Our cooking loving Sophie had grown out of her other apron. She was going to a Japanese cooking event with church, and requested a new one. So I made her an apron.
Most basic sewing ever. I did a quick google for rough measurements, and sacrificed some more of this bright sushi fabric that Sophie already has in a bag. She loves it, and I'm happy to report, has also been wearing it.
Better than making a costume for your book loving daughters: organising one for yourself. I've discovered that in the same way there are people in the world who hang out for Christmas and just love the whole season and everything it entails, so do I love Book Week.
I wanted to go simple this year, for no particular reason. I think I am really feeling the push for sustainability and environmentally conscious choices. Even though I love making and creating, it's important that I'm not part of the ongoing overconsumption fast fashion problem we are currently living in.
Anyway (off my soapbox now) I decided to re-use a costume that we already had; Squirrel Girl! I had made Sophie an excellent costume for Squirrel Girl in 2022. Rachel has worn it since (Superhero day at school, no photos), but I haven't. My turn now!
Though I had the perfect brown boots to wear, I was less inclined to pair them with tights and a body suit for a Primary School Book Week. I was tossing up some of the shorts I had made, when I was fortuitously gifted a pair of brown jeans by my sister Sarah. Problem solved. Maybe not as comics accurate, but still in theme and much more practical for a day of teaching small children.
I turned the brown cuffs I had made Sophie into arm braces and whipped up a pair of brown ears out of the leftovers. Everything was lined with leftover brown fabric from making pants for Rachel's Ranger costume. The brown Jedi belt and pouches also made an appearance.
I thought I would have to do a fair few adjustments to the brown vest (or scrap it altogether) to make it fit, but I could get my arms through and it clipped up across my upper chest just fine. Winning!
Tippy Toe was pinned onto my shoulder and I carried both the comic and the novel that we have of Squirrel Girl with me. Though I was not recognised by any students, except two year six-ers, I had a great time. Book Week for the win!
It is quite possible that there is nothing more fabulous than Book Week. Honestly, it might be the reason I stay in teaching as long as I do. What a great celebration of all things I love!
This year, Rachel wanted to be a Ranger. She has been very invested in the John Flanagan Ranger's Apprentice books, as well as the two spin off series and Brotherband. We had a discussion on the essential cape and I found three different green fabrics in my stash. Rachel opted for the olive-green bedsheet.
Initially unimpressed with the hooded cape I whipped up one afternoon (she didn't like the excess fabric in the hood, but I couldn't be bothered make a fitted one for a costume), Rachel came round to it after some street friends told her how cool it looked. I knew she had a green shirt, so I figured with some jeans we were actually done. Little did I know.
Rachel was intent on a pretty thorougher recreation. She scoured the park across the road for the perfect stick to become her long bow for weeks. Then raided the shed for bamboo stakes and long dowels to turn into arrows. Her bow was strung with some leather which I think was supposed to be used for making bracelets. Arrows were fletched with feathers she had collected over the years. There was also the oak leaf necklace, the throwing knives and daggers. Weighted, of course. I dug out the brown belt from the Jedi Costume along with a couple of the belt pouches. Rachel filled these with her "medical supplies" and other assorted things.
After seeing her work hard at all the parts of her costume (the only thing missing was an arm brace really), when she requested some brown pants to wear, I felt I couldn't refuse. I fortuitously had some brown fabric in my stash thanks to the roller coaster journey of the Princess Bride Costumes of 2025. So I measured her jeans and sat down on Sunday to make a pair of ranger pants for the Book Week Parade the next day.
Things were going smoothly (and beautifully), until I realised I had accidentally sewn the front legs together and the back legs together, rather than to each other. There might have been a loud exclamation from the otherwise quiet sewing area before I decided the solution was to cut off the French seams and go again, this time with less beauty, more speed and the correct pieces of fabric.
Rachel was happy with the comfy brown pants that included four pockets for her to stash even more Ranger things in. She borrowed Sophie's satchel bag to take her lunch in, and also Sophie's brown boots, even though they were too big for her. Rachel is committed like you read about.
