Not the Usual Pillowcase Dress

More sewing with the pillowcases gifted to me by my dear friend Katie. I actually sewed this dress and the skorts ages ago, maybe back in late Feb, or early March, but I've just been so busy, there has been really no time to blog! Rectification of that in progress now. 

After the skorts, I knew I wanted to use the Ikea fabric to make Rachel a dress similar to the one I made Sophie two years ago, based on the Izzy Top. She had been wearing Sophie's hand me down a lot, so I knew it was a style she liked, and I thought I could combine the Ikea fabric with another pillow case perfectly for it too. 

Rachel was not in a photo taking mood for this photo shoot, so it's a miracle any of these photos are sharing worthy. 

Yes, she's wearing this dress down to the park for a play. Yes, I have had to start soaking dresses and doing a separate white load (don't judge me), for all the white dresses that Rachel loves to wear. Is it worth it? Probably. Rachel does love a good white dress, and who am I to argue with that beautiful pillow case top that is living it's best life out in the sun now? 

Pillowcase Skorts

I've been sewing long enough now that many of my friends are aware one of the best ways to show me love is to gift me fabric. Oh the blissful feeling of free gifted fabric. You have no idea. So when one of my longest friends (22years of friendship!) who works for Lorraine Lea, offered me some of the pillowcases from discontinued linen designs, I jumped at the chance. 

Suddenly, so much more fabric to inspire me to sew! Hooray! 

Not long after receiving these, I had a spontaneous trip to Ikea with my mother-in-law, Maria, and I noticed a print in their fabric section that I knew would match perfectly with some of the pillowcases that I had been gifted. It was meant to be. 

The Ikea fabric is the floral on the left of this photo, the white, pink and green are all pillow cases, deconstructed and ready for sewing. See how perfectly the pink and green match! 

I knew the girls (being the strangely tactile creatures that they are) would love the fringe from the pillow cases, so I took that off first to add to the skirt. I wanted to make Rachel a skirt with shorts inside (using the plain backing fabric from the pillow cases), and Sophie a pinafore/overall dress type number, but Sophie just wanted a skort too, so I rolled with it. 

Sorry for the night time sewing photos; I know they're not the best. Anyway, trim on, skirts and shorts sewn and the girls are rocking their skorts. 

I did try to talk her out of the white shirt that doesn't really go, in favour of one that complimented more, but Sophie was determined to wear it. Kids right? 

Surprise shorts!

The pillow case fabric in these is so soft and comfy, and the girls love their skorts. Hooray!

Bunny Bags

 When I asked the girls what they would like to put the Easter eggs for their cousins in this year, I was expecting (or maybe hoping) they would say "We'll make origami boxes Mum!" I don't think it was too much of a stretch, given that they had recently learned how to make some pretty decent origami boxes, and this would be a chance to show off their skills. 

What they said instead was, "You can sew some bags Mum!" which had a vastly different outcome. 

But who am I to turn down the opportunity to sew something? So I went to my trusty box of scrap fabric and dug out enough calico to make several bags. I showed the girls a variety of bag types on Pinterest, hoping they would like a simple draw string bag. Again, my hopes were dashed, as they declared the bags with bunny ears to be the best bags of all. 

So again to my stash to find some fun fabric for the bunny ears and off to Sally the Sewing Machine I went. 

Two days later, and I've got five bunny bags ready to go. They are pretty cute, and well made, if I do say so myself. I French seamed them, for prettiness and strength. The girls made Easter cards and filled them with chocolate for their cousins and everyone had a great time.

Just Because

 Anyone else make a cake just because? Well I do. And here's another one. This cake has a funny story actually, because unlike my other "just because" cakes, I didn't make it purely based on feelings. 

Sophie wanted to make an aqua scope with recycled materials, but she needed a tin to do so. There were none in our recycle bin, so she went for an extensive search around the neighbour's houses. Alas, most of them were lacking in clean tins in their recycle bins too, but one of our neighbours kindly gave her a full tin of pineapple. 

So, we tipped out the pineapple and she made her aqua scope, and then we considered what to do with the pineapple. Obviously a cake was the perfect solution. 

I remember making this cake the first time, and being surprised at how yum it was - banana and pineapple is a great combo. I didn't have pecans this time, so I used walnuts, but it was still delicious. The last time I made it, was over 10 years ago. The time really does fly. 

This cake was shared with friends, and a cut a generous portion to send back to our kind neighbours to thank them for their pineapple. Sophie was not a fan, and is asking if we can make another just because cake tomorrow. Maybe.

For other just because cakes, check out here, here, here and here. 

Sophie's Easter Dress

As I mentioned in my last post, both girls got to choose fabric for me to make them an Easter dress this year. This post is all about Sophie's. 

