The Peter and the Wolf Vests

***Cough cough*** is anyone out there? It has been a long while between blog posts, hasn't it? I just can't seem to keep my blog-jo going.

I've decided to return to blogland with the three Peter and the Wolf Vests I made for Little M, her cousin L and me recently. I saw an awesome faux fur vest in Country Road and wanted one for myself. I decided to investigate faux fur but couldn't find any nice stuff for a while. Recently I changed jobs again and now work up the road from The Fabric Store on Brunswick St. I happened to go there one lunch (well, maybe every lunch break that week) and found some gorgeous faux fur with a chevron print in the pile. I bought 1.2m and made two little girls' vests and one big girl's vest.

Here is mine:

Mine is an adapted version of this Japanese pattern (I can't remember the name of the book it comes from as I have lent the book to Leith. I lengthened the pattern by 20cm, curved the bottom edge a little more and didn't add seam allowances. I traced the size large - I would possibly go a bit smaller next time.

Here is M's (L's is the same but with different lining):

To make M's and L's, I used Figgy's Lux Vest. I followed Lara's suggestion to print out two of the pattern and join at the CB so you didn't need to cut the fur on the fold. I did this with mine too at the side seams.

Both patterns come together beautifully. A few tips I would definitely recommend when sewing with faux fur are (thanks to Anna for sharing some of these with me!):

• Have your dust buster and vacuum cleaner at the ready. I vacuumed six times over the course of making these.
• Push the fur away from the seam (so into the garment) when sewing. Then pick out the caught strands with your fingers or a pin. 
• Try and cut the underside of the fabric, rather than the fur itself. This keeps the pile intact more and also creates less mess. I wasn't that good at this.
• Don't wear black to sew with a light coloured fur. Let's just say my fave work out pants are still a bit furry. 
• Go slow. My machine handled this fine, but I went pretty slow. 
• Shake the garment out vigorously once you're finished. Watch the excess fur fly!!

I had so much fun making these. My sister has ordered one too - soon I'll have a little furry posse! M is very pleased with hers - asked me to wear mine when she was wearing hers the other day. I obliged, of course. She's too cute for me to get all weird about matching!

P.S. We saw an orchestral performance of Peter and the Wolf recently and wore our vests. Hence the name!

Handmade Christmas (and Birthday) Gifts for Little Girls

I decided (in a particularly silly moment) that I would sew as many Christmas and birthday gifts as possible this year. This culminated in me cutting out:

• 12 Oliver + S Popover Sundresses
• 6 Oliver + S Bubble Dresses
• 3 Softie Dolls from 70 Piggies
• 2 Gabby Dresses
• Numerous elastic waist skirts.

I don't know if that sounds like a lot, but considering the 12 Oliver + S Popover Sundresses, 5 of the 6 Oliver + S Bubble Dresses and one of the softie dolls were all made in November, it feels like a mammoth amount to me!!

I don't have pictures of the other stuff, but here are the pictures of the ones I made in November.

First up, a little dolly called Bonny (Little M named her after one of her little mates at daycare) for my niece's first birthday.

It was very difficult to convince Little M that Bonny was actually for her cousin. Bonny lived in my sewing room until she was ready to be sent off to my niece, but one day I noticed she was missing. I asked Little M where she was, and got led to her bedroom, to find this:

I asked Little M what Bonny was doing. 'I'm just keeping her safe for A (her cousin), Mum'. Hmmm. Hilarious given she has her own version of this doll that I sewed for her before she was born.

Now onto the Popover Sundresses. This is about half of them:

The one in front is a Liberty version for Little M, the rest are gifts for my nieces, one for my neighbour's little girl, and a birthday present for Bonny, Little M's wee mate from school. I have to say that these tiny dresses are extremely satisfying to make. They are very cute, take minimal fabric, and once you get going, take about 45 minutes to make. I used Liberty, linen, Japanese cotton, and polished cotton.

Now for the Bubble dresses. I've got three to show you. This one is for my little one-year-old niece for Christmas. The smallest Bubble Dress size is a 2, but my sister isn't fussed. I used 2cm seam allowances in the hope it might fit her now. The fabric is from Rathdowne Remnants, and I had just enough left over to make Little M a simple elastic waist skirt. I don't have a picture of that.

 

This one is for my seven-year-old niece. I really wanted to make her some dresses for Christmas as for her last birthday I was running a bit behind and just bought her a dress (in my defence, her birthday is in April - I have 6 birthdays in April, including Little M's and Michael's). It was a Little Leona Edmiston dress, so it was a special one.  I sent the present with Ruth to give to her as she lives in Queensland. She opened her present, took out the dress and said 'I knew Aunty Rach would make me a dress!' Cue extreme guilt on my part. So an awesome Bubble Dress (and a Popover Sundress) for L. L is 7 but a skinny minny, so I made her a size 5 with some extra length and scant seam allowances. This fabric is also from Rathdowne Remnants.

