So, I've been busily sewing....

At the risk of sounding like a trashy 1980s style souvenir t-shirt (you know the ones: my grandma went to Singapore and all I got was this lousy t-shirt), but I have to say it: I've been sewing like a crazy woman and all I've got to show for it is a few lousy blog photos because it's all for other people!

My daughter's school held its annual fete recently which took an enormous amount of time and effort before the day in terms of organising, selling raffle tickets let alone on the actual day. I was the stall co-ordinator for my daughter's class, and we were allocated the second hand clothing stall so I spent about 3 months lugging home bags of donated clothes from school to sort, wash and store in a large pile in my sewing room. The fete was a huge success though - we made nearly $60,000 and my stall made nearly $900 which is a great result and will go towards installing air conditioning in all our classrooms, upgrading computers and replenishing the library. All things you would think the government would provide (it's a public school) but they don't.

Being a little too quick to volunteer my sewing talents, I ended up hemming tablecloths, making drawstring bags and sewing bunting. Oh the bunting! It took way longer to make than I could ever have imagined:

That's about 70 metres of bunting altogether. The actual sewing of triangles to the bias tape wasn't the longest bit, but cutting out all those triangles and sewing them together took many, many hours. Luckily it looked great, we can reuse it next year and all the fabric I used from stash to make it (about 8m) has now balanced out a recent on-line fabric purchase binge!

Next up I offered to make Anna and her friends matching t-shirts for the sports carnival that was scheduled for last Thursday. Her school decided to have a retro themed sports carnival (in the early years it's all about fun and not competition) so I thought a 1970s style raglan t-shirt worn with some sweatbands would be extremely funny in a cute way. Unfortunately the sports carnival was postponed until mid July due to bad weather, but I did finish all these t-shirts:

I used Kwik Sew 2893 (now OOP) which is just a basic tshirt pattern but is drafted really well (all the notches lined up and the pattern piece for the neckband was spot on) and the sizing of the pattern is quite accurate which in itself is somewhat amazing for a child sewing pattern. I made sizes small and medium for 6 and 7 year old kids and all the tshirts fit very well.

I thought the curved hems, and contrasting sleeves and neckbinding were very retro. The different colours are for their different teams. The lettering on the front is made from iron on transfer paper and each t-shirt has their name and year of birth which the kids thought was very cool so the effort was worth it, even if I ended up making these really quickly for no reason.

Finally I had to make an emergency pair of pyjamas for Anna. Anna's school was holding a wear your pyjamas to school day to raise money for some good cause, and it wasn't until the night before that I realised that Anna has had a spectacular growth spurt and all of her pyjamas were way too short. And here's where the value of having a large stash of fabrics and patterns really proves it worth: I was able to dig out a lovely soft piece of pink check flannelette and some textured knit (like the fabric used for spencers) and made a simple pair of pants and raglan tee using the same Kwik Sew pattern again since it was still out on my cutting table:

Pyjama disaster averted, more fabric used from the stash and all done in about the same amount of time it would have taken me to to get to the shops!

So now that's all over and done with, I can get back to my regular sewing projects. I have a blazer for myself about 85% done which I want to finish very soon and I do need to get cracking on my June and July Burda projects because if I let that get too far behind I'm sure I'll never catch up again. Hopefully I have something more exciting to share next time I post

Ahoy me hearties!

Who would have thought that throwing a birthday party for a four year old would be so much work? Especially when it was a joint party with two other friends so we were able to share the load.  I think I've been spending far too much time on Pinterest and I became overloaded with awesome ideas - and being an overachieving crafty type I then tried out too many!

We decided to have a pirate themed party, which of course required pirate costumes.  For the birthday girl I made her a girly version of a pirate costume:

I made the top from some white broderie anglaise cotton that I had in the stash leftover from a previous project, using Kwik Sew 3665 which I've used before and so it sewed up in about 30 minutes.  It looks pretty and summery so it will have a life beyond the pirate costume:

And because this is Anna we're talking about, she had to have a twirly skirt for her version of a pirate costume, so I made a quarter circle skirt from Burda 11/07 #134 - sure it's just a simple circle skirt but it was easier to trace a pattern than to do the maths to draft my own circle skirt!  The polyester I used has been sitting in my stash for a long time and probably should have been chucked a long time ago because it was so nasty that it made my machine spew forth cotton and skip stitches when stitching. It's a relief to get it out of the stash - the scraps went straight into the bin!

