Inspired Saturday. Frustrated Sunday.

Long before this weekend was on the calendar it was destined to be a pyjama day. Amelia LOVES these days. We usually sew and have a yummy lunch, do some more sewing, watch a movie maybe or read a story together. But most importatnly we sew. At our old house, this was usually always a Sunday and always when Stef was between night shifts, such as today was.

Stef has had some major changes happen at work and as a result he is no longer working night shifts. This is devastating really and as much as I bitch and moan about them, night shifts are what makes our world go around, in a big way! I love them and I hate them, but that is a blog post on its own and not here. I have previously moaned here...

So, in preparation for what I wanted to achieve today I spent 2 hours yesterday ironing fabric that had been purchased and washed during the week. One of my suppliers is almost permanently out of stock of one product in pink and I am fed up with loosing sales. Not a fan of disposable products I decided I could make a fabric reusable version and with  my colour consultant in tow,  we hit Spotlight after pick up one day last week.

What started as just making a pink version has ended up with 4 colourways... pink with polka dots and stripes, Purple with stars and polka dots, and black and white and red and white with spots and stripes. I think it is quite interesting Amelia didn't choose the same size dot and stripes for each colourway...

These will be table runners for parties, for present tables or buffets or what ever. I am not sure what the end size will be but I am looking forward to (eventually) making them.

I left these ironed and went off to a baby shower yesterday excited that a day of playing with fabric, designing these runners and using my rotarty cutter lay ahead of me today. That was until I started with the overlocker...

So many little overlocking jobs to do. Edge the Sari I have been loaned for the Bollywood ball this Friday night, put some bibs together for a friend at school for her disabled son, and edge the fabrics for the runners and play with some fancy thread for one of the colourways. Having recently done an overlocking course I was confident this machine wasn't going to get the better of me so set about making a dent in the pile of fabric!

I managed somehow to edge the Sari with little and limited problems which is a blessing as the owner of this Sari hasn't worn this at all yet! I was very nervous about edging it and I am very very nervous about wearing it and spilling a curry down it!

I set about cutting the runner fabrics with the offcuts and selvege edges being snaffled by madam who was armed with a long cardboard tube and a roll of sticky tape. She made quite the 'puppet' and entertained me through my frustrations with a puppet show involving 'the rain cloud'.

Sitting at the overlocker, first strip of fabric in hand I set off... 3 hours later, I had rethreaded the machine 30 or so times, been on You Tube, read the instruction manual AGAIN, rethreaded the machine AGAIN, I got the machine to work but one of the looper threads kept coming unthreaded from the looper arm. We decided to break for lunch and attack it again after a breath of fresh air.

Then I discovered another hole at the other end of the looper arm, thinking 'Eureka!' I thought I had cracked it. And I had, cracked the unthreading part but not the stitch. I couldn't get the loops right. I played with the stitch length, the diferential feed, the cutting width, everything I could think of. Then I gave up and got the sewing machine out!

Amelia chose a pattern by Little Red Jug Designs at a craft fair in February (I think!!) we went to. She cracked me up when she saw the pattern because she gushed like the best of them and declared she had to have it and had seen the perfect fabric a few stands ago. This kid amazes me with her colour carrying in her head, and the attention and retention of detail. So Gracie Mermaid Doll was added to the bag and off we went to the previous stand, passed the $3.50/$4 and $5 fat quarters, straight to the $6 fat quarters! She has style this kid! We chose a bright blue/turquoise for her tail and a flesh for her body. Paid for that then off we dashed back to the main hall for 'the PERFECT' hair (and she is right, it's pretty perfect) and to a ribbon man to spend the last of my $50 on a ribbon scrap bag.

Today Gracie doll was made a reality. Last weekend I cut her out and stitched her face and today she was Vlisoflixed, stitched, stuffed and came to life!

At least I achieved something today and Amelia went to bed (quite late) but very happy! Happy kid = happy mummy.

Now to tackle conquor the overlocker. Might have to have a trip back to Chatswood on Tuesday! But we do need some more Nespresso pods so it won't be a totally pointless journey...

