All dressed up

As promised, and before January 2014 fades into recent history, I'm popping in today to share some pics of us at my brother's wedding.  Luckily they were married in the space between a couple of Melbourne heatwaves and also dodged the downpour and drizzle of the day before.  They had a perfect ceremony in the garden in the late afternoon sun and then the most fun reception in a gorgeous old house in a romantically leafy street.  It think one of the most picturesque places you can get in Melbourne.

As the only guests with children we had a surprisingly great time, the kids loved it - there were uncles, aunts and grandparents to have fun with, endless amounts of bubbles to blow from little mini champagne bottles and while everyone was looking at the bride alighting from the carriage I'm sure my boys had their eyes fixed on the two handsome horses pulling it.  We trotted the kids back to our accommodation for bed at the appropriate times and thanks to two lovely school friends of mine they were taken care of while my husband and I enjoyed some adult time.  Its so rare for us to be dressed up and out together that I think we would have enjoyed ourselves no matter what!

And the boys outfits - a total success for handmade!  They suited the formal occasion perfectly and gave the boys a sense of importance and inclusion amongst all that adult company.  A few people spoke to me about their little outfits and I wasn't shy about explaining how they were made...and then someone asked me if I had made my own dress...well no, but maybe there will be another time for such a project.

Everyone loves wedding photos so without further ado, here's a selection:

 

And finally, one of my favourite pictures from the afternoon, me and my brothers and my crazy toddler chasing bubbles and getting in the way of an otherwise great photo - love that kid to pieces.

Summer days :: a no sew zone, almost

Not much sewing going on here at the moment, I'm flat out just muddling my way through the summer school holidays with two little boys.  Trips to museums, galleries, the movies, a theatre show, a puppet show, swimming lessons and water play with friends at the local pool.  Mucking about under the sprinkler in the garden, Saturday afternoons on the beach, watching The Muppet Show on DVD, coping with the odd heatwave and a short but sharp runny nose thing that swept through our family.  I'm exhausted just thinking about all that we've done.

In my "spare" time I have squeezed in making a couple of pairs of pants for the boys to finish these outfits for my brother's wedding this coming weekend.

They are Made by Rae's Parsley pants pattern with pouch pockets and the tuxedo stripe options, in a charcoal quilting cotton.  I took a little bit of the flare out of the leg and also for the first time made a flat front pant.  The pants are an easy make even though there were lots of new little details I've never tried in pants making before.  The final fit is really great and the boys can't wait to wear them - win, win.  I'll treat you to a few pics of them in their outfits in due course.

I've also started to make what is possibly one of the easiest garments to sew and it's taking me the longest time ever to finish them...I'm making some sweet pillowcase dresses from some lovely embroidered pillowcases I've had in my stash for some time.

These dresses will be headed for the shop in a few weeks once school goes back and I have time to set up my photography gear sans seventy billion interruptions.

We are off to Melbourne tomorrow (eek, I've still got to pack!) and returning just in time for the first day of the new school year.  If you want to follow what we get up to just come and follow me on Instagram.

Makes 2013 :: looking forward to 2014

Hello 2014!

I really thought 2013 was going to be a year of change for me, and while it didn't really pan out that way I learned to accept things more and enjoy this moment in time in my life.  Particularly in the second half of the year I realised how lucky I am with my little family and our relatively trouble free life.  I ate better, I slept better, I felt happier, I embraced the every day more and worried less about the "should have, could have, would have".  I was offered a great job and then was un-offered it which was just crushing but it made me start to make some serious plans and find connections that were there just waiting for me all along.  The big changes I was looking for didn't happen but in the end I think I was happier for that.

That said, I hope again that there's going to be a lot of changes for me this year, I'm ready to shake off the full time stay at home mum label, I'm ready to use that teaching qualification I finished four years ago, I'm ready for more sewing and ready for having more fun with photography and I'm ready for a few changes to this blog for sure, nothing like a little shake up and refresh. A new look and a slight name change are brewing in my mind, but I will be tackling that all in good time (I've got my fourth party of guests for the holiday season arriving this afternoon...toilets need cleaning and beds need making!)