The quiver for the arrows was made the night before, and then I was informed the cape needed a slit in the back for the arrows to poke through. I may have organised that the morning of, but it was a very quick snip and sew. Rachel did win the prize for best dressed in her class.
Gosh did she look fabulous. She was so chuffed with her costume and the imaginative play options ahead of her. The home made bow and arrows can, in fact, be fired, but she was only allowed to take them to school under strict instructions not to use them. One of the grade 6 teachers completing disregarded this though when the throwing knives (cardboard) were accidentally stuck in a tree and Rachel was asked to shoot them down with her bow.
I used a cotton drill piece I had picked up in Japan, and an off cut of kimono lining fabric for the inside. I was pretty happy to use that actually, because the mon (family crest symbol) on the fabric is able to be a little surprise when you open the pouch. It is also similar to the circular flower design on the main fabric too; like it was ment to be!
Winter holidays 2026 feel like the gift that kept on giving. Steve was working through, so the girls and I kept things pretty simple; hanging around the house, catching up with people, reading, crafting, cooking and eating. I did get some kind of sickness in the middle, but it was nothing terrible, and mostly just left me tired and head-achey.
Inconceivably, I managed to finish not one, but two hefty work in progresses among all the other life and sickness that went on. I've already talked about Maria's Denim Quilt, which was an achievement in itself, but today I get to say that I also finished the T Shirt Quilt!
This had been a long long time coming - from back in 2020 when I first started cutting up T Shirts, to earlier this year when I realised I was getting close to having enough to get moving on it all. I lay out the shirts in what looked like a balanced and evenly distributed way and got sewing them up into columns. There were a couple of things that needed padding out, but that was a fairly easy fix to do.
When I finished, I noticed one of my columns was slightly too short - I needed one more T Shirt! The girls and I voted on which of Steve's still wearable shirts to sacrifice to the quilt. 54 shirts in all.
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| So difficult to get a full photo of this quilt, since it's huge! |
With the quilt top finished, I turned to the problem of actually quilting the thing. When I first made the quilt that went on our bed, 15 years ago, I had zero actual quilting experience and honestly, did not know what I was doing. This kind of worked out for me though, because when I finished that quilt, I really didn't do anything more than baste the thing together. Which ment that I could actually take the whole thing apart fairly easily.
It was dusty, but I got to re-use all the batting that was inside the original quilt. Maybe I still don't know what I'm doing, but it was still functional and seemed a huge waste to just chuck it. The new quilt was slightly larger, so I added some extra strips that I had been given from a neighbour who was getting rid of it a few years ago. Yay for using up stuff!
For the back of the quilt, I pieced together some leftover fabric from Sophie's Quilt, and grabbed out a random bed sheet that the girls weren't using anymore. I love the quilt top so much I really didn't want to spend any money (or time thinking) on the back. It made way more sense to just use what we had.
Actual quilting (the process of sewing together the top, batting and backing) is honestly such physical work. The quilt is heavy! There is a lot of juggling things, figuring out where to pull or guide the fabric through. I have started doing this outside on the deck. I would just set up Sally on the glass table we have out there, but that table wobbles and bounces like crazy when you sew on it, so I take the dinning table out and butt it up against the glass one. Then there is plenty of space for the quilt to lay on the tables and I don't have the movement.
Wanting to keep the cool images from the shirts as intact as possible, I just quilted lines down the columns and then across the rows. I really like the look of it, and I would have added more, but by the end of five or six hours of quilting, you get a bit over it.
Since I had taken apart the original Queen Quilt, I cut that old top into strips and used it to bind the edges. I love so much that the old quilt is part of the new one. Can not say how much I love that. Everything in this quilt is something that was used before or leftover from another project. That's not to say that it cost nothing. Hours and hours of time went into making this. Even just prepping the T Shirts for the top was likely eight hours, not to mention sewing it all together, and that was before the quilting and binding.
Even though no one would likely pay the hundreds of dollars that this quilt is worth, there is some serious satisfaction, joy and comfort when I see this quilt on our bed. Time well spent.