A productive Afternoon - sort of

So I finally managed to move the boxes and the spare queen mattress we are waiting to be collected that's in front of the sewing cupboard to get the machine and other bits out. Several trips back and forth to the dining table and deep hunting in the cupboard I have been unable to locate the box with my cotton reels and bobbins in it. I have 3 of 4 small boxes for sewing but that all important 4th one, no idea! I can't remember seeing it since we moved in... Another reason to clear the crap out of the office and get it on eBay! I had enough colours to choose from, not perfect matches but good enough so I powered ahead!

Laying one of Amelia's long sleeved tee's on the fabric I well and truly winged this. Not quite as flowy as I wanted it to be but on a smaller child it might be okay. The idea is a top for the Godesses in the school play. I spied the fabric in Lincraft and it is the colour they want and has a bit of sparkle in it but at $12.95 a metre it might be out of budget as I think I would need 9 metres to make the tops for the 12 girls... I could ask if Lincraft would cut us a deal but I will see what the other wardrobe ladies think of the fabric first.

Next on the list was Lucy's dress for her birthday... Should have been in Paris last week, I started it sometime last year, then we put the house on the market and that was the end of that. All I had to do was the zip, the sleeves, hem the sleeves and a bit of decoration on the front. An hour tops! It's from Simplicity's 3588 and I have done dress D in a size 8. Lucy is 9 weeks older than Amelia so I am expecting it to fit her next year. I made one for Amelia last year but it is in the lost suitcase...

 My reluctant model...

 'Okay, Amelia I have a photo of you looking silly, now can I have a nice one?'

 Getting the hang of it...

'The pattern says it has a swirly skirt, can you see if it does?' 'Yep mum it sure does! Can you make me one of these dresses please!'

All I have to do now is sew the zip top in on one side, the button decoration on the front (no idea where the buttons ended up so I might make a trip to Spotlight or Lincraft for some more) and pop it in the post!

In my op shop finds the other week was a nice long sleeved dark blue striped shirt for Stef, the shirt fits him nicely but the sleeves were too tight around the forearm so we decided to make it into a short sleeved shirt. The truth about my dear husbands wardrobe is that his mum made 99% of his shirts, a long time ago! He has a lot of shirts but a few are beginning to show signs of wear now around the neck and looking a bit grotty under the arms and need to be retired. Not wanting to make him shirts and he has a reluctance for spending money on himself, so I don't mind modifying $3 label shirts from Anglicare! So, weilding the rotary cutter and a carefully placed pin I removed the sleeves! You should have seen Amelia's eyes... the size of saucers! 'Mum, what have you done to Daddy's shirt?!!' I explained that he knew I was doing it and the sleeves didn't fit and that made it all okay, in her eyes. Sewed the seam and another little job done!

And what with the off cuts, well Derence (the Dalmation puppy Amelia has had at her side for the past 4 years) now has a night dress, I sewed an off cut into a frill around the cut sleeve and presto, a night dress. I love the simplistic imagination of a child.

Then I started on an apron for my very good, but don't see enough of, friend Miss K. I gave Miss K a teatowel for Xmas that was yellow and had a lemon hand printed on it with a great saying on it, she cried she was so touched with it! When in a queue in Spotlight many weeks ago buying some material to make some curtains for my laundry (the sun through that window of a morning makes walking down the kitchen of a morning impossible!) I spotted some fabric with lemons on it and decided to make her a real Stepford wife frilly half apron as a bit of a joke because Miss K is as far from a Stepford wife as you could possibly be! She will see the humour. I bought a metre of fabric (for $4 I think) and cut 3x 10cm wide lengths for the frill, 2x 10cm lengths for the ties and then the apron panel. I am fully winging this design, it's in my head and if it doesn't work out, no big deal! The machine is on the end of the table and it will stay there. I will be rewarding myself doing some of my BAS this week with some sewing treats.

Next on the list is the curtains, my polar fleece jacket that I cut out 5 years ago!!!! then some dresses for Amelia for summer and some quilt throws for out the back for spring evenings, the boys Christmas quilts aaaannnddd.... a busy few months ahead but I am determined to get some of these projects ticked off.

