Kokeshi Tea Party

I finished the Oliver + S Tea Party dress last weekend. I bought the pattern from Duckcloth, who are closing down their online store. Their Oliver + S Patterns are 40% off. This only cost $15, which is a bargain for such a well drafted pattern.


I originally purchased this fabric from Spotlight, quite some time ago. I loved it because of the Japanese Kokeshi Dolls and the slubs give the fabric awesome texture. I kind of wish I had bought a co-ordinating print when I got it, but I didn't have any specific plans. I have a feeling there was only black there at the time, which is probably why I never bought it. I have seen red and I think navy as well. I am sure if they had those I would have got some?


So once I decided that this was the fabric I was using for this dress I went off to my local quilt shop to find something to co-ordinate. I really wasn't sure if they would work or not. I really liked the way the red, floral fabric matched the Kokeshi Doll fabric, but wasn't sure about the purple. The purple against the red was a little scary, but there were little hints of purple in the Kokeshi fabric that I wanted to exploit. In the end, I decided to just go with it.


I hadn't really planned what to do about buttons. I saw there was two buttons in the list of items that I would need to complete the dress, but for some reason, I didn't think of them as being important. I envisioned some decorative buttons somewhere, completely forgetting that I would need them for the straps. I don't know what I was thinking? Anyway, I remembered that I had a little pack of self-covered buttons from Pack It In that would do nicely, especially since I had the ideal fabric to use, with tiny motifs that fit the buttons perfectly. I put a bit of interfacing on the back to help reduce the shine-through from the button. I KNOW I have seen this suggested on a blog somewhere, but I can't remember where??? If someone knows, can they please tell me so I can credit it? The blogger may or may not have suggested wadding as well??


I love these little buttons so much, I may need to make some more...

On a Roll

Liam attended a school friend's birthday party on the weekend. I made her a personalised pencil roll. Elise seemed really happy with it. I noticed that there were some colouring books amongst the gifts she was given, so the pencil roll and pencils should come in handy.


My pencil roll has twelve slots, for twelve pencils. I sent Maxx out to get the pencils at the last minute. He bought the packet, thinking that it had twelve in there, but it was a pack of ten. He even clarified before he left that it needed to be a pack of twelve. Apparently, he didn't realise that sometimes pencils come in packets of ten. He chose the ones he did because they had the triangle shape that is supposed to be good for pencil grip. I think for future projects, a pencil stash might be in order.


We had a bit of a discussion before he left about pencils vs textas. Maxx prefers pencils, whereas I love textas. I remember not being allowed to have textas when I was about six or seven, I wanted the saturated colour that you get with textas that you don't get with pencils. These days, you can get lovely textas that are easy to wipe off surfaces, such as the Crayola washables. Maxx says he always preferred to draw and colour with pencils. Which do you prefer?


For this project, I used about one fat quarter of fabric.
SYST13 Running totals: in = 172, out = 52, total = +120

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

It's time to announce the winners of my Two Blue Birdies giveaway.

The winner of the rainbow felt pack was Bec Clarke, who said:

Fabric with Kites
Fabric with bikes
And some bunting too.
To make a quilt
that I could send
With love from me to you!!!

And the winner of the Anne Kelle FQ pack was MsMidge, who said:

I would use the Ready, Set, Go! helicopters....I've been keeping an eye out at the shops for helicopter fabric that isn't too babyish, and I love that one. I want to make a keepsake of some sort for my boss/friend who lost her husband last year. He was a helicopter pilot :) Lovely giveaway Carmel!

Congratulations to the winners, who have both been contacted and have their prizes on their way to them.