of a winter wardrobe - I know I should have been making it myself, but read the bit above about the heat wave!  Winter wardrobe in the middle of a heat wave - what the???

So on Feb 8th, we headed off on a month long adventure to Shanghai.  tl's work required that he spend a bit of time there to get some traction for some work he was doing, and additionally we will most likely (95%) be moving here in the near future, so it was an opportunity for us to see the city and see what we thought!

So we went from a heat wave (I think it was about 26°C when we left for the airport at 7am in the morning) to snow - I think it was a max of 4°C on the first day we got here - hence the winter wardrobe requirements :-)

I just remembered I did make something for zbl, I made her some mittens - which she wore and wore and wore, which is awesome as I thought that most likely she would just take them straight off! Having said that she is a practical wee thing sometimes, and she recognises the benefits when her hands were warm inside them and cold outside them!

So what have I been doing while I've been here, to keep me busy rather than spending all nap times watching tv, reading blogs and playing hay day?

When I was in Auckland for Christmas, I mentioned to the aunties that I was going to teach myself to crochet, so my lovely Auntie Ann taught me some basic stitches right there on the spot - very easy and very quick too!  So I brought over a few balls of wool and had a go at making some basic granny squares.

I am quite pleased with how they turned out - I really should have got more done, but never mind!  As you can see, two of them are bog standard 5 row granny squares (I went and had a look here to remind myself what Auntie Ann had taught me), the one in the middle is called a bulls eye square and I found out how to make it through pinterest (of course) from this lovely tutorial.

Now that I have the basics down, I need to make something a bit larger - my sister sent me this link which looks entirely doable, now I just need to decide on the colours!

Anywho, zbl & I are heading back to Melbourne this evening on an overnight flight, so wish me luck with getting a (now) 19 month old to sleep not in a bed for a decent amount of time (the flight is nearly 11 hours) so she wakes up and feels like she can face a full day (we get back at 10am Melbourne time).

Long time no hear!

where the bleep are you? I hear myself asking myself (honestly the internal convos I have!). As I suspected I started this off with a hiss and a roar and then silence.... Sorry about that!

So what have I been up to for the last (refer to last post) 4 months!

Well lets see, Mum came to visit in November so we went fabric shopping (as you do).  We went to the usual (Spotlight), but also trekked over to the fabric store in Brunswick to cash in a percent off voucher I got in my the craft sessions goodie bag.  Oh my goodness that place is lovely and dangerous due to the loveliness!
Beautiful silks and merinos and cottons and voile's and lovely things that all wanted to jump in my bag! So indulge I did but not so much that we were on vegemite sandwiches for the rest of the week (phew!)

Here is a pic of the loveliness.

So what do we have in this delicious pile? Starting from the bottom there is a cotton sateen, that I'm thinking a wiksten tank, the next one is a lovely Marc Jacobs cotton lycra that will either be a couple of t-shirts for zbl or a wee dress for her.  The stripes is a nice piece of merino that I made into a t-shirt for tl for christmas - I took a pattern from one of his favourite t-shirts. I'm really pleased to say the t-shirt has been worn several times! The next three lovely pieces of fabric are silks, the mushroom one went in a christmas parcel for my sister, the aqua can go into the stash and the white and navy will be made into a top of some sort.  I'm looking forward to sewing these things altho I'm a bit nervous about the silks. I shall have to do some research.

So that was November, much thinking, not much doing other than having a fun time hanging out with my Mum :-).

December is always a busy month for me - I have so many ideas, and it is nice when most of them come together, like they seemed to this year!

We had our annual ham fest - any excuse for another ham and pav  - yum!

I also made some things too! I made a wiksten tank for my sister using some cotton fabric I bought at Spotlight. It was far easier to cut, iron and sew than the polyester I used for my muslin.  Incidentally, Mum liked the muslin version so much I made one for her too, it was still a pain to cut, iron and sew!

The next thing I made and finished at M&D's was this gorgeous wee dress for the daughter of a friend.

Sew details:
Pattern: The Louisa Dress
Fabric: This lovely fabric is a cotton drill from the usual suspect - Spotlight.  It was the perfect weight for this dress, it hung nicely and sewed up very easily.
Other stuff: I learnt so many new things in sewing this dress. I did my first invisible zip - which turned out pretty well I think - I'm looking forward to using my invisible zip foot to do the next one; I had to make my own piping as the local fabric store didn't have any (weird!); I also had to install the piping, which I have always avoided as it looked too hard - it is not the easiest thing to do, but the results look great, and the more you do the better it looks - if you were to look at the front pocket you would see that is where I started.
The pattern was very easy to follow and sew up, and Marte has excellent links to all the various tutorials for the different ways of popping in zips etc.

The last little thing I made for Christmas was zbl's christmas day outfit.

Sew details:
Pattern: I made her a wee romper using a pillowcase romper pattern - I can't remember which one tho!  I'm sure if you google pillowcase romper and there will be heaps to help you out.
Fabric: a quilting weight cotton with wee gingerbread men on it! It worked really well for the billowing.
Other stuff: this was a very quick sew, cutting out and sewing took less than an hour which is very speedy for me, especially given it required me to do shirring which I had never done before.
I should have popped some snaps on the bottom to make for easy nappy changing, however as this was finished at the last minute, so I just sewed up the bottom, and we undid the straps to get at what we needed to :-)
I should say the photo above was self styled - zbl added her own beads, and I think she might be a wee fashionista in the making - which is exciting, cos she can help me out when she gets bigger :-)

Right, this post is now huge, so I will stop here and post - hopefully the next post will be less than 4 months from now!

