My little Christmas Elves

Aren't they cute? This is a scan of a Christmas decoration I had made of my boys.

Domestic Goddess

One of the mum's in my mum's group has been baking stuff for when we come over. She makes this really yummy slice which is really just a rum balls recipe, pressed into a baking tray. I call her a domestic goddess! Anyway, this domestic goddess got to be my KK, so I made her these oven mitts. I also got her a couple of those little Women's Weekly cookbooks and a wooden handled, red spatula.

November Challenge

During the month of November, a challenge was set on Essential Baby to sew an oven mitt. Well, the oven mitt got finished with the exception of raw edges, before the end of November. The raw edges were zig-zagged, completing my oven mitt on Tuesday. So not really completed by the deadline, but understandable under the circumstances.

For my oven mitt, I used this tutorial. If I was doing it again, I would make the oven mitt bigger as it is a very snug fit.

Through doing this challenge, I actually used my walking foot for the first time. I quilted for the first time. I also jammed up my overlocker for the first time. Which is why it took me until Tuesday to finish the raw edges. I finished it off with zig zag. I might try next time to overlock the edges before sewing the top and bottom pieces together. Or I might just zigzag again. But jamming up the overlocker was not fun at all.

New Embroidery Machine

I am so excited!

On Monday I got myself a brand new embroidery machine! Its a Janome 350e, and I have been playing with it every day since I got it. It came with Customiser 11000, so I can create and edit my own designs.

The designs can be transferred from the computer to the machine via a USB stick.

I started out with a test run of the built in lettering, and did Paige's name in hot pink.

I then had a play around with customiser and imported an image from my clip-art library, and converted it into an embroidery image. The result is the card-shark pussy cat on the right.

I then had a go at using one of the built in designs, the butterfly down and to the left.

The deal with the machine was the included customiser 11000 as well as a CD of embroidery designs. I can't wait to get my hands on those designs.

A friend also dropped hints about helping out with some logos for their shirts for their business, I told him to wait a little so I get the hang of it first, but it looks like there may be a little extra money in it - good thing too, it was an expensive purchase!

Ryan's Pajamas

Shhh! Don't tell Ryan, but look what he is getting for his birthday from his Auntie Carmel!

Thomas the Tank Engine Pajamas!

I made them in size three, because he is a big boy - he is only turning two , but he is growing very fast - Look out Lachlan, he's catching up!

Sewing For Ethan

On June 3, 2008 at 3:45pm, my newest nephew, Ethan arrived.

I had some nice soft polar fleece in a very pale ice blue that I thought I would make a pair of overalls and a hoody out of.

I have been meaning to line overalls for a while, so I made a special trip to Spotlight to find some fabric to line the overalls and hoody with. I found some interlock in cream with a fine baby print on it in a pale blue. I got a metre, figuring it should be enough.


It was enough, I made the hoody, and the overalls and also a romper suit (long sleeves and legless) to go underneath. The overalls are very cosy, so I figured he really wouldn't be needing legs in the romper as well.

I appliqued a bear on the front of the overalls, to cover the front seam. I usually place a pocket here, but I photocopied the interlock print, enlarging it 300% to make my applique pattern. So the bear matches the print.

Frogs and Snails....

On Saturday, June 7, I made Liam a set of flannel sheets and cut out some pajamas for Liam. The material was from Spotlight, and has frogs and snails (with googly eyes) all over it.

As Monday was a public holiday, and I cannot for the life of me find my interfacing (I lost it when I was moving stuff from one room to the other) the pajamas had to wait until Tuesday. On Tuesday I made a trip to Spotlight and got supplies, including some nice matching buttons.

The pattern is Kwik Sew 3126. I borrowed it from mum (thanks Mum!) I made it in the smallest size, and folded the hem twice. I got an extra pair of pajama pants out of the fabric which should come in handy.

As you can see, Liam loves his new pajamas!