I had this bolt of fabric in my draw for a number of years now - I thought three, but flicking back through the blog tells me I got it in April of 2022. It came from my friend David along with a cotton yukata bolt, and three wool kimono bolts (here, here and here). This one was a shorter length - not the 12 metres needed for a full garment, but probably half that - maybe six metres or so? It was perfect for a haori, which is a jacket worn with a kimono.
I realised after taking these photos that I'd made this entire outfit - including the undergarments that you can't see (and I never blogged about), which is pretty wild really.
So I tried to make a dress. This beautiful fabric (Jocelyn Proust print bought on sale at Spotlight probably ages ago (at least two years?)) I initially got thinking of Rachel, but the more I had it in the drawer, the more I wanted something for me. Thankfully, Rachel was not excited about the fabric anyway, so I didn't feel selfish about the switch.
Wanting to be fancy and different, I thought I'd try incorporating a cap sleeve into my usual design. I did a make a mock up. It seemed like it would work. So I went ahead, cut and sewed away. But when I had the 90% finished dress on, it became oh so clear that it had not worked at all.
Everything had too much. Too much width across the shoulders, too much length in the bodice, too much extra in the back. Even the skirt was too long by far. Sadly, because of the design, I couldn't see any way of salvaging it as a dress. I used off cuts from making this for Sophie's Quilt, and I've used some of the fabric before in a pencil case for Rachel. It's lined with fabric I've used for PJ's before that also featured in Sophie's Quilt.
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| Photos taken inside on a dark rainy day, so the colours look strange - it's much brighter than this in reality. |
I'm trying to be much better about actually finishing things though, and so I only let it languish for a month or two before I got to sorting it out. Since the skirt (with it's excellent pockets) was still good (despite the length), I unpicked the bodice, cut a waist band and sewed it up.
Weirdly, though I wear this kind of full, gathered skirt situation on most of my dresses, having it on a stand alone skirt seems different. Don't know why. I'm hoping I'll still get some use out of it, because I love the fabric and it would be a waste otherwise. The hem is a good 10cm deep, and actually folded three times to get the right length. I could probably lop it off and use the fabric for something else (quilting?), but it isn't hurting anyone there.
After making arduous shorts, I decided I needed a break and a quick sew of something that I knew would turn out. I had this amazing patterned fabric in my drawer since I'd used some of it for Sarah's 40th Birthday bunting 18 months ago. Even though I had bought actual yukata fabric in Japan, for some reason, the time felt right to use this up.
When I'd bought it, Spotlight was closing down their store, so I got it at a really discounted price and I'd bought what I thought was enough for a whole yukata (FYI, you need about four metres of standard width fabric). I was pretty sad when I lay it out to discover that I didn't have quite enough! I considered different options, but decided that I would make a half half yukata with some plain black fabric.
Since I was using non-standard fabric, I decided I'd also just use my sewing machine to sew this, rather than hand stitching like I might have usually done. I did french seams to encase all the raw edges, which is what I've noticed is common for modern made yukata.
The biggest trick with this was making sure I had my left and rights the correct way around, since I didn't want the plain black on the front. Success on that though!
It took a good week to sew these shorts. The night I cut them out, it was still early-ish, so I thought I'd get the interfacing cut and ironed on too while I was at it. Then I started doing some of the "prep" sewing; getting the pocket linings in place and finishing edges off things that would be sewn in later. On a bit of a roll, I ended up getting more than I thought I would done.
The next day I was back at it. Feeling good. But after getting all the pockets in, the main shorts pieces together and successfully installing the zip, I stalled. I had a niggling feeling that the waistband would be too short. I had already had that feeling when I was looking at the pattern and I had taken the time to measure all the pieces and check that the maths worked out.
The maths did work out on paper, but when it came time to actually sew the waistband on - short by three centimetres on one side, and at least two centimetres on the other.
I don't know what I'll do now honestly. Scrap these pants and start again? Maybe it's the design that's just not working for me. Shame, because they are cool shorts.
Shorts.
If there is one gap in my wardrobe, this is it. It's hard to find a pair RTW (Ready to Wear) that is all you ever imagined. As far as sewing goes, I feel I can pretty comfortably make a dress without much thought, but stuff that fits the lower half is considerably much tricker. Maybe that's why a pair of RTW shorts is also like finding a unicorn.
