Christmas Sewing: Luke's Shirt

I lament that I didn't take better photos of most of my Christmas makes from last year, but I still want to blog them. It's important to have some memory, something to show that work was done.

Anyway, another shirt for my brother in law, Luke, who I drew in our secret santa. I also bought him some additional stuff, but the shirt was a large part of the present. Used the same pattern as Dad's, this time, making the same size Steve wears, since he, Luke and our other brother in law, Stephen, all wear the same size. Mum jokes that it makes presents easy. She's not wrong. 

Again - pocket placement - is there anything more satisfying? I did buy buttons that I thought would work, but then when it came to sewing them on, I hated them. Luckily I found a suitable replacement after digging through the button box that I have. Whew! 

Sophie: 12

I was fine with Sophie growing ever upward - the knowledge of the inevitable "kids will be taller than me" was something that I knew from day one. But when I drew her new height line on the wall and it sat just two and a half centimetres under mine; wow was it suddenly all too real. 

Celebrations for this girl were a little strange this year. She did have a friend sleep over the night before her birthday, but woke up in the morning with a very runny nose kinda cold that Steve was sharing. So we cancelled the afternoon family gathering and just lay around the house, watching movies, playing games and generally being lazy. 

What we did get Sophie for her birthday though, was two tickets to see Six the Musical. So two weeks later, she and I hopped on a bus to the theatre. 

She was so excited to be seeing the show and I was excited to share it with her. Since I took her to see The Tiger Who Came to Tea for her third birthday, I have dreamed of many more such outings. We enjoyed the pre show hype and photo ops. She went halves with me in some merch (check out the shirt change below) and just generally got progressively more excited. 

Suffice to say, when things started she was grinning from ear to ear. It is fabulous show and so much fun to see it with her. Afterwards, we went to South Bank. Steve and Rachel drove in and we met some friends for a swim and BBQ dinner. It really did feel like we were finally having her birthday. 

Cake requested was chocolate with pink and green swirly icing. Yes, she really does love musicals. 

Christmas Sewing: Dad's Shirt

Here is a short post about sewing a fun shirt for my Dad for Christmas. My Dad loves lots of colour and birds and though I was bummed that I couldn't get something with cockatoos or rainbow lorikeets, the fun willy wag tales print was still great.  

Not gonna lie: the pocket placement is perfection. 

Just used the men's shirt pattern I have from making Steve a couple of them.

It was a little stressful to sew this, because I really wanted it to be great quality. Dad's happy face when he saw it was worth it. I did have to do some adjusting since you can only get so accurate on the fit with just numbers, but still a total win. 

Happy New Year!

Here we are again ready for another year travelling around the sun. The incredible busyness that was the end of November, all of December and the start of January has finally subsided and this last week has been full of much slower paced days, family time, reading and rest. 

I did read a bit last year, but there were a number of books that actually languished around the house for weeks (or, in some cases months (I'm ashamed to admit!)) before I picked them up. It is completely irrational and almost inconceivable to me that starting a book feels like such an effort that at 8:30 at night it's often a more palatable option to doom scroll or watch junk food TV. The reward of reading is always so much more than the former options will give, but despite knowing this, I'm still hesitant to reach for the book. 

In any case, I've kicked off the year with Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adlington and Bottchan by Souseki Natusme. An eclectic list, but for the most part enjoyable reads. The Dressmakers of Auschwitz was moving (to say the least!), informative and engaging, but did leave me feeling the privilege of being in Australia, while so many other parts of the world, where countries are right up against their neighbours, are dealing with much more conflict than we can even comprehend. 

Still, I move on, since we must, and I have a list of posts to write thanks to all the sewing I have done. Not one or two, but three Christmas presents this year were handmade, and post Christmas there was a slew of small sewing things that just got done as well. I also noticed as I reflected on the year of 2024, that of the fabric I purchased in Japan, the three pieces that were intentionally for me, were all made into dresses (here, here and here). 

There is a huge sense of satisfaction knowing that I actually used the fabric that I bought for its intended purpose and it didn't just languish in the drawer. This year I'd like to continue that trend and intentionally sew up some fabric that I have. Not sure if I want to go the whole Make Nine, but definitely planning some sewing projects wouldn't go astray. First though, I need to get Sally serviced, since the amazing sewing that I've done would not be possible without her and she's now needing a bit of TLC. 

Until I get going on those posts, here is a sneak peak at some Christmas sewing to get you excited. 

Happy 2025!