Tutorial - How to make a Superhero Headband

I had wonderful intentions of having this written before christmas, but better late than never!

Download the pdf

Every kid wants to be a Superhero. Use some fabric scraps and your imagination to create a one of a kind Superhero Headband.

Print and Cut out the template - copy the photo above and print it at full A4 size. The template includes a 1/4 inch seam allowance. The template is half of the headband, as the fabric will be cut on the fold.

Line up the pointy edge on the fold of the fabric and trace around and cut, or just cut around with your rotary cutter (this is a dress up item so there's no need to be completely accurate).

Cut out two pieces using whatever fabric print takes your fancy.

If you are using a light fabric such as a quilting cotton, then use some iron-on interfacing to add some structure.

Place your two pieces of fabric right sides together and sew all the way around using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Make sure to leave a turning out gap of at least 8 cm along the bottom straight edge.

Clip or notch all the way along your curves, or just use your pinking shears. Clip all of the corners to ensure that they turn out neatly.

Turn out to the correct side - using a knitting needle is handy for the corners.

Using your iron, press all around the seams so that it sits nice and flat. Topstitch all the way around the headband very close to the edge. This topstitching will sew the turning out gap closed.

Iron some fusible web onto a piece of red felt (I use applifix). Cut out a star shape.

Peel the backing paper and place the red felt star into the correct position.

Fuse the star with your iron following the directions for the type of fusible that you are using. Once fused, topstitch all the way around.

Add a strip of velcro approximately 8cm long to one end. Sew into place.

Add the other side of the velcro strip and sew into place, ensuring that the pieces match up together accurately.

Check the velcro closure

Go forth and banish the evil forces forever!

You can find more tutorials on my sidebar, including new ones that have been coverted to pdf downloads.

Road Tripping

Lake Beeac

Me and my little car have been driving all over the countryside this week.... I've been making the absolute most out of my last week of holidays.

Beeac

Yesterday I headed off for another country road trip with my mum and my older sister. Our first stop was Colac (sorry no photos). It's a much quicker drive now that the Geelong Ring Road is finally open.

We were short on time as we had errands to run in town, so we didn't get to check out all of the oppies, before we headed for Beeac.

Beeac is tiny, but it has a fantastic secondhand shop jam packed full of bargains. Inside this huge shed was everything from tools, to books, to an old Singer Sewing Machine (that I had to leave behind as I just can't fit it into my house).

I found some absolute gems that I did bring home - a vintage sleeveboard for $15. I've been searching for one of these ever since I used one in Nikki's Pursemaking Class.

An old hat stand (yes - it does need some cleaning and some repair work, but it was only $2)

And this gorgeous vintage basket and Meakin Plate for $5

On the way home, we stopped off in Winchelsea

There are four great secondhand shops in Winchelsea. The one above is only open on weekends so we had to be content with staring in the windows instead.

They don't have the same type of bargains that can be found in Beeac....

But there were some fabulous vintage items and plenty of gorgeous old furniture.

Definitely worth the road trip!

The Op Hopping Adventures of SupaSel and CurlyPops - Day 2

After our adventures on Day 1, SupaSel and I decided to take a road trip for Day 2.


We began the day in Clunes (a little late after I slept in...whoops), and decided to head towards the Grampians.

We drove via Burumbeet, and the first town that we reached with an op shop was Beaufort. It's a lovely little shop in the main street, right next to a little cafe that had great organic coffee and blueberry muffins.

On the other side of the oppy was the hardware store, but it still had the original vintage shop windows.... it's hard to see from the photo, but the stained glass says DRAPERY.


From Beaufort, we headed for Ararat. We knew that there was at least one op shop in Ararat.... but we didn't know that there were actually five!

We spotted the first one right as we drove into town. It's actually an old petrol station. All of the clothes and bric-a-brac were in the old shop / cafe section, and the furniture was in the old workshop.

We drove further into town and found the oppies in the main street. Unfortunately for us, Vinnies were still on holidays.

A little further along the main street was the Save The Children oppy. There were some lovely old nana's working here that were too busy chatting to serve. I think it took us about half an hour of chatting before we could pay and leave! Those ladies could have chatted all day long.

Just around the corner, we also found the Salvos (and promptly forgot to take a photo).

It was time to pop back in the car and head for home, so we decided to take a different route, and headed through Elmhurst to Avoca. We arrived right on 4PM but luckily the oppy was still open. There were no prices on anything so we grabbed our finds and took them to the counter, where the nice lady charged us a grand total of $3.

