Christmas will be here before we know it!

I headed to Spotlight again last week to get some ribbon for Lizzie's new dress. No photos of that as yet, as the camera has gone walkabout (in my husband's car?). I'm very pleased with it, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow to see a pic.

But here is the fabric I bought on the same trip. A bit of a red theme. The top fabric is for another dress for Lizzie, to wear to any pre Christmas festivities and maybe christmas day. We're hosting this year (first time ever), so I also bought some goodies for table decoration and presents.

Yet more fabric!!

Yes, more fabric. I think that's enough now!

The first collection is from Fashionable Fabrics who are holding a nice little sale. I have no real plans for any of these fabrics yet. I really love the bottom one and wish I'd bought more.

The second photo is my little purchase from our local clearance shop. It has a lot of quilting fabrics for $6 a metre, so I thought this one would be quite popular with my pink loving eldest daughter - and I was right. Some cute little buttons I couldn't leave behind either, plus the ribbon I actually went there to buy. Does anyone ever leave a fabric shop with only the item they went there to buy?

What to make first?

These are my latest additions to my stash and pattern collection. I love these patterns and can't wait to start on some summer clothes, mainly for Lizzie. The apple fabric is already cut out to make the cute dress in the middle. The MM christmas fabric will be for gifts for Christmas. The party fabric was on clearnace and I thought it would be great for decorations for someone's party next year.

And yes, that is some heavy weight denim there. I really want to make a denim pinafore for Lizzie, as ridiculous as that might sound at this time of year as we head into spring. The main impetus behind this is the Fifi iron on we received as part of our magazine subscription. We've also got a headband, so the pinafore would be part dressup and part actual dress, if that makes sense. If you haven't discovered this sweet character yet, check out the website. I particularly love the Fizzy Lemonade song.

Lovely fabrics and swap stuff!

These fabrics were purchased at Spotlight yesterday. A nice little collection, although I'm not sure what I'll be doing with them. Obviously the Christmas fabric will be used for something Christmassy, but whether a gift or something for our table on Christmas Day, I'm not sure. The transport fabric I have no idea, but I loved it so much I couldn't not buy it! And the spots will be something for Lizzie for summer.
I was also lucky enough to score some great goodies from IngridK in our EB thrift shop swap. Loads of patterns, especially useful will be the rash vest pattern with long sleeves! My little Queensland water babies need lots of sun protection.
This fabric she sent is just beautiful. Lizzie in particular loves it being such a little bird watcher and has taken to stroking it and saying 'pretty birdies'. She's a big cutie, that one.

So a big thankyou to Ingrid for all my goodies.

Lots to do and a little done.

It's not often that I get to shop on my own. When the girls are with me, visits to Spotlight and Lincraft are 'dash in, get what we need and leave' before they dismantle the button displays or wander off lured by some sparkly ribbon. So last weekend, I left them home with Dad and managed to buy up big. Most of the fabrics were on clearance so not as big a dent in the bank balance as it appears.

I'll need to make the pretty butterfly cord into some dresses pretty quickly before the weather starts to heat up too much. The pink flower and ladybird fabric is destined to become a very simple quilt for Lizzie's doll cradle she's getting for her birthday next week. The spotty fabric is to finish off the top below. The red circle fabric I think will be a twirly skirt for Louisa for summer, with maybe a skirt for Lizzie too if there's enough left over. I have no idea what I'm going to do with the strawberrries and the colourful butterflies, but they were on clearance and I was therefore compelled to buy them. The black paisley will be another attempt at the tunic top - in the right size this time!
I have thankfully finished one present - this bunting will go to a little mums' group friend who just turned one. Only another 5 presents to make before the end of August!

Baking and bargains

Another lovely batch of Bec's Banana, Date & Sour Cream Muffins - delicious!
And a great day thrifting. Some great finds - a couple most definitely worthy of the term 'vintage'. Also some cream cord, some black ribbing, a couple of paisley pillow cases and some practical fabrics that I can already think of uses for. And all for $9. Very happy.

Op shop visits

A very successful outing to our local op shops this morning. I found some great fabric and just one pattern - but a very cute one. It's the first time I've purchased fabric at a thrift store. I haven't been game, especially at this store where it's all sealed up in plastic. I guess that keeps it nice and clean, but it also means you can't get a good look or feel . I'm glad I took a punt this time though.

I wish I was better at identifying fabrics. Two are clearly a nice cotton, but the purple and the paisley ones seem to be cotton with a flanellette backing? So I'm not sure what their original purpose is. I'm sure they'd make great pjs, but I can't help thinking the pasiley one especially would be great as some groovy pants or another pinafore dress. Would that be silly?

Lizzie scored too, with a pretty doll. Although I gave the doll a 'bath', she still has a drawing mark across her face that I can't remove despite careful scubbing, but I'm not too worried. With Lizzie's penchant for scribbling on anything and everything (as evidenced on the flip out sofa she's sitting on), it was bound to happen anyway.

Shopping!

We braved Spotlight this morning, and picked up quite a bit. Luckily the patterns were half price, and the fabric all reduced, so we did very well. The girls were well behaved and rewarded with morning tea at Starbucks. I'm always willing to put up with their crap coffee because the girls love to play on their grotty couches and munch on toasted ham and cheese panini.

