Kyls. The sewing adventure

Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T14:13:00.000-08:00

was pretty much one of the most (with the exception of 2 incidents) stress free
Christmases I can remember.
It consisted of, 3 santa parades, 1 santa photo sitting, numerous santa 'sightings'
3 Christmas lunches and a whole heap of toys.

lunch number 1. Jacob with Grammy (DH's mum)

Ebs with Grammy

me n Ebs with some yummy yummy yummy (ok freaking delish) christmas ice cream pudding made by DH's mum.. This pudding was published in the women's weekly in about 1979 and has been made every year since - I've only come to know it in the last 5 or so years!

Gav with the kids leaving out our home made and iced gingerbread bikkies..

me with the same!

yes yes.. another o+s sundress.. and a pair of
little explorer shorts which you can see better in the photo below...

delish rocky road ice cream pudding.. yum yum

"helping.."

pencil cases for the neices and nephew...

and a pair of shorts and two o+s popover sundresss with yo-yo flower broches
and Christmas is done :)

Hope yours was a good one!

poor neglected blog..

2009-12-27T13:31:00.000-08:00

yes i know the last post was in October. Its been nearly 2 months. yes, I am slack, yes Mum, I will post some pics.. so here goes!

in no particular order

above is another o+s sundress made for Miss Eb's first birthday party.. i still can't believe my little girl has turned 1! time goes sooo quick! fabric was a recentish etsy purchase - cant remember the name but will find later on!

the beginnings of a shiner for miss Eb's courtesy of her big brother.. poor little thing looked like she had been in a bar fight!

a set of little explorer shorts for our friend Nathan who turned 3 at the end of November. Shirt was courtesy of best & less with a car sewn on it!

my little santas.. (who hate having their pic taken!!)

Jacob icing gingerbread bikkies.. yummo! hope to make this a 'regular' Christmas tradition! very very yummy!

another o+s sundress made for a friends cousin. This is take 2 as I stuffed up sooo badly on the buttonholes of take 1 - mental note that when you start getting tired, its a good time to turn OFF the sewing machine and go to bed.

(more to follow.. need to download from camera!)

Opening Day part 2!

2009-10-29T20:08:00.001-07:00

yay! my lovely parcel postie arrived this morning - and in his truck of goodies had a surprise for miss Ebony courtesy of Mel (orange-limes)

In it was a beautiful little bag (love love love the fabric choice BTW.. ) and a sweet little doll hiding inside.

(there really are two ears - just trying to take a quick pic before Ebony snatched it back!)

thank you so much for the gift Mel!

ok just had a look at this post and realised that the bright outdoors did the beautiful colours of the doll no justice at all and shot some inside ones..

awww..

Opening Day!

2009-10-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

I've participated in the EB beginners sewing group stocking filler swap!
I nominated to make 2 gifts and receive a gift for both Jacob & Ebony!

The first item is for Jacob which was made by Aimee - was a lovely crayon roll made out of Thomas the Tank Engine fabric.! Aimee was also nice enough to include some TTTE stickers, coloring in book and sticker book! Good pick Aimee, we are TTTE mad in this house!

Not sure why Jacob is looking like a stunned mullet this morning - maybe he woke up too early!

Thanks again Aimee, and also a big thank you to Emma for organising the swap!

The Wedding...!

2009-10-19T16:46:00.001-07:00

After 3 days of trying to get blogspot to upload my pics.. heres a small selection..

Bridal party - yep the best man is really a best woman..

me squinting a bit cos of the sun..

Jacob and Ebony .. My granny reckons that Ebony looked like a little elf cos of the green pants and the little gold prewalkers that she was wearing!

The weather was perfect, nice sunny day with a bit of breeze late in the day. Everything went off without a hitch, the girls looked great, my dress stayed together (yay!!), food was yummy and the speeches didnt drone on for hours!(yay!)

Finished!!

