Don't Ya Just Love a Good Giveaway?!

Tania from Jet Crafts & Books is having a giveaway!

You can win a book and a couple of patterns. She has Amy Butler, Nicole Mallalieu and Melly & Me stuff, just to name a few....

You can get the details here . Good luck! And pass it on....

Robot Jacket

I made this jacket for Liam out of some beautiful red polar fleece that I got from Spotlight.

I have lined it with the robot print interlock that I also got from Spotlight. I got some of this before Christmas, and loved it so much I went back and got some more.

I used the Kwik Sew - Sewing For Toddlers book to make this jacket up, although I did a lot of alterations.

I made up two hoods, and joined them along the face edge, facing each other, flipped them out to the right side and top stitched along the edge. I then left the bottom edge open.

Instead of making a facing for the jacket, I cut out entire front panels to face the inside. When I sewed the raglan edge to the sleeve, I left the lining part loose. I attached the hood as per the instructions in the book, but with the front facing folded back over the hood - sort of like when you put the collar on the pajamas. After the hood was attached I stitched the raglan edge of the facing to the already joined raglan edge between the front and the sleeve.

I also added a facing to the bottom edge of the sleeve after I chopped some off (to avoid exxxxtra loooong sleeves, lol!) The sleeve was fiddly, I sort of sewed up the inside of the sleeve, as well as the facing, folded the facing back and then top-stitched the facing down. It was trickier than usual, being so far up the inside of the sleeve.

Anyway, I am really happy with the way this jacket turned out.

Liam's Thomas Pajamas

Here's Liam, helping clean up after dinner. Isn't he a good little boy?

He is wearing his new Thomas the Tank Engine pajamas that I finished today.

I cut them out last winter when I was making pajamas for Ryan's birthday. Liam got the leftovers.

I made the pants a week or so ago, and finally did the top today.

The pattern is Kwik Sew 3126. I think between mum and myself we have made 17 or 18 pairs of pajamas using this pattern.

Here's Liam, being a good little boy and brushing his teeth before he goes to bed.

Paige's Butterfly Purse

I made this purse for Paige yesterday to match her Margaret Bag.

The frame is a 90mm square purse frame and the purse is made from a Fabric Innovations screen print that I got from Spotlight.

I used the pattern from the 90mm purse kit from Nicole Mallalieu Designs.

Mothers' Day

I had a fabulous Mothers' Day. Mum and Dad were here for lunch, I cooked them roast lamb. For dinner, Maxx cooked spinach lasagne, which is one of my favourite things that he cooks. I got a lovely scented candle which I used after dinner when I had a nice bath with a glass or two of pink champagne. AND I GOT A NEW CAMERA!!! I was so spoilt.

I was up most of Saturday night (until 4am) making this beaded purse for my mum. It has over 400 seed beads that I hand stitched to the purse. The fabric was "Not Too Shabby Paisley" and lined with "Romantic Memory Rose Bouquet" which I purchased from Spotlight on Saturday. The purse is made using a 90mm purse frame and using the pattern from the kit I got from Nicole Mallalieu.

I also gave mum a voucher for the cinema. The plan was to put the voucher inside the purse, but it didn't fit. So if you want to make a purse that is big enough to put a credit card in, then you will need to go for something bigger than the 90mm purse.

A Little Duck Surgery

One of Noah's favourite toys is this duck.

Unfortunately, his quacker stopped working the other day.

I opened him up, rearranged his batteries and stitched him back together.

All better now!

Airplane T-shirt

I made a t-shirt for one of my nephews for Christmas using this stencil. The picture is freely available from the Ottobre web-site. My nephews got Ottobre t-shirts, but for Liam I used my trusty Kwik Sew Sewing for Toddlers pattern.

I did a different type of neck finish this time. I sewed the right sides of the t-shirt and the ribbing together, folded it over towards the back, pinned and topstitched with twin needles. Then cut the excess fabric away from the back. For the neckband, I used the same fabric type in a different colour, so the length is 3/4 the circumference on the t-shirt. If I was doing it with ribbing I would probably do 2/3, depending on how stretchy the ribbing is.

I did the sleeve ends and the bottom hem the same way I did the hem on the solitary giraffe t-shirt and the number two t-shirt. Only thing is, you know how I have been adding to the bottom of my t-shirts and the sleeves because of the cuffs that are on the original pattern? Well, I need to be taking the extra (or at least some of it) back off as I am technically adding cuffs. I looked at a couple of t-shirts, thinking they looked longer, but it wasn't until I did this one and saw that the sleeves actually were longer that I realised what I was doing. So I have to go back and re-do the sleeve edges on this one. After it comes back out of the wash.

Excuse me while I gloat

Oh Wow! How exciting! I won!

I get to pick an on-line class as my prize. What to pick??

Understanding Knit Fabrics - Sarah Veblen
Beginner Sewing Lab 104 - Shannon Gifford
Wedding Gowns 101 - Susan Khalje
Build Better PANTS - Shannon Gifford
Beginner Sewing Lab 101 - Shannon Gifford
Stitch-and-Flip Jacket Construction - Shannon Gifford
Beginner Sewing Lab 102 - Shannon Gifford
Beginner Sewing Lab 103 - Shannon Gifford

I'm thinking pants or jackets? I don't think that I'll be making too many wedding dresses in the near future with children running around - that would be madness! I probably don't really need the beginner classes. The stretch fabric one sounds okay, but I think I do okay in that department already...

Now back to our regular blogging.....

Solitary Giraffe

I completed this long sleeved t-shirt yesterday. I used the same pattern pieces as I did for the "Number Two" t-shirt, and used the fabric from the giraffe t-shirt to applique and trim the shirt.





I cut out one giraffe and appliqued with a straight stitch around the edges.



The rest of the trim is the same as the Number Two t-shirt, but I have also added a band to the bottom. I saw this finish on a purchased t-shirt of Noah's and wanted to try it out.

I used twin needle top stitching to finish all the edges in matching thread as I thought contrast would be a bit much given the colours.