Kids wardrobe items

These were all sewn around Oct 2006.
(Kwik Sew 3101). This was a great little tracksuit pattern. I added the patch pockets to jazz it up a bit. Elizabeth picked out minkee fabric, which actually worked out really well- very soft and snuggly. I never would have picked it myself. But boy does it leave fludd everywhere when you sew it up.













A skirt and top set for Elizabeth (Simplicity 5119). I love the little peasant top. I had never made this style before. Its simple but looks sweet.



























(New Look 6337) . Matilda picked out these fabrics, but hated the end result. I think she wore it once. LOL.


























(Kwik Sew 3035). I made this for George as his "going home from Hospital" outfit.






























Here he is 6 days old, wearing it home from hospital.

ole Flamenco!

My Daughter Elizabeth has been learning Flamenco for about 18 months. Another 'Flamenco Mum' and I designed and put together the childrens costumes for the flamenco dance schools end of year performance. Here Elizabeth models her costume. It is a halterneck top with shirring inserted into the back to give it a snug fit. The skirt consists of half a dozen slightly flared panels and a double frill around the bottom. There was 30metres of hemming on the frills!

Redondo twirly skirt.

If you google Redondo you will find the german website (fabenmix?) that sells this intriguing pattern, in addition pictures of the skirt on blogs and Ebay listings. Essentially the skirt consists of 4 or 5 spiral shaped pieces of fabric joined together. Its very full at the bottom without the bulk at the waistband (great for twirling). It can look quite dramatic depending on what fabrics you choose. I made one for Elizabeth (above and below ) with 5 different, but complementary, fabrics for each spiral. Matilda's (bottom) has the same fabric in each spiral, but with a contrasting wedge at the bottom of each.

Some cross stitch

I dont do a heap of cross stitch anymore. The first is some blackwork flowers that are now
hanging in my bedroom- they are DMC kits that I picked up in a lovely knitting and embroidery store in Sydney. The second cross stitch is an alphabet sampler in the shape of a love heart- I got the pattern from a better homes and gardens magazine from a few years ago. Both these projects were completed in Oct 2006, but the blackwork flowers had taken about 12 months to complete.

Charlotte and Rose-Petal

I think this is "Charlotte" and "Rose Petal" (My daughters keep changing their names). They were knitted in October 2006 from a pattern in the Womens Weekly book "Knit a Square Make a Toy".

Jumper from sock wool

You are up to speed on all the quilts I have made so far. So its over to knitting now (well knitting other than the pants/longies I have already posted up). This little jumper is also a 'placenta praevia' project as it was done on while I was on bedrest in October 2006. I had a gorgeous little raglan sleeve jumper pattern using 8ply wool, but really wanted to knit it up with self-striping sock wool that only comes in 4ply. So I dug out a different 4ply jumper pattern and kind of merged them and the end result is pictured to the left. I didnt seam the left hand side, but added buttons and button holes as I wanted the jumper to go on like a cardiganbut look like a jumper.

I love the jumper- but unfortunately George arrived just that couple of weeks too early and summer lasted that little bit too long- so little George hardly got to wear it. The problem is that along with placenta praevia I also had placenta brain and I chucked out the scrap of paper with the merged pattern I wrote down. Idiot me!.


Here is 8 week old George in one of the only half a dozen times he wore the jumper.

Matilda's Electric Guitars Quilt.

This quilt has a pretty good story behind it- which more than makes up for the, ummmmm, ugliness of it! The store Textile Traders had a really good sale on quilting fabric so I thought I would take my daughter, Matilda, in and let her pick out some fabrics for a quilt. I was imagining that, like any 4.5 year old girl, she would pick out some nice cute fairies or butterflies and I would build the quilt from that, adding in other pinks, purples and maybe greens etc. We walked into the store and she spotted the fabric which she is holding in the picture above.
Never in her 4.5 years had she ever, let me repeat EVER, mentioned a love of the colour black OR electric guitars! No amount of gentle (or even not so gentle) persuasion could budge her from having electric guitars in her quilt. She then picked out some 'orrible blue dolphins, apparently those animals being her most favourite thing in the whole wide world! What a difficult project this was turning out to be! I sent her off to the toy corner while I desperately tried to match in another half a dozen fabrics with blue dolphins and multi-coloured electric guitars.

I actually think I pulled it off rather well, I completed it in August 2007, and as you can see Matilda just loves her quilt!

Retro Cool Quilt

I offered to make a lap quilt for each of my sisters for their birthdays. My older sister, Emma, requested something with red, chocolate and electric blue in it and I managed to source these fabrics from the store 'Calico and Ivy' in Perth, Western Australia. Because the fabrics were so busy I went for a really simple quilt top consisting of 6" squares with no borders. Completed July 2007 in time for an August 13th birthday.

Newborn Gazing Quilt

When Matilda's Kindy teacher announced she was pregnant a friend and I decided to make her a quilt. Not knowing the sex of her baby we struck on a black, red and white theme. This is a popular colour combination for newborn babies toys because of the high contrast between the colours- apparently they enjoy staring at black and white objects and pictures (I know my kids did when they were newborns).
We completed it in May 2007.
I really like the way this quilt turned out and was almost sorry I had to give it away.




For the back we added in some blue floral fabric- just for a slightly different look.

Elizabeth's Quilt

Now the colourway on this quilt doesnt really do it for me, but my daugher Elizabeth picked them out and who was I to refuse? I made this in March 2007 around the time she turned 7.

Boring Beige Quilt

I wanted to keep this one simple- mainly because the size of it overwhelmed me (king size quilt) and because in 10 years time I still wanted it to be in fashion. The blocks are 6 inch squares in beige/white colours. After I had pieced to top I decided to have the quilting done elsewhere becuase I thought a floral stitch might look nice and I did not think I would fit the quilt under my sewing machine to quilt 'in the ditch'. It cost me about $250 to get the quilting done and while I like it I actually think I would have prefered it to be 'in the ditch'. Once I added up all the costs the quilt came to about $500. Gulp! I think I will stick to cot size from now on.

Crazy Lady Quilt

I love this quilt- its one of my favourites and really quite challenging considering I had only just learnt to quilt and had a newborn baby when I attempted it. It was completed in Feb 2007. My only regret is that it is too small- really only bassinet size. When I stop using it as a baby blanket I will hang it on the wall as a work of art!
This first pic is of just the quilt top. For some reason I have never taken a pic of it completed without a baby lying on it.

Placenta Praevia II

While still on bed rest I whipped out this quilt too!

1st Ever quilt, 'Placenta Praevia'.

I thought I might expand my blog to include other things I have made (my knitting is so slow!). I have a backlog of photographs to upload!

In October 2006 I did a quilting course to keep me busy while I rested due to a pregnancy related condition called Placenta Praevia.

It is a cot sized quilt made for my son, who was born on November 17th 2006. Its a bit of a silly name but I can only ever think of it as my placenta praevia quilt!



Here is my son, George, a few months old enjoying his quilt.


George, 4 weeks old, on his quilt.