Bright Orange Jumpsuit

Otherwise entitled one of the most re-purpose-able custom-made costumes I've ever made. Let me explain. 

The saga of making costumes for Steve's work Christmas party of 2023 continues here with the final instalment; my costume. I was going as Chell from Portal. Her costume over the two games (Portal and Portal 2) does not change much and is essentially an orange jumpsuit. I had already made her Companion Cube (since that was way easier to sew than a Portal Gun). 

Image from Wikipedia

Given the heat of the Australian summer, I decided I'd be going for more of a Portal 2 look, so then I could have the jumpsuit top tied around my waist, rather than have to wear long sleeves. I grabbed the Heath Jumpsuit Pattern from Mood Fabrics and went to town on it. 

The colour of the orange in the photos varies depending on the light (below is a "sewing at night" shot). It was pretty bright orange, but I actually loved it. 

Aperture Science Logo

I added lots of pockets, all trimmed with some faux white piping to match the reference images. The waistband got a bit of hacking to get the colour change from white at the back to orange at the front. I lengthened the sleeves and added tabs and buttons for when they get rolled up and the legs got tabs and buttons too. The only real "detail" that I left out was the line of white piping around the lower chest. It was just too fiddly and specific to bother putting in. 

I did work hard on the Aperture Science logo which goes on the back, since I figured that was the most recognisable part. And I lined the bodice with white (I think a bedsheet?) because that's what shows when you look at the reference images. I'm nothing if not accurate... or trying to be anyway. Biggest change to the pattern was the buttons down the front to a zip, and an invisible one at that! 

Have to say, I was pretty darn happy with the result, even if the party day was so freaking hot. And, the more I think about it, the more re-wearable this orange jumpsuit is. Naruto anyone? Or any of the "Orange is the New Black" characters (not that I've ever seen it, but you never know). Also the Guardians of the Galaxy all wear orange jumpsuits in prison. 

Honestly though, this jumpsuit is super comfy, so I can see myself using the pattern to make stuff I can wear all the time that's not bright orange. My only take away is that my arms are kinda too buff for the rolled up sleeves. It was hilarious. I can get my arms in fine, but when I went to roll up the sleeves, the extra fabric was quite tight on my biceps. I'm thinking the next jumpsuit will just have short sleeves, to be on the safe side.

Companion Cube

So knowing I was going to go to Steve's work Christmas party (not going to happen every year, but this was year one, so I was keen to at least put some names to faces) I wanted to make a good impression with the costume. Again, I had costumes that would have worked, but they were all TV related. Steve's work literally has "game" in the company name, so I wanted to show my commitment. 

Steve's character, Guybrush Threepwood does have a pretty epic boss girlfriend in the game, who I was interested in being, but in the end, I felt like I would be an imposter to be dressed as someone from a game I haven't played at all. That left me with very few characters I could actually be. The two games I've played the most (aside from Tetris), are Plants Vs Zombies and Portal. I was uninspired by the Plants Vs Zombies idea, but being the main character from Portal seemed like a good choice, and would mean I could make accessories. 

So I made my accessory first. Because why not? Also, I figured that the Companion Cube would be the most recognizable thing I could have to make it obvious as to who I was, or at least, what game I was from. 

This Companion Cube was made from some fleece that I bought from Spotlight for this project. Even though I don't love the thought of just buying fabric for something that might only be single use, I did know that making it out of soft fabric would pretty much guarantee a long and happy life. Spoilers: I was right, but more on that later. 

I read through a couple of blog posts from people who have attempted a Companion Cube in the past, and looked at pictures of the cube for reference, then just drew my own pattern and got to sewing. Pink hearts went onto grey circles and then all the pieces (pink stripes, grey corners and grey/pink heart circle) went onto the dark grey. After each side of the cube was done, I sewed them together and added the grey patches over the edges. Stuffed the whole thing with leftover stuffing and two old pillows. 

It was possibly the most outrageous thing to turn up to the Christmas Party lunch with, but it was a good conversation starter and nice to lean against when I was tired. 

The Companion Cube was fun to have at home for a week after but also kind of impractical, so I took it apart and made three cushions for the lounge room instead. These are going to live long and happy lives.

Guybrush Threepwood

Though I ended last year and started this year with good intentions for regular blogging, I again find myself with a set of posts that are now at least two months out of date. Alas. Still, aside from potentially being hard to find when I need to look back for them, it's not like it's a real problem, so on with the blogging! 

Steve started a new job at the end of last year, and their Christmas party turned out to be a dress up/costume type event. Sounds like they had a pretty hard core group of cos-players/LARP-ers at one stage, so the standard was pretty high, which to me, was just music to my ears. For 2023, the theme was a pretty broad "games and tv" (I guess they were branching out from their usual "games"). 

