Party Preparations

Eeeeek it's almost that time if year again. No I'm not talking about End of Financial Year, its the next day I'm starting to stress about. July 1st my baby boy Griffin, will turn 2 !!!

We are having a 'Little Man' themed party this year, with some vintage touches thrown in. Lots of dress-ups with hats, ties, bow ties, vests and a few moustaches. Griffin has always been called 'little man' by his cousins, and given his love of hats and dressing up, the little man theme seems to fit quite nicely. 

We thought that we would just have a quiet affair this year, but as with all great plans, we have slightly exceeded the original plan.  With just under two weeks until his birthday, and a little over two weeks until party day it is time to put all the ideas floating about in my head into real action. 

Here are some of the bits and pieces so far.

My little 'G' Man :)

Some of the bits & pieces

What do you think ? Am I on the right track? Will it all come together okay? 

I'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions.

Linda x

A Trip to the Lego Expo

I've been sewing away as usual but haven't had a chance to take many photos or do much blogging. I took a few shots of the kids on our trip to the lego expo on the weekend. Seth's top is one of the T-shirts I made up with the Surburban T-shirt pattern from Terra's treasures.

Seth just loves his big brother

Xander and Sethan were so excited to dress up as Jedi and have a light saber fight.

The light sabers were pretty cool 

Griffin looked so grown up watching the lego train with all the other kids.

look at that cute little Jedi :)

The boys really had a ball. 

I'll get organised soon and blog about the things I've been sewing recently. We've had lots of minor illness in our household which has kept us sleep deprived and busy. Fingers crossed we are over the worst of it now...

Kerry xx

I heart pattern testing: Heidi & Finn Tennis Skort

I was lucky enough to be selected to test another Heidi and Finn pattern! YAY!! This time it was the Tennis Skort. A cute little knit skirt with built in safety shorts. 

I was really looking forward to trying this one out and I was not disappointed. As I have come to expect from Heidi and Finn patterns it was easy to follow her quality step by step photos/instructions. I used my overlocker (serger) for most of it, but she gives good instructions for using a sewing machine alone if you prefer. It was really quick to whip up and doesn't take very much fabric. The pattern pieces match up well (really bugs me when patterns don't quite fit together). I made the 18month size and it fits Eloise perfectly. It's winter here is Aus so we had a quick photo shoot in our [overgrown] yard. I am really developing confidence with knits now and I can attribute much of that to some great Heidi and Finn patterns. 

I made this cute blue/pink/grey one and then decided if it is a tennis skort she needed a top to go with it to make her look like a little tennis star :) So I drafted this raglan T pattern using a regular T-shirt she already had. It turns out the T-shirt I used to draft the pattern is one of her snug fitting ones so the end result is quite fitted but looks pretty tennis-y to me?

Then I made a blue and grey skort and made the shorts out of this striped blue/white. I don't think my photos do this justice, its so soft and blue. I LOVE blue and really LOVE blue with grey.  I made two different tops to go with this one. They are from the suburban basic T shirt pattern from Terra's Treasures. These are the first ones I've made using her pattern... They will NOT be the last ones. I am really happy with them and they fit perfectly and I have the pattern in sizes infant - 10. I'm planning to make the boys some as soon as I convince hubby I need [more]  fabric :)

I recommend the Heidi and Finn Tennis Skort pattern, it suits any seweist from beginner to advanced, is quick and easy to put together and fits beautifully. If you're like I was and avoiding knit patterns because "knits are hard" then jump in and get this pattern and give it a go. To be honest it is easier than using wovens, knits are very forgiving.

I'd love to hear what you think? 

Kerry xx

Guest Blogging on Rock the Stitch: Inspired by Chevrons

When I saw Rebecca (from Rock The Stitch) was looking for bloggers to join her series "Inspired by Chevrons" I jumped at the chance. How exciting!! My mind started racing, so many chevron ideas. I wanted to challenge myself to be a bit creative rather than just follow a pattern. So it was time to get some fabric. Have I mentioned I'm a bit addicted to fabric shopping? The staff in our local store know Linda and I by name and I think they'd get concerned if we didn't go in for a whole week. To be honest we probably go there at least once a week, sometimes once a day... sometimes more :/

I wanted to make an outfit for Eloise. In my head this outfit was going to be a grey/white dress with a blue/grey jacket. Unfortunately I was not able to source any grey and white chevron fabric locally. Then I came across this yellow corduroy and yellow chevron and decided to go with some bright warm yellows with grey instead.

I chose the Molly Jacket pattern for the jacket, even though I'd not actually made it before (but I had seen others make it and it is sooo cute). I kept changing my mind on what style of dress/skirt I wanted to use. In the end I decided to use the Aurelia top and skirt as a base and modified the skirt with an appliqued chevron around the bottom.  The Aurelia is two patterns in one (skirt and tunic). I didn't follow the instructions to the letter, I did things my way a bit, but the end result was the same.

For the skirt, I made a chevron for the bottom by first making one inch wide bias strips and then ironing creases at 3.5" intervals. I then sewed at these crease marks to add the angles (alternating each one). I pinned it in place then I top-stitched it along the top and bottom. I feel it tied in the yellow and added a bit of chevron-y fun to it. When it was finished I wasn't sure if I liked it so I made another skirt with a wide grey chevron (I made half square triangles and arranged them in chevrons). I then wondered if it was chevron overload and decided I liked the tunic with her jeans instead (and they're more practical for my busy toddler anyway). 

The tunic came together quite easily. The trickiest part was matching up those chevrons. Look, they line up!!! (well pretty closely anyway).

The Molly jacket was quite an easy sew. The only thing I changed was the width of the sleeves. I didn't want them to have the gathered bottom and I didn't want them to flare out so I cut a bit off to make them straighter. I am really happy with the end shape. The great thing is this jacket is fully reversible!! (I love reversible items - especially with my messy little miss). I'll definitely be making more of these. A little girl needs a different jacket for each outfit right?

Then we decided it would be fun if we made some cute things for Griffin to wear too. Linda made this little reversible vest with the chevron fabric and also an adorable little bow tie. And she made these cute little yellow clips for Ellie to wear in her hair. Oh, and this matching bunting.

Remind me next time that taking photos of two littlies under two can be a tad challenging. They wanted to run and climb and chase seagulls. Lucky is was a perfect sunny winter's day (and not too cold). Seth was our cheeky assistant, I must make some things for him again soon so he can have the spotlight.

Griffin and Eloise are 8.5 months apart but very close little cousins. They spend most days playing together. It's so cute to watch Griffin share his things (and food). He's so gentle and always thinking of Eloise. Eloise is a bit bossy and very outgoing. She's always interested in what Griffin is doing and follows him around to play with him, I think they are going to grow up as great friends.

How cute are they together?

It's been fun thinking up chevron inspired ideas. Please check out the rest of the great "inspired by chevrons" posts by Rebecca and her guests on Rock the Stitch!!

Thanks for having us over Rebecca :)


In the next few days I'm going to start experimenting with knits again for some t-shirts and I'll be testing another pattern (YAY!). I also have some ideas for a peplum/dress and if it works out I will blog about it and maybe even share a tutorial :)



Kerry & Linda xx