Birthday present prepping!

So, of course I've left it till the last moment to start organising my daughters 3rd birthday presents!!!

While I wait eagerly on the mail man to (hopefully) bring her gifts before we fly to New Zealand on Saturday, I decided to make her a couple of things as well. 

A couple of weeks ago I made her and a little friend of hers, some matching My Little Pony Skater Skirts and had a bunch of oddly shaped scraps. The girls loved the skirts so much!! And ummm cute much?!?

Anyway, back to the oddly shaped scraps!! I was going to make them matching tee's using the scraps as appliqué and then I saw the Make it Perfect Mink Messenger Bag in a PDF pattern group on Facebook and I knew I had to make one for my girl - she had been asking for a 'hangbag' for a while now, for her all important crayons and trinkets and frankly I was over finding them on the bottom of my 'hangbag'.

When I downloaded the pattern I noticed you needed bias. Let me preface this with - I HATE BIAS!! Hate making it, hate sewing it! But I had nothing remotely matching bright, rainbow coloured ponies in my stash so *sigh* I resigned to the fact I'd have to make it myself!

There is a method in the pattern instructions, but I'm a really visual learner and a friend of mine had sent me the link to a great tutorial for how to cut long lengths of bias, so I watched that one again - 20 times... Maybe 25... Yes, it took that long for it to click.... Have I mentioned I hate bias???!?

Once the bias curse was sorted, the rest was super quick. I put my daughter to bed at 8 and had two 90% made by the time hubby had finished his emails and was ready to watch some more House of Cards with me at 9.30! 

I know I said it was for her birthday present, but I may not be able to wait that long to give it to her

I mean, seriously? How can I wait?? 

Now to start on the next item - an Art Caddy to keep all those crayons safely in. 

T xx

Collaborate for a Cause

One of my favourite things about the handmade world, and I have a lot of favourite things about handmade, is how wonderfully charitable the people are. There are always charity auctions to raise much needed funds for a variety of causes, none bigger though, than Collaborate for a Cause

Handmaidens from all over the country unite and form groups to create a package of goodies to be auctioned off to the highest bidder, with all profits going to their chosen charity.
This is my second year being involved and I've had a great time getting to know some new people and also working alongside some ladies I've come to call good friends over the year.
The bidders, to me, also deserve a super big round of applause here. These ladies bid so so so generously.
C4AC is run by the very talented Jen from One Thimble, along with a team of helpful admins.
You can also check out the submissions and some behind the scenes action on Instagram using the #c4ac15 or #collaborate4acause 
This is my first collaboration with some lovely friends of mine, using the gorgeous Michael Miller Spring Fling fabric range. We hope you love our Summer Holiday Wardrobe






















Left to right: Blouse and Shorts - LishyLou Handmade,  Blouse - LishyLou Handmade and  Skirt - Applegail, Dress - Sweet Saturday, Kaftan - Damaya Designs

My second collaboration was also with a couple of good friends and a whole lot of ladies whose work I'm very familiar with as a handmade buyer haha



You can check out the album full of goodies and, if you're interested please register to bid. The Collaborate for a Cause Charity Auction will begin on Friday 24th July at 8pm EST and finish on Sunday 26th July at 8pm.

Top Row (L-R) Darcy-Doo Handmade, Little Jem Handmade, LishyLou Handmade

Second Row (L-R) Oh Baby and Ellie's Handmade

Third Row (L-R) Cocolicious and Lulu and Milly

Bottom Row (L-R) Zahli Petite, Yumminess Textiles, Ric-Rac & Retro

The aim was to create a gorgeous, funky wardrobe that would have a little girl covered from the beach to casual to party time!

I'm looking forward to seeing all the other submissions and also really excited to see how much we can collectively raise for all the very deserving charities this year

Happy sewing

T xx