3 dresses I sewed..

So the girls went back to school and I finally pulled most of my clothes out of the caravan. The holidays are over.

And with that realisation came the realisation that I can no longer wear the clothes I wore on the road trip. Strange but true. I guess when you wear the same few things over and over and over and over, there comes a time when you cannot wear them anymore. A bit like the end of pregnancy.

So I decided to get busy and create a few dresses.

I love wearing dresses. They are easy. If it is warm, I wear them as is with sandals. If it is cool, I wear them with a little cardi over the top and leggings underneath. And if it is cold, I wear them with a cardi, a scarf and some boots. Easy peasy.

The old sheet dress.

This one is the prototype.
I'm not mad on that sheet design so I wasn't all that precious about getting it right straight away.
I found a picture I liked in a Japanese sewing book. (I'll fill in the details when I can find it).
I found a dress of mine that fits me well.
And I made a pattern.
And I made the dress.
And my farmer boy thinks it makes me look preggers.
But it is super comfy and great for wearing around the farm.

The old curtain dress.

This dress was made from an old hydrangea printed curtain. The fabric is quite stiff and holds it's shape well.
This front of this dress was made from the same pattern piece as The old sheet dress (above), but with the addition of darts for shaping and a longer seam down the front.
The back of the dress was cut taking about an inch off both sides.
All the shaping means that my farmer boy thinks it does not make me look preggers. Yay!
When I finished this dress and tried it on, I wrote on the twitter that I was thrilled that I had nailed my dress pattern.
I love it.

The old table cloth dress.

I made this dress out of an table cloth I'd been saving for a special occasion.
I really love that print.
This time I experimented with sewing the pockets on straight after cutting it out. After the shaping they became a bit crooked. Lesson learnt.
This time the neckline didn't really work. It's too high and the bias binding puckered. Facing?
But it's a great around the farm dress and a scarf hides all the problems perfectly.

And I like the red pockets. I think they're fun.

So now I have three new dresses. Hooray!!!!
Combined, they cost me about five or six dollars, that's including the binding.
And the best part is that I had everything here already. So that kinda justifies my floral fabric collecting addiction.

I think I'm ready for a new pattern now.
Hemming those three dresses can wait.
I'm thinking wrap around, maybe some crochet lace details.....

So that's me.
How about you?
Are you tired of your wardrobe?
Are you making something new to wear?
Are you making anything?
Do you love pockets as much as I do?

Happy weekend. xx

Creatively speaking...

I am carrying this basket of yarny rainbows where ever I go.

I am hooking grannies.

I am trying to be good and sew in the ends as I go.
But not always succeeding.

I am playing with our farmers' market stall. 

Think mixy-matchy table-cloths and rushed single layer unhemmed bunting.

I am playing around with my second quilt.
A mini, yellow, quarter version of Kate's pattern.
I think it might become a cushion cover.

We are shopping for paint to paint the whole house white.
Except the girls' bed rooms which they want blue.
I still would love a yellow kitchen but the farmer boy wont budge.

I am celebrating op shop treasures by draping them over everything that stands still for long enough.

One dollar for these two rolls of old lace! Can you believe!

And I am trying to style a few lovely corners of my home to make me feel better about the vast majority which looks like a bomb has gone off in it. Ahhhh school holidays. Love em.

What about you?
What have you been up to creatively?

Bye! x

I'm loving...

I didn't press publish on the last post I wrote for this blog. It was a long whingy post about how I felt like I was drowning in my own chaos. About how sick I was of feeling late, messy, lost, like I was going to explode, full, overwhelmed and out of control.

I didn't press publish on that post because I wrote it in the middle of that chaos and I couldn't think straight any more and I couldn't trust how I was feeling or if any of my words even made sense.

And then on top of all that I had to hurry up and pack us all up for a visit to Melbourne.

So I left it and we went to Melbourne for 24 hours and now we are back and I feel a bit different. Like having a break from here made me realise how much I love it. The fact that Indi and Jazzy are at friends' houses and there is a bit of quiet and calm doesn't hurt either.

