I have been quiet because....

I have started the nerve racking experience of finding a job!  Our situation dictates that I need to find a job in order for us to live the life that we want to live, so I have been here (but not exactly on blogger) searching for a job online!

I am amazed at just how easy this internet has made it for us job hunters (well...as easy as job hunting can be)!  There are many sites that will have vacancies up and you are able to apply for them online or print off an application form and head in with it and your resume/CV and hand it in.  No more heading into your choice of workplace, acquiring an application form and having to head back after you have filled it out or filling it out right there!  My problem was making up my resume....I have not done it for many, many years (obviously)!  It took me about a day to get mine together before I actually liked it!

BUT it hasnt all been dull and gloomy here!  I have started on some crochet projects that my friend commissioned me to do for her birthday a little while ago.  Her birthday is on the 25th, so I thought I had better get my finger out and do something about them!

I have started to go over to the school in the mornings and help out Weez's class with their reading.......VERY rewarding stuff that!  I had a kid this morning that I hadnt heard since about mid last year and then he was horrible to sit with!  This morning, he was a gem!  He had improved soooo much!  I have also realised that I have a love of working with children.

Then there is this:

The Pledge

I Michelle Watts pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 / 4 / 6 months. I pledge that i shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract. I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings!

Signed MLWatts.

I took this up this morning!  I will have to work out something to do with a 'real' signature.  No doubt I will have to buy some uniforms to go to work in, but I am thinking that it should be ok.  It will probably be just shirts, because I have plenty of different coloured pants!  All my other clothes will be refashions!  I have also decided that I will venture into it for the kids as well......all of them are growing soooo much and they will need new clothes soon!  PLUS the boys are forever needing new shorts!  But what do you expect from boys, hey?  LOL

I have to get these up!!

I absolutely HAVE to get these photos up, coz I am expecting some visitors soon!!  One little visitor in particular, I am VERY much looking forward to meeting for the first time.  That is right - I get to meet my new little nephew tonight!  Can you tell I'm excited?  Have a goosey at these little beauties!  I hope that T likes them and will use them often!

Most of them you would have seen before from my posts during the last week.  The blue burpie blankies are made from an old towel (with no holes, of course!) and I added a little decorative stitch to the inside edge, mostly to keep the inside intact, because I cut it too narrow and just coz (felt like being adding a little detail).  the bibs I made just today, so they are hot off the press!  Now.....to find some wrapping paper that is not too girlish to wrap them in!!

WHOOPS!!

Remember how I told you that I would come back here for a show and tell of what I made yesterday?  Well, I forgot to take photos of the completed projects before they were whisked off to school!  So sorry!  I will come back on tonight and post them up (provided they come home today!).

I hope these photos more than make up for my lack of organisation this morning!

From this ordinary looking shirt to.....

This sort of ordinary looking skirt.....EXCEPT!!  It was designed by Corky!!  I gave her the shirt and a piece of paper and told her to draw a skirt that she would like made.  I tweeked the pattern a little and sewed it up for her.....with her at my elbow (sometimes very very near to my elbow) looking on while I did.

 

Didn't work out QUITE the way we planned, but she is proud of it, all the same!

And here are some blankies that I have made up for a friend who recently had a baby

They are made from squares of what I call minky-type fabric.  I think it is actually a long pile polar fleece or something!  Dunno (if you do, then please tell me!).  They are backed with a terry cloth fabric in lime green.

I am making up another couple tonight, so I might venture into a tutorial.....just in case you are wondering how to make them!

Creative shot!!  hehe

Thursday already???

Holy COW!!  The weeks are just FLYING by!!  I s'pose that's happens when you are busy, hey?

I have some op-shop goodies to share with you!!  I went out yesterday on the sole purpose of finding Bubba Pete some new (old) school shorts and came home with a heap of goodness (as well as some shorts and two shirts - bonus!).  Of course, I expected myself to find these other said goodies that I just HAD to add to any one of my stashes, so I set myself a budget (yep - a BUDGET for op-shopping!) and took off and here is what I bought:

Harry Potter curtain material for Bubba Pete's library bag.....he is a Harry Potter/Ben 10 fan.  This was originally two skinny pieces.  I sewed them up last night before I thought to take a photo of them and they matched up almost perfectly!  And I just put them together and sewed!  Did NOT think that they would come together as well as they did!

 

A large, red men's shirt that I liked the look of the front.  PERFECT for a recon job!  AND it is from Jeans for Genes Day!  Can't WAIT to get my hands on it and my scissors and my sewing machine!

 

A lovely velvet-type material that is made up in a rectangle and lined on the back - my thoughts.....a bag - with lining already to match!  No going through my stash to look for the perfect lining for this one!

