Been busy

Lots of sewing in the last week - including some shirts for grandson. With short sleeves in a classic stripe -





and long sleeves in tartan - this is a lovely light weight cotton fabric.






As grandson is left-handed I've placed the pockets on the RHside and because he likes to do up his buttons himself - "I can DO it" - I've used biggish buttons with slightly larger than normal b-holes. Buttons on the tartan shirt look like old-fashioned records (those black vinyl things) - they have different coloured 'labels' & I had fun matching the colours of the tartan :-)

Have also finally gotten back to that mega-project I started last year - to make an alphabet for the grands with knitted toys for each letter ... T is for turtle & tortoise and so I'm knitting a Sheldon a great pattern and I love the way he 'comes out of his shell' :-) but at this stage in his progress I think my Sheldon looked rather like a tick with a full tummy ...
On Sunday we went to the Leichhardt Public School Fete - because of the Tea Cosy competition. Lots of wonderful cosies - here are the children's















and the grown up's






Wonderful creativity. My Anna Karenina got a prize and I'm inordinately proud :-) Bought all sorts of things at the fete, 2nd hand books and clothes and a really big metal colander - which with a bit of adaptation will fit perfectly inside my dying pot - and make it much easier to dye roving / sliver without it felting up. Yea!

Well, I'll leave you with yet another native orchid flowering in the garden right now - Dendrobium falcorostrum (aka Beech Orchid) and it seems this is another orchid getting reclassified and getting another name Thelychiton falcorostrus all these names make our lovely native orchids sound like hardened criminals!

And this one is such a pretty thing - love the fancy shape to the tip of the labellum, like one of these { The scent is classic native orchid - sweet and powdery.

Sewing for Blythes

Have been sew sew this week! Some of it work for clients (lots of pattern-making) and some of it for the Blythes in my life.

For granddaughter Blythe some winter PJs - she has quite a thing for Duckies and I couldn't go past this fabric with yellow Duckies on the Diagonal ...

Those should keep her warm.

Then for the dolly Blythes I've been playing with that new Simplicity pattern and using some tiny scraps of vintage fabrics. Here is the skirt C - with lace underlayer, made it a bit longer than the pattern - pleats unpressed.
And here is the dress C in a lovely silk gingham (wish I had more of this!) once again made longer than the pattern said and I lined the bodice and "bagged it out".



















Lillian doing a lovely job of being my model - even though it was far too cold for a summer silk frock this afternoon. Both those items are for my daughter's doll BiBi, Lillian is getting a skirt and the little coat F as soon as I've done all the hand-stitching ...

Sewing for Little People

Well the Christmas / New Year break was nice and productive (could I have another one please?) here is some sewing I did before Christmas and during the time off.

Granddaughter is walking now which means dresses no longer get in the way (I like to keep frocks very short - or make rompers for crawling bubs) This is from a vintage pattern - McCall's 2244 (copyright 1958)

Big inverted box pleats front and back with ribbon down the middle of the front ones, more ribbon over the shoulders with bows. Cotton fabric with a lovely print of irises (?) but it is a one-way design because it is actually intended for patch-work quilt making ... I like using interesting and fun fabrics for kids' clothes but those one-way designs keep me on my toes!

More "patchwork quilt" fabrics for shirts and summer PJs for our 3yr old grandson. PJs in this aeroplane fabric and I got aeroplane buttons too !




This chook print became a shirt and because the print is quite busy I kept the styling of the shirt plain and simple (no pocket, no yoke ...)

On the other hand, this beige plaid, really boring fabric became a long-sleeve shirt with lots of detail just like a grown-up business shirt and I'm planning to make a vest (and perhaps trousers) to "go with" this shirt.

Just sew sew ...

Have been doing quite a bit of sewing for the grandchildren in the last few months - I've given them these items and there's more to come. I think there will be twelve days of Christmas this year :-)

I like to use cute and/or unexpected fabrics for childrens' clothes and this year I've indulged in some fun prints intended for patchwork quilts. Here's a Christmas shirt with shiny buttons for our grandson -

and a close up of fabric and buttons on his new PJs.

He likes fun buttons (don't we all) and likes to do them up himself - so I've made larger than normal buttonholes to make things easier.



Our granddaughter has had her first ever birthday :-) and I'd made her a cute play-suit from a vintage pattern. Lots and lots of frills especially across the ample bottom (designed to be worn over cloth nappies)


Well, it is not just the bottom that is large - seems that sizing was just as unreliable back in the 1950's as it is now - the pattern says it'll fit a 6mth old and I knew it was large but I think this playsuit will be a nice fit next year !!!