At our house

This week, we have been crafting up a storm for our part in the CHA Craft Swap. My partner is the lovely Lana from AromaPlay Clay, which seems to be the hottest new kids product in town! Gluten free, bright colours and infused with aromatherapy scents to invigorate/clam your little people – what’s not to love! Our task was to create something for our PARTNER, not their children (!) so I had a lovely time freebasing some crochet goodies, trialling a few tutorials from Craftster and I couldn’t resist adapting some of the Bloombub catalogue for a grown up. Here’s some sneaky peeks of what Lana can expect in the mail later this week:

I have also tried my hand at patchwork this week. What. A. Frustrating. Art. I hope the Merry Church Mouse’s skirt turns out okay, cos I’m pretty sure it will be the last time I attempt any kind of piecing work. I won some lovely charm squares from the Lily and Will bunny range at Sunshine and Stitching, thinking: I know, I’ll make a lovely little skirt for Claire. The lovely Ally was also kind enough to throw in a cute spotted fat quarter to coordinate, and another spotty FQ from my stash rounded out the lineup. And then the pattern matching debacle began. Three days later, this is where I’m at:

Oh, and I managed to thread my overlocker wrong and snap two needles just as I was about to begin, so no doubt that dampened my enthusiasm for this project as well! I’ll do the gathering tonight and MAYBE finish of the layers tomorrow (if the terrible two-yr-old doesn’t go on another sleep strike). I admire all you ladies who quilt and patch regularly – you must have the patience of a Saint!

I had some Mummy-time-out on Saturday and took a wander through the Matilda’s Market at Eagle Farm Racecourse. I hadn’t been out to the new venue, and was impressed by the scale, though it is still difficult to manouvre through the room with all the prams and baby bellies. In wonder if maybe MM should investigate designated ‘No Pram’ visiting hours so shoppers can get up close to the stands. I had a chat with Stephanie from Mon Petit Poppet, who was a stallholder for the first time, and talked about joining the BrisStyle team and attending their markets later in the year. BrisStyle have a new twilight market in King George Square on a Friday evening, which sounds like a much more civilised way to shop, especially during summer!

To cheer ourselves up we made some brownies this afternoon. YUM

Claire has clearly enjoyed the batter and the finished product. The sugar high continues….
And tonight we’re taking her for her first haircut – the Albert Einstein look is no longer becoming. Stay-tuned for neatness and (hopefully) girly curls.

Check out what everyone else is doing this week, at Lou’s blog!

Comfort sewing

This week we have all been afflicted with colds, flus, and for poor Little C, pneumonia. So needless to say, it’s been pretty quiet around the house.

Today I took some leave from my day job and spent the day relaxing at home. While relaxing and sniffling, my creative fingers got a bit itchy and I found myself trying out one of the Mani Mina patterns I treated myself to from Etsy a few weeks ago.

The first dress off the machine was this red linen beauty, as modelled by an unusually enthusiastic toddler. She actually WANTED to wear the dress as soon as I showed it to her – almost unheard of. There’s usually substantial coaxing required for her to put on any on my dresses, but some reason this one took her fancy. So much so, I can’t get it off her to sew the final embellishment, a cute cat button from Buttons by Lou Lou. Oh well, tomorrow night’s task!

The dress is from the Summer Everyday pattern, though I lengthened the sleeves and cropped the length of the dress to make it suitable for Lil C to wear with layers in winter. The pattern is really easy to make – I was done in less than two hours (except the button, of course). I am planning to add a bit of Bloombub flair to it, and will be crocheting some cream coloured cotton lace to trim the sleeves and hemline.

When a pattern is so easy, and the finished product so well received, why stop at one?!

This beautiful Cosmo fabric has been sitting in my stash for some time now – I believe it came from my first purchase at Retro Mummy (these groovy pants were also from that parcel).

Miss G admired the fabric, but I was unable to entice Lil C to remove the red dress to try this one on. I took a few extra artistic licenses with this version. Only the back is elasticated, so as not to gather the beautiful print at the front, and the sleeves got even longer and we made a little ‘bell-style’ elastic feature as well to keep the cuffs from flapping about in the breeze (or getting dipped in food, which is far more likely).

I’m contemplating whether to add some black ribbon or white broderie to the edges to cover the overlocking. Maybe I’m just a bit lazy this week and won’t bother.We’ll have to see which dress Lil C chooses to wear to Daddy’s birthday celebrations on Saturday.

If you like the look of the Summer Everyday dress, but are not of the sewing type (or just too lazy), you might like to take a look at these local designers:

MyOneBrownMouse’s Kinder Dress, or

MonPetitPoppet’s Smock Dresses and A-Line blouses. MonPetitPoppet is a local Brisbane mum too, and has just been featured on the Matilda’s Market blog.

Now that I’ve had such success with the Summer Everyday pattern,  I might give the other two Mani Mina patterns a try – the Reversible Kimono Dress (I am repurposing some beautiful purple wool for that one, just need to find a nice print for the lining); and the Round Collar Dress (but maybe that will wait for some spring inspiration…). I also covet the French Ruffle dress… but I think that’s for a slightly older child to appreciate.

Mani Mina e-patterns. Available from Etsy.com

Happy dressmaking!