Merry Christmas 2013

Just a quick post to share some Christmas joy.

I made these Sweet Dreams PJ pants for the kids and managed to get some cute photos of them together on Christmas Eve.

We had a wonderful relaxing Christmas and were all well and truly spoiled by Santa ;)

I GOT AN EMBROIDERY MACHINE!!!!!

I have been having so much fun playing with it.

My little cuties...

And THIS is what they are like in about 90% of the photos I take ;)

Merry Christmas to you all! 

I'll be back soon with some pattern tests I'm in the middle of...

How was your Christmas? Feel free to link up your photos/blogs :)

Bits and pieces

What a slack blogger I have been. Real life has kept me very busy and I have not had a chance to take many photos or share what I've been up to. 

I have been madly sewing away though. So here are some mobile phone shots of what I've been up to...

(Sorry for the poor photo quality and scruffy toddler hair).

Firstly some Prefontaine Shorts from Made With Moxie. I won this pattern in a blog raffle and I've made Eloise a few pairs. They're very quick to make and so comfy, and just a bit cute. I think they'll be good during toilet training as she can get them on and off herself. 

This little top is a modified Cassidy top from Foo Foo Threads. I used my own construction method and used knit fabric for the main pieces. It came out quite short so next time I'll add a couple of inches to the length.

More prefontaines :) It's a great scrap buster pattern. I've used up some of my remnants for these. 

Another pair of prefontaines paired with a Boo! Shirred top. Not my best shirring, my brother machine isn't a fan of shirring :/

This is Xander on his 7th birthday and the cake I made (its a bad piggy, one of his favorite games). The bottom half shows the bad piggy party bags I stayed up late sewing the night before (complete with piping around the noses and zips on the back) and xan unwrapping his new bike. 

A Bowling Shirt by scientific seamstress. Seth loved that I made this for him. I modified it to be unlined because its getting quite warm here in Queensland.

Look at my spunky little man! Hard to believe he'll be starting prep next year... Just a few short months. 

This Eloise's Oktoberfest outfit. We were invited to our close friends annual Oktoberfest BBQ a couple of weeks ago and I decided miss E needed to look the part. I made a peasant blouse with white lawn and then modified the Tinny to make the dress. It's hard to see the details but there are eyelets with ribbon threaded through on the bodice. Unfortunately, we were unable to go (despite E's cute outfit) as we were all unwell :( 

These are a pair of Comfy Shorts by Sewing Geek patterns. I made them as PJ shorts for Xander. They are knee length and he really likes them. 

I have made a handful of these little knit dresses using the Charlie-Mack-a-doodle pattern from burlap button. I had some printing issues (it seems it doesn't convert to A4 well). But the dresses sew up super fast and are great for play around the house. 

We don't really "do" Halloween here but Seth's preschool had a dress up day on Halloween. He wanted to be a wizard and described the cape he wanted. I could not convince him to be a pirate or something similar to really get my sew on. So I made him this hooded cape. I made up the pattern as I went and I was thrilled when it worked out. He was too. I saw him in the playground at preschool running around with his cape flying out behind, checking out his own reflection in the glass doors :) 

I made this pair of cuffed shorts from lily bird studios. I made a mock fly rather than a zippered one because I didn't have a matching zip. 

I have since made two more pairs to donate the a Christmas clothing drive. I'm making knit tops to go with them too.

One of my favorite things that I've sewn lately are these Maggie Mae dresses. I just love the look, the fit, the pockets. Everything really. They are great for playing and nice and cool. The blue one is made from an up cycled men's shirt and some printed lawn. 

The orange/yellow one is made with quilting fabrics. I love them so much I want one for me. I bought this waterfall blouse pattern to try to make myself something similar. I've not had a lot of luck with my selfish sewing of late so fingers crossed... 

Oh, and some bloomers (Dana Made it) for under it :)

And... 

Some very exciting news....

We had a new arrival!!!

Introducing....

