Monkey pants!

Finally a bit of tangible progress in the holiday sewing! But the thing I'm a little bit proud of with these pants is that I've started to overcome my reluctance to sew with knitted fabrics. As I really wanted to see if I could make a pair of these I sat down with my overlocker (serger) last night and tinkered and adjusted it for about half an hour of precious children-in-bed time until it was sewing pretty well. My overlocker and I have not been getting along that well in recent times but I must take all the blame - all that neglect and need for instant gratification has taken its toll! Crafty Deb suggested that I change needles (hmm, good point), I rethreaded it and adjusted the tension, and actually read the manual! And what a revelation - it actually works!! OK, so lesson no. 1 - taking time to do something right works (duh!).



I was going to use a pattern for the pants and found this one, which looked great, and was certainly affordable, but I looked at a pair we already had and decided surely I could take a pattern from them - and it worked! So now I'm addicted to these cute little toddler pants and want to make lots more. Maybe I'll have one 'monkey pants evening' before moving on with the holiday sewing.



I used a bit of green knitted fabric I had in the stash and the Prints Charming print from the weekend as the accent on the bum and leg trim (so I didn't waste it if I stuffed it up). Next I think I'll do the reverse, and then maybe make some from this cute birdy print I got from Spotlight a while ago. It looks a bit like pyjama fabric, but when you're one who cares if your mama makes you wear your pyjamas in the daytime, right? :-)

Three little bears

On the weekend I finished off 2 little bears - one stuffed and the other a 'heat pack' - for a customer. I also decided to also make another one for my boy, who lost his own 'diddy' recently. I embroidered his name onto the little felt heart, not that it will stop this one getting lost too!



I also went to the Prints Charming sale on Saturday, looking for a scrap bag and some of their hand printed fabric. I arrived at 11.30, only 2 hours after it had started, and almost everything was gone! They obviously have a loyal following of fans. I still found a couple of treasures though...



A length of grassy green jersey printed with one of my favourite designs of theirs will do nicely for the trousers for my boy (and possibly a t-shirt or two later on). I'm going to try some 'monkey pants' which I find so cute on littlies.



The other fabric is a discounted metre of one of their classic designs on cotton in quite girly colours. It would make a lovely trim for a dress or one of the 'Sophie tunic's.

I hope you had a great weekend.

Bread of the week - vegemite scrolls (with cheese)

I'm trying hard not to call these 'cheesymites' (Australians would know the name from the bakery 'Bakers Delight'), but that's really what they are... vegemite and cheese scrolls.

While I love our cinnamon scrolls for a sweet hit, these really are my favourite morning rolls. I'm a real savoury person in the morning and these hit the spot. They are especially good when you substitute 1 cup of plain flour for wholemeal in the basic recipe. It seems to add a bit more texture, and of course goodness.
I'd recommend baking a batch of these one weekend morning and having them for snacks through the day for hungry children (and grown-ups!). Of course they are great for school lunch boxes too.



Pull out a lump of dough from the fridge. I used about a third of the full container. Pull and stretch it (or you can use a rolling pin if you prefer) into a rough rectangle (I did about 30 x 20cm) and let it rest til it comes to room temperature or at least for a while. Set the oven to 220c with oven shelf at the top and pizza stone in if you have one.

Spread generously, or to your taste, with vegemite (or Promite, Marmite etc, any yeast spread). Sprinkle on about a cup of grated tasty cheese.

Start rolling it up from the long side, lifting as you roll so you don't squish all the filling out. When you get to the end pinch the long side shut and pinch the ends shut.

With the seam underneath, cut your roll into equal lengths (I did pieces of around 3 cm and ended up with 9). Dip your knife into flour each time you cut and use a confident, quick, light sawing motion as the dough is quite floppy.

I forgot to take a pic of this step (and the last - oops!), see this post for pics of similar.



Now lay them cut side up onto a piece of baking paper, close together but with a bit of room to spread. That way you'll get some with nice crisp outer edges and some soft squidgey ones from the centre.

Slide onto your pizza stone (or place your tray into the oven) and cook for about 10 minutes. You'll know they're ready when they are puffy and starting to brown around the edges. Don't worry if some are paler in colour than others. Leave til cool enough to handle then pull apart and enjoy!



Have a lovely weekend. I'm hoping to get lots of sewing done (hmm!), do you have any sewing or crafting plans?

PS I've added a 'search this blog' function over there on the right in case you or I want to look up an old recipe or post :-)

Holiday sewing list

OK, following on from my post about sewing projects for our holiday, I have a bit of a list:

For the big girl:
- 'Sophie tunic' kaftan to cover up from the sun
- messenger bag to carry her things on our adventures
- a pair of shorts "Can I have shorts please Mama? Shorts, a shirt and a bag". OK then. Does anyone have any ideas for girls shorts? She has been obsessed with skirts and dresses for so long that this has thrown me!

