My creative space....

I have decided to join in with Melissa at One Crafty Mumma and do a Ripple-along!  Now I could have easily used up some of the stash in my cupboard but it was all so bright and lary and made up of bits of this and bits of that.  And while I would have much preferred to be able to wander into a lovely wooly shop like The Stash Cupboard, Hobart was just too far away (Sorry Penni!), so I went with the old faithful and had an emergency dash to Spotlight.

 

I saw this pin on pinterest that inspired my colour choice as well as my decision to go with fat ripples.
 

Source: hellosmitten.tumblr.com via Sonia on Pinterest

 

 My colour choices - trying to keep it simple.



 

Now I just have to settle on which ripply pattern to follow:

(click on the image and it will take you to the respective patterns)

 

The Royal Sisters...

 

Attic 24...

 

Meet Me at Mikes...

 

And, hark!  What else did I spy at Spotlight?! 



Timber Babushka cross stitch!  Well of course I needed two!

This is where I am up to with my scrappy quilt along thingy.  Just two more blocks and I think I am done.  Then of course I have to work out what to do next!!!  This is not the final placement of each square - I just needed to lay it all out to see what colours I need to go with for may last two pieces.  I'm thinking a greeny block and maybe a purple one too.

 

My creative space....

My creative space...

I had quite a skirty weekend!  A girlfriend asked me to make these four matchy match skirts for a friend of hers who has just given birth to her fourth baby girl!  Lucky thing!

 

I'm a big fan of dressing your small people in same same things on occasion!  I know many who are not!  I think while they are little you can get away with soooo much in the dressing department so do it while you can!!!

 

I must have learnt it from my mother....

In case you can't see very well, those are matching terry toweling t-shirt and short sets!  My mum changed it up a little to allow me a pink set, but still, we match!!!

 

 

 

 

I grabbed a few plain white t's for her to match them all up, for a nice clean crisp look (which should last approximately 3.5 seconds once you get a white t-shit on a small person!).

 

(here's a how to if you would like to make a pretty panel dolly skirt too!)

 

For more creative spaces, head on over to Kidspot.  There's always some lovely inspiration to be found!

Feelings

This is what I look like today after having all of wisdom teeth removed yesterday.  Just without the mask.  My head is so wide at my jaw I couldn't put my tshirt on this morning so I am staying in my pyjamas all day.  You should see the icepak the hospital sent home - it wraps around my cheeks and ties at my head like a headband.  I feel like crap and look it too. 

When I saw this today on the Etsy blog and I had to share.  Because it has babushkas.  And because it it is beautiful.  Which I am not, today anyway.

Finders Keepers... losers, weepers (especially if you missed out!)

I made it!  To Finders Keepers!  With 3 children!  I even managed to look at a few lovely crafty stalls and interact with a grown up or two!  I may also have hissed wildly at a naughty five year old who stood at the front entrance and declared loudly that this was the most boring place he'd ever been!  I may also have cringed embarrassingly at some comments from my MIL about how expensive some of the 'rubbishy craft' was! Said in front of stall holders!  Within their hearing distance!

Frankly, I could have spent a fortune but I could only ram so many people with my stroller to get closer to stalls before I started getting the evil glare.  And man it was busy!  Three, four and five deep in most places and whilst I was desperate to try a Taco from the Beatbox kitchen caravan out the front, those crowds you see in that first picture all had the same idea! 

Just two of my cute purchases...

...teeny tiny babushka earings!

 

...gorgeous granny square tshirt!

I will totes be going again when it's in town!  Without children!  Or visiting MIL's!

Change your mind reversible skirts!

I have new favourite birthday skirts!  They are still simple and have taken less than an hour each!  I totes love them!  The dollies!  The ric rac!  The reversibility (we all know little ladies like to change their minds)!

The pattern is from 1, 2, 3 Sew and the author has a lovely blog called The Long Thread which I totally think you should go and visit since she is ever so generous and shares lots of crafty links and tutes and whatnot!

