Christmas Time

It's that time of year again. I have 2 children and a Husband to care for and just that is exhausting enough! But of course I added to it. I decided months ago that I would make all the decorations for our tree myself. Quite ambitious, I know. I also decided to make hanging yo yo Christmas trees to give away to friends, and of course Christmas dresses for my girls. Then I was inspired to also make a Christmas dress for myself too. Yes, it is a busy time of year!

Making handmade Christmas decorations to hang on the tree sounds beautiful. I really had high expectations for how it would turn out. Ignoring the amount of effort it will take, it sounds great, right? Well, ambition is a lot different to reality.

I went to Spotlight and bought Christmas fabric in the hopes of turning it into decorations. My idea was to cut out shapes and sew together with wadding. I made a whole heap of bells and baubles and I was not impressed.

Homemade Christmas decorations 

My loving Husband said they were great and that we should use them, so I gave them to the kids to put on the tree. Gotta love the encouragement you get from someone who loves you.

Before kids, I always took pride in decorating the tree. I always had it decorated to perfection. Because of this, I would never have allowed those handmade decorations anywhere near my tree. My eldest baby is now 5 and I have finally completely relinquished control of decorating the tree. Doesn't sound like much, but I really was a little controlling in that regard.

Needless to say, I am over decorating the tree with only handmade decorations.

Every year I like to put together a little Christmas plate to give to friends. Well really, this is only the 3rd Christmas I have done it, but I would like to make it a regular thing. The first year I bought Maxwell Williams Christmas bowls and filled them with Lindt chocolates and European yums from Aldi (biscuits and chocolates). Last year I thought to cost save and just used paper plates with Lindt chocolates and Aldi yums. Apparently the family were not impressed with the paper plates, so I decided to get proper plates or bowls for this year. I ended up using Maxwell Williams star bowls and mugs, Christmas mugs, Santa bowls and little glass stars. I filled them with Lindt chocolates, lollies and candy canes. I love the Aldi yums, but I wanted everything packaged so I didn't have to make it up last minute. To put on the top, I made hanging yo yo Christmas trees.

Wrapped Christmas gift plates

I bought 2m of red and 2m of green Christmas fabric from Spotlight. I also ordered little star beads, bells and cord from AliExpress a couple of months ago. I was being prepared because postage takes so long. AliExpress is a great source of crafty things and trims that you can buy cheap - as long as you are prepared to wait the long postage time. Actually, they sell a lot of cheap things (stocking fillers included) and before you know it, you have spent a fortune on a lot of different little things!

I then searched all my cupboards until I found 4 different sized round objects - a plate, bowl, colander and a cup.

I cut out 2 rounds of each size, so I used 8 rounds to make each tree. Because I wanted to make 20 trees, which would be 160 yo yos, I was not prepared to do the stitching by hand. Instead I used the long stitch on my sewing machine. It was exhausting sewing all those rounds, let me tell you. I like to see results when I sew and sewing all those rounds really took it out of me. Once sewed, I pulled the threads to turn them into yo yos. I stacked them all atop each other to make the tree, then used a needle with the cord to attach the trees, bell and star. They actually took a lot longer to make than I initially anticipated.

Hanging yo yo Christmas tree decoration

The ones that I have given away so far have been really well received. I'll just ignore the fact that my brother was more excited about the chocolates.

I had fun making Miss 5's Christmas dress. I used the usual (Simplicity 2377) and added an elastic waist, a frilly red trim and 2 yo yos as flowers. I used fabric with Christmas dogs.

Miss 3's dress was Simplicity 2469. I never added extras on her dress because the fabric was fun and the pattern pretty. Christmas Kookaburras is so Australian - I love it.

Christmas dresses

I have never had success making dresses for myself. I have New Look 6095 and read endless reviews saying that it was easy for a beginner. It also had a zipper! I finally located my zipper foot (thanks to Google and YouTube) and decided that now was the time to learn. I measured myself and my measurements were all over the place. Size 16 bust, 20 waist and 12-14 hips. How on earth is anyone supposed to work that out? And a size 20 waist? Really? I know I have put weight on, but I usually wear (and fit into) a size 10. So I decided to make a size 12.

