I know, it's been a long while...where does the time go?...

Here are a few happy snappies of what's been happening these last few months.....

We had a proper family photo taken! Yeay! The first one in 10 years! I even worked at matching our clothes. I think it turned out pretty well.

We have bought a family iPad which I have enjoyed taking photos with (as above) and I am currently writing this blog post with it! So please bare with me as I fumble my way through it. I'm not the world's most tech-savi person.

Bobby has grown two teeth!!! And a third is well on its way. So cute! And speaking of cute, my little boy has had his very first haircut! All those blond curls gone!! (sob), but what a handsome little boy!

In August we hatched some quail. Or, at least the incubator did! They have all grown up now and been sold. Did you know that quail reach maturity at 6 weeks of age? They were amazing to watch and I think we will definitely have to do it again.

And in closing, here is a random photo of my favorite flowers, poppies.

This has really just been an experimental blog post to try new things and see how it goes. So I'm going to upload now and cross my fingers that it works. Here's hoping!

 

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So so skinny jeans, more pants and textas.

They do say that "it's better late than never"......

These are Eden's birthday pants. Her birthday was in the beginning of July. I am rather pleased with how this pattern turned out. It is an Ottobre pattern quite rightly titled "so so skinny jeans". The instructions specify that the pattern is to fit a child whose waist and hip measurements are 4cm smaller for their height than those mentioned in the size chart. And BINGO! They fit! (with a belt - just to make sure). It is very difficult finding jeans for a skinny child. Adjustable waist pants when pulled in to the max stay up okay but aren't terribly comfortable with all those gathers. This was also only my second attempt at a true zipper front for pants and it turned out much better than my first attempt.





Check out the cute back pocket detail (although very tricky to see on that pattern fabric).

Eden likes them, so overall, a success.

Here are some more pant that I made last week. These took a whole lot less time and concentration, but how cute is the fabric?

That is all I have sewn lately, but I have a VERY long to do list, so hopefully more to come very soon.

On to what's been happening on a daily basis,...Ross has discovered a love of colouring in! He is passionate about it! Check out these masterpieces;

He likes the monochrome look, - choose a colour and stick to it! But seriously, I'm impressed with how he manages to stay somewhat within the lines, and with his concentration span! I kid not that he has often spent well over an hour colouring in. I now need to buy some more textas as these have very nearly run out of ink!

Dolman sleeves.

I managed to do a little sewing this week. Using this tutorial I tried to make a Dolman style top. I liked the fact that it was a FAST sew that only required a few seams and no fancy cutting out. Time for sewing these days is extremely rare, limited to an hour or two perhaps on weekends when I have my dear husband to take charge of the four young ones. My usual sewing time is late at night when all are asleep, but lately, dear Bobby has not been sleeping too well, waking up from about 11pm-2am so I have been feeling a bit sleep deprived and low on energy to sew late at night.

It wears okay, perhaps not my favourite style on me, but it is comfy. I used a wool / viscose knit from Spotlight which is ever so slinky - I only hope it washes well. (And, no, I didn't wash the fabric before I sewed it up so hears hoping it doesn't shrink.)

Here's some news!!!!.....
Bobby has his first tooth!!!

Maybe that's why he hasn't been sleeping??.....

A whole lot of stuff......

Okay. So here is where I try to condense what could legitamately be several blog posts into one. Remember I mentioned that I had bought myself not one but two 1950's electric Singer 99Ks? Well, here they are.....

I am so happy with these purchases! They didn't break the bank. The first one I bought off eBay for the bargain price of $43 dollars, and the second was a steal at $20 from Gumtree! I must admit, I wasn't expecting the second one to even work, however, after a clean and oil, and disassembling then reassembling the tension knob it runs beautifully! I love sewing on these old machines and they can really sew through some tuff stuff!

Exhibit A;
This is the first thing I have sewn on Singer number one. A Tai-Mai style baby sling. At times I had to sew through 8 layers of heavy duty fabric plus wadding and the old girl didn't let me down. (Something I would have never even attempted on my more modern machine). I have been taking Bobby for a walk in it daily and he absolutely LOVES it. So much so that I have to ask my two girls to assist me in getting him into it because he straight away starts dancing the minute I throw him onto my back! (Dancing for him is to rock violently from side to side.)

