Sunday Snippets

A few snippets from my week...

Things may be a little quiet on the blog front for a while.

I'm back at the hospital three days a week for rehab gym sessions, tests, appointments etc.
But, worst of all, I'm not allowed to use any machinery that vibrates..... including my sewing machine (GASP)!

Bec came over to play nurse this weekend, so I just had to watch as she sewed, and overlocked and made me two lovely new summery nighties.

I also have the shakes from the anti-rejection drugs, which makes it hard to hand sew, write neatly, or take an un-blurry photo.

In the meantime, I'm working on something that doesn't require sewing, and is even slightly immune from the shakes.  Fingers crossed it works!

Lovely things that others have made

I was sorting through my photo folders earlier this week when I realised that there were a few things that I hadn't blogged yet.

The first one is this lovely dress that Jennie made for me as part of a swap. The pattern is Simplicity 2925. It's unhemmed in this photo, so it's a little longer than the actual finished product. Jennie made lovely capped sleeves for me, and added side in-seam pockets!

This next one is a happy accident (happy for me anyway).

Bec made herself this lovely Grainline Tank but it was a bit too tight around the shoulders...

...so now it's mine!

The Make It In May Skirt Sew Along...

I'm a little bit behind in skirt features... so here's this weeks group of finishers.

Number one is Beccasauras with Simplicity 2226 made using a vintage curtain (note the lovely handmade bag too)!

Number two is Jody Pearl with a variation of the Splice Skirt in a plain denim. Plain skirts are the perfect wardrobe staple!

Number three and four are both by Dione from Sew Funky (number 4 isn't in the Flickr group sorry). Dione drafted a pattern based on a skirt that she already had in her wardrobe, and after a little adjusting - voila!

Number five for tonight is this Burda 3058 by Brenda from Mira Narnie. Check out the supercute pocket!  This skirt is really similar to the Lisette Market Skirt that is on my list.

Number six is a Nicole Mallalieu  You Sew Girl A-Line Skirt by Sheridan from Chaletgirl 

Thankyou all so much for joining in and sewing along!


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The Lisette Sew Along - First Cab off the Rank

So, while I was sitting at home in my pyjamas on the weekend procrastinating about fabric choices, Beccasauras had already whipped up her gorgeous version of the Lisette Continental Dress!

Check out her blog post for her tips about the neckline gathering and the length of the dress.

We have lots of lovely peeps playing along now. It's fun to see WIP photos popping up on Twitter and Instagram. Make sure to search for the #lisettesewalong hashtag to check them out!


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Sew Lisette Flickr Group

PS - the 50% off Lisette Patterns sale at Spotty ends on March 11th 

Only 1 week late

Better late than never hey!

I finally managed to deliver Bec's completely finished birthday pressie yesterday.... and she loved it. Phew. Although she may have been a teensy bit disappointed that it wasn't a pair of hot pants Anna.

I've been hoarding collecting ribbons and vintage trims for years and years. I have bucketloads of them, in fact.

Another lesson learned from my day at the 6 Steps Workshop.... I must start using what I have, and not living by that old mantra 'She who dies with the most fabric (and trims) wins!' .

I'm completely in love with the way this turned out, so I had a hard time handing it over yesterday.

If you would like to make something similar, it really is easy peasy.

Just cut a piece of calico to the size that you need for your cushion cover front. Without overthinking the placement of ribbons and trim, just start laying down pieces and stitching them into place, criss crossing over as you go. The more random, the better..

(apologies - blurry iPhone snap).

I made sure to change my thread colour to match each piece of trim or ribbon.

(apologies - blurry iPhone snap)

Once everything is stiched into place, neatly trim the edges (you'll notice that this project definitely required coffee).

You can then turn it into a cushion cover, or anything else your imagination can conjure up!

Happy Birthday Beccasauras

Happy Birthday Bec!

It's not quite finished.... but here's just a little teaser. Can you guess what it is???

A new crafty kit for the kiddies (or the kiddies at heart)

There seems to a distinct lack of making stuff at CurlyPops HQ at the moment, but I sincerely promise that the cogs are still slowly turning back here, behind the scenes.

Frocked (iPhone photo) - Testing by Brianna (or B-Fab as we like to call her)

When I have a little brainwave and come up with a new product, there's lots of testing and waiting and thinking......

