Shoulder Bags

Even though the girls have a plethora of bags, they have taken to using an old shoulder bag I have at any possible moment. My bag has sushi print on it, and I'm fairly sure it was a 21st present from my childhood friend Alice. I had been using it as my "church bag" so it had my housewife, a pen and my bible in it ready to go every Sunday, but I'd swapped it out for a new one we bought in Japan (on Shodoshima), because it had started fraying. 

The girls had swooped it up, and were using it alternately. After I quizzed them about why their other bags were not enough, it turned out they liked the one long strap, over the shoulder, design of my sushi bag. Rachel also told me that her Falinks Bag just wasn't big enough for a morning at church, especially since she had been taking extra books to lend to a friend each week. 

So I made them bags. I let them pick fabric from my stash, copied the design and did some sewing. 

It was a little hard cutting into the kookaburra fabric, knowing I was taking 2m of potential dress down to 1.5, but better to be using it right? And I'm fairly sure I could still get something great out of 1.5m.

Similar with the cool sushi fabric that Sophie chose. 

Anyway I lined them with fabric that matched and made sure they had pockets and key clips. Sophie's lining fabric was so thin that I added an extra layer of random bedsheet-fleece that I had to give it a bit more stability. The white with small rainbow hearts fabric is a hand me down from Aunty Sue, and the other navy one that became the pocket is scraps from her quilt. 

Rachel's was lined with fabric she had left over from making Sophie a pencil case for her birthday, (Japan fabric!) as well as some dress off cuts and one of the fabrics she and I picked out for Sophie's Quilt that Sophie decided she didn't want in the end (those cute butterflies). 

I'm pleased to say that the new bags have been well received and we managed to clean out the old bags so there is a much more manageable bag situation at the front door. 

Headbands

It feels like I made these headbands a life time ago now, since it was January and we are suddenly in May, but here we are and I thought I'd document them anyway. 

I was honestly trying to make headbands for the girls to wear at school (the blue checked fabric) from an old school dress they were no longer wearing, but thought I'd mess around with other scrap fabrics I had on hand as well to tweak the sizing and style. 

Rachel liked the style with the bow on the front, while Sophie preferred it to be flat. I used a couple of free headband tutorials from the internet, but ended up redrawing and lengthening them, so they kind of feel like mine now. 

And even though I did make all of these (and more actually!) the girls have subsequently lost a number of them and neither of them have bothered to wear them to school this term either. 

I try, you know, I try.

Christmas Crowns

Once again I interrupt regular catching up to bring you something from 2022. This time, it's making reusable Christmas Crowns. 

Last year, I subscribed to Peppermint Magazine blog, and they had a post about making your own re-useable crowns, encouraging people to think about ways to reduce single use waste at Christmas time. I'm here for it, and I had Christmas fabric I wanted to use up, so I went into a crown making spree. 

These were pretty straight forward to sew, and used up a good amount of fabric and ribbon that was otherwise languishing with no future. I like that they are double sided, so people can choose what they want when they put it on. 

Of course, I did start with six, but couldn't stop there, because I figured, it's pretty easy for Christmas to turn into a much larger affair. We only ended up needing four last Christmas, but maybe this year will be different. 

Either way, these are lots of fun, and I'm glad I sewed them. 

Christmas Skirt

I interrupt the regular programing of 2023 (otherwise known as "blogging about things that happened a while a go") to bring you a special post (otherwise known as "catching up on things that happened in 2022). Exciting times I know. This post starts with a very ramble-ly backstory, so strap yourselves in. 

Seventeen years ago, Steve had a 21st Birthday party that was a multicultural themed costume party. I had wanted to make a flamenco dress, but in the interests of time/money/skill I had just made a red skirt with ruffles and white off-the-shoulder shirt instead. (You can see a quickly snapped photo of it here if you are desperate.)

Sixteen years ago, for my 21st, Steve gave me the pattern and most gorgeous red material to make my flamenco dress dream come true. What a true champion he was. 

I didn't blog about it at the time, because I was rather disorganized about blogging in those early years, but sometime between April of 2007 and July of 2007 I not only broke my hand, but also managed to sew a flamenco dress for myself. 

I wore it first to a winter ball in 2007, and then not many time since. Maybe to a fancy dress party or two over the years. It was an easy costume for anything with a movie theme because it is pretty much exactly what Fran wears at the end of Strictly Ballroom. (If you have not seen this Australian classic, you must. Right now.)

I did most recently wear it to a Christmas party for work in 2021. It was masquerade theme, which I figured lent itself to a somewhat fancy dress. There is nothing more amazing than this beautiful dress for a night out, let me tell you. 

Welcome to 2022, I notice that I have exactly this much of the original fabric left and I think to myself, maybe I can make a skirt. 

