Remember this skirt?
Well, finally, here’s a look at Gracie modelling the first result of my refashioning efforts:
I’m not super-dooper-ooper excited about the sleeves, they were a getting-close-to-midnight effort, and better in concept than execution. I’m going to rework this idea on the next try.
Molly wanted to get in on the action too – she’s showing off a pair of PJ pants I made to match the ones seen on Niamh seen in this post. I thought she (Niamh, not Molly) would be over the moon to wake up and discover them this morning, but she woke up distracted and full of stories about watching The Dark Crystal in her dreams. Go figure!
August 19 2010 | Sewing | 2 Comments »
He’s a Blogging Superstar…
…and pretty good kid (mostly!)
Thank you for all the wonderful comments on Finn’s post. He was over the moon to receive each one. Every time my phone bleeped with incoming email, I had to check to see if it was for him 
He also ‘Show and Tell’ed the blog at school – an, um, interesting side effect of letting him guest post, which I probably should have foretold. Not sure how I feel about being ‘outed’ to school! I don’t think I’m in the habit of using naughty words though, so the Year 2′s should be relatively safe.
Being involved with the blog certainly made Finn a more enthusiastic model today! He’s showing off a top I made from New Look #6932 (the same pattern the PJ pants came from). The fabric is awesome too, no? I found it at Spotlight amidst all the boring stuff, and it brightened my day no end 
Heh. I just noticed he’s wearing this backwards – there’s a seam in the center of the ribbing because it’s the back! It looks otherwise the same – I guess I should think about creating/acquiring myself some labels so the kids can differentiate front from back.
August 16 2010 | Sewing and The Kids | No Comments »
My first ever *guest post*! From a boy of very few words. (Except of course when he’s talking about HTML. Or CSS. Or Java. Or pretty much anything computer related ) Enjoy!
Hi, this is Finn. On the weekend Mum taught me how to knit. I learned garter stitch. I made a blanket for my sister’s baby doll. While I was making it Rohan pulled the needles out. Mum put them back in.
Do you like it?
August 09 2010 | Family and The Kids and Yarncraft | 15 Comments »
It’s been a funny old week. I’m feeling a bit off-kilter. I’m not 100% certain what a kilter is, nor do I know whether I’d like to be on one, but for the moment, I’m definitely off.
I did fully intend to write up a review of my lovely Sling bag made at Sewjourn, for Nikki’s Review Round-Up Competition. Somehow that deadline slid out the window while I was distracted by kilters, but get yourself over there and vote for a winner anyway, won’t you?
In lieu of that, and of anything else of substance for the blog this week – please accept an offering from last week:
Anticipation:
Installation:
Sandpit is Go!:
My Dad built, and then he and Dermot installed, this long-anticipated addition to the backyard.
The weather even came to the party with a couple of brilliant days earlier this week (I love this Winter-with-a-promise-of-Spring time of year so much). So the kids got to hang out and build sandcastles as much as they liked.
Well. Two of them liked. Mr Fifteen-and-a-half-months-and-I can-climb-out-of-my-cot-now seems to have some kind of bizarre sand-phobia! We’re working on it.
July 30 2010 | Family and From The Garden and The Kids | 3 Comments »
A lovely mum at Niamh’s pre-school the other day offered me some of her son’s old shoes for Rohan. She was careful to add in the disclaimer – “that is, if you don’t mind hand-me-down stuff. I know some people do…”. I had to smile – that day in particular, Niamh was wearing op-shopped pants, and Rohan was in an op-shopped top and pants I made from an old pair of my own. I most certainly do not have a problem with hand-me-down. I can’t quite believe anyone would turn down a well-kept pair of (originally quite expensive) kid’s shoes. Would they?!
Anyway. In my creative space at the moment, I’m contemplating the future of some more Op Shop* finds. A bit of refashioning is in order for a few skirts I picked up a while back. The first has already undergone the chop:
It started out looking like this:
Meh. Not really my cup of tea. But perfect for cutting up and making more doll clothes!
The other two are much kinder to the eyeballs. The brown one is a few sizes too big for Niamh – I’m not sure whether I’ll try making this one into a top or just stick with something simple and do a downsized skirt.
The pink one is going to become a light summer dress – it has shirring at the top, so I’m planning to cut it down to size and use the excess fabric for straps.
Actually, I’m not sure how any of this will happen today. Thursday is crazy with ballet-piano-swimming attendance, and later tonight I’ll be popping in to Cathy’s exhibition But possibly I’ll carve out a little bit of time in there somewhere.
See what other creative folks are up to today, over at Kirsty’s place.
*Op Shop = Thrift Store
July 22 2010 | Memes and Sewing | 8 Comments »
Could it be the little trip away that has restored my crafting mojo? Or could it be the recent acquisition of a reliable overlocker? Either way, I have been studiously ignoring the housework for the past several days, in order to craft more. Oh, and bake macarons. As you do.
Nothing especially groundbreaking. The kids were in need of some more winter PJs – darn small people and their incessant growing! I had intended to just make pants and pick up some cheap plain colour Tshirts to go with them, but while I was flicking through some old issues of Ottobre I came across a Tshirt pattern, recalled some many meters of a green cotton knit fabric* hiding in the bottom of my stash, and thought, well, why the heck not. I do now have a suitable-for-polite-company-overlocker, after all!
The result:
This is the Slim Fit Tshirt from Ottobre 3/2007. And he doesn’t like it! Well, he does, but I agree he could go up a size or two (the fit is… well, slim!) So I agreed to make another (not done yet), and instead earmarked this one as a coming-up-soon-birthday gift, and decided to give it a little extra character:
The deer(?) critter is also from Ottobre – the 4/2007 issue has a bunch of cute characters adorning the pages, so I just blew one up about 300% on the copier and stencilled it on using the freezer paper technique*. Perfect!
I got a bit cocky with the next T. Consequently? Not as good. But still good enough for a jarmie top:
(Yes, I know I said winter PJs, but my kids go light or nothing on top for bed all year round.)
The pants I made are from New Look pattern 6932. I didn’t end up finding a nice simple pants pattern for all three kids in any of my Ottobre back issues, so I picked this one up. I think it was a good value buy – including pattern sizes from 6 months – 8 years, and several pant/top options.
Here are the first of Rohan’s pants finished:
I have another two pair cut out for him, and another pair for Niamh, and some more Tshirts waiting as well.
Oh, and while I am slowing down your internetz with my pic heavy post, here’s a couple more. These pants were not made recently (actually they were the pants I was making when Niamh tried to knock her front teeth out), but Ro finally fits into them:
The denim in these is from a discarded pair of my jeans, and the robot print, which I love, and will salvage once he outgrows the pants, is from GJs. (Who are on the brink of another 25%-off sale. Oh dear.)
So. That’s what I’ve been up to. Now has anybody seen my house, it seems to have disappeared under a mountain of laundry. 
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*The green fabric is leftover from when I made myself a Moby Wrap style baby carrier, back when Niamh was a smidge of a thing. I don’t think I ever blogged it. When I went looking for a photo, the best I could come up with was this one. (That’s Rohan in the wrap there, not Niamh). I miss slinging my babes around!
**I first learned about freezer paper stencilling on Craftster many a year ago, but the original post seems to be missing half its images. Amy Karol has a simple little tute on it here. I’m impatient and never let mine dry overnight though, I always blast it with the hairdryer!
July 21 2010 | Sewing | 2 Comments »
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