what a weekend - 3 handmade gifts and another UFO done!

Well I had a very productive weekend starting and finishing three handsewn gifts for friends, and finishing off a UFO to boot! All this on top of the usual fun and frivolity of housework and washing and going out on Sunday afternoon.

I had a few bevvies and dinner with three close friends on Sunday evening, one of whom I haven't seen for ages and is now pregnant with her first baby. So I wanted to make something special for her to celebrate her pending addition to the family, and I came up with this cute little wrap top, pants and cap, using New Look 6310:

I made it from a lovely soft cotton jersey in a charcoal grey colour with red bias binding trim. I thought this was a gender neutral colour choice, but looking at the finished outfit I think it looks a like a little ninja outfit! It was so simple to make, and the whole outfit took half a day because there are no facings and the sleeves go in flat. A few of the techniques used are different from big people's clothes, such as finishing the hems before sewing the side seams, but I guess this is because it's very hard to get your hands in those small arms and legs to sew in the round!

Next up I made a sleeping / eye mask for a friend after seeing this naughty one from Urban Outfitters that says "F*ck Off" on it, so I thought I would do something equally obnoxious, but tempered by a sweet pink and white colour theme, since my friend is equally sweet and obnoxious (please scroll down really fast if you are easily offended!):

It's made from some pink and white stripe cotton, with white cotton flannel backing and pink lingerie elastic, using the free Marcel template over at Burda Style. The text is just printed on t-shirt transfer paper using a vintage font from the fontdiner. My friend thought it was hilariously funny, so the joke hit the mark!

And because I didn't want my third friend to feel left out, I made her a pair of slippers again from the free Alice pattern also over at Burda Style, from some scraps of lovely soft grey wool flannel with layers of wool melton fabric sandwiched in between for softness. And for durability I used the rubber soles from freebie disposable slippers I picked up at a classy hotel last time I stayed in one. Put on some buttons for decoration and I think they're pretty cute. And so did my friend.

And finally, I wanted something new to wear out, and remembering my promise to myself to finish a UFO for every new garment made, I finally got around to finishing this simple jacket I started at least a year ago:

I orginially wanted this jacket to be a soft and lightweight summer jacket, as the red polka dot fabric is a light brushed cotton, so I lined it with cotton poplin and didn't use much interfacing. But of course that didn't work, because linings need to be slippery to slide over the clothes worn underneath. So I ripped it apart and it became a UFO. But since I love the fabric I decided to finally finish it by interfacing the collar, neck and front facings, sleeve and jacket hems, and lining it with some polyester lining. But I couldn't remember what pattern I used to make this, and I had somehow lost all the facings, so I just made an exact copy of the outer jacket and had the lining go right to the edge. I also used the cotton poplin back lining piece as an underlining to give the body a bit more structure.

And because I knew the lining would show as there are no facings, I used a funky eggplant purple colour lining picked up in the recent Remnant Warehouse sale for $1/m. I haven't put any buttons on it yet 'cos I haven't found any quite right, but I think it's now moved from the UFO category to wearable WIP category (yeah, that exists for me sadly).

Photo credits go to my husband - yes I am standing in the middle of the street but that's so me and the Sydney Harbour bridge can be in the photo, but since this was taken down in the Rocks (a heritage precinct in Sydney) there were brides galore getting their photos taken in random places for that gritty, urban and unexpected kind of scene.