After the walk!

I am going to have to make another one of these as the design still needs some tweaking. The shoulder straps need to be a lot longer. I can only just tie them up after wrapping them around under his bum. Also I think the whole body part needs to be bigger as he really only just fits it and I would like the straps to come over his shoulders a bit more. Apart from these things, it's a really comfortable way to carry him!

These are the handbags I made for my girls (a while ago now). They were both very happy with them and use them all the time which makes for one happy Mama.


And here are some random school holiday pics -(yes we are on school holidays already! 3 weeks off).

Craft hour ;
Playing 'cubby houses' with big sister. When Ross says "cubby house" he says "buddy hut" - a very cute and appropriate word I think. We have all adopted this word now "let make the teddies a little buddy hut to play in"......


Spaghetti squash from the garden - was turned into a frittata with added tuna and corn. This veg is really quite remarkable!


And lastly, what to do when your garden gives you green tomatoes? Why, tomato curry!!


YUM!!!

belated post

Maybe my blog should be titled "Look what I did last month..." I just never seem to get around to blogging the stuff I plan to. So, without too much hoo-ha and explanation, here is another Tova tunic that I sewed - "this one time, on craft camp..." The fabric is one of the newer cotton Ikat arrivals at Spolight. Now that it has been through the wash a couple of times it is nice and soft to wear. And here is a cute ruffle-bum romper that my sister requested I sew for her daughter's first birthday outfit. I have made some more things including two handbags promised to my girls ages ago, and I have some exciting new vintage machine arrivals to show you but I need to photograph them first before I can blog them. So, I will leave you with these two cute photos of my boys taken last week at the park! Adorable!

Tumeric and Carrots and Fabric, Oh My!

It has been ages since I last posted and now I have a long list of things to blog about, but this one couldn't wait. My Friday started as normal but after my morning coffee I got thinking about what I could sew as a gift for my cousins new babies. I started to sort through my stretch fabrics, looking for some inspiration, but none was found. I did have some lovely soft bamboo cotton knit that would make a very cosy onesie, however, it was cream and rather boring looking. That is when I decided I was going to try and dye some fabric! (First time ever). After realizing that my boys were not going to appreciate a shopping trip to Spotlight to buy some fabric dye, I started googling natural dyes and discovered that Tumeric was a very good natural dye and it didn't even require a mordant to fix the colour to the fabric. So, I got out my pot of tumeric powder and made up a brew...

Then I added my fabric;

What a lovely orangey yellow colour!! I rinsed my fabric in cold water and hung it out to dry. Then I stepped back to admire my creation seconds before it fell off the line onto the ground. (Woops - forgot the pegs). I bent down to pick it up and rehang it only to discover it was now covered in bright pink dots! What the?.... Where did this pink come from? I took my spotty fabric back into the laundry and dumped it into a bucket of water to which I added a small amount of washing powder. WHOAH!!!! Now the entire piece of fabric was peachy pink colour! (Rather pretty, but certainly not the orangy yellow it was before.) I rinsed out the detergenty water and slowly the fabric returned to it's orange colour. That was weird. So I began my investigationing..... It turns out Tumeric is an indicator for pH! Who would have thought??? I returned to my tumeric brew and tipped in a dollop of white vinegar and another piece of fabric. This time in came out bright-bright yellow!

Well that was fun!....And interesting....I wonder?.......purple carrots??.......

In it goes!...This is so much fun!

Rinse, rinse, wash , wash OH MY!!!!! The lovely purple fabric has turned blue!!!!!!! Could purple carrots be a pH indicator as well? Surely not? Lets throw some vinegar into the water just for fun.......

PINK!!

I didn't want to wash this one because the pink was so pretty, but really, what use is fabric you can't wash? So after a wash in detergent it went blue like the other piece. (Still a very pretty colour). Interestingly though, the Tumeric fabric which turns pink on washing, returns to orange / yellow after rinsing. But the purple or pink carrot fabric which turns blue when washed doesn't return to pink or purple with rinsing. So, is it really a pH indicator? Well, I think I have time for one more experiment..... I'll dip the blue fabric into some vinegar and see what happens.....