Orange Overalls - revisited!

I made Liam a pair of orange overalls last year, that everybody commented on. He has well and truly outgrown them by now, and he is starting to get a little big for his green and blue pair, so I made him up another pair of orange dacks!

I cut these out on Monday, June 2, and sewed them up on Tuesday June 3rd in time for a 1pm birthday party. He is wearing them here with the long-sleeved raglan t-shirt that I made on May 30.

I found these nice stripey buttons at Spotlight.

As you can see from the back detail, I did my usual adjustment of the pattern to join the straps at the back rather than having the crossover.

Busy and Productive Day

Haven't been in here for awhile, there was a bit of time there where it was a bit tricky finding the time and space to sew. Paige has moved back to her mum's, so now that she doesn't need her room full-time, it was decided that Liam could have his own room, and Paige would share hers with the sewing equipment. When the new baby comes, he or she can share with Liam.

So Paige moved out at the

start of April, and I think it was May before I started moving my sewing stuff out of Liam's room, and into Paige's. There is still stuff to move, but its nearly there. The great news is that I have a sewing room all to myself most of the time.

Somewhere in there, I managed to sew Liam a pair of denim-look jeans. They are really a very stretchy Lycra that looks like denim, not denim at all. When I get around to taking a picture of them, I will post them on here. They were really plain, just a pair of pants with some elastic in the top. I put the elastic in using stretch zig-zag. They are a little loose around the waist so he has a big nappy pin holding them up, haha.

May 30th was a big day for me sewing-wise. I managed to make two hoodies and a long-sleeved t-shirt. I used the Kwik Sew - Sewing for Baby pattern book to make these. I was surprised at how quick it all was. The hoodies have snaps up the front, so are easy to whip on and off, and there is a bit of elastic across the top of the hood to keep it on if we're out in the weather.

Finished!

Well, I finished! It really didn't take that long. You know how I said a couple of posts ago, that I would have the pants finished by the end of the day, well I have a teeny, tiny confession. I didn't. I did get the waist band done, but half way through one of the leg hems, I ran out of bobbin thread. Not to worry, I actually half expected it to happen.

What I didn't expect to happen was this... I was winding a new bobbin up, and while it was spooling away, I was brushing the fluff out of the bottom of my machine. This is standard for me. Its pretty good, as if I didn't do it when I was winding bobbins, it wouldn't get done. And it gets done well, as there isn't a bobbin case in there to get in the way. Win - win! Anyway, brushing away, hmmm... its taking awhile. I look uo to see that I am out of tread on the spool, its all on the bobbin, which isn't even half full. You would think I would have been able to tell, but I never noticed. And no thread even closely resembling it... except on the overlocker.

So I wound thread on two bobbins yesterday. And today, I re-threaded the last thread back onto the overlocker, and finished the pajamas.

Now all I need to do is go on a mad hunt for the scrap fabric leftover from this, so I can begin my related mini project.

Pink Bootees

Pink booties? What for? Everyone has boys, right? So far my parents have been blessed with six grandsons. Their seventh one (also a boy) is on the way. Isn't it great!



The pink bootees, I knitted up yesterday for Maxx's sister, Susan. Susan had her daughter Ellie just after Christmas. Well, its nice to have a girl to make things for....

Oh, and excuse the finger, it was necessary to restrain the owner of the foot I borrowed from waving it madly about! Needless to say, I have an assortment of photos of blurry pink bootees. And photos of locations that used to have bootees in them...

Paige's Procrastination Pussycat Pajamas

Ok, I'll admit it, I have big UFO in my sewing room. I have been working on these pajamas for Paige for a couple of years now. (I'm thinking possibly 3 years?).

They have been close to finished for quite some time.

All I need to do to finish the pants is hem them, make the casing for the waistband, and put the elastic in.

The top needs the sleeves hemmed, the bottom hemmed, button holes and buttons and it's done too. So a bit more work to finish the top, but really not that much to do.