I found the most fabulous Christmas fabric. The making of the dress was pretty straight forward. I'm not one to read instructions and just 'get' them, so I was a little lost on the zipper bit. Thanks to internet searches, I knew how to sew on the zipper. And that was as far as I got before my 'misadventures' started. In all truthfulness, my misadventures started when I forgot what interfacing was and this happened:

Interfacing fail - yep, thats poplin

Back to the zipper. I didn't know how far to sew up the back prior to attaching the zipper, so I did the zipper first. As you can imagine I had a time of completing the back seam.

Once the dress was completed it looked fantastic. I was so happy with it, I couldn't wait to try it on. Unfortunately, it was so tight across the chest that I could hardly breathe. Hips and waist were a little tight too. I'll put it in the wardrobe for next Christmas when I lose weight.

Undeterred, I decided to make another in a different Christmas snowman fabric. Again, it was pretty straight forward until I got to the zipper part. This time I realised that I needed to sew the back seam first. Then I decided to add the hem - because why not? Then I tackled the zipper. Of curse I didn't sew the back up far enough and one side ended up being longer than the other, which I had to fluff closed. In the end I zigzagged it because I couldn't work it out. Because of the fabric pattern, you really can't tell.

I got a lot of compliments on the girls' dresses and my own at the 2 Christmas parties we have been to so far.

My 2 fabulous Christmas dresses 

Sorry for the long post, but I have been very busy in the lead up to Christmas. Already my mind is turning towards what I can make next for my girls. I'm thinking Simplicity 2265. It's so much fun creating. Until next time.

Jayne

Halloween

I was shopping at my usual (Spotlight), when I found on the clearance racks spider satin fabric! It was in the $3/m section and they were having a sale that if you purchased 3 meters from the clearance racks, then you would get it half price. So I bought 3 meters of spider satin fabric for $1.50/m! This was AGES ago, so I was well prepared for Halloween.

Cut to now - 3 days to Halloween. I have just finished making 2 spider dresses for the girls.

Now, I have learned that when you sew with satin, you need to zig zag around the edges before attempting to sew the dress together! I didn't and that stuff frays like nothing else. It was clogging up everything and I even broke a needle from all the frayed threads wrapping around the needle. The worst was that it all got static and was sticking to everything. My little pile of cut off threads was levitating to my hands whenever I got near.

I made the usual (Simplicity 2377) for both girls - a size 3 and a size 5. The size 3 I made dress C, and the size 5 I did dress B. I made the size 3 first. It would have to be the 'harder' one to make because of the frilly bits. This is when I realised that all must be zig zagged (surged?) before even attempting to sew together.

Dress C for the size 5 was quicker and easier to make because of the zig zagging. Unfortunately, it just didn't look any good.

One of Miss 5's little friends from school is the same size, so I gave her the option of keeping the dress or giving it away. Because she already had a Halloween dress, she choose to give it away. The little girl loved it, but one of the teachers was concerned that her mother was against Halloween. Oh well, I did speak to the head of infants/primary afterwards and she thought it was great and very kind of me.

I gave a Rapunzel dress away to one of Miss 5's friends once. It was a size 8 from a sale that fell through. I contacted the girls mum by email first (in case she wanted it for Book Week) and explained it to her and told her it was a size 8. She accepted it and I took it to school on Book Week day. Turns out that the kid was a size 12. She was wearing it at pickup and I don't know how she was breathing, it was so tight. I don't know why the mother accepted it in the first place. To top it off, she gave me some rotten chocolates as thanks. In her defence, she may not have known they were rotten (they had previously been melted and some had exploded and were making chocolate spiderwebs).

Anyway, Miss 5 wanted to give it away because previously she had asked me for a vampire dress. She wanted something slinky with spaghetti straps, but instead I made her the usual (Simplicity 2377) in dress C size 6. Looks fantastic and she loves it. I used black ribbon for trim and a wide dark red organza ribbon for along the bottom of the dress. I really like it, but I do think it is missing something up top.

Now to work on my next project - Christmas decorations!

Need to get back that sewing buz!

Soooo. I ended up closing my Etsy shop. I have to say I am relieved. I was constantly checking my stats and even started dropping the price just so I could make little dresses. Every dress I looked at, I thought of in terms of money. It was taking over my life. It felt like work. My devotion to it was even starting to come between my Husband and I. So it is gone and I feel free. I actually felt instantly free - which was just fantastic - I never realised how much it was weighing me down.

Yes I feel free to make what I want for me and my girls, but now I just don't feel the urge. How funny is that. Something I loved so much and now I just can't bring myself to make anything.

