Is there a chill in the air?

Oh I am in love....

A friend commissioned me to make a few tops forher daughter and also to make a Laguna skirt. I gave her the choice of corduroy that I had on hand. The rest was left up to me.

So I made the skirt and had it sitting around for a few days as I was trying to decide how to hem it. Sometimes I like to look at things for a while because the right way just makes itself apparent. So in the end I chose to use purple ric rac to hem the orange floral cord and orange ric rac to hem the green corduroy.

My friend asked me for some pieces of the cord to do a matching applique onto a shirt. I said of course!!! But then I was inspired by the skirt. It just screamed Autumn with the olive colour and deep orange. Initially I was going to buy a t-shirt, but just didn't have time so decided to make one. It's handy having a stash of patterns, and I have to highly recommend Ottobre's Creative Workshop 301! The pattern goes together like a dream. The best part about making the shirt was that I could do the applique onto the front of the shirt before i put it together. So much easier than using a ready made shirt!

Here's a close up of the tree applique. I used some purple cord for the tree and the cords from the skirt for the leaves. I used a straight stitch to stitch on the trunk and leaves, so the edges are frayed. When I did the leaves, I played around with using the BSR on my Aurora. I've had my machine for almost a year and have finally used the BSR (Bernina stitch regulator)!!! It was a lot of fun to use a new gadget.

I just love this tree!!!


I've also been an Antonia making fool!

My sewing machine has been put away for a few days. I have a horrible head cold (thank you caring, sharing children!!!) and must prepare for the onslaught of 5 year olds on Saturday. Fingers crossed Will's nose is acceptable for daycare tomorrow!

Party prep

My not so baby girl turned 5 on Saturday. We are having a party for her this coming Saturday, and as a craft the girls are going to make no-sew tutus. Mollie and I made one to see how long it took and for me to feel confident that six 5 year olds could manage it.Mollie has declared the tutu fantastic, and said she can help all her friends at her party.
Thanks Kylie for your help!

Waiting to emerge

My tied up bits of cloth and dresses made me think of cocoons. Not sure why, but it's like they are incubating. I hang them to dry after soaking in soda ash.

I am usually so caught up in what I am doing I would never think to stop and grab the camera. I am trying to get better about this.


These are my bottles of dyes set up on the table out back. I usually do my dyeing outside. I'm too messy to do it in the house. My last dyeing session was at night, hence the black background in the photo. I've decided that it's easier to do sewing at night than dyeing. But hey, you've got use the time you've got! I always feel like I have so little free time.

I dyed two pieces of silk for blankets, 6 t-shirt dresses
and a couple of pieces of flannel for the blankets. I forgot to take photos of the dresses before I went to market ,and I sold my favourite rainbow stripe one. I was really happy with this heart I tied.

Sock Animals

I am so lucky to have some crafty friends that I see on a weekly basis. It is fantastic how we each have our own style and inspire each other. My friend, Elka, made these fantastic sock animals. I think they are so absolutely adorable. So when she wanted one of the Antonia shirts for her daughter, I straight up offered to trade for one of these cuties!

Mr. Monkey will be taking up residence here. I couldn't make up my mind, so let the other half decide. He said, "Will is such a monkey, so that is what you should choose for him!"

Now on to other things. I was madly working last week getting ready for the market. I was sewing, dyeing, labeling, blah, blah, blah. I was so focused on getting everything ready that I forgot to take photos of all my new things! I will do that this week.

Saturday was an enjoyable day at the market with my friends. I had lots of lovely feedback about the items I had there. Mollie was with me from lunch onwards which was trying at times because every few minutes I would hear "Mum, I'm bored." This meant I don't want to sit here, I want to do go down to Big Kindy and jump on the trampoline.

Rainbow Confetti

Pretty colours. This is pretty much what I do. I am motivated by colour. These are scraps of fabric from some rainbow Redondo skirts that I made. My daughter is always drawn to these bits of fabric. I totally understand the attraction, but I am less than thrilled when I find them scattered through the house.

This is what the skirt looks like when it's finished. It's made from fabric that I dyed. This particular batch of fabric I dyed in the washing machine as an experiment. It came out all lovely and even, but, of course, was then lacking that beautiful, mottled hand-dyed look.



This is the week of market madness for me. I will run around trying to do a zillion things last minute even though it doesn't matter how much or how little that I have. The markets are at my daughter's school. I usually make or dye things to sell at the markets, which is why I made the rainbow redondo skirts. Rainbow is big at at Steiner school.


I also made a couple of Farbenmix Antonia shirts for the market. I absolutely love this shirt. I made one for my daughter and then was compelled to make more.

This shirt pattern MADE me cut into my stash of Euro knits. A worthy cause, don't you think?






If you are out Dural way, Saturday, March 15, you can find me with the Lorien Playgroup stall at the Lorien Novalis Markets.