LOST IN STASH

The pettiskirt and Frou frou tutorials can now be found here too

This one is from my Yarn Swap V2.0 that was dyed by the lovely ditto on TNN.

And another one…this time a modified version..to make a dress for nakey baby “Amelia”.

This one was done in scraps of Deep Purple Merino and The Wool Company Tropicana

A wee while ago I done a swap with the Gorgeous Gabes, where I made her DD a tutu. In return Gabes made Em the most beautiful shorties = Perfect for cloth nappying in the warmer weather

And not only that, but she made her a matching wee tie dyed singlet…. Did I mention I love pink I think it comes from being surrounded by daughters not ever a colour I’ve ever liked growing up but now I’m older I love it.

Thank you soooooooo much we love them – I’ll update this post with a pic as soon as I find them But you can see the gorgeousness here

Pics as promised

You can find the start of the tutorial here (on my new blog)

Please please please If you make one I’d love to see pics

They decided that they would pull their wedding forward to January – that gave them 5- 6 weeks (over christmas ) to get things organised. They chose to have a small DIY wedding…. I’m all for DIY so of course I was roped in eager to help

My main task was to make the girls flower girl outfits – they were wee garden fairies. – see this post. The beautiful photo of Izzy looking angelic was taken by my aunty

Then a week or so out from the wedding their photographer decided that it wasn’t suitable…. No problem – I’ll take some snaps for you. (this was actually a good excuse to practice as I’m hoping to take an Amateurs photography course in the next year or two – I’m happy with the results from my basic Digital SLR camera – ok it’s realy my other sister Juju’s camera but I have it on long term loan)

here are a few of my favourites -

And then on the day of the wedding a friend (who was making the cake) forgot the wedding was THAT day, mum called me in a panic…. No worries Mum I have an idea I’ll be round in 10mins .

2 chocolate mudcakes from the cheesecake shop, a bunch of gerberas, some ribbon and butterflies…. Voila. I’m actually quite pleased with my 20min wedding cake – I think most of the guests didn’t realise the rush it was made in until we told them.

Mum and my aunty done most of the decorating and they too done a fantastic job.

To Hannah and Lee – I wish you a lifetime of happiness.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Basically how I made them was I made 2 lots of tiered skirts with a big ruffle factor to get the oomph needed. The poufiness comes from the ruffle fluff which from memory is ruffled from 150cm down to 25cm so quite a fluffy ruffle

After about 5 days and almost 15metres of fabric  both skirts were finished at 10pm the night before just in time for the wedding at 3pm – I am sooooooooooooooooo happy with the results.

My conclusion – although extremely satisfying now they are done – and I get to say “I MADE THEM”  – the huge pricetag these come with is soooooooooooooooo justified

Wedding pics to come in another post

Again following with tradition, I didn’t start the renovation of this dollshouse until a couple of days before Christmas. It was a cheap buy from Trademe – I think under $20. I had bought the girls some wooden dolls furniture for cheap while I was in Nelson visiting my friend and her newborn son, so I really needed to get this finished in time for christmas as it was their main present.

Before pics….. this shows the roof after I repaired it – when we bought it it had some bits missing. Instead of making a new roof (DH was being stubborn) I bought some moulding putty and fixed it the best i could.

After a couple of days hard slog sanding it back (after finding out that it was enamel paint grrrr I did ask dh and he said that it wasn’t) and a couple of test pots of paint later, it was finally finished at 3am christmas morning.

AFTER:

And best of all……………………….The girls LOVE IT.

So christmas time was no exception…… with 5 days till christmas and no money for presents I had to do something. Along comes my lovely friend Margaret with a book from her marvelous collection “Bend The Rules Sewing”. It saved Christmas.

I went to bed that night and flipped through all the pages of quick easy potential gifts…. I was ready.  I made a list of who I had yet to buy for and assigned them a gift for me to make.

First Up was my Greatest Friend – Bridget and her darling mother (whom my girls believe is one of their grandparents sooooo sweet)

For Bridget I made the Artsy Clutch from the book – padded so she could use it as a camera bag – it turns out she bought herself a digital camcorder for Christmas (Lucky thing) so this will be a funky way of keeping it out of harms way.

