Alice's party dress

I think this month of blogging will be a year in reflection, I started this blog more as a journal, so when you miss a year, you think to yourself "I'm too far behind". In any case this month will be the highlights.

Important note; ALL dresses need twirl factor.  If I'm honest, now that will live up here, Alice spends most day without clothes or shoes. Birthday parties seem to be held at the beach, but at Auntie Marg's birthday celebration in Ballarat, Miss Alice got to really check out the twirl factor. With the DJ playing, she managed to encourage all on the dance floor to "move back" whilst she displayed the twirl. This one is not shy.....

 This is a beautiful voile from Germany, it was in my shop but has all sold out. It has so much body for a voile.
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Lazy daisy stitches and sparkly beads.

And of course sparkly  shoes to match.

The Ashland dress

I was needing a new dress, and came upon the ashland dress pattern, by Meg McElwee

It was fun to sew, funner choosing the fabrics (as always), and I very happy wearing it. If you would like to buy this pattern, I have them for sale(just not on my website yet) you can leave a comment:)

More of Molly

Alice is still in love with Molly, when I look at Molly, I smile, which is a very good thing, usually I only notice all the areas that I could improve on, which means that they them spend a lot of time on my sewing table.

And then I 'm unsure what to do, because really, they have developed their own look and way, because of the love the child gives them, I then wonder what to do. If I try to fix them how I see they should be, there's a chance that my child would say what has happened to "Tom".

I wonder what other people do.


Molly's clothes fabrics came right out of my shop, and the shoe pattern is from saartjes booties,
Alice had a pair when when was born.
Sadly Saartjes doesn't post anymore, put her blog is still open.

Which brings me to another thought. I love this blogging world, people opening up, talking about stuff they wouldn't share with their neighbours. You actually feel a closeness with your fellow blogger.

And then they stop.

No warning, no goodbye,

They just don't exist in your world anymore, you can't ring them up or knock on their door, just to check that they're still alive....

And then I grieve, first I'm worried, then sad, then hurt, that they think it's alright to just stop. where would the blogging world be without their readers?

Some Mama's have revolutionize the idea of stay at home mums. There is always impact.

Imagine if this happened in amongst your circle of 'real' friends.

There has to be give and take, there has to be understanding.

Meet Molly

Last year I signed up to do a virtual doll-making class with Juliane over at froken-skicklig, and even though I had made dolls before, I was nervous...... We had to commit to 7hours a week for 4 weeks. I think I took five.

Even though it was intense, I learnt so much, Juliane, really "sees" them, and thinks outside the square.




Molly is of good proportion, she sits unaided, has a life-sized head, and she loves piggy-backs

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Afternoon tea in the garden.


I'm so glad I finished Molly, I was planning on giving Molly to Alice for her fourth birthday later this year. But Alice took such an interest in me making her, carrying around just the head, then the limbs, and watching intently as a sewed her features, that I couldn't place poor Molly in the present cupboard for six months, how gloomy that would be for Molly.
p.s the next post, will be more of molly.......

The gathering apron's

This little pixie, who never conform's, decided to come up with his own way to wear the apron's, which actually worked.




They are great for collecting apple's, eggs, lavender, anything really, and when undone, perfect for kneeling on when gardening.



Thankyou Sarah over at cottage at frog creek for your free tutorial.

in the mail

Look what arrived in the mail for me today, aren't those button-brooches so sweet.

The illustrations are done by Mandy Sutcliffe and her shop is belle&boo. Look at those faces, I could just squish them!

With the pound so good at the moment for us Aussie shoppers, I also bought some of her beautiful clothing, I will take photo's of miss alice in her coat soon.

And more exciting news, I just started making my( okay alice's) doll through a virtual classroom with the lovely Juliane over at froken skicklig, her dolls are amazing, they truly seem to come to life, it's like they are whispering come play with me.

As soon as she's done you'll get to meet her.

Open for business

It's open, finally, my new fabric shop bloom fine fabrics and trims.

The plan was to have a shop at our house, we have a big house, and so the dinning room and sitting room with it's big beautiful arch window would be the place. I got a beautiful cypress long table made by my good friend Andrew, also lovely white armchairs, to sink into whilst getting inspired, and shelving made to house the fabrics.

The plan was to do sewing retreats, where people come for a morning or a full day, to learn how to make a girls twirly skirt, corduroy pant's for a boy, kid's backpack, ladies peasant blouse, etc, because what I have noticed over the years, is that there are lot's of people who would like to sew, but lack the condfidence to actually 'do it'.

There would be homemade cakes for morning tea, out on the verandah, over looking the garden, and I imagined lot's of chatter, with show and tell, and sewing.

Then I thought, if it went well, I would shift it to the woolshed, and my thoughts went dreaming of how I could do up the woolshed.....