On our return, after unpacking the car, these were the first 10 things that reminded me of how much I love it here.

I do love sewing with vintage florals. This is The Little Blue Flower Dress. A dress I made last weekend. Sewing little dresses with vintage table clothes and sheets makes me happy and calms me down and gives me peace. Its in my shop.

I love living on an organic fruit and veg farm and having the freshest of the Autumn harvest to play with in the kitchen and for the girls to help them selves to.

I love getting new yarn in the mail from a Ravelry destash. This lot will become some sort of scoodie for Miss Jazzy to wear to school.

I love that farmer Boy of mine. Love, love, love, love.

I love having a toasty warm house too.

I love the look of the weekend's garage sale fabric stash drying and airing out on the line. Oh the possibilities.

I love my gang. Its a shame this is the only photo of us country mice all scrubbed up last night for dinner.

I don't love that this dress is still in my house. The birthday girl's party was last Sunday but I got so lost on the way there and drove for miles and miles and miles and then had to turn back when I realised I was completely and totally lost and the red petrol light had been on for ages, I had no mobile reception and I hadn't seen a car or a house for ages. Everyone in the car was crying by that stage.

I do love how Miss Pepper designed the dress for the present though. She chose all the fabrics, sat on my knee while I sewed most of it and then wrapped it up and told me her friend was going to love it. That part's cool.

And I love that I am going to conquer my fears and sew dresses from stretchy knits with these patterns. I love Miss Jazzy's little sketchy characters I keep discovering around the place and I LOVE dreaming, designing and planning our caravan adventure. Farmer Bren has a count down to the big departure on his ipad. Eeeeeeeep can't wait.

What are a couple of things making you smile right now?

See ya. x

Treasures.

Yesterday I felt so miserable and crappy that my bones ached. Too much bad news. The weight of the world and all that.

Today I feel sooooo different. I feel optimistic and sunny and good.

The sun is out, the girls are happily playing with a friend (a boy), and I'm about to pack a picnic for a fortieth birthday party.

And as well as the usual health and family and friends type of grateful stuff, on this Saturday I am also grateful for other people's trash. Trash that enables me to recycle rather than buy new, trash that inspires me and keeps my Everything but The Thread little business going and trash that is often so much more my style than the same thing in the modern version.

I am grateful magateful for market treasures like this jar of antique lace destined to grace the hems of pretty dresses and skirts and tops.

I am grateful for garage sale loot. Towels for the caravan, tea towels, table clothes and pillow cases for clothes making, pot holders for the wall and wool for some future fun project.

And I am grateful for generous and kind and gorgeous bloggers who send me their treasures out of the goodness of their hearts. I know you didn't do it for an official thank you Cherie but you are just too gorgeous! Thank you!

I hope you have the most wonderful weekend and have so much to be grateful for yourself.

Big love. X

The tale of a blue dress.

Last Friday I bought this pile of old aprons and table cloths from the church fete for $3.50. The blue appliqued table cloth on the top cost me $2.00. The lovely lady who sold it to me was apologetic, but said it came with six napkins so she just had to charge me that much.

The farm boys have been away at a chain saw course all week, so I've been Farmer Kate helping Farmer Bren out with all the chores and there hasn't been a lot of time left over to sew.

But I have been desperate to play with the blue table cloth and this morning I did.

First I drew a back, a front, two sleeves and a ruffle on the fabric.

Then I cut the pattern pieces out.

I over locked the seams.

Then I pinned them right sides facing.

I sewed the seams together.

I threaded elastic, I added a love heart tag, I ruffled and I hemmed.

And now I'm going to pop it in my shop.

I am really starting to stress about the tiny amount of clothing we'll each be able to take on our caravan adventure in a few months, so I purposely made this dress a size that wouldn't fit any of my girls.

I hope your Thursday is sunny and creative.

Oh and I'm over at Maxabella Loves today too. Check it out here.

Have fun out there.