For the little girl:
- ruffle top
- popover dress "I want butterflies Mama, and spiders" Hmm, will have to see if I can find a fabric with butterflies and spiders - wish me luck!
- messenger bag

For the baby:
he doesn't really need anything but can't be left out, so:
- a sun hat
- shorts/trousers

Now, what do you do when you have a list of sewing to get through in a short space of time? Make something totally different, of course. Thinking we could do with a big beach type bag, I made the enormous bag pictured last night in some fabric I 'gathered' from Ikea recently. I think the print makes it a perfect holiday fabric, with it's birds and boats. Of course I could have just taken this bag, as it's a similar size, but that black background would fade quicker than you can say 'palm tree' and anyway, it's too precious ;-)



So it's a simple rectangular shape, with squared off bottom corners to give it a base, and two shoulder straps. It's not lined as the fabric is pretty heavy and I wanted to keep the bag light, but I did make a facing for the top edge (I'm sure there's a more technical way to explain that) to give the straps some strength, and I added a snap closure that I had in my stash, bought from this great online shop during my baby bag making frenzy when the baby was little. I love how these touches give a more finished look and stop it looking homemade in that not-so-good way! I find making bags so satisfying... but on to clothes now... wish me luck!

Tails and tears

Last week my big girl had her first book parade at school. We decided she should go as The Cat in the Hat and excitedly cobbled together her costume.

We already had a hat, thanks to my sister-in-law having passed down dress-up clothes. I stuffed it with some Polyfill so that it would stand up, and she could wear black clothes for the body. So I just needed to make a big red bow to go around her neck and a tail, and draw some whiskers and a nose on her face.



In an effort to keep it simple, for the tail I cut up an old pair of my opaque tights, made the tail out of one leg, stuffed it with Polyfill and made the waistband out of the waistband of the tights, making it smaller and sewing the tail on. No need for velcro or any closing device, it just pulls up. This method could easily be used for any sort of dress-up tail, maybe painting the tights or using different coloured ones. The whole thing wasn't stressful and we both enjoyed the process.


Once again, though, I was really sad to see her in tears at the end of a parade. In the hundreds of people around (the school has over 700 students) she couldn't find me and ended up sobbing, holding the hand of a lovely teacher's aide, who had taken her to look for me while her class went in a different direction. And once again I found myself wondering if we've chosen the wrong school for her (too big and impersonal?) and whether in fact she was too young to start (she turned 5 in April). I felt sad for her, helpless, and I'm afraid to say, a little embarrassed too. I was a little angry too that she was being sooky and that she didn't trust that I would find her.

In that strange way that you stumble upon something you happen to need at the time, later at home I came across a parenting book that some lovely friends had given us a while ago. I opened it to this paragraph:

By applying positive parenting skills, parents can learn to support their children's natural growth process and to avoid interfering. Without an understanding of how children naturally develop, parents commonly experience unnecessary frustration, disappointment, worry and guilt and unknowingly block or inhibit parts of their children's development. For example, when a parent doesn't understand a child's unique sensitivity, not only is a parent more frustrated, but the child gets the message something is wrong with him. This mistaken belief, "something is wrong with me", becomes imprinted in the child and the gifts that come from increased sensitivity are restricted.

How true. It made me think about how individual children are and that I need to accept them and help them however I can, but that it's really their journey. And sure she can be sooky, but she's also incredibly affectionate and close to me, and I wouldn't change that for anything. In hindsight it seems a bit like a 'parenting 101' lesson, but I guess we I just need to remind myself occasionally. Love you big girl.

Good mail

Normally I hate opening mail. I leave it all for the Mr to deal with (poor sod). All those bills and things that need addressing, not to mention filing. My mental clutter doesn't need adding to! But today was a good mail day.



Firstly I received this lovely cuff from the very talented Kirsty at Kootoyou. Thank you Kirsty, there's no way I could have managed to make one myself - I'd be stuck doing a scarf, let alone this 'broomstick lace'!



And then there was an envelope with several patterns enclosed. I'm still trying to work out where it came from, but it's welcome even so!

I hope you had good mail today too :-)

Holiday sewing

L-R Urban unisex hoodie pattern by Heidi and Finn Best bubble dress pattern by Babes of Sweet


L-R Yoga lounge set pattern by Heidi and Finn Popover sundress pattern by Oliver+S Everyday dress pattern by Mani-mina


L-R Eva dress pattern by Mani-mina Little pleated tunic pattern by Heidi and Finn Chic kimono pattern by Mani-mina


L-R Thai fisherman pants by bibimbubba Ruffle top pattern by Oliver+S Sophie tunic pattern by Sis Boom

We have finally booked a holiday, yay! And you know what that means - an excuse to sew some new kids clothes. Because they'll need cover-ups for the beach, some fun clothes to play in and generally just something fresh after all the winter heavy things.

BUT, the risk is that I'll:
A. be tempted to make a really long list, and keep adding on to it until a day or two before we leave
B. feel overwhelmed at list make just a couple of things and feel disappointed
C. stay up very late in the days before we leave and totally exhaust myself, ending up cranky and unable to enjoy the start of the holiday

So... in an effort to actually get something done, stay sane, feel satisfied and still get some sleep I am attempting to put together a (realistic) list and stick to it. No adding things at the last moment, kidding myself that "it won't take too long". The idea is that you will keep me honest and that by promising to show you my progress I will actually stick to a schedule! Hang on, this is sounding like hard work - no, it's going to be fun! And at the end I can show you all my lovely holiday snaps where the kids are wearing the clothes. Well, that's the idea!

Providing lots of inspiration are the posts from the kids sewing challenge from Elsie Marley. I missed out on participating in this but it sounds like there will be another soon, and sounds like it's the push I need to get things made.

Pictured are some of the patterns I'm considering. Please tell me what you think of them and if you have any favourites of your own. I'd love to hear from you!