Finally some sewing!

We were planning on attending a birthday party for the daughter of a friend today but woke up to the little one coughing and vommiting at 2am this morning (throat infection not gastro) so decided we should skip the party and take him to the doctors instead. Poor little mite has spent most of the day on my bed with countless dvds and lemonade iceblocks.

However, I have this little dress finished and ready to gift so it will be going in the mail instead.

I used a pattern found here http://www.ikatbag.com/2010/01/dress-for-winter-iii-very-simple-jumper.html and made it reversible, and made it totally from the stash.

One side is blue pinwale cord, trimmed with cotton lace and white flower-shaped buttons that compliment the lace.

The other is a bright quilters cotton in blue with iredescent butterflies and flowers, picked out with gold foil. I decided not to put buttons on this side because I like the way the butterflies sit on the shoulders.

This really should have taken only 1-2 hours from start to finish, but i forgot to check the overlocking thread before I started (unpicking...), broke a needle (unpicking, rethreading), had several goes at the rounded shouldertabs (more unpicking - next time I'll draw on a stitching line) and several goes at the hem (more unpicking, pressing and pinning which I should have done first time round).
Gee I'm out of practice!

I also spent ages going through the fabric stash and choosing fabrics, then going through the ribbon stash to choose trime, then going through the button stash to choose buttons. It made for a pleasant evening but dragged out the construction time.

I was planning a layered yellow ribbon/purple ribbon/green rickrack trim on the patterned side but after I had it pinned to the dress I decided it looked more like gift wrap than clothing, and I'm glad I left it off.

Ah-hoy me hearties...!

Pirate day at day-care - we've been reading pirate stories and talking pirate-speak for the last week!

I thought it would be easy to buy a pirate hat but everywhere was sold out, so we designed our own from black cardboard, glue, tape, staples and gold braid. It took much longer than expected but turned out rather well.

The parrot was non-negotiable. The pirate in the book (I wish I had a pirate suit by Pamela Allen) had one, so we had to have one too.

Thankfully there was a parrot finger puppet in the toy box (from Ikea). Some pipecleaners for feet, some green feathers for wings and two big safety pins to attatch it to the shoulder and the pirate parrot was ready for action.

Every pirate needs some treasure. Our gold and silver coins were made from bottle tops flattened out with a hammer. They smell a bit beer-y but that's okay.

The pirate sword was cardboard covered on both sides with some sticky-backed foam found in the 'useful stuff' in Dad's shed. Apparently it is used for concrete slabs? It made a nice soft sword that shouldn't cause any damage.

One of his mates had a telescope. Of course Pirate Jack noticed, turned to me and said "Mum, where's my pirate-scope?".

Colour Swap

Well, I couldn't help myself and signed up for another swap!

This time it was a colour swap. Each person listed a favourite colour and then their secret partner put together a pack worth $30 including fabric, trims, threads etc.

Today was opening day and Jack was convinced the present was for him.

It didn't take him long to realise that it was intended for someone else...he got this far and said "Oh look Mum, its for you".

And here is my lovely pack. I listed blue combined with cream or green, and mentioned that I have a soft spot for paisley, and my clever but very secret partner didn't dissappoint.

There is a fantastic frog and paisley print with a matching border print, that co-ordinates perfectly with the brown, green and pink print beside it. I'm tossing up between using it for a bag or a quirky wrap skirt. There is also some blue sock monkey fabric that is already earmarked for Jack's I-spy quilt and a lovely spotty fat quarter. Some fantastic coconut-shell buttons, some thread and a set of three hand-made felt flowers made up the rest of the parcel.

Jack immediatley found a use for the thread, and then turned his attention to the flowers...

However, I quickly rescued them from his clutches and will be using them to embelish a bag or hat or maybe even a quilt.

Here is the only photo I took of the pack I made up for Emma. She asked for fabric for her boys, suggesting blues and greens and I took the opportuinity to grab some great rocket fabric that I've had my eye on for ages, added some co-ordinates and then wrapped the whole lot up in some very boy-ish flannelette.