Love Kate X

Creative stuff...

My creative space this week seems as scattered as my mind is. I am making all the time. Little bits here and little bits there. But I don't think I've completed anything for ages.

I am crocheting little colourful flowers to brighten up dresses on grey days like today.

I am sewing in pocket linings and darning in the ends of a gorgeous test knit for a designer in Colorado.

I am experimenting with layers of torn cotton, lace and other ruffly stuff.

I am cutting and over locking old table clothes for dresses and trying to make sure the see through bits happen in places where it is OK for see through bits to be.

And I am playing hide and seek with Miss Pepper.

Now I wonder where she could possibly be....

Peek-a-boo!!!!

Have a fabulous Thursday!

We are off to dancing class and then to a community garden opening where I am to be the official photographer. Cross your fingers for the rain to stay away.

See ya. XX

My creative space.

In my creative space today I am binding,

overlocking and gathering,

crocheting a trim,

and putting together surprising colour combinations.

I cannot believe that I am considering sewing with this orange trimmed table cloth but somehow this combination looks summery and fun to me today despite my dislike of the colour.

Oh, and I'm also still hooking away at my Softie for Mirabel, knitting my Tea Leaves cardi and my test for Tikki but I haven't got any recent photos of these. I also have a whole pile of projects that will realistically never be finished so I'm not even going there.

I know I should probably stop starting new projects until I finish some of these but that wouldn't be fun now would it?

Over to Kirsty's for some more creativity.

Happy Thursday y'all. XX

White pants & stuff.

Yesterday I had a tiny window of sewing time and I made some white pants from a tablecloth I've had kicking around here for a while.

White pants for Miss Pepper!! What was I thinking?

What two and a half year old can stay clean enough to wear white pants? Certainly not mine.

Maybe it was a wish for that sort of trans seasonal weather when you can wear dresses with flimsy white pants underneath. Sew it and it will be?!

That tree that you can see in that pic lying down in the dam fell down last Thursday night. It was a dark, cold and still night and Pepper and I were home alone and I was putting her to bed. All of a sudden we heard an almighty crash and we literally felt the earth move.

We looked at each other in terror and then all the wild life in the area began to bark/squawk/crow/chirp. It took me a minute to work out what it had been, but she was onto it straight away...a dinosaur!! Of course! Why didn't I think of that?

We are just home from a farmers' market in Melbourne. We had a fantastic market selling record numbers of eggs, the girls were mostly gorgeous and helpful, we caught up with lots of friends, stocked up on some yummy produce and packed up before the wild weather came in.

I am cold and tired now though.

I think I'll run a bath and pop all our jammies near the fire to warm up.

We'll have fresh pasta with pesto and parmesan for dinner.

I don't think we'll make it to the surprise party tonight though.

A bit of knitting and bed more likely.

Oh and I finished the bunting dress yesterday and popped it in the post. I hope its new owner likes it.

I hope you are having a great weekend.

What's going on in your world?

The Flutterby Skipping Dress.

This is dress number two in my Everything But The Thread range.

I started this dress a few days ago. It started out as an a-line dress made from the tablecloth fabric at the bottom.

As is usually the case with me, I made some of it, got interrupted and then hung it on a hanger on a hook in the kitchen so I could look at it as I went about the rest of my day.

The more I looked at it the more I didn't think it worked.

So the next chance I got, I cut it up and made it into a completely different dress. A three tiered Skipping Dress.

One of the first skirts I ever made for Indi when she was about four, was a three tiered skirt and she called it her Skipping Skirt. From then on, all tiered skirts/dresses have been called Skipping Skirts/Dresses in our house.

This dress has op shopped denim, sheet, table cloth, lace, bias binding and a zipper. The corduroy is from my scraps drawer. I think it is a size 5/6.

I hope you are enjoying your Sunday. Its the first one we've had off in six months (apart from the farm chores that still need doing). I'm about to make some toasted sandwiches for lunch and then head into town for Indi's singing concert.

Have fun out there. X