Yep! It's an indicator alright. Groovy man, I could make a weirdo Hypercolour T-shirt! Remember those? Sweat is acidic, so you could get some pink patches under the armpits! Eew, that's gross. Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll use this fabric for the baby presents. (Although it could be pretty funny when the baby chucks and her onsie turns pink from the acid in the spew!) He he...

I made it! (Just)

I did it! I have entered a top in Rae's Spring Top Sew Along Flicker pool!! Yeay!!! I was up till late again last night but I was determined to achieve this little goal. It was not an ambitious goal and I did have a whole four weeks to complete the task, but in usual me style, I left it to the last minute and entered a few hours before the deadline! (I seriously would get nothing done if it weren't for deadlines - "Deadlines I love you!"

I decided to make the Wiksten Tova Tunic! I realize that this is probably THE most made pattern out there in blogland right now and I am being incredibly unoriginal in picking this particular top to make, however, I LOVE IT!!! It fits me! I think this is the first ever top I have sewn for myself that actually fits! I don't need to alter the sizing at all (probably due to the fact that it really has no shaping to it - no bust darts, no waist - just like me ;-) And it is really very comfortable. I made this one with some Japanese Lawn from Spotlight. I think next time I will use a slightly heavier and warmer fabric so I can wear it during the cooler weather. If you haven't yet made yourself a Tova, don't be put off by the fact that every woman and her dog in Blogworld is wearing one, just do it! You wont regret it I promise!

Two more tunics??!!!

I can't believe that I have managed to sew a total of five tunic tops in one week!!! I think this is a new record for me. Here are the last two tunics; One for my niece in Brisbane who is turning 4 this week, and the other for my cousins boy who is 6 years old. I made the blue one out of an old bed sheet that felt so soft that I thought it would be perfect. I used the 'simple linen shirt' pattern from "Sewing For Boys". It's a great basic pattern (although I struggled to get the collar to sit right for some reason) which I think I'll try again one day. It's been fun sewing all these kiddy tunics but next on the list is definitely some tops for moi! Although before I get to those, I REALLY have to clean up my sewing space! There is fabric and patterns and notions ALL over the place!

3 nights - 3 tunics!

I haven't posted a blog for a while, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been busy sewing! Check these out.... These are for my cousins three gorgoeus girls who are visiting Adelaide from the sunny Gold Coast this week. I have always felt bad that I never sent the twins birth gifts, so Easter gifts it is! The pattern is the 'Sophie Tunic' by Sis Boom. It's a very easy pattern hence why I was able to make three of these in three nights! One a night - with no TV watching - makes a nice change to the norm. She also has a 6 year old boy that I'd like to make something for too,...any suggestions? I'm thinking I'd like to try a shirt,..hmm will have to check my fabric stash. I haven't started any sewing for me yet, but have great plans that involve the very bloggy-fashionable Tova Tunic by Wiksten - Now a $10 PDF downloadable pattern! And the Make it Perfect "Shearwater Kaftan". I also have to make another niece present before the weekend and I'm thinking that seeing as I'm in the groove, I might whip up another of these tunics! SO, without further a do, I'm off to the sewing machine! Good night! - although it may be morning before I get to bed! (Sleep is over-rated anyway). Oh, before I go, I'll leave you with this cute photo of Bobby enjoying the toy we borrowed from Aunty Kirsty. (Thanks Kirsty).

Ross turns 2!!

Last Monday we celebrated our beautiful boy's second birthday. I can't believe how quickly the past two years have flown past! And I am so happy that we chose to have a third child - our family was not complete without him! (Or his baby brother). Ross brings so much humour to our family. He is always making the girls laugh at the dinner table and he just loves the attention they lavish upon him. He has a smile that can change a "No, not now" - to a - "oh, alright. Now give me a kiss you gorgeous boy!!" And the girls also find it hard to resist his constant requests for "Liwee, Deedee, Doodoo?" Which translates to "Lily, Eden, would you like to jump on the trampoline with me?" We love you Ross! This is his birthday outfit made especially for the day! And finished on the day might I add (in the wee hours of the morning). We went with a cow theme. Ross is cow crazy at the moment. The only way I can get him to eat his dinner is to draw pictures of cows while he chews! He was just dying to sink his teeth into one of those cows!!!! (thanks Kirsty for your beautiful photos!)