Botticelli Babe Craft, Australia

Green voile Citronille top

2010-08-26T15:22:00.005+10:00

I found Citronille via Amanda at Soulemama a few weeks ago, and ordered a few of their delicious patterns. I fell totally in love with a square-necked smock shirt and a pointy-hooded coat that both boasted simple construction methods, and picked up a third hippy-style shirt that looked like something my partner would wear in a larger size.
Whilst the shipping wasn't cheap it WAS fast, and the patterns themselves were very inexpensive and covered a wide range of sizes - not to mention beautiful and unusual compared to the poor selection available without flounces or skirts in Australia.

After whipping up a toile in calico I thought the first shirt pattern looked a bit wide and short for my long, skinny pixie (who refused to try it on for me to double check after eyeballing) so I attempted to adjust it when it came time to cut out my actual first attempt.

Lesson learned; don't eyeball changes. Especially ones that make it difficult for the shoulders to fit a garment. I ended up having to add triangular gores back into the side-seams, thus rendering my years in the Medieval Society useful in modern life, after all!

I used a gorgeous green voile that snagged with very little provocation, and was originally another Medieval Society garment. It seems to be my month for remaking old garments into wildly new ones.

And then Pixieface wouldn't try the actual garment on until I'd added the buttons (which were then cause for excitement, celebration, and definite donning). I found these two delicious little red apple buttons at a church market stall and bought them for twenty cents, knowing I'd find the right project sometime.

Unfortunately, Two seems to be a difficult age for getting nice shots of this child of mine. A combination of camera-shy and inability to stand still made these about the best I could do.
BUT the final verdict is that I will be making one of these in every colour, for the warmer months. With longer sleeves and body length than suggested by the pattern (but not narrower!). Just too gorgeous for words. And so very European looking!

Fatuous reasons to become a Mum

2010-08-19T17:45:00.006+10:00

To show somebody how fun it can be to step in a puddle of paint, feel it ooze between your toes, and then march across paper, leaving a trail behind you, feeling it stick to your feet and giggling at the mess.

Recently seen on my sewing machine

2010-08-18T17:22:00.003+10:00

Early this year I found a sleeveless fleece vest for my son's wardrobe. It's been really useful on cooler days this winter, when we've gone out to playgrounds where it's very cool when you stand still, but running around like a two year old makes it a bit warm for a jumper.
I didn't quite trust myself to fit a zip to stretchy fleece fabric so planned to do a double-breasted button thing for my homemade version. This turned out not to be as practical as I'd hoped, since a sudden growth spurt meant he was filling out his clothes an inch or two more than when I first began cutting. So the resulting garment looks slightly lopsided, but was still a big hit - the minute I added the buttons and rediscovered my machine's buttonholing capabilities that is (he didn't want a bar of it, pre-buttons).

The outside is a gorgeous grey minky fleece, and I cut around the fading on an old cotton garment for the lining, that was retired from the Medieval Society when I was in charge of the loaner gear (so the local group heads offered me the spoils!). I patterned it off a (slightly A-line) shirt, allowing a few centimetres extra on each seam, so a few layers could be comfortably worn beneath. (To do this, turn your garment inside out, pull the sleeves inside the body of the garment and lay it as flat as you can. Potential tute to follow. Eventually.)

I think next time I'll try finishing the edges with a contrasting rib knit and not bother lining it. I'd also curve the front edges rather than leaving them as right angles, one of which inevitably flips up.
But not bad for a first go. With the skivvy and embroidered flares the Tiny Tyrant was definitely channelling the 70s the other day!

Bag of Swag

2010-08-16T17:25:00.001+10:00

Went to visit the Out-laws last week, and came home with these lovelies, which my Mother-Out-Law was planning to toss out. They're all genuinely vintage, from the 70s or 80s (and gosh, doesn't that make ME feel old)! Most of them have a little fading or wear, but if I make them into Small People things that will be easy enough to avoid. I'm really chuffed, even though I'm meant to be cutting down the amount of stuff in my craft room - I twisted my ankle in there this morning, when I tripped over some of the piles.

Food Pr0n

2010-08-01T08:21:00.005+10:00

Round here, winter is for baking!
Here's a peek at some of the baking I've been doing lately, because when stuff goes right in the kitchen it's worth celebrating, for me.

First, a chocolate zucchini cupcake with peppermint and choc-fudge icing. It's got vegetables in, it's healthy, right? Without the icing it's actually been a huge toddler hit and I'll be doing them again.

And here are some Very Naughty gingerbread men that I sent to my sister, after a silly discussion about me mailing her "hot naked men". Well, except for the one of them who got shy and donned a posing pouch!

Toddler Tuesday: pants from bunny rug

2010-07-27T19:24:00.000+10:00

I enlisted the Tiny Tyrant's help in making him some new PJ pants (which he needed desperately, since the past month's growth spurt has added an extra two inches to his legs, seemingly).
Digging through my stash of flannelette material lead to the discovery of the rug we wrapped him in for his first Mama-Baby photos, the first day we were home from the hospital. Since he was in the NICU for a week he was already eight days old. I remember asking my partner to take the two photos, so I'd have something to send to the family; apart from a fuzzy, long distance view of the plastic crib he was in, all our photos so far had included wires, heat lamps and machines that went PING.
Finding that blanket made me feel very nostalgic, and I remembered how exhausted, relieved and overjoyed I was that I finally had him home with my partner and I, and we had the opportunity to begin enjoying being the new family that we all were, together.

Tyrant seemed to be drawn to it too, because it was the material he chose to have his new pants made from.
I've been getting him a bit more involved in my sewing, lately; he likes to sit on my lap when I'm not sewing fiddly things, and watch the fabric move through the machine (thank goodness he's such a careful child). He works the presser foot for me, and I pause to let him pull pins out and stick them on my magnetic mushroom, which he loves to do.
So we sewed up his new pants in around fifteen minutes, and for the first night in some time he wanted to get into his pyjamas early!

Thrifty Thursday: Rags for the Bag

2010-07-15T20:42:00.003+10:00

In case you haven't yet realised it, I am seriously enamoured of clothes. Not "fashion" as in what the magazines are telling me the designers like right now, but fashion; the great, enormous scale of designs, colours, fabrics and accessories human beings have used in all cultures, for centuries, to decorate and protect themselves.

Clothes are amazing, and I'm not sure I could ever get tired of thinking about and playing with ideas for ways to be dressed. Sure, I have my favourite eras and styles, my own tastes and preferences, but I still enjoy mixing it up and thinking about others and what might suit or excite them, too.

This is why I never thought I would ever meet my match. Enter my partner; a man who loves thrift shopping even more than me, who- when I met him - had more clothes than me!
Part of this is becase he loves the thrill of finding that perfect item that suits as much as I do. But some of it is certainly also because he's gotten emotionally attached to a lot of his clothes. A bit like those supposed women who hang onto that dress for "when I'm a size 10 again", he had pants whose waistband would now just close around a single thigh still lurking in the depths of his wardrobe.
That he'd last worn twenty years ago.
That had a bleach stain on one leg from when his Mum had dropped it, in the laundry.

Because of the emotional investment in his clothes, I've been using a mixture of gentle and more aggressive tactics to get rid of some of his dinosaurs (my own wardrobe tends to get purged of the unworn and unfit every few years).
The bane of my existence has actually turned out to be the Terribly Comfortable (Moth-Eaten) Hole Transportation System, the sort of shirt that's hanging together with goodwill and a few bits of thread and fond memories.
I'm not denying that you need a shirt or two like this in your wardrobe. For the memories, for yardwork, for moving furniture or to spatter in red paint to wear as a zombie costume for a birthday party (no, really). But a dozen or more?
So I've been ditching them, slowly, taking what I can use again and doing so, but trying to be really ruthless if the fabric is too worn or there are just too many holes.

Here are a couple of things I do when I find a fresh ~~victim~~ shirt:

Cut off (and keep)the buttons. These are always reusable on sewn garments or items that are missing one. They make great game counters or eyes for toys. Toddlers, kids AND adults love playing with and arranging buttons (it can be v therapeutic and soothing). Plus, they're usually plastic and thus most likely the last thing to break down at the tip.
Assess the sleeves. Sleeves make nifty hats for small babies, and two sewn together (with a bit of shaping and elastic) can make baby shorts or bloomers.
This totally used to be two old t-shirts.
Check out the rest of the shirt for patches not too worn or holey. Small squares and rectanges are practical as pieces for baby and toddler tunics, pants and shirts or for cleaning cloths - worn clothes are usually soft and especially good for glass cleaning.

So those are my tips for Hol(e)y Old Relics of the Wardrobe. Got any of your own?