Quinn (Mannequin)

It seems like such a long time ago that I ordered her and now she is here. I had so much fun trying all Eloise's little outfits on her (playing dress ups). 

Again, sorry for the dark, indoor phone photos. I promise to take some real photos of some sewing soon.

I'm planning to make the kids some coordinating outfits to take some family shots to send to family at Christmas. I just need a few more hours in each day... Please...

I also have some exams coming up for my fellowship so I will need to dedicate some time to preparing for them. Don't you hate how real life has to get in the way of obsessive sewing :(

What have you been up to? Busy sewing for Christmas? 

I heart pattern testing: Terra's Treasures Mayfair top/dress

I've been pattern testing again :) I already have a few patterns from Terra's treasures. First I bought the Suburban Basic T-Shirt pattern and boy have I got my money's worth out of that!? I have made at least 5 for Eloise and two for each of the boys and have so many more planned. It is a quick, easy pattern that fits beautifully. I have since bought the Streamline T but haven't had a chance to sew any up yet. I can't wait to do so though. And... I won the Provincial top on a blog giveaway recently :) 

So... When I saw a testing call for Terra's newest pattern I said "me please!!!" and I was so excited when I was selected. 

The pattern is the Mayfair top/dress. It is a lovely looking garment that includes lots of options (and I LOVE options). It can be a top or dress, have short or long sleeves, ruffles or no ruffles, straight collar or ruffled neckline. It can be made with cotton, woven fabrics or with a lace overlay. The options are endless. I made the top in the 18-24mo size with short sleeves and straight collar, using cotton fabric and anglaise trim. 

The sizing was perfect for Eloise. The pattern was easy to follow and had step by step photos. I was really happy with how it turned out :) 

Some close ups and the back

She wasn't really in the mood for photos so I got a lot of pouty model shots ;)

And some with her clearly chewing the foody bribes I was giving :/

An occasional smile :)

And... Trying to eat rocks :/

Look at those cute little puffy sleeves :)

I think this little top is very sweet and will be making more of them for Eloise.  Eloise is wearing the Mayfair top with the w-skirt I made last month.

The pattern should be released soon and as soon as it is I'll pop back to add in the links for where to buy it. 

Thanks for reading along, please let me know what you think :)

Kerry xx

Baby & E: Boo! Bubblealls

Eloise has started to enjoy playing with her Baby. "Her" baby was actually a little doll Linda bought for Xander when I was pregnant with Sethan. She has been loved by Xander, then by Sethan and now by Eloise. It is quite a basic doll and came with a pretty boring outfit. I have been meaning to make Baby some clothes for a while now. 

The other day I started by up-cycling some of Eloise's baby clothes into clothes for Baby. I used this pattern and this pattern. These are patterns best suited to people who have sewn with knits before and know some basic construction of these type of garments. They have fairly minimal instructions and no step by step pics. The pattern pieces are hand drawn. The end results were still close to what I wanted so I was happy nonetheless.  This first little set was made from a pair of 000 pink knit pants and some white knit fabric I already had.

This set was made from some 0000 ruffle knit leggings and some white knit fabric.

I love the idea of using Eloise's baby clothes to make clothes for Baby. It is a way of holding on to some special items, but them remaining useful rather than just taking up precious storage space.

Today I used the scraps from my first pair of Bubblealls (Design Your Own Overalls) to make a pair of Bubblealls for Baby. When I made the bubblealls for Eloise they were a bit big (she was just 1yo and I made the 2yo size) so they are actually fitting her better now that she is 18 months. I still need to move the buttons a bit so the straps stay on her shoulders better. 

For Baby's pair I just made it up as I went along. I drafted a pattern as I cut and thankfully it worked out and fit Baby (albeit a little snug). It even has little flutter ruffles on the straps. Eloise was so excited that Baby's clothes matched hers. She carried Baby around and cuddled her tight. 

We may need to have a conversation about safe ways to carry babies :/

I love this one... Eloise was making Baby "walk" along in the grass.

