Dresses, dresses and skirts

I have been a busy sewing Jayney. I have made 4 Christmas dresses for the girls. Four Rapunzel dresses for my girls and their 2 friends and 2 skirts (for myself and my sister).

I had a lot of Christmas fabric and a head full of ideas that I would make a Christmas dress for just about everyday. Then I started to think that that would be too many dresses to make when the girls can only wear them for a limited time. So I made them both 2 Christmas dresses. Miss 4 and I looked at all different patterns and picked one for me to make her to wear on Christmas Day. Then we went to Spotlight and she picked the fabric she wanted. The pattern we picked was Simplicity 2469 and the fabric was pink with scribble Christmas trees. She is such a pink girl and the colour really suits her.

This isn't even all of it. I have more that is hidden away.

The dress was a bit of a challenge for me because it involved using elastic at the back to tighten the dress around the chest. I admit I was a bit scared to try it, but it ended up being really easy and turned out well.

I chose to make Miss 2's dress out of red Santa fabric. Red really makes her sparkle. It is definitely her colour. I again used the Simplicity 2377 pattern. Unfortunately I didn't have red thread, so used black instead. Was a little embarrassed about that. Still, the dress was very cute.

We had our family Christmas lunch early on my Dad's birthday a week into December, because we can never all make it on Christmas Day. So I made special Christmas dresses for that too. I made them out of Simplicity 2377 again, but this time I did the 2 tier one. They are so cute! I much prefer the 2 tier.

It was past bedtime and Miss 2 was already asleep, so the crocodile stepped in. 

Grandad opening his birthday present. 

I searched Simplicity 2377 to see what other people had made. I came across a lady who made this pattern into princess dresses. You can find the link here. I thought they looked fantastic. What a very clever lady and it gave me so many ideas! Miss 2 has loved Rapunzel since forever and Miss 4 is also a fan. Miss 4's other 2 friends are also into Rapunzel at the moment (same 2 little girls I made the dresses for). So I decided to make 4 Rapunzel dresses and give them to the friends for Christmas. Well let me tell you, sewing ribbon onto the fabric to make the sleeves and front yoke took FOREVER! It took me a few hours most nights for 2 weeks before they were finally finished (probably took longer because I was binge watching Vampire Diaries on Netflix at the same time).

I just used Top Poplin to make them because it was the cheapest fabric available that I could buy in bulk. I bought 4 metres each of dark and light purple fabric (only cost me $30 and I have heaps left over). Everyone who sees them thinks I should sell them. I have to admit that they do look fantastic and I just know that the other girls will love them too.

The skirt I made was Kwik Sew 3851. I have had this pattern and fabric for such a long time and I finally looked at it and decided that it wouldn't be that hard. I was right, it really wasn't hard. I am really happy with it.  When I was looking at the discounted fabrics at Spotlight, I came across sausage dog fabric. My sister has a sausage dog, so I bought it and made her the skirt. She absolutely loved it and put it on straight away. Looked fantastic. Only thing is I made it with an elastic waist instead of a draw string, but I prefer elastic to drawstring. That and I still have not worked out how to use all the functions on my sewing machine yet and can't access the button hole function...

I am really loving sewing at the moment. I would love to be able to make money from it, but at the moment I am still too slow to make my time worth it.

Well, I have more things to make and can't wait to get to it! Thanks for reading,

Jayne xx 

OMG!! My Husband Found my Fabric Stash!

We had to take the side off the cot before Miss 2 was even 1, because she would climb out of it. She was such a climber. She would even climb up a flat cupboard door to get onto the kitchen bench, that is until she realised she could use the draw handles as a ladder. There was no stopping that kid.

Well she is 2 now and wants to use a real bed like a big girl, so we have made the transition and now we have both girls in the same room and moved all her clothes etc into Miss 4's room. 

When the girls outgrow their clothes, I put them into plastic bags in each size, so a bag of size 1, 2, 3 etc (I find it hard to throw out old baby clothes, maybe it's cause it took so long for us to start our family and I don't think we will get no. 3 without help again). My Husband is used to seeing bags of clothes packed into the wardrobes. In Miss 2's room I had actually organised myself, and all her old clothes were in a seperate cupboard above the wardrobe. My Husband thought my fabric stash was old clothes... until we cleaned out the wardrobe. Yes, he found my fabric stash!