I also made a little red cotton vest from a vintage pattern, Butterick 6489 by making the jacket pattern without the cap sleeves, which she wore for about  30 minutes on the day and refused to put it back on even for photos, so that was a good use of my time!

Since us mums did all the work in getting the party done, we decided the dads could also dress up and be in charge of the party games.  In an attempt to embarrass my husband as much as possible, I made his costume matchy matchy with Anna's.  I took one of his old white business shirts and cut off the collar and cuffs, and then sewed some narrow elastic around the sleeve edges to puff the shirt sleeves up.  I made him a matching red vest from Burda 1/2011 #148 which is actually the bolero vest from the snake charmers costume in the magazine - I never thought I would use one of the crazy carnival costume patterns in Burda but I guess there is a first time for everything. 

Burda 1/2011 #148

Worn with an eye patch and black bandanna, a red sash around the waist plus a pair of his black shorts, this is how he looked:

Unfortunately for me not much fazes my husband and he wasn't embarrassed in the slightest - in fact when I told him I wanted to take his photo for my blog he grabbed that scooter and hammed it up for the camera!

But the sewing and craftiness didn't stop there, damn you Pinterest and all those over the top parties I pinned in earnest! I made 30 eye patches from felt and elastic for the guests:

Then I made 30 'telescopes' from cardboard tubes painted black with bits of corrugated cardboard and gold paper strips with drawn on screws glued on (although I think some of these were used as swords on the day):

And then I also made 30 drawstring bags made from a really cute cotton poplin in a pirate print bought from Spotlight to keep all these things in:

'take a bag and join our motley crew'

I think it was worth the effort though, the kids seemed to love them and I hope that the little kits live on in some one's dress up box for a while yet instead of the usual mountain of rubbish that gets thrown out right after a party.

We had some pretty cool party food too:

very cool pirate cupcakes, not made by me though!

honeyed popcorn clusters in cups and jelly cups

a birthday cake for each of the birthday kids to save tears at cutting time

My sister made an awesome birthday cake for Anna, totally out of theme but it's what the birthday girl requested:

Of course 30 kids plus their parents wouldn't fit in my modestly sized back yard, so we hired out some space at a local park which meant we had to lug so much stuff there.  We had a jumping castle to help burn off some of that sugar, had a pinata to bust open and a treasure hunt which turned out remarkably well for a bunch of 4 year olds!  The weather caused a bit of stress, with a heatwave on Friday followed by gale force winds on Friday night but Saturday turned out just right, with the temperature cooler and the rain holding off until after the party.

So now it's back to some regular sewing - thank god birthday parties are only once a year! Although this weekend we're off to a 40th birthday party out in the country and it's a 70s theme - let's see if I can find a totally cringeworthy outfit for my husband and see if that embarrasses him!

Suck it up, baby!

I'm glad so many of you agreed with my little rant on the unnecessary repetition of tutorials and it wasn't just me! Although ReadyThreadSew did make a good point - sometimes you do need to read many tutorials before you find the one that clicks for you, so in that regard I suppose it's good there are many out there.  And one of the best thing about the internet is that if you find something that annoys or offends you, just click away.  Or better yet turn off your computer and go outside for some fresh air - something I should do more often!

Anyway, one of Toby's emerging teeth have finally popped through, so he's calmed down and we're having what I imagine is going to be a brief reprieve until the next one comes out.  But the dribble! Still with the dribble by the bucket loads.  The poor little thing had quite a red chin rash which is not a good look, so I decided to pause in my selfish sewing and make him some dribble bibs, also known as bandanna bibs.  For those of you that don't have kids and aren't closely acquainted with baby dribble they are simply triangle bibs that are smaller than regular ones because their sole purpose is to keep the neck and clothes of said baby dry.