I did have a fair few already made costumes that we could have chosen from, but given that this was Steve's first Christmas party with the company, I wanted to make a good impression. Steve had just started playing through Secret of Monkey Island and requested to go as Guybrush Threepwood. 

Guybrush Threepwood image from here.

Guybrush Threepwood does journey through Monkey Island to become a pretty swager-full pirate (see here), but for so many reasons (time crunch, money for the costume, knowing this may not be worn again and not wanting to contribute to the growing "single use" problem the world has, not to mention the freaking hot Australian summer that was in full swing), we went with one of the early versions of a Guybrush costume. 

Steve already had a pirate white shirt that I made way back in 2005 or 2006, and a pair of gray pants from his kung fu days. The red sash was in the dress ups from who knows where, so all he needed was a pair of long white socks (thanks Big W) and a brown vest. 

I whipped up the vest out of an old bed sheet one night in an hour and I think he looks pretty great. Too bad we didn't commit to a blonde wig, but even that light cotton costume was so hot on party day. Stay tuned to find out what I did for my costume!

Library Mural: Part 2

The second installment of the school library mural! This was completed with a bunch of parents who had time on the holidays in the first week of January. We had a stack of kids come and just hang out with us too while we completed the next panel. 

The first part we did in the September holidays last year. This second part of the mural continued the lorikeets and native flowers around to another wall. This banksia flower below was done by a student who graduated grade 6 last year! I also let my girls help by allowing them to paint some of the background blue between the leaves (after I cut it in of course). 

We got more creative with the design as we went, and also updated the first part with an upgrade to the wattle blossoms and the grevillea. I think there is more we could add, and the leaves behind our original lorikeet still need to be continued over onto the next wall, but after two solid days of painting, we were all a bit done and just had to call it. Maybe next holidays we will do some additions and finish the final panel (the wall to the left of the original - biggest one yet)

Even though it was fun to paint, I think the best unexpected bonus of this mural is that now it makes it really easy to tell people where P&C meetings are - head to the building with the lorikeets! :D

Housewife 2.0

My very handy housewife has been traveling around with me for all the sewing for over a year now and I honestly love it so much. It's incredibly convenient to throw into a bag with whatever sewing project I have on my way out the door. Often I'm just using the un-picker, but man, is it so great to have the whole lot there. 

It came to my attention sometime in 2023, possibly term 4, as I lost a button on a jumpsuit I was wearing at work, that really, having a housewife is great if you know you are going to sew something. Equally as great to just have on hand if you are out and about and, like me, find yourself in a bit of a fashion emergency. 

I suppose the easy option would be just to pack my existing housewife in my work bag. It would certainly solve the problem, but as I only work part time, I felt for my colleagues who might find them selves in a similarly compromising position on a day that I was not in the office. The only solution I could see was to make a second housewife. (Actually, to be honest, I did consider purchasing a small travel sewing kit pre-made from Spotlight. But I have an abundance of almost everything that would go in it, and fabric to make one, so it seemed to be the more environmentally sustainable option to make my own.)

So I did. I went through my fabric stash for some suitable fabric to use up and found some final scrap of this cool flamingo and cactus print that I had made shorts for Sophie way back in 2020 and then a pillow case cover for one of these Christmas tree cushions. I also had a strip of that bluey-green stuff that felt a little fancy and made me worried about washing and ironing it. The bluey-green strip gave us the dimensions for this housewife as I just used exactly what I had. 

It's a little longer and thinner than my original, but has similar features. I used some very small scraps for the inside features like the Ikea fabric, (featured in this dress for Rachel, skorts for both girls and a skirt for me) and some final remnants of some beautiful animal print fabric (initially Rachel's Nature Bag but also her pencil case and library bag for school). No idea where the little floral scrap was from, but it's a lovely highlight. 

On what works out to be the "flap" part when it's all rolled up, I was inspired by some sashiko style stitching that I saw on the internet and wanted to have a go at. It's a Japanese style of hand stitching patterns into fabric. I think I've got room to grow, but it was a fun to experiment with on this project. 

I bound it all up by hand with some more self-made bias binding from a Lorraine Lea pillow case (which I've used before to bind things here). The housewife folds up in a similar way to the last one, and is all ready to live at work for a just in case emergency. I can already see it getting use patching some friendly classroom soft toys that experience a little too much love from the students (like this Happy Cat from Sophie's school). Hooray! 

Zero Waste

A blogger I've been following for a little while now is Liz Haywood from The Craft of Clothes who lives in South Australia (so amazing to find Australian bloggers/makers to follow). I don't know how I stumbled across her, but she is a big advocate for Zero Waste design and sewing. I'm intrigued by Zero Waste as the general sustainability situation of our lifestyles continues to be at the forefront of my mind, so I borrowed the book Zero Waste Sewing from the library to investigate. 