I attempted to make Simplicity 1381. Miss 5 picked the fabric and I traced out the pattern and cut out the fabric... and that's as far as I got. It's still sitting on my shelf. All it needs is to be sewn together and I can't bring myself to do it.

I decided to try and get my mojo (sew-jo?) back by making a couple of old faithfuls.

I added lace trims and made them look pretty and everything. But I'm not happy with them - the owl dress is a size too big, the pink is also too big and I cut the dress too short, and I cut the dress too narrow on the gray birds as well as putting the bow too far under the arm. Please ignore that they need ironing. I am very anti iron and only pull it out a couple of times a year. If you fold as soon as you pull it off the line, then there is no need to iron. I just left these in the washing machine too long and there was no wind to straighten the creases. Oh well.

I love making the Simplicity 2377. It is a very easy little dress to make. It looks great, my kids like it and can step into it themselves. They wear it to Church, they wear it to the playground. They wear it everywhere and they look great. My Mother has now told me to start making something else. Hmmm something else... I don't really want to make something else, but my Mother has said that to me a few times now and it has started to "taint" my beloved Simplicity 2377.

I know I need to try something else, but this dress is just so great for my girls and my girls actually like them.

I think I need to stop trying to live up to the expectations of others and just live up to my expectations. I know that Simplicity 2377 is the perfect design for my growing and active girls - it completely passes the everyday play test AND THEY WANT TO WEAR IT!

It feels like a load off my shoulders just typing that lol

I should update you about my Husband. That sore on his neck was just a spider bite (and thank the Lord because the Doctor did mention the "C" word).

I also did end up making a Snow White dress. It looks super cute on! I am surprised at how cute it is.

I also went to a Grease themed fancy dress party. I went as a Cheerleader.

I really hate pics of myself, I never look the way I imagine in my head! I made the pom poms myself from scraps and the skirt was Kwik Sew K3851 from top poplin in my stash. It was for a friend I met through Mother's Group - so I was not part of every other woman who was dressed as a Pink Lady in their matching pink jackets that they all bought together. No, I'm not upset about that at all lol. It was still a good night.

I'm going to try and finish the Simplicity 1381 now, or maybe even make Miss 3 a Yellow Wiggle dress (from S2377 of course!). Ahh the choice is endless 😃

Took a break from sewing

I have not been sewing as much as I would like to. My dear Husband has had a couple of injuries and has been at home for the last couple of months. I am really hoping these things don't come in 3s, because that would mean one more injury for him ☹️ (hopefully it's not the horrible sore that won't heal on the side of his neck).

I have made a rag blanket from 3 jelly rolls and flannellette. I really love the way it turned out. I wanted to attempt a landscape rag quilt, so this is my jelly roll rag quilt sunset over water with land in foreground lol. I'm really happy with it 😆

I went down to the local Salvos and found some fabric already cut out and ready to sew into a quilt! It was only $2 so I couldn't say no. I laid it out and I think it is going to look really pretty. Just have to start it.

Well, I have sold another Rapunzel dress on Etsy and got 5 stars! Apparently the little girl loves it and won't take it off - which is just great. I think I am more excited that something I made will be worn at Disney Land though! My Etsy shop is here btw 😉

I have made Miss 5 another Rapunzel dress and an Elsa inspired dress. Too bad it's winter and she can't get to wear them atm. She loves me making little dresses for her - which I am so thankful for.

She is such a little poser!

I wanted to make Miss 5 a reversible dress. I have some absolutely beautiful corduroy and some bright pink Hello Kitty drill that I wanted to use. Instead of buying a pattern, I got a freebie from Crafty (which you can find here). I didn't like how it turned out and want to make adjustments, but Miss 5 says she loves it as it is. I think it looks a bit like a sack. This is my first go at buttons and I cut the hole too big and it kept coming undone, so I had to zig zag it up a bit.

I am also itching to make a Snow White dress. We watched the movie, so I have a design plan, but Miss 5 says she dosent want it and to make it for Miss 2. 

The girls have also been into Mia and Me (all about elves and unicorns). It's actually not that bad. The girls LOVE it! I want to make them a Mia dress and get the book so Miss 5 can wear it to book week. Do you think I can find an English Mia and Me book? Not at all. I have even contacted the publisher, but they won't reply. Maybe I will just fix up the Astrid outfit and she can wear that again.

