My Creative Space - Amélie's Jeans

These jeans once belonged to Noah. Before that, they belonged to one of Liam's friends. I am grateful for hand-me-downs. It is both economically and environmentally friendly. These ones look a bit past it though. Noah was crawling when he was wearing these. They came to us in good condition, but now they are completely trashed....



... they weren't particularly girlie either, so I've patched and girlified these jeans today. I had to unpick the in-seams and to do that I had to undo the hem. The difference in the colour of the jeans is because of the difference in light between this morning and this afternoon. I promise, they are the same jeans.



Luckily there is a Gutermann top-stitching thread that matches these jeans and I happened to have it in my stash. I used Kellie's pattern Pretty 'n Pink for the appliqué design.



Oh, and Amélie is just over six months old now, and she can sit up by herself!



Off you go now, check out some more Creative Spaces!

Are you going to the ASG Industry Day?

It is on Saturday August 27, 2011 at Boronia Uniting Church Hall, Boronia Road, Boronia  from 9:30am - 3:30 pm.


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The cost is $30 for members of the Australian Sewing Guild, and $35 for everyone else. This cost includes morning and afternoon tea, including cheese and biscuits and Scones with Jam and Cream (did someone mention Devonshire Tea? Mmmmm...!) and your lunch (quiches, sandwiches and fruit platters), so pretty good value, I think.

There will be some awesome speakers, including

• Style ARC, who have up to the minute fashion patterns, including one just like Pippa Middleton's bridesmaid dress (if only we could all look as good as she did in it!).

• Leanne Church from Echidna, for those of you who are interested in machine embroidery.

• Nicole Mallalieu, my favourite pattern-designer, blogger, and author of "You Sew, Girl!" will also be there. 

If you want to go, you need to register and pay by Saturday, August 13. You can do this here, or by contacting my mum (ASG Membership secretary - she wont sign you up for the guild unless you want her to, I promise) or if you happen to be at the Melbourne Quilt and Craft fair later this week, the lovely ladies at the Australian Sewing Guild stand will help you.

I will be going, will you?

The Hotties at Open Drawer

I finally made it to Open Drawer today to check out the Hottie exhibition.



Amelie and I traveled to Melbourne with my mum and dad especially to see the exhibition and it was lovely to see all these beautiful hotties in person.



It is amazing how differently so many people approached the same task.



There were felted hotties, scrapbooked hotties, knitted and crocheted hotties.



Hotties with thread sketching, applique and quilting.





A hottie with spoons and zips!



Hotties with recycled materials, metallic fabrics and lace.



Hand-stitched hotties and hotties that were glued together.



a double daschund hottie for two, a few mother & daughter(s) entries and even an entry from a man who made his hottie with guitar parts.



Hotties with robots, mice and elephants....



....and a hottie from the amazing Curly-Pops, who was responsible for many, many people joining in on the Hottie Challenge. What an awesome effort!



After checking out the gallery of hotties upstairs, we checked out Open Drawer downstairs.



Everything is made by Australian artists



So many beautiful things to wear...



and I bought myself a little something special....

Clifford - The Big Red Dog

Right after Amélie was born, my mother-in-law sent me some fabric, including a fabric panel for Clifford the Big Red Dog.



There were lots of cues to make this book, but I kept putting it off. When we went to library yesterday, they read a Clifford book and that is when I finally decided it was now or never. I think I was over-thinking the whole thing, because once I sat down and got into it, it took me about an hour to do. I probably would have been quicker if I wasn't entertaining Liam at the same time. It even has some batting inside to make it nice and puffy.



Liam was suitably impressed and enjoyed "reading" the story to Amélie.

Robot Pajamas

I finally finished Liam's pajamas that I started, back here. I really should get a wriggle on and make some more so I can pass his old ones onto Noah.



His are looking a little small!

If you are new here, the pattern is Kwik Sew 3126. It is my most used pattern by far. I got the fabric for $3-something-a-metre at the end of season last year at Spotlight.

My Creative Space - Happy Birthday to Me!!

Look what I got for my birthday from my clever, clever man! This wonderful screen-printing set arrived in my creative space recently, and today, I finally had a bit of a play with it.

So far I have discovered that inkjet transparencies have a right side and a wrong side, and my printer has a transparency setting. I am still playing around with getting the exposure right when making the screen, so no actual screen-printing yet, but I will definitely be back to let you know when I do.

You can check out more Creative Spaces over here.

Bus Stop Bag

Sorry it has been a bit quiet on the blog. I've been a bit busy lately with the kids. Anyway, I have been meaning to blog about this Bus Stop Bag for ages, so now is a good time, I guess. When I made this bag it was all hush-hush as it was a secret squirrel pattern testing project for Nicole Mallalieu's book, You Sew, Girl!. Now that the book has been published (um, yeah, a while ago....) it is okay for me to blog this.



The fanciest part of this bag is the seam binding, which is quite tricky, and one of the reasons the pattern has been given the advanced skill level rating. Never fear though, if you think it might be a bit too tricky, you can put the seam binding on the inside until you are confident with the technique. I would also recommend that you try the toiletry bag first as it isn't as stiff as the bus-stop bag, and therefor a little easier to manipulate on the sewing machine.



The finished bag is quite sturdy and has a firm base with shiny purse-feet. It stands up al by itself and there was enough room inside for the toiletry bag and my hairdryer and a number of other assorted personal items when I was in hospital having Amelie back in January. If you've ever had a baby, you will be aware of all the extra toilety items you need in those early days and trust me, there was room inside for all of these!




If you want to make yourself one of these, you need to get your hands on a copy of Nikki's book, You Sew, Girl! For the cost of a couple of patterns, it is chock-a-block full of tips, techniques and patterns to make all sorts of lovely things.