Well the week before opening, we had quickly, but not hastily, decided that the children needed to go to another school, and the school we had decided on was an hour away.

Which means, that we needed to find some where to live during the week. For the last six months, it's been hard to find inner quietness, my mind has had so many thoughts to deal with.

sigh, and of course my shop would have to go on hold.

So while enjoying our summer holiday's here(In one place), I thought I would revisit the idea of a shop again, at the moment it will be an online shop, and hopefully one day a bricks and mortar shop.

I love fabrics, and this idea came about because there is lack of beautiful fabrics for apparel sewing(well, where I live). Some quilting fabric is fine, it depends on the application, but to make a blouse or flowing dress you need drape & width.

I also decided that I was not going to buy anything made in china, because of child and slave labour, which means I had to source fabric elsewhere.

What some fabric companies are doing is inspiring, where heading in the right direction.

There's free postage within Australia.

May these fabrics inspire you.

footnote: The queensland flood auction ending time has been put forward, it will now close at 9.00pm monday night.

the season for giving

How sweet are these dragons.

This one is for Mary, Jim's teacher.

This one is for Anne, Joseph's teacher. She adores red.

The pattern is from Winterwood.

All the children would like one for christmas.( it's not going to happen, seeing christmas is tomorrow)

Gifts

Well school is finished, back home enjoying the sunshine.

This apron was a gift for Alice's playgroup teacher, Tania. I used this pattern. I really like the bias cut, and it was super easy to sew up.

Some Alexander Henry fabric birds straight stiched on to the pockets.

Homelife

Sorry for being off the radar lately, besides pacing the floor, chewing my nails down to their stumps and all, and blogger hasn't been able to publish my posts.

Last month, I thought I would be here in this house, the home that Dan and I built, built for us and the dream of our family to be. ......forever.

This land, our land is family land, our roots are deep and after 10 years, I can see what a wonderful place we have made here.

But life sometimes throws you a curveball, and I've had enough signs to know that this is the right thing to do.

Friends and family are in shock they can't quite believe we are doing this, so quickly, but you know, there's no need to hesitiate when it's the right decision, right for us.

Flynn and Alice eating our bumper crop of apples, we have not bought an apple since Feburary, and it's August! the last of the crop was eaten tonight. we have a wonderful orchard of snow apples, jonathan, golden delicous, pink lady, lady williams, granny smith.

I love this pattern, I think it's been around for decades.

Fully reversable pinnie. I think you all know my obsession with pinnies.

And I love that it keeps her jumpers clean, much easier to wash a cotton pinnie than a wool jumper.

warm pyjamas

Well, I thought I would make matching PJ's for the boy's, I like the matchy, matchy thingy, but my creative side doesn't or maybe it's my choleric nature that get's bored after the first one.

I managed to get the older two boy's finished, really, boy three has plenty of hand-me-downs( I might make him some new winter clothes instead).



I bought some greatly reduced organic jersey knit bed sheets and chopped them up, for the torso I used some really soft brushed fleecy knit for added warmth.

I bought a cover-pro a while back, and I was really excited with it, but I haven't used it much, it scares me!

I was determind to use it this time.




The boy's chose an animal for the front, and my "steve irwin" chose a red-back spider, a really deady spider that luckily isn't found where we live, too cold i think. I grew up with them on the murray river though.

A dress for Alice

Even though Alice is two, I'm still able to dress her, really, does she have a choice. With a name like Alice, she was always going to be girly and sweet.

Don't worry, she gets plenty of time to wear short's and pinnies around on the farm. But she isn't a tomboy, by far.

A childs name say's something about them, don't you think?

My eldest Jim, say's solid, earthy and no fuss, just like Jim. People ask is it short for James, and it isn't. James to me has such a different meaning.

My youngest boy Flynn, say's flamboyant, fiesty, I'm here!.

What does your childrens name say about them?

Back to the dress, lovely lilac spotted voile, with a square smocked yoke. This is the first time I've done the traditional square yoke.

Pin tucks and lace adorn the hemline, I figure that pintucks are a sneaky way to let down the hem as she grows.

Oh yes, my clever one can wink, on cue......

What I've been up to

Our school is having their annual Autumn Fair, and seeing I have all this gorgeous wool, I thought I would do a stall.

I've been madly knitting beanies, crocheting berets and slippers and winding wool.

My wonderful friend and neighbour Sue has been dying my wool.

Oh, I thought I would show you my favourite lounge pants, Although I think I wear them everywhere, made from the softest linen, I used a fancy joining stitch on my sewing machine to join the border, I love this print,I always giggle when I look at the ladies bottoms, I'm the peach lady....... I wish I was the cherry!

Which one are you?