I had bags of fabric over a meter high all stashed in there. You should have seen his face when he realised it was a fabric stash. He was crouched down on his knees in front of the wardrobe and just rocked back and sat there looking at with this dumbfounded look on his face. For about a full 30 seconds he just sat there looking at it with that face. I wanted to run. I could feel panic rising in me. My heart started to race and my breath quicken, but I couldn't look away. He then said, "I have seen all those Spotlight bags... But I never thought..". Then he seemed to shake it off and said, "I know you don't buy anything full price-". I quickly agreed. Then he said, "I want you to use this and see you make things".

I just can't tell you my relief! So I have been busy making little dresses for my girls and 2 of my girlfriend's little girls.

I used Simplicity 2377 pattern F. From tracing out the size and cutting it out, and cutting the fabric, it takes me about three hours to actually make the dress. I am definitely not one of those people who can do things quickly.

I had some $2/m fabric from the Spotlight clearance rack and went to work making little dresses.

Miss 2 is a size 2, but the smallest size in that pattern is a size 3, so I made her a size 3. Instead of doing a 1.5cm seam allowance, I did a 2cm seam for her. It is long on her and I should probably take the hem up, but it looks really good on her and she was happy with it.  Miss 4 is a size 4, so that was easy. I made her a few of these dresses and they're very cute. She likes wearing them. She actually pulls it out of the wardrobe herself and puts them on. The first one I made was Hello Kitty and I have received a lot of comments on it.

I also got a lot of comments on the $2 fabric one. A lady at Church told me that it looks like I bought it from a boutique. My friends' girls are a size 5 and 6.

When I gave the first dress away, my friend said she felt like crying she was so happy. She loved it and that makes me feel really good. I'm really glad I made them for my friends' little girls. They worked out really well.

Now to get started on Christmas dresses!

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog :)

Snuggle Lounge Blanket a la Jayne

I have been busy and I haven't. I have made a few things: a dress for myself (which makes me look frumpy); a few dresses for Miss 4; and a great Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon, costume which was a joint effort with my Husband, made a la us. It was just fantastic! We were so proud, the school even put her photo in the school newsletter.

It was winter and I hate the cold. It's like I can't move. Because it was so cold, I did not made much. When I purchased the nipple Minky for Curley Tail, I couldn't help but notice that just a metre of the stuff would make an excellent blanket. It was on a really cold night that I decided to make a Minky blanket.

I went to Spotlight and purchased a metre each of purple and pink Minky, and also some wadding.  Then I googled how to make a blanket without having to use binding. The advice I found was to sew it all together and then pull it inside out and sew up the hole and sew in a boarder. Someone said to spread the Minky out on the carpet and pin it. I did this, but found that it was hard to line up, probably because the Minky was the same size and left no room for overlap. Made it harder because of the wadding too. I found that if I put it on a hard surface and pinned it together, then I was able to keep it all together easily. It worked out so well, that I bought a metre each of green nipple and pink Minky so the girls had one each.

It was really fun and quick and easy to make and everyone loves them. Miss 4 likes to sleep with hers. Otherwise, they live on the lounge and keep everyone warm. Now that it is Spring, I even use them as pillows (still too early to put them away because we are still getting some cold days/nights).

Thanks for following my journey.

Jayne xx

Reviving 'Curley Tail'

Miss 4 was given a soft Pig pillow/toy for her birthday from her BFF. She absolutely loves it. She was sleeping with it, dragging it around the house, wanting to take it to Nan Nan's house etc. Within a couple of days it was starting to fall apart. The seams were ripping and the little plastic dots on the bottom of it were falling off (everywhere).

   

    

Spotlight had a sale on Minky fabric, so I decided to buy a metre of it and fix 'Curley Tail'. Miss 4 picked hot pink.

I unpicked/ripped off the back of the pig and used the pieces as a pattern for the Minky.

   

I was nervous to use Minky because I heard that it was really difficult to use. I googled it and people were advising to use pins every 2cm because the fabric slipped, so I went overboard with pinning it.

  

The back legs were seperate, so I did them and stuffed them first. Yep, the first one I did I forgot to leave a gap to turn it the right way round. Miss 4 was very happy with the back legs and was using them as a pillow.

  

The sewing went fine and I didn't have a problem with slipping. Then I thought all those pins were unnecessary, so I pinned high up and added a few pins where I was going to sew.

Then I couldn't be bothered with all those pins, so just pinned it normally. It wanted to slip a little bit, but nothing that couldn't be easily controlled.

Once I sewed the body, I realised I needed to sew the legs into the body and not just attach them. Therefore I had to unpick so I could sew in the back legs.
Once I turned it the right way and stuffed it, it was just a simple matter of machine sewing the gap.

