Sewing Challenge - April 2017

Welcome to the third instalment of my Sewing Challenge for this year! If you haven't caught up on my previous posts, I'm aiming to sew a different pattern each week and I'll document them in a monthly blog post.

I started April off with the aim of completing some egg-hunt outfits for my kids and ended up with an Easter EGGstravaganza!! I saw the Evergreen Bonnet from Twig + Tale in a sewing group and knew I had to give it a try! This was my first T+T pattern and I really have to say how impressed I am that everything came together so perfectly! I've attempted a few different bonnet or hat patterns before and this is heads above those (haha!)

And my girls looked cute as bunnies in them!!

So, then of course they needed egg-hunt bags! I saw a post in the One Thimble group that Lauren from Molly and Mama had done a bunny hack tutorial for her Darling Daisy bag - which was in Issue 12. I ended up making 4 of them - one each for my girls and then a boy and girl bunny for my friends little ones.

I also made my friends little ones a Tadah Baby Tea Party and Flexi Shorts and Tee Set for Easter. I added some cargo pockets to the Flexi Shorts because I was feeling guilty that they didn't meet my "new to me" pattern challenge brief haha

Then I went back to an old pattern I hadn't sewn since last winter! The Tadah Tea Party with Long Sleeve Add-on and made my littlest a long sleeved dress using the tie up sleeves hack on the Tadah Blog. I love sewing this pattern, SO much! This delicious looking fabric is from the ever on-trend Dizzy Daisy Fabric Studio

Then I decided I needed a really quick-sew-fix and used the Tadah Pattern Gypsy Shrug pattern from Issue 2 of One Thimble and used the hack on the Tadah Blog to make it a reversible fur-lined vest. I also used the Tadah Moku Skort pattern from One Thimble Issue 5 to make a super quick skirt to match the bonnet, bag and vest. When my little brother first moved to Japan with his wife and kids he sent me a divinely beautiful yard of Liberty Japanese Lawn fabric and I had been hoarding it for the perfect moment - this was it!!!

Then I made my big girl a Made for Mermaids Sutton Dress in the same beautiful soft cotton from Dizzy Daisy Fabrics to match little sisters long-sleeved Tea Party

I then made a Violette Field Threads Lavinia Blouse. Now, it might totally be my lack of sewing skills, but I wasn't 100% happy with the finish on this. It's a way cute result and I will likely make more of them because, well, they're cute!

To finish this outfit off I then hacked, and when I say hacked, I mean I used the waistband pattern pieces from the Sew What Club's Penny Pinny and made a pinafore to go with the Lavinia blouse - it would look super cute with any other blouse or long sleeved tee for winter. I'm pretty in love with this pinny - I'm certain there are patterns out there for it, but I like a good hack!

We went camping this month for a week of the school holidays, so I made my 4 yo the Hottie Cover from Issue 14 of One Thimble to pop her hot water bottle in for those chilly nights. I chose the cat character as she LOVES cats!

Now to plan my sewing for May! If you have any suggestions for me or patterns you'd like to see made up, drop me a comment or email and I'll add them to my list!.

Happy Sewing
T xx

Sewing Challenge - March 2017

So my challenge went swimmingly in March! I was sewing up a storm and of course wondering if I'd be able to continue with the same excitement... spoiler alert - I have!! And we're in Mid-April now. Hooray!

So in March I wanted to venture a little outside my comfort zone and decided that I needed to make my youngest a floor cushion for her reading corner in her room. I had the very generous assistance of the lovely Sarah from Piccolo Studio and used the pattern in Issue 10 of One Thimble from Hunting for Ladybugs to make the most awesome floor cushion to grace the scene of floor cushions... even if I do say so myself!

I also learned to cover plastic snaps with fabric, thanks to a tutorial by Alison from Little Seren in Issue 14 of One Thimble - this then became somewhat of an obsession as it is such a perfect finish for an outfit!

I made another Bobkin dress - The Hannah from Issue 6 of One Thimble and fell totally in love with it! My littlest also loved it because it had pockets!! She usually refuses to wear anything that doesn't have Batman or Unicorns on it - so this was a WIN for me!!

