Emelia's library bag

she thinks it's soooo beautiful and even wanted to take it for news so she could show everyone how beautiful it is LOL

the iron on butterfly and letters were from lincraft. the fabric was from my stash and was a pink ribbon (breast cancer) design i got at spotlight a few years ago. i used a decorative stitch to add extra prettiness ;)

Heights - March 09

Ryan - 118cm (5y 10m)
Emelia - 112.5cm (4y 6m)
Aurora - 94cm (3y 1w) *





* Rora was diagnosed with Coeliac Disease in December 08, and as it causes malabsorption her growth had been stunted (we thought she was just shorter like our mothers and sisters) but since she has been on a gluten free diet she has grown more than 2 cm and put on more than 2 kg!!! she seems to be growing as i look at her!

Disco Queen!

Emelia is having a disco party next weekend so i decided to make her (and hopefully rory) a disco shirt to wear! it seemed like such a simple idea...

it could have been worse but gosh this fabric was hard to sew! i couldn't get the tension on either my sewing machine or my overlocker right and it was impossible to get straight hems and edges with the sequins. i also made a few little mistakes but hopefully no one will notice.

Pattern is Ottobre 2/2005, Design 11. as Emelia is 110cm tall i made a size 116 but it is really too big. I'd rather big than small and she may need to wear a long sleeve shirt under it next week anyway if the weather's cold! I've done this one before too, loved it then!

WIP

heights (early june)

A 87cm
E 105.5cm
R 112

AT LAST !!! my WIP is finished!!

i lost count of how many times i had to undo this and start again, at least 8. oh my goodness it was so frustrating. i'm not sure if it was me and my inability to read patterns properly, or the ottobre instructions...

anyway, this is the ottobre pattern i used here

i am now making some little flowers to go on it, pattern here

and i have to say thank goodness for youtube for converting US crochet to australian!!!

Such a Princess!

Emelia's princess dress is nearly done :) i just need to do the zipper - an invisible one (which i have never used / done before so am a little nervous lol)

i ended up using a different pattern - the new Ottobre arrived and Emelia (who took it to bed with her two nights in a row lol) fell in love with this dress (3/2008, design 19)


i thought chances were the ottobre dress would probably be easier than the simplicity so went with it - so far it has been easy, even though i did stuff up the side seams of the bodice (but i wasn't feeling at all well yesterday so i have a good excuse)

i had to go out this morning to buy the zipper so i bought some ribbon to trim it with too - now i wish i could have trimmed the bodice with some too instead of my pathetic top stitching! i might try later if i get a chance, at least it won't be as fiddly as the ribbon on the bottom to sew straight as i'll have the top stitching line to follow :)

i have to put in a disclaimer too - i did NOT choose the fabric! it is totally not my taste in colours lol emelia picked it from mum's stash ;p i think it qualifies as retro as it's no doubt late 80's lol

here's the princess (with her new princess jiffies, what a blast from the past they are lol)

PS: as it's practically winter here now she'll be wearing leggings and a long sleeve shirt under it ;)
i saw a dress with similar sleeves in myer, made out of fine cord and with decorative stitching so if i can find anything suitable in my stash i'm going to have a go at making this as a winter dress, probably shorter.
PPS: this is a 104 and emelia is 3.5y and wears a size 4-5 top and size 4 bottoms

a princess dress?

emelia has been invited to a princess party (on mothers day of all days) so i thought i might make her a dress.... am i insane? lol

anyway, i already have this pattern - a garage sale find.i'm thinking of doing the dark pink dress on the bottom right, it looks the easiest. i think. lol

i already have the blue or green organza left from the mermaid skirt (which hasn't been very popular incidentally, as it's too hard for the kids to find the middle and put it on without my help) which i can use and i'm thinking of trying to use another fabric other than a slippery satin.

what do you think?

Emelia (3y 7m)

waist 53cm
chest 55cm
height 110cm

ryan - height 113cm

mermaid skirt

today i hosted a craft open house - only eilleen was able to make it but it was lovely to chat and catch up with her, and i achieved my aim of getting something done!

i had planned to start some winter clothes for ryan but hadn't tidied up in time (plus hadn't washed the fabric) and remembered i wanted to make a princess skirt for rory for her birthday. i found the instructions on a blog (i forget where :() last week.

I had some gorgeous green and blue glittery organza already and decided to combine the two, not realising that it would make a skirt that looked like a mermaids! the idea was to make a loop of elastic slightly smaller than the waist (i used my usual wide waist elastic but recommend you use as narrow an elastic as possible, as long as it's strong enough). you then cut strips of any shimmery / see through fabric and simply knot them around the elastic - voila!

the only downside is that there is glitter EVERYWHERE!

the photos show emelia modelling it for me :)

i'm on a roll...

a tshirt (for jammies) for ryan. made from some cute helicopter print knit (unfortunately a poly/cotton blend rather than straight cotton). he kept bugging me til i'd finished it and then put it straight on LOL i used a knitwit pattern from the late 80's which was so simple and just perfect.

the other is a vintage dress pattern made up for emelia. ufnrotunately it's too big :( but she is happy to wear it anyway (she is off dresses atm, so i was actually trying to make a pinafore LOL). i ADORE this fabric, which i got at spotlight in the sale. it was in the catalogue the week before and i wanted to go to solely get this fabric, but i love it even more in RL. i'm so glad i bought a whole 2m of it! i also made a matching headband which was totally fiddly, i think i must have done it the wrong way...

ps: dh has just redone my puter so i don't have a graphics program on it to resize the photos - so be warned if you click for a larger image they will be HUGE!!!

oh and of course blogger WON'T rotate the photos when i need them done!

moomoo's skirt take 2...