READY, SET GO!

It has only taken me 15 months, but I have finally done some sewing for Ashton. I used Burda 9793, and somehow managed to much up the fake zip area, but it looks ok.

I love the fabric, it has an assorment of vechiles on it as well as traffic lights. I am planning on appliquing a top with something to match. They are a size 2 so should last him a while yet!

I also finished this twirly skirt off for Ellyse. I feel a bit mean as it was intended as a gift for a friend's daughter, but after seeing it made up I just cannot part with it. It is made with fabric from the Farmer's Market collection. I have chosen some other fabric frm my stash to make another for Chloe!

The not so Madeline Dress

You will not believe that this dress started with this pattern!

I saw a little girl at the shops a few weeks ago with a peasant style dress that was shirred at the bodice, it was absolutely adorable. I thought it would work perfectly with the Madeline pattern. I increased the bodice size to accomodate the shirring and I was off. When it was finished it just looked too much like a nightie. I think a lot of it was the fabric also. I had planned on the aqua ruffle on the bottom, but I still thought the top looked wrong ( no pics sorry, wass in too much of a rush to got the unpicker out!).

I took the sleeves off and made some bias binding (all the while thinking of Cass with her bias maker) and made the straps instead. I am really happy with it. I love the colours (Ellyse is still to be convinced that aqua is ok for girls), something different to pink.

I am now off to work on some shorts for Ash, hope to have them finished this afternoon.

Not a sewing post - a look at my gorgeous kids post!

Well with not one, but two machines out of action at the moment, there hasn't been any sewing going on here. I have been thinking alot about sewing and planning what I will do when the machines are all better, so that counts for something at least.

I am sure all of the mums out there know the feeling that your children are just the most beautiful and wonderful people you have ever seen. I just can't help feeling this way at the moment. Both Ellyse and Ashton are just being absolutely delightful and I am just loving the ages they are at.

Ellyse is such a little mummy, watching out for everyone and taking time to talk to her little friends that no one else can see - there is Ella, Bella, Arabella, LilyBelle (see the pattern here), then occassionally the boys join her, Zachary and Daniel. This make believe play has really started since she has been at the child care centre rather than FDC. She spends her days setting up beds for her babies, she plonks herself inbetween two of them with her scissors, paper, book and a pen, all the while telling children to lay down, go to sleep, I am busy writing in the book etc. I caught her telling a real friend last Friday that "If you don't listen to me Max I will have to pinch you" -I don't know where she got that from, hopefully not one of her teachers! Poor old Max, did not want to be forced to lay on his tummy while being patted and rocked to sleep by the 'teacher'.

She adores Ashton most of the time, she gets things for him and tried to find out what is wrong if he cries.

So here are some photos to celebrate my beautiful Ellyse-

I could go on, but I think that is enough.

And little Ashton, how can he be so like Ellyse in so many ways and then so differnet in others. I can't decide if it is a gender thing, second born thing, or just personality, but man he gets places Ellyse is still yet to discover. Ellyse didn't climb, open, bang anytning, she just sat and played. Little Ash is just into everything. While Ellyse is inside patting babies he is outside digging in the dirt. While Ellyse is hoping the water doesn't touch her toes while K is washing the car, Ash is covered head to toe in freshly cut grass while waving the running hose around. If there was one blade of grass on Ellyse we would have to call someone to help.

But what a snuggle bunny Ash is, he loves to cuddle all of us, he puts his thumb in and nuzzles up to you, it is just adorable.

How is that for photo overload? Aren't they just the cutest?

Log Cabin Cushion

We are of to Clara's birthday party this morning, Ellyse is very excited (well at least I think she is, she is on night two of a 5 night sllep ver binge at my mum's apperantly). Clara became a big sister earlier this year and I made little Lilly this . Her mum told me last week how muc Clara loves it and is always carrying it around. So out went the plans for a rara skirt and in in with the idea of a cushion for Clara. I went with reds this time as I didn't want it to look too much like Lilly's. Sadly that was my only other option other than pink, I really need to get some different colours in my fabric collection.

K and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary this week. I just cannot believe it was 8 years ago since that special day. I absolutely loved my wedding day, everything went to plan,and even though it is well known as having more tears than a funeral (we were living 1000km apart at the time and I hadn't seen him for over 8 weeks), it was one of the happiest days of my life.

The many faces of Ellyse

Another creation from this pattern. My sister has bought Ellyse a gorgeous denim skirt from an airport somewhere in the world that has red stitching. It just doesn't look right wearing any other colour than red with it. When I saw this fabric at SL I knew it would make a lovely top to wear with the skirt.

Ellyse was in a playful mood while trying the top on, here is Ellyse being

Happy

Sad (well sort of, it is more of a happy sad isn't it?)

Excited

Surprised

Angry

After the last dress being too small, this top is just that bit too big, but she will grow into it.

Hasn't she changed since my first blog post 2 years ago?

Father's Day and some sneaky peaks

We had a very busy FD here as we also had a wedding to attend. Ellyse and Ashton made some handmade goodies, adn I also bought Keiran this book. I heard the author on the radio and just knew Keiran (and I) just had to read it. It will take hima while I am sure!

