Marble magic

Finished up some stuff this morning. These are Jalisa's winter PJs. The top pair I dyed - an experiment gone wrong, so I am glad they are just for bed.
Hooded tracksuit made from french terry and some marble dyed jersey. I mucked up the placement of the pocket (should have been 2cm higher) so it looks out of proportion. Jalisa was not keen on wearing this for a photo, but hopefully she will warm up to it soon. I don't want her to get too picky about her clothes just yet.

Diary cover made from some more marble dyed fabric. I have also been working on some secret sewing (for the Snailblazer swap).

Doggy duds

I used a Robert Kaufman dog print on drill and Ottobre 2/2003 #5 to make these pants. You can't see all the details (panel seams, topstitching, bellows pockets, faux fly) but they make the pants. Still a little long for Scotty, but hopefully he will get lots of use out of them.

Boring, fluffy, last minute

I find it difficult to think of exciting titles...

I snatched a little sewing time Tuesday night and yesterday when the kids were occupying themselves. The tee is the curved raglan sleeved one from Ottobre. I am thinking of adding some marbling in shades of blue and maybe yellow (red comes out pink). The cropped jacket is #5 from Ottobre 1/07. I think I will let Jalisa wear it so I can decide whether it needs a closure or not. I would have like a darker pink ribbing, but I could not find one anywhere. The pink feathers are left over from the coat I made last year (do you remember the houndstooth coat I made for the show).
Since I was seeing Mum, I thought I better get around to making her Mother's Day gift...I had really been putting on making up a pattern for the photo album cover I had decided to make. After being unsucessful in finding a suitable fabric that I thought my Mum would like (that I had enough of) I decided to think of something else to make. Since Mum is travelling to England later on in the year, I thought of maing her some bright luggage tags, to help her identify her suitcases. I found a pattern here .

The pattern is pretty wide, so if I made them again, I would reduce the width. I also have decided to add Mum's details (if she wants) on some white cotton with a permenant pen rather that sew on the plastic pocket like the pattern stated. I also added a snap so that they can be put onto the suitcase with ease. Mum was really delighted at the present and said they were so much better than the pieces of fabric they used to tie around their luggage.

Raglan jackets and dyeing

Wayne was keen on buying Jalisa a warm jacket to wear to the show. I thought I had better get my act together and make her one, as I have the pattern, fabric and the goal to make one.

I used the Raglan jacket from Kwik Sew for Toddlers with the hoodie. The outer fabric is a blue/green feather's knit. The lining is some cotton jersey that I dyed violet. To make the lining, a just cut out the same pattern, but cut at the fold-in line. Not the correct way of doing it but it worked out fine.
This is some of the marble dyeing that I have been experimenting with. The instructions are from Dharma trading but my interest was piqued after reading a thread at Sewing Mamas. I still have a lot of practice to do to get it looking - I still need to get my work space worked out efficiently - but it is addictive. I whipped up this tracksuit yesterday. Same KSFT pattern that I usually use, in a size 3.

Show entries

These are my entries for the show. It category is actually called Cotton Creations and thus garments made for the different classes (daywear, eveningwear, creative, fanasty classes) are to be made from predominately cotton fabric.
This dress is based around pattern #101 from Burda 12/04, with my own adaptions. Firstly, I raised the centre front seam. I added a full skirt rather than the panelled/gored Burda version – as I thought this would save me a lot of time and possibly fabric. I have used a pink cotton sateen with a black and white cotton sateen for the hem band.

I originally bought some mini pom pom trim to add to Jalisa’s clothing, but I thought it could work on this dress. I found it a little tricky sewing onto the curved seams – I think it would be much easier sewing to a fabric on the grain. The outfit went together fairly easily. I had forgotten how easy dresses can be. If I had had more time, I would have added some more detail to the skirt, some type of trim, but I was a little pressed for time.

This outfit has been my most challenging (sewing) task in a long time. The jacket is fully lined, has set-in ¾ sleeves and there are bands at the end of the sleeves and at the back hem. There is also a front band that stretches from the hem up the centre front, with a 90 degree inward cornered seam. The knee length pencil skirt has a shaped waistband and a front band for the buttons.

I have used mother of pearl shell buttons – which were a bargain buy from Ebay. The patterns are #105 and # 118 from Burda 2/05. In the close up you can see my dyeing mistakes, but I have come to accept the freckles and know what to do next time.

Thanks for looking.

Where has the time gone?

I find it hard to believe that Scott is 7 months already. He is such a delight to watch - he is doing all kinds of stuff that Jalisa never did

Like making a mess when eating his food. Okay, so Jalisa made a little mess, but boy is the guy messy

Jalisa only started doing head stands just before Scott did

Scott is crawling now - Jalisa only ever commando-crawled (and in a lopsided way too). And why is it that I only notice all the little things Jalisa has left of the ground when Scott has already found them and has them in his hands and or mouth?

