Recovery

No, I haven't just fallen off the planet.  Or been abducted by aliens.

I had to make a snap decision about going into hospital for some surgery.  For peace of mind I decided to go for it.  Laparoscopy is not too pleasant a procedure, but the outcome was a happy one and whilst I am very sore I am on the mend, making the most of a weekend spent in bed being waited on hand and foot.

The house is "bloke standard" clean and tidy, and with some encouragement a load of laundry made it into the washing machine.  I was also surprised to discover that my other half had only a half an idea of how to put the dishwasher running...

I won't be making it back to the sewing machine for some time yet, I'll be spending my time catching up on blog reading instead.  A laptop in bed with wireless internet connection really is a gift from the technology gods.

Sheet find

 Come and share in my admiration for this vintage sheet find. 

So much beautiful fabric.

Projects galore will come out of this one.

Just because

I have been making myself try some new things in the last week.  I have been making peasant tops for myself, so I had a go at making a peasant dress for a girl.  Love this daisy fabric.

And I have a few wrap dresses in my wardrobe that I like wearing and I looked at the construction of them the other day and I reckon that I could make one just by tracing the pieces.  To get my head around how one is constructed I had a go at making a size 2 wrap dress.  Starting small with this project obviously.

Now, onto other projects that are awaiting my attention.  I've almost got too much sewing to do, but thats a nice problem to have, isn't it? 

Red meet Purple, Purple meet Red

 Our beloved little purple monster has a new friend - little red monster.

As soon as Red was finished he was up and about and chatting away to little Purple. 

They became good friends and had so much in common.  Look at them there, laughing away like a couple of old fellas.

Cheeky too!

Red is off to Pip this week, but little Purple is staying behind because he's pretty important around here (and has a slight war wound on the left arm that needs care and attention).

My Creative Space: at the coffee table

Today I am making a big mess.  But thats what vacuum cleaners were invented for, right?  Little bits of fabric offcuts are falling to the floor to be trodden underfoot and carried around the house stuck to said feet...

I'm making this mess rather centrally by sitting at the coffee table.  This plonks me right in the middle of my son's play zone so he can chat to me and play around me, he likes to watch the pinking shears do their little zig zag cut. 

I have been very lucky to get a commission to sew some simple gifts for a friend's shop.  Bunting is the first thing on the list of jobs.  There will be some very simple one sided triangular flags, and some more fancy rounded ones.  I've also been experimenting with incorporating some doilies - the end result is pleasing me very much.

For more creative spaces, head on over to Kootoyoo. 

Alphabet Tuesday: W is for Whale

Splish splash, here comes the whale.  Don't get too close, he's watching you, see?

Deconstruction, reconstruction

These fabrics used to be stitched together in the form of a doona cover. Nobody loved it anymore and donated it to the charity shop.

I bought it, washed it, and set to picking and ripping my way through the seams and I now have four lovely pieces of fabric, and a nice harvest of cream buttons.

I got distracted after that...and I am already wearing some of it.

A happy sewing day.

My Creative Space: Monsterous

In my creative space today I am turning my attention to making a softie for the Mirabel Foundation. 

I am drawing inspiration from this dude.  His name around these parts is "little purple monster".  He's a bit of an ugly duckling but he certainly gets a lot of love, I think its partly due to his small size, perfect for a fistful of take it anywhere, anytime comfort.  Bigger is not always better you know when it comes to monsters!

I'm going off to rummage for some fabric and felt to make my own little version of monstery love.

Happy creating today in your creative space - to see them all head on over to Kootoyoo.

Birthday get up

I wasn't going to write a blog entry today - gosh I have had a shocker!  Nothing like having a hamper of dirty laundry stolen from under your house in the dead of night, is there?  Its intrusive, sick and down right creepy.  I am distracted by the mental calculations of what was in the hamper, weirded out by why they chose to knick off with the laundry and leave other more attractive items behind, and just plain frickin annoyed of the extra work created to replace diminished supplies of socks and jocks.  Geeeeeez.  Pissed off!

But no, according to the title of this post, we are not having to get around in our birthday suits in the event of a total wardrobe wipe out...

I am referring to a birthday gift I made for a special four year old who celebrated her birthday on the weekend.  I made her an A line skirt from my Little Bird pattern.  I even finally cut into my matryoshka doll fabric that I have had for some time now and appliqued one onto the skirt. 

I picked up a plain t-shirt at the department store and sewed two gathered ruffles down the front.  For this I followed the super easy tutorial from Sarah at Cotton Kiwi.

I wasn't sure if giving clothes as a gift was going to cut it for a four year old, would she prefer a toy instead I wondered?  Well as soon as the wrapper was off it was off to the kitchen to proudly show her Mum the new outfit, phew!

Alphabet Tuesday: V is for Violin

After another hiatus Alphabet Tuesday is back!  With just four letters to go now I am determined to get to the end of the alphabet over the next weeks.

This week our lovely little violin prodigy plays a squeaky tune on her wobbly stringed instrument.  Can you hear it?   Ergh.

And the winner is...

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway, you all left me such nice comments which was both surprising and very humbling.  It was great to hear how much you enjoy visiting and reading.

In the end there were only two entrants that were not "followers" in some kind of form, so I just threw one entry in for everyone because it didn't change the odds significantly.  So here we have all the little entry slips with names and preferred prizes.

I chose my red enamel teapot because I could easily get my hand in and out of the top.  Nothing worse than needing to use vaseline, or worse the emergency department, just to get the winning slip (and my hand) out of the pot!  So in they go...

...lid on and shake it around a bit (yes, I am shaking, the photo is blurry)...

...safely put hand into teapot - oh look, the time is just after 5pm...

...and the winner is...

...Kate from Foxs Lane who selected to win the fabric pack.  Congratulations Kate!  I'm sure the fabrics will find a place in some of Kate's gorgeous creations.  Kate, I'll drop you an email to organise delivery of the prize to your corner of the world.

Giveaway - closing today

If you haven't all ready then pop over to this post to enter my giveaway.  I said I was going to draw a winner out of my teapot today and indeed I am just lining up my tea and coffee pots in the kitchen to select a suitable receptacle for the entries.  I will be drawing out a lucky winner at 5pm today.

Don't be shy, go on, enter, you know you want to!