We had a lovely morning at home, then dropped the kids at K's parents' house for the afternoon. We don't relly do gifts for them (very sad I know), but I did make my dad this bag. He is so hard to buy for and I had this fabric - he loves everything old holden and even owns a few so it was perfect. I used this tutorial from Tin Whistle, although I made mine a lot bigger to make the most of the fabric.

Then in the afternoon we went to the wedding - here is the top I was so anxious about! I did feel a bit different to my 6 other friends who all wore dresses, but oh well.

And lastly a sneak peak at some gifts of love that should hopefully be arriving to their destinations tomorrow.

A VERY belated gift

My hairdresser had her baby 7 months ago and when I told her I had a gift in mind she asked for something handmade as she loved the clothes I had made for Ellyse. It seemed silly to sew something for winter, so now it is warming up (an dthe fact I have an appointment tomorrow) I whipped up this little Madeline Dress tonight. It is very easy and the result is just too cute!

Off to bed for me, I have a busy day tomorrow!

The Versatile Wrap and a little apple top

I must have made this top at the end of last summer. I remember thinking that it was way too short and I doubted that I would wear it. Well I must have had much bigger milk boobies then...I rediscovered it last week and it fits much better than I remembered. I did a little hem and it is all finished. I am not sure where I will wear it as Keiran tells me the apples look a bit odd on a grown woman! I think it is cute though, and Ellyse does too!

I finally received my fabric order yesterday and was straight on to making the versatile wrap. I have been really looking forward to this, so you can imagine my disappointment when I realised, with a directional print like this, I didn't have enough fabric. It was easy enough to fix though, I just have a seam on one of the panels.

The skirt was easy to make, the instructions were great. I am not really happy with the way it sits at the moment, a button hole might help that though, but I think that is more my shape rather than the skirt!

The RaRa Skirt is making a comeback!

Who would have thought my favourite skirt when I was 12 would be worn by my 3 year old 20 years later? I spotted some in Target last week and thought they looked sweet so thought I would have a go. I have had this fabric sitting in my stash for awhile and Ellyse is pink crazy at the moment so I thought it would be perfect. I will admit to having unstitching once or twice while I got my head around how exactly I was going to do it, but I am most happy with the end result. I had seen this mariposa applique on Sandi Henderson's blog anf thought it would be perfect for a matching T.

Watch here how Ellyse goes from grumpy to happy in one shot! Had to include both sides of her!

and one from mothers group on Friday. Ellyse loves looking after Ashton while I am busy, who am I to argue?

I am not the only one getting ready for summer with skirts, check out these gorgeous skirts by EB sewing buddies Leah and Helen.

Getting my groove back!

WOW 3 sewing posts for me in a week! I am loving getting things finished and doing something for myself again. I think I was a little bit lost without projects on the go and things to do.

I started this dolls quilt back in January as a gift for a friend's one year old. All that needed finishing was the binding, but for some reason I thought it would be too hard for me. Well after doing the toy mat last week and realising how easy it was I was looking forward to getting this finished. It is my first go at quilting and I am pleased with it, it is simple but lovely at the same time.

Summer sewing begins here

The day I saw this dress in Novy's blog, I just knew I wanted to make one too. I just love how simple it is, but having the two fabrics makes it special. Of course seeing a similar style in Myer was a good motivator also. So I pruchased the pattern from here and Iwas set to go.

So when K decided to go fishing tonight I put my UFOs (and my extremely tired eyes) to the side to have a go at the dress. It was really easy to make and the instructions were fantastic. I used a fabric for the main part that I bought on impulse when Ashton was first born and I had 20 minutes in Spotlight one day. I was actually planning on making something for myself with it as it has a great boarder at the bottom, but thought it worked well with the pink and white spot for this dress. I made the size 3 but it looks a bit small, fingers crossed it fits, if not some friends are coming for dinner tomorrow night and they have a two year old I can give it to....then I can order some of this gorgeous fabric.

I will update my blog tomorrow with a photo of Ellyse wearing it.

Toy Mat for baby Jasper

My older sister Nicole and her husband Jort welcomed a baby boy into their lives about 9 weeks ago - this is how long it has taken me to get this toy mat finished! I was lacking some motivation, but it was also very time consuming. I hand blanket stitched all of the applique which took hours.

It was all worth it though, I simply love the finished product and hope that Jasper does too. It has cord around it so it can be closed and used as a storage bag for toys, which will be handy for my sister as she lives in a one bedroom flat in Japan.

Not a great photo, you can't really see the detail, but I know you will appreciate it!

I will have to get a photo of little Jasper on it before they return home on Tuesday.

Songs to make you smile

Today Ellyse and I went to see Justine Clarke's show - Songs to make you smile. It was great fun and it sure did make me smile. Ellyse just loved the songs, eventhough she was not familiar with any of them. She was soon singing and dancing along. I just love the feeling at these shows, all of the parents with their children who are just so excited to be there. Watching Ellyse respond to Justine was magical.

We bought the DVD and Justine was signing copies, so we lined up and Ellyse got her copy signed. She wanted to tell Justine all about Ashton and her other babies at home, it was very cute.

12 months and still loving it!