Carefree Clothes for Girls

After I posted about this book, I had some questions so I thought I'd answer them here...

• The book has sizes 4 5 6 and 7 although I imagine it would not be too hard to make them bigger.
• It has a limited range of garments, but they are the sort of thing that you could easily alter to the fabric that you want to have.
• The book comes with all the patterns necessary to make the clothes and it would be simple to trace them off (they don't include the seam allowances!!)
• The book has patterns for some very cute dresses, a jacket, some hats, some pinafore type dresses, a scarf and some pants. All of the would be easy to make for either summer or winter.

I can't wait for Annie-Rose to get big enough for me to start making her clothes from it. Actually I should see if I can scale down some of the clothes to fit her!!

Handmade Christmas...

It's that time of the year again when the sewing table groans with projects and is basically held up by the amount of stuff under it, all waiting to be sewn into this and that for Christmas. I'm trying to get some sewing done every day, no matter how little and no matter how tired I am!

Yesterday I attacked the pile of mending and James is happily wearing his shortened jeans to school today. Annie-Rose has a new dress to wear today and three quilt tops got put together. Not fancy ones, just simple ones that I hope to sell. I also sewed a batch of bunting triangles, all ready to put together today.

I made this yesterday. I had such a little scrap of this fabric, I can't believe it made such a good line of bunting. I've put white on the back and left the edges raw, usually I turn them, but I think this will fray beautifully. Today after work, I want to sew all the rest of the buntings, I think there is about three. I have to make lots of cookies too, because we are going camping on the weekend. That will be enough for today I think.

My Seed Quilt...

The other day I laid out my Mustard Seed quilt. I had the idea when I was at women's camp in August. I cut triangles to represent mountains and used polka dot fabric to represent seeds. I like it. When I finally finish it, it will remind me of the bible verse:

Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.” Matthew 17:20

We've had a lot of this here lately....

I hate earthworks! still I would have hated it more if our pipes had disentegrated before we got to them! Hopefully the new drive will be poured this week, but I have the feeling the contractor was letting me down gently that he's not coming back to next week :)

I love buttons!

I got these on Sunday at the Stash Rehash. It was very busy my word. I got a few treasures, including a shoe box of bias binding - hurray. But I could not resist the buttons.

Tutorial for a simple dress for a teddy or doll

Today at Whitcoulls I was buying some Christmas presents and if you spend $20 you can buy a sweet bear for $7.50. I usually try and buy each of the kiddies a soft toy (something to love) each Christmas so I got four. I thought I would make a wee dress for the girl ones and while I was at it, I thought I would take pictures and share the process. You can learn from my mistakes (more about them later!). I used a fat quarter and made two dresses which makes for a very economical present, especially if you get a toy from the $$ shop. Ok lets get started.

1. Cut the fat quarter into four. (I pressed the fat quarter and cut down the lines)
2. Use a plate to mark a curve on one side. About 2-3 cm down (one inch) not as much as this picture, you'll see why later!
3. Cut along the line.

4.  Press the fabric in half length wise and cut through both layers of the fabric to make the armpit exactly the same.

5. Using the cut piece as a template, cut the other armpits on the rest of the squares.

6. fold under and press the top.

7. Fold and press again.
8. I unfolded the top and sewed the side seams.
9. Zigzag the arm pits then fold under and sew down.
10. Refold the top and sew down.
11. Thread ribbon through and dress your teddy.

12. I made the armpit way to big on the first dress - fail! so I had to cut off the top and resew. My dress ended up shorter!!

Don't they look lovely. Annie-Rose spotted them and was VERY EXCITED, luckily she's so little and will forget by Christmas. I think I will make wee sleeping bags for the boy teddys. Do you want a tutorial for that?

How to make the easiest baby sling ever....

1. Take 1.8 metres of soft rayon fabric in a pretty colour.
   
2. Fold in half and make a french seam down the shorter sides.
3. Sew a piece of bias binding closed and tie tightly around the fabric.
   
4. Put over you shoulder, pop the baby in and enjoy a happy baby so close to her mummy!

[Edit: A yard and a metre are much the same, so just under 2 yards would be fine. I actually used the spare bit of fabric and made a scarf for my sister like this. The fabric was 150cm which is about 60 inches wide. Total cost for one baby sling and one scarf? $5 Making it yourself? Priceless!!]