Earrings for Aiden

Slowly slowly catching up on all the missed birthday and Christmas gifts I owe ( a little late for Christmas but better late than never right?). Morning sickness and general tiredness have finally eased up -thank goodness- and I seem to have got my crafting groove back  :)

Here's a pair of earrings I whipped for my friend Aiden (who loves pearls) :

Materials used: dyed freshwater pearls (from Lincraft), tigertail, metal crimps and sterling silver hooks.

Originally I wanted to have the pearls on silver tone wire head pins, however freshwater pearl beads quite often have very small drill holes (as was the case here), so had to use the tigertail and crimps instead.

Tigertail can give a more "modern" or "industrial" look, depending on how its used, but I think the overall look worked here :)

All up these were very quick and easy to make - maybe no more than 15 minutes in total.

Wrapped and ready to go! :

Last minute Chrissy present

I managed to make a little something to pop under the tree for hubby on Christmas eve :)

DH loves his footbal (AFL - Australian Rules) team and I had the right coloured felt on hand,

so I made a tree ornament for him:

Pinning....

Stitching....

Pulling threads to the back....

A messy inside shot before sewing the two halves together,

in a bit of a hurry so it's not as neat as I would have liked ...

Stuffed, finished and ready to wrap - hope he likes it!

Preggy pic!

Just a pic to show you all how I'm "growing" :)

Passed the 19 weeks mark on Boxing day, which is great as we had some difficulties with the pregnancy earlier on.

Fingers crossed the rest is smooth sailing ....

AN EARLY MERRY CHRISTMAS !

May you and your family have a safe and happy Christmas!
(May there be plenty of sewing goodies
 under the tree for you).

 Kate :)

GROSGRAIN is having a giveaway!

What fantastic timing! I have been thinking of making up some maternity wear and Grosgrain's lovely Milk and Honey dress pattern giveaway pops up on my blogroll :)
Check it out for a peek at the gorgeous dress and a chance to win a pattern !

Meet the Softies!

Finished my first ever softies, now to think of names for them...Sgt Plod and Nurse Lulu ? Sgt Pepper and Nurse Stiches? er maybe not...

These guys will probably end up winging their way back to Western Australia as part of a present for my friend Aiden and her little just-turned-one boy Lucas, hope he likes them!

The pattern itself was pretty straightforward to follow, however I feel my softies did end up looking a little different - namely narrower- and not as cute as Jodie's (from Ric-Rac) original. Whether this is due to my sewing or the pattern I'm not sure, Jodie makes and sells many wonderful softies though her etsy shop so if the pattern is slightly different from her original I think thats understandable- especially as it was free :)

 Next time I sew this pattern I would probably widen and contour the main body shape a little more to give them a more "plumper" appearance. When sewing these two I made the template for the face a little bigger - about 10cm in diameter- than Jodie's suggested 8cm:

Still its a great pattern and you do end up with very two softies as a result :)  Mine took a bit longer than 1 hour to make up and sew - maybe three or four- but I did do it in bit and pieces over several days, and am pretty new to softie sewing- I expect the next lot (for my babies) to whip up a lot quicker !

WARNING! SOFTIES UNDER CONSTRUCTION...

When looking for a cute free pattern for my first go at softies I came across these guys (by Jodie from Ric -Rac) on Softie Making- aren't they adorable? :)

Jodie is a very creative and talented craftster who makes the most fantastic elephant and robot softies (plus a variety of other drool-worthy items) that have me green with envy at her talent!

She has very kindly posted the pattern - and helpful tutorial - free here on her blog, for any would be recreational softie makers :) 

P.S. While you are visiting Ric-Rac check out the amazing Selvedge Frock  - its truly a work of art!

Pictures from Rathdowne Fabrics and Remnants

Yesterday I managed to go back to Rathdowne Fabrics and take some long overdue pictures, so I can show you all the wonderful fabrics they have! (I might have also managed to do a little shopping for myself ...)

