Ellie Bag (Christmas 2011 Backlog!)

I made this nearly 6 months ago, but I wanted to blog it. And am still on a blogging roll from last week. I made this Elephant handbag for Jemima for Christmas last year. She is from Hillary Lang's book which is as awesome as can be.

Ellie bag is very sweet, but she doesn't hold much more than a few lip balms (which is all a 5 year old girl needs anyway!)

I discovered I love sewing with faux fur even if the fibers end up everywhere!

KCWC Day 6 and 7

Baby tired of having photo taken

Last day of KCWC was yesterday and I made this little top here. It matches the pants I made the day before, but I'm not sure how often she will wear them together. This is the second time I violated my rule of not buying anything for KCWC- I purchased the pattern for this little top late in the week. It is called "The Amelia Top" and I bought it from Mama Stellato. It is very easy to make, and is a very sweet pattern- and it goes up to a size 5 so it will be good to have on hand for the next few years. It would be cute lengthened into a dress and with flutter sleeves added too for summer. (Can you hear me justify my purchase to myself!?)

The fabric for this dress was from a handmade pillow case I got for free at the Salvation Army Shop. I was getting a few things and this was not tagged, so the sweet old man just threw it in for no charge.

It has been a great week of sewing and flexing my blogger muscle for a bit too. My machine desperately needs a service as the tension is all out (it was a struggle to make this last garment), so I'd better get onto that now. And get some things to make something for Caleb!

Thanks Meg @ Elsie Marley for Kids Clothes Week Challenge! What a ride.

KCWC Day 5 and 6

Getting a good picture of a toddler is hard work, but when you are also trying to get a clear picture of what they are wearing, it is a job for the professionals! (For this post we will have to make do with me and my iPhone.) 

I wanted to make another pair of pants for Eve, and the best fabric for the job that I had on hand was brown fine-whale cord. Not the world's most inspiring of fabrics. 

Then, I came across this adorable pair of shorts in the KCWC flickr pool and loved them, and they got me thinking about combining the cord with another fabric to relieve it of its oppressive brown-ness. I was going to try and replicate the ties and pocket at the top of the shorts on Hart & Sew, but in the end remembered a little pair of cords I bought last winter for Eve that had bows on the pockets, so pulled them out to see if I could work out how they were made and gave it a go. It was fiddly to be sure, but not too hard. I'll see how they wash up. I used this tutorial to hem the pants in the contrasting fabric. 

I also used the flat front pants tutorial from MADE to adjust my pants pattern, and it was so easy with a really pleasing result. I am loving brown cord now!

I can fly!

Now to the shirt. I am inspired by folk who make their own t-shirts, but I haven't gone there yet. This is a basic tee from KMart. Eve is loving this book at the moment, so I scanned the cover, printed it on printable fabric and appliqued it on with "heat and bond lite" and a zig zag stitch. I have used this printable fabric before on a t-shirt and it does fade (not so good) and soften (good!) considerably with time, but it is fun while it lasts! My seven year old son was worried that I was violating copyright. Am I? It is purely for personal use of course, so I hope I am not, I am a rule follower at the end of the day. Please excuse the threads hanging in the photo. I wish I could be bothered photoshopping them out, but I can't. They are easier to fix up in real life.

I might take a better pic of the pants on a hanger tomorrow along with the little coordinating top I just finished sewing a minute ago. This week has been surprisingly productive. Who would have thought? 

KCWC Day 4

I am a bit behind on my blogging of the week, but I am sewing up a storm!

I really wanted to make something for Caleb and have come up with some ideas, but they all involved buying something substantial like FABRIC, or a trip to the oppy for something to refashion... and it is always risky to go to the oppy for something specific. He has such a gentle, empathetic spirit that once I explained it to him, he was OK. But I have promised to make him something for winter in the near future.

Besides, Eve really does need new clothes, even with Jemima hand me downs. I cleverly had my girls in opposing seasons, and would you believe Jemima still wears the majority of skirts I made for her as a toddler? They are getting shorter each year, but they are still working for now.

So here is a skirt for Eve made out of the same denim fabric as Jemima's and also with some white lacey trim peeking out the bottom (of a different sort.) The pockets were an idea taken from this MADE tute. 

The crocheted bow you can hardly see is something else I have made (albeit many months ago now), using the crochet bow pattern from Too Sweets Patterns. I have made over ten crocheted bows, and they all turned out cute. It's quite an easy little pattern if you have been doing some basic crochet (like granny squares) for a while.

Back to KCWC: I have spent Day 4 and 5 sewing something I am really proud of, but I will post it when I get a photo of Eve wearing it.

