Summer Lovin'

I love this strange time between Christmas and New Year where it feels like the world just stops, sighs, and takes a little break.

I should be having a nice relaxing holiday down on the beautiful Victorian Surf Coast. Instead, I'm at home, catching up on sleep, and using the little break to do some Summer sewing for myself.


For a while I've had a picture in my head of the perfect, no fuss, comfy summer dress. I haven't been able to find anything that suits, so I decided to go ahead and create my own.

I began with a Vintage Simplicity 5007 top pattern. I made a toile, tried it on, marked it with pen, and chopped and sewed until I ended up with a bodice that fitted my shoulders and bust nicely.

Then I rifled through all of my dress and skirt patterns, to find one that was sort-of the shape that I was looking for (Lisette Passport Dress). I made up the separate pattern pieces, omitted the pleats, and altered the shape and size to match up with my bodice. I also added in-seam side pockets.

Please excuse the stack of towels and the random dog tail hiding behind me. Just keeping it real.

I sewed everything together using the standard method - shoulder seams, side seams, match bodice to skirt.... and then came the invisible zip!

I invested in an invisible zip foot ages ago, and ever since, I've managed to crunch each and every invisible zip that I've tried to sew. But, a couple of moths ago, I went over to Anna'a studio and had a little invisible zip lesson.

Using the standard zip foot, I managed to sew this one without any swearing, unpicking or crunching. I'm taking that as a big win! I even managed to very nearly match up my seams perfectly.

I have hoards of op-shopped bias binding in the stash so that's what I used for the neckline, arm holes, and hem. Simple yet effective.

 Ta-daa... one finished Summer dress!

After finishing the dress, I was on a roll. I had a piece of beautiful Lisette Cotton Lawn which had been sitting on my cutting table, silently mocking me for two months.

I decided to make another Wiksten Tank, but this time I completely ignored the instructions and just sewed and overlocked the seams, and bound all the openings and hem with some more op-shopped bias binding.

I made the XL size again (as that was the size that I'd originally traced off), but I added an extra half inch to each of the side seam allowances to make it a litte bit tighter.

It's a really quick and easy, no fuss top to make, and really comfy to wear. 

Now I just need to decide which one to wear today!

Starting Afresh

Gosh the last month has just flown by....

It's been so busy between working, appointments, keeping up with the day to day, making sure Mr Limpy Houdini dog is fed, the hotties, and the testing.

Don't get me wrong. I love being busy. I thrive on being busy. But, sometimes it's nice to stop and smell the roses. Even if it's only for a day.

So today is the day. I'm getting a haircut (haven't had one for months), and then I might even come home and sew.  I haven't switched my sewing machine on since the 30th of June. That's eleven whole days. Holy Guacamole UNBELIEVABLE around these parts..... oh and of course, there's that article that's due on Friday which I haven't even begun to write............ but first, I sew.

A long time between drinks....

So I counted backwards yesterday, and worked out that I hadn't switched the sewing machine on for sixteen whole days. Now that's gotta be some sort of record for me.

I haven't had the energy to do much all week, but I really need to try to get back into the swing of things around here. On top of that, I have some lovely (and very patient) people waiting on custom orders, that I don't want to let down.

The first thing on the list was this little pinny for my cousins daughter. I totally love the fabric combo together, although I'm not 100% happy with the armhole facing. I need to rethink my method (I didn't follow the instructions, I just did it my own way.... not always the most intelligent thing to do).

I also finally shortened and re-hemmed my sisters jeans. Following along with this philosophy, there was no changing of overlocker thread to match as they're OFMS (only for my sister)....

It figured that it would have taken me longer to re-thread than the total time it took to re-hem!

Trial and Error - part 2

Excuse the pants - I only iron when I'm sewing!

Well I promised myself that it would be onward and upward after the first trial.... and so I tried again.

I decided that a top would be more practical than a dress. I had this lovely vintage fabric in the stash that I received from a friends mum. It was from the same lot as the Tahiti fabric.

The fabric is quite sheer, so I interfaced the top rectangular sections, and added a muslin lining to the front drapey section. I had to overlock all of the seams to prevent it from fraying too.


The front and the back are exactly the same, which makes it a little bulky at the back (the back doesn't have any lining), and I widened the shoulder straps to make sure that my bra wouldn't be on show.

This one actually made it out of the house, as I gave it a swelter test run during yesterdays heatwave. I think I quite like it!

My creative space...

I'm a little bit late with My Creative Space today, but I had to join in to show the latest little change in my craft area....

I don't have cords running all over the sewing table anymore!

I bought the tables second-hand so I wasn't precious about drilling holes in them (not that I'm actually precious about anything in particular anyway - except fabric).

All it took was a spade bit and some muscle (provided by ex-Mr CP).

Head on over to visit Kirsty to check out the lots and lots of others who've joined in!

