Obsessive Compulsive Cottons

More parcels in the mail this week.... 

I think I know what it is....

Could it be my Etsy ordered Cotton Reel holder?

No more cottons looking like this in a draw..

Hello lovely pieces of timber decorated with pretty cottons.

New eye candy for me to rest my eyes on.
Exquisitely made by Etsy seller Waprwoods, more beautiful than
I had even hoped it would be, I'm off to get more cottons now!
Thank-you Mr Waprwoods

Our Creative Seals

The first of my "Molly Makes" magazine by subscription came yesterday and it is as beautiful and inspiring as ever.  There has been very little creating this week at our house just lots of work, work work.  The girls practically snatched the magazine (issue 6) from my hands and devoured it with lots of ohhhs and arahhs.  We came across the Felt Sea Pups and the girls begged "Can we make them, can we make them!"  So we did, dinner was thrown to the wind and so was homework and we crafted all evening how wild is that!

Not quite as flash as the ones featured in Molly Makes
but I doubt Molly's ones were made by 7 and 9 year olds

Work in progress

Finished product, without the magazine
background I am not sure they quite look like seals... we love them.

Click here for the template!

Zippers!!!

My Sister-in-law Emy, ordered some of the new Stampin' Up fabrics for me.  I had been very excited about fabric being added to the Stampin Up collection.  Although I must say they were not as exciting as the papers can be.  Some of the prints are fantastic but most of them lack luster, maybe they were trying to keep safe?   I set my self the task of making something Emy could use when she is demonstrating - a pencil/tool case.  This would mean a zipper!  Zippers scare me almost as much as bias binding.  Then I remembered Dear Flossy Teacakes and her zipper tutorial...  now mine looks nothing like as professional as Flossies' but I get the gist of it and next time I am sure I will be much better.

I love this Cameo print, it is just fantastic!

This fabric set comes with the Cameo, black and white floral and the
maroon and white floral (I used the maroon as the liner.)  I am not so fussed
on the maroon but love the black, white and red together.

I think the fabrics work well as small projects,
which I guess is a paper craft companies main direction.

Pumkin Pie Pin Cushion

We had a lovely week this week that included parcels!! Who doesn't love a parcel I just have to try and get to it before the children rip it apart and claim the contents.  My pin cushion swap arrived, wrapped in a dinky piece of vintage sheet and I just love it.  The cushion is orange on top and green underneath and looks just like a home grown pumpkin.  I went to get my pins and came back to the table to find my little pumpkin missing... the girls had made it a lions throne in one of their elaborate games.  (I did let them finish the game before taking it back.)

I saw this cushions when it was made, posted on Around Arthur's Table  and thought how lovely, I could try and make one like that, I could even crochet it !  Then I had stern words with myself to bring me back to reality that I would never be able to crochet that, and spent  a couple of days planing how to make one in fabric and now I don't have to.  Fancy that, what a nice piece of serendipity!  Thank-you Mama Arthur

Bag Save

I made Miss M a new library bag the other day and it turned out really badly.  It was late in the day and was the last project on the list of things I was trying to get done.  So I was looking for short cuts and hating every moment of it.  Not surprisingly the finished project was lame.  Even Miss M thought it was lame, she tried to use it and loved the fabric but trying to get away with only sewing on one handle and not two was never going to work.  

Before -The Yucky before bag.
  I hated seeing it passively hanging on the hallway hook every-time I went past.
 It was taunting me for wasting such great Amy Butler Oilcloth.

After - Much better

 I was feeling so energized after doing all my little niggly jobs on the weekend that I thought I should have a go at trying to fix it.  I started by unpicking the lining and sewing in a gusset to give it some shape.   Then unpicked the dodgy single handle and added a two proper handles finished with some striped ribbon to trim the top.

I fixed a bag and I like it!

After - the new look bag

Before          and         After  

A Virtuous Lunch

I know it can be really effected and precious to be blogging about what you have just harvested from your organic home garden... but I can't help it.  It is just soooo good to take ones handmade trugg and toddle out to the garden to select lunch tidbits.

Beetroot for lunch, other bits for stir fry dinner - yum.

Mixed lettuce for the next few days.

Great Salad with pretty colours,  1 medium beetroot, 1 large carrot, 1 medium apple
Peel and grate all ingredients add one cup of chopped mixed nuts and mix.
Crumble feta over salad to serve. 

Your insides will love you!

A New Nightie

This weekend my challenge was to finish off all those incomplete niggly little projects and I got a few done - Air Punching!  Here is one of them ....

Miss S is quite partial to a cute nightie but we are finding it harder to get nice nighties in sizes larger than a six.  For this one I have used a Make it Perfect  girls dress pattern (Wonderland,)  - Toni's patterns are in my language.  This is my first foray in sewing with Jersey Knit and I must admit it has taken me about three months.  I started it full of enthusiasm but every time things got a bit tricky I put it to one side.  I did go and buy a double needle and had good intentions of sewing properly but buying the bits and pieces is always easier than using them, don't you find?

