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!!

Monday, Monday....

And yes...I DO have that song in my head, right now!  I made up a whole playlist of 60's and 70's songs on my iPod for my Dad's party and I have been listening to it while on my machine every morning!  I guess I may be a hippy at heart....?

With the cooking fiasco of yesterday behind me (the boys...not the food - might look a little ordinary, but is actually very Nom-Nom!!), I turned to today and wondered what it would bring me.  Turns out it was nothing any more special than a day to myself to wonder the internet, marvelling at the creativity of people (and adding a few blogs to my ever-growing-longer subscription list!) and enjoying the peace and quiet (well....what peace and quiet you can get out of a house beside a busy street!).

I made up some more of those little blankies (with the chicky fabric I bought the other day) and finished off a couple of burping cloths for my friends' little boy, Carter.  I made them a little while ago for my friend who had a little girl and she loved them, so I hope that Carter will love them just as much as A's little girl does!  Here are some photos:

The teddy fabric is from an old pair of pyjamas I had in my stash for AGES!!  And the nappies have been in there since the last time I made burp cloths.  The ribbon was in my trim drawer.

I am trying to think of something else to make up with the teddy material, so that little C will have a set of things made by me.  I have a HEAP left over!

Who knows.....if I keep sewing through my stash like this, I just might have to go out and buy a whole heap more.....at some stage!  hehe

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......

Monday Mojo!

After a full-on week last week, I am looking forward to a week of relative peace and quiet!  We held Dad's birthday party on Saturday night, which went quite well, so we are very VERY happy.  There were a few moments of disorganisation, but we stumbled through them and came out the other side trumps!  All in all - a good night was had by all and Dad really enjoyed himself and let his hair down (well....what hair he has left, anyway!).

Here are some photos of the dress I made for the night:

I must apologise for the photos themselves....they are cropped from others from the night and these were the best shots to get a view of both the front and back. 

I used a pattern from 'STYLE' number 2404.  Material was from the lot that I bought at the op shop week before last.  Buttons from my stash - I am fiercely allergic to sewing button holes, so I cheated and made the closure with clips and buttons sewn over the top (plus I was running out of time!!).  I also ran out of time to make the accessories that I planned on making!!  I was half way through crocheting a brooch or something using some chocolate brown yarn from my stash.....oh well!  The necklace I used was good enough to make it less plain.

So we come to today!  What is on my to-do list for today?  Well.....I have to:

* call the university and make an appointment for Thursday to see about what scholarships I may be able to apply for (found it hard to keep up with bills last year and this year looks like it won't be any better!)

* clean up my 'sewing area' - which consists of the top of the coffee table and several boxes lying around the lounge! 

* finish off the housework that I started this morning - with us being away all weekend, there isn't much to do, really!

And that's it!  Really - that IS it.  I have caught up on all the goss on blogs and facebook from the weekend, so this afternoon will be full of crafting, methinx!  Will have to come back and show it all off!

Free Friday!

Here is some of the free stuff that I have found on the web this week:

Crochet Patterns/tutorials:

 Craftzine.com - where people write in with a link to their free pattern, tutorial or whatever and have it published here.  Gives you plenty of links to patterns and has a category for just about everything you wish to know about!

The Crochet Dude - not many people know about Drew over here in Australia, but I would like to think that I am spreading the word about him and people are becoming more aware of this talented man!

Sewing Patterns/tutorials:

Indietutes - here are a lot of tutorials, technique directions and information!

Confessions of a sewing dork - HEAPS of information with tutorials!

Inspriations:

Crochet - Attic24 blog - lots of pictures in this post.  Her personal reflection on her year that was in '09 and the (very colourful) projects she completed.

Sewing - Wardrobe refashion - Lots and LOTS of inspirations here!  Follow the links to their blogs and you will get even more tutorials and inspiration!

Trashy Tuesday

(yes, I am writing this on Wednesday, but I had absolutely NO time to post last night!  Sorry!)

I have decided to make Tuesday my 'sorting out' day - for the moment, anyway.  This is where I will go through my stash (of one sort or another) or my office or my bedroom (which seems to be a dumping ground for most things!) and sort a few things out - whether it be rolling up fabric onto cardboard and putting them away, cleaning off my duchess (which my hubby manages to throw EVERYTHING on!) or my desk (which I seem to throw EVERYTHING on!).

So here is what I managed to do yesterday!

I got these four patterns from Spotlight last week at just $2 each!  So they were put into their respective spots in my pattern draw (I made that up last week).

I went op-shopping with Pete and the kids on NYE and came home with just a few bits of fabric...hehe.  All cheap, of course!  And now I know a good oppy to go to get some decent sized bits of fabric!

So they all ended up in a plastic box like this yesterday -

Added to the pile is a scraps bag that I plan on cutting up fabric squares from (idea from here), some spare plastic bags (some of the fabric came in it) and some shorts of Corky's that need taking in, because she is not quite your average sized 11 year old!