Strike a pose

Hmmmm so they're not looking at the camera.... they're much more interested in the fact that Moo Moo (bottom left) is trying to steal one of their presents.

I missed today's creative spaces, but I did at least get to finish a book and listen to some nice realxing music while I was at my hospital appointment. Now I'm off to bed.

Mr X and the Manbag

Mr X (my 10 year old nephew) has been staying with me this week while my sister and brother-in-law move house.

After dinner last night, he was bored, so I suggested that we make something. My intention was to keep it simple.... maybe some pencils, texta, and paper.

He kindly reminded me that I'd promised to make him a manbag just like Moo Moo's, so we decided to make it together (very quickly so we could finish it before his bedtime). I sent him out to the laundry to choose two fabrics from the stash, and he returned with skull and crossbones for the outer, and a camo print for the inner bag.

I let him use the rotary cutter (under very close supervision) to cut out all of the pieces that we needed. One piece went in the bin as it was just a bit too wonky to actually use, but the rest were absolutely fine.

Even though my machine is in for service, I still have my little sisters machine on hand, so we used that for this project.

We used clips instead of pins, and I marked the sewing lines with a fabric marker. Mr X then just had to follow the lines. He got the knack of it really quickly, and learned how to stop at the corner, put the needle down in the fabric, lift the foot, turn the fabric, put the foot down, and keep sewing.
It was a great combined effort and he's very happy with his new Manbag!

Orange and Green should always be seen

One of my favourite creative things to do is to take unusual (sometimes whacky) types of fabric and combine them together into a new creation.

This bag is definitely one of the whackier ones to date!

The outer is a thrifted velveteen type fabric combined with a vintage tablecloth floral panel and some spotty binding. I used some more of the tablecloth along with some thrifted orange fabric to make the straps.

I'm taking this one along to the market, so it will be interesting to see whether it gets snapped up. I really love it.... it's just my style

PS: Come back and visit later. I'm having a giveaway.

Persisting

I've been trying to come up with my own design for a little padded pouch that could be used for phones / Ipods / MP3s / Cameras etc with limited success so far.

So far, version number 5 is pretty close to what I'm looking for, but I'm not happy with the shape.... so back to the drawing board for me!

I hope my family members will like my dodgy prototypes for their handbags.

The birthday month

April is definitely the craziest birthday month of the year among my family and friends. I'm still heading along the make/buy handmade present path, but year after year, it's getting a bit more difficult.

A friends little boy is turning five this weekend. I've been racking my brain trying to think of something to make for him, when my sister happened to mention that she was going to bake some cupcakes with the kiddies. I had one of those lightbulb moments, and knew immediately what I was going to attempt to make.

The apron was the easy bit.... it's just a much smaller version of my adult aprons. The chefs hat was a bit more of a challenge, but I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I just need to make sure that I take some measurements, and write down how I actually made it before I gift it away! I'm predicting more baking gifts in the future.

A Good Friday

Good number 1 - A little Lindt bunny arrived on my doorstep thismorning.... very similar to this little bunny above. I don't think he'll last the day somehow!

Good number 2 - My sister sent over some homemade Salmon Patties for my dinner, so now I don't have to cook.

Good number 3 - I hemmed and then hung my new curtains, so now my bedroom is nice and dark, which means I can sleep in tomorrow. Yippee!

Good number 4 - I spent the entire day today pottering around, and working on some new prototypes for the next market. They weren't all entirely successful.... but it was still lots of fun.

Did you do anything good today?

A belated birthday pressie

It was my younger sisters birthday on Sunday, and she'd requested a Ray's Tent City voucher as a pressie.

I'd been meaning to make her a purse since I did Nikki's purse frame class last year, but I just never got around to it..... until last night.

I was just hammering the frame to finish it off at around 8 PM when there was a knock at the door.... and she walked in. Talk about perfect timing!

A completed project

I've finally finished the City Bag for my aunt. I'm quite impressed at just how professional it looks and I'm hoping that she will love it.


I picked up the supplies that I needed from Nikki to make an adjustable strap. I was quite excited by the adjustable strap, and of course now I want to chop all my handbag straps off and replace them...agggghhhh

I still had lots of fabric left so I quickly whipped up a few extra goodies to go with the handbag.
A zippered pouch....


A coin purse....

.... and a passport holder based on this tutorial from A Spoonful of Sugar.
I didn't have any clear PVC so I've just substituted fabric instead to make the pockets, and I used my 18mm bias tape maker to make a little button loop.

... and then finished off with a vintage button from my late Nana's stash (who is my aunts mum) so hopefully she'll really love that bit.

Now back to the 'to do' list.

Make Mend and Do

Welcome to Make Mend and Do - The CurlyPops Make It Up As You Go Along Creative Version....