You can see Ellen's change your mind skirt from the book right here.  She has used beautiful Liberty fabric which my budget can't quite reach yet.  The fabric below was purchased from Spotlight yesterday (except for the black babushka dollies which was gifted to me).  The red and blue is from their Lisette range and the vintage dressing up ladies was just a lucky find in their quilting cottons.  Cute yes?!

These two are heading to Hobart to my lovely neices who have birthdays days apart from each other.  I am going to team them with a couple of plain tops each from Target and maybe some nice tights - outfit complete!  Present complete!

My creative space...

I have been obsessing over the Little Red Riding Hood Cape in the Oliver & S Little Things to Sew book for ages!

 I was going to make a lovely red copy of the one pictured but then I spied some babushka corduroy fabric on sale at Spotty during the week and brought a metre or so thinking I'd surely find a use for it.  When I spy babushka anything, I am hard pressed to leave it there!

Bow down to the wonders of my sewing (and my appalling iphone photos)!!!!

I made the medium from the book and it is perfect for Matilda (she is 3), with plenty of room for movement and growing. 

Now, I know it is not perfect because I used fabric with a pattern and of course once you cut all the pieces out, my dollys didn't all match up nicely, but I seriously don't think it matters when it's this cute!

The vacant stare - post kinder photo sessions are really not an optimal for mini models.

Bribery to even stand still was required.... in the form of THE MOST ANNOYING WIGGLES MOVIE EVER!!!!

Why hello poppet.  That's a nice scowl you're sporting there!

The inside fabric is also from Spotlight and comes from the lovely new Lisette range.  The little babushka button was purchased from a market ages ago and made by Buttons by Lou Lou who isn't in operation anymore.

Cute dolly close up!

It took my a couple of hours to make the cape and it does say it is for beginner sewers.  I think it is fairly straightforward but I made sure I read through it all first so I had a good visual idea of what I needed to do before I started hacking away at the fabric.

Have you been creative this week?

My creative space... Part two!

Gosh I love making these little skirts for presents!  Quick, easy, not too expensive... and completely sticking with my attempt at handmade gifts this year!

I like to team them with a plain t-shirt picked up at Target or Big W which I can then leave plain or pretty it up!  In this case with a babushka dolly that I have ironed and sewn on!  What a surprise!

For this skirt I followed this tutorial to add the apple panel onto the bottom.  I then finished it off like I do with the Pretty Panel Doll skirts - sew the side seams together, iron them out, create a hem, create a waistband.

Our creative spaces is a weekly blog post where you can head to add your own creative link and check out everyone elses.

My creative space...

I'm afraid I have not been very creative at all this week.  I dont think writing out class contact lists for my role as the class parent or formatting the kinder newsletter really count!

I am onto the fourth band of my granny corner blanket which I managed to do whilst 'watching' my small girl in the pool the other day though!

I am liking it a bit more now since I have added the blue.  The lavender purple was scaring me a little bit initially but it has toned down and will probably be even better once the next band of colour is finished!

I've also managed to cut out some babushka ladies ready for some skirts too!  The two that went toward the King Auction ended up getting to $50 which I thought was fantastic!

More creative peeps are hanging around 'our creative spaces'.

Light.

Why, yes, it is a lamp with babushka's all around it! 

part of fatmumslim's photo a day challenge : only three days to go!!!

Reflection.

Yes, they are babushka's on my phone.  And around my neck.  And in the background, on the windowsill and the shelf.  Obsessed I tell you.  Obsessed.

part of fatmumslim's photo a day challenge

Pretty Panel Skirt: A Tutorial

Remember when I guest posted over at Emma's simple handmade gifts for girls series?

I showed you how I made simple skirts for little girls.  I have made so many of them now, I can literally whip them up in half an hour or so.

Yesterday I decided to get a bit tricky and fancy this skirt up a bit more!  I am such a thrill seeker!  I am calling it

The Pretty Panel Skirt!

So, what I think you should do, is pop over to Emma's and read about making a simple skirt just so you have the basics down, then come on back here and I'll show you how I added the pretty panel in....

