It must be glove, glove, glove!!

Don't you love finding new ideas on the web, or even better, don't you love it when someone else finds them and shares them around!

This project was discovered thanks to Novy's blog browsing skills, good on you Novy.

She found this tutorial on the blog My Longest Year, about how to make an oven mitt, so I thought I'd give it a go.


A good friend of mine is having a birthday on Friday and she's a mad keen cook, so these should be just right for her.

It's not easy to tell in the pics but they have a navy band on the bottom and a navy tab to hang them by.

I decided to quilt them using a circle pattern to go with the dotty fabric, so I drew lines on the fabric with fading marker and used a dinner plate as a guide.

Next up is a couple of gifts for in the Christmas stash. I used the very cute Michael Miller cowboy fabric I got from The Humming Mini Fabric shop on a couple of T's I picked up in Kmart.

And lastly another pencil roll - one for the boys this time, with the Michael Miller retro rockets and some star fabric I picked up really cheaply on my mammoth visit to The Remnant Warehouse.

I have a few of these on the go, but they are all the same so you only need to see one, here it is...

Tennis anyone?

Not much sewing has happened here as the weekend was a lovely bright sunny one, so we spent it out and about going swimming with the girls' cousins, visiting an open garden with Grandma and Pa and generally playing in the great outdoors.

I couldn't resist sharing these pics of the girls in the new tennis dresses their Godfather bought for them on an overseas trip.

And lastly, every girl needs frilly knickers under her tennis dress, doesn't she???

If it's a long hot summer my sewing machine might just about go into retirement...

Rolling, rolling, rolling...

I've been doing a list of gifts to make for Christmas and had wanted to try my hand at a pencil roll as they suit both sexes and a variety of ages.


So last night I used a combination of this tutorial and these flickr pics to make one up, with a few modifications of my own thrown in.

It was surprisingly simple and I'm pretty happy with the result, so I'll be making more of these for sure.

I've since found out that the gorgeous one at Pink Chalk Studio has been included in this book. Yet another reason why I must get myself a copy.

Please excuse the rather scrappy looking coloured pencils - they're all I had around the house, and I couldn't even find a sharpener to make them more presentable!

Something old, something new

It always feels good to see the girls wearing things I've made them, and even better when it is because they choose the items themselves.

Miss L dug this top out of the drawers the other day and wanted to put it on, so with a T-shirt I obliged. I made it last year, my first attempt at shirring, and am pleased to see that it still fits now and will last for another summer.

It looks pretty cute with her new Puddle Jumper spotted Mary Janes too.


This shot shows Miss A's new orange shoes - not exactly a great match with her all-time favourite pants, the apple-dacks, but she insisted, and as we awere only visiting the ducks it seemed like a good idea.

And finally, here are the shorts and appliqued T's in action, great outfits for the park on a sunny day.



I might stick at this sewing caper!

Treasure!!

That's what I feel like shouting when I make wonderful fabric finds like I did last week!

A short visit to Sydney meant I was able to pop in here, a shop that had been recommended by all the lovely Sydney-based EB girls.

So armed with the GPS to direct us, myself and my two nieces trekked across the city and came home with all these lovely things to fit into my luggage:

I couldn't resist this Michael Miller 'Rodeo Music' fabric because unlike most prints of this nature it features cowgirls as well as boys!

Being flanelette I plan to use it for the girls winter PJ's next year.

There's a bit of a Wild West theme happening here!

The white cowboy fabric below came from the lovely Helen at The Humming Mini fabric store and I have already cut some of the cowboys out to adorn T-shirts, the blue fabric will be used for the same, as well as some PJ's for friends with little boys.

I've been after this retro rocket print for a while and wasn't quick enough when Helen got her hands on some, so I thought I'd add a metre to my stash when I saw it. Not sure what it's for...

Is it too much of a boy print to do some appliqued T's for the girls?

I went to The Remnant Warehouse with the specific intention of getting this 'Olivia' fabric. For those who have not discovered the world of Olivia - check out the books by Ian Falconer.

She's a quirky little pig with attitude, and a friend of mine is a big fan. I plan to use some of these prints to make her daughter a small tote bag and a twirly or perhaps tiered skirt for her upcoming birthday.

These charm packs are for me to make each of the girls a doll quilt either for Christmas or their birthday next year, and the ric rack was needed for my stash as Spotlight have a lousy range of colours. The heart ribbon was just too lovely to leave there...

This little pack of fat quarters features Christmas colours and is destined to becoming festive bunting to decorate our home this year.

I also got a few things for the girls, who, although their uncle may not believe it, worked hard to control my spending impulses by asking me what I planned to make with each purchase!!

In addition to the things shown I also got several metres of navy cotton with white stars and red with white stars which will make great bunting or bags, or even little summer shorts and also a large amount of a fabulous bright red stretch with little white dots which I can see becoming tops of all kinds, comfy summer shorts and also singlet-style dresses I saw in a past edition of Ottobre.

So there's lots more sewing to be done now that I have all this new fabric.

I think I might place a self-imposed fabric ban on for a while now... unless it's something I just have to have!!