Two Year Old Backpacks

2010-05-17T20:20:00.003+10:00

Yesterday my Small Person turned 2.
We had a Ladybugs' Picnic at the local Botanic Gardens, inviting all his friends to wear black and red and join us near the really cool playground there.

I've been prepping like mad, and can now totally understand other parents' love for pay-n-play padded spaces and professionally catered events! I tried not to pressure myself too much (hence the low-key theme), figuring two year olds would just love the chance to run around and have fun, but the one thing I did pull out all the stops for were the party bags. I'm not super-comfortable with handing a group of very small people a bunch of sugar and chemicals to take home and smear all over their rooms, and I really wanted not to give away a heap of disposable plastic junk that would go into land-fill in no time at all.
Also, the food issue was especially important for me since not only does the birthday boy have some food sensitivity issues, but quite a few of his friends do, as well as having all-out allergies.

So instead of traditional party bags I found vegbee's toddler backpack over at her indietutes blog. It was the perfect size for our toddler invitees, and the perfect shape for bug bags!

Inside each bag was a bubble-blowing kit (so I didn't totally escape the cheap plastic - at least it's reusable), a red ribbon on a stick (made at home with chopsticks and lengths of ribbon from Spotlight) and two home-made lavender bath fizzies (with printed instructions designed by me).

Long story short the bags and contents were a bit of a hit - far more than my mediocre attempt at a birthday cake (thank goodness I have lots of years to perfect this art!) and now I have to go figure out my neglected Paypal account, to donate to vegbee.
And after all my stressing and work we all had a lovely time and quite a few of our guests decided to wear their new backpacks before they even got home.

The Easter Bilby visits

2010-04-10T21:56:00.001+10:00

As bunnies are a really terrible pest here in Australia, and the Wicked Fairy is very aware of this as his parents own a farm, we have agreed that the Easter Bilby (whose chocolate presence can be seen on supermarket shelves alongside his European brethren) will be visiting the Tiny Tyrant each year.

This year the Bilby brought a few handmade soy chocolate eggs and something else - bunny skittles, to practice "kick" at with a ball! I knew these skittles would be a hit before I even began them. My prototype was March's Toy Society item, and the Tyrant pounced on the toy and began gleefully carrying and tossing it about the moment it was done (he did the same thing with the purple hippo. It makes me almost sorry to give them away).

The bunnies are stuffed with a core of fabric scraps from the last three Toy Society projects, and rounded and softened with Hobbyfill. This makes them just a smidge heavier than they'd otherwise be, which makes them a little bit harder to knock over.
So the Tyrant's started placing his ball on the ground 15 centimetres away from the grouped skittles and then gleefullly kicking it - conveniently, he's then close enough to kick any skittles over that he managed to miss, without taking a step!

Toy Society drops

2010-04-08T20:50:00.000+10:00

Although I've been running a bit late, I have managed to do roughly a toy a month for my Toy Society drops.

Because of the lateness, January and February's drops were both that wonderful hippo pattern I bought from 2 Little Banshees at Stitches & Craft last year. It's become a wonderfully soothing activity that comes together in more or less an evening (maybe two, for stuffing and fiddly bits like embroidery and button attachment). These two were drop number 974 and 984 respectively.

But in March I managed to sew something a bit different, and dropped it on the 1st April, just before Easter.

It's a little overexposed, as the Attack Toddler managed to get at my camera and change the settings the day before (and I was in a rush to get a shot before the drop, so didn't realise before taking the photos). This is an altered pattern from the book Softies. The original was a cat skittle, but a bunny felt much more seasonally appropriate!

Old sheets redux

2010-03-20T18:44:00.000+11:00

Laundry bag for the back of the bathroom or bedroom door (both our baskets are pitifully small for the amount of dirty clothes that can accumulate during a week in the life of a Crafter, Miniaturist and Very Small Boy). Conveniently the right colour scheme to go with either our towels OR our bedclothes!

Bath bombs

2010-03-17T22:01:00.006+11:00

My son adores LUSH's bath ballistics and gleefully drops the "fizzies" into his bath to watch them bubble. The trouble is, they're terribly expensive, even when broken in half, as he expects one every night!

So a quick whip around google informed me that it was possible to make your own with just a few 'easily sourced' *coughcough* ingredients. I had everything to hand except citric acid and molds. I ended up using muffin trays as molds, but the citric acid gave me pause.
Did you know pool shops sell it in several kilo bags to clean stains off the bottoms of swimming pools? Doesn't sound like something I'd want in my bath-tub with me!
I eventually found food-grade citric acid in one of the local supermarkets, along with the other baking supplies.

In the end, my bath fizzies are not as pretty as LUSH's, but that doesn't seem to bother us any; they still fizz, smell good and leave our skin soft and smooth. AND they cost only a fraction of the professional ones!

If you'd like to make your own, here are some of the sites/recipes I used:
http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/bathbombs/
http://ourhouse.ninemsn.com.au/ourhouse/factsheets/db/craft/05/523.asp
http://www.teachsoap.com/bombs.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-Bath-Bombs/

Just Pants

2010-03-12T19:34:00.001+11:00

The toddler has had a growth spurt and the pants that fit my miniature manling last winter are now just as tight round the waist, but sit ridiculously high on his ankles and shins. So has begun the great pants-making effort of Winter '10.

Red pants with contrast fabric at cuff and on/in the side pockets of green with daisies:

Same but in blue, with blue, red and yellow birds and a back pocket too:

Up close the red pair looks homemade, the blue handmade with an unfortunate seam. I'm still wokring on streamlining this pattern/sewing process. Because my goodness, aren't these cute?

O hai thur!

2010-03-10T17:25:00.000+11:00

Hah.
I do believe I jinxed myself with my new Years' resolutions, back there.
Resolve to post once a week, stop posting for two months.
Resolve to join in a Project A month checklist, feel totally overwhelmed by my list of Things To Do and sit and stare at the sewing machine, quivering slightly, for some weeks.

There has been SOME crafting and sewing going on lately, at least. My Attack of life is done with, for now. I just need to post my stuff!

Old Sheets

2010-01-14T14:59:00.000+11:00

I love old sheets. Old sheets are a lot like old friends.

Old sheets are comfortable, familiar. They're worn in and softened in just the right places. They even smell right. Not always good, but never strange.
They have a history - especially when they're yours. Sometimes they have marks and scars as a testament to that history. Sometimes they'll be worn so thin that you could break them like that with a twist of your pinky finger. Sometimes they're still going strong, years and years later.

So I suppose it's not surprising that I love to work with old sheets, refashioning them for new uses. They make wonderful house or pyjama pants - soft and light, and often 100% cotton. They're great for cushion and pillow covers - especially when they're worn thin in the middle, you can piece the edges of different sheets together. Being a simple woven fabric they're usually wonderfully easy to work with, already stretched as much as they will, not overly prone to creasing. And, when there's nothing else for it, they make marvellous cleaning cloths, soft and light, easy to wash and re-use again.

Belated Christmas Sewing

2010-01-12T13:51:00.003+11:00

This week I'm racing to finish my first ever batch of bunting - a project I've been swearing I'll work out 'soon' for many months - for a friends' little boy. His whole room is done in primary colours, so the bunting will be too, to match. I bought myself some pinking shears (so I don't have to sew the edges of my flags) and I'm so pleased at finding this Cars themed ribbon, to go with his playmat and bed sheets.
He and his Mum will be moving soon, so I don't think I'll get to see it strung up, but hopefully when they're re-settled I'll be able to ask for a picture.

New Year again!

2010-01-03T22:04:00.004+11:00

I managed to keep two of my four crafty resolutions, last year. Considering most people seem to get waylaid about halfway through, I think a fifty percent success rate is really quite good, especially as my final resolution was kind of started in a small way (but got held up for want of decent "making space"- a problem now solved by Nana's gift of a small person table and chairs). So I'm going to do some more Crafty Resolutions, for 2010:

More of the same; more attention to detail and time taken with finishes. I don't think I'll ever stop being a Hack & Slash Seamster, but just a little more given to making my seams neat and strong has given me BIG results. I like that!
Try to achieve at least a third of this year's gifts for birthdays and Christmas festivities being hand-made. Preferably by me, but by other Real People will do, in a pinch. (And don't waste time on hand-made gifts for those who will not appreciate them, such as my younger brother or sister. It will just give me heart-ache.)
Post here at the very least once per week. And something other than Hot & Not or a similar meme.
Do at least one Toy Society drop per month!

I don't think this is a huge goal to strive for, given that I did four Mirabel softies in just over a month. This goal will also let me fiddle about with softie making, which is great fun, requires only a shortish attention span, and is something I'd like to get better at.
Finally, take part in the 12 month sewing challenge over at My Favourite.

