Boy's satchel bag

Another opportunity for a handmade gift.  A friend's son had his 4th birthday recently and after discussion with his mother, I thought a satchel might be a good idea for his many toy cars.  Again, I used the small tote bag pattern from Nicole Mallalieu's website (I know I can make this bag!).

So, what fabrics do you choose for a 4 year old boy??  Cars, of course!  This time I did a simple patchwork for the satchel flap, using some Disney Cars fabric that I bought at the local craft show a few months ago (I knew it would come in handy sometime). The lining of the bag is also done with the same fabric. I used a dark denim for the body of the bag, stiffened with the heaviest interfacing I could find.

And here it is .....

The Bag.

Lightning McQueen!

a try-hard arty shot of the strap and strap guide

the clean lines of the strap

I've posted it off this week (finally).  I hope the recipient enjoys it.  I am very pleased with how it all came out, as you can tell from all the photos!

Oliver + S Birthday dresses

One set of patterns that I quite like are the Oliver + S childrens pattern (see http://oliverands.com/patterns/) which tend to be classic sewing patterns for children.  One of the patterns I have bought was the Birthday Party Dress pattern.  I was fortunate to win a some gorgeous pink floral twill fabric earlier in the year and I thought it would be perfect as a feature panel in the O+S dress.

Left : approx 20cm x 20cm section of fabric ; Right : a close-up of the print

The plan was to use 21-pinwale (lightweight) corduroy for the main body of the dress and the floral fabric for the feature panel.  I selected a bright yellow corduroy for Samantha's dress and a dark emerald green corduroy for Asha's dress (bought from Spotlight). 

Now, I have to say, I started these dresses months ago but they were left unfinished for a couple of months.  The delay was partly because I made Samantha's dress first and I was a little unimpressed by the instructions.  It took me a little while to figured out how I wanted to do it for Asha's dress.  And then once both dresses were almost done, I delayed because I had 10 buttonholes to do (seriously, I have an aversion to buttonholes).  Anyway, I finally finished them - here they are!

Asha's dress on the left, Samantha's dress on the right

Front and back of Samantha's dress

Asha's dress

Pleat detail on the front

Button detail on the back

a happy camper!  :)

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.  I have to mark up the pattern with the changes I have made so that I remember them for next time. 

Toy ironing board cover

One day, a couple of months ago, Pete made the girls a toy ironing board.  The girls loved it.  I promised the girls I would make a cover for it.  I finally did it over the weekend. 

I simply traced around the ironing board to get the correct shape.  To give the cover a bit of cushioning, I also cut up an old scrap of a woollen blanket and an old flat terry nappy.  I stitched these together around the edges to hold them together.  Then I attached a 2 inch rectangular band around the edge - this was finished off with bias binding.  A thin piece of elastic was threaded through the binding and viola!  It was finished, one hour later. 

Do you recognise the fabric?  Yep, still a favourite of mine.  :)

The girls love it and the ironing board is getting carried all over the house - bedrooms, rumpus room, lounge room and bathroom (don't ask about that one!).  Big success, and so simple to make.

Petal pin holder

I saw this petal pin holder at one of my sewing classes (local community college).  I started making it ages ago for a friend and it was nearly finished after a few hours, all it needed was the buttonhole and button. Unfortunately it stayed that way for a couple of months. Don't ask me why, I can't think of why I didn't just finish it off.  I think I still have a historical aversion to buttonholes, but it's getting better.  With my machine, buttonholes are easy-peasy!

I loved the fabric I used for this - it's a gorgeous paisley cotton. 

When I get some time, I might write up the instructions and include the 'pattern'.  Super easy! 

My first bag!

So, when Samantha had her birthday a few months ago, she was very lucky and received a fabulous handmade pillow from her best friend Ella.  The pillow was made by Ella's mum Jo and depicted a drawing by Ella, showing Ella and Samantha holding hands.  It was very creative and so well made and Samantha just loves it.  It's one of Samantha's prized possessions now.

The fabulous pillow
(Ella is on the left with curly hair,
Samantha is on the right side with straight hair)

So, it's coming up to Ella's birthday shortly and I was trying to think of what we could give her.  I thought of a girl's bag and Samantha thought that was a great idea.  I ended up buying a small tote bag pattern from Nicole Mallalieu's website.  It's a great pattern because it comes with options to alter the bag into several different styles and the instructions were good to follow.