She has some photos on her blog so drop over to http://emmafaye-emma.blogspot.com/ and have a look!

EB New year swap - part 2: revealing my creations

As soon as my partner (Vikki) posted her list of things she would like to receive, I knew exactly what I would make for her.

She asked for a 'Make it Perfect' Versatile Wrap Skirt, and I happened to have the pattern sitting in my 'to-do' pile crying out to be used. Picking some fabric proved a little harder. After a fruitless trip to Spotlight and several hours online I found some that sort-of met her tentative request for brown and aqua. The skirt was very easy to make and I really liked the end result. I've got more of this fabric, and also some with a cream background instead of the brown. I'm planing on making one for me as well.

Vikki also had a superhero cape for her son as another item on her list. The tutorial for a reversible cape she had linked was actually sitting in my list of bookmarks - another item on my to-do list. As the skirt had been so easy to make that I decided to make tughhe cape for her son and one for mine. Because I could fit three across the width of fabric I made a third at the same time and gifted that to someone else as a surprise.

These were all made entirely from my stash, and are identical except for the letter on the black side.

I used shot duchess (sort of like satin but with a rough texture) for the blue side. It shimmers from blue to silver in the light. The emblem is my own design and uses the reverse of the main fabric for the shield and some black crepe and green felt for the rest of the design.

The other side is silky black crepe with red satin for the diamond and some flame-print polar fleece for the initial.

Applique on slippery satin fabrics turned out to be a little challenging, so the diamonds are not as neat as I would have liked, and it took ages to do three at once, but I think the end product is pretty fantastic.

Jack refused to wear his so I hope the other ones went down better at the other end!

EB New year swap - part 1: look at this!!!

Wow - Jack and I were the lucky, lucky people who got a wonderful gift from Susan. She was a bit sneaky by not putting her name anywhere, even on the card, but I'm an efficient blog stalker so she hasn't tricked me!

I know everyone was drooling over the sneak peek she posted weeks ago and now I can show you how wonderful the whole thing is!

This was a 'mystery swap'. We had to provide a list of three things for our partner to chose from. This was a bit hard for me because there wasn't really anything I really, really wanted to have made for me. I just started writing a list and kept adding to it as I thought of things. I figured that my partner would be able to pick something she really liked making without too much pressure. In hindsight I probably made it much harder for her to choose something - there were about twenty things on the list in the end!

Firstly our wrapped parcels - one for Jack and one for me.

This is the lovely embroidery that was featured in Susan's sneak peek. She made it into a drawstring bag and it will make a perfect library bag. I've been thinking about making one for Jack for some time but now I don't have to! And how cute is the monkey!

Hiding away inside the bag was Mitch the monkey.

He is made from fleece fabric and Susan has done an amazing job. Check out his ears and his adorable face.

Mitch was very well recieved here - I'm not sure how Susan and her boys managed to let him go. I had quite few hugging photos but Jack had his eyes closed in all of them so I finally got one of Mitch 'driving' the bike. He is now outside helping Jack and Dad pick tomatoes, and hasn't left Jack's side since he was liberated from his wrapping.

And as a bonus there were a few goodies packaged up for me. Yes, that is Jack's little hand trying to pilfer the peanut butter rocky road while I was taking the photo. He was very good and put it straight in the fridge for 'later'.

Thankyou so much Susan. This has been a wonderful package to open!

Off to the post office I went...

.....and sent away this little bundle of goodies.

What could be hiding away inside?

This....

and this....

and maybe even this.....

Warning - one or more of the above photos could easily be red herrings designed to confuse my swap partner and throw her off track.

She will find out for sure when she opens it on Sunday.

I'll be back then to do the big reveal, and also show of what I receive in return.

New years swap - sneak peek

I've finished my item for the EB new years/valentines day swap.

Here is a little peek but full pics won't be revealed until after my partner has opened it on Feb 14th!