Merry Christmas, Midsummer, Yule & Festivus

2009-12-26T11:16:00.002+11:00

I know I've been slack about updating. Truth is, I've been panicking; we had a family gathering with 14 people last weekend, for my dad's family, we spent the day itself with my in-laws, and then we're going to Canberra to see my mother and siblings, tomorrow. Plus, all 3 of us are ill (We must have been on the very top of Santa's naughty list!).

My grand plans of a wholly handmade Christmas gift pile have fallen by the wayside. Apart from a bunch of baking for my cousins, the best I could manage was this no-sew polar fleece blanket for my aunt & uncle.

Wait, I guess that's not strictly true - I did manage to make yet another of Two Little Banshees's hippo stuffies, this time in green, a Midsummer gift for my son. I'm hoping it will be the first of a collection of "handmade stuffies by Mummy", not to mention beginning a tradition of one handmade gift opened on the equinox (I'd like to make something for my partner next year too, and encourage him and our boy to make presents for me and each other as well).

At least it's now mostly over. We just have to get over these colds!

Hot+Not

2009-12-13T21:10:00.004+11:00

Another Sunday, another Hot & not. To play, post your own to your blog and link to Loobylu.
Claire's been blogging for ten years now! This blew me away until I realised I've been dabbling with the internet since 1994 myself. (Which makes it fifteen years since I taught myself HTML with a clunky book and a text editor, back in the spring holiday break of my first highschool year. Scary!)

Hot:
Figuring it out
I've got this doily my great-great grandmother made. I was named after her, and she died when I was very small. It's the only thing I have of hers. I've been trying to figure out a cool thing to do with it that won't trash it and that doesn't amount to "little old lady-esque decor with doilies under stuff" because that's just not my style.

I think I know what I'm going to do, courtesy of Amy at Grey Grid Paper.

Christmas baking
Mmm, Gingerbread. Mmm, sweet things. Mmm, baked goods generally.

Christmas carols
I can't help it, I love them. Even the super-cheesy ones about snowmen and reindeer.

Midsummer
I love swimming at the beach, thunderstorms, floaty summer dresses, long daylight hours and cicadas singing. Midsummer makes me happy - and it's coming up so soon!

Not:
Crowds at the shops
Ugh. Push, shove, rushrushrush.

Unfinished gift shopping
Every year I swear I'll get organised, and there's always somebody(s) I forget. This year I got my own little family sorted out... and now I have to shop for my siblings, parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, in-laws, friends...

Christmas baking
ACK! in the summer heat!

Hot + Not

2009-12-06T19:46:00.001+11:00

It's been a slow craft week, as I've been prepping for the bellydance hafla I had last night. But its Sunday, so time for Loobylu's Hot & Not again.

Hot:
Christmas trees!

We finally got ours put up today.
I love Christmas decorations. Christmas was always a favourite time of the year, when I was growing up. One of the things I most looked forward to during my pregnancy was making it special for my child, too.

Bellydancing

It's been all about the hip wiggling this week.
I won't lie, I've been loving it. Bellydancing remains probably my strongest passion - SO good for body, mind and soul!

Getting gifts together
I LURVE giving gifts. I love shopping for and making the perfect thing for each person. Even the tricky ones - in some things I really relish a challenge.

Not:
Christmas crowds
I hate how crowded every public place seems to be, at this time of year, and how it's all rush, rush, rush.

Feeling flustered
The rushing going on everywhere gets into my blood. I tend to be fret-catching anyway, but everyone being fretful makes it so much worse. It makes me want to hibernate for the whole month.

Summer sniffles

Is there anything worse than a runny nose in hot weather? (brought on by the fact it constantly goes from almost forty to cold and late teens from day to day, sometimes) Yuck.

Hot and Not

2009-11-29T12:51:00.006+11:00

Thought I'd start doing Loobylu's Hot & Not every Sunday.

Hot:
The weather
Apparently it's been the hottest November on record, for our part of the world. Thank goodness we got insulation finally installed, earlier this month! It doesn't stop the heat altogether, but does help some.

This cute fabric

I found it in the flat fats pile at Spotlight, from Manhattan Design Studios. I always think of red and this sort of beautiful green as "belonging" to my son - they're my favourite colours on him.

Book orders from Fishpond

I am acquiring the most amazing library of inspirational craft books. My favourites from the last haul are Zakka Sewing and Sock & Glove (yes, it's finally happened - I've succumbed to the allure of "Japanese" crafts).

Bellydance hafla
Next Saturday, wahoo! Got my tickets for myself and two friends, now to spend the week frantically making costumes!

Not:
The way the weather makes everyone cranky and tired
I hate the way we all snap at each other (even the baby is surly and prone to tantrums, lately).

The very sad state of my mint plant

Found the plant in this state, with a VERY fat, happy and fresh-breathed green caterpillar on it! Found another of the cheeky buggers on my basil, last night.

How I'm not getting enough sleep lately

Part heat, part stress, part teething baby. Of course, little sleep makes me more cranky and tired, boo!

Home-made Deodorant

2009-11-27T12:17:00.004+11:00

Earlier this year I'd tried sealing bi-carb soda in a jar with a few drops of lavender essential oil and leaving it a few months before using as an underarm deodorant. I solved the "powder on my clothes" problem by dusting myself straight after my morning shower, but when spring hit and I actually started getting warm, the "de" part stopped working so well.

So far as I know the "links to breast cancer" thing was linked to antiperspirant rather than deodorant (and thus I switched to deo roll-ons years ago) and unproven one way or the other, so it's not that which set me looking for alternatives to my Mum.
Rather, it's the fact that the cheap chemical scents some products use can set off my asthma and allergies (not to mention smelling rather nasty to my sensitive nose). The fact I really like my clothes. I don't like so much the crusty, whitish stains I get on them, under my arms, when I've sweated whilst wearing commercial deodorants, though. Plus, I love the idea of making my own stuff (what craftster doesn't?). Finally, to quote my friend Katie "And, commercialism".

So the comments raving about this new deodorant recipe at Smashed Peas and Carrots intrigued me. The ingredients were easy to find, at my local health food store and supermarket (only one I had trouble with was the coconut oil - I had to wait for the next store shipment to come in). I've been trying my new deodorant for the past week now - as luck would have it, including a miniature, 3-day heatwave, and you can add my voice to those singing its praises! Mommabear kindly gave me permission to repost this amazing recipe, so I can share it with you, and talk about how awesome and unstinky I feel whilst wearing it.

Natural Deodorant

2-3 Tbsp Coconut Oil
1/8 Cup Baking Soda
1/8 Cup Arrowroot Powder (can be replaced by Cornstarch)

Things go a bit easier if you combine the dry ingredients, then add the coconut oil. You can throw a few drops of essential oil in there for the smell, too - I added lemon, since it's antibacterial anyway. So my deodorant smells like lemon cream tea biscuits. (Whoops!) Luckily, the smell is quite subtle and dissipates fairly quickly, unlike commercial deodorants.
Since it's summer I also took Mommabear's suggestion and keep mine in the fridge, which keeps it nice and hard in bar form (the heat from my skin is enough to soften it and melt it in, without it smearing all over my hands).

I really don't think I'll ever buy another commercial deodorant, I'm so blown away by how awesome this recipe is! I would recommend you rush out and try it right now.

Matching kimonos

2009-11-21T08:03:00.000+11:00

Oh, Habitual "Simple" Kimono, how I love to hate and hate to love you!

These two are a matching set for a friend's two sons - the smallest of whom is only three weeks old, and as big as my munchkin was at birth. They're the fourth and fifth versions of this pattern that I've made, and I've come to the point where I've realised two things;

Whilst binding on the edges looks really awesome, it's nasty to sew without pressing and being very, very careful you've got it matched up on either side of the fabric. Inevitably, I end up missing the edge on the underside. (is there some trick I have not discovered?)
My son is just too tiny for this massive neckline! Whilst a size may fit him length-wise, the neck gapes really badly. The kimono I made him at six months sits strangely along the bottom as it tries to reach round his body, but the neck fits perfectly, as an example.

So I think some pattern tweaking is in order, when I next feel the need to make another of these (and I do love them; it's so hard to find interesting, creative clothing for little boys that doesn't consist of insane amounts of tailoring and I'm not about to try getting an 18 month old to stand still for a fitting!). necessity is the mother of invention, after all.

Case in point; I didn't have enough of the gorgeous forest green or pale blue bindings to completely do each of the kimonos, so I took a multicoloured approach. Tiny boy's kimono is trimmed in a darker blue than the background of the fabric, with brown and green for the side-ties that matches some of the cars in the print. Big boy's kimono is trimmed in the forest green his mother and I both love on our boys, with orange side-ties, that again goes with the print on the fabric - this one's not an exact match, but less disparity than the photos suggest. My camera and the light levels just were not happy with me this morning!

