Little Joey - Apples

Some time ago, Toni from Make It Perfect emailed me and asked if I would like to test her new pattern, Little Joey. The dress looked so cute, I said "YES," and immediately ordered fabric from Crafty Mamas to put it together with. Crafty Mamas is my go-to shop for high quality stretch fabrics, and this Snow White themed apple fabric came in a Creative Pack with some coordinating dark grey and red fabric, some ribbon and a cute little bird iron on. I had my eye on that fabric pack already, and I knew that the Little Joey pattern was the perfect excuse for me to buy it.


Little Joey is a cute little jersey dress with a waistband and kangaroo pockets. This particular pattern is for little girls from six months to five years. There is also a Big Joey pattern for your Little Joey's big sister, aged up to about 10, and a Skippy pattern, perfect for mums on the go. I made the size four pattern and chose to make it with the short sleeves.


The fabric pack I had purchased only had 50cm of the apple fabric, and I was determined to make the pattern fit, despite the recommendation being for 110cm of main fabric. I think my piece was actually about 55cm or so, and I did make the skirt shorter to get it to fit. Something I did find odd about the pattern was that the bottom corners of the skirt come to a point, instead of being a neat curve. I trimmed these bits off before hemming. I did mention this to Toni in my pattern testing notes, but the final pattern was not changed.


Whilst I would say that the fabric requirements are generous, I do recommend that you have a bit more than I did and it will be a less stressful exercise, especially if you wish to make a larger size, or long sleeves. Alternately, I could have had a grey bodice and ironed on the bird, but I am glad I persevered with making the apple fabric fit. I used some of the red coordinating fabric from the Creative Pack for the neck and sleeve and waist bands.


I think Amélie's favourite feature is the kangaroo pockets, where she can store matchbox cars and all sorts of other treasures. I just can't go past those cute little puffy sleeves. The sleeves were a little bit tricky because there were no notches to match between the sleeves and the armholes, so there was a bit of guesswork involved there. Whilst I still think the Make It Perfect patterns could use a little polish, the pattern was easy to put together and the end result is a cute little dress, perfect for playing in and easy to care for - no ironing!

Sneaky Peeks and a Skinny Stash

You may not know this, but one of my favourite pattern designers, Nikki (Nicole Mallalieu of You Sew, Girl!), has a new book coming out really soon. This will be her second book. Yes, she is THAT good. I did some pattern testing for the book last year, and I am not sure if I am able to show the full, finished bags, but above and below are some sneaky peeks for you (shh!).


The book is called The Better Bag Maker and from the small amount that I have seen, it will be jam-packed full of snazzy tricks to get a great finish to make beautiful hand-made (as opposed to "home-made") bags. It doesn't get released until May, but you can pre-order it now at a lower price from Fishpond* or from Amazon and I am sure, many other great retailers. I will try and remember to come back and show some photos of the full finished bags once the book has been released, if I can tear myself away from it long enough to make a blog post.


To create these wonderful bags, I used at least 12 FQs of fabric. I had to estimate as I didn't keep track, and sometimes fabric can get hidden inside pockets and these bags had plenty of pockets! Since these were made last year, they contribute to the SYST challenge. I also used approximately 3 FQs to make Amélie's Gingham Puppet Show Shorts. In addition to this, I gave away approximately 8 FQs of pale pink fleecy to my mum so she could make some things for my niece. It had been sitting in my stash for a while and I don't really do pastel colours. My friend, Amy (Badskirt) gave me some a metre of crazy fish fabric as well, so that adds 4 FQs back into the stash.



MY FINAL SYST 13 RESULTS!:
in = 144, out = 293, total = -149

In conclusion, I used more than double the fabric to what was added to my collection. My stash is over 35m of fabric thinner than it was 12 months ago. Whilst the totals weren't mega-huge, a lot of rather small things were made. A lot of what was added to my stash was given to me too, so my over-all spend was really quite low. I am really happy with the results, but it might be a while before I pay so much close attention to how much fabric I am using/stashing. I think I would rather just get down to it and sew, sew, sew!

My goal for this year is to sew more things for myself, at least one item a month, which I am keeping to so far, but that is another blog post!

Lantern Bloom Belle

After I finished my super hero cape, I got stuck into testing the Belle pattern for Nicole Mallalieu of You Sew, Girl! It is one of her earlier patterns, but it has now been re-mastered into a digital download. Nikki has updated her pattern with new techniques that she has improved over the past few years.

I surprised myself with this pattern, managing to complete the entire bag in one day. Usually, after one day, I have a bag cut out and the interfacing fused; so this is quite an achievement for me.

As Nikki says in her blog post, the Belle is the perfect size for a little bit of knitting. Of course, you would need to be using circular needles to be able to fit them in the bag.

If you make the straps from the pattern, rather than using purchased bag handles, they are the perfect size for popping over your wrist and knitting away. So you could knit standing up, or on the train without having to worry about your ball of yarn rolling away.