I was thinking of making yo yos for the charms on the Mia dress. OMG I am a yo yo convert! They are so pretty and easy to make! I have already turned some into hair clips. I might try and sell them on Etsy. If you haven't had a go at them, then you should definitely try!

Here is a quick tutorial:

You will need:

• Fabric (I just used scraps)
• Something round - twice the size you want the yo yo (I used an old Tupperware container)
• Pen.
• Scissors.
• Needle and thread.

Get your scrap and trace around your round object, then cut it out.

With your circle of fabric, fold over a small hem (about 5mm / 1/4").

Tack right around the circle. Space your stitches.

Once right around, pull the thread to bring to edges together. Tie off.

Flatten into yo yo shape and ta da! You have a yo yo!

I like to put a button in the middle of mine. If you want to add a button, don't tie off and instead sew on the button to finish. Then go onto Pinterest and search yo yo crafts lol

Have fun sewing and try making yo yos!

Jayne xx

Frozen Fever Anna Dress

My eldest has now turned 5! Can't believe how fast it has gone. I was looking at dresses online thinking about what I could make next. Miss 5 came over and pointed out an Anna dress and asked that I make it for her. Of course I said I would. I was just so happy that she had requested something. I would have made her anything lol

Her birthday was coming up and we had bought her a bike. She knew this and had even picked it out. We were going on holidays down the coast, so she was going to get her bike early, which meant that she would have nothing to open on her birthday. So I decided to make her the dress for her birthday. She did originally pick out the Frozen Anna dress, but I bought the fabric for both Frozen and Frozen Fever. I did intend to make both dresses for her. I ran out of time of course, so only made her the Frozen Fever one. It took a lot of thought and design and constantly looking at pictures of movie stills. This is what I came up with. I am very proud of how it turned out.

I used broadcloth for the dress, mainly because it was on sale at Spotlight. Not sure if I would use it for a dress again. It crinkles easily and is not forgiving if you make a mistake, but the range of colours and price is fantastic. For the dress itself, I used Simplicity 2377 in size 5. I was walking past a sewing/craft shop and found craft ribbon for $0.50 each! What a bargain. Of course I bought some.

I should have taken photos of my progress, but of course I didn't think of that.

I did the detail for the bodice first. I folded over red ribbon to look like butterfly wings and sewed the stem over it to keep it in place. I thought the red was a little too red, so I used a light thread to sew the wings half way so they could kinda flutter and diffuse the red. I used a lighter to melt the ends of the ribbon before I sewed them so they would not fray.

I folded the dress in half and then in half again and marked the creases. I used these crease marks to place the stems for the sunflowers. This gave me 3 evenly spaced sunflowers on the front and back of the dress. I also marked the middle at the top of the dress for when I sewed it to the bodice.

The sunflowers on the dress took a lot of thought. I couldn't find actual sunflowers to appliqué on, so I thought I would baste down the middle of yellow ribbon and then scrunch it up, then I pinned it to the dress in a spiral with red thread.

I folded green ribbon into a V for the leaves and half sewed them onto the stems. I also folded yellow ribbon into a V and half sewed them inbetween the flowers. Because they are only half sewed on, the flutter when the dress is being worn. Looks cute, but I would probably completely sew the leaves next time (saying that, half sewing them does allow for inconsistencies).

I then attached the dress to the bodice and top stitched the gold ribbon.

I was quite proud of my effort, but I figured Miss 5 would probably not want to wear it, so I whipped up another little Simplicity 2377 dress using peacock fabric and peach broadcloth. It too me less than an hour to complete.

On the morning of her birthday, I gave her the 2 dresses wrapped up. She opened them and said she "hates Anna" and that she loves the peacock dress. Of course she hates the dress that took me hours to design and make and that I am so proud of. Of course she loves the quickie afterthought dress.

Thank you for reading.

Jayne

Long Time No Post

It has been so long since I last posted. I decided to take on Sunday School at my local Church and it has been dominating a lot of my time. Here is a link if you are interested.

I decided to put my Repunzel dress on Etsy and I sold one! I was so apprehensive and excited all in one. Unfortunately, I underpriced the postage and it ended up eating into my profits. I worked for $5 an hour for 3 hours lol. Anyway, it's a learning curve and the thought of a little girl in the US wearing a dress I made, makes it worth it. Fingers crossed she gives me a high rating.