But before I can do anything more, I need to find that last box! You can't sew without cottons and if all else fails I will be replacing them and 10 or so bobbins!

And there's more!

 We have one for one of the school mums who wears a lot of black, nice and colourful!

 One for Grandma...

 And one for one of the ladies at Mathers in Castle Towers...

And one for the other lady in Mathers at Castle Towers!

Seriously, these are SO easy to make... a good evening project in front of the telly...

On a (knitting) Roll!

Well and truly... I am not a knitter, knitting bores me, it takes too long and you have to pay too much attention to it, you use the one colour for ages and whatever you are knitting seems to take forever to grow. My mother has tried, I even think my Grandmother has tried to convince me to keep it up. I love knitted things, I wish I could stick it out but I can't...

That was until I discovered a wonderful wool display at Lincraft with a video demo playing of how to use the product... The product - Elicia Wool. $9.95 a ball. You can pretty much only make a scarf. Scarves are easy, and boy this is quick! No chance of getting bored with this little project. 6 stitches (they say 5 but I have done 6), stocking stitch, 4 hours, done!

This was the first 2 balls of wool that came home, one for Amelia and one for me. 2 pairs of needles? Yep, Amelia thought she'd be able to cope with this sort of knitting...

So I 'cast on' and set about knitting... this was about 10 minutes in...

This is what the 'wool' looks like...

 And this is about 20 minutes in, it kept my attention because it grew so quickly...

This one is mine, it was the second one I did  A khaki colour, really pretty. This is a 5 stitch one and really long. Had loads of compliments about it!

Then there was one for Jess our much loved babysitter who loved it!

 One for my very good KNITTER friend Lisa C!! I almost felt embarrassed giving this to her as her knitting skills are sensational and she has whipped up a few beautiful gifts for me, she buys super expensive lush wool (this is acrylic) and tackles complicated patterns... but she loved it! I think... :-)

 One for Aunty Coral. A pale lavendar and white.

This is all Amelia's doing, we went back to Lincraft at Belrose and she went straight for the display while I was looking at books and picked out more balls of wool, as she put them into my basket she said 'this one is for Lisa, this one for Jess and this is for Aunty Coral. I'd prefer a pink for Aunty Coral but there isn't one bright enough for her' Who is this person??!

Then on Monday, filling in a few hours while Stef slept we popped into another Lincraft at Dee Why and wow, what a great selection they had! Another 5 balls later....

This is also for Aunty Coral, more of her pink apparently.

5 stitches takes me about 7 hours to knit, 6 stitches I can bang them out in 4. (Corals had 6, then 7 and 8 for a period of a few rows, then back to 7... Too funny but if I hadn't told you you wouldn't have known) I am going to try using a portion of this wool as part of the godesses costumes for the Tempest Shakespear play at school, Might have some convincing to do but I think it will work.

I have 3 more to do, one for one of the school mums - in red, one for Grandma - in a deep caramel/brown, and I have a black ball who's destination is unknown...

I hope to get the machine out soon, really soon, I am having serious withdrawals!

Frustrations, Op Shop Score and huge job ahead!

I have had a week of frustrations, an unwell child (and not feeling too crash hot myself) saw her spend more time at home than at school which is a shame but was also necessary to try and help her get better and not spread the germs. Not sure if we had 'the bug that has gone around' or if that is instore for us this week (I seriously hope NOT!) or quite what we have had. After a very upset tummy on Monday we were left with a bit of a croupy sounding cough so we tottled off to the GP's mid week. Amelia had a pink throat on Wednesday when we went to see the GP and on Friday our GP was blown away with the colour! Guess it must be bad. And cough... I. Am. Fed. Up. With. Hearing. Her. Cough. All that aside I really do feel sorry for her. I must be taking it out of her, she has lost about 2kg this week... Amelia doesn't complain, not about being sick anyway. She tends to battle on and it is her eating cues that trigger alerts that something might not be right. When she was little she used to drink gallons of milk when she had a sore throat. Now she rarely touches milk. Cereal or hot chocolate is about her limit. This week when she was allowed to eat it was a sandwich not toast that was the request, apples cut up not eaten whole, ice-blocks not ice-cream. And water, gallons of water, about a litre a day. A lot for a little body. Definately a sore throat.

