Amélie's Jump Rope Dress

As part of Kids' Clothes Week I decided to make Amélie the Jump Rope Dress by Oliver + S. I bought the pattern as a download late last year and it has been sitting in my to-do pile ever since. There were lots of different fabrics in my stash that I would have loved to use for this dress, but it required more fabric than usual. Most things I have about 1m of, but I needed about 1.5m for this dress as the skirt is quite full.

There are some awesome details in the dress. I love the pockets. I was initially thinking that navy or red buttons would be nice, but finally decided on pearl snaps. Pearl snaps may just be my "thing". I love the way they look and they do make getting clothes on and off much easier.

I also love the little tabs that hold up the sleeve cuffs. For the pockets and the sleeve tabs, I just used a snap, the way you would use a stud - with just the female part on the back. They don't need to come undone.

The dress used about 1.5m of fabric, which is equivalent to six fat quarters.


SYST13 Running totals: in = 168, out = 44, total = +124

The Tip of the Iceberg

I visited the AQC (The Australian Quilt Convention) last weekend. I was pretty reserved with my spending at the AQC, limiting myself to just these five fat quarters from Ballarat Patchwork.

Five fat quarters - not too bad, hey? Except that on the way to the AQC we paid a little visit to Rathdowne Remnants. I've been wanting to get some fleecy for Liam for school windcheaters, so I grabbed four metres. I also got a metre of polar fleece to make him a nice warm jacket.

A couple of weeks ago, mum also grabbed me five metres of stretch drill. It will be great for school pants.

All of these fabrics are around 1.5 metres wide, so all up there is ten metres, and each metre is about equivalent to six fat quarters. This means that I have just added 65 fat quarters to my stash! This does not fare well for the SYST challenge....

I saw lots of amazing quilts at the show. My favourite was the rooster quilt called "Cock of the Walk" by David Taylor of Colorado. The detail is amazing.

SYST13: Running totals, in = 168, out = 38, total = +130
Oh dear! We're supposed to be using fabric, not acquiring it!

Kids Clothes Week

It's time for Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week. This year it has had a revamp and now has it's own blog and happens four times a year - one for each season. Although it is hosted in the Northern Hemisphere, we can still join in "Down Under", we'll just be sewing in the opposite season, so this time I plan to make Autumn and Winter clothes.



At this stage, I have plans to make Liam a few items for school (oh, I know - booooring!), as well as a dress for Amélie. I'm not sure what else I will make at this stage, but it will most likely be Oliver + S, Ottobre and Kwik Sew patterns I will be using. I might even whip up something from the book, "Sewing Clothes Kids Love". I hope to get some stretch sewing done, as I have some lovely stuff from Crafty Mamas fabrics that is tucked away in my stash. Speaking of Crafty Mamas, if you're a member of their forum, they are having a bit of a Winter Sew Along as well, so if you wanted, you could go and sign up and join in with the fun over there, too.



If you are looking for some inspiration, you can see some of my previous efforts from the challenge here, or you can check out the Kids Clothes Week blog's Flickr group as well.



The challenge runs for seven days and all you do is sew for kids for one hour (or more) per day. You can join in the challenge and check out the blog for more details, by clicking the icon, below.

If you're joining the challenge, especially if you are a fellow Aussie, I would love to hear about it. What are you making?

Monkey Mayhem!

I've been pattern testing!

If you've never heard of Jodie from Ric-Rac, then you should know that she is one of the most awesomest blogging toy pattern maker extraordinaires that there ever was. You should totally check out her blog - Go on! I'll still be here when you get back. If you ever remember to come back, that is.... Her patterns are easy to follow and the results are so loveable that you will be unable to resist, just as I was totally unable to resist this guy. He has evolved quite a bit since he first appeared on Jodie's blog, but the striped fabric really brought out his personality. Jodie has named him "Louie, Monkey of Wonder", but around these parts we call him Marvin, or sometimes just monkey.



When I first saw him, I just KNEW that Noah would love him. I mean, this monkey is not just cute, he's a bit naughty too! You can tell from his cheeky face that this guy is BIG trouble! A lot of Jodie's toys have button jointed legs, but not Louie/Marvin/Monkey. Whilst his arms are button jointed, his legs are put together in such a way that he has a spring in his step and he also has a definite sway in his tail. When he wears his super-hero cape and super monkey jocks, he is ready to save the world. Nobody will know who he is, as he wears a special mask to protect his identity. I also made a mask (not part of the pattern) to protect the identity of his favourite side-kick.



Louie/Marvin/Monkey runs on raspberry icy-poles and has boundless energy, just like my Noah. I can tell that they are going to be the best of friends for a long time, they've been hanging out together all the time over the past couple of days.



If you want a monkey like this of your very own (or know a small person who might), you should be able to get your hands on the pattern very soon. He's coming soon to a pattern dealer near you! If your local quilt shop doesn't stock Ric-Rac patterns, you should ask them to get them in, they are totally missing out.

Getting All Steamy

I never did get around to telling you about my fancy schmancy steam iron, did I?

I found out about a great deal on the Kogan 2000W Steam Iron back in November (?), right after it finished. A bunch of friends had managed to grab themselves a deal and I had missed out. I told them all to let me know if it goes on special like this again.

I was so excited when Karen told me the deal was back on. $99 for a steam iron is pretty darn good if you ask me. The regular price is $229, and I have seen them on sale also for $149. How good is the iron? Well, it generates enough steam to fog up the windows. Awesome. Fantastic for getting the wrinkles out of my linen skirts. Maxx loves it for ironing his work shirts. Perfect for getting the wrinkles out of fabric before I start applying interfacing. I still prefer my Elna Press for actually applying the interfacing, but have found this to be okay for when I am just doing a little here and there and couldn't be bothered pulling out the Elna.

I can't say how good it is for longevity. Ask me again in a year or so and I will let you know how it is going, but I'm about two months in and I love it. I usually spend about $70-$80 on an iron, so it isn't that far out of my regular iron budget. I do find it will occasionally "buzz" quite loudly, which is because the tank hasn't been pushed back on properly. One of my friends was having some problems with hers that were all sorted out when she followed the procedure to clean it, which apparently needs to be done fairly regularly.

What sort of iron / steam iron / press do you have?  What do you think of it? Would you recommend it to your friends or tell them to stay away?

*This is not a sponsored post. It is my honest account of a product that I purchased myself.