I found a really cute sheep print in Spotlight's nursery knits line, which is a cotton knit and just right when backed with some terry towelling from some nappy squares I have loads of but use for other things than nappies since I use modern cloth nappies.  Actually Raewyn if you're still reading, thanks again for the nappies and the Little Squirt hose you gave me when I was preggers with Anna - they are still being used in our house and have proved to be a very useful gift.

So after my rant about unnecessary tutorials, I wouldn't dare offer one for making these! Really, it's just two triangles sewn together with a couple of snaps on the end, so a tutorial really isn't necessary, but if you don't have ready access to a child and would like to make some of these (I think they would be a really good gift along with the standard burp cloth and receiving blanket) here are the dimensions I used:

The dimensions I used (it it's not clear above: 40cm for the long edge around the neck, 27cm long for the other two sides and a height of 17cm from the point to the neck edge) fit a chubby 8 month old with some extra room so it should fit for some time yet to come.

If you wanted to get really fancy, The Purl Bee has a tutorial for a fancy schmancy double layer bandanna bibs that are really pretty.  I however prefer to keep these things quick and simple, given they are destined to become grubby and be discarded eventually.  And doesn't Toby look pretty happy with his?

Just a reminder to anyone in Sydney that sews, blogs, or just reads blogs about sewing that we're having a meet up next Saturday (17 Nov edit: 24 Nov), kicking off at 12.30pm at Tessuti's Surry Hills store.  I got a little too excited about it and thought it was on today - I realised it just after my husband went out with the two kids on his own for the first time, so I had quite the productive and peaceful afternoon.  My husband was a bit tired when he got home, but after 8 months it was about time I think!

Getting crafty

Thank you all so much for the many and varied suggestions for inducing labour naturally - I knew all of you knowledgeable ladies would come up with some gems.  I have completely ruled out taking any castor oil, haven't been able to track down cohosh of any colour from the health stores in my local area and will ask the ob about a stretch and sweep at my appointment tomorrow. LinB - I don't even know what a wagon tongue is, let alone where I would find one in the middle of Sydney!  And don't laugh Trina, but I have tried walking with one foot on the road and one foot on the kerb (apparently the unevenness gets the pelvis rocking in the right way).  And as far as I know in Australian grammar kerb = the bit between the road and the footpath, curb = to reduce something, eg we all wish we could curb our addiction to fabric stashing.

In the meantime I had a massage which left me with bruises because the therapist was pressing so hard on the pressure points, had another acupuncture session where the acupuncturist stated that I may just be one of those rare people whose body will 'never' go into labour naturally, had my hair cut, had a manicure and pedicure and am keeping up with the walking.  I'm taking evening primrose oil capsules both orally and blush internally because I've read it softens the cervix.  I've been doing really deep squats (Hindi squats) and been on hands and knees cleaning like crazy, plus you can't wipe the smile off my husband's face at the moment - I'd say he'd be happy if this went on for another week! So surely there is nothing left for me to do but wait and wait.

I have conceded to my extremely pregnant state though, and have been resting more instead of sewing.  As much as I want to be sewing I am just finding standing at the cutting table, and getting up from the sewing machine to the overlocker to the ironing board just too much for my back and hips.  But since I have some form of craftiness ADHD I can't just sit on the lounge and watch crappy tv, I have to keep my hands busy.

Anna's daycare had an easter hat parade today, and we were asked to make an easter hat with our child at home. Pffft, as if a 3 year old could craft anything other than a red hot mess so sadly the crafty competitive streak took over and I made the whole thing.  But I wasn't the only parent that did this! I took this rather sad looking straw hat that used to belong to my grandfather:

and spraypainted it white.  It's a genuine Akubra hat which are an Aussie icon and really expensive, but this one had definitely seen better days and since it had a price tag of only $4.50 from David Jones it must be at least 30 or 40 years old so I didn't feel too bad about painting it.  Plus I don't know how my grandad wore this hat, must have been perched on top of his head because I remember him having a big round head and this hat was so small it fit Anna perfectly!

