Alterations and finalisations

Friday night craft session rolled around again and I had to do some mending/alterations. Olivia's Bedtime Story pyjama bottoms that I blogged about here were just a bit too tight I decided, and even though she insisted that they were ok I decided to alter them slightly. No one wants tight pyjama bottoms, they are supposed to be comfy right? So even though I didn't have enough material in the same pattern to make her some more, I thought that I may be able to alter them and make them just a bit wider in the bottom. 

My thought process was, 'how can I add to the bottom to make them bigger just around there?', so I took the waistband off, split the back seam open and decided to put a u shaped panel in the back from the crotch to enlarge them there. Then I added the same width of material to the waistband and joined it all back together again and attached the waistband back together again. I put longer elastic in the waistband too so its not so tight to pull up. Does that make sense? I hope so, well here is a picture of the back so you can see.

After all that, success.

Added back panel

I am rather chuffed with myself with figuring out the how to, and then when I had a picture in my mind of how I wanted it to be, I managed the execution without a pattern or other people giving me a 'how to' guide. 

I finally appliqued around the flower and now they really are complete and will last her the rest of this winter and I am sure into next as well. 

Then I also finally finished something else. I just sewed a very quick easy little hem onto Olivia's Lazy Days skirt that I started weeks ago and mentioned here because the ribbon I had to finish it with didn't go, so I just put the whole thing to one side. I decided to ditch the ribbon hem as per the pattern and just hem it. Now my big girl is able to wear her skirt and new headband looking very grownup. 

Aaah young love

As I was browsing through my photos on my phone I came across some funny videos that the girls had recorded whilst hanging out with their friends Thomas and Charlotte as we parents were chatting in the other room. 

There was lots of screaming, shouting, laughing and blowing raspberrys at the person with the camera (no young Spielbergs' here) and lots and lots of laughing. So after I had watched a few of those I came across a picture that had been saved but drawn from Doodle Buddy. It just made me smile, so sweet and so innocent. 

I smiled and asked Olivia (I knew it was her) if she had written this and she coyly smiled and said "yes".  I asked her if she did love Thomas and without hesitation said "yes". I think it is wonderful that she has friends both boys and girls that she just loves to be with, and is such good friends with she happily acknowledges that she loves them. 

I sent this picture to Thomas' mum and she showed the picture to him and his responce was, "that's good coz I love her too". Fantastic.

I just need to teach her how to spell Thomas now.

Little pop and new bands

It is school holidays here which still means pre-school for Sophie and the girls still have swimming lessons. Some people don't like the continuation but I do as it means that the girls still have stuff to do but without the hassle of homework to be fitted in and they can play around the activities. 

So whilst Sophie was at pre-school and Olivia was entertained watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (I love that I have taught my daughter to love musicals) I finished the doll's dress for Lilia's birthday. It took me about an hour, with interruptions, so not long at all, and I think it looks great and the present is complete, some pyjamas, a big popover dress and one for her doll. Lovely I think. I hope the birthday girl thinks so too. 

 

Big and Little

Baby modelling it

Once we picked up Sophie off to the post office we went to get it all on its way and done for another year. 

Last Friday evening at my usual craft evening I started to make Olivia a headband from a ribbon that I bought at the craft show and previously mentioned here. I decided to finish the headband as all it needed was some hot glue to finish some ends off with some ribbon. So here it is the finished specimen.

I totally love it and it is exactly the picture that I had in my mind and will only change two things next time around like white elastic instead of black, and would sew the bow to the ribbon not glue it, but I still think it looks really good and it didn't cost the $13 that I have been spending on headbands. I am glad that Olivia thinks it looks good too.

Sorry about the shadow behind Liv's head, but here she is with it on. It is reasonably tight on her head to keep it on and keep her hair back but not being too tight as she wouldn't wear it. I will hem her skirt this evening and then she can wear them both to church on Sunday. It is such a shame that I can not find her some cream coloured knit tights for this Winter in her size. 