Latest purchases

Here's my latest purchases. The patterns I got today wandering into the local Red Cross store. I love the Vogue dress at the front, but no real reason to make it yet. Obviously someone was a big fan of knit fabrics. There is a couple of patterns in the book with the girl in the daggy hat, so I might get to use all this jersey I bought.

The green spotted jersey I bought on a stressful shop with Elizabeth. I wanted some jersey with vague notions of making myelf a wrap dress, but was thinking more on the lines of blacks or grey. As I was browsing, Elizabeth decided to climb out of her stroller and run rampant. I couldn't think straight really, and ended up buying 2 and a half metres of this stuff! There are a few ideas I've got, but definitely not a dress in this green - not me at all, but a top is a good idea I think. The green circle satin will make great pajamas.

The flanellettes, grey star drill, and the patchwork was bought on Monday at Lincraft - a much better shopping experience. And the blue I bought from funky fabrix to make a bag for Mothers' Day. Well, that's the plan.

I have so many projects in my head, but have no idea when I'll get to them all!

Pink, pink and more pink...oh and some red too!

The youngest of the first crop of mums' group kids is having her 3rd birthday soon, and I decided to make something for her. She's completely obsessed with ponies, specifically My Little Ponies. I couldn't find any licensed material (didn't look too hard to be honest), but I thought this unicorn fabric would fit the bill. Even if it is very, um... pink! I can see that it wouldn't be to everyone's taste but I think Charlee will love it! I hadn't sewn the straps in when I took the photo, and I've actually decided to use some ribbon ties instead. It will be easier to fit, given that I won't have a chance to try it on her. I just hope I can find some ribbon in that right shade of pink.
I'd already made Louisa's kindy sheets just after Christmas, but needed to make her a bag for them. I was going to get all creative with using the butterflies for applique onto plain fabric.( this was actually part of the reason I chose the fabric), but ran out of time really. So a plain bag, but it'll certainly do the job.
And finally, my fabric arrived from reprodepot - my first ever online fabric purchase. My aim is to make a quilt for Louisa featuring both pink and red. Her room is currently decorated with a red theme, but unfortunately she's decided that pink is her favourite colour. (I think she's not alone there.) I've never made a quilt before, so I have a bit of thinking to do about the size, a design, whether I'll actually cheat and get it professionally machine quilted, etc. So don't expect to see a quilt anytime soon!

A top and some fabric...

A not very exciting piece of sewing! The fabric is actually from a Tshirt of Daddy's, which I cut down. I intended to use it for winter for Elizabeth underneath the two pinafore dresses I'm yet to make. Unfortunately I had to unpick the shoulder at one point and the fabric was damaged so I think it will become pyjama top, maybe with pants made from the Hello Kitty fabric I have. I guess I should have waited until I'd done that to post a pic! But I'm still having annoying temperamental camera problems, so most things I'd like to post, I can't.

I've made a beautiful top for Louisa out of the quilting material I bought at my local fabric shop. I love how the fabric works together, so much so that I'm making a dress too. I'll just have to tease you with this picture. The skirt is made from the first two fabrics. The dress will have the border on the bottom. These were my purchases on Louisa's first day of kindy. Elizabeth was asleep in the stroller so I managed to browse quite a bit, even got to the op shop down the street and bought a couple of patterns. I really like the camisole top in one of them, there's an option with wider straps on the back so am keen to have a go at that for myself.

My fabric stash

Everyone talks about their 'fabric stash', and going through the plastic tub that holds my sewing stuff, I realise I now have one. I thought I may as well catalogue it all, if only to get it clear in my own mind what I'll use it for:

Top left: a navy satin, and a Hello Kitty flannelette, both destined to become PJs eventually, and both bought on clearance at Spotlight.

Top Middle: my latest purchases at SL, the first too are quilting cottons, then some pink and red poplin and pink drill. The first one (which was half price!) is very pretty, not sure what I'll use that for. The ladybug one is going in the 'when I get brave enought to start a quilt for Louisa' pile. The others - maybe some pants?

Top Right: Mum has given up on sewing long ago (she was never really very keen), and this is some fabric she had lying around. It's not really my style and I have no idea what to use it for. Any ideas?

Middle left: Another quilting cotton bought on clearance, but I'm considering a dress or skirt for myself

Middle middle: Some purple cord(again from Mum), and two lots of drill. I'm considering some pinafore dresses for Elizabeth when the weather cools down, and as well as pants for both of the girls.

Middle right: Stretch knit - maybe pants and shorts for the girls

Bottom left: Just a close up of the Hello Kitty - so cute!
Bottom middle: Two summery cottons that I'll probably do something with eventually, but I'm a bit 'over them' for some reason.

Bottom right: Gingham! My grandma used to make these funny crossstitch apron things (I'll try to dig one up for a photo) They raised a lot of money sold on stalls for her two favourite charities: Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the local old people's home. So some has come from that, and some bought on clearance.

So there you go, that should keep me busy. I'm going to try and avoid buying more fabric until most of this is used, but I'm hopeless when I see 'clearance', 'sale' , 'bargain' etc.

On the sewing front, here's Louisa's plain white skirt. Not too exciting, but it will go with pretty much everything, and I may add some trim later. But for now, it'll do. It's made with a shirred cotton, which pretty much gathered itself, and my third time I've made the skirt so I found it easy, even french seams everywhere.