Decided I wanted as much of a circle skirt as I could get (turned out to be a half) and I made it slightly longer in the back (and promptly got zero good photos of that). Inquisitive Rachel helped me with the pattern. 

Then I added pockets, sewed the waistband and had a perfect skirt for Christmas. 

Of course, since I sewed it in the literal week before Christmas, I didn't get a chance to blog about it then. And January was busy. Then it felt too late since it was a Christmas skirt. To be honest, 2023 kinda got away from me. 

But here we are, Christmas time again. So why not record it now, before it's forgotten forever? 

Sewing Obi

While I've sewn many a yukata or kimono now, I don't think I've ever made an obi that I've gone on to wear. This year, I was gifted a box of fabric from some family friends which included two silk wrap things. The moment I saw them, I knew they were destined to be obi. 

I washed them, unpicked them and lay them out. 

They had the most beautiful embroidery on them and I loved the colours, particularly the black and gold. Everything about these made me happy for sewing and the potential of taking something that wasn't being used and making it into something else. Hooray!

I bought some fancy interfacing stuff that I think is generally  used to make jackets and lapels sit correctly, because I really wanted the silk to hold up as an obi without crinkling. Then it was a matter of cutting them into rectangles and sewing it all together. 

The black one really does look stunning on, but it's so so difficult to get a photo of. I'm wearing it here with the kimono I made last year. 

Can not say how much I love these. Guess I'll just have to wear my kimono more often so everyone can know. 

Peacock Dress

Every now and then, my mum gives me some fabric that she got at Spotlight that she insists "was a bargain!" I'm never one to say no to free fabric, especially when it is pretty stunning like this one. 

Stunning as it was, it took me a little while to figure out what I could use it for. It was the kind of material that needed to show off, and I didn't think one of the usual style dresses that I make would do it justice. When I was thinking about what to sew for Sew Frugal 22, finding new patterns and revisiting old ones I had saved, I came across the Nyssa Dress from Mood Fabrics, and thought I was on to a win. 

Unfortunately, I hit a stumbling block when I realised that the incredibly full skirt of the Nyssa Dress meant that I needed close of five metres of fabric and I only had about two and a half. You could still get the fabric at Spotlight, but it was outrageously expensive, so I waited until there was a sale and used the gift card that had been a Christmas present from my Uncle and got an extra two metres. 

The dress itself, being a wrap, was very straightforward to sew, and since the fabric was so fancy, I did French seams on everything for that professional look. In hindsight, I should have finished under the sleeves differently, because the French seams pull a little, but whatever. 

This dress is fun to wear and looks super with heals, which I was wearing when we took the girls to see the orchestra, but changed to flats for the birthday party we went to afterwards. 

The orchestra was fantastic by the way. So good to be enjoying live music again! Look around, look around, how lucky we are to be alive right now. 

Yukata

This is a very short post because I took hardly any photos at all and also don't know if anyone will really care that I did this. 

I turned this 12m kimono-bolt (35cm wide) of cotton fabric into a yukata. Completely by hand. In a week and a half. 

Might make another soon. 

Quick Makes

Summer sewing had lots of little things. Baby shorts for one of Steve's cousin's little boy, which I didn't take a photo of. Ops. They look remarkably similar to the shorts from this post (actually, maybe pretty identical to the white bee-print ones), which were made with the standard Sycamore Shorts pattern, so you aren't missing too much there. 

I also made these awesome fruit salad shorts for Sophie, made from material my mum had left over from a table cloth (exactly the right amount with a few extra scraps thrown in). I used up some apple buttons from my stash to make the belt loops pop. 

Again, Clover Shorts Pattern. So pretty. 

And two skirts for the girls. 

With some pretty swish looking pockets. I had that random lace trim in the stash and I was using up the bee fabric that I'd initially bought with the girls one Christmas and had only used a little of in this dress. 

Rachel's skirt was a similar style, with slightly different pocket designs. 

Again using up the last of that fabric that had been her Easter dress last year. Kind of glad to see the end of that fabric actually, because I was never a fan. The last few bits were made into masks for this last round of Covid outbreak. 

Mask wearing is mostly over, at least in Brisbane though, which makes me wonder what I'll do with all the masks? 

Make Your Own

When I started work again more permanently in July last year, I had to go out and buy some new work clothes to wear. I was unsurprisingly disappointed that I couldn't find a pair of black pants that fit well. Shopping is the worst. At the time, I just bought a pair that I didn't love, but worked well enough to get me through winter, but it makes me sad that I had to do that, and it makes me angry to have to wear them. Not a great combination. 

Being able to sew makes me think that the solution is to just make my own, regardless of the fact that I've never sewn pants before (well, pants with tailoring and a zip) and my zip sewing skills are still pretty average to say the least. As always, I thought a lot about it, and watched a stack of YouTube videos before doing anything. 