More headbands really soon, as they are quick, and for someone who likes results fast they are awesome to do.

p.s. You can find me linking here and here.

Craft Show inspiration and some Sewing Action

I can't believe that it has been a week since my last post so you have 2 entries in one day, how about that, but it's ok I am not going to beat myself up about it.

I thought I would show a few of my treasures that I found at the craft show last week. I had such a fun day and with a few dollars to spend, ok maybe a few more than a few, got these goodies that I am so excited to create with. Fabric pieces from Kelani Fabrics , Prints Charming colour pack, Owl softie pattern from Saffron Craig and ribbons from Craft Queen and some patterns that you can see below.

Fabric pieces, Prints Charming pack, Owl softie pattern and ribbons

Patterns

Its been a week or so since I did some sewing and I need to sew the final thing for Lilia's birthday presents and so then I can post them this week in time for her birthday. Along with the oliver + s popover sundress free pattern there is also a free pattern of a popover dress for a little girls doll. You can find it here. Lilia got a new doll when her little brother Noah was born a few months ago so I thought it would be cool if she had a matching dress. As I had used all the prints charming fabric on Lilia's I will just use some pink spotty cotton that I had in my stash from Spotlight.

Now I have a bit of a quandry. What do I do next? I have so many ideas and an ever growing pile of fabric in my cupboard but what to do?

At the craft show I got some lovely ribbons from Craft Queen, as I am fed up with paying $13 for headbands for Olivia so I think I will do those next. I have seen a tutorial on the very fabulous Flossie Teacakes site on how to make shirred headbands and that has inspired me. I love how she folds the material into the casing to add the shirred fabric. It looks really finished and you can find the tutorial here. I am, however, not wanting to do the shirring, I just want to use the folding as inspiration. I now have a blue spotty ribbon, black stripes and brown stripes, that I have already started, and this gorgeous flower ribbon to transform into headbands too. Lots to do.

Ribbons

Finds from our Winter escape to Leura

In some of the blogs that I read the authors often go thrift shopping or op shopping as it is called here in Australia and they find lovely things for ridiculous prices of $1 and $2 or such like. I admit that I have never been one for op shopping and actually have not been for about 15 years.  I am not writing this to brag or anything, I am just not into it and can't seem to see past the yuk and the where has that been feeling to see it's potential. Any who I wanted to share the lovely things that caught my eye whilst in Leura last weekend and have sparked new life to things that I already have but I do have to admit that they did not cost $1 or $2 sadly.

Moontree is a shop that I have been in before and with the girls spend most of the time saying "don't touch, that's glass, don't blow out the candle it is supposed to be on" etc. and don't really get a huge amount of time to just look I am always looking at what others are doing. Yet this weekend this caught my eye, with the idea for a gift for someone else but then Todd said would you like one too? 

How on earth could I say no to that question? So this beautiful candle lantern came home with us. You put a tealight in it and the light glows through the pattern on the outside. It is handmade and made entirely of wax with the pattern covering over the top.

Well, this lantern has inspired a 'change' in our lounge. Not a huge one as who can afford to just go out and get all new stuff but even just moving photo frames around from their 'usual' spots makes a change and updating some of the photos in the frames. There have been 2 new editions to my extended family, gorgeous Noah and handsome Isaac and I have some lovely pictures sitting in my emails but not printed out and popped into frames yet so that is my challenge for this weekend to sort out/update the photos in frames

Also some cushions in the lounge are in real need of being 'made new' again and I have decided to make the covers myself so now I am spending my evenings trawling through pages and pages of fabrics online and trying to find one that would match the new change in colour accents. This collection is my favourite so far. It is the Aviary 2 collection in granite by Joel Dewberry. I like the blooms in the top left, scrollwork top right and as the backing the middle right. What do you think?
 