  

  

Miss 4 loves it. Even I couldn't stop cuddling it. It seems much thicker now, but that it probably just that my seams were bigger. I thought that the hot pink wouldn't work with the colour of the fur, but it was a really good choice. Very happy with the result. I think it looks fantastic!

Thanks,

Jayne

Welcome to my new blog

My name is Jayne and I am a married stay at home mum of 2 beautiful girls. I really needed something to do for myself. Before she died, my Nan gave me her Husqvarna sewing machine with all the bits and bobs. I always imagined that when I had kids I would make all their clothes (well some of them anyway). My oldest was just about to turn 4 and I decided that it was time to start. While I don't lack enthusiasm, I do lack experience and skill and have to google how to do even the most basic things.

My first project was matching dresses for my girls. I used the Burda Kids 9494 dress B.

I admit that I didn't quite get how the top section went together, so had to unpick it about 4 or 5 times. I can't even guess how it connected the shoulder straps, so I just sewed them straight across. I don't think I have a zipper foot, so my zippers were not the best. Regardless, it turned out really well and everyone commented how good the girls looked!

I was feeling really positive and loving that I had made something that the girls could actually wear, so I decided to make a library bag for my 4yo. So I googled library bags and came across a monster bag (http://lessordinarylibrarian.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/monster-book-bags.html). For about a week I thought about how to make it and even wrote out instructions for myself. Finally I ended up with this:

So proud of this effort! My 4yo didn't think that much of it though lol But she does love going to the library.

So I was super confident by this stage and decided to make Vogue V1247.

It was just a huge failure! Talk about a misadventure! When I finally finished the skirt, it turned out to be more like a size 6 than the size 12 I was trying to make. Again I had trouble with the zipper. I will really have to invest in a zipper foot (or at the very least get my Mother over and show her what I have - maybe I do have a zipper foot?). Nevertheless, I gave it to my niece who said it fit and that she will wear it next week.

The top turned out (well not really). I couldn't work out how to do the cuffs and I got the bottom front section around the wrong way. On the advice of the sales assistant at Spotlight, I used the wrong fabric and it didn't even look good at a squint. The fabric was absolutely beautiful, so I was very disappointed that I wasted it making that top.

Miss 4 was then invited to a princess themed birthday party, so it sparked my creativity and I decided to put my Vogue disaster behind me and make Frozen play dresses for the girls based on the Burda Kids 9494 pattern B. I used Frozen satin for the skirt, blue sequined dance fabric for the top and added an organza cape. I still don't want to attempt a zipper, so I changed the back of the dress so it was V shaped and could fit over the head. Unfortunately it was a bit of a comedy of errors. My first mistake was to use a wrong bobbin. Apparently bobbins are not one size fits all. My second mistake was that I sewed too much and too fast the blue sequins, which caused the needle to heat up and the fabric to melt. These mistakes caused major (I repeat MAJOR) damage to my machine. I had to take it to Vera's Machine Shop to be fixed. They had it for about a month.

I still really wanted to finish the dresses for the party, so I borrowed my Mum's machine. With strict instructions from Vera's, I used oil every couple of inches on the needle and went really, really slowly. Everyone said the girls looked fantastic. So proud of my work! Miss 4 loves to put it on, even to play in the backyard.

 Frozen play dresses for a princess themed birthday party

With my confidence restored, I decided to make the V1247 top again, this time with fabric that will drape. I managed to work out the cuffs and didn't have to unpick at all. It's not perfect, but I love it! The first time I wore it was at Church when I was scheduled to do a reading. Miss 1 was restless, so was going for a walk outside with my Mum when I went to the front of the Church. When I started reading, Miss 1 heard me and came running back into the Church and straight up the aisle like a little elephant. I started to giggle, so had to stop. Then she proceeded to grab at my shirt and pull it down. OMG my bra was exposed in front of the whole Church (although I was told that the Bible covered everything - someone else also said that they thought there would be a strip show). I completely lost my place and someone had to point out where I was up to. By the time I finished and looked up (because I was too embarrassed to look up before then), the whole congregation had Cheshire Cat smiles on their faces.

This now brings us up to date with my completed sewing projects. I welcome any advice on offer. I am still learning, but am finding that it is getting easier. I love sewing and buying fabric and patterns. I have a couple of projects ongoing at the moment and can't wait to share when they are completed.

Thanks, Jaynehttp://lessordinarylibrarian.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/monster-book-bags.html