Sophie is really into woodland creatures. I didn't blog about her actual birthday party (just the birthday day) back in January, mostly because I was super disorganised, but also because it was postponed thanks to a potential COVID outbreak that sent all of Brisbane into a snap three day lock down. Just when you thought the drama from 2020 was over, there it was reminding us not to get comfortable in the first week of 2021. 

Anyway, Sophie had this great squirrel cake, as well as other woodland themed foods (watermelon hedgehog, owl veggie platter, mushroom cupcakes and meringue mice). So it's not surprise that when choosing fabric for her dress, she chose one that was covered in woodland animals. (Yes, these photos of the dress are un-ironed. Don't judge me.)

I used the same pattern that I did for Rachel's dress, but the next size group up (the patterns come in 4, 5, 6, and then 7, 8, 9). I've been trying to think more critically about store bought patterns of late. Lots of reading blogs that go on and on about how you need to measure the person and then make to the measurements. That the "size" is just a number and because we are all uniquely made, none of us (or very few) will actually fit the given measurements for the designated "size", thus the importance of ignoring the sizing and using measurements.  

I had started to see their point when I noticed that my mum always made each dress for my girls exactly as the pattern said, but often they came out really roomy, or long enough, but swimming on the top. Why make a size 6 for Rachel, who is six, when it won't fit? Why not make the size 5, just longer, so it does fit? It's the beginning of a revolution. 

I did measure Rachel and make her dress to her measurements by adjusting the pattern slightly, but when it came to Sophie's the pattern was actually different! Being a bigger size set, the bodice now had some strange curve things happening towards the bottom, probably to allow for the non-existent hips that my 8 year old was supposed to have. Ludicrous. Sophie also measured with in the ranges for two of the three measurements (bust, waist and hip), but at least 10cm out for the third. 

Given that I was trying the pattern for the first time (weird hip shaping and all), and the measurements were so different, I only made small adjustments and hoped for the best. I think I based it on the size 7. If I were making it again, I would completely re-draw the bodice, because the ridiculous hip curve was just wrong. It probably didn't help that I'd only bought a meter of the fabric, and it turns out that's not enough any more to get a complete dress for my 8 year old. There was a lot of creative cutting, and I ended up using the contrast fabric around the waist which, to me, only highlighted the problem. 

I feel the regular person, who didn't make this dress, would not notice, but to me, it's super annoying. Even more so because Sophie loves it and wears it a lot. Oh well. I'm also critical of the flutter sleeves, which I feel have the right amount of flutter, but stick out too far and don't go round the arm scyc nearly enough. Is everyone this critical of things they make themselves? Is it just this dress, or is it just me? Not sure. 

I lined it with some scrap fabric from skirt making, and at the end of the day, it's a fun wearable dress for this girl who loves her woodland animals. So I guess it's a win? I've also learnt a stack about trusting my instincts when it comes to looking at patterns (especially patterns for little girls who are very straight up and down kind of body shapes) and I practiced putting in zips again. Not a total loss then. 

Rachel's Easter Dress

I keep mentioning dresses that I've made for the girls over the summer, but as yet, there has been no post about it. I am seemingly disorganised in my blogging this year. Oh well. This is me trying to rectify the situation slightly by telling you all about Rachel's dress. I haven't got photos of Sophie in hers yet, so that post will have to wait. 

I was originally intending these to be made around March/April, for Easter, but the girls got really excited when I took them to Spotlight to choose material, and I had time when we were on holidays. So I made them early. I don't usually take the girls material shopping, (actually, I am always trying to use up what's on hand, so they don't get much choice most of the time), but Spotlight had 40% off and I wanted to treat them. 

I used a pattern that mum has used to make the girls dresses before. I measured Rachel and looked at the pattern size and made her a size five, even though she's six and a half. Even the five is too big in the bodice, so I'm glad I did. I added a bit of length to the skirt and did some random things with the sleaves. Also played around with a feature on the waistband. It's fun to try new things on a dress just because. 

I am pretty satisfied with how it all turned out and Rachel is happy that her fabric choices became a dress she can wear too. 

Oh, and at Rachel's request, I added pockets. They are a little low down, but they are functional. Her hair in these photos is her "Bee Hair", which she wore when she was being Bertha the Bee for Book Week last year. Strange little Rachel, we love you. 

A Year Later

A photo memory came up a few weeks ago, of what the garden around the water tank looked like when we put it in a year ago. It has changed so much since we finished it! Even though I've seen it grow, I'm still in shock about how much life it has there. 

The biggest thing to grow was the passion fruit vine, which now covers the entire water tank, as well as all the balustrade down the length of the deck. It just grew and grew and grew! The flowers we originally planted took off, and in that garden bed I've also had spinach, lettuce and bok choy growing through out the year. 