I'm still deciding not sure yet. I do have to say that our sofas are a dark chocolate brown and the chair is a green. Do you think the granite is too much with these colours? Not sure, perhaps I will keep looking.

Another shop in Leura I totally love is called The Cats Meow. Such a fun name and is full of homewares like large comfy sofas, dining tables and chairs, soft faux fur throws, beautiful lamps that I can envisage in my home one day and all sorts of ornaments. It is a treasure trove and again there are a few comments like "get your feet off there and sit still and don't touch that" have to said when in there with a 3 yr old but it is still so lovely. To add to the fabulousness (is that a word? I don't think so but you get my gist right?) the faux fur throw that I have looked at and coveted for a year now was on sale, and it seemed destined to come home with me for my bed. So I had to oblige.

Sophie was rolling on my bed the other day and said, "oooh mummy this is soooo soft and lovely". It is backed with a soft fleece too that you can see in the bottom right hand corner, it is so fantastic to curl up under it whilst reading a book. Trust me.

Finally a silver tree shape caught my eye, like an African tree that has been swept to the side a bit on the open plains. It was called the Tree of Life and I thought it was lovely and wanted to put it on my sideboard (buffet as it is called here in Aus) again something a bit different to the normal things that I like. I got given the wrong one and so have to drive back to Leura to exchange it. These things happen, but I was disappointed. I can't wait to have it all sorted and looking great.

Winter escape to the Blue Mountains

We had the most lovely weekend away in the mountains and in the little cottage that we had rented for the weekend. Quaint is the word that comes to mind - the decor was interesting but it was warm, cosy and we had lots of fun.

Cottage in Leura

small but very cosy lounge room

some of the 'interesting' decor

I have the title of fire builder and Sophie got over her initial fear of the fire and very quickly wanted a fire built all the time and I happily obliged her. Olivia and Sophie even went outside in the dark with a torch each to see the smoke coming out of the chimney and Sophie did not freak out and want to call the fireman so I think she is over her anxiety there. They felt like explorers going out in the cold and dark to see it. Where we were there was no street lights either so it was really dark, there were so many stars that you just dont seem to see here in suburbia as it is too light. The wood fire along with the gas fires had us so warm and toasty inside. On Sunday evening I was so hot I was sitting watching the tennis in short sleeves and no socks. Outside it was about 1degree C though.

When we arrived on Friday afternoon we headed into Leura and had hot chocolates at the Wayzgoose. We love this little cafe and their hot chocolate is gorgeous and Todd loves the traditional lemonade that they sell too. Then in the eve we headed out into Leura and into Katoomba to see if there were any places we could go for dinner and thought why not, we got to Echo Point just at dusk and saw the 3 sisters as the sun was going down. It was gorgeous and the girls loved running around and Todd and I chasing them and they squealed with delight. It got cold as soon as the sun went down.

Todd and our hot chocs

Echo Point as the sun goes down

Olivia loved going out and it being cold enough to see your breath when you breathed out. It was the coldest that the girls had ever experienced.

Saturday we went to Leura Cascades after Jenny and Lisa had both said to go there and the walk was child friendly. I absolutely love waterfalls and had never been to these little falls and so was more than happy to head there.

Top of Leura cascades

view from bottom of Leura Cascades

It was a lovely walk and Todd and I said to each other as we were going down and down' 'what goes down must come up' in reference to the stairs that we would have to climb as we headed back up. I must get fitter. Poor Todd actually carried Soph for a little way too. She was being a bit of a lazy lump.  At the top near the car park was some swings and grass area. Afterwards the girls had a swing and started to play 'it' or 'tip' as it is called here and we said don't run it's slippy and literally the next minute Sophie slipped and fell and skidded along the grass.

One good as gold, one puling faces

My favourite picture of Leura Cascades

We headed home to clean little ones up and then went to the 3 sisters in the daytime to get some good shots. We certainly did that.

