Quick Dress Sewing Day

Today we are going to play a little game of "don't look at the finer details for want of seeing the dodginess".

I whipped up this Go-To Dress for Miss J today.  I have learnt a lot.

1. For the love of all that is holy, use stretch knit fabric, not stretch slinky, lycra-ish, I-won't-feed-through-the-machine, fabric.

2.  If you are wanting to do a sleeveless version, as I was considering, make the ruffle bit a little longer and you could do it.  Being the forward thinker that I am (snicker) I didn't measure before cutting it out, so I added some short sleeves out of the knit ribbing which I did a ruffled hem on.






It was my first attempt at using rib knit for the neckline and I learned how to keep it straight (because it isn't completely).

Also I didn't do the waistline casing for elastic, Miss J is happier with it as is.

Cute pattern, easily whipped up using just the Overlocker.  I am going to cut one out of more appropriate fabric to see how it goes now.

Shan xx

Holiday Tea Party

Another little school holiday treat for the kidlets was a tea party this afternoon with Miss J's friend and her little sister.

Creaming Soda Spiders and Rainbow Giant Cupcake Tea Party.

The Giant Cupcake mould was a pressie from Cherie when I visited her in Sydney last week.  I did a rainbow mix through the cake (thanks again Pinterest).

And I tried out the new kikki-k alphabet stamp set I bought with some stamped name tags.

They all had a girly good time.

Holiday Herb Garden

School holiday activity the kids loved.  We made a herb garden.  Thanks to Pinterest, I am chockers full of ideas all the time, and this is an amalgam of a few of them.

I got some terracotta pots from Bunnings, and some purdy colours and set the kids up painting them all different colours.  I hammered soup spoons from a thrift store flat for the plant markers.

I mixed and matched the colours so it was a nice display.  I have basil, mint, chives, dill and parsley growing now.

Makes me happy to walk up to the front door being welcomed by bright cheery pots :).

One thing which didn't work out as desired.  I mixed the tile grout with the paint to create chalkboard paint as in the Martha Stewart instructions but it didn't work out well.  It was lumpy and dried out.  So I ended up just writing the names on in permanent marker instead.  So when I undoubtedly kill the plants I'll have to redo the spoons instead of just redoing the name.

Shan xx

A little Sydney crafting

This week I flew to Sydney to visit my gorgeous friend Cherie.  It was a pretty quick trip, as my family pines for me when I'm away, so I cannot be gone long.  Poor Miss K was waking at night to ask if I was home yet.

While there I visited the amazing Remnant Warehouse.  Gosh, the fabric heaven I was in!  I will have project pics of the most amazing fabric made into a delicious dress I am yet to finish because I broke Cherie's sewing machine.  Well, it broke when I was using it, she says it wasn't my fault, but yeah, I believe this might fall under the same banner as 'whoever smelt it dealt it'.

But what I did get done was a reversible hat in the Make it Perfect: Lazy Day Hat pattern.  I cannot say I would make this pattern again.  Infact I left it in Sydney with Cherie.  There were lots of swear words coming out of me during the joining of the brim to the hat step.  I was not happy with the process.  It turned out fine enough, but I prefer to craft with patterns which make me happy, and this wasn't one of them.  For more able people (i.e.. those not known for being unco), it might be a breeze.  But hand-eye co-ordination isn't my thang, so this didn't go as nice as it could.

Here are some pics of the hat though, I am happy with the result  And Miss J is very happy with her new hat.

I had a lovely mini-break.  I missed my family something chronic and was desperately over-tired the whole time thanks to a 3 hour time difference, but it was great to hang out with Cherie doing some crafting for a few days.  And Corey had a treat for me and upgraded my flight home to Business Class which was just wonderful of him.  I got to hang out in the Business lounge before the flight - which was great because my flight was delayed by over an hour.  They had yummy brekkie and coffee - which was most needed at this point with a 6am Sydney time start, equating to a 3am Perth time *yawn*.  Then the flight was comfy with the big chairs I could lie all 6ft of me down and have a snooze.  I've informed Corey that I only want to fly Business Class from now on.  I'm pretty sure I just won't be flying anywhere any more.

Shan xx