Note to my friends with Very Small People

2009-11-16T22:07:00.004+11:00

One ought never comment that you need new clothes for your child in my hearing, when I have a gap in my scheduled sewing projects.

Well, unless you want several new pairs of shorts for said Small People!

Sneak Peek

2009-11-14T22:28:00.002+11:00

This is a project I've been steadily working on for a friend, the past few weeks. There's been lots of love, time and care taken with it. It went to my friend today - and as I told her "I don't hem chiffon for just anyone!".

Any guesses as to what it is?

(To be revealed in December!)

Finished for Mirabel!

2009-11-13T22:02:00.000+11:00

I finished my fourth softie for Mirabel, today!
Four was the magic number I committed myself to, so I'm feeling pretty happy to have made it.
This is another go at the Blinking Flights pattern, of course. Something masculine, to go with the very femme florals of the last softie. Plus, I had visions of using the supercool green and white stripes from my frilly hat in a bug.

I lurve this guy's pink mohawk and his cool older brother air (okay, so I'm guessing, being the eldest in my family!). His little smirk looks very laid-back and relaxed, to my mind. (And how awesome is his embroidered nose ring?)

Chocolate and oranges

2009-11-12T10:07:00.002+11:00

I had this sudden craving for these two flavours together, at the beginning of this week, so purchased three likely looking oranges (and checked our cocoa stores. As always, the level was high. Ha!).

I used this recipe for chocolate orange sticks, as it looked to be the easiest. It was still a special kind of hell (that took hours) on account of how fiddly it was, and I have a new-found respect for my mother's efforts each Christmas as I was growing up.

I also decided to try my hand at chocolate-orange cake, using the juice of my oranges. I altered the chocolate orange muffin recipe over here by substituting one of the eggs with about 180mLs of orange juice (all of what my oranges gave up). I ended up with a kind of fudge-consistency sweet and sharp cake thing. It is very tasty, but I think next time I'll use less juice.

Now, does anyone know what I can do with 2/3 cup sugar syrup and 4 litres of orange water?

Silly Frilly hat

2009-11-09T21:51:00.001+11:00

Not so much a hit.

Sew Simple Shrug

2009-11-08T21:05:00.001+11:00

I made myself one of these from Sew Hip issue 5. My friend Jodie was very taken with it, and asked me to get her some nice fabric at the Stitches & Craft Show, for her own version - which we finally both found the time to make today!

She hasn't sewn since she was fourteen, and corralled into a home ec classroom with a bunch of machines from the age of dinosaurs. Did anyone have a good experience with those metallic behemoths? All I remember mine doing was constantly eating its own bobbin, making snarls I simply could not unravel, that often meant my project had to be cut up, in order to pry the fabric from the machine's maw.
Like me, Jodie says she has spent years thinking she hates sewing and sewing machines, because of those early experiences.

But I promised this was a REALLY easy project, and the results would be fabulous (especially with these fabrics, yum!). So I soothed my friend's nervousness, demonstrated how lovely my sleek, modern machine is, and watched carefully as she sewed her first machine project since the twenty years ago apron.

I feel so cheerful about the result; look at that big smile! She did it! And it looks fab. I'm so proud of her.

Jodie is now the second friend I have introduced to the joys of sewing useful things with the aid of a machine. My first 'student' made her daughter a bag with my help, and got her own sewing machine for her last birthday. I'm really looking forward to seeing what she makes.

Summery top

2009-11-07T13:22:00.001+11:00

I never feel as motivated to make things for myself as for others, but after making my Bug with this bright flowered fabric, I really wanted to make something for myself out of it - and then I could not resist this sweet pattern over at Sew Mama, Sew. I was a bit nervous because I'm built rather differently to the models featured, so tunics like this tend to look rather maternity when I put them on. But I left off the ruffle (think Miss Piggy - and not in a good way), and I'm actually happier with the result than I expected.

Seriously, how can you resist this spring-like fabric combo?

(And yes, in case you're wondering, that IS a row of white around the bottom of the top that you can see. Hack and Slash Seamster that I am, I used the selvedge as my bottom edge. Lazy is the new cool, didn't you know?)

Blue Hippo Sublime

2009-11-07T09:39:00.003+11:00

I can safely say I feel I'm really getting the hang of this hippo pattern (finally!), though each new incarnation makes me feel even sorrier for the hippos that came before. I'm noticing less tendency to sew folds into their faces, and their bottoms are becoming plumper and more rounded (which, let's face it, is what you want in a hippo behind. Skinny derrieres are Just Not Hippo!). As my first hippo bum was weirdly creased and folded (and I even left off the tail by accident) I hope the other adults with whom I share my home will forgive the fact that I waxed lyrical over my latest hippo behind and don't think I'm too weird for very long.
Best of all, I was able to whip up the latest hippo in a few hours, over a single Friday evening. Yep, us parents of toddlers know how to party!

Bug Softie

2009-11-05T09:27:00.000+11:00

I've been a bit slack with the blogging lately, and that's partially because I've been a bit slack with the sewing. To break my sewing drought I decided I needed to add to the Softies I would be sending away for Mirabel (because one is pathetic) and I wanted to do something fun, that wouldn't break my brain. So I picked up the Blinking Flights bug pattern and some scraps of bright, cheerful fabric. It only took me two nights to whip up this island bug.
(Why are my creations always just that bit wonky? Let's pretend, and say it was their Creatrix deliberately imbuing them with some of herself, shall we?)

I'm not really a pattern follower, more what I call "A Hack and Slash Seamster", but the pattern plus knowing what the end result should look like made this a super easy softie to make. I didn't trim the seams round the curve of the head, as advised, and I think it shows, unfortunately, and the antennae were actually quite tricky, because they're so slim and require quite a precise control of your machine. But otherwise, this was a really easy, FUN pattern to make (and I felt very inspired by the bright colours and fabrics used by their original creator).

I'm now also kind of in love with the main, flower print fabric I used, and want to make myself a clothing item from it - and I think I've found the perfect pattern.

Herbs

2009-11-04T15:04:00.000+11:00

I often tell people I have black thumbs and they laugh and tell me about how they have trouble with plants too. So I have to explain that I'm actually not indulging in my usual hyperbole (very much); not only have I managed, over the past fifteen years or so, to kill off assorted African violets, roses and sweet little perennials. I have managed to kill off an heretofore thriving peppermint plant. Those things don't go down easy. I once killed a cactus. To date, my thumbs have been the gardener's equivalent of a tactical nuclear strike.

So it's with some trepidation and excitement that I bought these three lovely herbs today. When we lived in a house (by which I mean "when we three humans who existed prior to the Tiny Tyrant's arrival into the world shared space with the small army of cockroaches that generations of Uni students had encouraged to flourish in the foundations of our rental") we managed to keep an herb garden of sorts going. My efforts amounted to transferring the potted plant into a flowerbed and conducting a program of benign neglect until pregnancy made even perfunctory attempts at weed-culling rather difficult, and all was left to grow as it willed.
Now that we're in a townhouse though, I'm going to have to remember to regularly water and pick back my rosemary, mint and basil. Fingers crossed?

Interior Design Personality Quiz

2009-11-03T23:17:00.001+11:00

This made me giggle a bit, because my favourite tones for clothes for myself and design are almost always jewel tones, and my partner's are earth tones! You can take the quiz for yourself here.

Embroidered teatowel

2009-10-29T23:04:00.004+11:00

I've been on a bit of a craft book buying splurge, of late. It started just before my birthday. What kicked it off was actually a sudden desire I developed, to own Aimee Ray's Doodle-stitching, which I'd seen for months in the shops (but was now not to be found Anywhere. I looked! Bah.)

I finally caved and bought the book on Fishpond. It came with me to Queensland, at the beginning of the month, and I finished a few small embroideries, including this bird on a branch. Once home I paired it with some glorious quilting fabric and this amazing royal blue tea-towel, to produce what I hope will be a very nice small gift for a friend's X-Mas.

Dear Internets

2009-10-22T13:08:00.000+11:00

My name's Aphie and I have a problem. It's been two days since my last Spotlight visit. I said I was going for pinking shears, and I came back with a bag of stickers and stamps for card-making as well. The time before, I was going for a metre of black chiffon and found myself leaving with a bag of miscellaneous cotton prints and some knit polyester that was only $3 a metre so really I couldn't pass up such a good bargain, could I?
My fabric stash is taller than I am, and three or four times as wide. I don't have space left for all my cardmaking supplies in my cardmaking drawers.

I need help. I need an intervention.
Or maybe I just need... to craft more?

O Yes, My Pretty!

2009-10-12T20:27:00.000+11:00

Way back when I last saw my grandmother (in May) she brought me a bunch of stuff she thought I could use; a Christmas tree, some of my old toys from when I lived with her, and her old overlocker.

