On knowing where to draw the creative line... or not

It's an anxious day for this mama today with our little girl having a small operation (day surgery) and our big girl having her first day of Year 1. But more on that tomorrow...

Recently I've made a few presents for friends' birthdays, one of them for a 40th (and I'm joining the club this year too - yikes!). My friend loves clothes and accessories so I wanted to give her something I'd made especially for her. I decided on one of my 'no sew jersey scarves', which I'd been enjoying wearing myself til the weather started to really heat up here.



So I made one in this soft magenta jersey, adding a bit more detail with extra knotting.



Then I decided on a little zip purse to go with it in this lovely cotton print. I lined it in a burgundy cotton, adding a pink zip and a beautiful green and pink ribbon as a zip pull.



* A little tip to stop ribbon fraying is to run a thin line of glue (I used super glue) along the raw edge and let it dry. If you've accidently applied too much or the edge is a bit ragged you can trim the edge once the glue is dry, as long as you don't go beyond the glued area, or it will fray again.

Once the purse was finished I placed it with the scarf and... ARGHH! That horrible feeling hit me where you know you've gone too far. It was too pink, too girly, and altogether too much really.



I had a feeling that probably the scarf and purse would look fine separately, but in order to make it a more stylish gift I went back to my stash and cut a lovely piece of mushroom/chocolate coloured jersey and made a new, simpler version of the scarf. Then I took the bright ribbon off the purse and replaced it with one that toned in with the new scarf. I briefly considered unpicking the whole purse and re-lining it with an oatmeal coloured linen to further tone down the whole thing, but dismissed this due to time constraints (and to keep my sanity!).



On a whim when wrapping the present, I added the pink scarf in. I sheepishly told my friend what happened and, you guessed it, she preferred the pink anyway! Hmm, maybe I should have trusted my instincts first time around!!

This moment

I'm joining Soulemama (and many others) this week with the Friday ritual of 'this moment' - a moment from the week to pause, savour and remember. Happy weekend to you.


Holiday fun... I'll miss it :-)

My creative space

I'm playing along with Kootoyou's Thursday 'My Creative Space' this week.


Squeezing in a bit of time for something creative whilst the school holidays are still on, I've been playing around with my artichoke prints again. This time I'm offsetting green over white to get different effects, and also printing onto something different for a friend's birthday present - show you next week.

One last thing about Christmas...

Yes, I know, I know, it's long gone, but embarrassingly it wasn't until today that I finally took down the stick and packed the decorations away. The stick hasn't gone into the rubbish though, as intended - the girls talked me into keeping it, so now it's stashed away with all the other junk, waiting to be thrown out when I'm not feeling so easily swayed :-)

Speaking of junk, I heard an interview with one of those clutter buster type people on my local ABC radio station the other day and felt really inspired to further cut back on my 'stuff'... until my lovely neighbour with lovely taste who manages a lovely homewares store offered me a lovely new lamp. Damn that non-existent will power! Hmm, the stick must go!

Anyway... when I took the stick down I realised I'd forgotten to finish off my Christmas posts by showing you a couple of beautiful contemporary paper ornaments that were given to us. They joined the others on the stick and have become some of my new favourites.



The first is this amazing Christmas card/ornament that my friend Stephanie posted to us. When I saw her note on the envelope about there being a 'handmade card enclosed' I got excited. Steph puts me to shame with her fantastic handmade cards each year. Considering I didn't even send many cards this year, it doesn't take much (in my defense though, your honour, I claim many late nights making presents as my excuse). This year Steph made beautiful star shaped ornaments out of hand cut stars from pages of thrifted books (in our case children's books). She sewed these together with a little message in the middle. Not to give all her secrets away, she added lovely personal touches that made them outstanding.



And the second is this one from Oxfam, made in Vietnam from coiled recycled paper, and presented on the neck of a bottle of wine. What more could we ask for :-)



So here's to creative friends with fantastic taste!

