Starting on some warm weather sewing

Time to start sewing for Spring and Summer properly. My toddler urgently needed some warm weather clothes, so I did a couple of quick things to get started.

This dress is Simplicity 5222, but without the elastic at the waist. The method for putting the elastic in the neckline wasn't what I would usually do, but I followed the instructions and was unhappy with the result - too big, and a nuisance to adjust because the elastic is put into each part (front, back and each sleeve) separately, so I had to adjust it in four places to get it smaller. I did it though, as it was pretty bad as it was. This photo is the original - doesn't look as bad here as it did in real life.


And this is adjusted, but here you are only getting the back view - sorry, no clear pic of the difference! What I'm hoping you can see here though is the elastic added to the back. She's reaching up so it's a bit hard to see the shape. The whole thing was too wide, and it was particularly bad at the back, so I added elastic and now the dress is really quite cute, and a bit different. The elastic at the back is a really nice feature.

Fabric is from Heather Ross's Mendocino line. I absolutely love it and wish I had bought miles and miles of it. I'd really like a beach quilt/rug out of it now.

This is another dress that may look the same, but actually has lots of alterations to the pattern to make it a better shape and fit. Fabric this time is Sandy Henderson's.

I've made quite a few hats and this is my favourite so far. I love it and will probably not make any other pattern up for a while, but will make this one over and over. It is from Nicole Mallilieu (hope I spelt that correctly, I'm in a rush). I would definitely recommend the pattern. I've followed quite a few hat patterns, and there were really great tips in her pattern that I've never read before. I love this hat. Not sure who designed the fabric.

Here it is with a matching top. I want a hat to match each of the girls' outfits!!! This top is just a made up pattern peasant top. I love how easy these tops are to sew, how great the look and how comfy they seem to be.

A bit more felting. This was from a kit I purchased from A Toy Garden. Excellent kit, although I did do it a tiny bit differently. I've hung this spring fairy above our spring nature display.

Also made these felted wool balls. I'm extra pleased with them for a few reasons:

*I love how they look

*it used up some wool that I really was hating using for shaping doll heads, so now I can buy the wool I really want for the next doll head

*they were super easy to make

*the main part was done in the washing machine (hot wash) and dryer so I'm not worried at all about them getting dirty, as they can just be washed and dried again by machine

I did the main ball part in the washing machine so it is solidly felted. Then I needle felted on the design. This was quite slow and difficult as the balls were so firmly felted. Then I put the balls back into stockings and back through a wash and dry again to try and get the design more firmly attached. I have three more plain balls to decorate so I'll play with how I get the design onto them.





This is a peasant top for my oldest daughter. Just a super quick sew because she is short of summer clothes.

And here are her new jeans. I should have made them at the beginning of winter as she's been desparately in need of them for ages. Love how they turned out. Ottobre 1/04 #33. The fabric is hemp denim (non-stretch)

When she put them on the first time to wear out, we realised she had no jumper to match, so with 15 minutes before we had to leave I made a quick poncho out of some polar fleece that I have had for ages. I added the hood after we got back home. I think she'll be getting more ponchos to match more outfits (as will the little girls too) as this was such a huge success. She has worn it almost every day since. Quick, easy, convenient (over a jumper if needed, or just over a tee).

I just made up the pattern. Maybe I'll write up a tutorial some time. Let me know if you're interested.

Photo shows it over her new jeans and top.

Made a tee for my son. For almost all tees now I use the Ottobre special pattern pack. It's such a good t-shirt pattern.

Also made myself a tee - cutting up an old baggy style one completely and cutting a new one out of it, but forgot to take a pic so I'll be back with that pic when I get around to posting next.

Birthday season around here, and lots of garden pics

I'll start trying to add in links to books that I use for patterns etc - I love it when I find a good book via someone else's blog, so I should make the effort too.

This is the first birthday crown that I've made - based on the one in the book The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections. It's for my oldest daughter. Wasn't sure if she'd be interested in starting a birthday crown tradition at this stage, but she loved it!
I wanted to add some more traditions to our lives, starting with their birthdays, as I always feel so rushed on their birthdays (particularly on their party days - getting ready for a party and/or visitors) and I felt that with a few nice traditions it would make the day more special and make us all slow down for at least part of the day!

On their birthdays they get to take cupcakes or similar to school to share with the class. Typical of my daughter, she didn't want cupcakes, but chose biscuits instead. Half choc chip biscuits, and half anzac slice. Both are vegan. The place where I use to buy my vegan choc chips closed down so I chopped up a block of choc instead. I'm fussy about choc so it is also organic (couldn't get fair trade, but tried) - I avoid buying chocolate that might come from cocoa that has been grown at a plantation that has child slaves.

My choc chip cookie recipe is from this book: Vive Le Vegan!: Simple, Delectable Recipes for the Everyday Vegan Family, by Dreena Burton. They are really good choc chip cookies. I make them all the time.

My daughter wore this outfit recently, although I sewed it up last summer. Wasn't sure if I'd put in pics already. Love how it looks on her. I only wish I had one similar! Both top and skirt are from Ottobre patterns.