Due to a lack of access to my sewing room over the Christmas/New Years break I thought I'd start the year by looking back at some of my favourite makes for 2013 ::

I've never done a recap of a whole year of sewing and making before and I'm really pleased to see it all laid out like this.  A range of clothes for my boys (who says boys are hard to sew for!), skirts, tops and dresses for me, a spot of crochet, one cushion, one daycare blanket, one hat, one toy and some quilt blocks started this time last year that remain unprogressed 365 days later.  I started experimenting with knit fabrics (I'm still in the experimental phase there I think), did a good amount of upcycling/refashioning from found fabrics and op-shop garments and took part in some community sewing events such as Selfish Sewing Week and Kids Clothes Week (which is on again soon by the way, click here to find out more).  I also started making the clothing in my shop to a better standard, taking time to add trims and pockets and buttons that give the items a little more finished and polished look, and I've got plans to sew some new patterns to increase the range of things on offer there.  (I say every year that I must do more with my shop but it never happens, it remains a study in what happens when you put things for sale on the internet and then never promote them! And I'm happy with that right now.)

Here's hoping that 2014 is a happy year for you.

Now, lets get sewing!

Holiday fun :: the end of 2013

Summer holidays are on and we are all at home.  We've been alternating between relaxing together and preparing for the Christmas celebrations.  Interstate and overseas guests are joining us this year so it's going to be a full house of laughter, stories, conversations, music and eating up a storm.  I think this will be my last blog post for 2013, time is sparce for blogging.  I'll leave you with some holiday pictures from the last few weeks:

:: we've been playing and tidying up in the garden ::

:: I've been keeping the kids amused sewing them some new pillowcases.  We went fabric shopping together and found the Christmas fabric to be basically sold out so we went for Dr Seuss and dancing gnomes.  I call this photo "Thing One and Thing Two" ::

:: I also snuck in making a new green pillowcase for myself using some vintage sheet fabric scraps ::

:: and in between all this, and usually at nap and TV time, I've been sewing myself a new dress.  Another Washi dress from this beautiful navy linen, a recent op shop fabric find ::

:: I've finished a vintage sheet dress for the shop ::

:: and a book delivery in the mail has had me doing some dreaming and planning new sewing projects for 2014 ::

Thanks for reading along this year :: have a great Christmas and New Year's break and see you next year!  xx

One of those moments

We weekended away on an island and after a day of swimming and playing we had a bracing boat ride home with the wind in our hair.  Fresh sheets on the bed at bed time and he crawls into the crispy cotton with a sigh. "I love my Maisy pillow", he says with contentment. His childhood love of Maisy mouse and his Mama's love of sewing for him is wrapped up right there, warming my heart. Despite my own tiredness I read out loud a quick few chapters of his well read and loved Faraway Tree book and he's away to dreamtime.

Long weekending

A long weekend just gone here in Brisbane - the Queen's birthday.  A pity the weather was so terrible, I'm sure the rain scuttled many a long weekend getaway plans.  We stayed put though and just enjoyed each other's company.  There was a spot of crochet on possibly my longest running project ever...

Biscuit making and biscuit eating

Admiring illustrations and listening to translations of Russian children's stories

Making box cubbies and reading in them

Looking out at our soggy building site and willing our extension to be finished soon

 

Loving the warmth being pumped forth from our new wood heater.  Having this is making us so happy!

Time for tea, Mad Men and chocolate biscuits.  xx

What to do with the cardboard tube from the fabric bolt

Now and then we come home from the fabric store with a few cardboard tubes that have been emptied of their fabric.  The store just has them in a bin by the counter and we just help ourselves, we never ask and nobody objects, so I guess it's OK.

They get used for various things, and sometimes I curse them as they fall loudly on our hard floors, or I step and trip on them (ouch), but they get used by the boys for hours of entertainment (rules: no swinging, hitting and keep them down low).  Eventually the cardboard disintegrates (or I get thoroughly sick of them) and we toss them away and get new ones another time.

The best is rolling matchbox cars down inside them.  The small boy likes the action of the popping the car into the tube, the big boy likes how the cars shoot across the floor as they exit their long and sloping tunnel.

Yesterday afternoon it was cold and it was just the two of us inside with the heater on.  He rolled with intent and concentration, I played chief toy car retriever.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

And back

Whoa, Easter school holidays - what a blur.

