wordless weekend #3

fish tee

Another brought tee that I appliqued on.
This time Grace's request was for a fish, and here is the end result.
I was going to start it yesterday while the littlest two slept, but Grace wanted me to sew at night so that she could come and find it on the table in the morning and get a surprise.
And her enthusiasm this morning when she awoke to find her new tee was just adorable!
I remember the same excitement from when I was younger, coming out for breakfast to find a finished garment mum had been sewing on the table. I was always in awe at what she could create while I slept. How lovely it is to be able to recreate those memories for my children!

bizarre morning

We have just woken to the most strangest light- a real reddy orange kind of colour...photos don't quite do it justice, they look more yellow. Apparently it is a thick blanket of dust (covering Sydney) that has blown in from drought affected areas. We can really smell in in the air, and it reminds me of driving on the dirt roads when we lived out in central New South Wales. A very earthy kind of smell.
If you want to read more go here (they have better photos than mine too).

wordless weekend #2

polka dot dress

This dress I made last summer for Maeve, but it was miles too big. Fortunately, this time round it's a great fit! I love the envelope neck, and the colours make me think of summer at the beach. Dresses and skirts is all she will wear at the moment, with the essential pair of stockings underneath. I brought her a new pair of sandals yesterday, so hopefully we can phase out the stocking soon enough. They are kind of tricky to take off when you're two and in a hurry to get to the bathroom...she keeps me busy in the laundry!

Here she is running through the Grandparents house on Daddy's birthday, wearing the birthday cake hat on her head!

pretty tee's

The warmer weather has brought on the need to sew for summer.
I can see with 3 little ones (and the lack of sleep they bring) that I wont have as much time to sew from scratch, so we ended up buying a few plain shirts to decorate.
The bird applique is from Ottobre 4/09.

The crochet butterfly was on an old singlet of mine, that unfortunately no longer fits.
I love the colours in it, so it was great to be able unpick it and restitch on Grace's tee.

More tee's to come...

wordless weekend

(I decided to join in wordless weekends over at Little Munchkins blog.
Hope your weekend was as good as ours)

stenciling

Recently I had a go at stenciling on a few singlets as a present for a friends new bub. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos, so here are a few I made up last night for my babes.

They are a bit fuzzy around the edges, but pretty cute all the same.

And what do you think about the boy?
Hasn't he grow and isn't he just so kissable!

She's pretty cute too...absolutely adorable.
Spoken like a true mother.

By the way, this is stenciling using the Freezer paper method.
So simple to do.
If you are unfamiliar with the method, just google it and I'm sure you will come up with something useful. Sorry, I don't have the time to add in links at the moment.
Or ask me a question if you are unsure and I will try and answer it later.

cleaning silver

So I may be the last person to hear of this method of cleaning silver, but in case I'm not, I would like to share it with you! I found some old jewelery of mine (photo above) given to me by my parents back when I was 18, and it was all black and tarnished. Here's how I cleaned it:

Line a bucket with aluminium foil.
Place the silver on top.
Add 6 cups of boiling water mixed with 6 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda.
Soak the silver until bubbles begin to rise.
Fish out the silver, rinse very well and dry with a soft cloth.

And there you have it, so easy and it works a treat! Obviously you can reduce the quantity of water and bicarb according to how much silver you are cleaning. I used 1 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of bicarb.