Given Samantha's design instructions, the bag had to be predominantly pink. So, off to Spotlight we went to buy the fabric.  We bought hot pink cotton drill for the outside and a multi-coloured dot fabric for the lining (with a pink background).  Predominantly pink it was!

I decided to make a satchel style bag, which gave me the opportunity to do some applique on the satchel flap to make it more personal.  At first I thought I'd just make the flap with Ella's name on it.  After I had made done that applique, I then decided that maybe emblazoning a child's name all over their bag is not a good idea for their security viewpoint.  Any stranger would know their name just from the bag, so not a terribly attractive idea to a lot of parents, I would imagine. So, after making the applique of Ella's name, I ditched that idea.

Samantha suggested flowers, so after a bit of image sleuthing by Peter, we managed to find a flower design that I could applique (with a bit of tweaking).  I did the new flower applique one night and then made up the bag the next night.  Here's the finished product.

I used a metal tri-glide to give the bag an adjustable strap, which is more functional for a growing girl.  To give the strap a bit more body, I also used pellon (a fusible light wadding).  The flap was also given a bit more structure by using pellon and medium-weight interfacing. The outside fabric was stiffened with medium-weight interfacing and I also created a sturdier base by inserting a stiffened structural base piece at the bottom between the outside fabric and the lining fabric. 

This was also the first time I had ever made my own bias binding, to use around the edge of the satchel flap, so that was another 'try-and-see' experience.  Afterwards, I did wonder whether I should have simply used the plain outer fabric (instead of the spotty lining fabric) but I still think it looks good.

I also used printable fabric to make a personalised birthday message to Ella from Samantha.  This was stitched to the lining of the bag, so it was discreetly out of view.  And it was the first time I have ever inserted a magnetic catch (super easy, I have to say).

Thankfully the appliqued flower was centred in the flap, so I was very happy about that.

Anyway, I'm very happy with the way it turned out.  Tonight the bag will be wrapped up and tomorrow it will be given to the birthday girl!  I hope she likes it as much as my daughter does.  :)

Lined tracksuit

It's amazing how necessity can motivate me.  During May, we were planning to go camping to celebrate a friend's 50th birthday.  We knew it would be cold, so I had been looking around to find warm tracksuit for the girls.  Unfortunately, all the tracksuits I could find were woefully thin.  So, 2 days out before our camping trip, I popped into Spotlight and picked up a tracksuit pattern (Kwik Sew 3773), some polar fleece and some interlock (tshirt) knit material.  In my naive enthusiasm, I decided that I should line the tracksuit to give it some extra warth - what was I thinking?!



Left - small pink stars interlock knit; Right - multi-coloured hearts on red polar fleece

 I finished the trackpants in time for our camping trip and I was so glad that I did. While we were camping, the temperature fell below zero and Samantha ended up sleeping in her new trackpants inside her new sleeping bag.  She said they were "snuggly warm for camping". :)  Yay, a happy customer!

Anyway, last night I made the hooded jacket.  It definitely took extra time and effort to line both the pants and the jacket but I think it was worth it.  Now that I have some idea of how to put the lining into the garments, it should go much quicker next time.  And using the fleece and knit was easier than I expected.  This was my first attempt to sew a knit fabric and I'm really pleased with the reults.  Mind you, I think fleece is very forgiving.

I don't have an overlocker (serger) but it seemed to work okay using the 'overlocker' stitch on my sewing machine.  I just love the fact that I didn't have to finish off any raw edges - what a bonus!  I did my own thing with the pocket on the front - it came out reasonably well, but I know what I would do next time to make it a bit better.

I had some fleece fabric left over, so I made Samantha a scarf as well.  She's been wearing it around the house today, funny little monkey.

Anyway, I have to sew a tracksuit for Asha now.  And I'm going to line that as well.  But after that, they can make do with a few unlined trackkies - it is a lot more work!  At least now the girls will be set for winter camping (this year anyway).  :)

Ladybug dress

Over Easter I managed to make a dress for Asha - the ladybug dress she has been asking for.  Again, just a simple A-line pinafore that I have done several times before (too easy, New Look pattern 6504) but I added an appliqued ladybug on the front.  All up, it was a day's work and Asha is thrilled with it.  I made size 3, as that is the smallest size in the pattern and I did shorten it slightly, but I probably could have still chopped 2 extra inches off the bottom.

