Vintage Dressform

Miss J has taken a real interest in sewing her own clothes lately. She found a couple of 1980's sewing patterns in an op shop for no more than 50 cents each and has made herself a funky little top (updated, of course, to look like a 2010 version of an 8o's top). I must dig it out of the pile of clothes on her floor and take a photo.

Anyway, one of the things on her birthday list was a dress form. After watching a season of Project Runway, I think she had visions of pinning random scraps of fabric to a dress form and designing herself a unique fashion piece.

Dutiful mother that I am (and not-so-secretly pleased that she has a strong interest now in sewing), I trawled through the possibilities on eBay for a couple of weeks until I found this vintage beauty for a bargain.

Miss J was super excited when she discovered it on the morning of her birthday! I suspect, though, that she couldn't see past the gaps created when I painstakingly adjusted it to her size.

Solution? Cut bias strips from a vintage sheet and wrap them around the dress form. All those gaps have been covered, and the very happy smile on Miss J's face told me that I'd found the right solution.

Return of the freezer paper stencils...

I haven't done any freezer paper stencils in a while, and with the (slightly) cooler weather upon us I thought it was time to jazz up a couple of plain tops for Ollie.

I cut the stencils for these a couple of weeks ago at Perle8's and painted them up about a week ago.
Ollie's favourite is the scooter boy. He, of course, believes that I've painted a picture of him onto his top. I found the image here.

Keen to do some stenciling of your own? Hoppo Bumpo has all the tips here.

Tea Wallet

A quick gift whipped up for a friends birthday today. I've seen these around the internets here and there, but just went with my own measurements as I couldn't be shagged hunting down a tutorial.

The colour is not a true representation - it's actually a limey green, but the time of day that I took the pics coupled with the dark green cutting mat has distorted it.
In case you haven't yet figured it out, it's a tea wallet. My friend drinks herbal/camomile/peppermint - types of tea (which I never seemed to have in the house), so I thought stashing this in her bag would be handy.

The outer fabric is Aunty Cookie's white on lime papercuts, the pocket fabric is from the ginger blossom range, and the binding is green and white woodgrain.

A pity the colour didn't come through in the pics - I really love the green!

One for the boy

Linoleum Stamp

Now I just need to get my hands on some ink pads!

Unfinished Business....

Only one or two rows left for this blanket, but then I have to tuck in all these ends!

I finally got off my butt the other day and bundled these granny squares according to rows. They are now patiently waiting to be sewed together.
I'm just about to watch Foyle's War (recommended by my sister for the hand knits) while I sew some squares together - that should stop my mind from wandering off to the next big project, and hopefully I will be laying under my snug granny square blanket before winter's end!

Mushie Brooch Kit

How cute is this brooch?? I was lucky enough to win the Brooch Embroidery Kit of my choice over at Princess Kirstie Jane.
It's made using hand dyed wool felt, and the kit comes with everything you need to make the brooch (think: needle, threads, felt, fabric, metal brooch clip, very detailed instructions). All you need are some small pointy scissors.
I finished making mine up yesterday at Mother's Group - the girls all loved it! I also received a lovely compliment at the supermarket this morning. It has certainly brightened up my old grey cardi!

Goodness, it has been 3 weeks since my last post! Part of that was just slackness on my part, and the rest I blame on my incredibly incompetent internet service provider, who stuffed me around for a total of 8 days (no phone, no internet).

Thankfully my service has been restored, so back to blogging. Instead of giving you a blow-by-blow rundown of what I've been doing, I have included some pics instead!

Wedding Quilt complete

Rolled up and ready to gift

Mod Sampler Quilt-along (my progress so far)

Etsy custom order

Pinwhale cord dress for a new baby girl

Closer shot of the embroidery

The embroidery on the little dress was taken from this book. The design is called "wild bunch", and I just used three colours from my stash for the flowers.

My progress on the quilt-along has been so slow - waiting for fabric to arrive from the US, then popping over to the Amitie sale for some extras (which of course lead to a whole re-thinking of my colour scheme). After all that, I realised how much cutting was involved! I have chopped up all of my dominant pieces (all spots), and am halfway through cutting the prints.

Elizabeth at Oh fransson! has been so thorough with her guidance for this quilt-along. Her posts are such a wonderful resource that it is well worth a look if you haven't already checked it out.

Grandma's Fancywork

I had a phone call from Grandma last week, asking if I would like her unfinished fancywork (her word) and floss. "Hell yeah!" I said (in my head - I don't actually speak to Grandma like that!).

A brown paper package (tied up with sticky tape, not string) arrived on my doorstep today (why don't the posties ring the doorbell when they drop them off?). It was filled with an abundance of embroidery floss (conveniently bundled into groups), two unfinished pieces of Grandma's fancywork, and some other random notions.
Unfortunately, Grandma's eyes don't see well enough to finish off these pieces. One is nearly finished, so I might try to get it done before her birthday next month and post it back to her. It will likely involve a little lacy crochet work, so we'll see how I go. It'd be nice, though.