I have never owned (nor personally used) an overlocker before in my life, and I am both squeeing and terrified of this baby. So, she has been sitting in her lovely case, with her box of tools and threads beside her, for month now. Last week I pulled her out and edged some wipes for the baby.

I'm starting to feel braver. I think I need a proper project to try her out on.
I also think I'll call her Brunhilda.

Softies

2009-10-05T22:27:00.007+11:00

This unnamed hippo is the second I've made from this Two Little Banshees pattern. Her sister's name is Bubbles, and she is a lot wonkier. Luckily, I was always the sort of kid who appreciated the 'imperfect' stuffed toys in shops more than their perfectly balanced siblings!

Unnamed Hippo is not going to be staying with me, though. I'm hoping that she, and a few friends, will be headed off to Melbourne come early November, for the Softies for Mirabel charity collection this year.
I've never actually completed a softie before and once I've mastered this pattern, I'm hoping to try my hand at a few more, so I've been scouring the internet for ideas and tutes. There are so many out there!

This little girl with beret and capelet is super sweet, for instance. But there's also this little felt dolly or their weird contemporary if I'm not in a "sweet" mood.

If I wanted to stick with the animal theme, there's also heaps of options, like a Pointy Kitty, Blinking Flights Bug (designed by a local from my city!) or some of these Beautiful birds. I think I want to have a go at that last one for myself, to put on a twig to decorate my house. But that will come later.

No, I have not done the vacuuming this month. Why do you ask?

2009-09-26T19:45:00.003+10:00

The motto of my life is honestly "Why do Housework when there is so much else to do in the world!?" but every so often I come across a blog that makes me seriously wish I were a Domestic Goddess, capable of balancing my contented baby on one hip whilst stirring up a batch of beautiful biscuits as my Made-Just-From-Fresh-And-Locally-Sourced-Produce-Dinner was finishing cooking each evening, in my perfectly, naturally cleaned kitchen.
Soule mama is one such. Kale for Sale a recently discovered 'nother! (Though both are from the US, so their seasons are always upside-down!)

At least my kitchen is cleaned using natural cleaning products... when it's cleaned.

The Winner Is...

2009-09-24T10:12:00.002+10:00

Isn't life grand?
You plan something, set up a timeline, count down the days...then find yourself with a case of food poisoning, and when you're better, an overwhelming list of Stuff To Do, much of it "catch up" from when you were ill!

So sorry to those who eneterd my recent Spring Equinox giveaway! To try to get back onto our regularly scheduled program, the winner is actually...

Number 6, according to random.org.

Trish Goodfield, the tiny pink tote is yours!

Thankyou to the few, the proud, who entered. I'm hoping to run more freebie giveaways in the future, so please feel free to check back.

Dear Web-searcher

2009-09-10T22:50:00.001+10:00

Specifically, the person looking for the Pebeo porcelaine 150 pens in Australia who came by recently; the art shop at Belconnen Westfields in the ACT has many different colours.

Tiny Tote Free to Good Home

2009-09-02T10:31:00.002+10:00

Spring is sprung
The grass is ris
I wonder where
The birdies is?

Going by the calendar acknowledging the equinoxes and such, Spring actually started back in early August. Because professional calendar makers just can't wrap their heads around things not following their calendars exactly, they've tricked us all into believing the season began yesterday.

So in honour of these calendar makers, the fact my birthday is a month away, and the coming Spring Equinox, here's a giveaway!

This cute little bag was one of my earliest attempts to actually complete a project. It's a little taller than A5, but about that length, with enough depth to fit a large womens' wallet, a notebook, some lipbalm, and a pen with room to spare (I know, I stuffed it with everything I usually carry to check it was big enough, when making it).

The outside is a very soft apricot-pink brushed cotton that feels almost like suede. It's all fabric, so folds down very small, and it's lined with vintage flower print cotton, too.

The flowers are acrylic felt and are actually a badge that can be removed and worn, or attached to another bag.

To win this tiny tote, please leave a comment and some way of getting in touch with you - email or a blog. For an extra entry, link to this post and tell me about it!

Entries close on the 20th September, and will be drawn on the Spring Equinox.

Australian Free Things!

2009-08-28T09:47:00.005+10:00

Hey, the Haby Goddess has not one but TWO giveaways that close at 5pm AEST today!
Her shop has some really cute stuff (that is always changing) so is worth a look anyway (I just wish there was MORE!). But if you're in Australia, go take a gander, and enter to possibly score yourself something nice.
Me, I'd really love that hippo pattern - my goodness my love of hippos has reignited recently!

Crafting Excursion!

2009-08-25T14:50:00.005+10:00

So. Stitches and Craft Show. It was in Sydney, just this past weekend. Did you go?

I was there with (black and white) horns on, along with a carfull of friends. We all had the most lovely time. I got to meet Ethan, did a bit of embroidery at one of the free Craft Bars, went to a great motivational talk on Small Business by Quantum Compass and spent... well, less than I could have, and would have liked!
But I still came home with some awesome swag; some beaded trim for bellydance costumes, paper punchers for card-making, a stuffed hippo pattern (finally) to call my own and waaaaaay too many pieces of fabric from Amitie. You'll probably be seeing more of these babies in future posts!

A spot of Embroidery

2009-08-17T15:33:00.000+10:00

This is part of a gift I'm putting together for someone. The pattern comes from an (accidentally - my tracing skills were challenged by the waffled fabric!) altered Badbird freebie.

You read that right, by the way; it really does say 'I poop rainbows'.

I am Sew Hip

2009-08-08T21:36:00.001+10:00

I discovered this magazine at the local newsagents' a few months ago, and have become seriously enamoured. It's a mere $10, from the UK, and is called Sew Hip.

Every issue has multiple patterns, for adult and children's clothing, toys, homewares and crafty bits and bobs. There are interviews with professional crafters, fabric and stationery designers. There's so much I cannot get over how cheap the magazine is - but then, I forget sometimes that Australia doesn't have the population to support some of the amazing artisan-focussed things I remember from my time living in London.

It's funky and youthful without having the hipster 'edginess' which can make my teeth ache. Every week now I rush to the one place I know that carries it to check for the next issue, but I'm currently dropping hints about what Santa may wish to bring me for Christmas (in the form of a subscription?). I may have to write him a letter, methinks!

New Toothbrush Holder

2009-08-01T18:23:00.000+10:00

I was itching to try my new Porcelaine 150 ceramic pen, when my eyes lit upon the sad old toothbrush holder currently doing duty in the bathroom.

This baby has a tiny hole in the bottom, ostensibly to let water out. It doesn't do that very well. It also doesn't really allow for a brush or cloth to get inside. Which means mould has started to grow. Which may account for the precarious way the toothbrushes are gathered (although it could be the razor. Mmm, I know I love beard stubble with my toothpaste! Thanks, honey!).

A dollar, an op-shop, a few washings and a baking at low heat for an hour later and a new toothbrush holder is ready for me to buy new, unbearded, un-potentially mouldy toothbrushes.

Unfortunately, my new project had a lifespan of only three or four days. My son decided it looked like an excellent thing to grab from the counter when Mummy was distracted.
And so, I'm once again on the lookout for something suitable for holding toothbrushes.

Peg Bag

2009-07-29T17:02:00.000+10:00

I've been promising myself for months that I'd make my family a peg bag.
When we moved into our current home I was heavily pregnant, it was the end of summer, and stinking hot. The two Hills Hoists at the back of our block came complete with pegs, that stayed on the lines all day every day. Over the year or so that we've been here, the unrelenting sun, rain and frost has taken its toll. The plastic has degraded and every day I find more tiny, bright shards of peg death on the ground.

So I finally bit the bullet, googled 'peg bag pattern' and decided to make a simple version of the simplest pattern I could find (Easy Gratification, your home is Here).

More involved heads than mine decided to ditch a large pile of "Medieval" tabards from my local groups' loaner pile some months ago, possibly because they all appear to be made for someone over six feet tall with the constitution of a rake. Somehow, I ended up with the pile. One of these came in very handy when I needed fabric for this project!

Every fabric I touch needs to be embroidered, these days! The bird is a slightly altered freebie pattern I got from Badbird and the word is just one of the free fonts I got on my copy of Windows.
I'm slowly making my little word that much prettier.

Cool

2009-07-22T20:27:00.002+10:00

As a lover of natural fibres and all their glory (thankyou for that, Medieval Re-enactment), I am no stranger to The Burn Test.
Briefly, for those uninitiated, this is where you're not sure of a material's natural or man-made properties, so you take a small sliver of it and apply a flame. Natural fibres burn and create ash, man-made melt and leave puddles and/or beads of crud.

Griffin Dye Works has a nifty little guide to Burn Test results, to help you figure out things a step further than "natural" vs "man-made", which includes an all too important "poisonous fumes" box! Nifty.