Anyway, frustrating week... I had set myself up that Tuesday when Stef was at work and she was at school and my orders were packed I was going to finish Lucy's dress and get it in the post for her birthday. Once that was done I could have my head clear and ready for costume sewing... Nope, no sewing happen here!

As if I didn't have enough on my plate... My sister in law and I went Op Shopping (Thrift shopping) on Saturday morning. First stop the Anglicare Depot at Summer Hill in Sydney. Kate is a regular there, and the best time to go is Saturday first thing. You get the cream of the unsorted crop. Bins of shoes (on the hunt for a new pair of $3 Birkenstocks) for $4, bins of clothing and other things for $8 per kg. I have a friend who will catch a VERY early bus up from Canberra with an empty suitcase and go back squealing with delighted squeals of the treasures she has found!

We spent about an hour going through shoes, found one Birkenstock that fitted Kate, a pair of silly summer sandals ($4) for Amelia for next summer and a pair of boots for Stef ($4) (that were too small unfortunately). Then I found a stack of clean canvases ($10) in varying sizes, always good to have in the art stash for a rainy day. We ventured into the shop and white ticketed items were half price, sadly all the warm jackets were other coloured tickets but I did find one shirt for Stef ($6), we will be making it a short sleeved summer shirt as the sleeves are a little too short and a little tight but the shirt looks great otherwise. I also found a larger kid sized Snow White dress up for $12! Score!

On our way out of the shop we half heartedly picked through the clothing bins not really with any great intentions and then it caught my eye. A half sized wing backed chair in a blue gingham and in really good nick.

I got really excited and took a photo and sms'd it to Stef. With no immediate response I rang the home number, went to voice mail. Impatient I rang the mobile. He was in the shower! Conversation which followed... 'Look at this. Oh hang on you can't coz I am on your mobile. Right I will ring the home number'. At $60 we (Kate and I thought it a bargain). Conversation had, involved reference to covering with some of the Michael Miller fabric I was very kindly given and surprsingly Stef said yes!

Next problem, it wasn't going to fit in my little Tiida! Luckily Stef's brother was home from his run/bike ride and came to the rescue picking it up in his Citroen. Too easy! Now I have to channel my inner Tara Dennis and recover the chair. In hindsight the MM fabric might not be the ideal choice but rather than remove the current home decorating fabric I might somehow make a slip cover and some cushions for it. Now to find a wee foot stool for it!

I think she likes it! She has curled up in it with a book. Finished doing a new sticker book in minutes. Watched a bit of telly. Had all her 'friends' (of the stuffed variety) in it with her. Blankets and cushions, they have all been in it with her! It's a keeper.

Yikes - what have I done?

A few days ago Amelia's teacher asked me if I would like to be the costume co-ordinator for the infant school Shakespeare production... the Lower First classes are doing The Tempest. I have no idea what is involved or what I have got myself in to but I said yes! If all I manage to do is getting my sew-jo back I will be happy, great costumes will be a bonus or should that be the other way around?!!

Projects for 2011

I need to commit to doing something about my UFO's and putting them in here might be what I need to nag myself into finding time to do some sewing...

Project and when it would be 'due by' if it is a gift...


Cushions for the new house - ideally I would like a new couch for these to go on...
Dress for Lucy - needs to be in Paris by the 5 July
Quilt for Nathan - for his birthday needs to be done by July 1, Xmas gives me a bit more time
Quilt for Jarod - I'm thinking Xmas...
Blossom Creek - BOM 2,3,4 and the log cabining for blocks 1-4 and then the rest of it
Library bag for Amelia
Summer skirts for Amelia
Summer dresses for Amelia
Christmas placemats (that won't fall apart when you wash them) as gifts
Teachers Xmas gifts
Class mates Xmas gifts
Close friends hand made Xmassy something
Mermaid Doll Amelia bought at the quilt fair
Applique Xmas table piece - for Julie V in Paris

Wow, that is just off the top of my head without looking in the books I have got or the cupboard too closely...