A few more things I've made lately

I had a little of the lime and pink polka fabric left over from the swap dress, so I made a shirred dress for Maia out of it. I added a pink polka ruffle at the bottom. I'll try and get a better photo soon, Maia was actually trying to hide so she could find a spot to wee on the floor while I was trying to get a pic LOL! Also note the thomas the tank engine tee underneath. That is actually Patrick's pyjama top, that she didn't take off for the whole three days he was away cos she missed him too much awwwwww.

And these are the second pair of shorties that I made. A huge improvement on the white and blue ones, a much better fit and much neater knitting. They've been sitting around unused for about 8 weeks though, as they just needed an i-cord, so I finally got organised and did it.

Exciting New Fabric Delivery!

Vanessa and I had a VERY late night when I was at fingal, choosing a whole heap of fabric from www.lil-cherubs.com. So much to choose from, it was very hard to narrow it down. We ended up with 26 yards between us! Shipping was nice and quick too, even at this time of year, so I will be ordering again for sure :)



Now we just have to try and remember exactly who got what, because we both got some of the same fabrics. I can't wait to get sewing, there are some stunning fabrics :D

A lovely Christmas :)

Well Christmas Eve was a HUGE night, we took the kids out to look at the Christmas lights, found a great street where one of the Dad's was dressed as Santa. Patrick was very cute, grilling Santa and asking how the sleigh could work with no snow and how he could possibly make it to all the houses in the world lol.

Unfortunately the kids didn't go to bed until after 10, which was the time we started wrapping presents and organising Christmas food, and when I started sewing their Christmas clothes! Needless to say it was a very late night, thank goodness for Brad's dad coming earlier in the day and helping clean up!

Patrick got a t-shirt with an appliqued star in 'his' special polka dot fabric, he was a bit disapointed as he wanted a whole polka dot shirt, but I think that is a bit past my humble sewing capabilities at the moment. I also made some denim shorts with the polka dot fabric pockets and a smaller star applique on the front. I used red jeans stitch for topstitching which looked awesome, it's the first time I have used it for clothing, I love it.

For Maia, she got a dress made out of a pattern I have had for about 2 years - it is nice to finally sew it up. I used a combo of red polka dot and white fabric with strawberries, so it was red for Christmas, but not so Christmassy that she couldn't wear it at other times.
I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, except the white fabric was a little too sheer, so you could see the yoke fabric through the front, but it could just be me being extra fussy LOL.

I still have to add the ribbon and ric rac to the ruffle layers too. Maia lurves her pretty dress, she didn't want to take it off.




We also had a fun weekend full of stress before Christmas, Patrick went from being an Angel, surprising me with tidying his room without me even asking, to having some fun with paint!!

It took him a loooooong time to clean all that up and we are still finding splatters of red paint on the cupboards. He wanted to make me a picture of the rain, so covered his hands in the red paint and shook them to get the splatter - very artistic of him ;)

It was a lovely time though, I banned everyone from Computers for Christmas Day and Boxing Day, that was a bit too much for our visitors, I think they lasted until brekky on Boxing Day ;) At least the computer time was much less than usual on Boxing Day. We had our traditional big brekky on Christmas Day with Brad's Dad and Boxing Day ended up being more like our Christmas Day, with stacks of food (so much that Lachlan actually threw up from over eating!), a big cooked brekky, table full of dips, cheese, choccys, fruit etc and a big dinner too. Patrick and Maia had a ball playing with their cousins and it's been a lovely week.

But the quick break is finished and it is back to work now. We got a shipment of 55 boxes of nappies on Thursday, so the garage finally got cleaned out so we had somewhere to put them. Very excited about the launch next Sunday, but LOTS to do before then! And I shouldn't really complain, as we still have camping in January to look forward to.

Getting Ready for Christmas - Arrgghh

Well my list of what needs to be done prior to Christmas is so long it hurts my head. So instead of actually doing it, I am sitting here updating my blog, no wonder I am so stressed about it LOL. I think it is more a case of so much to do, but no idea where to start, so procrastinating is much easier. As soon as the kiddies go to bed, I will turn the computer off and get stuck in.

I've done the biggest job which is a great start, I had to move all the furniture around in the loungeroom, so we had somewhere to put the Christmas tree without actually sitting on top of it. Looks great actually, the whole room looks like it has much more space. I've done my other massive job of going through all of our digital pics and copies heaps over to memory cards for Mum and Dad's digital photo frames. I'm so glad I got them, I've been watching the pics scroll past and it is just perfect for them since they don't get to see the kids much. They can send me the memory cards back every couple of months and I can update them with a heap of new pics (the cards take about 1000 pics).

Tonight I want to get some of the washing sorted and the rest of the chrissy presents wrapped so I can make sure I have something for everyone, plus I want to get started on Patrick and Maia's Christmas clothes. They both picked their own fabric, so I don't want to be a slacker and have them miss out. I did get Chrissy T's from cotton on kids yesterday for $5 so they will wear them for the next few days and the other stuff for actual Christmas day. Patrick has Santa Rocks! and Maia has HO HO HO in glitter. I am tempted to make Maia a Chrissy nappy, but she has so many nappies it is rediculous, so I will probably resist the urge and just put her in green and red nappies as much as possible.