Then it was off home to Clunes via a little scenic drive around Talbot.

I was mainly looking for sewing supplies and linens, and I managed to find oodles upon oodles of ric rac and lace trim...

some tea towels....

some doilies and placemats...

and the 'piece de resistance' - a uncut original in packet pattern for MAN UNDIES!

The Op Hopping Adventures of SupaSel and CurlyPops - Day 1

After all of the excitement this week, I hardly know where to begin!

I've been meaning to head down to Ballarat for an op shopping adventure for the longest time, but just never seemed to get around to it, so the summer holidays seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I was a little late arriving in Ballarat Monday morning due to misplacing my prescription sunnies. I couldn't possibly drive all that way without them... so after a 20 minute delay where I realised that I'd left them at my older sisters house, I was on my way....

I met up with SupaSel and we both decided that it was high time for a cuppa before we began our adventures. The Queen of Craft came to the rescue, and provided cups of tea, and muffins too (not baked in her oven). We even got to have a tour of the craft room, which is filled with the most amazing creations you've ever seen..... and we met Grocer too!

It's amazing how you can just pop around to a bloggers house and have a cuppa and feel completely at home..... just like you'd been friends for years, yet we only met last year.

After lots of chatting and laughing, it was time to make a move and begin the search for bargains. We visited around six oppies in Ballarat and a couple of second hand dealers too. My best find for the day was little zip lock bags with 5 rolls of Gutterman thread in each, for $1.99. Hence, I bought 4 bags full!

My next best find for the day was this spool holder for $6.... I'll eventually put it on the wall (these things take lots of time and pondering at my place).

By that time, it was getting close to closing time so we headed back to Clunes to plan our next days adventure.  Tune in tomorrow for the next installment!

PS - I forgot to give a huge thankyou to Jodie for yesterday!

In The Weekly Times

Do you remember my penguin tea towel tote bag?

Well now you can make your very own bag, using my nifty little tutorial printed in the Country Living section of today's edition of The Weekly Times....

There's an online version right here, and I'm hoping to have a pdf available pdf can be downloaded right here!

Guess where I've been?

Clue number 1

Clue Number 2

Dressing (or Skirting) appropriately

A huge thanks for all the skirt love yesterday.

I was taking my sister out for a belated birthday dinner and a trip to the movies lastnight, all dressed up in my new tablecloth skirt.... when I realised that we were planning on heading to a local Italian restaurant.

I decided not to match the decor..... so I got changed.

Instead, I'm giving it a test run today. I'm heading down to Ballarat for the day for some op shopping adventures with my little sister. With any luck, I might even find some more tablecloths!

Skirting Inspiration

Front View - Frances is quite a bit smaller than me - hence the pins!

I promised myself before Christmas that I would use some of my holiday time just to make some things for me. I'm always sewing for other people, and hardly ever make anything for myself.

At the very top of the list was a skirt. After my previous disastrous attempt, I needed to just start again from scratch. I've been watching in awe at some of the beautiful skirts that have been popping up about the place, so I finally made some time today to have a go myself.

Rear view

I borrowed Sew What Skirts from Bec a couple of weeks ago (I've since ordered a copy from Amazon... just waiting for it to arrive).

I decided to make myself an A-line tablecloth skirt from the book, using a.......eeeeerrrr tablecloth suprisingly!

To make the front pockets, I just cut two feature pieces from the tablecloth, interfaced the backs of both for some extra strength, and then added bias binding around all four sides, before sewing them into place.

The method in the book for adding a zipper was pretty simple too.  Mine certainly isn't perfect, but it's completely functional.

I decided to topstitch both the waistband and the bottom hem using red thread for an extra highlight..... not that this loud print really needs and extra highlighting.

I didn't quite measure myself properly in the beginning, so I did have to make an adjustment to the side seams for fitment, and I wish I had made it a little bit longer (again my own dodgy measuring skills). I would have also preferred it to be a little more A-line. My hip measurement is not much different than my waist measurement which caused the lack of A-lineness problem.

This ended up taking me about three hours in total, but I learned a few very interesting lessons which will make it much easier to whip up a few more with the correct measurements from the beginning!

Cute and Cuddly

What's the most appropriate use for a vintage Koala Tea Towel?

A Koala Tea Towel Apron of course....

This one is heading overseas very very soon!