It seems that certain family members actually believe that I know how to repair various items of clothing. I'm always happy to oblige. I don't have any training in the right way to make clothing repairs, but I'll always have a think about it, and try to have a go.

Take object 1 (above photo) - ripped lining inside nephews parka (raincoat if you prefer).

How do you fix that strange synthetic slippery frayed lining stuff?

I had absolutely no idea - I couldn't use anything that was iron on as I was afraid that I would just melt the entire lining onto the iron, so my best and most creative solution, was to cover all of the frayed edges with some homemade bias binding......

.... and then handstitch the bias binding together to close the gap.

At least he can now easily identify which parka is his, just by looking inside!

Re-purposing christmas gifts

My sister received this cool Big Pineapple tea-towel for christmas from her step-mother-in-law.
I was supposed to make her an apron months and months ago, so I suggested that we turn the tea-towel into an apron so that she can use it.

It's actually the perfect size for an apron.... I just added some spotty fabric (thanks Cathy) at the sides to make it a bit wider, shaped the top, and then trimmed it all with bias tape before adding some straps. It fits her perfectly!

Houston - we have a problem

I spent about 4 hours yesterday afternoon making my first ever skirt from a pattern. But that was not the only exciting thing, it was even more exciting because I was making something just for me.

After sewing the pleats back to front, I unpicked them and re-sewed them the right way.

Can you see the problem?

I managed to find an op-shopped zip in the stash that fitted perfectly. The sewing might not be very pretty, but it's functional.

Can you see the problem?

The finished skirt in all its glory with bias binding edge (because I thought that it would be prettier than a plain hem).

Can you see the problem?

I tried the skirt on at the end....

Hmmmm, now that really is a problem?

Ok enough already.....

I promise that this is the very last time you'll see any photos of shorts for the rest of the year.
I'm not good at sweat shop sewing... I get really bored making the same thing over and over and over and over...... so this is the end of it.
Two more little pairs of size 1 shorts for Nico.

Size 8 for Master B.

and Size 10 for Master X.

I've never tried to make big boys shorts before so I really hope they fit.

After all of those shorts, it's time for something girly again. Stacey suggested that the op-shop fabric would look really nice as a skirt, so I've dragged out the skirt pattern that I bought months ago from Clegs to give it a whirl.

I'm hopeless at following instructions but I did actually try to read them properly before I started this time (even though it's really boring). So far I've cut out the pieces that I need, and I've managed to iron and sew the four pleats back to front...... needless to say, that I'm now taking a frustration break before I go back and unpick and try again!

I'm a little nervous because the skirt has a side zipper, and I've only attempted to sew in a zipper three times in my life, and never into an item of clothing..... so it could all go terribly terribly wrong.

In other news, I decided not to send christmas cards this year, because it would have been just too weird to send them just from me...... but today I received a joint christmas card in the mail. Clearly, there are some people who are still a little behind the times. I really thought the gossip would have spread like wildfire.. but it seems I'm mistaken.

More shorts

I found this corduroy remnant while searching through the fabric stash yesterday. There was just enough to make a pair of size 2 shorts for Moo Moo.

I went in search of fabric to make some shorts for my older nephews yesterday, but there wasn't much to choose from at Spotlight. Most of the prints were to babyish for 8 and 10 year olds. I ended up picking up some plain cotton drill and some camouflage cotton drill. I'm hoping to finish those off tomorrow and that will be the end of the shorts making spree!

The list is getting shorter

Another one has been ticked off the handmade christmas list. This appliqued tee and matching shorts set is for Moo Moo. I think he'll like the puppy dogs.

The sewing / craft supplies have been packed up for the day. The house buyers bank is sending a valuer around to do a house valuation today, so I've had to turn the kitchen back into a space where one could cook a meal, or even eat a meal on the table, if they so chose, rather than being the headquarters of the CurlyPops handmade christmas sweatshop.

I've even left yesterdays op shop purchases in the boot of my car just so I don't add any more crap to the house (until after he's finished valuing anyway)!

I'll be back to my mission tomorrow.

The long and the short of it

I'm still madly sewing away, trying to tick pressies off the handmade christmas list...

I found this groovy fabric at Savers a few weeks ago on one of my adventures with Big Cat. It's a really heavy cotton and there was about 2 metres in total.


The little girl who is receiving the twirly skirt has a big brother who is 4 years old, so I made him what was supposed to be a pair of shorts (obviously my pattern adjusting skills leave a lot to be desired). I think these will end up being more like knickerbockers, but I think they'll still look really cute with a blue t-shirt and a pair of brown leather sandals.

These ones are for a friends little boy who is 1.75 years old.... so somewhere in-between the 18 months sizing and size 2 clothing. I'm really hoping that these ones fit, but at least they actually look like shorts, and not knickerbockers.

Now, back to the list!