I read the book and considered the clothes. Some I liked, others were not my style. A couple of things I was keen to try. The biggest thing for me was having the time and brain space to read through all the instructions. I like to be ale to understand what fits where when I look at a pattern and to mentally connect things in my head before I start. Some Zero Waste patterns are straight forward, but others required a few mental gymnastics to see how things would fit. 

The first thing I tried was a top (could also be made into a dress) from the September installment of a Year of Zero Waste Sewing. I really liked the style and it was fairly easy to get my head around how it would work. I made it and liked it, but was honestly not sure I'd wear it because the back was so low. I know that's part of that style and my sisters assured me if I got the right bra it would be fine, but I just wasn't sure I was ready to commit. 

My next attempt was another Zero Waste top this time from the aforementioned book. I was using up some old bedsheets that a friend had donated to me in the name of sewing to make both of these projects. It's the first time I've used old bedsheets (though I have been known to use a table cloth or two to trial things before) and I really loved not having the pressure of "making it work" knowing the fabric had already had a great life before I took to it with scissors. And really, it was giving itself to the great cause of experimentation and the gaining of knowledge that I would go on to use to sew better and thus waste less fabric in the future. Definitely a good cause. 

Excuse the messy bathroom, notice the HUGE sleeves!

Not sure if this top needed smaller fabric before I started, or if the style is just not me, but it worked out to be pretty enormous. I still like the style, so I did take the sleeves off to see if I could make a sleeveless version work (or attempt to make the sleeves shorter in some way), but we were getting to the report card end of term 4 when I was sewing these last year and then the library told me I needed to return the Zero Waste sewing book I'd borrowed, so it got put in a box. 

I really like the neckline of this with the bow -
but the sleeves were enormous and the bodice might also need darts? 

I hope I get it out again this year, because Zero Waste sewing still intrigues me and I would like to give it more of a go. Wish me luck!

Japanese Banner

Here is a little something I worked on in the September holidays of 2023. I didn't know for sure if I would be teaching Japanese in 2024, but I had Japanese fabric and I wanted to sew something. Was I sewing in faith or folly? No idea. I might have just needed a project. 

In any case, I started with a yukata that I loved wearing, but had found on inspection that it had some holes in the fabric from some little bug that had been living in my storage drawer. So much of the fabric was still perfectly fine though, so I took the thing apart and considered how to use it. 

I decided if I were to teach Japanese again, I would need something for my classroom. So this, along with a number of random Japanese fabric samples that I had collected from homestay students over the years, my old sushi dress and a new piece of Japanese fabric mum had given me earlier in the year and I was ready to go.  

I did end up buying some black fabric for the letters, wanting this to be more than just bunting (if there is such a thing as "just bunting"), but also a sign for a potential room that I would be teaching in. Doing the maths, I figured I had enough fabric to make a rather long and big sign to declare Japanese to everyone. 

This did make it super hard to photograph on the floor of my house. I printed/hand drew all the letters on paper first to check size and layout and then went onto the black. Did the fancy interfacing glue stuff to get it stuck down and then zigzagged around each letter with white to make it clearly visible. 

Each of the letters down, I sewed the backing fabric on (right sides together and then flipped out) and bound the top with a long strip of exactly the amount of fabric that I had left. This project was actually a great way to use up all this fabric that would possibly have had no life otherwise. I only ended up using the sleeves of the yukata and a part of the okumi, so I actually still have a stack of that fabric left for something else. Pajamas maybe? 

Anyway, I did end up getting given Japanese to teach for 2024, as well as my own room, so hooray for faithful preparation. Hopefully the kids get excited when they see it too. My classroom as a whole is still coming together, but it is rather exciting to have one! 

Annual Christmas Clothes

Before Christmas gets too far away (like it absolutely  did for me last year, see these very belated posts here and here) I'm just going to do this quick check in and have a record that I did in fact make Christmas outfits for the girls. I already had fabric that I'd used to make Sophie some new shorts for 2022, so I grabbed it out and asked the girls what they wanted. 

Sophie wanted another pair of shorts. No surprises there. Clover Shorts pattern once again MVP. 

Pockets all round! Rachel asked for a skirt with hidden shorts inside. I explained to her what a skort was, and then modified the Clover Shorts pattern to make one for her. 

My only regret is that I forgot with the skort that I wouldn't be adding the cuffs, so it would have been prudent to add a bit of length. The skort fit her beautifully, but it won't grow with her for very long at all as a result. 

She's rockin' that skort though. 