 

Fabric remnants - with a little bit of interfacing to boot!  THAT was a surprise!

 

Cotton yarn - gonna be perfect for what I want to make as Chrissy presents this year!

 

Clockwise from top left - 2 flannel pillow cases that will go superbly as flannel pants for Weez for Winter, Vogue pattern that tickled my fancy, red skirt - perfect for a recon job and chicky minky-type material....just perfect for the gift I plan on making for my friend who has just had a baby!

So what have I been up to today?  Cleaning out my office, of course!!  What else would any SANE person be doing the day after finding some goodies and making plans for each piece???  Seriously, though - it was in dire need of a great clean!  With my back the way it has been....I have been unable to do JACK and it is really really ticking me off!!  I can honestly say that, today, I have earned my keep around here!  LOL  TONIGHT, however, my sewing machine will be getting a much needed work-out!  Will come back tomorrow and have a little show-and-tell!

Tuesday Trio.

Instead of doing some sewing/crocheting or whatever other crafty thing my mind was supposed to be set at yesterday afternoon, I decided to head downstairs and go through some of my fabric stash.  I wanted to make a little purse out of some of the sample curtain material I got really cheap from a curtain shop that was closing down a couple of years ago.  I found some of said material, but to my surprise it was already cut out to make something else!  Of course, to make my life easier, the pattern and instructions werent with it, but I knew that I had to have gotten it off the internet - most likely somewhere over at Craftster.  So I set to looking for it there first.....only to be distracted by all the brand new stuff that I found on there!  Don't ya just HATE that?

Not to worry, though!  I found it (here)!  And here are the finished results -

And individually - I can tell you....I remember cutting these out now and it was a little hard to get the pattern to line up properly on the front!

These are destined to be gifts.  Probably for Christmas time.  I have a box which I like to fill with little things each year and this year, I have decided to fill it mostly with handmade objects, instead of cheap and nasty things I find at the $2 shop on sale.

So, my next endeavour will involve a reconstruction!  You may remember the bag I made from the shorts that my friend gave me...?  She also gave me a few items of clothing that she no longer wore...and I dont blame her!  Have a look at these -

"Hmmmmmmm" right?  I don't mind the black and silver/grey one....just the top needs changing.  The other one, however, is black with a bright yellow top and that ribbon is actually a purple....photo does not do it much justice.  The blue and white number is not too bad, either, except that it has a few rips in it and is looking a little old.

So i set to work with my unpicker today and came up with this -

First intentions were to make these into a broomstick skirt, but the one on the right has a thin gauzy material, which wont be suitable for it.  It does, however, have a lycra-type underskirt, which I can make into a pair of tights for me or one of the kids!  The rest may just go away for a future project.

Further inspection of the silver/grey one shows me that mayhaps I shouldn't have taken the skirt off and only changed the top around a little....but we learn from these things, don't we?  I shall just have to sew it back on....IF I can figure it out (my sewing skills are limited to straight sewing...haven't gone into gathering too much, just yet!).

As for the blue one.....?  No idea, just yet!  There are two layers - the blue with white dots and a white underskirt.......hmmm......

Sarong revamp.

I had a great day yesterday, sewing with Pete's cousin! She is visiting from Mackay for a few weeks (camping at a little spot just near Yeppoon) and decided to make her granddaughter, Mack, a Christmas dress. Since it had been nearly 20 years since she last sewed (or so she says), she asked if I would be willing to help her out. Of course, I told her that I would be delighted to give her a hand! So she came over yesterday morning, looked through my patterns and picked this one:

Just lovely, isnt it? I think I got it from an op-shop a little while ago and havent been GAME to use it! Now, I reckon I am....it is quite simple!

Next was a trip to Spotlight, where we discover that they are having 75% off Christmas stock! BARGAIN!!

So we get back to my house, set up, but before we can get into tracing the pattern (was cut out for size 7 and we needed size 3....none of my girls are size 3 any longer, so we decided to trace instead of cut to ruin the pattern itself!), Lee brings out some sarongs that she has been wearing tied at the front, but has been too afraid of them opening up with the first sign of a breeze! So, not wanting to scare the other people at the beach, she asked if we could work out how to sew them like another that she had that was pre-sewed (sewn??) shut in the front with a little bit of elastic in the back, sewn into a casing. "Looks simple enough!" I exclaimed and immediately jumped at the chance of working out how a 'simple' little thing was designed and made!

With both of us working on different ones, it took us about 1 1/2 hours to work it out and the 2nd took only a smidge of that time to make up! I was proud of our efforts, so I thought that I would share it with you guys, here! I will apologize for my bad pictures straight up.....I didnt even THINK of taking photos of the process while we were doing it during the day! So these photos are taken under fluorescent lighting and flashy from my camera....I have picked the best ones! I hope you can see them properly!