I ended up needing a new pair of boxer shorts at the start of the year because my pjs needed replacing, so I whipped up a pair one night. Unfortunately, I made the wrong size, so Sophie got a new pair of shorts and I made a second pair the next night that were much more successful. I don't know if it was these quick boxer shorts that gave me the confidence, or having made Sophie some beautiful pants last year, but I had sudden renewed motivation to finally tackle actual shorts again.
Turns out the journey of making shorts is long. I rolled out my pattern pieces that have been meticulously adjusted and checked so many times, and made the final tweaks to them (I had hand written what needed changing (mostly length adding or hem leveling) on the pieces last time, but actually needed to make those changes visible before using the pattern). That took less time than I thought (maybe an hr or so?) so I dug out the fabric and looked at it for a while.
Even after I puzzled the pattern pieces onto the fabric I honestly just sat looking at it some more. I knew the whole cutting of the pattern pieces would easily take an hour. I still had to find lining fabric and cut those pieces as well as the interfacing. And as I looked at the pattern there on the fabric I knew it already represented hours and hours of trial and error, fitting and checking, sewing and unpicking and starting all over again. Literally hours of my life, and still no perfect pair of shorts existed yet.
More than that, since the pattern had again been tweaked before this time round, there was every chance it might still need some small adjustments. Last time I tried it was over two years ago too, so also every chance that my body has changed since then too. Even if it all sewed up perfectly, just that time alone will take hours as well. It took a lot to get myself cutting I can tell you.
For reference, I'm not over exaggerating when I say shorts are the work of hours. I started the shorts journey way back in August of 2021, with three pairs of shorts which I mostly blogged about here. I then tried again in January of 2024, with a white bedsheet pair for fitting and then a maroon pair that were wearable but a little tight, pictured below.
I don't know why I never blogged these, but looking back, January 2024 was busy, as was February, and then we went to Japan at the end of March that year, so I guess time got away from me. I was feeling good about these shorts though, five pairs in, even if they were not perfect yet.
Alas though, size fluctuates for all of us, so I knew I would need to try again. That's where we are now. Trying again. With what remains of the maroon fabric from the fifth pair. Is it sixth time lucky for shorts? I sincerely hope so. Anyway, you'll have to come back another time to find out how it all turns out, because this post is long enough, and the shorts aren't finished yet. See you next time!
Fabric Notes for Future Paula Who Likes to Remember Things. (Sorry there are no photos of my quick boxer shorts)
Boxers shorts round 1 were made with some of the fabric I had made Sophie's wearable toil Zero Waste halter last year. I was hoping I could make a matching top with the rest of the fabric, but since the shorts don't fit and Sophie prefers a T-shirt....
Boxer shorts round 2 were made with the leftovers of Luke's Christmas present shirt. Good to use up the scraps!
Since we've been playing Pokémon Legends Z-A, thanks to Steve's Birthday Switch 2 purchase, there has been a swing back to enjoying Pokémon from our girls. One of the characters uses Falinks as his Pokémon, and has a very cool Falinks bag as part of his costume.
There are no good photos of it online (the one above is from I don't know where!), but Rachel drew a reference image for me and I decided I'd be able to make one for her. (I mean, Sophie has a Majikarp Bag after all.) Rachel's instructions were that it would be big enough for her "stuff" - mostly a notebook, pencils and pens.
I just used whatever I could find in my fabric stash. Yellow fabric from a friends wedding (which I talk about in the Majikarp Bag post) made up most of it. Black and red, I don't know where that was from TBH. The shiny blue was scraps from my Princess Bride costume, and the white was a bedsheet. I also used a zip that I salvaged from one of the girls old lunch bags, and hardware from free conference lanyards.
The whole thing is stabilized with the sturdiest interfacing ever, though I do feel like I could have added an extra fabric or batting layer to give the thin yellow cotton a bit more weight to it.
It is, of course, fully lined and has pockets, as per Rachel's design. This blue fabric... was from somewhere too I guess!
The back of the pouch has two loops so Rachel can slide it onto a belt and wear it around her waist.
It's the cutest little Falinks bag ever.
