Sunday, November 29, 2015

Some Christmas sewing!

Last week saw my last day of work for the year. I don't go back until February! Yeeha! I seriously love my job as a flute teacher- it's fun, rewarding, and allows me to spend heaps of time with my children. My kids go to a public school so they still have two more weeks until their holidays, so I've been using my time to sew Christmas gifts.

My five-year-old Elizabeth absolutely adores Mummy-made stuff, so I always make a few things for her. Usually I make a dress for her to wear on Christmas Day. I decided to try a new (to me) pattern, the Honey Gum Dress by Ainslee Fox Boutique, which was in One Thimble magazine.



It is designed to be quite roomy in the bodice section, so there's lots of room for growth. The instructions are exellent and I sewed this up in a morning. It has the most gorgeous voluminous skirt!



I also made two little hair ties to go with it. The fabric is quilting cotton from Spotlight and I added a ribbon trim to the waistband to break up the bodice and skirt sections.



I also made her a cute little pair of shorts using this adorable print I found on EBay. I think it's Timeless Treasures. The pattern is Blue Jays by Bobkin, which are supposed to have the legs gathered into a little cuff, but I didn't have any nice contrasting fabric to make the cuff with and I think they look cute like this.



Lastly, a new hat. She doesn't have any nice hats that fit. I found a nice pattern in a book I have called Sewing Children's Clothing. This was so easy- I made it in about an hour! And I just realised that I hadn't taken photos of it, so took these just now as I'm sitting in bed!





It's fully reversible and I'm sure she will love it.

Next on my list is a blouse for my mother in law, a hat for my son, and a pair of Pacific Leggings by Sewaholic for myself and my sister. I haven't made them before and the fabric is expensive, so my pair will be the tester before I make my sister's pair. I'm hoping to get them done tomorrow.

What's on your To Make list for Christmas?

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Canberra clothes

So in my last post I mentioned that I went to our nation's capital for 5 days at the very beginning of October. I go down every 2 years for a mega geeky flute festival, and it's always cold. I wanted to whip up some dresses that I could layer up with a cardigan and tights.

Spotlight had 30% off their scuba and ponte knits, so I bought enough printed scuba to make a shift dress, and ponte to make a skater dress. 



I didn't actually have a pattern for a knit shift dress, just thinking that I could make this one in my normal size. It didn't quite work that way, of course, and I had to take about an inch off each side seam. The neckband didn't quite work either, so I made a quick modification. I really love this dress as it is quite casual but can be dressed up too. And I can wear so many colours with it!





The skater dress (Lady Skater by Kitschy Koo) is one I've made before, and it should have taken a very short time, but both my my machines were having complete spack attacks so I fought with them for a while. In fact, the sewing on both dresses is extremely dodgy, but it's more noticeable on the mustard one. Look at this mess...





I lack the know-how to fix overlocker issues, and really wanted to get these dresses done in time, so I just went, "Stuff it!" and left them looking shitty on the inside. The skater dress did turn out super cute, though. 



I've just sent both of my machines off to be serviced, and can't wait to get them back so I can start on my Christmas sewing! While they are being serviced, I'm cutting out all of my projects so that they are ready to go once I am on my summer holidays UNTIL FEBRUARY NEXT YEAR Y'ALL!!!! Which is a mere two weeks away!! (just a bit excited...)

So far I've cut out:
- a dress for my daughter
- a pair of shorts for my daughter
- a hat for my daughter
- a blouse for my mother in law
- a dress for myself.

I still need to cut some yoga pants and matching headband for my sister, and need to make something for the kids' teachers. I hope I can get it all done in time!