One end of that long garden bed is still tricky to grown things in, so I might experiment with more shade option plants coming into autumn. We will see. Down the front garden bed, things are happy and healthy too. I bought a set of capsicum seedlings from Bunnings, three out of the four of them turned out to be banana chillies, which are not hot, but pretty disappointing when you were expecting capsicums. 

That said, they love their life in the garden bed and we have had so much fruit off them. Sometimes they grow so quickly I can't pick them in time. They aren't hot, but they are also kind of boring on their own, so mostly I feed them straight to our guinea pigs, who love them. 

Last time I went to Bunnings, Rachel was with me and asked if we could grow some eggplant. I wasn't sure but she's really into trying new stuff, so I figured, why not. I could always feed them to the guinea pigs if we had too many. The eggplants also like their life in the garden bed, and we've had some pretty nice fruit. I'm the only one eating them, but at least they are not growing as prolifically as the banana chillies are, so I can keep up. 

How pretty are snapdragon flowers? 

In our other spontaneous garden bed, things had gotten quite out of hand with regards to tomatoes and pumpkins that popped up out of the compost. We had tomatoes galore last year. I couldn't give them away fast enough. One week I gave away 7kgs of tomatoes, only to pick another 7kgs the next. There were truss tomatoes, grape, perrino and cherry tomatoes. So many tomatoes. 

The pumpkin vine grew around it all, but no fruit was forthcoming until we got back from our Christmas in Bundaberg and I wad delighted to see success! 

I left it to grow until last week when I got sick of all the weeds, and ripped out heaps of the old pumpkin vine along with them. There are still some vines there at the other end of the garden bed, so I'm hopeful for a few more fruits, but we will see. 

Got to be happy with that effort right? I'll have to take a video of the passion fruit vine because it's too stellar to capture in photos. Gardening is the best. 

Don't Know if I'd Wear It

I feel like the start of blogging for this year has not really gone to plan. Here we are in March and so far, only five posts for the year. Not that numbers matter, but it's a far cry from how things started off last year. Different priorities I guess, and actually, completely different life right now. 

Anyway, I feel like this dress is as good a place as any to start trying (probably in vain) to rectify things. I really don't know if I'll wear it. Let me explain. 

I made this dress in 2019, with some fabric that mum gifted me from one of their traveling adventures. I think it is Japanese. I really liked it, but I wanted to make a dress that was different to some of my previous dresses. So I cut up bed sheets and made a draft dress, adjusted it, tried it again and then cut into the real dress fabric. 

The finished product wasn't terrible. I liked it, but it also wasn't 100% fantastic. I'd successfully sewn in a dress zip, which made me super glad, but the bodice came up too high, especially under the arms. I wore it at Christmas (pictured above, with the Aprons that I'd made around the same time with much greater success than the dress), and then maybe one other time. After that, it languished in my cupboard. 

To fix it, I would have to take apart the entire bodice, which is always no easy feat, and then, as I had no spare fabric left (used every scrap of it in the dress), I would need to find matching fabric or adjust the dress somehow to get more fabric so I could lengthen the straps. Even the mention of unpicking an entire bodice alone is enough to put me off, but having to solve the problem of more fabric for the straps seemed to just put it over the edge. 

As I finished work for 2020, and did some tidying up around the house, this dress was one that I decided I'd may as well try to fix, rather than let it sit unworn in the cupboard for another 12 months. Of course, I took it out of the cupboard and it sat on the sewing machine shelf for at least six weeks first. Then I unpicked it (which, of course didn't take anywhere near as long as I'd feared), and it at around unpicked for another four weeks before I bothered to look at it again. What can I say? Fixing things requires procrastination. 

At last, I chopped off the excess at the top of the bodice and took it in where it needed it. I then proceeded to chop the entire hem off, rehemmed the dress and used the excess fabric to make new straps. Probably only took two hours, including re-sewing in the zip. 

But alas, I have no dress form, and had to have the girls try to pin the straps for me into place. So when I finally got the finished dress on, those very straps slipped right off my shoulders. I did unpick and make them tighter in the hopes that it would be enough, but it hasn't seemed to help. Maybe they needed to be placed differently? More in at the back perhaps? 

At this point though, I'm thinking this dress isn't worth too much more of my time. I have given it a good go, but I don't know if I can really fix it. Seems a shame to waste a perfectly good dress, and all that lovely fabric, but what can I do? I guess what I'll probably do is let it sit in my cupboard for another twelve months and decide then.

Tick that off the List

One of the things I wanted to get done before school went back, was to finish all the unfinished things that have been sitting on top of my sewing shelf. Some things were easy; like the girls dresses which I haven't blogged about yet. Others I started and then found I didn't know where to go next, like the bags I unpicked. 