Matching Kitchen Queen Strawberry set

2009-07-16T23:08:00.006+10:00

I bought a teatowel set a little while ago - I liked the colours, and thought about decorating them and gifting them to people.

So when I heard that one of my friends, who is very handy in the kitchen, turned out to be having a rough week (or two), I thought it would be a good time to make good on that idea - and whilst I was at it, I'd make her an apron, to match.
Red was my basic inspiration - to warm up this cold winter weather! My partner helped me pick out the other fabrics - which was mainly about choosing which of the fabulous quilting cottons I have hoarded would be best for this project. We decided on the dramatic strawberries on black. Which naturally lead to my doing a giant strawberry applique/embroidery on the apron.

As it turned out, I ended up bullying him into not only helping choose fabric, but also decorating the teatowel, as I decided I wanted to concentrate on doing the apron. I'd never done one before, and was using one of mine as a base, with calico for the inner lining. It's not a hard project, but I was hoping to get the whole thing done in a night or two at most. Besides, the family that crafts together is happy together. Er, aren't they?

I'm really proud of his efforts on the teatowel. He's got a good eye for design and colour (though he sometimes confuses his taste and mine. The seventies are SO not my decade!). The only input I had was minor technical help with threading the sewing machine, checking the tension when he was worried something was amiss, and a tiny bit of help with winding a bobbin (Yes! He did that, too! He ran out halfway through, so he had to). Considering it was the second project he's done (and the first was just a hem), I'm very proud of his craftiness.

For myself, I got to practice a little more of my hand embroidery skills; the top of the strawberry applique is a chainstitch - one of the four I know. And I really enjoyed thinking very technically about the placement of straps, and reinforcing, and shape - although I used an apron of mine as a basic for the pattern it was the jumping-off point and the final piece is an entirely different creature (apart from the fact they're both basically aprons).

I really feel like I can trace the evolution of my sewing skills, this year. I can see a real difference in the quality of what I'm producing, and I'm becoming more confident with things like pleating and lining.

Anyway, I hope my friend gets a lovely surprise when she finds it in her mailbox, and that she enjoys swanning about her kitchen feeling Strawberry-tastic!

About that resolution...

2009-07-14T21:03:00.000+10:00

...the one I made at the start of the year?

On my latest project I discovered that when experienced tailors and seamsters bang on about taking triangles out of your seam allowance around curves to allow for a better curve to the over-all project they aren't kidding around. It really does make a difference! Who knew?

Beautiful, Inspiring Boys' Clothes, courtesy of flickr

2009-07-12T19:17:00.001+10:00

1. Wild West Overalls, 2. flow shirt, 3. For Oskar's birthday, 4. 2 new shirts, 5. Elephants in a row, 6. VIntage Inspired Sunsuit/Romper, 7. Zombies- BlueLS- rockNroll, 8. kwik sew 2545, 9. Dog jacket and matching pants

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

P.S.

2009-07-05T19:59:00.000+10:00

You have almost no time left in which to enter the giveaway at Little Munchkins for an Oliver + S pattern (yes! awesome, cute giveaway from an Aussie blog!).

Inspiration; Boys from the past

2009-07-04T22:55:00.004+10:00

There's heaps of cute stuff you can sew for girls, not so much for boys, it seems. I'm plugging away at this problem, and lately I've started looking at some historical styles for ideas.
Today I found this great found photographs profile on flickr, which is chock-full of inspiration!

I've been playing with the idea of a sailor suit for a little while, and thinking about how the neckline on a top would work. So it was cool to find this collection of photographs from Denmark (I think?) featuring lots of little boys in sailor suit-esque clothes. Check out the pants in that second shot, too! LURVE the button embellishments on the outside of the shorts legs, though I'd like to lengthen the short if I was going to do something similar.

I also really like the front of the coat the little boy in the front right of this photo is wearing - the decorative double-breasted look and the short waist is really sweet, especially with the over the knee, tight pantaloon.

Of a slightly more recent age (but still cute) are these shorts with attached braces (thought again, I'd like to see them around knee length, instead of teeny tiny 60s-style).

And I can't decide if I actually like these two pictures, or if it's the kid's slightly guilty expression that's giving me a fit of the giggles, and making the clothes seem more appealing.

Surely if it were the cuteness though, I'd be wanting reproduce the outfit of the marshmallow baby pictured here? Zie's so squishy! Like a baby marshmallow!

Cloth pads, redux

2009-07-01T21:43:00.004+10:00

I've been using a mix of cloth and plastic/paper pads for several years now, and since I had a break in my line-up of Needful Sewing, thought I'd try out a new pattern with some scraps of blue flannel and some old towels.

You can find heaps of places to purchase your own versions of these online, or patterns and suggestions on how to make them. I know some people feel a bit squicked out at the thought, but we use cloth nappies (also super cute and probably much comfier) and I think they're far grosser, to be honest. With the cloth, I save money and environmental landfill space. They also feel nicer (if bulkier) and don't smell. Plus, I'm not worried about all the chemical residues on commercial pads near my delicate parts!

For myself, since I'm using a mix I traced around a commercial pad onto a piece of paper to get a pattern - then I can retrace to change the shape to suit me better, as I see fit, etc.

The only thing is that I don't have a snap-press, so I'm using sew-on press-studs. They can look a bit ugly, so I'm trying to figure out a nice way to hide the stitching behind them.

Green Apple tunic

2009-06-30T09:36:00.002+10:00

Began life as a woman's size small v-neck fitted top. Found in a $2 bin at JayJays. I didn't get a 'before' picture because I didn't think ahead.

The fabric reminds me of my friend Ez.

And yes, this is my son pulling everything out of his drawers. One of his favourite activities, at the moment.

"E" is for Elephant

2009-06-26T22:20:00.004+10:00

My girlfriend fell pregnant very shortly after my own son was conceived. Since she lives West of Sydney and I'm south, we're both in kind of black holes so far as the transport situation is concerned. So I was really excited to get to meet her and her beautiful little boy in the city, today!

I made him a little present that I whipped up in the last two or three nights.
First is a pair of wide-legged yoga pants - the outside is made from a delicious dark green up-cycled old sheet that my Mother Outlaw donated to me a while back (I'm so plotting a pixie outfit for my boy sometime soon!). I'm also starting to get into the swing of the rib-knit I used for the waistband. It's fun stuff and not as hard as I thought.

But because the recipient is a delicate little petal and needs 100% cotton clothes for his poor chafed skin, I rummaged through my stash for a lining and came up with pale yellow cotton flannel. It's made the pants thicker and warmer than I originally envisioned, but hopefully it will mean they can be winter and autumn pants rather than the spring I was going for! My little boy decided that second shot needed to be helped by his doll. Since photographic styling is not my strong suit, I took his suggestion.

The second part of his project is this sweet little door hanger - I spotted the "E" at a local shop - they only had Es! Which was serendipitous, since my gift is for an Elliott.
I almost cried, cutting up the rainbow ribbon - I pounced on it months back and haven't had the heart to open it till now. And then I cut my pieces too generously and have all these tag-ends I don't want to get rid of.
The elephant was inspired by the beautiful layette decor Tecelinha keeps posting to one of my flickr groups, and this fabulous Ganesha image at Wikipedia.

Gingerbread for winter chills

2009-06-13T08:39:00.004+10:00

The year that I turned thirteen I spent a lot of time making gingerbread.

It got so that I had the recipe memorised. With this friend and that, on weekends and holidays we'd gather in someone's kitchen to mix up a batch, covering available surfaces in flour, using up our mother's ground ginger (or, in one particularly memorable and potent batch, scrounging fresh ginger root from the neighbour).
When the bickies were fresh from the oven, we'd scoff as many as we could manage, as fast as their heat would allow. Warm, fresh gingerbread always tasted the best.

I've forgotten the recipe I used, then. But in recent years I have rediscovered my love of baking.

I've baked sugar biscuits and pumpkin. Almonds and cakes. And I always (especially in the depths of winter cold) come back to gingerbread.

This is the recipe I use now.

Ingredients

125g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup golden syrup

1 egg

1 3/4 cups plain flour

2tsp ground ginger

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

Beat the butter and sugar together until you have a pale, creamy mixture. Then slowly add the egg and golden syrup, beating both in thoroughly.
Add the flour, ginger and bicarb about half a cup at a time, beating all the while, until the dough starts to form a ball.

Cover your bowl and place it in the fridge for a minimum of thirty minutes. This step is important. Without it, the mix is not firm enough to roll out and cut biscuits from.

Now the fun part!
Take your mix out of the fridge. Knead it well and roll it out on a well-floured surface until it's about as thick as a regular pencil.
Cut out your shapes, using a floured bickie cutter, and place them on a greased tray.
Bake for around 10 - 12 minutes, or until golden brown (the edges are usually a darker shade in my biscuits, as an indicator that they're done - my oven does not heat evenly, boo!

