My Creative Space

Two shirts using the Colette pattern in a state of half sewn    intermission. I have so many half finished projects which irritate me no end - I much prefer to start and finish. I just need to rethread my overlocker as the thread keeps breaking, not really that hard, but I just can’t seem to be motivated.

In contrast to my summer clothes, it is time for the kids winter ones after growth spurts the pants are now capris and jackets finish at elbows. I love riffling through patterns and I have found some nice basics at Spotlight on sale which will work with some stash favourites. I think the instant gratification of some little people sewing might help whip me into action.

The pinky mauve will be a trench coat, the pink and purple blend a box pleat dress, if I have enough and the top one a simple skirt for over tights. See what I mean about that pink sneaking into Poppy’s world all the time.

Navy cashmere for Caleb’s trench coat (I have never owned cashmere anything in my life but $15/m it was sooo soft) and some light weight cotton for pants.

More creative spaces over at Kirsty’s house of green, always repainting that lady – brown, then red.

Let’s Not Mention

I did end up finishing the stitched pillow in time for Valentine’s day. I am really happy with how it turned out.

Let’s not mention that it is a couple of inches short to fit the pillow.

Let’s not mention that even though it was my birthday too, that the man of the house didn’t even supply a card*

Let’s not mention that we ended up at the hospital on the morning with Caleb to get his leg x-rayed after excited trampoline jumping (thankfully nothing broken, just a minor crack that will heal in time, as will the $400 bill ).

* Glen has since realised that this can be very dangerous for one’s health and I think will be spending the rest of the year attempting to live it down.

Summer Daze

Caleb finally got goggles on at swimming lessons this week, I was so proud. I has only taken 7 lessons.   He isn’t going underwater anytime soon I don’t think but this is progress.

I am not sure when we became so pink, apparently one night while I was sleeping perhaps?

Got my haircut for the first time in about 18 months – feel like a new woman.  I had to laugh when she asked me which side I blow dried on, the only time it ever gets that kind of attention is the hair dresser!

32

It was my birthday today. It made me think about stuff, kind of like a delayed new years. Caleb is at Prep and doing super, Poppy is in day care 2 mornings a week and enjoying creating and work has been cut back to 32 hours, not good for the bank balance but good for time, especially with no markets in the pipeline. So I got plans – for me.

- Be my age - some carefree could go a long way.  I want to look after myself, enjoy some forgotten passions, indulge a little.

- Make time to exercise and find it enjoyable. Lots of lovely ladies are talking about ‘the zone’ I don’t know if I shall move anything above a haze or a fuzz to ever graduate to a zone. Who knows, perhaps there is one lurking?

- Plan meals and write a shopping list – never done it in my life and making the most of the slow cooker we got for Christmas

- Sew things for me that I enjoy wearing and explore new techniques.

I had plans for pictures but no camera battery – see that is why I need a list

My Creative Space

I have finished the embroider from last week because I loved doing it so much. I used back stitch for the hair as there was so much of it, stem stitch for the rest and french knots for the eyes and nose, just because I was feeling a little fancy. It is a great start for beginners as kids sketches are so forgiving. To get the outline on the fabric I used an iron-on transfer pencil to trace over the original on tracing paper and then ironed the tracing paper on to the fabric. This outline is your stitching line, it is that easy. These are the fabrics I am thinking of using for the cushion.

This it the fabric for Poppy’s quilt that was bought last year and can’t wait to get started but I am paralysed with choice as to what pattern to do. The original plan was to do the same as Caleb, but I want to do something more ‘complicated’. I have printed the outline off to colour in with pencils to see if it is going to be too much.

Thanks too for the lovely feedback on yesterday’s dress. I found a good tutorial here if you want to get shirring. It is really easy and effective. My sewing machine doesn’t like the bobbin elastic so I have to pull mine through manually, not quite so fun. A good steam iron over it when your finished tightens it all up beautifully too.

More creative stuff at Kirst’s house!