This is her modelling an apron that I made for a friend of hers - for a birthday present. Simple style.

Made her a new tee - plain white, to go with her dalmation pants for a disco party for another of her friends. She badly needs more of the basics at the moment like tees - growing too fast. I'm only giving myself tonight off to do some blog catch up, then sewing full steam ahead to fill up the kids' summer wardrobes. They are currently seriously lacking things that fit them well.

And have I ever shown you the dalmation pants? I love these. A pattern from Ottobre of course, but any plain jeans pattern would do.

Not trying to show you anything homemade here (although I did make the top - hemp/org cotton, fibre reactive dyes; and the pants - from a thrift shop jumper), but I just love this pic. So fun to watch a bub with a balloon. I think this was the first hellium balloon she'd played with.

And now, onto some garden pics. There are heaps of them and I wont say much about them, but please make sure you get to the end, as there is a cute baby pic there!

By the way, this veg garden is our front yard. The back is full of fruit trees (still too young to be baring fruit). Haven't taken pics there yet.

Snow peas and sugar snap peas.

Love the look of the new peas "hatching" - with their cute little flower hats.

A few strawberry plants - will have to get a lot more of these in.

Some Giant Russian Garlic - love this variety. Not much here, but it just came up from cloves I accidentally left in from last year. There is a little of the smaller garlic too, but no pics of that.

A baby blueberry tree. There are three of them - with flowers on them already. Wonder if that means there will be a berry or two???

Some lettuce - there's heaps more of this, and actually, I took these pics a couple of weeks ago and it's grown a lot since then.

Spinach. I have masses of this and really need to get picking and make a few spinach pies. I made spinach frittata for dinner tonight and actually used frozen spinach - completely forgot about the lovely fresh, organic stuff growing in the garden. Hmmm ... might have to make it again in a couple of days!

Nasturtiums, parsley and weeds - growing under the lemon tree - just looking after themselves really. I try to encourage nasturtiums to pop up everywhere for a bit of protection for the veggies. And I end up with masses of parsley by the time summer hits - it self seeds and I can't bring myself to pull it out.

Potatoes - there are quite a few of these popping up from potatoes left in the ground from last year's planting. Which reminds me that I did buy some more seed potatoes and should get time in quickly. Adding that to me "to do" list now.

New Zealand Spinach. You might have seen this growing wild. I have it in because I don't have to do anything to look after it and it comes up. If food prices go too crazy, at least we'll be able to live on New Zealand spinach and parsley!

This is actually the most sparse part of this garden bed - not sure why I put in this pic and not another one, but you can see some silver beet and broccoli here. Also in the bed is cauli, cabbage, lots more silverbeet and all the spinach. I've tucked in a few other things too - just added one capsicum plant and a couple of rhubarb plants - that looked as though they were about to die in the pot, so not sure how they'll do. I put them in this bed because there is a section that seems to just flourish, and I wanted to give them the best chance.

This bed had potatoes last year, grown using Peter Cundall's method from his Organic Gardening DVD (which is excellent). Now, it is such a healthy garden.

The lemon tree is flowering madly.

A cabbage from the above-discussed bed.

Just some flowers. I thought they looked nice. I don't put much effort into decorative plants, but am trying to do a bit more to make things look nice.

Ahhh ... now back to birthday stuff - the crown I made for my youngest daughter's first birthday. Isn't she cute?

And her birthday cake - the first of a few (by the time we have the various gatherings with various people). This is just a plain sponge cake - not my favourite (although very nice), but her dad's favourite. I know the sprinkles and the strawberries don't really go that well, but the strawberries were completely necessary, and I had to add pink sprinkles when she was being such a pink girl that day. The sprinkles were very sparkly ones - called "Fairy Dust".

More of her birthday in the next post.

Summer Outfit for My Daughter

Quick post yet again, just to put in a couple of pics - this is an outfit I made for my oldest daughter last Summer. Both patterns are from Ottobre - the blouse is 1/03, number 20, and the skirt is 1/03, number 21. I love this outfit. Just wish I had some more of the fabric that I made the blouse from to do one for myself!

Quick post with winter jacket pics

I sewed these a while ago but didn't get around to posting pics then. You can see that my son's jacket needs a wash! It's wool, and he loves it so it gets worn a lot. They both say that they look like they're going to work when they're wearing them. My daughter's jacket could be straightened and pulled about a bit to get it to sit better - she just threw it on and tied it up, but you get the idea. Both patterns are from ottobre.

Sewed a lot lately, but baby crying now, so will be back to do a big update soon. Mostly just basics though - not super-exciting stuff. Have some more fun stuff on my to do list though.

Sewing from March to April 08

Every now and then I'm adding pics of stuff from when I stopped blogging last yr, so here is a little selection.

Summer pajamas for my daughter. My pattern.

Jeans for my daughter. From Ottobre 1/08. Topstitching is of course mine, but the denim came with the embroider already on it.

Pink suit for my daughter from Ottobre 1/06.

Shorts for a gift - just basic shorts with added pockets.

My first ever Waldorf style doll - for my daughter (who is now 2). This was such fun to make. I wish I had more time for this sort of thing.