kids clothes :: day 1

Here's my first completed item of kids clothing, sewn last night and embroidered on this morning. This is part of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge. Wow, try saying that really fast with your mouth stuffed full of biscuits. Could be messy.

Anyway, back to the shirt. This one is a baby gift and the pattern is from Ottobre 3/2010. Its the Savanni Voile tunic. Such a sweet pattern, and I am so glad it comes in Maeve's size. You will probably see more of these soon.

kids clothes week

A last minute decision: 

To join in the action over at Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week! 

Anyone else in on the fun? 

I will be off for a cup of tea soon, then sew till I drop.

And to get the ball rolling, here is a skirt I made for Grace about two weeks ago (technically cant be counted though). I didn't use a pattern, just based it off an old denim skirt she has worn to death. Seriously, you could put your finger through the fabric! This fabric is a lovely light denim I scored at the Salvo's last time I visited. I have plenty more to make something for Maeve. Now, off for that caffeine fix...

my mum

This is a photo of Mum, me (10 days old) and my brother on his 2nd birthday. Taken back in the early 80's. She then went on to have another 3 children, so there are five of us. I think she is nothing short of amazing! Not a day goes by without me wondering how on earth she did what she did. I often think of her during the difficult moments with my 3, and imagine adding an extra 2 children to the mix. I always remember her as being calm and having everything under control. I am sure she would probably tell you it was anything but! She said she did all she could at the time, and trusted God to do the rest. Good advice Mum.

Here we all are 9 years later. That's me on the right sporting the awesome fringe. Mum always cut our hair. I think the first time I ever went to a hairdresser was when I was about 16. She also use to sew a lot of our clothes. The outfit I am wearing was one she made for my 8th birthday. She also made my sisters sweet little dress. She use to go to TAFE on Monday nights after my sister was born to have sewing classes. I remember her learning to sew stretch and quilts. She taught me to sew when I was five, and in later years helped me get started on knitting and crocheting. She is such an inspiration in so many ways. I am so blessed to have her.

I hope you wonderful mothers out there have had a very special day with those you love. Those in my household who I love the dearest, totally took me by surprise today by... a brand new Cannon 550D is now mine to play with! I know, pretty good hey!! Lets just say I had no idea, none whatsoever! Totally stunned and feeling very spoilt. Now I have to work out what to do with the thing. Nicer photos to come once I get my head around it all!

wordless weekend

reminiscing

I have just spent half the night looking through photos of the girls when they were tiny, hoping to put together a few nice ones we can print out for the walls. But no such luck. I went all soppy remembering how gorgeous they were and just spent hours flicking from one album to the next. Both these photos are of Grace, on her 1st birthday and the other at about 15mths. I could have put up hundreds more! I rarely ever print out photos, but after looking at these I must. Photos really help to jog my memory and take me back in time. I cant wait till Jude is toddling around like this!

I like...

The sun was lovely and warm on the front steps this morning. A very inviting place to sit and finish off my latest embroidery. Jude sleeping, Maeve making cakes in the sandpit and me stitching. Rare quiet moments like this need to be seized while they last... I am slowly learning.

This is another one of Grace's drawings. Very special because it was one of the first sentences she wrote on her own (without copying it out of a book), that I happened to find lying around the house. The girls would love a pet. Unfortunately right now (and I can see for a very long time to come) three children is more than enough for me to cope with. So sorry kids, pets are just going to have to wait.

 

I have put together some photos for those of you that wanted to see how I attached the linen to the canvas. 

1. Use a cheap art canvas to cover with your embroidery
2. Lay your fabric over the canvas taking care to position it so it looks balanced. Stick a few pins in to hold it in place.
3. Flip it over and start stitching the sides together at the back. You will need a very long piece of strong thread, and may even need to join it a few times if it runs out. If the edge of the fabric is raw it will fray easily. Just turn it under a centimeter or two so you are stitching through two layers. That should make it strong enough. You need to make sure you fabric is pulled firm so it sits nice on the front of the canvas. Mine looks like I have pulled it too tight, but my linen was super soft and needed to be pulled into place.
4. When your sides are done, fold the top and bottom piece of fabric towards each other taking care to fold your corners nicely so they sit flat without looking bulky.
5. Pin the corners in place and stitch the top and bottom edges together in the same way you stitched the sides.
6. The back of your canvas should look something like this. The dog one I did last week was way messier, but hey...no one will ever know! 
7. Then if you like you can put some thread across the back so it can be hung on the wall. I cant explain exactly how I did this...goes something like this though: Knot doubled thread to one edge then knot it on the opposite edge, so it is fairly tight not loose. Take it back to the other side and repeat process so its quiet a few strands thick. Then knot along the thread to hold them all together. 

And you're done!

(edited to say: alternatively, get yourself a staple gun and save yourself half the hassle. Thanks to my wise friend Lissa for the advice!)

dog and blog

Remember this post? I surprised myself and actually turned that super cool drawing of Graces into an embroidery! She loves it. I love it. In fact, we all love it. If you don’t have any kids artworks to be inspired by, maybe you could try this one from Loobylu, or this one (pattern here) from Geninne’s Art blog. They are both pretty cool, and on my ‘to do list’.

And thanks for being patient with my blog. My hubby and I have put on our nerd hats this week and delved into the world of HTML. We really don’t have much idea what we are doing, so the blog has taken on some weird and wonderful looks as of late. Sorry if you happened to stop by at one of the ‘weird’ times. I think we are finally happy with the layout.

wordless weekend

holidays

I cant believe how much I am enjoying the school holidays. Especially considering two of the children have been unwell. No mad scrambles in the mornings or me loosing my patience over children being slow to eat breakfast, put on their shoes, do up their seat belts. Not to mention trying to decide what to put in the lunchbox. It's been so nice. Given me a chance to catch my breath one again. I have been trying a few new projects like embroidery which have been incredibly relaxing too. Having a go at turning some of Grace's drawing into embroidery's we can hang on the walls. She is very pleased that her artworks are being copied onto fabric, and watching with great intent to see the finished project. This morning we sat out the back in the sun, I watched the kids play and stitched away. We shared morning tea together and chatted and laughed over bowls of mandarins and tasty biscuits. It's so special being able to relax together as a family and enjoy each others company and silly jokes.

playtime