 Owlie - Testing by Little Miss

and tweeking and testing and always the last little bit more waiting involved...

....and making sure that it really is suitable for the kiddies (of course).... (or just the kiddies at heart)

Kombi - Testing by Little Miss

.... and more importantly that they love it so much that they immediately want to colour in another one.

So, this is my brand new product - the CurlyPops Colour Your Own Fabric Panel Kit.

You can choose your favourite from the sweet little Owlie or the Kombi Van.

Kit Contains:

Black and White Owl or Kombi Van Fabric Panel measuring approximately 20cm x 20cm.
Design measures approximately 13cm x 13cm.
Fabric is a 55% linen 45% combed cotton blend.
Machine wash warm or cool using phosphate-free detergent.

Directions for Use:
Use appropriate fabric markers to colour in your fabric panel (Crayola brand fabric markers are recommended).
Follow the directions for heat setting and washing contained on the fabric marker packet to ensure that the colour will not run.
Use the panel in your favourite crafty project – frame as a piece of wall art, appliqué onto a t-shirt, stitch up as a cushion panel…. The possibilities are endless!

Little Miss took her completed Owlie panel home to stretch over a canvas.

I took the Kombi panel that she coloured in, heat set it, and appliqued it onto a little tee for a friends son.

It's super cute!

Patchy

I snapped this photo when I was at my sisters house last weekend.

She loved my Beccasauras vintage sheet patchwork doona cover so much, that she wanted one of her very own.

It's a bit of a collaboration - she wanted pinks and purples, so lots of the squares are from my vintage sheet stash.

Now she just needs a nice padded headboard to finish it off (hint hint BIL)!

The Giant T-Shirt Quilt - The End

So here it is..... finally in all it's quilted glory!

Such a lovely backdrop (ahem) I realise, but this quilt is sooooo big that there's nowhere else to hang it for a photo.

Each piece was originally 15.5 inches square, which means that this quilt in now approximately 75 inches wide x 90 inches long or 190 cm wide x 228 cm long.

It's really difficult to see, but Bec straight line quilted in white thread either side of each seam line, and then quilted the diagonal lines in invisible thread (so that the stitching wouldn't interfere with the prints).

It's finally time to let go and send it off to live with its owner. It certainly was a learning journey!

The Giant T-Shirt Quilt

Brianna (or B-Fab as we like to call her) and Bec

Yesterday was deemed to be the day of quilting the giant t-shirt quilt (although I somehow managed to forget to actually tell Bec about this particular part of my plan before she arrived)....

The first step was the congregation of about a million safety pins.... the big wooden bench made this much easier (thank god).

Then the quilting began (notice how I'm not actually doing anything much other than snapping photos?)

Quilting is hungry work, so it was time for a homemade pita bread pizza break!

There was also cake.... there has to be cake (and the host always gets to keep the leftover cake - but that might just be a rule that is in place when I'm the host).

We decided to put the child to work....

....and reminisced about Bea from Prisoner (please note that it's not actually turned on).

There was a looooooot of quilting, before it was finally time to start on the binding.

Mmm lovely binding.

We finally finished the entire quilt just after dinner time thank goodness! I would never have been able to finish this without the wonderful help from Brianna and Bec. I'm indebted to you two ladies! I learned a lot about quilting today and had lots of fun too.

I don't have any photos of the finished quilt just yet, so I thought I'd share the out-takes instead - enjoy!

Back on Duty

It's been a while since since good old Frances has had to work on any blog modelling assignments.

She's been patiently waiting in the corner, draped in all sorts of random junk that makes it's way into my office.

But today is her lucky day.... the random junk is now piled on top of the heater, and she's bathing in dappled sunlight.

I haven't made a teatowel apron for the longest time! This one is for a male friend of Bec's who has Scottish heritage (hence the lack of floral fabric).

Now if I could just find my metal snaps and snap setter to finish the adjustable neck strap......

It's getting there.....slowly

The t-shirt quilt is finally on the home stretch.

I'd been waiting for these text panels to arrive for a few weeks now, but they finally turned up yesterday, so I sat down and finished the quilt top lastnight.

It's ended up being really quite large - about 2 metres wide x 2.4 metres long.

The backing fabric is also ready to go, so now I'm just waiting for the batting to arrive. I've booked in next Saturday with my helper and we're going to quilt up a storm!