As you can see in the picture on the right, I have trimmed it with pink piping, so heaps of time and energy has been spent getting them to this point, so I don't know why I haven't finished them!

Well, now I have confessed, I guess I have to finish them. I will start by finishing off the pants. The pussycat print has given me an idea for a related project. See if you can guess what it is! I am sure I will have at least the pants finished by the end of today.

LIAM'S QUILT - "i" is for insects

The image to the left is a draft of what the finished quilt will look like. Katherine was here over the weekend, so we did some drawing, trying to come up with some ideas as to the individual pictures. In the original plan, I had "i" is for Ibis.

We decided that Ibis is not a necessarily easily identified animal. Katherine agreed with me though that we couldn't do "i" for iguana either, as we were going with "a" is for alligator. So we decided on insects.

We also decided that with the exception of "L" we would use lower case letters. I hadbn't actually considered this, but when it was suggested I loved the idea, as I was having trouble finding a capital I shape that I liked that went with the rest of my letters. I was a bit unsure about the L, but Katherine pointed out that it should be a capital L as it was the start of his name.

Anyway, the image to the right, is a sketch of the "i" applique. I am thinking that the butterfly needs to be bigger, and probably the caterpillar too.

Duncan's Hat

I had been eyeing off this fabric at Spotlight for a while. There was something about the woof! woof! bark! bark! arf! arf! that grabbed me and I knew I had to make something and use it as a lining fabric.

I get comments on Liam's hat everywhere I go. It was his cousin Duncan's birthday on January 17th, so I thought why not make him one too? I went and bought the fabric straight away (and got enough to make another one as well).

Then I went for a bit of a search to see if I could find a suitable pattern, as being a little older, Duncan was sure to have a bigger head. I wasn't able to find a suitable pattern, so I took the pattern that I used for Liam's hat and scanned it, and increased its size by 15%.

Mum had some special interfacing that she had used for making bags with. She gave me some to use for the hat. Its really good in that it gives the brim a really good stiffness. It was a bit trickier to turn it all right side out, but it got done, and in the mail yesterday afternoon, so he should be seeing his new hat by the end of the week!

The Fabric FROM HELL!

Pretty isn't it? You can't tell from this photo, but it has a lovely texture too.

This is the fabric that Paige chose for her Christmas Dress. In some ways, it turned out better than I expected (believe it or not) but I never anticipated the problems that I would have with this.

First of all, I have NEVER encountered fabric like this. It defies many of the laws of physics. This fabric has abilities known only in Science Fiction and fantasy novels. This fabric has properties that allow it to CHANGE SHAPE!

I should have been suspicious when I laid the fabric out to pin the pattern on. I noticed the difference in length from one side of the fabric to the other. I just thought that the staff at Spotlight are getting really slack and this is the crookedest cutting I have ever seen... one side of the fabric was longer than the other by about 75cms. I can't really be sure of this though, due to the shape-shifting properties of the fabric, which hadn't been revealed to me yet...

My real problems began after cutting out the fabric, when I watched the pieces change shape.

Liam's Sunny Sun Hat

I finished Liam's Sun Hat this morning. Its fully reversible, so it can be all green on the outside, or flip it over and its covered in nursery rhyme characters.

Liam seems to like it. I haven't used anything to tie it on with.
Babies don't like that sort of thing anyway, do they? I was pondering different ways to attach a strap, so that it would still be reversible, one option was poppers. I think I wil leave as is, he seems to want to hang onto it any way. I hope it doesn't get too windy!

Mum made Liam a cover for his bouncer out of the Nursery Rhyme fabric, and she gave me the left-over. The green was from my applique stash, and the interfacing I have had forever! The pattern was from Top Kids Issue 42. So it cost me nothing to make - well at least not in the last eight years! It took hardly any time to make either, I think I spent more time hunting for the pattern, than I did actually sewing it.