I went stash diving and knowing my friend loves bright bold colours I went with Joel Dewberry Sparrows from his Aviary collection with a lime green sunburst (from the same collection) and I made a matching lime green button (oooh covered buttons….this will have to be a post in itself…what an awesomely cool addiction ) From Start to finish this project took about 20 mins – now you can’t complain about that

For her mum I wanted something slightly different – in my bloggy travels I’d come across these Criss Cross Coasters. A fantastic way to use up fat 1/4′s (a quarter of a yard of fabric cut so it’s like a fat rectangle for you non sewers   ) You get about 6 coasters from 2 contrasting fat 1/4′s. Again a simple but really effective gift. I love them and I think the recipient liked them too.

For my youngest sister a BIG BAG – the Pleated Beauty Bag – again from Bend The rules Sewing book.

Joel Dewberry Fabric again – this time in yellow (brighter than the picture shows) with a yellow lining. With a solid bottom.

I love the pleats – they add a point of difference. And I enjoyed making the bag so much that I’ve got one for me in progress (as soon as my machine comes back it will be finished)

My sister Juju received an Artsy Clutch also – this is for her New digital camera (see the theme?? )

Both of these fabrics are from my stash – I can’t think of the designer right now but again I had fun making the matching covered button

For mum I made some coasters in some vintage style rose fabric from my stash

She also got some handmade crystal christmas tree earrings made by my friend and all the girls in the family got some Memo Holder Magnets

These again were quick and easy to make. I had some wooden pegs from the girls craft box and raided my ribbon stash. I then put craft glue on the peg edge and wrapped it in a ribbon. The magnet strip was cut to size and added on the back. Then leave them to dry – and there you have it – a quick and easy gift

All the males in the family got some homemade fudge using the quick and easy recipe of Christine’s with some added goodies in it – crushed candy canes, some with cointreau etc. All was devoured within a day and I even had phonecalls asking if the fudge could be their annual christmas gift… I think I can do that. You’ll need to hound Christine for the recipe should you want to try it yourself

Anyway version 2.0 was the same as the first one with a slight tweak – no knitting gift was needed but apart from that it was the same

My recipient to be was Shortly – I reallyhad to put my thinking cap on, and since the swap was to be completed so close to christmas I decided on a christmas theme.

KIWIANA CHRISTMAS

I based it around what makes Christmas unique to us here in New Zealand – the fact it’s summer plays a big part in how we celebrate it, bbq’s, beaches, swimming. My girls have a wonderful christmas book called “Kiwi Jingle Bells” which sums it all up perfectly. I decided this was the main part of my swap.

Pohutukawa coloured Yarn (New Zealand’s Christmas tree – flowers around christmas time)

I also included the book and a couple of keyrings (a jandal and a buzzy bee) to use as decorations. The pattern I chose was for some jandal socks

In return the lovely E sent to me a

WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

Themed swap…. Man was i spoilt.

I got some Everlasting gobstopper yarn

Lots and lots and lots of Wonka lollies

A purple scarf from when Violet turned into a blue berry

A pattern for a sweetie dress and a Chocolate Sauce River Recipe.

SCARY……..

I had my husbands work christmas party to go to……I’ve been doing weightwatchers so all my clothes are getting too big for me (YAY) and with the fact that I’m still losing weight and have a bit to go I didn’t want to buy something new that in a few months time would be unwearable, so I thought I’d be brave and sew myself something. With lots of encouragement from Christine (I was scared to cut into my Amy butler fabric) I went for it…. and it wasn’t too hard.  I used the Amy Butler Barcelona A-line skirt pattern with some Amy Butler Passionflower fabric. Everything was written clearly and I even adjusted the pattern to fit using the instructions given..so it fits PERFECTLY.

Excuse the pics I took them of myself

I even learnt how to put in an invisible zip

The only modifications that I made was that I didn’t line it …on purpose – as I do want to be able to wear the skirt again as I lose weight I left it unlined so that I can take in the seams as i shrink