I really need to remember to post more

Here is the test neck tie cooler that I made. Really easy, just make a tube of the width of the fabric, sew a seam through the centre, fill each side with a teeny amount of gardening water crystal stuff (like 1/8 of a teaspoon), sew two more seams 12cm along and then repeat so that you have a total of 4 pockets. Fold in the edges and voila. I made these tees the other day for Jalisa, when Scott was having a good sleeping day. Usually he naps for 40 minutes, three times a day and by the time I get the washing/dishes/tidying/other chores done and played with Jalisa, there is not much time left over to sew (hence why I usually sew when he is awake and happy to play on the floor) .

Once again, I used Ottobre's best tee's pattern. The purple mottled is leftover from a project for me (remember the top and skirt). The other two are from thrifted cottons. To embellish the pink tee, I used crochet cotton in the bobbin and sewed from the wrong side.

Oops, it's been awhile since I posted

So I took Jalisa to the park to get some action shots of her in her new pants and she goes on the slide and lands face first in the dirt. Here are her new cord pants, pink version. I used Ottobre 3/02 #14 and my only camplaint is they are a little baggy, more suitable for boys pants.
This is the purple version. Exactly the same fabric and pattern, this pair spent some time in a blue dye bath.

His and her leggings. This fabric was an op shop find.

Ottobre best tees is a great pattern. The rainbow tee has matching leggings. The purple fabric was from an op shop. I will decorate the white tee later when Mum's group has our craft day.

Ottobre curved raglan sleeve tee, from 2/2005. Blue has hand dyed by moi. I love this pattern, and there are several versions in this issue (the curved colour blocking looks great). The curve makes the sleeves only a tad more fiddly, but the results look great. I am undecided whether to leave this tee plain or decorate it.

Challenge yourself to sew (or something else) everday for a week

It is a great way to kickstart your sewjo (or equivilent). Now some of this was done in the day that I had a few child-free hours to sew and not offically in the challenge week. But I did manage to sew 5 garments, plus the appliques plus cut some things out...not bad.

Okay, here is a tracksuit from the vintage Kwik Sew for Babies book. I saw a similar fabric combo in an Ottobre magazine and quite liked it, but it is a bit meh in my version. I think the ribbing looks a little old fashioned when done in contrast colours. The positive was the ribbing was from my stash - so bit by bit I am chipping away at my fabric. The spotted fabric is polar fleece, so toasty and warm for my little boy. Next up is the coordinating overalls. The pattern is from Ottobre 3/02 (#2). I bought this magazine is German and it is funny how much I thought I could use the intructions. I had no idea how they did the opening from the diagram they had, with no words for back-up. Forgot to cut out the crotch piece too, so that made it a little easier.

Another VKSFB jacket, this time in hand dyed (by me) cotton fleece and grey marle ribbing. Once again, not super impressed with my fabric combo, but the fleece was free and ribbing from stash so this jacket was very inexpensive to make.

This sock monkey was destine for the polar fleece overalls. Sadly, the brown was not suitable. However, he found a home on the blue jackets. I love him.

This is the snap shoulder tee from Ottobre 1/07 (#1). Cotton lycra hand dyed by me. Looks huge, not sure if it will be too big for Scott this Winter.

Meet Dodgy Bob, so name because it rhymes with dodgy job (which is what I did with this little applique). He actually looks pretty good from the inside (where I was sewing him from) but the lock stitch did me no favours. This is Kwik Sew 2433 view D in a brown french terry knit. It is supposed to have cuffs, but I found them to be too small, so off they went.

Close up of Dodgy Bob

Finally, some leggings. I love these - they take under 15 minutes including ample tome pinning. There is a stack of them in Ottobre magazines, so take your pick.

According to Jalisa...

...The postman brings good presents.

My valentine swap arrived and oh what a treat it was. The postman actually came when I was in the middle of cooking dinner and I had to send Jalisa out because I was embarrassed at wearing a tea towel for an apron (read on and you will see why I am revealing my secrets).

What a pleasure it was to open Natalie. Shame on me for just shoving your stuff in the satchel when you took the time to wrap the items up so delightfully - all in theme with valentines. Individual items for the kids were wrapped up in red spotted cellophane and ribbons, complete with little tags. My present was wrapped in red tissue paper.

• 
  Here’s a run down of the goodies Natalie sent me:
  Heart appliquéd face washer for Scott
• Grosgrain? Ribbon covered hair clips for Jalisa - she loves them!
• Ferreo Roche and Lindt chocs (which I will share with DH)
• Some care bear fabric, vehicles fabric, red buttons, 2 heart buttons and some butterflies (which Jalisa tried to eat to see if they were lollies - what are these Natalie?) and
• A 3 heart appliquéd apron

Natalie - the apron is literally just what I wanted. I have been meaning to make myself some aprons, I even have the fabric set out, but have not been motivated enough to take the time to do that for myself. So I thank you so much for knowing exactly what I needed.