All Things Mum

I spent this week making this girls shirt from my favourite Japanese pattern book (Sassy Girls - see right pane).  I wasn't sure of the sizing as they base their pattern size on the child's height. This is  size 110cms and it is perfect for my almost 5yr old. It reminds me of the Tova Top but for little girls. The book even includes ladies size in small, medium and large. I'll definately have to give that a go soon.  The cotton I bought from a local store and I love the soft yet smooth and perfect thickness of it. It's perfect to wear as we are still shivering down here and she has a singlet underneath for extra warmth. She likes it too and although the collar isn't as tall as pictured I kept it like a mandarin collar. Somehow the collar is a rectangle sized 2.5cm by 30cms. When you sew it up it ends up smaller and not as tall. It's even meant to be the same for the ladies shirt pattern? I couldn't figure if that was wrong or not and not bothered ...

My almost 4yr old son hardly has any shorts to sleep in so it was about time I get off my butt and make him a pair. I tell you if I didn't know how easy and fast it would be I'd have started these a few years ago! I don't actually have any pyjama patterns I liked so I used a shorts/pants pattern from the Japanese book that I have. I have no idea what the name of it is though. I just know I have not made anything from it yet, until now. It is pattern number 44. I found this beautiful knit fabric at Spotlight. It is called Toybox and perfectly soft and not too thin. You know how it is, when you make something out of knit and the fabric seems to be way too light. This is not the case. It's beautiful to work with. I cut out the largest size from the book which is 100cms. The boy is about 102cms so I was hoping it wouldn't be too small. It turned out perfectly. I used my overlocker to do all the seams and I used my new stretch twin needle to hem up the bottom legs ...

I have this friend whom I met from Playgroup. She's awesome and we are similar in our tastes and dilemmas. She comes over and we have fun playdates with her two girls. Turns out she likes sewing too so yesterday I showed her my stash of patterns and got her into Japanese Pattern books. This sounds like trouble... he he. She also inspired me to take some time out and sew. So I did. The babies slept and I sewed, and sewed. There were no bathroom or food breaks. I just sewed until one of them woke up. I felt really good. More inspired. I wished I could have kept going.   I am excited. These are parts of the Oliver + S Puppet Show Blouse. I've had them cut up for a while now. I've been cooking too, from Apples for Jam. We made Tessa's Banana Bread and we gobbled it up. There are no pics to show. I tried the Lentil and Sausages but the kids only liked the chicken sausages. We might try some cookies as we start gearing up for Christmas. Ahhh, it will be just around ...

My kitchen table. The only space which is sort of clear and wide enough to place fabric. I picked up some lovely charcoal linen today and set to work on arranging the pattern pieces for a shirt for the boy. It was hard to find the right fabric but luckily Baby J had fallen asleep. Probably bored from waiting for me to pick up a bolt which was taking far too long. When she woke though she was too cute, smiling at the lovely ladies in the store. Thoughts: Linen. Shirting. Linen. Crinkly. Shirty.. Ugly... White... Messy.. Hmmmm. Charcoal it is. As with all Japanese patterns you must not forget to include your seam allowances. The standard is 1cm but there are places where they will trick you and add a little more if you're not paying attention. So I chalked in my lines, making a few mistakes here and there but it's chalk so it's all good. You know. Some really cute curtain fabric for the kids room. It was a bargain at $6 a metre. Could not pass it up but it came in wonderful c...

Did you know that you can work up a sweat sewing? I really did with this one yesterday. My back started hurting and the room was quite warm. Anyway, after trying this on it really didn't turn out as planned. This is a top from the Sweet Dress Recipe Japanese book. Things I learned from this experience: DON'T use quilting weight fabric as it doesn't drape very nicely The sizing is actually quite 'roomy' and I used the largest size I don't like using elastic but it does allow for ease of pulling on and off It didn't need the invisible zipper (see point above) I didn't have any nice voile or drapey fabric on hand so I used this green leaf quilt weight cotton. It made it very billowy and I didn't like the elastic casing that is used on the collar and the sleeves. If you extend the length it could have turned into a long dress. The models in the books make it look so good. I also pulled the elastic out of the sleeves and left them as is. I felt quite un...