I must also confess I broke my rule (sorry Caleb) and bought some plain long sleeved t-shirts for Eve, one of which I have already appliqued which I will pop in my next post.

KCWC Day 3

The hour today resulted in a finished skirt that has already had its first public outing. It's not the kind of skirt that will blow anyone's mind, but I am really happy with it. It will be a good winter staple. The ruffle trim and fabric for the secret squirrel pockets were given to me, and the denim was left over from another project.

This photo is unnecessary in the context of the post, but it's a cute face!

I'm not sure what to do next... in the interests of fairness to my boy child, I would like to make something for him, but he is getting big- and I don't have any big bits of fabric in the stash. Maybe a refashion...? Perhaps tomorrow's hour will just be digging around in the old clothes pile.

KCWC Day 1 (and 2)

So I surprised myself somewhat by starting and finishing a garment in one day. These are the pants that I planned to make for Eve this week- and that was the only thing I had in mind when I signed up on Sunday. So really, anything else from here is a bonus. They did take me longer than an hour, but the kids were happy so I just kept going. Then once they were in bed, all that needed to happen was the hemming, so I thought I might as well polish them off.

Day 2: I've been working on a very simple skirt for Jemima that I have had in my head for a while. I kept changing my mind on the pocket question, and kept making hilarious mistakes, so there is nothing much to show for my hour's work today. Tomorrow perhaps.

Kids Clothes Week Challenge

At the very last minute, I have decided to sign up for the Kids Clothes Week Challenge over at Elsie Marley. 

I have nearly joined in every time since it began, and I don't have decent reasons for not doing so.

Photo by ESJAYcreative in 2010

If I get a simple pair of denim pants made for little Eve, I will be happy! I have heaps of cherry fabric left over from this dress (above) I made Jemima a few years ago now. I am thinking of doing something with that, maybe with knee patches and pockets? Better get thinking, it starts tomorrow!

FIVE!? Disbelief and a Doll

Jemima turned 5 last week! It feels so different having two kids at school who really aren't little little anymore, and Jemima turning 5 really emphasized this for me!

Wow, where did those 5 years go? *sniff* Happy Belated Birthday Jems, love from Mummy's Blog.

We celebrated the day with a toilet paper birthday crown I made the night before, after reading this blog post, and the giving of a handmade-by-me doll (and various other presents including a bike-with-purple-streamers!)

I love this pattern. This is the fourth one I have made! Now, each of my children have their own doll. Caleb's is the zombie variation, and Eve got hers for Christmas 2010. (Eve has a somewhat perplexing fluff addiction, so in recent times she has picked holes in the doll's bonnet to eat the wool felt fibres.... so her doll needs a new, thicker wool felt bonnet.)

Jemima requested that her doll have hair rather than a bonnet, so I used instructions from one of the dolls in the Wee Wonderfuls book.

I really love making dolls. And I really love giving them to my children.

First Day

I can hardly believe it. It seems like yesterday we sent the boy to school for the first time. It seems like yesterday she was little!

She was excited, but not over the top. She was awesome.

Pillows for the man

I saw this tutorial for personalised pillow cases a long time ago over at Handmade Romance. I don't keep a coherent list of tutorials I want to try, but this one stuck in my head. I finally got onto it for Christmas as a gift for Chris. I imitated Evie's style but tried to make them look like us. Chris' one has ginger facial hair because we both find it amusing that while he has brown hair, he grows orange stubble.

I thought I would include the above pic too as it has a couple of crafty projects I hadn't documented yet. The "You don't make me spew" artwork is trying to be in the style of Rachel Castle whose work I love. The letters are felt on linen, but I hot glued them on rather than stitch them, probably because I was in a hurry. The quote was something I said to Chris when we first got together about 14 (?) years ago in a "we need to clarify our relationship" talk we had very late at night in my parents' driveway. Kinda awkward, but exciting at the same time as I recall!

The "love" sign perched above I made using this tutorial from Giddy Giddy. Such an easy little project, you could make any word you like.

Ah there we are. I have been writing this post for 3 days! Good to finally have it out there. Hats off to those who blog regularly!

A bag for the littlest lover of accessories

Eve loves to tote around a tote. She likes to put them around her neck rather dangerously, straps all strangle-y-like. I made her a little bag for Christmas. The pattern for the bag was from Bend the Rules Sewing and the idea for the animal applique was based on a fox softie project in a recent issue of Mollie Makes (my intention was for it to look more like a cat- Eve's favourite creature). The straps on this little bag are not long enough to easily get them around her neck which is a plus in the safety stakes!