KCWC - day one, two and three

days one two and three of kids clothes week have been fairly industrious - however it has revealed to me that I am a very slow sewer!

on day one I started on this pair of bloomers from lotta jansdotter's simple sewing for baby.

the seam ripper made an appearance when i sewed the bias binding on upside down.


on day two i finished the bloomers (will have to revisit at the end of the week as the elastic in the legs is a little snug!)



and then i pulled out the pieces for this dress, cut out nearly a year ago for S, now far too small for her, but H will grow into it. re-did the pocket friend and got as far as sewing the bias binding onto the armholes.



day three saw a trip to spotlight to pick up some more elastic, trims and i might just have purchased a little more fabric! on returning home day three saw the finish of the simple dress - and i love it! i can't wait for it to fit H.



i'm really pleased with it, yes there are a few puckery bits on the bias bits around the armholes and neck, but i can look past those! i added a special little name tag and instead of using a button and ribbon look, i sewed contrasting ribbon to the neckline for the closure.



and i'm so in love with the pocket friend - i think every pocket should have one!

kids clothes week

it's kids clothes week challenge (kcwc) over on elsie marley. a week where you dedicate one hour a day to sewing for your kid(s). this is my first time to participate and I'm quite looking forward to it.





i've made a few bits of clothing for S in my time, and they're nice, but looking at all the inspiration out there for kcwc i think i need to branch out a little in the embellishment and detail - so that's my challenge to myself this week...... and maybe practicing some french seams along the way.

i think monday morning is a little late in the day to be collecting inspiration - but hey-ho - as is life!

i might make H some of these bloomers (although I don't have any vintage hankies), and also a pair from  Lotta Jansdotter's Sewing for Baby

and not that she actually where's anything on her feet (it's ALWAYS hot here) i might whip up a pair of these booties.

maybe another one of these skirts from oliver and s

this looks like a pretty sweet little top

and this is just the cutest little dress

right now to start gathering fabrics and i might find a few unfinished projects along the way!!

My (messy) Creative space......

my creative space this week is extremely messy!


but mess is GOOD - in my book it means productivity (well that's what I tell myself!)

.....there's a little baby quilt being quilted (it will be a tad late to it's baby recipient)....


....the single girl quilt top and backing waiting to be marked, basted and quilted....


....and my baby girl's quilt finally finished, washed and out to dry....

embroidery

"prettyfying" (my own word) the girls rooms continues - here is and embroidery which I finished a while ago, but only just got around to framing and hanging.


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it coordinates with the quilt for H which i will hopefully have finished next week





i drew my own pattern based on the matryoshkas from the quilt fabric and then used badbird's heart embroidery pattern as an inspiration for the patterns on the doll's body. Andrea's free embroidery patterns are awesome, and on my pre-christmas to do list is definitely this tree embroidery, and another prettyfy project involves these fab unicorns for S's room

my creative space - single girl update

here she is so far!

my first complete block.

had a few issues with getting it to line up, i sewed Q1 and Q2 together and then Q3 and Q4 together but then the rings were nowhere near matching up so i had to take a bit out of the centre seam and use lots of pins. hopefully blocks one through 19 go together a little more easily.

tonight will be spent laying out the blocks on our giant rug. because i've used scraps, no ring quarter is the same and i want to get colour and value balance right in each ring and across the quilt as well a making sure the same fabrics don't sit too close to each other - this could take a while!

head on over to the flickr group to see some serious single girl loveliness!

laptop sleeve

our laptop was coming along for the journey on our trip home a few weeks ago, and since it was cold in england i decided it needed a winter coat of it's own. a little look through my file of tutorials and i came across elizabeth of oh fransson fame's laptop sleeve tutorial. i have used it before to make a gift to much success.



i chose this echino glasses print in black,so it's manly enough for my husband! and simply lined it in a cream twill which i had on hand.



The tutorial is very well explained, and i found it really easy to follow.

My Creative space......

My how quickly Thursday rolls around! I'm sharing my creative space with a single girl.....





This little pile is 620 handcut pieces of fabric stitch together to one day soon make up a fan-dabby-doozy king size quilt for our bed! (note the trousers folded up in the background - need sewing back together after I ripped the crotch - must get on that diet ASAP!)





I'm fairly far behind the schedule for the Single Girl Quilt Along run by Katy, Nova and Meg, but that doesn't bother me - as long as I get this baby finished one day! Go check out the flickr pool to see some fab finished quilts and quilt tops.


My arcs are on hold until my background fabric arrives - kona bone ordered from Sew Fresh fabrics on etsy.


So from now until it arrives, my creative space is going to be filled with finishing some much neglected WIPs!