Righto,

Grab your materials.  Here I am using a spotty blue fabric as the main part of the skirt, some pretty floral as the panel and then just to be super fancy I am (of course!) adding a babushka dolly to the panel to pretty it up even more.

 Measurement wise, I made my panel the same length as the skirt and about 7 inches wide.  Really you can make it as wide as you like.  I made it wide enough to add the sweet dolly on.

Lay out your main fabric right side up and then line up the edge of your panel fabric right side down to one of the edges of your main fabric.  Sew down that edge.  In the picture below, I have sewn down the right hand side.

Turn this over now and line up the other edge of your pretty panel with the other edge of your main skirt fabric and sew down that line (again, in the image below this is down the righthand side.

Press your seams open so they are nice and flat and turn it out the right way and you should end up with this...

Now you can just go back to the simple skirt tutorial and create your hem as normal and maybe your waistband too.  If you would like to pretty your panel up even more as I have done with the dolly, leave your waistband for now.

To add my dolly I ironed her onto some visoflex (do I have that spelled right???) then cut around her gently and then ironed her onto the fabric panel.

To make her even more secure I then zigzagged around her edges.

Once you have done that you can go ahead and make your waistband following the same instructions you would use in the simple skirt tutorial.

All done?

Does yours look like this?

Pretty, yes?  And definately fancy!

I hope this all made sense.  Please feel free to ask questions (although I am not sure I will know the answers!)



It's beginning to look a lot like (a babushka) Christmas!

The tree has gone up a few days early.  Our tree tends to be a mixture of cute ornaments I have come across over the years, things the kids make at school and sweet christmassy babushka's people have given me!

The Christmas Advent bunting has been hung and is waiting to be filled with goodies.  This is the second one of these I made I loved them sooo much!  One was sent off to the Haby Goddess' Handmade Kris Kringle and then of course I needed one for our house.  I saved time on mine though by just hot glue gunning those numbers onto the pockets rather than sewing them (the hot glue gun and I are friends again!).

This babushka advent box is sitting next to the tv.  How cute is she?!  Her drawers are sooo tiny though I am not sure what to put in them.  Suggestions???

Presents have begun appearing under the tree (babushka wrapping paper and stickers from David Jones).

And the Little People nativity scene has been dusted off!

Are you ready for Christmas?

My creative space...

I made these lovely ladies this week from this fabulous pattern! 

Why?  Just because really.  Do you ever feel like that?

And now because I have made one, I feel an overwhelming urge to make several more.

I even managed to make those cute faces myself!

For some reason, mine have ended up looking a little smaller than the ones in the original pattern picture.  Maybe I didn't print it properly.  I think I also need to invest in some good quality felt.  This stuff is from Spotlight and it only costs about $1 per A4 size piece and I dont think it would last very long if a small person actually wanted to play with these ladies.  Also I have just used my sewing machine cotton on those faces.  Should I praps use the proper embroidery type stuff?

Did you notice they are leaning ever so nicely against my new book I won over at The Red Thread?

I've also had a MASSIVE blanket fuck up this week.  Apologies for the language but that is exactly how I feel after all the hard work I've already done.  I was merrily doing my 14th row when it appeared I was somehow a square short.  After searching high and low I did a quick count and realised that I had added an entire row on the wrong side of my blanket!!!!  So, instead of having 12 x 15 rows, I have a nice big square 13 x 13 and some left over - I'm thinking a matching cushion?!

See all those ends up there????  Multiply my 169 squares by 8. 

1352

That's how many ends I have to sew in.  Plus a few extras for when I have run out of a white ball mid round.

Kill me now.  Because I am still not finished.

I have a row to go.  Then the edge.

Then I think I will be sick of the sight of it and want to give the jolly thing away...

Or maybe not.  I spread it out on the carpet every now and then just to get a look at all that circly granny goodness and my heart still zings!  I am hoping it will be ready for the big reveal next week!!!

Other creative peeps hang out over here every Thursday.