 

I also made one for Little M to wear to Mr H's 3rd Birthday Party. I mean, a girl needs a party dress right? That and she's had a major growth spurt and desperately needs new clothes. I made this one in a size 3 and it fits her perfectly. I wonder if this means she's going to get limited wear from it. Sigh. This fabric is a remnant I picked up from Tessuti a while back. I had enough to also make my littlest niece a Popover Sundress - you can see it in the top photo.

Finally, I made Little M a little elastic waist skirt, and, at her request, one for her favourite dolly Anna.

Unfortunately Anna's skirt got cast aside for some store bought dolly clothes my Mum gave Little M for Christmas this past weekend. I shed some tears for the lack of appreciation of my toiling.

I just have one more Christmas present to make - Little M's Christmas day dress. I've decided it will be my tradition to make her a frock out of Liberty each year. I'm making it at Sewjourn this weekend, but here is a sneak peak:

I ended up choosing the buttons down the bottom. It is going to be extremely cute. Extremely.

Are you making Christmas gifts this year? Not sure I'll ever repeat it on this scale, but I have enjoyed seeing all the lovely little dresses lined up together.

A Crafty Afternoon With My Girl: Clay Bead Necklaces

Little M and I love doing crafty stuff together. At two, she is too little to do any sewing yet, but we love to draw, paint, glue pompoms, sequins, fabric, anything really onto paper, make beads, dress-ups - you name it, we love doing it together.

At the moment young Little M has a raggedy cough so we've been spending the last few days inside (she's on the mend btw). I had run out of ideas to keep my rambunctious girl entertained, so I googled craft necklaces, and came across Blogless Anna's Oven-dried Clay Beaded Necklace tutorial. I thought it looked great and something a two-year-old would enjoy with a little help from her mum.

So off to Spotlight we went this morning and bought five little packets of oven-baking clay. It wasn't cheap - nearly $6 a packet, but I figured it would be really fun and I would get a cool new necklace too!

I'm not going to reiterate the tutorial - hop on over to Anna's blog using the above link if you want to make some of these beauties.

Here they are just after they came out of the oven:

As you can see, Little M also made a bangle. I had to help a bit more with that one.

Here they are all finished:

Little M immediately opted for pink and purple - I find it funny when she gravitates to these colours. I don't dress her in gender-specific colours on purpose, so I find it both fascinating and amusing when she wants the more 'girly' colours. Don't get me wrong - I love pink and purple myself, I just don't want her to be exclusively dressed in those colours.

She did an amazingly neat job at rolling the clay into beads. It wasn't particularly pliable either - maybe because it is cold here in Melbourne? All I did was poke the hole through with the skewer. Pretty talented young girl I have.

Anyway, mine are the green and yellow - and I LOVE them. I mixed white into the yellow and green to get some different shades. We put them onto natural leather strands and Michael tied some adjustable knots for us.

I'll show you a picture of me wearing them in the next few days, but here is Little M wearing hers with the other beaded necklace she made today:

Isn't she lovely?! And a little bit grubby.

Lovely Liberty Christmas Ladies!

Merry belated Christmas and New Year!

We have been in Brisbane visiting my family and arrived back on the 30th of December. It was a whirlwind week, filled with eating, playing, drinking, nursing my new little niece and swimming.

And getting dressed up in new Liberty frocks! Well, for me and Little M anyway. I sewed us both a party frock made from Liberty Tana Lawn. Such lovely fabric. First, my frock:

I made the Sewaholic Lonsdale dress in blue 'Mitsi' Liberty Lawn. I made a muslin of the bodice only - and I'm glad I did as I had to make the following alterations:

• I started with a size 8 for the bodice but ended up using a size 6, grading to an 8 for the waistband (damn you stomach after childbirth!).
• I pinched out about 2.5cm of fabric vertically from the front bodice. To do this I created a vertical dart, starting with the 2.5cm at the side, tapering to nothing at the CF. 
• I used a size 8 skirt - and didn't have to lengthen it! 
• I also used the largest size for the tie lengths. I'm tall and wanted plenty of tie to get a bow out of. 