I made the latest Violette Field Threads offering The Charlie Dress for my littlest for her Easter Dress. This cute little dress also has pockets and a very cute tie front and sleeves option.

I wrote a blog hack for Tadah to make the BTP a front fastening for those who were concerned the buttons would poke a tiny baby in the back.

I hosted a sew-along for Tadah for the All Seasons Dress and also did a mini-hack for that to turn the ruffle sleeve into flutters.

I made one of my all-time-favourite shorts pattern - the Papilion and Mandarine Leon Shorts and used a button-hole trouble-shooting guide in One Thimble Issue 14 to get my best button-holes ever!!

I made a Tadah Patterns Seaside Playsuit out of the most delightful knit from Wicked Fabrics and while initially my littlest insisted that I'd made it for her as a pair of swimmers (entitled much?) it did eventually make it to my friends baby, who it was intended for!

And I did a pattern add-on test for Tadah Patterns for the addition of a collar for the Tea Party and Baby Tea Party Patterns 

I also made my 4 yo her Easter Dress. I used the FooFoo Threads Audrey Dress for this. It's a very pretty style for her and she's absolutely loves it - I used the snap covering tutorial I mentioned earlier to cover the snaps on the bodice!

I look forward to showing you what I've been working on in April. I'll likely have to post early as we're away camping for a large chunk of the school holidays!

I hope you're not bored with my ramblings yet haha!!!

Happy Sewing

T xx

Sewing Challenge - February 2017

Heloooooooooooo

I've been soooooo inactive on here, but I've been super busy over on the Tadah Patterns blog: hosting sew-alongs and interviewing loads of people I admire for a Meet the Maker session.

Earlier this year I was in a massive sewing slump and, as Dr Seuss said "unslumping yourself is not easily done" (it's uncanny but he is always SO right!!) I didn't sew a thing from mid December to early February!

So, I decided to challenge myself in an attempt to unslump myself and woahhh it worked!! My challenge was to sew a new pattern each month - something I had either bought years ago and never used (I have 100's of these!) or a newly released pattern that I fancied. What ended up happening was I sewed a new pattern once each week! 

I'm going to talk about the patterns I've sewn for February 2017 in this post - yes, I realise it's now April.... good things take time....hahah KIDDING!!!

Around the 10th of Feb my most favourite sewing e-zine released its 14th Issue and it was HUGE! I have a subscription, so I got the mag the day before release and printed off and taped two of the patterns I had been drooling over - the Bobkin Loli Dress and the Bubby and Me Lala Skirt. I made both of them up and it was instant love! My 4yo had been begging me to make her a Taylor Swift outfit and I had been meaning to make a Tadah Patterns Tea Party crop top hack since I saw one in the Tadah Pattern group. 

Let's start with the Bobkin Loli. It's a sweet, simple and vintage looking dress or blouse with a couple of finishing options and an elastic back or button up back option. I LOVE that it's a retro length dress because I have young kiddos and I love the freedom to climb and explore that retro lengths bring - if you have a taller kid or prefer longer lengths on your kiddo, please use the finished length guide to get the appropriate fit for you.

Then the Lala Skirt from Bubby and Me. It's a gorgeous ruffly skirt that's layered at angles. My 4yo absolutely adores hers. All those ruffles took a while to gather but the end result was dazzling!

Then the Tadah Tea Party Crop - which is basically the Tea Party Dress bodice, extended slightly to make a crop top. It perfected her Taylor Swift look!

In the last week of February, I saw some gorgeous photos starting to appear from testers for  Peach Patterns - who I'd not heard of till I saw their latest release, the Leilani Dress. And I've developed somewhat of an obsession with this dress - it's fast and it's gorgeous and totally on trend! Unfortunately, it came toward the end of our summer so my girls didn't get much wear out of it but I will definitely be making them more for next summer. I'm thrilled I found a new Aussie designer who absolutely rocks!

My little miss had grown out of all her swimmers and I had received this most gorgeous swim fabric from The Material Girl Australia so I decided to give a pair of swimmers a go. I used the Sew Pony Vintage Cosi pattern to make this super cute halter for my tiny miss

*phew* That was Feb! Now onto March

Happy Sewing 

T xx