The 3 Sisters at Echo Point

Megalong Valley from Echo Point

Then into Leura for some shopping at the little boutique shops in the centre of town, with names like Moontree, The Cats Meow, The Christmas Cottage and of course the Toy Shop.

On Sunday we decided to have brunch and then headed into Leura for a wander, some more and then head up to Clarence where the zigzag railway goes from. We got there at 12.45pm and the train left at 1pm. Todd got the tickets and we piled into a carriage. I think I was more excited than the girls. Literally as a whistle was being blown Sophie said she was not feeling well and Todd jumped up with her and off the train with no hesitation. Liv and I followed. Thank goodness we did. Not 2 minutes later I took her to the toilets and the poor little thing was poorly. She had been complaining of a sore tummy and we just thought she had eaten too much. We said it over and over thank goodness we got off that train as there were no toilets on it. It would have been dreadful. We got our money back and on the way home I saw the sign for Govetts Leap and said lets go there. It was a beautiful bright sunny day but unlike Friday and Saturday that didn't feel too cold, oooh it was cold, the wind was biting. We got rather rugged up just to get out of the car and take some photos.

Me, Olivia and Sophie, cold

Govetts Leap waterfall

We had a relaxing, fun, beautiful time in Leura and feel so relaxed even after just a couple of days. Monday, sadly, we packed up and left our little cottage and before we started the descent down the Great Western Highway back to Sydney we took the girls to a park to just play. On the way home we stopped one more time at Wentworth Falls and looked at the spectacular view one more time this trip. We talked about the walks we would like to do, but they are for when little legs are a bit bigger. Another beautiful Winters day in the mountains and the cold biting wind of the day before had dropped again, thank goodness. So final pictures of my picture heavy post are of girls squealing whilst twizzling on swings, Wentworth Falls and the surrounding valley.

Twizzling

Wentworth Falls

View of valley from Wentworth Falls Lookout

What a wonderful weekend. We must do it again soon.

In the early hours

I got myself organised and sewed the night away last night after I had watched some of my favourite programs on tv.  Not the best way to do things I can assure you, but I finished the promised pyjamas. In the early hours all was done.

Again I used the oliver + s Bedtime stories pyjama pattern. I made the size 8 which is just slightly long in the leg for her which is just what I wanted so that they will last a bit, as she is growing so much lately and perhaps a bit tight getting them over her bottom but nothing major. She is a good size 8 here.

Look how bright and fun they are

Lucky Olivia, do you think she loves them? I'm so glad she does.

I love them mummy 

She chose the fabric from my stash, a fun, bright, soft flannel from Spotlight and a t-shirt top from Target with applique that I cut out and fused to the t-shirt using heat and bond, and then a stitch all around the edge. I am really happy with how they turned out.

We are heading to the Blue Mountains at lunchtime today to a little town called Leura. Gosh it is going to be cold (it snowed a few mornings ago) but clear skies so we have walks planned and the cottage we are staying in has an open fire which will be lovely and heat us through nicely. Coats, hats, gloves and scarves are all ready to go. Olivia is so excited about our little long weekend away and started to pack her toys, cuddly friends and dvd's on Wednesday and her new pyjamas are top of the pile ready to go.

Sophie has become petrified of smoke. We have a new firestation that has been built in our suburb and we saw the firemen heading into the engine and she saw smoke from an open fire coming out of someone's chimney as we drove by. She has put 2 and 2 together and made 20 and so if smoke comes out of a chimney then the firemen have to come and "that would be scary coz there is fire!" It certainly is going to make a weekend away in a cottage that has an open fire interesting. We have told her there is no chimney - I know, a lie - to calm the anxiety as she was getting really worked up about it, as she won't see the smoke coming out of the chimney as we will be inside. We will see how we go...