I have to wear a strapless bra with this dress, which I'm not crazy about, but apart from that, I am in love with my Lonsdale. It is so comfy to wear and I feel very feminine in it. And it goes perfectly with my new green Funkis clogs:

Now for Little M's frock. I used the 'Poppy' Liberty lawn. Isn't it gorgeous? I sewed a size 2 of Simplicity 1890, a Project Runway pattern. I decided to go with sleeves as we were in sunny hot Queensland and I didn't want those beautiful arms to get burnt. The size 2 is a smidgeon big, but at least that means she'll get more wear out of it! This dress was simple to make - princess seams and very easy to set-in sleeves. Also quick as the pieces are so tiny! I'd recommend.

She's wearing little Saltwater sandals with it - isn't she gorgeous?

She has recently taken to wearing a bangle (bracelet) or two everywhere she goes .... so stylish!!

I had a good break from sewing, but am now champing to get started again on a few things, especially as Leith and I have now booked our flights for our Sydney sewing trip! We'll be there on the weekend of February 8th. Who will be around to join us for a spot of shopping and champers?

1st Birthday Party Dresses!

A year has passed since Little M arrived. I can't believe it has gone so quickly. Being a mother has been amazing.. it has been extremely challenging, and extremely rewarding. I can't imagine life without my little darling.

We had a birthday party for her this saturday just been. We had friends, family, and my mothers' group around. There were about 40 people, and it was so much fun. Little M was given a swing set and a slippery slide from my brother and sister and their partners, and all the kids just loved it.

I sewed both Little M and myself party dresses. I used New Look 6970 for Little M's dress:

And I used McCalls 6673 that I have sewn before for mine:

And I think we both looked a treat!

Little M wore a white long sleeved tee and white leggings under her dress, as while it was a beautiful warm day, I didn't want her getting too chilly. Little M's dress is made from beautiful linen and cotton I got from the lovely ladies at Tessuti as a gift when I had Little M (thanks Lisa and Colette!). I have more fabric they gave me which I am planning to sew into some pants and a shirt for Little M soon.

My dress is made from cotton sateen from Spotlight. I don't often fall in love with fabric from Spotlight, but I went there to buy some thread and saw this... and just wanted it badly. So I got enough to make a frock. I wore it with a red patent belt and matching red patent peep-toe flats. I made no alterations from the last time I made it.

I had so much fun preparing Little M's party. I made her a rocking horse cake out of the Vintage Edition Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake book. I love this book.

I was very lucky in that my Mum and Dad came down from Queensland for the party and were able to help out by playing with Little M while Michael and I baked and cooked. And Ruthy was there to help me as well - she did the horse's reins, eye, eyebrow and mouth. And blew up balloons (I'd forgotten how much breath blowing balloons up takes!).

The party was a wonderful marker to commemorate our special little girl. It was also a marker to end my time as a full-time stay-at-home-mum -- I started back at work yesterday. I'm doing 3 days a week, and today I'm exhausted!! At 3pm yesterday I started to yawn and yawn -- I'd forgotten how tiring it is to sit at a computer all day! And my feet hurt like hell from wearing heels all day.

I'm going to sew some work clothes soon - anyone got any suggestions? I have to wear relatively conservative corporate wear. What do you wear to work?

I'm Back! In Black and White!

Hello! It is has been soooo long since I've posted a project! I have been doing a little sewing - not a lot though, because Michael was away in Chicago for 2.5 weeks, then we went to Cairns for a week. So not a lot of free time for me!

I finished this blouse some time ago. It is Pattern 'C' from 'Casual Sweet Clothes' - the Japanese pattern book I sewed my other shirt from. The fabric is 100% medium weight cotton from Tessuti Fabrics.

These pictures were taken ages ago - I've since cut my hair and lost another 5 kilos, so I'll have to take some more up-to-date pictures of me in another completed project very soon!

This shirt came together very easily. It is essentially a simple princess-seamed blouse, with the sleeves sandwiched between the seams. You finish the neck edge and arm-hole edges with self-made bias binding. The pattern calls for the stripes to all be going horizontally, but I like the way the CF and CB panels are vertical. Plus I would have had to do way too much stripe matching if I'd made them all horizontal!!

The only complaint I really have about the shirt is that it is too large, especially now that I have lost more weight. I can't seem to get my head around the sizing in the Japanese pattern books. I guess I'll have to do muslins in future projects from these books. But muslins take time! And time I do not have.

Little M is verrrry active these days. She sleeps through the night (started to at about 2 months), and will nap after every feed, but only for a short while - 30 mins to a rare 1 hour. So I am on my toes the whole day! She's so lovely - her personality is really coming through, and my goodness she is cheeky! I love her so much and love being a mum. It has taken me a while to find my feet with motherhood, but I found that Michael being away really helped me, and I got my groove.

Sorry I haven't been commenting on the wonderful projects I've seen around the traps - I've been reading and admiring and filing things away for inspiration. There are so many beautiful projects out there!