Birthdays and new things

Hi all

Im hoping you're all well in your part of the world.

In this week's edition of not much happening I've got a new baby.... yep my hubby, mum and dad chipped in and provided me with some money as a substitute to a birthday present to go out and buy a new machine. I think they'd had enough of me swearing at my old machine and teaching the kids all sorts of colourful new words.

She's a Bernina Bernadette. I have a feeling she's the type of machine that is marketed to a 20 something that wants to sew and has alittle bit more money to buy a step up from a basic machine... but I love her. The kids are pretty impressed that it beeps and lights up too.

Photo by Miss G... she's getting better at the photography.

My first project was a small cushion using some lovely materials sent by Lisa a few weeks ago. Im not sure if its going into one of the girls rooms.. its currently sitting in the dining room waiting for a new home.

One of the many embroidery stitches available on the machine.

Otherwise, Ive been cross stitching a wedding present that now has no hope of being finished in time and planning a few more dresses for my girls.

Wishing you a lovely week :)

Mission (mostly) accomplished...

So I set off from finishing my last blog post with a spring in my step toward the sewing room, intent on getting things done.

First cab off the ranks was the denim hat. I finished the binding on the brim.. check. Next up, attaching brim to crown. After much fiddling, sewing, unpicking, sewing, unpicking (you get the vibe) it was finally attached. Alittle grosgrain ribbon to finish the inside, some hand sewing and voila! finished. Or so I thought. On checking the fit on Miss G, I noticed that i hadnt attached the brim to the crown straight. This wouldnt have been a problem if not for the fact that I'd topstitched everything in a bright blue. Lets just say its pretty obvious. So back to the 'to do' pile it goes.

Next, the red spotty hat. Should be a cinch I think. No such luck. I've decided that the way the pattern finishes the hat doesn't really satisfy my standard of 'finished'. Back to the 'to do' pile.

Next, costumes for the girls. Cutting went off without a hitch. Sat at the machine to put it together and my machine starts to skip stitches. At this point Im just alittle over it all. Call in "mrs fixit" AKA my mum. We change needles, adjust tensions, change cottons, rethread the machine, all to no avail. Mum takes the materials home and completes two gorgeous fairy costumes in 3 days. No mean feat but she did it, and here they are:

The only credit I can take on these is buying the fabrics. At this point, my sewing mojo is threatening to leave me again.

Ok, final project of the week. A present for the birthday girl. I have been meaning to make a hair clip stand / frame for my girls for some time. It went together really easily. Of course my girls are going to have to wait for one of their own.

I had enough time to make some hair clips for the birthday girl as well.

Her mum tells me that it was well received and well timed. The birthday girl had received a number of hair clips as presents.

Yes I am alittle disheartened by my fails of the week but I guess every mistake is a lesson learnt. This week I aim to:

Finish the two hats;

Make some dresses for the girls;

Investigate some new sewing machine options;

Not be so hard on myself!

Last but not least, a very big THANK YOU to Lisa for sending me a large bag of beautiful scrap fabrics. I have been inspired by the array of fabrics and its sent my mind ticking over with ideas. Thanks so much Lisa!

Monthly update!

Despite all good intentions I find myself blogging again a month after my last blog entry. My creativity and willingness to step into the 'sewing room' (aka the dining room) was sapped for a while. Melbourne weather is non existent. Its been replaced by balmy, sultry days and humid nights which is sapping all my energy. Or sapped... a return to Melbourne's cool days and cold nights has once again rejuvenated my body and my energy has (somewhat) returned due to a good nights sleep.

So here are some projects that have been completed, are to be completed or have yet to be started. My aim is for the end of the week. Im hoping the cooler weather continues.

First up, I came across this cool tute for a mail organiser on a blog called Noodleheads and set about spending a little money at the local mega craft place. On returning home with all the supplies I needed, I found my staple gun wasnt working (actually it will never work again... the handle just dropped off). This was a major grrrr moment as I'd been planning to make an organiser for a friend celebrating her birthday today. What to do.... and then I spotted this equally cool tute for a clutch bag. As the tute says, more time is spent selecting fabric and cutting it. Assembly is pretty easy. Here is the finished clutch.

I dont think the gathering is so obvious on my clutch. Might just be the colours or pattern of the fabric. I'll definately be making a few of these for the present stash. They are pretty easy and cute.

Here is the mail organiser, minus everything except the backing fabric (which is only just hanging on with adhesive spray). Back to mega craft place this week to buy another staple gun.

Also on the cards this week is putting the finishing touches to this sun hat.

Im going to have to get Miss A to model this hat. Its so cute on.

And finishing attaching the crown to the brim for this sun hat as well as some binding.

When all that is done (with some luck and help from my super mum), this fabric and tulle will make a water fairy and tinkerbell costume for my girls who are going to a birthday this sunday. Ive got my fingers, arms and legs crossed hoping that they will turn out.

And to top things off, a present for the birthday girl who's birthday we'll be celebrating on Sunday!

Lastly, I recently took advantage of a sale on Vogue and McCalls patterns online. In Australia, buying paper patterns is ridiculously expensive. Ofcourse, shipping was a factor for these but all up, i spent less per pattern than I would have if I'd bought them from a retail outlet here. I deliberately decided to buy lots of dress patterns. I dont often wear dresses because I can never find anything that 1. I like and 2. fit me nicely. So, inspired by bloggers like Lisa, Im taking the plunge into adult dress making. Wish me luck!

