dye play

At 11pm a few weeks back (for some unknown reason) I decided to have a play around with the fabric dyes. This might have been ok for someone who actually knew what they were doing, but for me it was only my second attempt at dying...and not a good idea. I wanted to dye a few pieces of wool flannel and while I was at it threw in some white stretch knit, that I had cut into pieces months ago to make Grace a shirt. Here it is all sewn up and she kind of looks like spider woman. Its the same pattern as this white shirt.



Then I thought it would be fun to dye a white floor length dress (from a bag of hand-me-downs) for Grace as a princess/dress up outfit. This was a big hit and she has been wearing it everywhere...much to my embarrassment (its the kind of thing you hope no one asks if you made it yourself). I hung the dress over the laundry sink to drip dry for the night, which was fine apart from the fact that half my cloth nappies were sitting in the sink. I now how a crazy collection of pink speckled nappies.



Then I received this amazing hand dyed shirt in the mail from the very talented Sara! It totally put my efforts to shame and made me appreciate the amount of skill that goes into a good dye job. A true artwork- thankyou Sara!

summer boys clothes

Here's something you don't see everyday...well especially at our place- boys clothes! I made these a couple of weeks ago to send to a little boy, in exchange for one of his mum's amazing hand dyed creations. Very excited about this swap! It was so nice to sew something simple that didn't involve frills or gathering or lace or ribbon...you get my point. It took me ages to decide what to sew, as I feel a little clueless when it comes to boys. I had summer boys clothes on the brain and even asked Luke one morning if he wanted summer boys clothes for breakfast (meant to say porridge), sad really!



I also had this homeless shirt sitting around the sewing room, so decided to send it as well, and stenciled the plane on the front. I cut the stencil out of contact and then stuck it on the shirt and painted in the gaps. It worked really well. I've never tried that method before...has anyone else?
Good for one off designs.

pin cushion swap

I recently took part in a pin cushion swap over at crafty mamas and here's what I made. This first one I made out a napkin ring from the op shop...I have about 8 of them left so I might do a tutorial on them later, if I get around to it. It's really quite little, but a nice size.



I ended up making a second one for my swap partener Lisa, as I thought the first one wasnt very exciting and wouldnt really hold that many pins. So I found a tutorial off the net and came up with this one. I was lazy however and sewed by machine, not hand. I used some red and navy wool that I recently dyed (some people should never touch fabric dyes, I am one of them...that is another story). I also used some of my favorite vintage floral and polka dot fabric.


And here is what I was sent from Lisa! This super cute little cushion with some felt and ric rac- I love it!


And this colourful one with a beautiful big flower and butterfly on top. Thankyou so much Lisa! I have put them straight to use. One can never have too many good pin cushions.

magnet swap

I just took part in my first swap over at Crafty Mamas. The challenge was to make a magnet with something on it that represented the start of winter. Lucky me got to swap with the very creative Melissa, and here's what I received.

A beautiful needle felted flower, and a gorgeous little gnome...which is very appropriate considering what most my friends call me!

Some very sweet little cupcakes- yum yum.

And the cutest little bee finger puppets complete with rhyme to sing along with! My girls totally love these! So thank you very much Melissa, for making my first swap so enjoyable.

The start of winter for me reminds me to eat up my citrus. Its usually in season and high in Vitamin C to help keep the winter nastys at bay. So here is what I sent to Melissa.

Four little citrus magnets, a lemon zip up case (that I was going to hand embroider around, but got lazy and did on the machine), a lemon tea towel and lime lip balm.

Here are the magnets that I hand stitched.

And a close up of the lime, because it was my favorite.