New-to-me skirt and avoiding the "to do" pile

With the kids keeping me busy (and tired!) over the school holidays I haven't managed to do any of the sewing for me that I'd had planned. I'm desperate for some new skirts and dresses. But when I looked through a pile of old clothes this morning and found a lovely A-line wrap-a-round skirt that my friend Catrina had given me, I decided it was time for a quick bit of sewing.


The fabric is a soft light/mid weight cotton with a floral pattern that's quite Japanese looking and reminded me of the fabric I bought to make my red dress recently. As soon as I saw the skirt in the pile I knew I wanted to wear it straight away, and when I realised that it was a bit too long I knew that the cut-off hem fabric would be perfect for a soft fabric belt. I've been wanting to make a simple fabric belt that I could wear with jeans for ages but hadn't come across the right fabric... until now.



So there and then I cut the hem off, hemmed the skirt and sewed up the belt - I knew if I didn't do it straight away it would get left in my "to do" pile by my sewing machine and still be there months, maybe years, later!



The skirt hem I simply folded up twice, pressed, pinned and stitched.



And for the belt I folded over the raw edge, pressed it, pinned and stitched, folding each end into a curve, as I thought this would look softer hanging down than a square edge.


I can't wait to wear the belt but as we have some hot weather on the way it will have to stay in my wardrobe for now... but at least it's not sitting in that poor old ever growing "to do" pile :-)

Sleep shorts for the little boy

I've always put any thoughts of sewing underwear in that mental basket labeled "too hard and why would I bother". Though I know a lot of people do make them. There's a cute kids pattern here, and I remember my mum making underwear years ago.

But with the nights being quite warm here at the moment I thought my boy could do with some little sleep shorts to wear over his nappies with a singlet or t-shirt. And they're just like undies really.



I took a good look at a cute pair of short pyjamas he received as a present for Christmas and realised that the pants were just two pieces of fabric sewn together, with leg edges bound in ribbing and an elastic waist. So I took a pattern from them (see the paper pattern below) and simplified them a bit more by just folding ribbing over the leg openings and overlocking (serging) them.



I used some of the $2 per metre knit fabric I bought a while ago to use for my DIY t-shirts, coupled with some scraps of ribbing I bought in a $2 bargain bag from my favourite fabric shop.



One of my thoughts (not resolutions ;-) at the start of the year had been that I should try to tackle fewer sewing projects this year but do them better. The intent was that this would be more satisfying and the garments would be finished better and therefore last longer... so I've failed miserably here with these quickies! But I know he'll outgrow them in the blink of an eye, and it means I can get onto something else sooner... maybe when these school holidays come to an end and life is that little bit less hectic :-)

Desperately seeking Simplicity 3835

Is the following scenario at all familiar to you?...

• Think about how I'd like a new sewing pattern...
• casually cruise Flickr/sewing sites/blogs for ideas...
• come across something I kinda like...
• see it more and more in some groovy fabrics...
• look it up with the vague idea I might buy it...
• find it's out of print...!
• now desperately gotta have it...!!!

This has happened to me not once but twice lately, and rather than chastise myself about wanting something I can't have and try to except it and move on etc etc, I became more determined to find them.

The first was this Oliver & S very cute kids kimono top pyjama set that I'd started to see everywhere: beautiful versions at Five and Counting and Made by Rae. I finally found it here.



Ahh, satisfaction. Until... I started looking for a dress pattern for me and found the perfect one.. you guessed it: out of print.

It's Simplicity 3835 (this number's in my long-term memory now, and has been Googled umpteen times!), one of the "Built by Wendy" patterns. As usual I don't love the pictures on the pattern cover, but when I looked on my friend Flickr, clever people have made beautiful versions of it. I love the classic peasant top, but mainly it's the tie-sleeved dress that I've fallen in love with - I'm picturing it as a winter staple, layered and worn with tights and boots.



When I did finally find I could actually get it from the US Simplicity site, I speedily went to the checkout only to find that my US$8.95 pattern was going to cost US$26.13 to be posted to me, the total being $35.08! Does anyone know if there are any copies available in Australia?

Maybe I should just give my poor little Paypal account a hiding and pay up, or maybe just accept it and move on... nah, that's not going to happen!