Anyway, I think the smurfs is just about to finish, so time to get these two off to bed!

Christmas Treats

It's a late night tonight, I've been busy in the kitchen baking treat for our hampers. Patrick was going to be my helper, but he is away and I am worried that it will get a little too close to Christmas to get everything done otherwise.

I've made shortbread from Lesley's recipie on NC - this is soooooooooo good! Caramel fudge from a recipie I found on the internet, I don't think this will be so crash hot, I kind of burnt it and it still seemed a bit grainy. And yummmmm coconut ice from a taste.com.au recipie. Just waiting for it all to set, so I can cut it up and pop in the noodle boxes ready for the hampers :) Hopefully everyone will like their homemade treats :)

Secret Swap

Well I very embarrassedly put my late NC secret swap into express post today, I really hope it gets there by the end of the week, my poor swappee must be feeling very sad that she is one of the last to get a swap. Hopefully she will like it and that will overtake the sad feelings of it being late :)

I had so much fun with this, I decided not to do nappies cos that is what I always do and did something different instead. Only prob was that I totally underestimated how long it would take to make these things lol. I made a dress, some shorts and a soaker, plus bought some stitch markers and a row counting bracelet for mum.

The dress:

I was so excited to do this dress, I found the fabric at spotlight and fell in love with it - bright and fun :) I did a test run on shirring with a dress for Maia, so I was set to go. Only prob was determining the size.... I tried to use Patrick as a guide, but because he is so skinny, I measured him then added a bit for luck, perhaps a bit too much, because I think it will be huge - it will certainly last for a long time anyway ;) This dress was kind of jinxed though, everything that could go wrong did from the moment I started lol. My overlocker played up and wouldn't do a rolled hem when I asked it to grrr. I sewed the ruffle on backwards, so had to unpick and do it again, I don't think I had the stitch length long enough for the shirring, so I am worried it will be extra too big and the worst thing of all was a little rotary cutter accident :( I must have dropped the rotary cutter on it at some stage, cos I found two little nicks in the fabric. I was so upset cos I put so much time into the dress. I ended up zig zagging over the holes, then appliqueing a pink spot over the zig zag in an attempt to hide it - hopefully it will work!

I cut it as one piece and did a narrow overlocked hem for the top of the dress, then attached the ruffle which also had a hot pink overlocked hem at the bottom, did the shirring (I did 10 rows, but I reckon I could have gone 2 or 3 more because the dress is so long), then overlocked up the side, catching all the shirring threads - easy peasy!

I just hope that it fits and she likes it - fingers crossed :)

The Shorts:

I decided to make some baggy style denim shorts (lots of room for a cloth bum - hopefully not too much room lol) featuring one of his favourites - Dora. I so thrilled with how these turned out, it was my first try at applique and it was a tiny bit messy, but I think pretty good for a beginner. I didn't know his waist measurement, so just guessed and put a few snaps on the elastic to make it adjustable - hopefully they will fit OK.

The soaker:

For a tiny bubba on the way, I decided to knit a soaker. It's the first time I have knitted a soaker, so I decided to try the PK knitters pattern as that gets raved about. It is awesome, but the first one I knitted looked tiny, so that one will be going to the Russia appeal. I did this one as a medium size, as I was guessing my guage was totally out as my knitting is quite tight. The rise is a bit long for my liking, but at least the ribbing can always be folded down if necessary. It was also my first time doing stripes in the round, a little challenging (and a major mission tying all the ends in!), but I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

Now I just have to wait til Friday to see if she likes it :)

Lots of creations

We had a lovely week at Fingal Bay last week, it's so gorgeous there, we love it, only an hour away, but you feel like you are a million miles from anywhere. No distractions and no work, yay! I did take the sewing machine and overlocker with me, but so that I could have a play, I am totally loving creating funky duds at the moment. I also knitted up a storm, finishing off a few projects and starting on a couple of new ones.

What I did:
- 3/4 of boardshorts for me, they just need the elastic and hemming to finish off
- finished the black rainbow shorties, OMG they look amazing, I am so thrilled with how they turned out and they fit Maia absolutely perfectly, so pretty happy with that
- bamboo dishcloth in seed stitch got finished off, mainly because I forgot to bring the normal dishcloths with me lol. I am so in love with how well it worked, only problem is that I left it behind, so it has probably been thrown away now *cry cry cry* Will have to make more ASAP!
- started on the spotty shirred dress and dora shorts for the NC secret swap
- green and blue punk knitters soaker, this was for the secret swap, but ended up a bit smaller than anticipated - I knew I should have done a guage swatch hehe
- started on the orange and purple stripey punk knitters soaker - my new swap soaker
- had fun ordering 26 yards of stunning fabric from the states with Vanessa, we are going to have soooo much fun when that arrives!

Phew! So much for a holiday hey ;) It was very relaxing, there was a playground right outside the door pretty much, so I could knit and sew while the kiddies had a blast, plus Brad and I took turns at doing our relaxing stuff. I do wish I had gone for a few more early nights though as I am struggling a bit this week.