Where can she wear this outfit?

I finally cut into my lovely Andalucia fabric, making this outfit for my 2 yr old. It's a twirly top and pants - all with lots of frills. I haven't sewn much frilly stuff since last summer.

Here she is the next day, wearing it for the first time. I'm not happy with the size around her arms - would like it smaller.

This is her with her baby sister - my 1 yr old here is wearing clothes that I made for her sister last yr. I love this outfit. It's so nice to be able to use clothes another time around.

And I know that you can't really see the 2 yr old's outfit, and I generally keep this blog pretty much focussed on craft/clothes/etc, but I just had to put in this pic anyway - just because it's so cute. The 1 yr old is currently at the stage of just pulling herself up. She isn't in a rush to walk, but does stand a lot and still get's stuck - so she stands, and then gets upset because she can't work out how to get back down or what to do next. The 2 yr old is playing shop with her - no doubt handing her an ice cream.

So, with not particularly liking the fit around the arms, and with wanting something a bit warmer for spring anyway, I moved the buttons to make the arm holes a little bit smaller, and made this peasant top which can go underneath it.

Of course, the outfit wouldn't be complete without a hat. This is another from the Nicole M designs pattern.

So here is the whole lot assembled. I know that I overdo the pictures a bit, but I just couldn't decide which to put in. And I'll probably add another pic of this outfit when she finally gets a chance to wear it.

Which brings me to my dilemma of the day. Where can she wear it? Do I have to stop making frilly clothes just because we don't really go anywhere that she can wear them? Would they look silly if she just wore them to the grocery shop (we could pretend that we were going somewhere important afterwards!)? Could I dress her in this for school pick up? Or would it look too show-off-y? I love seeing her in this outfit (although of course, I haven't seen it all assembled yet!) but I've got a feeling that she wont get many chances to wear it unless I just don't worry about whether it is appropriate and put her in it. I do think the kids should wear whatever clothes they have (frilly or not!) when they're the right size, otherwise they just grow out of them.

It's so much more fun making frilly stuff for the two little ones - I'd love to make them a heap more. Will have to find places for them to be worn though.

If you have any thoughts on this, feel free to post a comment!

I didn't put in a pic of this peasant top the other day. Made it a couple of wks ago. It was in a pic that had the matching hat I think. I love peasant tops - as easy to make as a t-shirt, but so much nicer.

I did some more decorated, felted balls. The plain balls were made a couple of weeks ago (when I did the others) but have been waiting for the time and inspiration to be decorated. So here they are. The first is my least favourite of the three, although my 2 yr old says it's her favourite. It's some chickies. As usual, I've put in way too many pics, so you'll see each ball from a couple of different angles.

This is a rainbow one. The colours go from red to purple, and then back to red in the middle on the other side. I've decided that covering the whole ball is a good idea, both for the look (better then a white background) and because it is easier to then felt on in the washing machine, rather then needle felting it all on. I just needle felted it a very little bit to hold it into place before putting the ball into a stocking and into a hot wash.

And finally, a sun.

I couldn't resist this picture of all the balls together when I packed them into the basket to go on the kids' play shelf, although I think a bigger basket would have been better.

Here is my 1 yr old having fun with the balls this morning.

We made some kite stars together to decorate the window. It was a good project to do with my oldest daughter. They look really effective - completely not shown in this photo. I'll have to try a few different ways to take the photo. They are beautiful colours and the light shines through them.

This is something I haven't tried before - knitting something specifically to felt it (or is the proper term something else?). I'm a very slow knitter and I always have a few knitting projects on the go - kids' jumpers, knitted pants, etc. So I don't feel that I can spare any knitting time for "unimportant" things. But over the past couple of days I decided to give this a go. It uses big needles and I used two strands of wool. I found some Panda wool that was actually called feltable wool, so I decided to try that, although in the future I'll just dye up some of my stash of organic wool.

My aim is a set of stacking bowls. This is the first one - my tester. It's been hot washed and dried, then I dampened it and rubbed a bit and shaped it over the bottom of a jar and left it to dry. After a day and a half it is still very wet, and I'm wondering if it will felt MORE and shrink and firm up more (although actually, if it doesn't, it is fine as it is), so I've just put it into the machine a second time with the rest of the bowls that I knitted ALL TODAY! Look on ...

I have very sore hands now as I try to knit anything else, so that's it for me knitting for another day or two. I just knitted when I was chatting with the bubs, when they were eating (after I'd finished - better then eating more anyway!), etc. And I got four bowls done. I did another one to go with the first one, then decided I should have made the red one smaller so that I could do the whole rainbow without the last one being huge, so I did another red one and the two sizes up from that. I still have green, blue and purple to go.

Here are the freshly knitted bowls ready for felting.

This shows the two bowls that have been knitted the same size, with the red one already having been through the wash and dryer once. Just thought it was interesting to have a comparison photo.

And finally, the three bowls that will end up as part of a set - after felting.

Now they should actually have finished their time in the washing machine so I can go and see how they are, but I'm not going to show pics today. I have a heap still to do tonight. The babies are in bed and I want to sew a skirt for my 8 yr old. I am trying to get through the Wardrobe Challenge on PatternReview.com, but I haven't registered yet because I keep working on other projects. I was hoping to sew up a "wardrobe" for my 6 yr old and my 8 yr old (ie do two entries) by the end of November, but I'll see how I go. Even if I don't end up entering, end of November is a good deadline to have most of their summer basics done.

