Category — Sewing

This is my favourite yet, and far simpler to sew than attempts one and two.

Two more birthday parties this month. Is it wrong to give all the children in the class the same gift?

Zoe goes to a wonderful kinder. I am confident of that. When I pick her up in the afternoon she is happy and animated and we often have interesting conversations. On the way to kinder however, the conversation goes something more like this “I AM NOOOOOTTTTTTTTT GOING TO KIIIIIINDEEEER”…..”AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH”….. “NNNNOOOOOOO” …..”AAAAGGGGGGHHHHH”. (Repeat x10).

To make matters worse, on a Thursday Zoe has to wear pants to kinder, because she does PMP (a kind of P.E. for little ones). Zoe hates wearing pants, and boy does she let everybody know about it. “NNNNOOOOOO PANTS”….”NNNNOOOOOO PANTS”….”I HATE PMP”…..NNNNOOOOO PANTS” (repeat all the way to kinder).

To try to make our PMP mornings a bit more cheerful I have in the past made the prettiest PMP pants possible (see here and here). This year however I thought we’d try something different – the swing top. It’s not a dress, it’s not a top. It’s the perfect PMP outfit!

The pattern is based on the Ottobre Creative Workshop 301 pattern which I cut off under the arm to add some ’swing’ and is made from the stretch fabric I bought at Hilco in Germany. Just to add a bit of interest though I thought I’d cut the whole top sideways so that the stretch goes the wrong way. Wow – that does sound seriously familiar! I keep going over my thought processes as I was cutting the fabric and thinking about all the clues that I was doing it wrong. Thoughts like ‘wow, this print looks like it’s going sideways’, or ‘this fabric is not as wide as I thought it would be’, or my personal favourite, ‘hmmm it’s weird how the stretch seems to go up and down instead of side to side’. I was convinced however that I had it right, so cut away I did. Cut cut away until there was not going back.

I love this top. Zoe loves this top. Strangers love this top! But every time I get close to it all I see is those little arrows going the wrong way across the fabric and I feel so darned annoyed. I know. I need to get over it.

Here’s Zoe in her PMP swing top and very first pair of leggings:

Ever since I made these capes I have been thinking about how I could improve the design. With a 4 year old birthday party coming up (and the sparkly stretch velour on special at Spotlight!) I decided it was time to give the cape another go.

I am much happier with this version. Rather than a rectangle, this one is a semi-circle (it would have been a full circle, but I only bought 1 metre of fabric). This one also has some special hemming tape in the bottom to make it flair out which is a nice touch.

I have a number of improvements in mind for the next one though, including the use of lining inside of it instead of satin which makes the cape too heavy for a four year old (I know – I felt like Einstein when I came up with the idea of using lining for a lining. Pure genius I tell you!). I also have a better idea for the neck shape. Oh and the next one will be pink, because next weekend it is a 4 year old girl’s party.

Here’s Zoe doing her best wizard impersonation before we wrapped the cape up for the party

Here are my gorgeous nieces Lucy et Hannah modelling Aunty Bel’s creations in their new home town of Noumea.

Cute huh!

One ballet bag for this ballerina:

And one ballet bag for this one:

Oh how he melts my heart!

Is that greedy?  You see I have a fabric store now – and it has its own blog.  But I couldn’t bear to let go of this one.  So for now I have two.  This will still be my main blog, and most of what goes in the other one will probably be posted here too.  So why would you want to visit the other one?  Well I now will sell items I make through my fabric store, and all shop updates will be announced through the Earthgirl blog.  So if you want to get your hands on some Earthgirl creations (or want to buy some gorgeous fabric to create your own!), then get over to the Earthgirl Fabrics site and add the blog to your feed reader.  Oh and if you see something I make here that you think you might like to buy – then send me a message.  I’m not taking orders – but I would love feedback on the kinds of things people would like to buy.

This bin is not for sale…but it is made out of Anna Maria Horner fabrics available from the store.

It holds fabric scraps under my cutting table.  Unfortunately it’s already full!

I have had this denim skirt in my head for a long time. I actually tried to make it on that 46.4 degree day we had in January, but surprisingly enough it didn’t really work out (actually it was a complete failure and I have since cut it up and repurposed the fabric). I was therefore thrilled when this one turned out so well.

One more piece for the winter wardrobe – and a couple more on the way…

My cousin had a baby girl recently, so I used the scraps from Zoe’s quilt to make this bib:

After I cut out the circle for the neck I had a small piece of patchwork material left, so I made this onesie for baby Emma to go with the bib:

And here is the boy version for a new baby in Queensland:

The bibs have toweling on the back, as per my absolute favourite bib from when Zoe was a baby.

I really enjoyed making these, and plan to make a stack of them one day when I’m lazing around looking for something to do

I have had a blue singlet top and little pile of material sitting on my bottom step for a couple of weeks now, waiting to make something for one of my nieces in New Caledonia. I also had a parcel of ballet shoes and fairy dresses all ready to send the girls – but I couldn’t send the parcel until I had sewn up the outfit. So on Monday morning I walked past the two half made quilts, the half knitted blanket, the scraps of fabric ready to make into a bib, the denim on the floor under the cutting table to be made into another kinder dress for Zoe…and sewed up the outfit. It only took an hour all up – and if felt great to have a job finished and the parcel on its way. But I hated the result. The top is cute, but the skirt seemed all wrong. I’ve just had a look a few days later and I’m a bit more forgiving. Hopefully a little girl on an island paradise will be happy enough to wear it. Salut Lucy et Hannah!

Remember this dress that looked like a nighty? Well when I found this drop dead gorgeous linen I knew immediately that it was time to give the pattern a second try – with some more appropriate material. I think this is my favourite dress I’ve made yet, and is the first small step in creating a much needed winter wardrobe for Zoe.

Here is the gorgeous Miss Zoe all ready for kinder in her knew frock: