Girls Ruffled Halter FREE tutorial link

My little girl is off poorly at the moment so I thought I'd cheer her up and make her a new top. The trouble is she has wardrobe of clothes thats bigger then mine so I decided it might be a good idea to begin making clothes a size bigger so that she can wear them next summer. The problem with doing that is that there is less choice. I find a lot of patterns only go up to age 4...but not this one...and best of all...its free!

The wonderful Oliver+S has yet again come up with a simple, easy to follow pattern, and im really pleased with the results.



If she looks a little sultry its because shes not eaten for a couple of days and has tonsilitis...poor thing...

There thats better...a smile...




The pattern can be found here.

I was so pleased at how easy it was to do, I will definitely be purchasing some of her other patterns in the future.

Graffiti Trainers

It is much to hot to sew today! But going with my boy theme, here are some pics of my sons trainers I revamped with some graffiti.






Yesterday was spent at the beach with my family. I wanted to take lots of pictures to go into my daughters golden box, which I will need for September when she starts school. A golden box is a box kept at school for your little ones, so that if they miss you or are upset they can get some comfort from going through all the things in the box that remind them of you. I need ideas, so far I have her nunu which is her Kalloo comforter bear she has carried around with her since she was a baby. My next idea is photographs- I love this one:



This is Mya screaming with joy as the waves of cold water lap at her feet.

Do you have any ideas I can use as to what to put in this box? I really am stuck (short of packing it full of sweets which I know would always cheer her up!)

Chinos to boy shorts

Another one of my husbands cast offs has been remade into some shorts for Jacob.

Before:



After:






The pattern was "little explorer" by make it perfect which have some wonderful patterns for both boys and girls. Dont look to closely at the applique satin stitch though - it was my first ever attempt at satin stitching. Clearly LOTS more practice is needed!

Shirt to boys pajama bottoms

Goodness I'v been busy!. My daughter is due to be starting school this September and I'v been attending lots of meetings and filling out paperwork for the past few days. It's left me very little time to create but I do have lots of ideas bouncing around my head, so I will be posting, just not as frequently.

The make do and mend book really inspired me to start thinking about different ways I can use old clothes.

My husband has outgrown this shirt so I turned it into some boys pajama bottoms.

Before:



After:



This was such a simple project, and Id like to try and make these with jersey as I think they'd be really comfy- all I'd need is an old tshirt (but my husbands not getting rid of those just yet!)Jersey is a fabric Im not familiar with using, and I havnt seem it anywhere online to by, so if anyone comes across any in cyberspace, do let me know.

The best bit about this was that I used the bottom of the shirt for the bottom of the pajama legs so I didnt need to sew this part at all.

I've been given a few other things from my husband too, so I will have to put my thinking cap on and see what else I can come up with. Making things this way gives me a good opportunity to use fabrics other then cotton that arnt as easy to come by in your bog standard fabric shop. Its also a great way of recycling and saving money. :-)

Boy shorts Michael miller 2d zoo fabric

I've made so much for my little girl I thought it was about time I started making something for my (almost 2) year old boy, plus there is actually quite a bit he needs, shorts being one of them. There is so much choice for little girls out there, the fabrics are bright and funky, but its much harder to find brights for the boys. Even Gap kids have a dull range of muddy browns, greys and khaki greens. I did note that the under 2s section for boys was a little more adventurous but cant understand why age 2-5s have to look dull!

I just love this fabric and I have a few differnt styles to try out. I havnt tried making shorts before- the only trousers I tried were for the Tilda doll.



There were two flaws with the pattern I used- One was that it didnt tell you if you were using patterned material which direction the pattern should go, and if I should be cutting on right or wrong side of the fabric, and it also didnt tell me that before I put one leg into the other that I have to turn one leg piece the right side up. So I wasted a precious fat quarter of fabric thinking I had cut the pieces incorrectly when I hadnt....Perhaps this is all obvious stuff I "should" know but I really appreciate a "patterns for dummies" approach when it comes to following guidelines. I also prefer lots of diagrams, and this was somewhat lacking which is a shame.



Right, Im off to carry on quilting my pillow. Its going to take a long time as I've chickend out with the stippling and have decided to go with a straight line, but even by machine its taking a long time with all the starting, stopping, thread cutting and burying I have to do, so it will probably be at least another two weeks before its finished.

Lined Linen Peg Bag and discount at Celtic Fusion fabrics

I received my order from the lovely Saints and Pinners a few days ago, and the card they sent with it has a picture of clothes hanging on a line, and it reminded me that I wanted to make a peg bag so I traced around my very old worn peg bag and made a new one. I might add a little bit of top stitching around the edges but the kids have worn me out today so I may just have to put me feet up instead.

Whilst stocking up on some supplies at the fabric shop, I came across this:



Its printed card with little holes in that your child sews around using a special childrens needle.

I will have to get this for my little girl when I have some spare pennies!, it would be good to get her into sewing.

...and look at these, I love these retro tins:



I remember making friendship bracelets on the school bus! I'd love one of these tins to keep my bits and bobs in.

I'd love to hear your comments on my makes, Im feeling a little lonely and do wonder if anyone (apart from the lovely Kandi) reads my ramblings! xxx

p.s There is 15% off at Celtic Fusion Fabrics till Wednesday!

Tilda bag and purse

Do you ever get one of those days where you cant even string a thought together let alone a sentence? Yesterday was one of those days. I wanted to make something but I just seemed to have some sort of creative block!. Sure enough at 11pm something happened (kids tucked up in bed and a fruit and nut bar devoured) I relaxed enough to begin making lists of things I wanted to try, supplies I needed and I also sorted through my fabric stash. (I recommend doing this, its really easy to forget what you have.)

In the early hours of this morning I was inspired to try making a make up bag...which I have now renamed a purse as it came out tiny! This was my first attempt at doing anything with a zip and I found it tricky to say the least!. I found that it was difficult to sew exactly the same distance from the zip all the way around as there was no visibility. The tilda instructions mentioned nothing about how to finish the edges of the zips off. I've seen other people use a strips of fabric to make a neater finish, but as they looked good in the picture and I hadn't made anything like this before that I would follow the instructions to the letter.

Just about the only thing I enjoyed about making this was seeing how the wadding I used added some nice body to it. Once the zip was completed I thought that was the worst bit over but as the purse was lined I had to sew that aswell and ended up with one side longer then the other...oh dear!! So now my daughter has a play purse but I still dont have a make up bag big enough to carry my huge amount of make up!

So anyway, Iv pictured it next to a larger tilda bag I made earlier on in the year which was far more successful then my wonky purse!

Both bags are from the Tilda sew pretty homestyle book.



I borrowed this book from my local library and have found it really interesting. Darning socks has become a far cry from paying £2.50 for 6 pairs from Primark that my husband bins and buys fresh every year!

Its made me realise just how privileged I am, so I've now decided not to buy any more fabric until I've used up all I have!!. O.k so a small stash arrived for me today, but thats all I promise! Im also going to go through all my daughters old clothes and unpick the stitches and upcycle it for other projects.

Here's a question for you, what's been your most successful, enjoyable creative project to date?