Then I jazzed it up with some rabbits, ric rac and ribbon, and some jangly rabbit shaped bells hanging off the edge of the brim and Anna now has a hat she wants to wear "everywhere":

And I've also spent far more time than I care to admit making little 'homes' for Anna's (latest) favourite toys:

I quite like these fairy dolls, because although they are Disney products there is a certain innocence about fairies but much like lego pieces they really really hurt your feet when you stand on them in the middle of the night because 3 years olds never put away their stuff.  So from some shoebox lids cut down to size, some pictures printed out from clipart, Japanese washi tape (love that stuff!) and some other crafty bits and pieces I created these display boxes for the fairies to go into:

Success - Anna takes them out to play but she always puts them in the boxes when she's done.  And even better, I've hung these above her bed so she has been spending a bit of time playing quietly in her bedroom on her own, leaving me to have a cup of tea in peace.

I wish I could claim credit for this bit of crafty brilliance, but I was heavily inspired by these gorgeous matchbox size ones I saw over at Craft & Creativity, which is a beautifully photographed and genius craft blog with a lovely Swedish aesthetic to it.

Aren't they cute? But seriously, crafty stuff like this takes way longer than sewing and Anna now thinks that every time she comes home from daycare that I've spent the day making something for her.  I hope she has develops her own crafty gene soon.....

All the best intentions....

As I said in my last post, I had so much I wanted to get done for Christmas this year but I only managed in the end to get a little done. Oh well, the good thing about Christmas is that the next one is only 12 months away....

I did get all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped, travel plans arranged and booked (no chance of snow related delays here) so the major things are ticked off and all is well. But this year I wanted to get more into the Christmas spirit now that Anna is cottoning on to what it's all about, and I did want to make some child friendly Christmas decorations for the tree, using this tutorial:

*image from retro-mama.blogspot.com

I bought some blue and white felt, dug out some buttons from the stash but this is as far as I got:

Hmmm, maybe I'll finish them for next year! In the meantime, unbreakable baubles from Ikea came to the rescue.

I also planned to make some wristlet style zippered purses for the carers at Anna's daycare centre instead of giving the standard chocolates or gift box of sweet smelling toiletries of which they must get heaps. Wristlets are very simple to make and there are loads of tutorials out there like this one. I went through my stash and pulled out some pretty fabrics, linings, zippers and even embellishments and this is what I came up with:

Success you might be thinking? Well sort of - I think these two are gorgeous, but I was planning to make seven of these! I ran out of energy and time to make any more, so instead went and bought seven boxes of chocolates. Life is too short to spend time sewing for people you are not sure will like what you've made. I think I'll give these two to my mum and sister instead.

This is starting to sound like another 'oh dear' post isn't it? But wait, there's more! When I'm away from my sewing machine and fabric I still have to keep my fingers busy, so I get into papercraft in a big way. Seriously, in my office I quite the collection of origami since I like to fold paper when I'm stressed or bored (beats mediation) and I have access to an endless amount of paper in the office. I found these cute paper partridges in little bird cage decorations available for free download at this site. All you have to do is print, cut out and glue, and you should get this:

But I only managed to make two from the eight I printed (I was making these at home and two year olds + paper = disaster), and even those two look a bit, well, if I'm being honest, crap:

And my final best but failed intention: I bought a gingerbread house kit from Ikea because I knew I wouldn't have the time to bake gingerbread as well as assemble and decorate one. All I can say is thankfully the kit has an expiry date of August 2012, so there's always next year!

I did manage to get a little Christmas frock done for Anna in time for Christmas (no less!). It's just a simple a-line shift dress that is fast becoming my TNT pattern (McCalls 5916) for her since I've made it several times before.

My very talented photographer friend Vanessa and I set up a Christmassy photo shoot to take some photos of our kids and we tried so hard to get them all smiling or at all least looking in the same direction but it was absolute chaos to say the least. There were a few funny photos to come out of it though!

Merry christmas everyone, hope you have a lovely holiday season. Thank you all for reading along with me this year, and leaving wonderfully supportive, helpful and funny comments. I'll be back in the new year.

*Yes that is my christmas tree, minus any handmade decorations.