How lucky am I!

Last week I checked my mailbox and found a package from my friend, Peta. I opened it to find the most gorgeous knitted shawl. Peta saw me mention that I liked that shawl. Like how cool is that!!!! I don't really knit, and to knit something like that shawl is way past my abilities.

Mollie keeps insisting that she is going to wear it.


For better pictures please have a look at Peta's blog.

I met Peta through Crafty Mamas, and had the pleasure of meeting her in person when I went to Melbourne in May. I'm already looking forward to next year when we all get together again!

For my cheeky boy

I have had a couple of things buzzing around in my head to make for Will. Some are necessary like elastic waist pants which are still not made (we're toilet training here). Some were fun and practical. The two Imke tops are fun and practical. Imke is in German, but if you've done a Farbenmix hoodie pattern, you can figure this one out. I love the side and underarm contrast panels. And as per Farbenmix, there is a fun and unique hood. I changed the hood a bit to make it come to a point as opposed to having one with fringe/ribbons coming out of the end. The pattern has a boy version and a girl version. The side panels on the boys' version are straight while the girls' version has a nice curve to it.

I used embroidery/appliques from Huups.
I dyed the fabric which is like a spandex French terry. It came from an Australian manufacturer. I love this fabric and will be sad when it's all gone because it's not being made any more.

Monkey Boy




Little Devil

Pre-shrink your knits!

I had a custom order for a Jule hoodie. I thought to save time that I would not pre-wash the fabric. So I cut, sewed and dyed the top. After dyeing the top was washed several times and then tumble dried. When I went to do the reverse applique, I thought "this top looks way too small!"

Shrunken top (anyone want a small size 1-ish Jule?)


The redone top...



The top has reverse applique hearts on the front, back and sleeve. All with hand stitching around them. The birthday girl received her top today and by all accounts is quite happy with it. Pink, hearts and a three year old, it's a good combination.

What it's all about...

this home renovation that I've been rambling about on and off for months. Well, it's really going to happen. All the big, major bits that need to happen have. Now we just have to nut out some final details with our builder, and we are good to go.

Here's a picture of the plans


Here's the thing to note. Our current house is the bit with the bold black lines. We have been living with two bedrooms, living room, vile bathroom, laundry, dining room that is also home to our fridge and Col's computer desk. Our kitchen is that rectangle of dotted lines in the "proposed lounge". The current kitchen is sort of like a lean-to that was added onto the back our of house by a previous owner. It will be one of the first things to go! While I am happy to see the end of our kitchen with its horrid tile counters, I am dreading being without one for weeks, probably more like months. Better put cleaning up the barbecue on my to-do list.

Sunny sun

Here's Mollie's pillowslip that she painted for winter festival. She said she painted sunny sun.

This is one of the 35 that I sewed. For the future I am going to compile a list of other mamas with sewing machines, so I don't end up doing it all myself.

It's school holidays

In the last few weeks of term the children in Moo's class learned to finger knit. Mollie loves it. Now what to do with the pieces of finger knitted wool...

Seen it all before

I made a similar dress in my preparation for the Kamaroi Fair, and the daughter of my oldest, dearest friend wanted one like it. With dyeing it's hard to do exactly the same, but I created a similar dress. Mollie said, "this dress is too big for me." I reminded her it was for Mathilda who is 1.5 years older!


Pattern: Farbenmix Olivia
Fabric: organic cotton/spandex knit

Pimp my pants

Take one pair of old jeans...



So I made a few patches on wool felt to cover the holes, but also discovered these jeans had more holes.
I covered patched the hole at the fly with some denim underneath and darning stitches on top. It's not even noticeable!


And covered another hole on the side with red thread and darning stitches.


On the front Gnomes in love embroidery and red riding hood Farbenmix ribbon.


On the back of the other leg


This week has been crazy with Moo going off to Winter Festival tonight, so no modeled photos although there are full length photos, front and back.