little skirts from old pants

I have whipped up some quick skirts for the girls, out of some old cord pants. The cream pair were mine, but I was realistically never going to fit into them again, but I loved the fabric so much I couldn't get rid of them (it has ribbon roses embroidered onto it). The pink striped one is from a pair of pants that I bought in an op shop, with the plan of re-fashioning something for the kids because the fabric was bright and fun. They were so easy to do, no pattern or anything. Just cutting up the outler leg seam of the pants, then cutting to length, overlocking up the sides, turning over a casing and threading the elastic through.






I still have a bit more of both pieces of fabric, so will see what becomes of them!

I also made a skirt for Lulu out of a thrifted 'big girl' skirt that has bits of silver in the fabric - again, easy peasy. Cut of the wasitband and remove zipper, cut to length and turn the casing for elastic. No need to hem or anything as I used the existing hem.

In more refashioning, I also cut up a thrifted waffle weave dressing gown and cup up some new face washers for myself - just doubled them and overlocked around the edges. Couldn't be easier.

I have bought a large length of white waffle weave to make the girls each a throw for their beds - I just need to choose a great fabric to bind them in - I was thinking a bright red spot?Any suggestions? I have a gorgeous white waffle weave blanket on my bed and I love how crisp it always looks.

saffron craig fabrics

Saffron Craig makesthe most gorgeous hand printed fabrics and I just had to indulge in her last sale before her new line came out. (the new line looks fab by the way - there are more owls!).
This is my little stash of Saffron fabrics, still waiting for me to decide how they will fit together into a quilt.

Check out what Amy from Badskirt does with Saffron's prints - too cute!

Fat Quarters

My LQS no longer sells fat quarters - they sell 30cm strips. I love Fats though. I had a scrap of paper with the following info on it that I though may come in useful some day. (I think that I had betetr store it here given my luck with scraps of paper!)

From a fat quarter, you can get the following number of cut squares:

110 x 2' or 64 x 2.5'
42 x 3' or 30 x 3.5'
20 x 4' or 16 x 4.5'
16 x 5' or 12 x 5.5'
9 x 6' or 9 x 6.5'
6 x 7'
4 x 8'
4 x 9'
4 x 10'

I was a winner!

I won this great wooly friends kit on Island Kylie's blog - thanks so much Kylie. I'm looking forward to making it up. These sheep are the sweetest and the colors are so bright and fun. The kit has all the fabric needed to make the quilt top, which is 45x54 inches. It uses Andover Fabrics and I think will be perfect for my gorgeous baby niece. (i hope you don't mind Kylie but I lifted your photos)

EB Dolls quilt swap sneak peek

some sneak peeks at my EB DQS

new dresses

I have stayed up into the night to get some new dresses finished for the girls for thier kindy photos (which go over 3 days). I am one of those mean mums that dress their kids in the same clothes!

On Monday they wore little reversible smocks - cherries on one side and red gingham on the reverse with little shorts. Today they wore yellow 'pillowcase' dresses made form a vinatge curtain - super cute! I didn't get pics of them yesterday morning, but did get a couple tonight. All 4 dresses are in the washer now, so we will choose in the morning which ones get re-used!! Here are some pics - checkout Mimi's teeny tiny piggy tails!

Weekend Fun

Lulu was invited to a birthday party on the weekend and I made a little rice heat bag to go with the gift. (It is freezing in Canberra at the moment - it even snowed in suburbia on Sunday!) I think I might make some more of these as they are super easy and I need to do some stash reduction.

Mimi was a tag-a-long at the party but was made to feel welcome and got right into the spirit of things. Here they are on the deck before we left. The cheeky smile!

mini booty swap

I have joined the Minature Booty Swap Round 2! I just have to sew down the binding on my quilt, wash it and then post off. My recpient is also from Australia and had 'chooks' as one of her likes, so I have tried my hand at needle-turn applique in a large pattern to do a chook feature. Looking at it now it looks a bit boring - AARRGG! I love doing swaps but am always so unsure of the calibre of my work and that it measures up. Anyway, here it is ready to be bound - I did some stippling around the chook and then just straight lines around the borders.

!

Kaffe butterfly quilt update

Oh my aching back! Just kidding, but we have spent a lot of time cutting out little tiny pieces of fabric for the gorgeous butterfly quilt. Can't wait to start on the sewing now.

Lemonade Stand Quilt Swap - Sent and Received!

I have taken part in the Lemonade Stand Doll Quilt Swap organised at Ubercrafty.



I have received an adorable quilt from Katherine in the USA. (Katherine doesn't have a blog that I can find, but if I do, I will link it in here). The pattern is 'cobblestones' and it is a grogeous green and pink. This was Katherine's first doll quilt believe it or not! Fantastic job and is well loved. The back is also gorgeous, using coordinating fabrics from the front. Katherine also kindly sent some lovely stickers as gifts for Kya and Mali. I have just popped a quick pic of the quilt here - The girls haven't seen it yet as they are with Nanna and Honey for the long weekend.


I have sent my quilt off - I made my bright little quilt for Tara - hope that it arrives soon.

Doll Quilt Swap

My doll quilt for the Flickr Doll Quilt Swap 3 has been posted off to the other side of the world. A clue - it is off to Texas. I enjoyed doing this quilt and loved working with the bright fabrics. I tried a few new techniques too - needleturn applique, yoyos and crazy piecing (perhaps not the best idea to try out new things on a swap project, so hopefully my swapee will forgive any mistakes - it was made with love). My machine was also playing up a bit (turned out to be a loose screw on the walking foot) so the quilting is very basic in the ditch.