This is pattern marking/tracing. In particular a Japanese pattern. I don't enjoy tracing Japanese patterns solely for the fact that I find it hard to actually find the right piece to be traced and my tracing looks like my 3.5yr old did it. But this time around I used a ruler, some extra wide Glad Baking Paper and traced a pattern for a singlet top for myself. It's also useful to copy the actual Japanese markings so you can recognise the symbols on the instructions. Above is the pattern piece for pages 14, 31 and labelled 'front' piece. I hope to finish it soon. Not tonight, I have to shop but maybe by Sunday.

The days are quickly passing by. Weeks are churning slowly and I'm realising that my To Do List will not get done by a long shot since it takes a week to start and finish a project (at the least). However, this has not dissuaded me into doing some projects while time permits. Or when hubby hasn't trashed the hobby room with computer items and boxes, including unloading things all over my sewing table, grrrr, GRRRRR. I digress, the skirt is from the Japanese book (pic in right side bar). First I cut the pattern in size 120cms and then decided that it was too long when I tried it on Little Miss. So I cut the waist band part to meet the 100cms measurements. She is about this height. I omitted the elastic casing as the waist part already was waist level. This proved to be a hazardous idea as I didn't have enough fabric to make a casing as the ribbon gets in the way. I ended up adding a piece of extra material to make up for the shortfall. I remembered that Heather Bailey crea...

I promised a picture of Little Boy in *Chocolate Coat* so here he is. Hubby wanted me to install a zipper instead of buttons so I did. This also gave the coat more room so he can still wear it next year. After frustrating efforts to install a button hole for the top I gave up. It only dawned on me later that the wool and fleece were too thick so the bobbin thread kept bunching up together resulting in lots of " what the ?!" cursing. In any case it's a really cute jacket from my other Japanese book. It's not the one featured on the right, it's the one with the Little Boy in the blue gingham top and black puppy dog. This is the first project I've made from it. Size -90cms with added s.a (1cm) Seam allowance - 1/4inch : I like to give it more room. Fabric - Probably about just over a metre used of Melton Choc Wool (Spotlight) Fleece lining : have no idea how much I used. Let's say a metre to be safe. Chocolate Open End Jacket Zipper. On a different note un...

Brrrr, it's cold around these parts. I am NOT a cold person. I use to be but now I'm a wuss. What I dislike most about Winter... colds and flu. Yesterday both the littlies were sick. Little Miss had a really bad flu. She had a temp all night but we did get lots of sleep in spite of it. Little Man had a runny nose and vomited on me but still managed to be mischievious. There isn't much that keeps him down. Today I managed to catch a sore throat and a few coughs. Urghhhh. But, down to business. Above is the finished quilt cover hanging on our line to air out the nasties in the sun. You can't see the buttons along the bottom cos they are hidden! Brilliant. Next up, the original Japanese long coat from the book and below... our version. I finished it yesterday while hubby watched the kids ... sleep. It didn't stop him from asking me what I was doing (hiding) in the computer room. I got the black wool jacketing from Spotlight. There's quite a bit left over. I must h...

You are my sunshine My only sunshine You make me happy when skies are grey... My mother's day present arrived yesterday and I've been playing with it ever since. It was a bit daunting reading the manual and thinking, this couldn't be any easier if it were written in Japanese : p I did a trial of the jacket with some spare fleece and cut out the 110cm size templates first. I tested it by placing the pieces directly on Little Miss and decided that the sleeves were way too big and long. So then, I placed the 100cm template on top and snipped to size. This is how it has turned out so far. So far as good. I tried it on her this morning and it fitted quite well. I'm not sure if I want to finish off making the collar, buttonholes and pockets or jump right into the real jacket. I'm so in love with how it overlocks the edges while cutting it neatly for me. Such bliss.