Something else I have had on the shelf for at least a year now, was some pillow cases that my sister had given me. Originally she had bought the material from Ikea thinking to make curtains for their downstairs area. This plan didn't happen, so I helped her sew them into large cushion covers instead. I don't know what happened to the cushions, but sometime a while ago, she gave me the fabric, thinking I could reuse it for something else. 

My initial plan was to sew them into reusable bags, and donate them to the Boomerang Bag movement. Alas, COVID stopped all the meetings and I was lacking the motivation to sew them myself last year. I ended up unpicking them in preparation for sewing in December, but then they sat again on the shelf until last week. 

I was at a neighbours house, and a friend asked if I could sew up a couple of chair bags for her kids for school. Since I knew I had the fabric, I said yes straight away. It was two birds with one stone. I got to use up the fabric and my friend got chair bags for her kids. Done. 

Suddenly it was all too easy to sew with this fabric. I took her existing chair bag for measurements, but a chair bag is pretty straight forward. I did a bit of over thinking things, trying to make sure I sewed the seams as strong as possible, given the bags would be holding heavy books, but in the end, I didn't give myself too long to think about it. 

The outcome was fantastic. Maybe this fabric was always meant to be chair bags? I do have a little left over, but that's ok living in my scraps for a while. The fabric is pretty cool, even just in black and white, but my friend let her kids (and mine) colour all over it with sharpies, so the end result was unique and colourful. 

Thanks chair bags, for helping me tick that off the list. 

All the Dresses

I don't make many dresses for my girls. More often than not, you'll find me making shorts or a skirt. Occasionally I try to throw a dress in, like last year, when I made them Easter Dresses. Or the year before, when Rachel got a Christmas Dress and they both got a twirly Pokemon Dress. Still, in comparison to the number of shorts that I sew, dresses are rare indeed. 

The reason, my friends, is this: My mum makes so many dresses, I simply can not justify making any more. The girls do like wearing dresses, Rachel in particular. I've been reminded of this thanks to the summer holidays, where I've seen Rachel in a dress every day for the last six weeks. She usually wears a dress to school, but the colour variety over the summer is beautiful. 

I was sorting through their wardrobe last week and counting the dresses - nearly ten home made dresses each hang in their cupboard. Such beautiful bright patterns and prints. And when my mum is not making the girls dresses, she is buying them lovely dresses too. So many dresses. 

So I just wanted to post a little post here on the internet to share these lovely creations. They will get worn again and again, from Sophie to Rachel, then on to other little girls who I hope enjoy them just as much. 

Here is Rachel, standing in front of her dresses, being excited. She likes the bee ones the best. She has four of them. 

And yes, my mum did make the girls Christmas dresses last year, so I didn't bother. She also makes Hugo these awesome shirts as well. But I have already made the girls each a dress this year, for Easter, which I will share sometime soon. 

What to do Now?

 In the cleaning up I've been doing over the last couple of months, I dug through the bag collection and set apart a stack to cull. In this stack was a Pikachu bag, which was falling apart at the seams, but still good fabric, and a small cross body bag which we love to use, but the material had holes all over it. 

Thinking I could work these two bags into one and reuse the fabric and zips to make one new bag, I took them apart kind of carefully. 

Unfortunately, after taking them apart, I realised that though the Pikachu bag was bigger than the cross body bag, because of the different style/shape, there wasn't really enough material to trace the cross body bag pieces directly to. The cross body bag, it turns out, had a lot more fabric in it, than deceptively small size would indicate. 

So now, I have two deconstructed bags, and I don't know what to do next. Put them on the "sew that someday" pile? Is it a problem for future Paula? Maybe. I got distracted doing some other sewing, but it's still bugging me in the back of my mind and I'm not sure how to address the problem. 

I feel like this year has started with lots of projects like this. Even blogging I find I'm distracted. I have a list of things to do from the past that I want to record, but that don't really fall into the upbeat category of "New Year!" But I'll keep pressing on, ticking things off my list and not caring if I fall into a stereotypical pattern. It's all forward motion right? 

Christmas Tree Cushions

Remember that Christmas Tree I finally decided was time to organise some proper way of getting to stand up at the end of last year? Well, here it is in case you don't know what I'm talking about and can't be bothered follow the link to find out:

I made the cushions to fill it before Christmas, but didn't have the time or the organisation (one of the two) to actually cover the bottom two cushions before the new year. However, since our return from Bundaberg, and the blissfully coolish days of early January, I've been able to sit down and get some sewing done. Time to tick things off the list that have been piling up for a while. 

These cushions were nearly the top of the list. 

And they look fantastic. Thank you Brisbane wide spontaneous three day lock down that helped kick me into gear just that little bit more. 

You've seen that fabric before, in Sophie's shorts, and Rachel's Bag. Nothing like using up what's already lying around.