On my sister's wise advice, I added some black dots on the wings.  I think they really do make it look much better

Ladybug size was based on a saucer from the holiday unit where we were staying at Easter!

And modelled by the happy recipient.  With this length, it should be okay for quite a few months!

The fabric came from Spotlight - I used a yellow soda denim (which has a small amount of stretch) and then a few quilting scraps to make the applique.  The dress itself sewed up very quickly, but the applique took me a few hours to do.

I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out.

A-bunting we will go ...

I have been meaning to make this for a while, but finally got around to doing it yesterday.  A friend had a little baby girl a couple of months ago and I thought I would make some personalised bunting flags to decorate the room.  Making the bunting flags was super easy but everything associated with appliquing the letters was time-consuming.  Not particularly difficult, but just took a bit of time.

I practised on the letters with the straight edges first before tacking the 'e' and the 's'.  Those two letters took a bit more concentration.

In total, eight flags (six with letters, two that were blank)

The technical stuff  - for the lettering, I used Cooper Black font 350pt in Word.  The flags themselves were cut with a 9.5" base edge and 10.5" length from the base edge.  I used 1/4" seams and the binding was simply some ready made binding I picked up at Spotlight ages ago.

I hope the little girl likes it (or at least her Mum and Dad do!)  :)  I now have 2 orders for similar bunting flags from my own little girls ...

EB Potholder Surprise!

Yesterday I received a lovely package in the mail - it was my EB potholder swap!  Five colourful potholders made by some talented ladies - thank you!! 

There is divided opinion in the house as to which one is the best - we all have different favourites.  Both Samantha and Asha love the crazy house potholder (they each think it's a picture of themselves in the house).  But Samantha also loves the purple heart potholder, while Asha is a firm fan of the chocolate and pink bird potholder.  Pete likes the colourful scrappy potholder (I think it's the bold colours) but he is also impressed with crazy house.  And I have to admit, I can't pick a winner.  I keep changing my mind!

I won't delay, I will post up the pics straight away for everyone to see.



Crazy House potholder - a family favourite (made by Rebecca)




some free-motion quilting detail & the peek-a-boo girl in the window



Chocolate and pink bird potholder

Colourful scrappy potholder (made by KraftyKira )

Purple heart potholder (by Narelle)

Samantha keeps tracing the heart with her finger

Lavender paths potholder (again by Narelle)

The family voted and the crazy house potholder will hang as a feature in the kitchen in our new home (if/when it gets built) so I'll be putting it away for a little while so it doesn't get dirty.  Asha has already managed to get one of the potholders a little grubby, so I can see they will be well loved.  Thanks again ladies.

And many thanks to Rebecca for organising the swap, for being so patient and for including a treat in our packages!  You're awesome.  :)

One ruffle skirt completed ...

Finally I finished the ruffle skirt for Samantha.  It took a few late nights and loads of fabric. :)




Nie Nie skirt from Pink Fig Designs

  I changed the pattern slightly as I wanted a flat front, not the full elastised waistband.  (The back is elastised, so that gives a bit of growing room).  This took a bit of fudging from one of Samantha's old skirts and then took one ruffle before I was able to match up the fabric directions with the pattern.  But I think it works quite well.  Now that I have thought about it, I have also figured out how I would make it if I want the back section to easily allow elastic replacement.  Maybe I will try that next time.

Also, I used my ruffling foot, rather than manually gathering the ruffles.  That saved on a lot of time but I wasn't quite sure how much material it would use compared to gathering.  Turns out it used less fabric - I'd hate to think how full this skirt would be if I had manually gathered the full required amount of fabric.

The last two ruffles are 80 inches (2m) in length, so very long.  It adds up!  :)

Things I learnt - don't use a stretch denim.  It adds a lot of weight to the skirt.  Unfortunately, that's all I could get at the time when I bought the fabric and it does look good, but it makes it a heavy skirt. If using denim, go for lightweight denim.  Samantha does like the skirt, but she says it is heavy, so I'm not sure if she's going to wear it as much as she would if it was lighter.




Modelling her new skirt!




Time for a twirl!  It's a skirt made for twirling. :)

I'll make one for Asha, but will use lightweight denim.  That's next on the list ...