My creative space #1 2011

Hope everything in your part of the world is good. Its been pretty crazy weather here in Melbourne (and, quite frankly, everywhere along the eastern seaboard of Australia). Floods in all states along the east and days of horrible humidity followed by cool weather. Today is one of the few days of the summer I remember as a kid (think blue skies, 30+ degrees and bugs!). Im glad its finally arriving.

Koo's creative space entries have started again and I will endeavour to post at least once a week to coincide with it. It will (hopefully) ensure that I do take some time out for creativity during the week.

Here are a few more things finished up this week.

These are covered photo albums made for some of my friends daughters for Christmas. I am ashamed to say that I just finished these (almost the end of January) but I rarely get to see my girl friends and their kids. Well they were made on time for delivery. I hope they are well received.

Another birthday girl who's siblings had each received a letter cushion last year for their birthdays finally received her own. I found the letter alittle tricky and it took me some time to work out how to turn it. I ended up having to stuff via the space in the middle of the A..... made sewing it up very frustrating but it turned out nicer than i'd anticipated.

On the kiddies front, we've been doing alot of indoor crafts as the weather (as mentioned above) has been quite wet. Here is one crafting session that went well and they were interested in for more than 5 minutes! Sure its messy but letting them experiment with the paper and glue was fun to watch. Miss G decided that rather than stick flat bits of paper to the window, it would be nicer if they were made into 'flowers'. I'd never have thought of that!

One of the above mentioned flowers can be seen in Miss G's hair (its the blue thing).

The girls being able to work together side by side was an added bonus of this activity.

Finished window.... and very sticky fingers!

Another year begins

Well a Merry christmas and happy new year to you all. Its been a pretty hectic December and im not sure where the month went. It was definately a sprint to the Christmas / new year break and I'm still wondering when it happened and where it all went. Ive had my hubby home for two weeks and its been fantastic. Even though I dont get a holiday from my job, having an extra pair of hands around certainly has made it easier.

On the creative front, I didnt get as much as I wanted done (yes this is a familiar story). Despite knowing exactly what i wanted to make and for whom, best intentions arent the only thing you need with Christmas barrelling toward you. I did manage a few things though:



some very simple handmade christmas cards made with paper I picked up in Japan years ago.



A couple of travel document pouches for my mum in law (pictured) and uncle in law (for some reason I didnt photograph) who are both avid travellers (and who happened to be me and hubby's kris kringles). Included in the pouches were some vouchers. In retrospect, I should have added a little description as Uncle Charles was alittle confused by it :) On a side note, these were the first zips ive ever done, and they were not hard at all!! (you were right Tab).
If you'd like to make one, the tute can be found Here




Some gift voucher pockets (only one photographed... im not sure why i'd forgotten to photograph all of them) which could be used for carrying around anything (think lippy, perfume etc). I used the tute found here for the gift card below and then thought that it was a waste of fabric (and my time) if you couldnt use it again so I created the pocket version (above).



I also managed to make these notebook with colouring pencils for a friend's two little girls (well she has three but the third is alittle small for colouring). I monogramed them and made each notebook with the girl's favourite colour.


I also made dresses for my girls for christmas day and i'll include a pic in the next post. I need my hubby's computer for photos and he's busy killing bad guys :)

Lastly, here are some pics of my little girls on christmas morning. Santa had hidden a present each in their room. The remaining presents were left under the tree. The girls got a kick out of leaving some choccie biscuits and a carrot for santa and the reindeer only to find crumbs in the morning. So cute!


The morning started very early with Miss G finding her present from santa hidden under her bed. And what did he bring her?... her very own sewing machine (which I have only just worked out how to thread.. the bobbin was really difficult to work out!).


Miss G had jumped into Miss A's bed with the present santa had left. I dont think these smiles stopped all day!


Later in the day at Grandma's house, woody and buzz dress-up clothes were the biggest hit. Here is a pic of woody and buzz having a cuddle.

Hoping 2011 is the best ever year for you and your family.

My creative space

Its been a few weeks but Ive not had much to show. Two little offerings today with more to follow. I finally have the sewing mojo back and Im hoping its here to stay as Ive a few presents and orders to complete.

First of all, my lovely niece asked me to cover a scrapbook album for her. She's doing a school project and couldn't find a scrapbook with a cover she liked. I was more than happy to do it. I love making new things. She chose the fabric (from my 'shop') and asked that I include her name somehow. I suggested some embroidery which she was happy with (love hearts were the prerequisite). I found the love heart pattern somewhere on the internet (i'm so bad at linking things back as Im bad at remembering where the images came from). Im happy to report that said niece was very pleased with the result. Its also given me an idea for christmas presents but more on that later.

Front

For some reason the iron on interfacing puckered the material. No amount of ironing would un-pucker. I guess that would teach me to apply interfacing with a really hot iron.

Finally have a chance to use macro on my camera.

Also gifted was this set of 3 (4th was delivered the next day) place mats for a friend who was celebrating a housewarming, birthday and Australian citizenship! I should have possibly made the place mats alittle more Aussie but they were well received.

Other than that, sewing has been slow. On the cards though are Christmas presents. Its getting exciting now with the lead up to christmas. I wanted to make the girls an Advent calendar (my girls still have no concept of what next week, next month or next year are) but never got around to it. Maybe next year...

For more creative spaces visit Kootoyoo

Hope you're having a great week.

Gorgeous giveaway

Another quick post today. I came across this giveaway today and needed to share with you, firstly because its a requirement of the giveaway (clever!!) but also because I know you all love (and need?) more fabric.

On offer is the Sweet Broderie range of fabrics by Rosalie Quinlan.

Head over to Retromummy for a chance to win this gorgeous fabric.

Good luck!