So have a wonderful weekend where ever you are, I will be trying to keep warm.

ps.  I went to the Sydney Craft & Quilt Fair yesterday with a couple of friends whilst all our 3 year olds were at pre-school together.  If you are in Sydney go check it out. It was so fun and I spent way too much money (oopps) but oh my, the gorgeous fabrics and patterns and books that I didn't buy. I will take some pictures of things that I did buy and give you a quick run down of my favourite stalls/designers probably after the weekend.

pps oooppss forgot to add you can find me linking here. Enjoy

Our Weekend - keeping it real, its not all sewing ...

I am quite aware that this is supposed to be a journal for me but it is also in the public domain and so some things are just not going to make it into type on here. However in the spirit of keeping things 'real' and not in the 'oh she spends her whole time sewing world' I thought I would write what our very normal weekend was like.

This weekend just flew by and when talking to mum and dad last night as it was Father's Day in the UK not here in Aus until Sept, and they asked what we had been up to I had to say not very much at all really, we didn't go anywhere, we didn't have people over for dinner, we didn't go away or anything either. So very ordinary in deed.

I had my usual Friday night craft at Katie's house and off I went with a couple of things to do, a Lazy Days Skirt for Olivia and some pyjama's also for Olivia. The skirt was coming along wonderfully then I realised that I was unsure of her waist size and so I guessed and it looks tiny and then I realised that the ribbon I had chosen to match the skirt really didn't match at all. So my lack of preparation really backfired on me and meant I couldn't get any further. So I decided to cut out the fabric for the pyjamas. Olivia had chosen. She had chosen the very colourful flowers and little bugs one and I had already popped to Target to get a long sleeve t-shirt to act as the pyjama top and will applique a shape onto the top just as I did for Lilia's. I really love my Friday night craft and chatting and laughing and getting a little work done. One minute it was half past nine then suddenly it was midnight. Such fun.

Saturday mornings now that Olivia has started to do jazz dancing lessons are a bit of a juggle especially as we were supposed to be at our church at the same time as Liv was dancing to help clean and tidy the building. So rather than one of us doing the jazz run and the other going to church to clean we decided to all do it together, I was sure we could get our cleaning assignment done in the time we have between drop off and pick up, sure enough we did, Todd did skirting boards, I did windows and any marks on the walls and Sophie even dusted pictures and then a good vacuum and the room we were allocated looked great and back to get Liv we zoomed. She wanted her friend Amelia to come and play so that was organised and Milly was with us for the day. She is such a lovely little girl and I honestly hardly heard a peep out of them except for food and drink all day. They played wonderfully and also included Sophie some of the time too.

Todd started to clean out a cupboard that has all of Olivia's colouring books and pens etc in it. He was ruthless and now it looks empty in comparison but it was so necessary, she can find the things she uses all the time and loves. So I did the same with Sophie's cupboard, old dried playdough gone, used up colouring books gone, dried out felt tip pens (textas) gone, and the cleaning went on, washing load after load, Todd ironed for ages and the kitchen got a really good clean too. What productive day. Not very exciting, but such a good day none the less. Some delicious Thai food was ordered for dinner for Todd and I and we settled into the evening. I had every intention of doing some more ironing to really get rid of it all but I sat down on the sofa and somehow I did not move again. We decided that a light film was the way to go and Todd chose this film. It was totally hilarious, I laughed and cried laughing for 2 hours, I would still be sniggering about something and then another thing would set me off. It has an MA rating here in Australia and I understand why, but gosh I havn't laughed like that in an age. 

Sunday was church and Olivia had to give a little talk in Primary. She was a bit nervous as she spoke really fast but she was clear and did it all on her own without any assistance.  I am so proud of her and she is growing up to be such a beautiful girl. I can't believe that she is nearly 8. Where has the time gone. The afternoon seemed to hold snoozes for Todd and I and the girls were happy watching a film themselves and relaxing. What a lazy day, but perhaps needed by all of us. It was finished with a quick chat with Dad and Mum to say Happy Fathers Day and see how everyone was. Gosh I miss them so much sometimes but only 5 months until they are here with us for the whole summer, I can't wait.

