Dance, anyone?

Pic from here

Sew It Together

Oh my god. Bestest weekend EVER.

And sew it begins

Thank you Nikki for hosting a fun and fabulous soiree tonight for the Sew It Together girls, what a lovely start to a crafty weekend.

My Creative Space

This week my creative space is about making space to get creative...get it?

My 'space' has been in complete chaos and I haven't been able to find anything let alone actually make something! I really needed to organise my stash, but don't have any shelves to store it on as my space is part of the Sewing room/Study/Library/Music room, so there are many competing interests for the available storage.

So I got creative and found some plastic tubs that used to store kids' toys and started folding. All the fabric is grouped by colour and I actually know what I have in there! Excellent. I have also sorted my stash of zips, snaps, elastic, binding, ribbons and scraps. Now maybe I can find something to take to S.I.T. this weekend...

Thanks for hosting Kirsty, click here to see what everyone else is doing in their space this week.

PS. Would you like to make a little Pinafore for a really worthy cause? Click here for the details!

Pinafores for Orphanage - can you help?

I was in Spotlight Bayswater yesterday, stocking up on a few things for the weekend, when I noticed a line strung up across the back of the store with a number of very pretty little pinafores pegged up on it. Intrigued, I enquired about it at the cutting counter and was told that they are being made by staff and customers to be donated to the Dago Dela Hera Orphanage in Kenya.

Apparently a young Melbourne woman spent some time volunteering at the orphanage in Christmas 2009 and was struck by the fact that the children there have no proper clothing. So she and her mother, Karen, along with about 20 women who Karen works with in the dress department at Spotlight, have started making reversible pinafores to send to Dago Dela Hera, and they have asked customers to join them as well.

Want to be involved? All you need to do is make a girl's reversible pinafore and take it or send it to the store! Simple! They are collecting pinafores in many sizes to suit young girls of different ages, so you can make whatever size you like. The lovely ladies in the dress department will even lend you a pattern if you need one (however when I was there yesterday all the patterns were already on loan). The patterns they are using are

New Look 6576 and New Look 6578 but you may use any simple pinafore pattern - preferably a reversible pinafore so the girls can have two dresses in one!

Of course the other thing that you can do to help is mention it on your blog and try to spread the word! If you do, can you leave me a link to your post so I can read it too! Thanks :)

If you have any questions, please leave me a comment and I'll reply, or alternatively you may call Chelli at Spotlight Bayswater on 03 9729 0770 and she will be happy to talk to you.

**If you are coming along to Sew It Together this weekend and have a pinafore pattern bring it along, maybe we can make a couple of pinafores over the weekend!

In the know

Pic from here

Ooh I love learning new things! I 'collect' information the way some people collect stamps and others collect vintage teatowels. I love to know stuff. I like to learn new things. If I find myself wondering about something, I just head straight to my faithful friend Mr Google...but often I get really annoyed at having to wade through a bunch of self promoting websites telling me they have all my answers if only I would sign up to their account/pay a membership fee/join their mailing list/buy their product...when all I really want is to hear from someone who has tried it/bought it/made it. Like, say, a craft blogger!

Well, on Sunday at the Stitches & Craft Show, in Studio 4 at 1.30pm I learned a very useful tip and an easy to find just the information I'm looking for.

Thanks to Jodie, I learned there is a way to search within blogs only, which is a fantastic way to find real information from real bloggers not pushy websites trying to sell you something!
When you open Google look across to top where it says:

Web Images Videos Maps News Books Gmail more 

Click on 'more' and select 'blogs' from the drop down menu, and get searching! Thanks Jodie for keeping us all in the know ;)

Mothers Day @ Stitches & Craft Show...

does it get any better than this?

My day began with real coffee and honey toast earnestly prepared by the kids, and loads of presents, not least of which was a pen and ink drawing of yours truly. I queried the 4 year old artist about the *ahem* detail in the picture..."That's your boobies Mummy" he grinned at me. I was desperately afraid to ask for any more detail but was thankfully assured it was my belly button. Phew! And then I had a lovely day at the show with The Junior Crafter and my very crafty Granny (who lives in Perth so it's always a treat to see her!).

I met up with an old friend, Carolyn and a new friend, Carmel and we went to Jodies talk in The Studio which was fab! Do you know Jodie? Have you heard Jodie talk before about something she is really passionate about? Like Craft? Or maybe blogging? Well, today she was talking about both and her level of enthusiasm almost put a rent in the space-time continuum (and almost got her told off again by the ever so sensible business type fellow giving a very serious and dignifed talk in the Studio next door!). Anyway the talk was funny and entertaining and informative and really quite inspiring...a bit like the girl herself really *grin* I made a little purchase at the RicRac stand, very exciting.