I probably wouldn't have done anything, because even after all that research, pants making is still daunting, except that someone in the sewing community of Brisbane was giving away a shorts pattern in my size that looked pretty achievable. Time to give it a go? I picked up the pattern, and did the diligent sewing thing of making a trial run based on my measurements. 

The first pair, made in a deep red that was leftover from making this dress, ages ago. I've gotten much better about knowing how much fabric I'll actually need for something, rather than panicking, buying too much and having heaps left over, but at least I'm using it up right? Anyway, the first pair were beautifully made, because I followed all the instructions and took my time pressing things right, but were huge. They look like they kind of fit in the above photo because I took in the waist band about 15cm in the back. I learnt a lot about making tailored shorts though, with a functioning zip, and figured out where I went wrong, so that was good. 

The upside was that these beauties (after I finished them), fit my neighbour perfectly, so they didn't go to waste either. The next pair was made out of some yellow fabric that was leftover from wedding table cloths that some friends gave me a long long time ago. I've used some of it here, and I'm sure I've used it in other cases, but I apparently didn't make tagging it a priority in the blog, so meh. The downside of the yellow fabric was that it was very see through, which did not make for good pants, hence no photos. 

I made the yellow pair to check the fit after I adjusted some things, but I didn't go into quite the loving detail as I did with the red pair, since I knew these wouldn't be wearable in the end anyway. Fit troubles sorted, I scoured through my stash for some more fabric to use up making wearable-trial pants and found this grey camera print fabric that mum got in a remnant bin at Spotlight one time. Couldn't see myself using it for anything else, so off I went to make it into pants. 

These ones do fit and I can wear them, though because of the camera print, I feel I can't wear them with anything except a solid black or white T. Heh. Success; I think.

The thing is, after wearing them a bit, I'm not sure I like that they sit on the hips, rather than the waist, as all my other shorts currently do. Do I redraft and add to the pattern to make them waist height? Or start again with another pattern that is waist height and go through another three practice pairs before I get it just right? I don't know and to be honest, it seems just a little bit too hard. Maybe I'm not meant to make pants after all. 

That said, the thought of the black ones that don't fit and are made out of terrible plastic fabric in winter time still makes me mad, so maybe in April I'll be fired up enough to try again. 

Made Rachel Some Shorts

Did the usual cull of clothes in the girls wardrobes at the end of the winter season and the subsequent shuffle down of clothes that they have grown out of. I was on the look out for gaps and things they might need, but was surprised to find these were rather few indeed. Rachel just needed shorts. 

I suppose I could have made more than one pair, but to be honest, I'm not sure she'll wear them too much, given her history of dress/skirt loving. Still, these are pretty cool and she does love them. Especially the pockets. 

Reminiscing: Rachel's 7th Birthday

When Rachel told me she wanted a sewing themed cake and not an insect cake, I was shocked, as you know. Well, we ran with it, and not only did Rachel get a sewing cake, she also got a sewing party. 

These were the invites. That ribbon was wrapped around and stuck with a safety pin. We got it free from someone in our community who was giving away a bunch of them conveniently just as we were discussing invitations. 

It was the end of June, which was probably the busiest month of the year and feels like a life time ago now. We did a fruit platter, veggie sticks, some button biscuits, poppers and the cake. Sewing basket cake. Pretty simple party fare really. 

We played pin the buttons on the dress (which all the kids cheated at), 

pass the parcel - fabric wrapping for reusability (each layer the kids got a chocolate and a spool of thread), 

and then we sat down to do some sewing. Rachel actually wanted all the party to be just sitting around teaching kids how to sew, but I managed to talk her out of it. I prepped a set of ribbon and felt bookmarks for the kids to do, and they managed to whip stitch around the edges with degrees of success. 

For the rest of the time the kids all just ran around in the yard, playing games, climbing on things and blowing bubbles. 

Rachel's party bags were fabric (of course), and full of sewing supplies; thread, buttons, safety pins and fabric. She wanted to give the kids needles too, and she wanted to hand sew each of the bags, which I again, managed to talk her out of. She did cut the fabric and the ribbons to size before I sewed them together. 

Sewing Basket Cake. Steve had to make an emergency trip to the shops to get an extra bag of chocolate bullets when I was running out, but I feel it was worth it. Some of the sewing items in this "basket" look a little funny, but kids were happy to eat it. 

The next day, we had the fam over for a bbq lunch. Pretty casual. I had told Rachel I could make her a sewing machine cake, but in the exhaustion of June, I reneged and told her I would make whatever flavour cake she would like, but that it would just be round. 

Rachel asked for a lemon cake. Too easy. We had leftover button biscuits, mars bar slice and the usual BBQ lunch and salad. 

Happy Birthday Rachel, as you make another year around the sun, I wonder if your next birthday will be variation on theme or a new song all together.