Shirred Dress

This is a real HAC (in the words of Kirsty) dress. I had no pattern just an idea in my head. I had 2 meters of material that I cut in half and then measured where I wanted the bodice to waist and sewed the 2 pink bias strips and threaded in 12mm elastic. I evenly shirred the back at approx 2” spacing and on the front did 1” spaced shirring from the waist to under the bust. I was contemplating doing a fancy sleeve but I think the material is so beautiful that I didn’t want to add too much. Once I had done the side seams I just pinned in the bust until it sat how I wanted and then hacked away. I think in hindsight I should of sewn the top and bottom separately, but I am still happy with how it turned out. I even decided to keep the selvedge on the the hem as well.

Summer Daze

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We all travelled out to the Northside Makers market on the week-end and it was a really lovely morning even if it was only a quick whirl before Poppy’s sleep.

Caleb decided to be a tiger for the day including roaring. Poppy was keen to have her face done but she changed her mind once she sat down.

I was bummed I miss Cathie, and yet to taste those divine creations but I will wait until next time. I picked some gorgeous earrings from Hollie, whose donut plushies were so good that  the littlies tried to eat them. They loved chatting to Jess about her knitted cuties. We took Larry home, I found him tucked into Caleb’s quilt pocket this morning, I can’t look at him without smiling – I would call that a great day out.

My Creative Space

I am so pleased to be back in Kirsty’s creative glow goodness. At Perle 8’s tonight I started embroider on Caleb’s portrait of Glen. The plan is a cushion, the original deadline of Valentine’s day has been revised to Glen’s birthday instead. I couldn’t find any floss before I left so I decided to use some perle instead, somehow I don’t think anyone will mind.

More creative goodness over at Kirsty’s house of fancy embroidery.

Big Boy School!

So my plan to leave everything until the last minute so I could be super busy and not think about it worked like a charm. I got his chair bag finished at midnight in the car/truck fabric that he picked out.

He did so well today and when Glen bough him home I was expecting a very grumpy and tired face, but he bounced out of the car with the biggest smile. It is really hard to get out of him details of his day but he did a great job coping with so many new faces and environment. I am sure that we will have our bad days over the term too but at least we started on a goodie.

I knew I needed to be confident and positive mum from the moment that my head came off the pillow this morning, for his sake alone. And it occurred to me that the only thing I should be feeling is proud and give him something to live up to. So not a tear was shed today, just the beaming smile of joy was exchanged and who knew that I could learn a great lesson at the first day of prep too.

Me leave it till the last minute – Never

So the dinner conversation tonight may have sounded like “Hmm dear, why is dinner burnt?” It is not often that I cook and now we remember why. Somehow trying to grab the last few rays of light before the eve so that I could take a photo of Poppy’s new bag for Child care for the blog really didn’t sound like a great excuse to anyone that doesn’t have a blog.

I have been admiring lots of crafty lady backpacks lately but this is a pretty basic one   that I made the night before (do you see a trend) without a pattern or any real idea. I used a cute Japanese print I had in the stash. Even though it was canvas weight I still used interfacing on all faces and lined it and made straps with the hearts also from the stash.

Can’t stand around and chat, I have to finish up Caleb’s chair bag for his first day of prep, ummm, tomorrow. Nothing like a deadline.

Summer Daze

Here I am ironed and somewhat respectable in the Colette Parfait dress. I was one size smaller in the top than the skirt so I just flared it out as I cut and I was really happy with the fit and found it quite flattering over the curves. The material was a thin cotton as an inexpensive toile that I could still wear so it is a little see through in the skirt and I think a heavier material will also sit better at the bodice. It didn’t take too long and I have already cut out the second one.

I really loved the pattern and the bodice detail and think the pattern had a few techniques that would be great for a new-ish sewer to start on, a couple of darts, invisible zip and some gathering. I didn’t bother with the button hole, I just sewed the button straight on to the strap.

So to celebrate the last month of Summer, I finally have my first dress done. More summery goodness over at Jodi’s.

Thank you for all your lovely well wishes for Caleb’s first Prep day, we went to visit his teacher this morning and she seemed really lovely and receptive. He starts for real on Wednesday with Poppy back at Child care tomorrow so he and I have a movie date.