I ran into Bec and had a bit of a catch up at Nikki's stand, while Bec's daughter and my daughter sized each other up, liked what they saw and wandered off to draw some pictures together for the storywall. Saw Nikki of course, (and the other Nikki!) and admired the beautiful bags and hats, and oh my gosh, I really wanted to get a kit and make one of her gorgeous purses but there were too many choices and I didn't know what I could do (not having actually made any purses before and not being at all good with zips or those metal closing thingys!) and I got so overwhelmed by choice I didn't choose anything at all, and now I'm kicking myself VERY HARD because I wish I had bought a kit to take to S.I.T. next weekend where there will be plenty of crafty girls on hand to help me if I get stuck! Not to mention Nikki herself will be there! Doh!


I introduced myself to Caitlin of Pippijoe who was lovely and who's fabric designs I have admired for quite some time! I just missed Liesl but will be admiring an iron with her next Friday over a little glass of something bubbly and at a certain crafty girl's place.

It was heaven on a stick for a crafty-bloggy girl and has made me more excited about Sew It Together which is only a week away!

Anyone going to the Stitches and Craft show tomorrow?

I'm going to the Stitches and Craft Show tomorrow, with the Junior Crafter and my gorgeous Granny Margaret the original Queen of Craft. I'm so looking forward to it, but of course I am a wee bit disappointed I couldn't go yesterday and meet up with all the lovely bloggers who were there and also wishing I could have gone on Wednesday and met up with Kate and Vic at Jodie's stall!
Soooo I'm wondering who is planning to go tomorrow that we might run into? I'm really looking forward to the show!

PS Happy Mothers Day for tomorrow everyone.

Sew Darn Cute - Book review

I have just been given a copy of Jenny Ryan's Sew Darn Cute, and it seems to be aptly named, the projects are very cute. The book contains 30 projects, ranging from things for the home to kids stuff to totes. There are a lot of projects suitable for beginners in this book, but as mum to a junior crafter (aged 8) what I really like is that there are heaps of projects in here suitable for us to sew together.There is a Tools and Techniques section at the front of the book which I found to be a useful reference and would be particularly good for beginner sewers I think. The book contains all the templates you need to complete the projects as well.

I'm off to try to rescue 'Sew Darn Cute' from my daughter's bedside table so I can make a start on a project!

Quote of the day

Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day. - Winnie the Pooh

I think Pooh Bear has seen my long To Do list...

Cake. Believe it...or not.

When I was little it was the done thing to bring a delicious cake or cupcakes to kinder on one's birthday. All the little kinder friends would gather around, sing a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday To You (you look like a monkey...aaaaaaand you smell like one too), and share in the deliciousness of a homemade chocolate cake or a marbled rainbow cake.

These days, it seems, things are a little different. Birthday cake poses a genuine risk for children with allergies, but also suffers because it doesn't fit in with the healthy food picture that we try to paint for our preschoolers.

These days (at my son's preschool, at least) the children still sing 'Happy Birthday' but the candles they blow out are glued precariously to the top of a strange looking 'cake' made from plaster of paris turned out of an ice cream container mold. This 'cake' has been decorated with a liberal amount of fleurescent paint and wildly sprinkled with glitter and confetti, but it's been around for a good many years and is starting to look a bit sad and sorry and not quite as festive as a preschooler might expect on his or her birthday!

So, my son's kinder teacher recently* asked me if I would make them a new 'fake cake', and of course I got on to it immediately.
By recently I mean sometime around July last year...but who's counting?

So here it is. I hope it was worth the wait! It is decorated with real fondant over two polystyrene 'cake' rounds. The candle holders are set into the top of the cake so the appropriate number of candles can be inserted for the birthday child. The cake has been hot glued onto the board and I'm hoping that once the fondant has set rock hard the whole thing will last a couple of years!

Drawstring bag from a skirt

Today I whipped up a little thrifted drawstring bag for my daughter's tap shoes.
I found this gorgeous skirt at my local op shop recently for 50c and I thought the fabric was so pretty it would be just right for a little dance shoes bag.

Loosely inspired by this tutorial I simply cut a rectangle of fabric from the middle of the skirt making sure to include the pretty ruffles (4 pieces of fabric including the lining). I turned and sewed a simple casing along the top edge, turned it all right sides together and stitched around it! I then used a scrap of ribbon from my stash for the drawstring. So simple and pretty!