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.

May and June Catch up

Okay, once again I haven't written in ages, so here is a quick picture tour of what I've been doing on the crafty front. I don't feel as though I've been very productive, although I don't have pictures of everything so I've done more then this! I'm not going to write much.



Here is some of the matroyshka fabric that I screen printed sewn up into pants for my toddler. I also made the top - my own version of a peasant top, in Sandi Henderson fabric - love this design in yellow and wish I had more of that fabric. I made these clothes when my toddler was this age, but now they've been handed onto the bub I just had to take a pic. I love her in all red. She's wearing a minky fleece hat, a frottee jacket (Ottobre pattern), a cotton velour dress (my pattern) and recycled jumper wool pants/nappy cover, along with red fleece booties (that never stay on). She looks so snuggly. It may not be fancy, but it's one of my favourite outfits for her now that it's winter.

A screen print that I did for my daughter's classes' education week performance. I didn't do the design - I just printed it ...

... on a heap of t-shirts.

These tees were for the boys. I didn't get a pic of all the girls' t-shirts, but there's a pic further on of the girls' whole costume.

This pic is jeans that I made for my boy, and also a plain white tee (not very exciting). Jeans are hemp denim, and Ottobre pattern. Tee is organic cotton.

This is what the girls wore for their costume. I printed the tees and added a bit of elastic down the bottom to make them a nicer shape. The sun design is mine - super-simple. With help of other mums I sewed up the skirts. Thank goodness I didn't have to shop for the fabric and all the other bits and pieces too - sewing them up was easy. I also made the leggings just for my daughter. All the girls supplied their own leggings.

This is my first try of this sort of screen print. I just did about 1&1/2 metres of it to do a peasant skirt for my toddler and a dress for my bub. My plan is to do lots of mt of this print to make curtains for my dining room. I drew the design and did the printing.

This is the biggest piece of embroider I've done. It looks a bit wonky and it is a bit wonky! I didn't want it to look perfect because I wanted that "freehand" look, but I think it would have been better if it were a little neater. It is going to be part of a handbag.

This is the fabric that I printed to make up the rest of the handbag. It is hemp/cotton muslin, dyed with fibre reactive dyes, then screen printed using a couple of kirigami shapes - ie paper cut-outs - as the design. I only printed about 1/3 mt of the fabric for this, but wish I'd done more as I'd love a skirt made out of it.

I did print this for a skirt for myself though. It is using the same screens, plus one other, but uses much stronger colours on undyed hemp muslin. I think I would have preferred the colours to be more similar to each other - perhaps pink, red and something else.

But I like it much better now that I've sewn it up into a skirt for myself! I think it will be better in Summer or Spring, rather then with black stockings underneath.

I also printed this paisley design (my drawings) on some hemp/cotton muslin. As usual I dyed it using fibre reactive dyes and love the shade of blue that it turned out. That's one of the great things about dying fabric, that can also be one of the bad things. Because I'm at the stage of trying out all the colours, and not of trying to repeat them, the colour that eventuates is always a surprise. I do keep careful notes though so I should be able to get something similar if I want to repeat them in the future.

You can't see the paisley design very well here. I love drawing paisley. It's easy, and it's fun to fill with different patterns. Hardest bit is chosing which ones to use (and finding the time to do them).

So these are pants for my daughter. They're just super-simple, beach/lounge pants.

I love how this turned out. It's a screen print - I did quite a few of them. You can't really tell here, but it's about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, printed on hemp/cotton muslin (of course, although I've pretty much run out of the lovely thick stuff now until I can get some more). It's to cut out and sew together to make a simple mini-cushion. I'm thinking of selling these as craft panels. What do you think? I have some other designs in mind too.

That's all for now. I've also made a couple of peasant tops for my bub and a few other things. And I've almost finished crocheting myself a scarf. I'll post pics when I get to it.

Finally tried some screen printing

This is the first print that I did. I drew the dolls that the print is based on. The fabric is a hemp/cotton muslin that I dyed using fibre reactive dyes.

I cut out the patterns pieces for the garments before printing so that I would print the right amount in the right places - decided it was better then just printing the full length of fabric that I dyed. This also meant I could curve it a bit for my skirt, which is cut with a bit of a curve. So this picture shows it all laid out on the table to dry.

I sewed up my skirt first. Will add pics of the other garments sewn up later. Those pictures are still on the camera.

This was the second screen print I did. The picture is a freehand drawing based on one in Lotta Prints, by Lotta Jansdotter. Fabric again is hemp/cotton muslin, dyed using fibre reactive dyes (Procion).

Out of it I made a dress for my bub. Here is the front ...

a close up of the print ...

and the buttons on the back. I got to adding the buttons really late at night, and realised I'd forgotten to buy matching buttons. Looked through my button collection and found these! I don't think I could have found a better match if I'd searched them all at the fabric store.

I also made pants for my toddler.

I sewed these up in time for them to wear to Easter gatherings, but didn't have time to sew up the matching tops that I'd imagined. Fortunately, my bub had a yellow top, so that worked well, but not the toddler. So again, late at night (most of my sewing happens late at night) I found a plain hemp t-shirt (undyed) already made that she had and printed it with the birds print in purple. I did it in a rush and using different inks to the other ones (a bit thinner), so the print isn't quite as clear as the print on the pants, but it was ready for wearing with the pants the next day.

Here's a pic of my two little girls wearing tops that I put pics up of in an earlier post. Just didn't have a modelled picture then.

And finally, to finish up, some food.

A delicious strawberry and rhubarb pie.

And more bread. This is the same sort as is in the last few bread pics. I've been making this as our main bread now for quite a few weeks. Just wanted to show off this loaf because look ... it looks quite normal from this side.

But out the other side ... a blow out!


Still tasted super-delicious, especially hot.

One of my favourite dresses

Just here quickly to post a pic of one of my favourite dresses for my bub. I've posted a pic of it here before, but it wasn't modelled so you can't really tell how nice it is. Hopefully I'll be back later with an update of all the crafty stuff I've been up to lately - not as much as usual, but a few different projects.

Matching ... I know it's corny ...

But they love it! My older daughter, who I made the gingham top and black shorts for, asked for a matching set for the toddler.

And here are some much more simple clothespin doll people. These ones are better for the little kids to play with - to pop into my handbag or the pram for keeping them occupied when we're out.

I painted the solid parts of ten clothespins, thinking that it would be a quick job and then I could add the detail the next day. It took AAAAGES. I've only added detail and varnished these four. Hopefully I'll find some time to do ther others soon. I have big plans for them - as parts of a couple of other projects.

Tonight I'm dying fabric while doing a bit of washing sorting. I'm at the stage where I just have to keep resetting the washing machine and waiting - unfortunately, as always seems to happen, it has ended up still with a while to go and it's getting very late.

There's be beeps. Better go reset again. I have big plans for this fabric!