Dress-up Time

My girls call this the Little Red Riding Hood cape, made using a velveteen remnant edged with ribbon from Spotlight. the pattern is Ottobre 6/2008 #22A.

This one is for a friends little boys 3rd birthday. the pattern is Ottobre 5/2006 #17 which I made reversible, giving you two dress-up options.

Farbenmix Fun

For Zoe. I love Farbenmix patterns, simple designs and quick to sew, and the embellishment and fabric options are endless. This is an Anna dress size 86/92, made with denim with an aqua metallic thread through it, embellished with spotty cotton and a bird and butterfly applique. I also added flowers onto the ends of the ties.

Cute huh!

This is the Olivia dress, made with french terry with lycra, and trimmed with chenille fleece. Oh so soft and cuddly

Me Sewing

Nearly as good as 'me' time. Both these are Ottobre patterns, the first is from the current magazine 02/2009, the pattern is #5, the Waterfall top. Love this, the fabric is from Lincraft and is a really soft knit which drapes beautifully.

The next top is made using the Creative Workshop #303 pattern. I didn't have enough of the cherry fabric for binding the neck, so used a contrast and added the reverse applique as well. Nice to have a new helper in the sewing room too. The dress form is a new addition to my ever expanding sewing accessories.

Here's what we did with the box.

Who needs toys when you have...

Giant bubble wrap.  We jumped, ran, crawled, walked and rolled over this working out which way popped the most bubbles.  A fun activity to do with the cold weather.

I'm addicted to....

Wrap style tops it appears.  These are recently made tops for Erin.  First up Farbenmix Antonia using the separate wrap option.

Ottobre 1/2003 #16

Ottobre 1/2008 #17.

Happy Birthday Grannie!

She's my Step-nana, and recently had her 81st birthday.  She's a bit of a cooking queen so I thought I would make her some new oven gloves.

My sewing machine was such a trooper sewing through all the layers, I was a bit worried.  The first time I used my walking foot as well, good fun!

What We've Been Doing

We've had school holidays here since my last post so have been doing lots of fun stuff.

A trip to Fairy Park to look at all the animated Fairy Tales with my sister and her family. 

Also a trip to the Otway Fly Tree Top Walk, with a scenic drive along the Great Ocean Road on the way.  Blah to me getting carsick on the way home!

We've also being enjoying the beautiful Autumn weather we have been having, although it's starting to get cold very quickly.

Erin is now back at Kinder so I've been doing a bit of craft stuff with Zoe, simple things like finger painting on a tray, much easier than her managing it on paper, and we just press paper against the tray to make paintings.

And pasting on a meat tray with a glue stick, nice and sturdy so it won't crumple.

I have finally started some winter sewing as well, but lots of half finished projects at the moment.

The Party!!!

The decor:  Tissue paper pom-poms from Martha Stewart website

Table cloth:  Three metres of fabric from Spotlight.

Placemats:  Fabric squares put through the laminator.

Cups:  Latte cups purchased from Peters of Kensington 's online store. 

Table centre pieces:  Biscuit flowers and wands,  cookie cutter recipe with bamboo chopsticks inserted prior to cooking.

Craft activity:  Wool felt crowns decorated with adhesive rhinestones.

The dress:  Studio Tantrum Feliz, purchased through Crafty Mamas.


 The cake:  Vanilla cupcakes with pink icing and cachous's (no photo as it had other children in it).

She had a fantastic time.

She's Five!!

The cake of choice was the Fairy Mushroom cake from the WW Kids Birthday Cakes book, which I managed to  rustle together, although not without problems.

I didn't have the correct size bowls, so used the closest size I had which were slightly larger, so I had a problem with the size of the mushroom stalk which was too short. 

Don't you just love he versatility of Tupperware!

This cake was made for the family.  I stuck with cupcakes for her birthday party, pics to follow.

More Pants

For both girls this time.  The pattern is Ottobre 1/2003 #15.  These pants are great, having both elastic and a drawstring.  Perfect for toilet training my younger DD with the transition between cloth nappies and undies, they should fit in both instances.

Been Sewing....

Some pant for Erin.  These are the Mandarine pants from Ottobre 2/2005.  These wouldn't be worn unless they have so added "prettiness" as Erin calls it, so we have some gorgeous Farbenmix ribbon on the back pocket and yoyo flower applique on the front.

Simple Craft

I try to do some sort of craft activity with my girls a couple times a week.  This one was successful as it's not easy coming up with something a 2 yo and a 4.5 yo can both do without me needing to have a lay down afterwards.  Items used were clear contact and scrap paper and fabric which had been cut up.

I drew a simple butterfly on one side of a small piece of contact, and folded the backing paper back to reveal the image.  The girls then placed small pieces of paper and bits of fabric within the butterfly outline.  We then pulled off the remainder of the backing paper off and folded the rest of the contact over covering the butterfly image. 

I then cut around the butterfly outline, hole punched and then tied them to a stick to make a simple mobile.

So Sad...

With the death toll now 200, I think everyone is saddened and shocked by the bushfires that have burned my home state.  Close to my heart was the small town of Marysville.  We had our first family holiday there when Erin was 14 months old, pictured below in front of the beautiful Steavensons Fall.

I had recently cleaned all my baby equipment, prams, highchair, bath etc. ready to sell, but after a phone call last week to the Salvation Army hopefully someone who has lived through this tragedy will be helped by this donation.

Off to Kinder and other stuff

A simple craft to do with the girls using glue and catalogues.   I chopped up legs, torsos and heads out of department store catalogues and the girls pasted them to make...

Funny people. 

Erin started 4 year old Kinder this year, 11 hours over 3 days.  She loves it and is off playing as soon as we walk in.

A piece of fabric I picked up at the Op Shop next to my hairdresser.  I think this will make a gorgeous skirt.  I'm thinking of Studio Tantrum's Redondo, coming in the mail from Crafty Mamas.

What we've been doing

Oops, time flies, but we've been pretty busy.  

We started trying this, but I think we will give it a rest and leave it for down the track.

We've done some craft...

We went and saw a ballet...

Had an indoor picnic....

And did some cooking.

And I've got some sewing finished which I'll show later.

Super Quick Miss Madeline

I think this pattern will be frequently used.  So simple and quick to sew.  It only has 2 pattern pieces, and most importantly DD loves it cause it has butterflies.  Purchased from Crafty Mamas