Hebrews 12

Here we are with a new year before us. These holidays have been both long and short, as well as busy and restful. Now they are nearing their end though, and I'm finding I have more things on the list to do than I would like. I've made a bit of progress in these last few days, but many things, not the least of which is "catching up on blogging" are slowing down the usual reflection and planning phases that come with a new year. 2024 has started with speed; I feel like it's already racing to the big events. I can count the weeks to going back to work, school starting, milestone birthdays and suddenly holidays again, knowing these will fly by.

We started post-Christmas, with a bit of a clean up and out of the kitchen, though we haven't fully committed to an official "de-clutter" by any means. Steve has announced that the word of the year for 2024 is "AWAY" (yes, in all caps), and it's really gaining traction for us. Plates meant for the dishwasher - AWAY! Books lying around on the couch - AWAY! In the kitchen for me was 20 cups we never ever use - AWAY! I'm hoping that focusing on what needs to be AWAY can make space for the things we want to have in our lives, and also that we consider the AWAY things carefully before they go, so they are not discarded carelessly.

Another thing I'm looking forward to in 2024 is spending a year going through Bible Project's series on the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew's Gospel. I'm encouraged to be slowing down and letting the core message of Jesus' teaching start resonating and shaping me in new ways.

Before I say goodbye to 2023, my last thoughts on that year that was quite an emotional rollercoaster for me, are the bible verse from Hebrews that I kept coming back to. When I was tired, when I was numb, when I was exhausted or confused, I was reminded that the race is a marathon not a sprint, and that while there is much to go, Jesus has gone ahead.

So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees," the wisdom of Hebrews tells me. Take that new grip of 2024 and stand up straight Paula. God has not let you go and 2024 is bright. Sure the drafted blog posts count is longer than ever, and not everything is done on the list, but Jesus offers peace and rest. The kingdom of heaven is here and now, ready for us all.

Sushi Dress 2.0

Another dress I made in 2023 was a second version of a Sushi Dress. Not a replica of the first, but pretty close in style. The original dress was so well worn that the bodice tore one day after a wash. I did save the large skirt portions of the dress to reuse in another project, but the dress itself was beyond repair. Sorry for the rather rubbish photos. It's hard to take full body selfies. 

Luckily I still had three metres of the original fabric to become version two. I used the self drafted pattern from my earlier-in-2023 dresses, and spontaneously added sleeves. The pockets are lined with some perfectly matching orange scraps which came from a donation box from Steve's Aunty Sue.

Beautiful to wear and perfect for a Japanese teacher. 

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. 

Bluey Fest 2023

This was possibly one of the most fun things we did at home this year. Lots of just hanging out, but so much quality time together. 

For some back story, Bluey is an Australian kids show, aimed at four to seven year olds. My girls were either on the older end or older than the target demographic when it came out, and we don't watch too much TV as it is (Play School all the way), but gradually we found ourselves enjoying the Bluey. As far as children's TV goes, it's so quality. Both the writing and animation is great, not to mention the topics covered and portrayal of kids imagination play and positive parenting just blows every other kids cartoon out of the water. Suffice to say, we love it. 

I'd seen a fair few episodes and had even started using them in the music classroom (such quality music, both original and remixed classics) but Steve had been missing out. Somewhere towards the start of 2023, we started watching the episodes together whenever we needed a bit of a break. It was really nice to sit down every now and then to watch a few episodes and just enjoy the good quality humor that was Bluey. 

At the start of November, ABC announce they would run "Bluey Fest" which was where they would play Bluey episodes all day from 6am to 7:30pm. People were encouraged to vote for their favorite Bluey episodes for the count down of top 100. 

We voted. 

And also planned our day. 

Sophie had bought a Bluey Cookbook, which I've mentioned before, and since we had seen all the episodes, we had a lot to choose from. We planned, all our meals around food that appears in Bluey, including snacks, though Steve vetoed another Duck Cake. We also printed the charades cards that Sophie coloured and I laminated. 

Rachel helped cut out the fabric to make a Bob Bilby puppet. 

I printed Bluey bunting. 

Even though it sounds like the actual day was going to be a lot of TV watching, it really wasn't. The girls did watch a bit before breakfast (proffertjes), but then we ate and went to church just like normal. When we got home, we popped it on again, but the girls were also colouring some Bluey pictures while we watched and chatted. 

We took a break for our Bluey themed lunch (sausages and capsicum salad with Aunty Mary's dressing) and Hugo came over, so the three kids went off to have a swim together at our neighbor's place. 

Steve was sadly missing most of this day, since he and his brother went to Bundaberg for the weekend to help his dad move. He made it back for the last hour of Bluey though, so did get to see the top ten. It was so fun to watch together and we all agreed the top episode (Cricket) was an excellent one. 

Still not sure why the grannies episodes are so high up though. 

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?