All the Dresses

I don't make many dresses for my girls. More often than not, you'll find me making shorts or a skirt. Occasionally I try to throw a dress in, like last year, when I made them Easter Dresses. Or the year before, when Rachel got a Christmas Dress and they both got a twirly Pokemon Dress. Still, in comparison to the number of shorts that I sew, dresses are rare indeed. 

The reason, my friends, is this: My mum makes so many dresses, I simply can not justify making any more. The girls do like wearing dresses, Rachel in particular. I've been reminded of this thanks to the summer holidays, where I've seen Rachel in a dress every day for the last six weeks. She usually wears a dress to school, but the colour variety over the summer is beautiful. 

I was sorting through their wardrobe last week and counting the dresses - nearly ten home made dresses each hang in their cupboard. Such beautiful bright patterns and prints. And when my mum is not making the girls dresses, she is buying them lovely dresses too. So many dresses. 

So I just wanted to post a little post here on the internet to share these lovely creations. They will get worn again and again, from Sophie to Rachel, then on to other little girls who I hope enjoy them just as much. 

Here is Rachel, standing in front of her dresses, being excited. She likes the bee ones the best. She has four of them. 

And yes, my mum did make the girls Christmas dresses last year, so I didn't bother. She also makes Hugo these awesome shirts as well. But I have already made the girls each a dress this year, for Easter, which I will share sometime soon. 

What to do Now?

 In the cleaning up I've been doing over the last couple of months, I dug through the bag collection and set apart a stack to cull. In this stack was a Pikachu bag, which was falling apart at the seams, but still good fabric, and a small cross body bag which we love to use, but the material had holes all over it. 

Thinking I could work these two bags into one and reuse the fabric and zips to make one new bag, I took them apart kind of carefully. 

Unfortunately, after taking them apart, I realised that though the Pikachu bag was bigger than the cross body bag, because of the different style/shape, there wasn't really enough material to trace the cross body bag pieces directly to. The cross body bag, it turns out, had a lot more fabric in it, than deceptively small size would indicate. 

So now, I have two deconstructed bags, and I don't know what to do next. Put them on the "sew that someday" pile? Is it a problem for future Paula? Maybe. I got distracted doing some other sewing, but it's still bugging me in the back of my mind and I'm not sure how to address the problem. 

I feel like this year has started with lots of projects like this. Even blogging I find I'm distracted. I have a list of things to do from the past that I want to record, but that don't really fall into the upbeat category of "New Year!" But I'll keep pressing on, ticking things off my list and not caring if I fall into a stereotypical pattern. It's all forward motion right? 

Christmas Tree Cushions

Remember that Christmas Tree I finally decided was time to organise some proper way of getting to stand up at the end of last year? Well, here it is in case you don't know what I'm talking about and can't be bothered follow the link to find out:

I made the cushions to fill it before Christmas, but didn't have the time or the organisation (one of the two) to actually cover the bottom two cushions before the new year. However, since our return from Bundaberg, and the blissfully coolish days of early January, I've been able to sit down and get some sewing done. Time to tick things off the list that have been piling up for a while. 

These cushions were nearly the top of the list. 

And they look fantastic. Thank you Brisbane wide spontaneous three day lock down that helped kick me into gear just that little bit more. 

You've seen that fabric before, in Sophie's shorts, and Rachel's Bag. Nothing like using up what's already lying around. 

A Sophie Start

This post is a little late, and possibly slightly redundant right now, but I reflected on it all of last week, before the world turned upside down, and I want to post in any case as it is still true. 

Sophie is one of the best ways to start the year. 

I always feel a little sad that her birthday falls in the holidays (no school cupcakes for you my child), and right after Christmas (everyone is so tired of gatherings and presents right now), but there is something beautiful about this little birthday. Sophie was eight this year. Her birthday was highly anticipated and planned, but also spontaneous and fun. 

She made her own cake this year. And she and Rachel wore their matching Death Star Pokeball Shirts (mostly just to annoy me I think, since they know I don't like matching). Notice their hand made bottoms though? (Sophie's shorts and Rachel's skirt). 

One good thing about the timing is that Steve usually has the day off too, which makes it easy for us to plan activities to do together. So, we took our little space loving eight year old to the Planetarium to see a show. This was part of her present, which she was pretty gosh darn excited about. The other part from us was the Kingdom of Wrenly books. These were met with great exclamation and delight too. Books are the best present are they not? 

At the Planetarium, you get a brief 10minutes to look at the exhibits before the show. Thanks to Covid, that's all you'll get. We will have to go back when there are no social distancing restrictions and spend some more time there. Despite the rush, we did have a great time and Sophie loved the show. 

We walked around the Botanical Gardens at Mt Cootha and had a picnic with some cousins. 

Came home to make Lego. This was a set she had dreamed of getting for about six months, so was pretty delighted to get it. It's so many of her dreams in one. Both girls actually regularly tell us that when they grow up they are going to go live in the wild, or in a caravan somewhere. 

She went to jujitsu, first time since before Christmas, then we had family over for dinner. Simple finger food; party pies and sushi (maybe she's more like me than I know ;)) and the cake. Looking at these photos I'm reminded how delightful it can be to have a birthday and be with people you love. 

Thanks Sophie, for being a lovely way to start the year.