My first Etsy sale! Repunzel Play Dress.

I went into Spotlight with Miss 2 and she found dinosaur fabric in the clearance rack (she absolutely loves dinosaurs and dragons). She pulled it out and said it was hers, so I bought it and made her a little dress. I used the Simplicity 2377 pattern, but I omitted the tie. The kids just play with the tie and it annoys me. Because I made Miss 2 a dress, of course I made Miss 4 a dress too. I got her fabric from my stash. The white with pink poker dots was fabric that my Mother made into a dress for me when I was little. She found it and gave it to me. The dress is cute, but I think it's a bit dotty. I top stitched around the waist on both dresses by attaching some trim. I am definitely a fan of top stitching now (especially after I had to restitch a couple of Miss 4's dresses).

Dinosaur and Spots Dresses

Dinosaur Dress

I added extra trim around the bottom of the dinosaur dress because I wanted to make it girly because the fabric was so boyish. 

You can see in this photo that the girls have had a hair cut. Miss 4 decided to play hairdresser. Miss 2 had just been accepted by a modelling agency and had a photo shoot booked in. I don't think it was jelously because we never told Miss 4. I never wanted to put Miss 4 in because she is just another cute kid and I didn't want her missing out on School. I put the little one forward because of the curly hair (and that EVERY TIME I go out - no matter where - people stop me to comment on her hair, and no, it doesn't annoy me). A few people suggested I get her into modelling, but what made me do it was when I met a woman who did model's hair for photo shoots and she said my little girl could be the face of a brand. I try not to expect too much because that is how you get let down, but I have noticed a lot of curly haired kids on tv commercials and in brochures lately. Anyway, enough of that lol.

I am getting so good at the Simplicity 2377 pattern, that I whipped one up for Miss 4 in an hour so she could wear it to a birthday party that day.  I love Hello Kitty.  I should have put the bow in the middle instead of the side though. 

Ready for a birthday party!

I also experimented with making dresses out of tank tops. I read in a blog how to do it and tried it for myself. One woman recommended cutting away the bottom hem of the tank. I did this and I would not recommend it. It made the fabric stretch more and the thread break after 5 minutes of the girls wearing them. I bought a couple of really cute tanks from Target and raided my stash for the skirt. I had the perfect fabric to match. They looked really good.

They love their dresses

Ahh the hair...

Detail on back

Strike a Pose

I also went to Kmart and bought some tanks too. I made the size 2 first. I don't know what happened, but it fits Miss 4 who is a size 4. At least now it will go through 2 kids.

I also found a vintage pattern at St Vinnies which I picked up for 20c. It is Butterick 6184. I made the size 2 first and put it on Miss 2, but it was HUGE. Miss 4 now wears it. Lucky I didn't make the size 4 first.

I got a lot of great feedback about the dinosaur dress, so decided to make another boyish dress and see if I could sell it on Etsy. It is based on this pattern Burda Kids 9494, but I changed to top half so it didn't need a zipper. Miss 4 loves it. I should make her one too...

I have this really beautiful fabric in my stash. It is Cloud 9 Moody Blues Sashiko Birds and Cloud 9 Moody Blues Floral. I thought I would use the birds as the main fabric and the floral as trim. The problem was that I couldn't find the perfect pattern for it. I really like the peasant dress design and wanted to make one for myself. They are so expensive on Etsy. I googled them and came across Sis Boom Meghan Peasant Dress. I really like the look of it and thought it would be perfect for my Cloud 9 fabric. I was a bit apprehensive about using a downloaded pattern, but printing out and gluing the pattern pieces together really wasn't that hard. 

I made the dress and added the trim. It looked great. I tried it on and I could hardly get it over my bust, it was so tight. I couldn't work out what I had done wrong. All the measurements were in inches, which I don't understand, so I just went on the fact that I am a size 8-10. After I tried it on, I went back to check the sizes again and came across the seam allowance. I did a 1.5cm seam when I should have done a 0.5cm seam. I always check the seam allowance before I start and I just started this time without checking. I am so dirty at myself. There are not enough birds to make another dress and I really like it. I'm going to have to unpick the WHOLE thing and start again ;(

My too Small Cloud 9 Moody Blues, Sis Boom Meghan Peasant Dress

This brings us up to date with my sewing now. I have some more dinosaur fabric and will put more on Etsy. My shop is here.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.

Jayne