KCW .... a couple of weeks late

So I had fully intended on actually making zbl a couple of things during kid clothes week a couple of weeks ago, but life got away on me.  I had to make one of these for a friends birthday:

 A banana cake with with white chocolate and lemon icing using the icing from this cake as a base.

I have to say it was quite tasty, and the icing was lovely! And even better was that altho half the cake got left at my place, I managed to avoid most of it and while I was away at the craft sessions the cake eating fairy disposed of it for me - so kind :-)

I also had to do a bit of selfish sewing - I thought why not test out the the wiksten tank that everyone is talking about. This is what it turned out like:

Sew details :
Pattern: the wiksten tank
Fabrics: a pretty polyester that I picked from the sales table at Spotlight.  It was horrible to cut out and horrible to sew, but this was my muslin, so I know that I will make it from something with a bit more structure next time.
Other stuff: I cut out a large, based on measurements, but ended up taking the side seams in to probably a medium to remove some of the gap.  I think I'll still cut out a large next time, as the fit on the shoulders an neckline is good.  The armholes are not actually wonky as they look in the pic, it's just the dratted fabric again.

I also make this cake (no pic I'm sorry) which is delicious and definitely is on the list to make again - a great way to use up soft apples and I didn't bother with the glaze although I'm sure it would be delicious.

However I did make a couple of things for zbl last week, so here they are:

Sew details :
Pattern: the figgy's banyan tunic (this is the same pattern we used to make our t-shirts at the craft sessions.
Fabrics: the same cotton jersey that I used to make tl's pj pants. It was lovely to sew although the machine did have the odd conniption, but that could be because I managed to ding my jersey needle on a pin so it is probably not as sharp as it should be :-)
Other stuff: The pattern is super easy to cut out and use.  I have to admit I didn't actually follow the instructions very much as I'd made it a week before, the only difference being the lovely handkerchief points that I had to sew, cut and sew again cos I didn't really measure and didn't get my angles right - whoops!

zbl has already worn this out to lunch and the lovely hostess commented on how much she liked it, which was nice as all tl can see when she's wearing it is his pajamas - no imagination!  It was a tad tight, but she was wearing two layers under it since summer is here today, but probably gone tomorrow!  Regardless I think I'll make a 2T for the next one.

Sew details :
Pattern: This is the recess raglan that I bought as part of this bundle (yay! I'm actually using one :-))
Fabrics: This is a cotton knit that I got from (you guessed it) Spotlight.  It was much firmer than the one above and so was a dream to sew.  I should have used a ribbing for the neck, but all the ribbing I have didn't really go (might necessitate another trip?) so I just used the same fabric and make the neck piece much longer to allow more stretch over the noggin (she is in the 95th percentile for head, so this is important)
Other stuff:  This again was a very quick sew up, I made it in one of her naps.  I'm assuming the instructions are good as again I didn't really used them (naughty!)
She hasn't worn it yet, so I am hoping it fits over her head, it will certainly be wide enough and long enough.

And that is a wrap, next thing on the list is a dress I need to sew up that has been cut out since I was 6 months pregnant - whoops, and also some bubble shorts, cos summer is coming baby - which reminds me I must call the air con guys again.

An amazing weekend away

I was lucky enough to spend this weekend in the Yarra Valley with a bunch of very crafty ladies at The Craft Sessions.  I heard about this weekend way back in June (or maybe earlier) via Sophie, and immediately thought "I want to go to that!".  After a very short discussion with tl, we both decided it would be great idea - I get a weekend off doing lovely crafty things, and he got a weekend solo parenting - for the first time!  Both of us were really looking forward to it - the only thing that needed to happen was to wean zbl.  Fortunately for me, she didn't seem to mind too much, so a week before hand, she was going to sleep without me having to feed her at bed time! So, off to the The Craft Sessions I went!
After leaving zbl for the first time, one of the hardest things to do was to choose which workshops to go to. In the end I did freeform patchwork and block printing with the lovely Leslie Keating on Saturday and sewing with knits with the lovely Sophie Parslow on Sunday.

So to show you what I actually did while I was there other than eat delicious food and be brave and talk to complete strangers who are now much less so, here are some pics:

 my freeform patchwork block, using loads of Leslie's beautiful scraps

my block printing stamp results - I can't decide if I like the birds or sheep better.

the sewing with knits before shot

all of our creations

and on the model - she seemed to quite like it!

All in all an excellent weekend, I would love to go next year if we're still in these parts.  A special thanks to my roomie Lorelei for being lovely enough not to mention my snoring :-)

It's Kid's Clothes Week this week

And I have signed up - more motivation to get some worth out of all these delicious patterns I keep buying online.

And would you believe it I've already made something for it - ok, so I cheated and made them last week but I'm counting them anyway! Apologies for this pic, I really need to pre-edit the pics, but they probably wouldn't get into the blog.

So/sew details:
Pattern: The big butt baby pants by Made by Rae
Fabric: Printed corduroy that I bought at Spotlight especially.
Other stuff: this pattern is very easy and quick to sew up, this little tute on how to remove the pucker is particularly helpful. I only had 1 inch elastic, so they are just a smidge short in the body.  I have since gone out and bought some 1/2 inch elastic for the next round.  The pattern goes up to a 2T, but I think it will be easily adaptable to bigger sizes if we're still in nappies after that.
I have to say they were very well received, zbl even squealed with delight when she saw them, probably as they are so bright and colourful.
This pattern will get a work out this summer to make some more light weight pants as well as shorts for the hotter days.