Your biscuits will be soft when first emerging, but will harden over the next five minutes or so to a firmer texture. Do not try to remove them from the tray till this has happened.

Reversible toddler wrap dresses

2009-05-26T12:05:00.002+10:00

This has been my major preoccupation of the last month - hence the lack of updates. It's also something I've been holding off on, firstly because I knew documenting the project was going to be somewhat epic, and secondly because I didn't want people to stumble across their daughters' first birthday gifts online before they'd been gifted.

These are four fully reversible, crossover-back dresses/tunics - these pictures are the two sides of each dress. I patterned them myself, working out kinks as I went along, and I am unbelievably proud of them!

I got my measurements and basic outline from a button down the back tunic I got at a garage sale and made a mock-up out of old sheets. The lovely Mummy to one of the little girls who would be receiving let me borrow her daughter to check that my size and pattern was right (Thanks Tracey, and thankyou to my lovely patient model, Lucy!)

This is the first dress I then made (Lucy's Mummy likes to bake).

One side is printed cotton, with silver glitter decoration on some of the cupcakes. Unfortunately you cannot see this, because the weather here has been despicable lately, and thus the lighting is trashy. That, and I need more practice taking decent shots of my own handiwork.
The other side is pale purple polyester dug out from my stash (I bought several metres years and years ago!) which had a nice weight and matched the purple on the cotton. On the front of this side I hand-stitched a circle cut out with a cupcake.

The back two pieces cross over, and it's all sewn together like a simple Gordian Knot (perhaps I should call it a Gordian Knot dress?), which is what keeps the garment on. I'm possibly proudest of this detail, as it means there are no press-studs or zips to catch on sensitive skin or have to wrestle with whilst holding a squirmy child still. There's also no buttons for the small recipients to suck on and possibly choke.

Since two of the dresses are made from quite busy printed cottons they didn't get any sewn detail, but the last dress was made from red and neutral tone linen-cotton blend that had me salivating in the shop but is very plain.
I left the red as it was, since it's such a fantastic colour, and spiced up the neutral side with a little freehand embroidery in backstitch and running stitch. The more I do it, the more I'm enjoying exercising my embroiderer's needlework skills, these days!

Happy Mother's Day!

2009-05-10T19:31:00.000+10:00

This is my first Mother's Day ever. My baby boy just squeaked by the date, last year.
So what goodies did I receive for this special day? I got a nasty cold. That's pretty much it.

My Mum will be receiving mail with something OTHER than cold germs though (lucky thing).

Last time I was visiting, I noticed her using a very faded Coca-Cola pot-holder for her hot things. Since being ill has left me somewhat short on time, I wanted a fairly quick and easy project I could whip up for her, and this was perfect. The inside stuffing is a couple of layers of old towels - my MiL gave me a whole bag of them a year ago, and I am slowly making my way through them!
The outside is two different pieces of fabric, scraps from some of the major projects I've been working on lately (more on those in a few weeks). I found the wooden spoon with colander holes for noodles at the local ALDI (Mum loves making pasta dishes), and we're done.

Ooh, bakey bakey!

2009-04-28T11:21:00.003+10:00

Excuse me if I'm excited. I have just discovered Bittersweet, a Vegan baking blog. Since I'm living largely dairy-free these days for the health and happiness of my son these days, the sweet recipes over there are filling me with glee. Dairy-free fudge! Egg-free chocolate cupcakes! Nomnomnom!

Tile magnets

2009-04-21T21:00:00.003+10:00

Seems like every real estate person and their plumber is posting "free" magnets into my mailbox, for their advertising to sit on my fridge door.
I had a huge backlog of these things taking up valuable display space - we're talking doubles and even triples, and ads for services I already use (Australia Post? I'm looking at you and your ridiculous "notepad" shaped THING) or am not likely to need for many years and really don't want reminders of (local Bevans office? Good luck ever getting my business again for anything!).

A sheet of tiles from the hardware store, some acrylic paint and a spray of trusty old clear enamel, and I have some gifts for a Wiccan friend.

The paint decided to separate a bit on the meat and it looks a bit mouldy. Maybe that's why it's merry?

Ooh, Crumbs!

2009-04-04T22:38:00.002+11:00

I'm not the world's greatest cook, but I do enjoy baking. And after experiencing two amazingly iced first birthday cakes in the past two months I'm feeling like the bar has been set pretty high.
I'm currently googling fondant icing recipes, but I'm also taking great joy in the gorgeousness of the plain old buttercream iced cakes in this flickr stream and this craft blog, that my search threw up.
They look so good it would be a shame to eat them!

Habitual Kimono top

2009-04-01T18:34:00.001+11:00

Before I started working on my latest I sewed up a little something for my own little boy, in the past fortnight. I've been wanting to try the Habitual Kimono top pattern for ages but couldn't seem to kick myself into gear. I was very afraid of the bias binding, and having to potentially make my own. Then I found some green bias-binding in an op-shop for 50 cents and remembered the froggy fabric I picked up on sale several moons ago. I'd bought it with no particular project in mind, under the influence of fabric lust.
This was because fabric is kind of like my crack, and Spotlight is my dealer. I mean this in that I casually run into Spotlight on the street and mean to "just say hi", thinking it would be rude to pretend we didn't know each other. But after spending longer in each others' company than I ever intended, I inevitably stumble home with a hit, feeling wretchedly guilty and strangely elated at the same time. The long-suffering Wicked Fairy.... is not so long-suffering actually. He's usually egging me on in my fabric lustiness, throwing money at me and cheering me to the registers.

ANYWAY

I'd seen this fabric, bought a swatch and put it in a corner until inspiration struck. It was super cute - here it is in close up, so you can see for yourself.

I stuffed up a little, and made the crossover parts as wide as the back, so the whole thing is a little big on my boy. This was due to the fact that I am very impatient and tend to skim-read instructions until I feel I have the jist of things, and then go to. Hopefully I'll be able to rectify my mistakes in version two! And in the meantime, version one is still EXTREMELY cute.
See what I mean?

Just a Sneak Peek

2009-03-31T14:55:00.002+11:00

Isn't this fabric just the cutest thing you've ever seen?

I've been super busy lately. I made something for my son to wear, but haven't really had time to take some decent pics because I've been working on this - a birthday present for a party we're attending next week.

No-Sew Baby Blanket

2009-03-22T14:20:00.002+11:00

For months now I've been super-keen to have a stab at a No-Sew Fringed Blanket. The bookmark has been hanging around my browser window for months - but I finally got my hands on some suitable polar fleece (thanks to a nice Spotlight sale) and fell to, this week.

I was a bit surprised that when all was said and done it really felt like it took more work to tie the fringed pieces together than if I'd sewn them. Though that may have been because my baby son thought that the scissors and lengths of fabric were VERY exciting, and had to come investigate the interesting item on the floor (and what Mummy was doing with it) every time I started cutting or tying fringe.

The end result has been posted to a friend who's expecting - the two layers of polar fleece should be fairly waterproof, as an added bonus!

More Hot Pockets

2009-03-17T16:38:00.000+11:00

Adventures in embroidery

2009-03-10T22:22:00.002+11:00

I attempted to secure some stone coloured linen-cotton blend for Ethan a while back, but bought a shade lighter than he wanted, due to the crappy artificial store lighting. So I had three metres of this lovely fabric sitting around. Some of it went to make my son's piggy tunic, after which I had some almost rectangular off-cuts.

Being the environmentally conscious crafter I am, I set them aside for future crafting possibilities. And lo and behold - the other day I was taken by the sudden desire to pull out my embroidery threads and embroidery hoop and fiddle. And what more perfect fabric could I have for an impromptu sampler piece?

Once I was done with my freehand design I was casting about, wondering what to do when I hit upon the idea of making a small pocket out of my piece of fabric - again all by hand rather than machine, as my hand-sewing really does need to be better. In the course of sewing my pocket, I decided to make a pillow of rice from the cupboard and lavender (a Christmas present from my MiL) from more scraps - again, entirely by hand.

Upon seeing the result, my partner promptly christened it a "hot pocket", as it's about the size of a pocket in a pair of pants; perfect for travelling with, or for little aches like sore wrists, knees or to fit perfectly in the small of your back. I'm now working on some more!

Bananananananana Bread

2009-03-08T17:12:00.001+11:00

You haven't been reading this blog for very long if you are yet to realise that I have a sweet tooth.
In my quest to convince myself that my sweet lustings are "healthy" I bought some bananas last week - some of which were left to brown on the counter. Thus; banana bread!