Question - can I iron straight onto the fancywork? Or should I press it under a cloth? I assume that when finished I would iron straight onto it...

Ahoy there, Captain

I can't look at a plain tee shirt now without envisioning what I can stencil onto it! This green striper said "Pirate" to me. I'm not sure this is totally what I was after, but it was a great stencil so I had to use it. Maybe it needs some text below? What do you think?

A dear little house....

I love this house so much! I've been wanting to make one for ages now, and finally realised that I had a perfect opportunity - a little friend turned one yesterday!

I finished it in time for Ollie to present it to the birthday girl at her party, but I have taken it home to embellish it some more! I'd like to applique some windows, and perhaps a few flowers.
I have set myself a deadline - Wednesday. If I've done nothing more by then, I never will (always the procrastinator!), and I'll just hand it back for her to enjoy as is.

The tutorial can be found free online here by this clever lady. She has some really lovely tutorials, check them out.

Please don't forget that all proceeds from my etsy store are still being donated to the Victorian Bushfires Appeal via the Red Cross. I had a flurry of activity in the first week, so thank you to all who visited the store!

Amitie Fabrics

Remember this fabric I received in the Amitie blog VIP mail-out? I finally cut into it to make this sweet little elephant from More Softies. 

The elephant is a gift for a very sweet 12 year old. She was suitably impressed with both the elephant, and the chocolate mud cake covered in a delicious ganache that I also made for her!
Speaking of the Amitie blog VIP mail-out, this fabric arrived this week from Amitie. It's a delightfully bright collection of good sized scraps. I feel the need to make up a lap sized quilt with it, but that would involve an investment of more fabric....

I'm loving the colourful stripes and the red leafy one on top.

Love Birds

These little chickies will soon be on their way to some kids who have lost everything in the fires.

They were made using this pattern, only I made 3 in one go by cutting big long strips instead of smaller rectangles (see below).
They'll each be popping their little heads out of a bag like the one below, all of which will be filled with bits and pieces to keep the kids occupied.
If you haven't already, go to Handmade Help to find out more ways to help out.

Etsy Store Update

Thank you to everyone who has purchased something from my etsy store in the last week. Earlier in the week I was able to donate $120 to the Red Cross Bushfires Appeal. I have a further $55 ready to donate - I'm just waiting on another payment from a customer before I donate that lot.

I've just updated the store with some more items, including these gorgeous crayon and texta rolls. I've chosen some more masculine colours, since everything else in my store is a bit girly!
Remember that all of the proceeds from the sale of items in my etsy store go straight to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfires Appeal! So not only will you be contributing to a very worthy cause, you'll be sent a lovely handmade item. Postage within Australia is free, too!

Raising money...

....for the Victorian Bushfires 2009 Appeal.

Thank you so much to those of you who have already purchased something from my etsy store. 
So far we have raised $96.15, and I'm just about to add these doll's quilts to the store.
Remember that 100% of the money raised in my etsy store at the moment will go straight to the Bushfire Appeal.
The doll's quilt each have a panel (Hop, Skip and a Jump) from Denyse Schmidt Quilts. I actually sewed up the panels a few years ago, but they don't go as well with my original palette as I had hoped, so I thought this was a perfect way to use them up. 

I am, of course, a beginner quilter, so the quality of the doll's quilts has improved as I make them (it's really only the binding which gave me trouble to begin with - now I can do it!!). The pricing in my etsy stores will therefore reflect this.

Ripple Blanket

You've no doubt all heard about (or experienced) the ridiculously hot heat wave we've had here in Melbourne ( and other parts of the country). The only crafting I managed during this week was a bit of crochet on this Ripple Blanket I'm making for my niece's birthday. I've been plonked on the couch, feet in a bucket of iced water, fan on, crocheting away. Oh, and reading posts like this in an effort to feel cooler.

So much for the early night....

(and trust me to not start out with a simple image to linocut!!)

gocco printing on fabric

Happy New Year!

After doing lots of the above for the last week, I'm back in town. I've just harvested a large crop of cherry tomatoes, both yellow and red, and I've watered all of the very dry looking pots. I'm about to lay out all of my crochet squares - over 100 in all. I have less than one ball of noro left to crochet, then it's time to block and join. I'll post a photo when it's all laid out.

my (super)hero *sigh*

One of my favourite things to see when I'm out and about is a little kid dressed up in a costume. Ollie hasn't been much of a fan of wearing dress-ups thus far, but I plan to change that by providing him with some rockin' costumes for Christmas.

The inspiration for this one comes from Ollie himself. When he refers to himself, he nearly always calls himself "Ollie-boy". Sounds like a side-kick name to me.

I picked up this yellow costume for a couple of dollars from an op-shop a few weeks ago.

Off came the roaring Tiger picture on the front, and on went an "O" for Ollie Boy. I added one on the pants, too, just because I could.
Then, on the back I added a black cape with his super hero moniker. Finito.
Hope he wears it ;)