First up is the absoulutely gorgeous vintage Swiss Guipure lace- I so badly want to buy some of this, even if it was only a little piece to embelish a nice summery top:

Next is a table full of beaded evening fabrics, unfortunately I don't have anywhere to go at the moment that require this :(

A couple of unusal Nylon lace fabrics- not sure exactly what you would use this for but they look very interesting. I wonder if they are vintage ?

A fabulous selection of wool/cashmere and wool blend coatings, great for chilly Melbourne weather :

Some devore style and patterned stretch velevets - I love the yellow leaf pattern!

Just some of  the terry towellings available, quite a few different textures and weightings. Also LOTS of colours YAY!!

Pre-quilted/padded fabrics in the upholstry section. I have my eye on that middle roll for a nursery play mat :)

Plain lycras suitable for swim and gym wear.

Plus a pretty darm good selection of printed swimsuiting, enough to inspire me to have a go at sewing my own bathers post pregnancy:

Lots of trims, love the pom-poms!

...and more trims. Beaded, feathered, sequined you name it its there! This was only maybe a third or so of what they have in the trims/ribbons section, there was also a few rows of drool worthy lingerie laces that I deliberately kept away from :)

Finally what did I end up buying? Well I was really good and just got a few essential items (more thread, wide elastic for pregnancy waistbands) plus this print fleece :

Yes it's Miffy!!!!! I'm stoked as Miffy was one of the favourite characters with the kids when I was doing library storytime, plus the fleece is a really nice quality :) Can't wait to start sewing this one up! 

You can read about my previous visit to Rathdowne Fabrics & Remnants here and my store review here on Sewing Pattern Review.

Yellow Kwik Sew 2978 Baby Romper

Finally putting up a picture of the romper I finished a week ago (so slack), and I have to say that I am falling in love with this pattern! I already knew how user-friendly Kwik Sew patterns are but really appreciated it even more when making up a new genre of clothing previously unknown to me - baby clothes!

This time I made up the long sleeved romper (view A) in a size XS:

The only error I had with making this was totally my own fault - I cut the shoulders out back to front (pregnancy brain!). This means I have ended up with a mirror image of how it should look (the buttons should be on the right shoulder) but I am sure that whichever baby ends up wearing this wont care!

Putting the press studs in was again a bit of a fiddly job, worth it in the end but enough effort was needed for me to decide that I am definately going to invest in a proper press stud "press" as soon as I can afford it!

I'm sure the neighbours must have though we were building the ark with all the banging going on from me hammering the studs in *oops* - maybe next time I'll let them know first...

If you are interested you can read my previous post for the cardigan / pants option here and my review on Sewing Pattern Review for this romper version of the pattern here  .

Cheap Gutermann thread !!!!!

Look what I found at Kmart Northlands today in the haberdashery section:

Gutermann thread on clearance! The 100 metres was reduced to $1.50 a spool and the 250 metres was $2.50 each. It looks like Kmart are deleting and/or cutting back on their sewing lines.
Normally I only buy Gutermann thread if : a) the budget stretches to it or its a *really* special project AND b) I can't find anything cheaper to match my fabric, but at this price I thought "what the heck" and really stocked up :) Just call it an early Christmas present to myself!
I'm not sure how long they will have the thread for (the case was half-filled so I would say its just remainders) but it may be worth taking a trip soonish if you are in need of good thread.

Surfing the [craft] web

One day, when I am more motivated and have heaps of money for supplies, I would love to make crafty items and sell them over the internet.
I hope, however, that I never NEVER make ANYTHING that could end up on here:

http://www.regretsy.com/

A website devoted to the weird, strange or just plain ugly items that  some people try to sell on Etsy (site is not affliated with Etsy in any way).

The amazing thing is some of the items featured have actually sold!

** Warning some of the crafted items are of an extremely hideous or "out there" nature so don't view if you are  easily offended or have kiddies around :)  Kate**