I have been asked for a tutorial for the poncho. I'll make another poncho in the next couple of weeks and will take photos as I go then - so it's be coming.

Tomorrow is "blog action day" so I will write then, although it may not have any craft in it (or I might post twice if I want to show off the felted bowls). Catch you then.

Mid-week catch up

This is what I woke up to this morning. This is hwo it looked outside our windows at about 6.30am. The picture is a bit blurry because I turned off the flash and hand held the camera to try and get the right colour, but you can certainly see the colour. It says on the news that this is the worst dust storm we've had in about 70 years.

The following few pics are really related to the last post, but are a few things that I found I was missing pictures of, so read there for the details.

This is a close up of the king parrot that I felted for the birthday ring (and maybe to be moved to our nature table when the birthday ring has been put away).

This is the birthday ring with the flowers in the vases - just because it looks so cute with them added too.

This pic shows our nature table as it is now - it's a work in progress with some things just there for the moment until I get it done properly. Last post I only had closeups of the birds.

This is a closeup of the birthday cake decoration girl. And it is worth saying again here - I did get the idea from various ones for sale on etsy, and it is very similar. I was going to link to the person who makes them there, and say to buy one from that store if you want one, but this one is a combination of inspiration taken from a few of them with a few differences too. If you feel that I've copied your doll, let me know and I'll either link to you so that you can get some business from it, or take my picture down. Mine is certainly lacking some of the lovely details of the ones on etsy, such as things the cake topper girls there are holding, etc.

Okay, that's enough of the pics that should have been in the last post. Here is some other stuff.

Ages ago I put in pics of an embroider and some screen printed fabric that were to become my bag. I finished the bag in about June, but never put in pics of it, so here they are, although the bag is getting quite grubby now and really needs a wash.

Decided to get back to a routine of reading to all the kids together before bed as I'd let that slip and just read individually to them. I wanted to start on something like a chapter book rather then picture books and decided to go with fairy tales and classics. The kids have been loving it. These are the books we've been using.

The first is probably my least favourite of the three, although still good. It is one from when I was little.

And a shot from an inside page ...

This one I love. It is also from when I was little. It's quite short though.

The pictures are so lovely ...

And the final one is a newer purchase ... Rapunzel and Other Magic Fairytales (because it is a newer one I could put it as a link - don't think the others would still be available, although I haven't searched). I love this one.


When I get time I'll have to list the big pile of books beside my bed for my reading.

This is a recent craft that the kids did. I got the idea from someone's blog that I visited, but I can't remember whose. If it is yours, please let me know and I'll link it.

They're garden prayer flags. Using fabric crayons on calico, the kids drew pictures of things that they wanted for the garden - to help it grow. They worked out what to draw. I just ironed them, put a rolled hem around the edge and quickly sewed them onto fabric tape. They're now hung in our garden. The idea is that you can't pray all the time, so with prayer flags you can send your constant prayers with the wind. Without getting into a religious discussion here, I think the concept of prayer flags works with just about any belief - in a God or whatever god you believe in, even if you just believe in the power of positive thinking!

And finally, I want to post here about a giveaway. Of course, by posting in my blog I get extra entries, but I want to tell you how much I love these products anyway. We have some stockmar crayons (not this nice double set) and I wont go back to supermarket crayons now. I love them. Great colours and I'm much happier for the children to use them. I think it is good for children to have good quality art supplies too. And they really look after them a lot more.

So here is the link - it's a giveaway ... you can look for yourself ... its on the Hip Mountain Mama blog.

That's all for now.

The final wraps - Thank goodness

Here are the final wraps - again, two the same. I promise, no more wraps tomorrow.

And for completeness, I'm adding pics of the only wrap that I haven't already shown here. I made quite a few of them before Christmas, and have made more of them in the same fabrics for all except one, so you've seen pics of all the fabric combinations except for this one.

And these are the cards that I put into some that we gave away. The pictures were drawn by my two older children - the dragonfly and the butterfly by my 5 year old boy, and the dinosaur by my oldest daughter when she was only just 6. I think that 5 to 6 is the best time to collect cute pictures from kids - things my oldest daughter (now still only 7) draws now are excellent, but don't have that same simpleness to them.

Anyway, these are the first things I've printed using my print gocco set, and it was so easy and fun. I'll have to try things in colours next! We did do a Christmas card that my daughter drew in colours, but I'd love to have more of a try of it.

Being school holidays, the older two kids (5&1/2 and 7) did some craft again today. They made tissue paper flowers and some little "zoomy crazy bugs". The bugs came in a kit. The picture of the flowers showing lots of different ones were all made by my daughter, who kept going with making flowers after I had to stop, so she played around with it a bit, and wanted to make a vase full for her bedroom. That left only the two daffodils (perhaps more like jonquils) that my son and I made for the dining table.

And by the way, those "crazy bugs" actually do go and are quite fun. They are styro shapes that the kids covered in paint and shiny cut outs, etc and then stuck wheels into.