Good and Bad

Good: I have lost (edit: almost) 20kg so far since Elliot's birth. 3 to go until my next goal.
Bad: I have to bring in my favourite pants yet again because they're like elephant pants on my thighs and bum.
Good: I now fit into two pairs of pants I haven't been able to wear since before I was married (7 years ago).
Bad: Andrew left a pen in his work pants and 3 of my t-shirts now have ink stains. None of his clothes were wrecked. I only have 6 t-shirts and I wear them every day. I now have 3 navy t-shirts to wear - all my other colours were wrecked!
Good: Looks like I need to be op-shopping more to find some t-shirts. As if I need a reason!
Bad: My MIL called this morning to tell me she is getting rid of some black pants "which are rather large in the thighs and bottom" and would I like them?
Good: No-one in my family knows about this blog so I can chuck a hissy about that comment here.
Bad: Andrew has one day this fortnight without some Scouting or other meeting or activity.
Good: I am learning some independence and going off to have fun instead of sitting around waiting for him to take us out. Elliot and I went to the Royal Botanic Gardens with E's Godmother yesterday. We had a muddy ball. Wonderful!
Bad: I am not getting much time to sew since Andrew is never around to look after Elliot these days. It's like being a single mum. Grrrrrr!
Good: I am getting quite a few people asking me to make them some of Elliot's "Grandpa Slippers" as Andrew calls them. Maybe I'll get the confidence one day to sell some. Maybe.

Yet more sewing FOs

(Don't forget you can click on pics to get a bigger view).

I have been hanging out to show off some of these finished objects (FOs), but some of them are a set of gifts so I had to wait to get them all finished... well, you know the story.

This first one is an apron I made for Elliot. It is made from a shower curtain my SIL gave me recently to repurpose. I have a few projects in mind, but this apron turned out exactly as I wanted. I adore my bias tape sewing machine foot.

A few more pics of the apron - clean and then gooped!


Before I made Elliot's apron I had made this one. It's a present for Lorna's DD1. (That's internet talk for your first (1) Dear Daughter, Lorna). She's 10 and she loves to cook, but Lorna's chicken to let her cook. This was about forcing Lorna to let DD1 into the kitchen. There! I said it!
Note the matching fabric pocket. This is made from some bed sheets and a pillow case I op-shopped in Macleod a while back. Such nice and crispy fabric. Mmmmm. Did I mention I love my bias tape foot?


This was for DD2, 7 years old, who is a budding artist with her pastel derwents. It's a pencil roll with fabric/ribbon/button flowers on the outside. The inside is made of two matching fabrics which are older than me. They were part of my mum's fabric stash before I nicked them. You can't see the sewn lines for the pencils on the red fabric, so you'll just have to take my word for it - there's space for 12 pencils. Lovely green bias tape and ribbon tie the whole thing together (literally and visually). I mentioned my bias tape foot, yeah?


DD3 is a girly girl at the age of 3. I couldn't let her go without pink. Lovely pink stripey fabric lines the inside of this cat themed bag. Trupunto cheeks and nose give the cat some shape, and pink button shine happily. This was inspired by the "Making Vintage Bags" book I blogged about last Wednesday.

I was so worried the girls would think their pressies were lame, but by the time I left DD3 was finding things to carry around in her bag, DD2 had put her favourite pencils in her roll, and DD1 was wearing her apron and hugging herself, looking as though she might never take her apron off. Or perhaps not until mum has let her do some cooking.

Ah, bliss for a panic-monger like moi.

I'm cleaning the study tonight in preparation for a full week of sewing. Six pairs of leather shoes to make (4 of them are gifts/swaps), and some more gifts - this time for a set of two sisters. Shhhh! Don't tell!

Great idea.

How is this for a great idea? Fortytworoads sells a pattern to make a toddler kitchen from cardboard. I obviously cannot buy her pattern due to the Challenge, but it sure has inspired me.

Clicking on the pic will take you to her etsy listing for this item so you can see more pics.
She is currently working on some doll furniture which she's showing off on her blog.

I'm back.

Hey! I'm still here, plodding along. So much to say, but I'm going to keep it brief tonight.


If you don't want to hear me whine about the past month, kindly skip this next paragraph. But I need to vent right now, so if you read it, you've been warned...

Since I last posted we've had computer dramas - I need to reformat again, but half the stuff is backed up on our mp3 player, and I'd lost that *sigh* so I haven't had the balls to reformat. Andrew was away for a week, which is an eternity in our world, and Elliot didn't cope too well, plus all the dramas to get ready for Andrew's week away at Cuboree *sigh* so we lost a few weeks there. And then as soon as Andrew got back Elliot got gastro from mum's group and kindly shared it with Andrew and myself *sigh*. I can't remember if I already said (and I'm too lazy to check while I'm writing) that I had to give up playgroup because it was causing too much grief with Elliot's morning nap time *sigh* so that's been actually quite a bit harder than I expected, emotionally. Currently, as in right now, Andrew is getting ready to go to work tomorrow after 3 days off. He has two days left at his old job, and they think he's been slacking off by taking sick leave in his last week *sigh*. I'd like to send them a spewy baby to prove that we all actually have super-contagious gastro. (Of four boys who went to that play date, 3 came away with gastro, and all three families are now sick. The fourth was the one who gave it to the others. His mum thought he was better (Honest mistake, and pretty funny now that I feel better)).


Lets see if I have any photos sitting around to cheer me up...

This is a book I borrowed from the library. It has some awesome patterns and ideas in it. Keep an eye out for future projects inspired by this. "Making Vintage Bags: 20 original sewing patterns for vintage bags and purses" by Emma Brennan. It has bags and clutches inspired by the 1930s, 40s, 50s and 60s.

I made some pants for the munchkin some weeks ago. I think they're pretty funky (not that I've got tickets on myself or anything!). It's my own design entirely. Flat fronted, elastic-waisted across the back, wide legged, with a really long blind-hemmed hem so they can be rehemmed as Elliot grows taller. Yes, they got dirty within seconds of arriving at the park, so I couldn't get a crisp action shot. Oh well. They're made from an old pair of my favourite linen pants which were much too ratty and ripped to wear. The first day that Elliot wore them we had so many compliments that I started to get bashful. I mean, they're just a plain pair of grey toddler pants. What're they gonna do when I get creative???

I hope to write more tomorrow, but for now I need to get some sleep. This bug is making me exhausted.