Tuesday 30 October 2012

Goody goody gum drops

Our home is considerably bigger than our previous house, which is both good and bad (good = sewing room, bad = more cleaning), but it does mean there are a few rooms lacking in the furniture department :)  

These Amy Butler gum drop pillows are perfect for the kids to sit on, lean against and generally muck around with.


They're simple to make and go together really quickly but the layout/cutting instructions could be better.  It's unnecessarily fiddly.  It was so much easier to trace it out as one piece rather than taping pieces together, tracing around one half, flipping the pattern piece over and then tracing the other half before you could finally cut it out.


The worst part of making these was stuffing them.  They take a massive amount of stuffing, a task I happily delegated to the kids! The pattern recommends using a mid-weight fabric or mid-weight home dec fabric.  I used some mid-weight striped cotton canvas from Ikea and some colourful Prints Charming cotton drill from Spotlight and in my opinion the cotton canvas has worked better (and I love the way the stripes look on top).  There is also a totally decorative top panel which I left off - I can see it looking really effective with some fabrics but the kids didn't want it.  I think this would also be really cool made in leather.


And yes, there are only two pillows for three children - I will have to make another once I find the right fabric.  I better find it fast because the arguments have already started :-/

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Bird Love - McCall's 6519

I thought I'd use McCall's 6519 again, but I didn't think it would be this soon.  I was trying to decide what I'd wear to a weekend wedding.  The dress code said 'smart casual' and nothing in my wardrobe felt right so I headed for the sewing room.  I started pulling out bits of fabric and different patterns and I had just about settled on the Banksia top when I grabbed this fabric.  I bought this border print silk from Spotlight when I decided that I needed to add more prints to my wardrobe.  I think it's so cool the way the birds change colour; they start out grey, morph into black and then go white.   


I've got nothing new to add, I made this up exactly the same as last time, I even paired it with the same pants (different heels though)! Actually that's not quite true, I did do something new, I used French seams for the first time ever.  My overlocker doesn't particularly like delicate fabrics and with so few seams I thought this would be the perfect time to give it  go.

It cracks me up that the best photo of the top also has a bin and one of my kids in the background :)

The wedding was lovely - although I probably should have worn a skirt - and I really enjoyed getting to spend just a little bit of time with my sewing machine.

Tuesday 16 October 2012

So darn tired

Sorry - nothing to at the moment but I wanted to drop in and say hi.  Work is kicking my butt and family life seems to be running at warp speed.  Strangely for me I've actually got several projects on the go - Vogue 1285 is in progress, but I'm not happy with how the lapels look so I need to unpick and redo them.  I'm muslining Butterick 5786 for Caitlyn, two gumdrop pillows are just about complete and I've just started a quilt for my nephew.  On top of that I've been madly pre-washing fabric and matching it up with patterns but I need to get a spring/summer tab set up to get my thoughts organised!

Pictures of completed projects coming soon :)  And because no post is complete without a photo here's picture of the fabric I'm using for Caitlyn's shirt.