Happy New Year

and hopefully a better blogging year! Obviously I'm not the greatest blogger and over the last few moths have thought about why I have a blog. My main purpose was to keep a record of the things I've made this year but between work, family committments and the random accidents I seem to be a magnet for my blogging has fallen by the wayside.


Whilst I actually finished this Ottobre Women skirt a few weeks ago I'll post it now to start off a new year of blogging. I originally intended to make it for myself, but somewhere between measuring myself and reading the pattern sizing I cut out a skirt that just fits my reed thin twelve year old daughter - hmm ....not sure where I went wrong there (wishful thinking maybe?)

It's the denim skirt from Ottobre Woman issue 05-2008-2. Its made out of a cotton drill that I purchased from Crafty Mamas a while back and has been sitting in the stash. The directions were quite clear and easy to follow though I attached the waistband differently to how was described in the pattern instructions. Size -??probably the smallest, lol.

Oops - can still see the guide lines I drew on for the top stitching - I wanted to get a photo of this before the clouds and rain set in again. Looking at the skirt now I wish I had of gotten some buttons for the two front and back pockets - I think it would have given a better overall finish to the skirt.

I'm working on my first quilt at the moment so will hopefully have something to show before I head off to Tassie with the family in a weeks time - I'm looking forward to some nice cold weather - which may sound crazy to most but living here in the tropics where the tempreture sits around 38 degrees centigrade for 3/4 of the year, cold weather is what I'm dreaming of!

Antonia #2

As I am getting more comfortable with sewing knits I'm moving out of my comfort zone and trying new things - reverse applique this time. As the Antonia is fairly plain I thought adding a star to the front would make it more interesting. This is my first go at reverse applique and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (apart from the fact the stitching around the outside is a little messy due to the tension on my sewing machine being out of whack - sadly it is in need of a service).

This is my favorite t-shirt pattern as it is so versatile. Now, I even might try to make myself one - I just need to get the grown up version of the pattern first!

Farbenmix Feliz

I love how this dress has turned out - it's a great pattern, fairly straight forward (well, with the online instructions anyhow - the photo tutorial was a godsend as I doubt it would have been quite as easy or turned out quite as well.)

The dress is made up out of cotton poplin(?) from Spotlight as I didn't want to cut into any "good" fabric until I knew how it would turn out (aka: botched job)

This would have to be the longest it has taken me to put a dress together - I blame it on all those ruffles at the back as I did not have a ruffling foot and did them by hand. They really were not that hard to do but it was not my favorite part. As there were no instructions for the ruffles included with the pattern I think I may have positioned them incorrectly (they are different from in the photo tute) but I still love how it looks anyhow.

As I'm new to blogging I still have yet to work out how to put my photos and text in the order that I want them.