Eloise was a little distracted when I was trying to get some pics, her big brothers were riding their bikes and she wanted to chase them.

My little girl :)

This was a fun and super quick project. For Christmas for Eloise I am planning to to make up a lot of little clothes and bedding and get Baby a bed. My mum did this for me one year and it is one of my fondest childhood memories. I will do it low key this year because she is only little, but I'll go all out when she is 3/4yo.

I will do up a super quick post soon with some details from Xander's birthday party from the weekend. So hard to believe my big little man is 7 already!!

Thanks for visiting :)

Please let me know what you think...

Kerry xx

Flip This Pattern: Piet Mondrian Inspired Sunki

It's pattern flipping time again. I just love this series...have you noticed?? I love the idea of taking an awesome pattern and adding some personal pizzazz and then every day seeing how someone else flipped it their way and came up with something completely different. 

Frances Suzanne have impeccable taste when it comes to choosing the feature pattern each month. I'll be totally honest. I wasn't sure about this one initially. It looked so wintery and here in Queensland we go from winter to summer without pausing for spring in between. So it is pretty warm and less is more for toddler clothing already. But, like a true pattern addict, I jumped at the chance for a pattern with a discount code and purchased the Sunki dress and leggings. 

As with the other months of Flip This Pattern I started with the sketch of the dress as is. This pattern has a unique design. It is loosely based on an A-line dress but with cool features like curved contrasting pockets and overlapping neck line. My first thought was I'll just make it as intended to get a feel for the design but I'll omit the sleeves. But, when I looked at the lines of the dress, it reminded me of the artworks of Piet Mondrian. His bold primaries with white all separated up with black lines. So I sketched in some lines, grabbed some of the boys pens and started to colour. (I could only find a red felt pen, yellow crayon and blue pencil... we have since been shopping for refreshed art supplies for the kids). 

This was the design I settled on:

So the outline of the dress is identical to the original, minus sleeves, but I changed up some of the construction to fit with my design ideas.

• I omitted the sleeves
• For the pockets I cut off the seam allowances and constructed with bias binding rather than the way the pattern instructs
• For the neck line I again cut off the seam allowance and used bias binding to finish the raw edges and attach the facing to the main dress pieces
• I made the zip shorter. This was purely so I could have uninterrupted white across the top of the back and still have my black bias lines intersecting just below the zip
• I left the overlapping parts of the shoulders unstitched giving it a little more ease when I pull it over Eloise's head
• I made the main pieces from a patchwork of different colours to fit my design.
• For the extra seams (the seams I created making the patchwork) I sewed with the seams on the right side and then enclosed them within the bias binding. This way there were less seams on the inside to annoy miss E 
• And rather than hem it I used bias binding to finish the hem too
• I used 2" wide strips to make the bias binding for the pockets, neck, armholes and hem. I used 1" wide strips to cover the seams and divide the colours. So all the black parts ended up 1/2" wide :) (I love my bias binding maker).
• I also made up a pair of the Sunki Leggings, I didn't flip them, just made them 'as is' to complement the dress.

And this was my finished dress:

(In other news... my mannequin should arrive in the next week or two so my finished garment shots should improve considerably...I'm so excited)

Some of the details: The fold over shoulder pieces, the shortened zip and the inside view of the seams.

Eloise just loves bags at the moment so I made up a miniature version of the Paco Bean Dottie Bag to match the dress.

How cute is my little miss? Shame about the bump on her forehead :/

I'm so pleased with how this dress turned out and the fit is pretty good too.

Eloise was pretty happy with it too. I made up a simple headband from the same fabric as the leggings. It helped keep that wild hair under control.

I think I like the back of the dress the best? Though the curved pockets at the front are pretty darn cute.

Thanks for popping by. Be sure to visit Frances Suzanne to see all the other flips for this month.

As always, I love hearing what you think, so feel free to leave me a message :) 

Kerry xx