I feel like I had just enough time to post off some tutu skirts to a friend's baby, 

complete a custom order for my shop,

and cut out, stick together and trace a pattern for a Washi dress.

All sewing things were then packed away downstairs, the sewing table tidied and dusted and I got on with the business of eating too much (cheap) chocolate and too many hot cross buns, taking boys to the dinosaurs at the museum and trips into the city on the bus.  Then we all hopped on a plane for a whirlwind trip to Melbourne to celebrate my brother's birthday.  An intense couple of weeks that's for sure.  

I came back to prepare for a total waste of time job interview on Tuesday...and just when you were thinking things couldn't get crazier, well yes, they did.  We signed a contract and blokes started coming over to our house every morning at 7am to start a renovation.  

I tell you, sewing has almost, just almost, been the last thing on my mind of late.

Today in between the audio assault of the sound of angle grinders and steel beams and the olfactory assault of steel primer paint I'm alternating between vegging out on the daybed with coffee and Frankie magazine, attending to toddler needs and intermittently attacking tulle with my rotary cutter to make another tutu skirt.

I'm going to leave it there, I think I'm getting high on primer fumes....

Wednesday night, Batman night

Last night's school disco theme: superheros!

The superhero outfit I made in 2010 for my then four year old is still a favourite dress up, but it was too small and he needed an upgrade, something new and special for his first school disco.

Batman was his superhero of choice.  I made a black cape from a metre of black poly/cotton, found a Batman hood in the shops for $5 (added bonus, it reverses into a Spiderman hood!), and grabbed this old red star t-shirt and appliqued a Batman symbol on the front (just machine basted it on so I could easily pick it off later).

I was looking for "cool Mum" points when he came home from school, and the first thing he said was, "Mum, you sewed the Batman thing on upside down".  Lucky for that machine basting, yes?

I was mortified, we all had a good laugh.  Not so cool Mum after all... 

After that small costume redress we went discoing - a school hall full of little kids in costumes, loud music, glow sticks and flashing lights - crazeeeee!  

The love in the stitches

 Oh how I love my little guy, he's super cheeky with a ready smile, he's got a soft little giggle that he reserves for when something is really funny, or if I tickle his ribs. He's quiet and patient and gentle, and very attached to being in the warm cocoon of our little family.  

But this year it's time for me to start to inch my way forward to a return to some form of paid work outside the home.  For my little guy this means one thing - he has started in daycare.  After a false start with a local commercial daycare operator that neither of us felt comfortable with he now has one day a week at a community based centre in a beautiful setting with beautiful resources and the most friendly and caring daycare staff a mother could wish for.  He seems to be settling in and having fun, and also getting plenty of cuddles when he needs re-assuring.  It's odd for me too in these first weeks, I feel a little empty handed and directionless without him.

To make sure there's plenty of love packed in his bag when he goes for his day I made him a special sleep time blanket.  

I used some fabrics I already had for the top, a vintage nursery print and red gingham, and backed it with a metre of red and white striped flannelette.

  I hand stitched the bias binding on the back, every stitch has a little bit of love and wishes for fun...

...and happy days. 

xx

Get it while you can

Nothing like getting a crafty fix when a donkey costume is in order for the class Christmas performance.  

A felt mask and a plaited fabric tail attached to a waistband was my challenge of weekend last.  The tail was easy, some grey corduroy was waiting for me in the scraps bin at the fabric store so I chopped it into strips, plaited it and sewed it to a waistband of the same fabric with a velcro fastener - quick and kid friendly.  But a donkey mask? Quelle horreur!  There was researching, sketching and pattern making, a whole lot of estimation and flying by the seat of one's pants, a raid of my felt box, and I ended up with this:

The idea was to wear the mask over the face...but it mostly got pushed up onto the forehead.

Makes a great silouhette, don't you think?

The performance was a success, he remembered his lines, the adults hardly understood what was going on but everyone finished up happy.  A great end to the school year.

Hee-haw!

New

A new camera body and lenses have come to live at our house.  A lovely macro lense is rocking my world, I have a whole new way of photographing the world around me up close.

The curls of my baby's hair.

The seedlings I've been planting in my garden.

And I've been playing around with exactly how close up I can take a picture of a piece of fabric.
Just because.  Look at the weave on that chicken!

Much fun.

What's new for you?