I used Laura Gunn Lantern Bloom fabric for the exterior, and the lining is Dogwood stripe from the Poppy Collection. I love the way some of the blooms magically joined at the seams, I have used this fabric before, to make my Teardrop Purse.

The best part is that the Belle is digital, so you can download the pattern and get started right away!

For this project I used fabric only from my stash.
SYST13 Running totals: in = 176, out = 66, total = +110

31. Elsie Cabbage

I was lucky enough to test another one of Jodie's patterns, Elsie Cabbage. I put her in a tree, because she's a tree-climbing kind of girl.



In fact, Elsie is happiest when she is outdoors.



I don't know if it is the lop-sided pig-tails, just like her own...



But Amélie has claimed adopted her.



How could you not love this cute, freckly face?



I don't know why we bothered with the shoes, because Elsie prefers to go barefoot.



...and naked, apparently.



Watch out for Elsie Cabbage, the pattern should be available in a week or two. If your local doesn't stock Ric-Rac patterns, give them a funny look and ask them to order some in for you.

A Happy Accident

Back in July, I did a little pattern testing for Toni Coward of Make it Perfect. The pattern I tested was called Serendipity. Serendipity means "a happy accident". I think those beautiful big buttons being such a good match for my fabric was a happy accident.



If you are a fan of Toni's other patterns, you won't be disappointed. It has all the features you have come to expect from Make It Perfect.



This warm winter coat is double breasted with pleat details in the front and back and a lovely Peter Pan style collar. There are little pockets in the side seams to keep those hands nice and warm and the coat is fully lined and padded with wadding to help keep your little one nice and toasty on cold, wintery days. I really like the turned up cuffs.



Toni has a neat technique for turning the coat out the right way, with only a small amount of hand stitching where it will never be seen.



The pattern size I tested was for a size two. It is a little large on Amélie, but fairly snug in the sleeves. If you like to pile lots of clothes on under the coat, you should probably make it up a size bigger.

On My Way to Grandma's House

I was lucky enough to be a pattern tester for Jodie Carleton of Ric-Rac. She thinks I was doing her a favour, haha! Anyway, it was great fun, and I think Little Red may well be Jodie's best pattern ever. I have always had a soft spot for Little Red Riding Hood, as can be seen here, here and here, so I was practically jumping out of my skin when she chose me to test this pattern.



Jodie's pattern even teaches you how to make the cute little basket of goodies. My basket isn't lined like it is in the pattern (part of the testing process) but it does show that if you find the lining a little too tricky, you can skip that bit and it will still be gorgeous. The fruit hides all the raw edges inside the basket, anyway. I think I might go back and re-do the basket, with the lining though, as I do think the lining looks lovely.





The boots are AWESOME! I must admit, threading the laces back and forth was a little fiddly, but oh, so worth it!



The dress is also pretty fancy. It's fully lined, and those little toad-stools along the bottom are pretty cute. I am proud to say that I have mastered the French knot whilst embellishing those cute little toadstools. I also love her hair and her cape. Ok, so I love ALL of her, and she has received lots of hugs and sloppy kisses already, in this house, as the kids all love her too.



Jodie has only just released her pattern, and it is already in stock at Under the Mulberry Tree.

*** Update: You can now also by Little Red as a downloadable PDF from Craftsy

Bus Stop Bag

Sorry it has been a bit quiet on the blog. I've been a bit busy lately with the kids. Anyway, I have been meaning to blog about this Bus Stop Bag for ages, so now is a good time, I guess. When I made this bag it was all hush-hush as it was a secret squirrel pattern testing project for Nicole Mallalieu's book, You Sew, Girl!. Now that the book has been published (um, yeah, a while ago....) it is okay for me to blog this.



The fanciest part of this bag is the seam binding, which is quite tricky, and one of the reasons the pattern has been given the advanced skill level rating. Never fear though, if you think it might be a bit too tricky, you can put the seam binding on the inside until you are confident with the technique. I would also recommend that you try the toiletry bag first as it isn't as stiff as the bus-stop bag, and therefor a little easier to manipulate on the sewing machine.



The finished bag is quite sturdy and has a firm base with shiny purse-feet. It stands up al by itself and there was enough room inside for the toiletry bag and my hairdryer and a number of other assorted personal items when I was in hospital having Amelie back in January. If you've ever had a baby, you will be aware of all the extra toilety items you need in those early days and trust me, there was room inside for all of these!




If you want to make yourself one of these, you need to get your hands on a copy of Nikki's book, You Sew, Girl! For the cost of a couple of patterns, it is chock-a-block full of tips, techniques and patterns to make all sorts of lovely things.

A Glamorous Mothers' Day Gift

I was recently lucky enough to pattern test one of Nikki's newest patterns. It's the Glam Purse, and I finished stitching the frame on this purse just in time for Mothers' Day, as a gift for my mum.



It's a little different to the other purses, a little more glamorous. I made it from different materials to what I normally work with, and I am quite happy with the result. I especially like the clever way that Nikki incorporated the pleats into the pattern. I think Mum might have liked the clever way that I incorporated a box of Ferrero Rocher into the purse...