Merry Christmas, Midsummer, Yule & Festivus

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!

Matching kimonos

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;

1. 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?)
   
   
2. 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!

Bug Softie

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.

Just a Sneak Peek

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.

Returning to Cards

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.

Little Piggy tunic

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.