I used a sugar-free recipe from allrecipes.com, that used honey and vanilla essence as sweetener instead. I also used 2 bananas instead of 3 (since that's all I had) and threw in some choc-chips at the end instead of walnuts (because I love choc chip banana bread and alas, had no walnuts). The wonderful thing about this recipe is that it's also dairy free!

Upon reflection, I think it may have been better as a less-sweet walnutty version. I also think 1 less banana meant I should have cooked it on a slightly lower heat, as the edges got a bit burned whilst the centre was still very moist and just cooked. But it was still VERY tasty.

Returning to Cards

2009-03-03T21:40:00.005+11:00

Cardmaking is an old favourite of mine, in the list of crafty activities. Not as intimidating as full-on scrapbooking, portable and as simple or involved as you like, I really love making cards for my friends and relatives.
So it was really nice to find myself at a cardmaking workshop last weekend, led by Kellie, who's a demonstrator for Stampin' Up!. It was a tiny party of four (not including my baby son), and we had a lovely afternoon.

It was actually the first time I've ever been to an "official", pay-for-materials-provided-get-given-a-card-recipe style of Card Party. All my prior cardmaking get-togethers have been informal You-raid-my-stash-I'll-raid-yours type of thing. It was cool to learn a few new techniques, get some new ideas and 'professional' tips (and have access to the tools that make the difference sometimes). Even if I did veer "off-recipe" and use the materials provided in my own way, a few times.

The quality of my photographs for these cards is sadly lacking.
I'd figured out the best place and time of day for optimum lighting, at our last house. I knew the gymnastic routines required to get the necessary angles for Best Photographic Record versions. And I didn't have a small, newly-mobile child acting as a distraction.

So apologies - I will continue to experiment with my location, angles and lighting, to try to find the best case scenario for this home.

Just fiddling

2009-02-26T22:50:00.004+11:00

I've been dabbling with a few projects in the last week or two. The first of these was a grown-up variant of my rainbow toddler pants - I saw the fabric and immediately thought of my recipient, who happens to currently be 6 months pregnant and thus in need of comfy pants (I don't know a pregnant woman who isn't).

The second project is kind of a recon mixed with some bits and pieces - a gorgeous little card we got from the BIL for Christmas, a wooden photo frame, some mounting paper and white paint (plus the enamel spray I've been hoarding in my cupboards for almost eight years now, and finally got the chance to break open and use).

You know how you pop over to a blog like Soulemama and marvel at the serene, beautiful spaces which the blogger inhabits?
My spaces are not at all like that.
As you can see.

My spaces are more a welter of baby toys, car keys, mobile phones, fabric scraps, tea mugs, letters half-written and letters unfiled, safety pins, jewellery I took off wherever I was and random items that I swear, have a purpose! Sometimes.
(For instance; right now, in front of me at my computer desk is a spare USB cable, a six-sided die, a pin, some nail scissors, two pens, a bracelet, my digicam, a tea mug, a wheat pack, a paid creditcard bill and some leaflets from the Stampin' Up! card party I was at last weekend.)

Anyway, this is the finished project. Very shabby chic.
I think it's going to be a present for my MIL. But I can't decide - random just because, or birthday present?

Crafting to help victims of the Victorian bushfires

2009-02-17T12:04:00.003+11:00

Meet Me at Mike's has started a blog to encourage crafters to craft items for the victims of the fires that have devastated the state of Victoria recently. You can find a local drop-off point for your crafted items, or auction off items with proceeds to go to those people who have lost homes, family and friends.
Alternatively, you could contribute a favourite recipe or some artwork themed around "eating together" to the fundraiser book.

Pink & Yellow Prefold Nappies

2009-02-16T21:23:00.008+11:00

I have just this very minute finished ironing some prefolds that I have made for friends who are expecting.

I've never used them, nor seen one in person, so after googling and examining a bunch of different tutorials I dove in.

I pulled out some of the flannel sitting around in my stash, which just happened to be pink and yellow (that being what was on sale). Found some REALLY cute cotton print that matched the colours. Pulled out some old towels donated to me by my MIL, and acquired a couple of microfiber car towels (that 'pull' the moisture away) for the padded panel.
Baby-To-Be has no determined gender, so hopefully I won't get too much guff about the pink if it ends up threatening to shrivel baby's penis by its abstract femininity or somesuch.

I have no idea if what I've ended up with are newborn or toddler size, I cannot draw a straight line to save my life, and that has sadly translated into sewing. So they're somewhat wonky (for that authentic "handmade!" look), very adorable and delicious, my first prefolds!
Now to find some instructions on how to fold them, to include a printout of for the Parents-To-Be.

Experimental Cake Making

2009-02-12T14:09:00.000+11:00

So I've been fiddling with that white cake recipe I posted last month, and come up with a sweet, dense variation that is a little moister than the original recipe. I didn't get a picture of the finished product (with peppermint buttercream icing) because we ate it ALL before I had a chance. It was that good.

ingredients

* 1 cup white sugar
* 125g butter
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
* 1 1/4 cups plain flour
* 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
* 1/2 cup cocoa powder
* dash of milk
* 1/3 cup coca cola or cola drink

what to do
The order seems to make a difference to the final texture and taste of the cake.

* Preheat oven to 180C.
* Cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. essence. You could substitute this for peppermint essence if you like.
* Combine flour, cocoa and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well.
* Stir in the milk and then cola, a dribble at a time, until mixture is smooth. Pour or spoon into a prepared pan.
* Bake for 35 minutes or so.

Peppermint Buttercream Icing
This is adapted from the Buttercream Icing recipe in Jane Price's the home guide to cake decorating.

ingredients
*125g of softened butter, margarine or (in my case) soy-based margarine substitute
*Approx 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar, sifted
*1 teaspoon of peppermint essence
*food colouring

what to do
*Use an electric mixer to beat the butter until it is light and fluffy.
*Slowly add the icing sugar, beating all the while, until it tastes 'right' (ie, like icing, not soy-based margarine substitute)
* add peppermint essence, beat well.
*add food colouring, beat again.
*Smush on cake. I used a spoon and then a butter knife but it's up to you. Really.

EAT THEM!

Little Piggy tunic

2009-02-05T15:45:00.003+11:00

I hate most little boys' clothes in shops.
I hate the restricted colour palettes. I hate the lack of cute prints. I hate the boring lack of imagination in the basic design and shape. I hate graffiti-esque designs. I hate attitude slogans that proclaim your child is violent, materialistic, misogynist, or aspiring to be any and all of these things.
So I'm working on making my son some of his own wardrobe. To mix things up a little.

It's a start.

Maternity Dress for Breastfeeding

2009-01-29T22:33:00.003+11:00

Sometime between Christmas and now I decided that I really need more comfortable, cool nursing clothes. Digging through a pile of "mending" this month I discovered a skirt I picked up at an opshop before I ever fell pregnant. It was a lush red and pink size 8 ankle-length piece with an extra panel, to make it appear the fitted shape was actually a wraparound skirt.
Inspired, I pulled it apart and discovered that when turned to a flat panel, it actually fit me. So I went out and bought myself a singlet top in a similar colour. An hour or two later I had this little number.
It's cute, sassy and super easy - and it's modest and breastfeeding friendly!

Rainbow Pants of Dooom, Toddler edition

2009-01-27T12:11:00.001+11:00

(Note the green and gold cupcake in hand. Both were hits with this particular little boy.)

Adventures in Cooking

2009-01-26T22:57:00.000+11:00

As my friend Jenni says "I am NOT a Domestic Goddess".

In my case, people are even less likely to get confused than in hers, as I am also decidedly not a dab hand in the kitchen anyway. So after reading about all the additives in packet cake mixes it was with some nervousness that I resolved to try making cake from scratch from now on.
Australia Day presented the perfect opportunity to test out my caking abilities - with green and gold cakes! So I headed over to trusty Allrecipes and found this easy-peasy white cake mix recipe.

I'm happy to say the cake proved super easy to make, and just over an hour later I had two dozen tiny cupcakes, iced with peppermint butter icing. They were very well received, and went within about ten minutes.

I'm now wondering why on earth I've been using packets all these years - the recipe was just as easy, only required a little more measuring, not really any more time, and tastes so much better! I think I'm sold on the cake-making from scratch from now on, and am going to try tweaking the recipe a bit to make extra moist cake (extra plain yoghurt or sour cream?) or chocolate (choc bits or cocoa powder).

This Year

2009-01-17T21:39:00.000+11:00

I pledge to myself that I will

take more care, and produce more things that I am truly proud of
spend more time making, less time envying what others make
Produce at least one new item a fortnight
introduce my little boy to the joy of creating. After he stops eating everything new as a matter, of course

To that end, I have signed up for Twitter and changed my lovely, old drecky blog from livejournal to the more custom-made Blogger and invested time in its graphics and layout (and will spend more time on these things in times to come).

Thanks for coming along for the ride with me.