2009-10-04T22:05:00.001-07:00

At long last, the flowergirl dresses for my sisters wedding have been finished. If you scroll back through, you will see lots of shots of WIP but these ones are just to show the zipper and hem finishing.. The lovely ladies in my EB sewing group have read about the frustrations that I have had with the zippers.. in order they are:
- satin material. never again.
- material kept 'puckering' (I have inserted numerous zippers before and NEVER had this problem!) the puckering continued after umm.. i donno about 7 attempts..
- thought i'd solved this problem by using my walking foot. brilliant in theory right? in practicality, nope. Walking feet arn't made for inserting zippers.
- scratched my head abit more, had a whinge about it, and then a lovely lovely lady (and im soo sorry I can't remember who it was) suggested I go and talk to someone in a shop .. thought about it and rang the ladies at the shop where I purchased my SM from.. suggestion.. invisible zipper. of cos!! so anyhow, bundled both kidlets into the car to go and buy the invisible zipper foot and then off to spotlight for the zippers. FIRST GO they both went in perfect. Very very happy! still a tiny bit of puckering but once they are put on it pretty much disappers (well enough to keep bridezilla at bay anyhow.. )

hems?? no problems here!!

please excuse the neglected lawn in the background.. !)

anyhow, they have now gone off to their new home waiting for the big day (11 sleeps to go!)
I will miss these dresses.. I know they are not 100% perfect and all, and there is a few imperfections I still think they are perfect and the girls are going to look so so precious in them!

Flowergirl dress progress..

2009-09-12T22:18:00.001-07:00

i know i know.. not the best photography skills being demonstrated here. This was Saturday PM after a good session with the sewing machine. All thats left now is to finish putting the zippers in (mental note to self.. use lots of pins. and even if you think thats enough, use more. satin is a very very slippery material to try and work with.. ) and to do the hems!! yay!!!
A good iron is also needed.. but not today!

More Material

2009-09-12T21:11:00.000-07:00

First, a spotlight purchase.. not sure what the creamy stuff is called but its satiny and has pretty pink flowers with green leaves embroidered into it (it came from the clearance table for $8 per metre! yay!).. and the green is just some plain satiny stuff. These two together will *hopefully* make DD an outfit for my sisters upcoming wedding.. using pattern New Look 6473 views B & D.

This is my big big big etsy purchase from http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6 442881 I believe this is called Movin' on Cars by Robert Kaufman. Not sure exactly what its going to become yet, but I have 2 yards of it so the possibilities are endless.. maybe a pair of shorts for DS..
Again, from the same shop, some of the Oh! Boy from David Walker. No idea either what im going to do with it, but i liked so i bought!
And lastly, I believe almost all the range of Apple by Alice Kennedy. I liked the owls to start with, then looked through the rest of the range.. and yeh well couldnt help myself so i bought a bit of it all. I think all that im missing is the owls with brown background...

oh.. nearly forgot.. this is my "almost free" spotlight purchase, received a card in the mail last week - $10 giftcard!! so off i went, spied the blue sharkies and still had a few dollars left to spend so got the stripes as well.. cost - $5ish.. woot!!

Another day in paradise...

2009-08-16T04:14:00.001-07:00

This was what was waiting for me when I arrived at "the local" this morning.. what a sensational winters day!

A new dress for Miss Ebony - you may recognise it as Oliver + S teaparty sundress... made up in an old spotlight purchase!!

She can't quite work out how to crawl on the sand yet.. but is trying.. !!

Me with Mr Jacob who has decided (thankfully.. !!) that the water isn't bad after all and was more than happy to go intoday!! (it was freezing by Mummy standards!)

and finally..

a hat for Miss Ebony - I figured that she should probably be wearing one, even though she disagrees! This was this afternoons project while the kidlets were sleeping after being worn out by their beach adventure!

The Dress... !

2009-08-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Finished yesterday arvo - all but the hem.. Lots of swearing, unpicking and finally relief when I worked out what I was doing wrong!

It is made to pattern New Look 6644 using some fabric from Lincraft that my friend Karen helped me pick! I like it except for I think the pattern on the fabric is making my hips/thighs look bigger than what they really are.. maybe might be different with a plain fabric? Anyway, i'm ecstatic that it is near enough completed !!