Materials needed:
Sarong (The good thing about using an already made sarong is that you dont have to worry about folding over the edges, coz they are already hemmed for you!)
Length of 2.5cm wide elastic
I would not recommend using a flimsy elastic.....one that is a little heavy will do the trick for a long time.
XL - 25cm (10")
L - 22.5cm (9")
M - 20cm (8")
S - 17.5cm (7")
Thread
Pins
Safety pins

Here is mine untouched, folded in half lengthways.










Decide which long end you would like to have at the top of your sarong. Fold down this top edge 3cm, pin and sew close to hemmed edge to make a casing for the elastic.














Sew another line close to this line to reinforce the casing.













Fold the material in half, marking the middle.



I did mine with a pin through one side of the casing....my reasons will come apparent soon!








Put the safety pins in each side of the elastic and insert elastic into the casing.













Push through elastic to the half way mark and secure the middle of the elastic to the middle of the sarong's casing.













Measure the required distance from the middle of the garment towards both ends and mark.
XL - 35.5cm (14")
L - 38cm (15")
M - 40.5cm (16")
S - 43cm (17")

Push elastic back through the casing on each side and secure with a pin (and you thought I was being silly asking you to put safety pins on either end of the elastic!). Sew securely in place (I put at least 3-4 lines over it, because this will be under a lot of pressure).














Put the short end of the sarong together. Measure 23cm (9") from the top and 15cm (6") from the bottom and mark. Sew between these marks and reinforce with a line of stitching across these lines close to the splits.
























And there you have it!! The front can be tied through a shawl holder or tied by itself. I am thinking that this will become my favourite hot weather thing to wear! I have never worn it since I received it as a present years ago....because I loved the pattern and material....but mainly because I just KNEW that I could do something else with it!!

CM Tea Towel SWAP

At the beginning of every month, there is a new SWAP beginning! Last months (October) was a Tea Towel SWAP. This tea towel could be bought and embellished or made from scratch. My SWAP partner was Karma! She made me this beautiful tea towel!

Isnt it gorgeous? "Fresh is the bloom of a bright spring day" is what she wrote on it. it is HUGE, with a chocheted top! Just perfect for hanging!

As she hasnt yet received mine, here is a sneak peak of what I made:
LMAO!! Not much of a peek, but there it is...without giving away too much of it! I made it completely from scratch. I had and old 100% cotton curtain with tab tops and cut out the tea towel from that. I put a trim on the bottem and embroidered a small design on the bottem, left hand corner. Honestly, it doesnt look like much, compared to hers! I hope she likes it!!

I had soooo much fun making hers, that I have plans on making a few more as Chrissy pressies (from the same curtain). I have also cut out a couple of other things from the same curtain, so keep your eyes peeled here for the results!!

I have a skirt. This skirt is old, but hardly worn because of its plain unflatteryness (oo..nice word, must remember that one!!).

Anyway, here it is (modelled by moi, of course!!
Told ya! TOTALLY unflattering. There is a zip on the left hand side and a tie made from the binding at the top.

So, this is now going to be something else! I am going to attempt my first garment reconstruction!!!! You can join in my journey, because I am going to make up a tutorial when I do it and post it on CM and in here!

Seems I have been neglecting my blog a little! Sorry, girl!

I have been in the middle of moving houses - and towns - for the last couple of weeks, but that is NO EXCUSE for not blogging, I know!

Craft-wise, a few things have been happening, here! I took part in the Crafty Mama's keychain swap in February and their recipe card swap, too. I received Cin's keychain in the mail the other day and it is just gorgeous! Must get a photo of it and post it here! The button on it brings back memories of my childhood! I think I had a dress or something with the same buttons on it! THINK!

I am thinking of doing up the kids' rooms - not just with doonas and curtains in a theme, but with a few embellishments here and there. The thoughts are there - just have to put them into something! I must get my sewing machine back off my good friend, Di, one of these days!

This weekend is Easter! We dont have much planned for the weekend. Amy is with her family and the next couple of days sound like they are flat out for her. I plan on getting into my soap making area and organising that! I have made a challenge up for myself on Crafty Mamas, so it had BETTER get done, or those girls can seriously kick my butt!! Might get the kids in there, earning a few bucks for themselves! That will make the load easier!

Oh! Another reason to get my machine back off Di? Nik did the GORGEOUS recon of a normal T into a tank/cami top and I would just LOVE to try it out! It also gives me some incentive to try something on a skirt that has been sitting in my cupboard for a little while! I was just looking at it this morning, thinking that SOMETHING needed to be done with it, because ever since I got it off eBay, I dont think that I have worn it even ONCE (except to try it on, but that doesnt count!). Hmm....so many ideas, so little time!!!