Monday rolls round oh so quickly some times and today was one of them. Mondayitis is well entrenched here and I have struggled big time to get anything done.

I hope your Monday has been far more productive than mine.

Thank you, Hello

Thank you all for the lovely comments about the pillow/cushion, it certainly made my day getting beeps on my phone with all the lovely comments.

I started this little blog as a type of journal and seeing as I am quite a visual, touchy person this medium seems to be so much easier for me to keep track rather than just writing in a book. I linked at another site to show off a bit (is it ok to admit that? I hope so) and suddenly, wow, lots more people all over the world reading my blog, and enjoying it, and liking the things that I have been making. It is incredible to me that this can happen and so I wanted to say "hi", and a big welcome to See Sam Sew, and thank you for the comments and support and if you see something that I make that inspires you to have a go at trying something new then fantastic, and that makes me happy too.

I again procrastinated cleaning up my lounge room and doing the ironing yesterday, and made a trip to one of my totally favourite places in Sydney, Country Pickin's at the Corner, which is at Dural, Sydney. I love this shop and the fantastic ladies there who happily let me walk around and touch all the incedible fabric and slowly move up and down the aisles for ages without hassling me except to say hello and chat. I'm not wierd, (well I don't think I am but others may disagree) I just love the colours, and feel of the fabric. I had a voucher to spend and I felt like spending it. This is what I treated myself too.

It is a beautiful book and even though I have no plans to start screen printing my own fabric I am still excited to make some of the lovely projects like the apron, picnic blanket, boys quilts, girls covered books and even the girls kimono dressing gown. Fabulous inspiration inside.

The cleaning can always wait until tomorrow right?

Snow Mum Pillow

Here is the finished pillow/cushion. I really really wanted to have it done this weekend just gone but no, so as little Sophie wanted to watch some Charlie and Lola and Peppa Pig this morning I took the opportunity to sit and focus and finish it.

Flower completed cushion form to do yet

Finished pillow

Do you like it? I love it, it is so soft and I think will look great on a bed for instance and I really hope that the recipient will love it too. 

It is made from a wool blend felt and is just so soft. I bought some felt cushions last winter and they were acrylic and the difference in the texture is amazing. Making the cushion itself was quite a bit of work, especially as I didn't read and understand the instructions properly, cut the leaves out and then realised what I had done and had to do the cutting of all the leaves all over again. What a pain in the behind! So my review of the pattern is fiddly but once all the leaves are cut and sewn in the centre to make them look like leaves it comes together really quite quickly and is definately worth the trouble, and I cut myself on my rotary cutter which isn't good when the material you are using is white. I know dramas, dramas.

The pattern is an Amy Butler free pattern that I downloaded ages ago and even with the dramas will make again. It is called the Snow Mum Pillow pattern and can be found here along with all the other free Amy Butler patterns. Happy pattern finding.

Also along with the pillow being finished I added a little pocket to the Popover Dress that I made last week. All the comments left on the post said to add a pocket and I must admit that that is where I was leaning to aswell. So voila, one little dress for a 4 yr old with a bound pocket added. 

Again I am really liking it. So Lilia's birthday presents are all finished and ready to be posted next month. I really hope she loves this dress as much as the last one and getting some clothes is not too boring a present.

Next up is the skirt that I showed you the material for the other day and I think Olivia needs some new pyjamas as she really only has one pair that fit her so some new flannel 'jamas are on their way there. 

It really amazes me sometimes how much I enjoy creating something that looks great from a piece of flat material. I grew up seeing mum sewing and her making a lot of our clothes and at times sewing for other people from home. I never wanted to learn or was interested at all. It is funny/interesting to me now though, that 2 of my sisters and I have all started to sew since being in our 30's, and we are actually replicating what our mother did at about the same time period in her life too.

p.s. you can find me linking here, here and here. There are always lots of other fabulous things to see that others have made too.