Roxy Long Socks

It is so hard to get back into blogging when you have been away for so long. Life got a bit busy in that last school/kinder term and I lost my blogging mojo... I am just going to just jump back in and tell you about some of the things I made in the last couple of months (one at a time), and then we will just carry on as if I was here all along, okay? Let's start with Roxy Long Socks.

Roxy Long Socks is a pattern by Lisa Tilse of The Red Thread. Lisa gave me this pattern after I did some pattern testing for her. I've always admired Roxy, and I just knew she would be loads of fun to make. The pattern comes with a printed face panel, and you can buy additional face panels if you want to make more, or there are even instructions to make your own face if you wish. The pattern includes both a spring and winter version of Roxy. I chose to go with the Winter version as I liked the pointy hood.



I made Roxy for Amélie for Christmas. Apart from the face panel that came with the pattern, she was made entirely from scraps from my stash. I put her together over two nights, so a reasonably quick project. I must admit, that first night I was up until 3am.... Of course, Amélie was quite happy to add Roxy to her ever-growing collection of hand-made dolls. She is quite a tall doll, at around 65cms. Here is a picture of Roxy with some of Amélie's other dolls to give an idea of scale.

If you are not familiar with the other dolls, let me introduce them. On the left, we have Miranda. Miranda is made using the Kinder Doll pattern by Jodie of Ric-Rac. She does have a nice dress, but prefers to get around in her underpants most of the time. Next to Miranda, is Elsie Cabbage, also a Ric-Rac doll, and on the other side of Roxy Long Socks is Little Red, again, a Ric-Rac pattern. Miranda has a couple of brothers and some cousins too.


I am a bit behind in blogging stuff from the SYST13 challenge, I should be caught up by the end of January. For this project, I used maybe two fat quarters in total. SYST13 Running totals: in = 107, out = 255, total = -148

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

So, about that "Sew Your Stash Thin" thing I am doing...

It's not going that well, since the object of the exercise is to REDUCE the size of my stash, not increase it. But you know what? It's a win-win thing. If the fabric stash is getting bigger because of fabric as lovely as all this, then it can't be that bad, can it?

The fabric above was given to me by Jodie of Ric-Rac for helping her out with some pattern testing earlier in the year. It's a F8 pack which is the equivalent of 21 fat quarters.... I have decided to make a very special quilt using the fabric, and have ordered another 22 FQs which should hopefully arrive this week. Hey, you have to buy fabric to use fabric, right??

A couple of weeks ago, I was at Spotlight and happened to find this lovely drill fabric with the map of the world on it. Ok, I will admit, I heard about it from somewhere and I was at Spotlight during their 40%-off-sale actively seeking this fabric out. I had vouchers for my birthday and one of those scratchy things and I was really good and it was the only fabric I bought unless you want to count the sheer curtain fabric that I shortened and hung the very next day (so if we were to count it as in, we can count it as out as well, but I won't count it, because there wasn't really that much sewing involved). The boys are really into maps and flags and things like that at the moment, and I have a plan, so it's all good. The drill is craft width and I got two 60cm panels, so I would say that is about five FQs.

I had a little extra money after tax time and decided to treat myself to some delicious knit fabrics from Crafty Mamas Fabrics. This is what has come so far, but there is more on it's way soon. I love those Lillestoff Pirates! There is roughly the equivalent of twelve FQs in the image above, and I still have another six on their way to me.

I did some top secret pattern testing recently and received some of this gorgeous Hello Tokyo fabric from The Red Thread and some patterns as a thank you. The total amount of fabric I received was about five FQs. I promise I will tell you about the pattern I tested as soon as I can. You will love, love, LOVE it!

I also had a little spending spree in my cousin's shop Two Blue Birdies, along with some delicious felt*, some Heat'n'bond iron on vinyl and a bunch of brightly coloured zippers, I grabbed half a metre of each of these moustaches and glasses, adding a further 4 FQs to my stash. Yep, that's right, I now have stashes in my stash!

So, in summary, I have added an incredible 75 Fat Quarters to my stash in a very, very short period of time. Luckily, I have a few secret projects up my sleeve that I also haven't talked about - but that is worthy of another blog post (or several).

SYST13 Running totals: in = 255, out = 95, total = +160

*I am not counting felt in my SYST count as I am not trying to reduce my felt stash - it is under good control and fits in it's designated box.

Do you have a fabric addiction? Anything to confess???