Dress Up Dress Gift

I'll say it now: Photo do not do this dress justice. At all. Maybe I should have gone outside to take them, but in my defense, it was really rainy.

Anyway, I've made my girls lots of dress up dresses in the past, which have been very well received, and used by lots of kids when they come over to play. So when our best friend's little girl had a birthday coming up, I knew it was time that I made one for her too.

I am again thankful for the donations of material I have received, because much, if not all, of this dress was sewn from those donations. It's the same standard dress up dress that I usually make. I used the last of the pink fabric from mum that I used to make the very first dress for the bodice and over skirt. That over skirt is gathered up a bit to show the blue and pink floral sheer material underneath, and trimmed with some blue floral trim that was given to me by a lady at my playgroup.

The underskirt is some more of the white gathered stuff that I used in the yellow dress variation, and I don't know if I'm getting better at gathering, or what, but it was surprisingly easy to gather all three layers of skirt and attach it to the bodice. Is all the practice finally paying off?

Even though the birthday wasn't until September, I made this dress in the June/July school holidays, because I had time on my hands, and I knew if I left it, it might not get made during the crazy chaos of term. So glad I did. Rachel tried it on for me and approved whole hardheartedly. Hopefully the birthday girl likes it just as much.

Slower Reading

The most recent reading I have done has been at a much slower pace to the previous set. These have taken me since June. I've read them in short bursts, sometimes two books a week and then nothing for a couple of weeks before starting up again. The later half did happen in quick succession though, because I hurt my back and had to spend a considerable amount of time one Sunday lying down, and then Steve went to Melbourne for a week, so what else was there to do in the evening hours?

Anyway, you'll note that Newt's Emerald again makes an appearance. I can't help it. Even though I've now read it four times since discovering it in May, if I see it at the library, I just grab it off the shelf again. It's too freakin' good to leave there.

Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
Accidental Heroes by Lian Tanner
Dancing the Charleston by Jacquline Wilson
City of Fear by Andrew Beasly
The Undercover Secret by Colin Thiele
Lyddie by Katherine Paterson
Redwall by Brian Jacques
Ottilie Colter and the Narroway Hunt by Rhiannon Williams
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
The Name at the End of the Ladder by Elena De Roo
Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink
Atlantia by Ally Condie
Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

What we've read to the girls has been Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. The Broadway show is coming to Brisbane and my parents are champing at the bit to take the girls to a show at QPAC. I'm hesitant (though I love live theater), but I thought if we prep them, they'll be able to sit through it. I saw it on the shelf at the library last week and picked it up.

I was expecting it to take a couple of weeks to read, but the girls were hooked by chapter two. We started on Thursday night and finished on Sunday afternoon. The excitement and joy that the girls expressed in great leaps around the room and cheers when Charlie finally got his Golden Ticket was unbelievable. I wish we had videoed it.

When I'm sitting on the couch, reading aloud to the girls a chapter book with very limited pictures I can't help but feel rather old school, but also unbelievably proud and excited that they too are drawn in to the wonderful world of reading.

Gift Sleeping Bag

It seems that all of my sewing of late has been for gifts or the girls. Maybe I need a new dress. Hummm. Anyway, the latest is again for a friend who is having a baby. This baby is a Third, similar to the friends I gave a quilt to a few weeks ago.

Sometimes I really feel for those second and third children, because the assumption is (perhaps rightly so), that when it comes to those second and third children, the parents already have everything they need for child raising. Even if this is the case, I still feel that an upcoming baby deserves some recognition, and it's always nice to have something that is a little bit special just for that one, whether they are first, second or third.

With that in mind, I had think and dug out this pre-quilted Japanese fabric that mum had given me, oh, at least four years ago now. It was lovely, but there was really only enough for something small, so it's been in the drawer. The babe it is intended for will be born in March, which means she or he will probably need a snuggly sleeping bag for the winter.

I used the Sew Mama Sew sleeping bag tutorial, that I've used before here. It is for a zero to three month old, so I made it a little bigger and longer, and had exactly the right amount of fabric for it. All I needed to buy was the zip.

I bound the neck and arm holes with the same bias I used on the gift quilt, because it was left over and matched fairly well. I'm pretty happy with how things turned out, and whether the baby is a boy or girl, this is cute and warm, so will serve it's purpose well.

Book Week: Round 2

While Rachel decided exactly one week before the day what she would be, Sophie's costume and preparation was a little more generous on the timing. We talked about books that she liked to read and let her know I would make a costume for her. When she went to the bookshelf to start getting books out for a shortlist, I started to get worried, because she chose a lot of elephant books. Like Elmer.

So I drew a line and suggested that I would be happy to make a person costume, but not an elephant costume. Luckily, she wasn't stuck on the elephant idea and we managed to find something else. Whew.

Sophie decided to go as Sophie.

Kills me every time. The main character in The Tiger Who Came to Tea, is a little girl called Sophie, who is having tea with her mum when a Tiger knocks on the door. I won't give away any spoilers, but it's a really cute and fun book. I don't know why more people don't know of it! Sophie went to see a stage play of it when she was three, and has a beloved Tiger toy as well.

What makes it even better is that Sophie's costume is very easy. Long sleeved blue shirt, purple tunic, tights, blue hair ribbon and black shoes. Sophie herself even thought about it and told me she had a blue shirt that would work, just when I was all resigned to going to the shops. We colored in some white tights to match, and I just picked up a metre of purple fabric for $4.00 from Spotlight for the tunic. Done.

Sophie and Star Tiger had a great time at school for Book Week. What a successful first year of Book Week!