Anyway I ended up hemming with good old zig zag and left the sleeve edges raw which leaves the new needles in their packet.  Miss S said she liked the sleeves this way and that they felt nicer so everyone is happy. 

I need a course, Knit Wit evening courses were all  rage for the 80's House Wife.  I remember Mum doing the Knit Wit sewing course,  all of us kids got new togs that heavily featured zig zag.  Did your Mum do the course, what did you get?

Wooden Beads

I just loooove my wooden bead collection at the moment especially all draped over Griselda our op shop find.  It is very hard to pick a favourite but the square beads (in the middle pic below) always sit beautifully and are so well finished.  These beads were one of my first every Etsy purchases and I notice that years later this stores prices are still really great.

Wooden drop earrings made by a lovely old boy at a local fair.  I only bought one pair and have tried to track him down since to get more but with no luck. 

This is a hair bobble I made by threading hat elastic through
 a beautiful big wooden button.   I found the button at the Paddington
Biome store, like the earrings I am kicking myself for not getting more.
How easy is that, I think Miss M's hair stunning looks adorned by wood.

Tidy up Tuesday

My house is overwhelming me again....  I need you Mr Clutter expert Peter Walsh!  Small steps, deep breaths and one room in at a time.   At the beginning of the year life dictated the need for some home schooling so we turned our dining area into a home class room and I became Mrs Mummy (Mrs Mummy can be very mean and cross.)  But our days are much sunnier now and we no longer need our full time, home class room so its time to change back to a dining area.

This is our make shift class room, which I will always regard fondly. 

Most of the furniture has been moved into place, it's just this Hutch that I have
been putting off dealing with.  The hutch has become a bit of a dumping ground, on
Sunday it reached critical mass!  So my clean up has began, one shelf at a time.
I have only got three done so far.

Shelves one and two, you can see what I am going for here,
 clean and uncomplicated - I hope.

Shelf three, I know its on the busy side but I do so like busy.
It's a work in progress...

Off to the Post Office

It's off to the post office for us today I have lots of bits to post as it is swap posting day for me.  I have pieces of bunting for the Bunting Swap and a pin cushion for the Pin Cushion Swap, what fun.  I like doing craft swaps as they can be a bit of a challenge, doing something you haven't done before or making the best version possible of something you craft all the time.

These are my Bunting pieces to send off, using some of that beautiful ribbon.

I sewed all the ribbons on in one continuous piece then cut them apart,
it seemed a good idea at the time.

The pin cushion

Peacock Pin Cushion

Pin cushion swap mail out date is tomorrow and I have just got my cushion done in time.  Meet my version of the Peacock from the Liberty Book of Home Fashion,  I am chuffed with how he turned out.  I used a few less tail feathers than the pattern as I was getting a bit fed up with them and I didn't have any felt to do the eyes but if you just see him by himself I don't think it matters.

I cut out all the pieces to make two and left them on my desk hoping some
little elves may come in overnight and sew them up for me.

No such luck with the elves, Mr Peacock number two is waiting to be assembled.
I have lots of plans now for altering the pattern to make all sort of poultry, chickens, ducks, swans etc.

Dress A as a Top

I had another go at Dress A from the much loved Stylish Dress book.  As I need tops at the moment I cut  down the pattern to make it shirt length.  As discovered by many sewers out there, the dress A pattern can end up on the sackish side of things.  (As blogged about recently by Ms Prose Stitch.)  Sackish is exactly how my top looked, so I turned up the hem and threaded elastic through.  The elastic now makes it sit nicely and I think it resolves the sack issue well.  -  p.s. how hard is it to take your own pic!

I really like this patterns high neck line, great for Queensland.
  It helps protect ones aging décolletage from further sun damage.

I have conquered my fear of home made Bias Binding,
 I can't believe how easy it turned out to be and the finish is pretty good if I do say so myself.

I used a cheap Spotty cotton, not a lawn or a voile I think it might be there own cheap creation.  I am feeling excited by my improving skills and feel I might be ready/worthy to have a go at a chunk of Liberty fabric!

-

The Liberty Book of Home Sewing

Have you heard about Liberty's new book?  It's stunning!  A few weeks ago Flossie Teacakes did a review of the book and I raced straight to The Book Depository to get my copy.   Mine has arrived and it  is Bewdifulllllll.  The fabric cover had me straight away, I don't think I've had a fabric covered book of my own before.   It makes me feel so nostalgic for London and the days spent loitering in Liberty trying to absorb all it's goodness. Reminding me fondly of Kelly teaching me about the who, what, when and why of fashion and trying to find something cheap enough for a Backpacker to buy!

The Book

Some other niceties of the book are these stunning full page prints of some of Liberty's best and finest.

At the back there is a  photo index of the fabrics used in the projects.  This index is complete
with a short history of each design.  I love you Liberty.

The book has many lovely projects to get stuck into but one took my breath away and then made my heart race...  It's this Peacock Pin cushion - how timely for a pin cushion swap.  He has captured my imagination completely.

The project 

With no time to wait for online fabric ordering we raced to one of our local stores to find the nearest match.  

The Fabric