Sneaky Shopping & Flowergirl Dress

2009-08-01T02:33:00.000-07:00

Was on my way out to lunch today and decided to stop in at Spotlight, good thing I did cos big big sale on !! (you know its going to be a good trip when the store manager is handing out 20% off coupons at the front door!!)

Anyhow, went looking for patterns for DD & DS.. Nothing.. so next best thing, me! found three that I liked.. New Look 6644 (potential bridesmaid dress?? ) New Look 6864 and New Look 6782.

Didn't end there tho, also purchased some material.. which looks like..

Not sure exactly what I am going to make with it, maybe a shirt for DS out of the plaids? who knows.. !

After I got home, my sister partner & their tribe turned up for the first flowergirl dress try on, went well..

Keleni Katie

Dress is the same one size 7, Katie is 8 and Keleni 6 and the only difference in their sizing is their height!! (and if you can't tell, Keleni hates getting her pic taken and Katie is aspiring to be a model .. )

patterns patterns patterns

2009-07-28T03:00:00.001-07:00

ok so heres the list of what I own. I thought that I really didn't have many.. but I have found all my little pattern hidey-holes and heres what I have come up with:

OWN
Butterick 3846 NB, S, M (baby girls)
Butterick 3782 one size (baby girls)
Simplicity 8540 Size 2,3,4 (girls)
Kwik Sew 3398 size xs-xl (boys)
Simplicity 4243 size xxs-l (baby girls)
simplicity 5316 xxs-l (baby girls)
simplicty 2907 size 1/2 to 4 (girls & boys)
kwick sew 3100 t1-t4 (little boys)
newlook 6363 size nb-l (little girls/boys)
butterick 6280 size l & xl (but also think i have nb-m somewhere..) (girls)
kwik sew 3089 size xs-xl) (sleeping bag pattern that can be sewn with eyes closed)
uptown girl jacket (make it perfect)
downtown boy jacket (make it perfect)

ON WAY
o&s sailboat top, pants & skirt
o&S 2+2 blouse & skirt
o&s teaparty sundress bloomers & playsuit
little explorer overalls

I WOULD LIKE
Feliz dress
any other o+s patterns - either boy or girl, i have one of each but in the smaller sizes
bag patterns
a million dollars
someone to come and clean my house

thats it for tonight..I was hoping to have this in a thingy on the side so it wouldn't get lost anywhere but it seems that I am to retarded to be able to do that!

take care,
Kyls

downtown boy & uptown girl

2009-07-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

Its 11pm on a Friday night and in previous years there is no way I would be sitting at home on a computer.. you would normally find me somewhere that served alcohol.. but alas, times have changed!

Soooo for tonight instead I will share with you my downtown boy jacket which I have just finished sewing - there was no swearing or throwing of sharp implements involved in this project, which according to DH is a rarity..
Here he is. Apologies about the cruddy photo.. can't be perfect at everythinggggg... Will try my best to get action shots tomorrow when it is being worn by Mr Jacob..

For now tho, here is the action shot of uptown girl proudly being modelled by Miss Ebony!

(just in case you are wondering, no she didn't get the lolly.. she was being teased with it.. HONESTLY!!)

The First Entry

2009-07-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Sooo.. here it is.. my blog. Welcome.

How do I start?

I could start by saying that I have at least 2 different items that I have recently "created" to take photos of and blog.. one being the downtown girl jacket and the other a simple little pinafore that is wayyy to big for my little girl, but since the camera battery is flat and im using the wrong computer to upload pics I will begin by showing you the flowergirl dresses that I have agreed to help make for my sisters upcomming wedding in October... so without futher ado, here they are..

http://www.mccallpattern.com/item/M4763.htm?tab=girls_boys_7_16_girls_plus&page=4

material has been purchased and ive almost finished cutting out the material for the dummy run that we are doing to make sure the fit is correct before hacking into the expensive stuff.. wish me luck cos sure as hell im gonna need it!! (my sister has gone from kinda "go with the flow" to "over the top bridezilla.. " and the person she is getting married to had turned into "groomzilla" - of all the weddings I have played a part in recently, I have never met "groomzilla" yet so not sure exactly what im up against!!).

Give me a day or two and I'll have pics up and everything!

Have a good day
Kyls