In the top photo, you may notice a roll of brown fabric with white spots...?  It is currently sitting on my ironing board with pattern pieces attached to it....waiting for tonight when I can attack it once again and, hopefully, start making the dress whose pattern I have been eyeing off for a little while!

All up....proud of my effort yesterday!  With the kids home from holidays, I find it hard to focus on anything at the moment!  Well.....for more than five minutes at a time, anyway!  Any longer and I find the kids will be fighting too much and/or wrecking something (wet weather is NOT my friend right now!).

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!!

Sewing again!!

I have decided to lift my ban on all things crafty a little, since I have mostly caught up on my studies!!

So what am I going to make? My first EVER quilt!! It will be for Will when he finally gets big enough to lay on the floor and have a little play.

I bought some little precut fabric squares from an op shop a little while ago. They are 3" x 3", so just perfect for what I want them for! They are all different sorts of fabric - thick, thin, cotton, polyester, even denim - but that will add to the charm, I am hoping! The backing and border will be some cord or a heavy material from my stash....since it will get a lot of use.

I took out the pieces last night, sorted through them and took out the boy colours. Then I put them into groups of 4 to make up larger squares to put together.

If things go well, I will be making 2! One for the floor and one for the cupboard! Will keep you all updated here!

New shorts for Bubba!!

He loves them!! I think the photo says it all!! The fabric is just a remnant I bought from Big W a little while ago and he has nearly worn the butt out of them (they get washed and he wears them straight away, again). I took the pattern from an old pair of shorts that fit him and sewed them up in just a couple of hours! Simple dimple and great, because there is no real front and back to them - perfect for him and his toilet training (no worries about putting them on back-to-front!).

Vintage SWAP at Crafty Mamas!!

The theme for the January SWAP over at Crafty Mamas was Vintage. I must say, I had a BALL making my gift for my SWAP partner! And it looks as though Lissy had a ball making hers, too! I got her little package on Friday and the kids helped me open it and 'Oooooo'ed and 'Aaaaaahhh'ed over it all. Check it out!

We have a pillowcase under it all, a covered notebook (she even glued the inside front OVER the fabric!), cushion cover with lace panel on the front and a ribbon in the corner, a felt flower pin cushion, a 'Simplicity Rugs + Stitches' pattern (mostly uncut), a felt scissor holder and a card! LURVE 'em!! Thanks Lissy!!

She has been growing her own loofah plants, too and sent me some pieces PLUS some seeds!! Isnt she just GREAT??

Been stuck, crafty and I have a new car!!

I was stuck for most of the week doing the books for Pete!! Moo helped me out a bit (payment, bribery and threats involved, there...hehe), so it made the job a little bit less monotonous....but BORING to the max, all the same!! Sitting on my butt doing bookwork all day is NOT my idea of fun at all!! Especially when your husband is working off paper and you are working off the computer and they dont match up and you have to wait until HE is ready to talk about it all and work things out with you!!

So, my evenings have been spent doing whatever I can without a sewing machine and making as little mess as possible in the lounge! Friday, however, I DID manage to make a trip to the local curtain/sewing shop that is closing down and get the following bargains:

A roll of quilting batting (about 2m I think) for $2.50/m

The habby items were just $1 each! Couldnt go past THEM!! That fabric was just $5/m (I think). It is a dark marron/wine colour and is just GORGEOUS! I got another piece of curtain remnant for just $2.50.....it is just PERFECT for a bag!

Sorry the quality of the photos are a little off, but I had to take them with my phone! Lucky Pete doesnt come here and visit!! He doesnt know that I went there and bought these...hehe.

Yesterday was a more productive day for sewing.....when my bloody machine was working!! I had to pull it apart and try and fix the bobbin winder (cam completely out). I found the little missing piece, then promptly lost it, again! LOL.....bloody Murphy! I swear I am gonna KILL him when I find him!! THEN I didnt put it back together properly, so I had to take it apart, again!! Bloody MURPHY!!!

But......I got in and did a few UFO's (unfinished objects) and actually completed them, so I am happy! I also started on a bag that has been sitting in my UFO drawer, cut out for AGES, so I am REALLY happy! Here they are, here:

These are just some tissue holders like the ones Moo made. They are made out of upholstery fabric samples I got off eBay recently and have turned out quite well! I still have a fair bit of these samples left, so goodness knows WHAT I am going to do with them!! LOL. Not to mention the curtain fabric sample books I got from the same sewing/curtain shop a fortnight ago!!

I also got in and completed my project for the latest SWAP over at CM (vintage theme)! So a really productive day all round (no photos of that, just yet, coz she hasnt got it)! Amazingly enough, I was able to sew with the little ones around.......mainly because Pete was here with a new car for me and he was pulling it apart, ready to fix it all up! I will post more about that tomorrow, I think!