Ottobre Kerttu Tunic

Matilda's little friend is about to turn 7 so I decided to pull out my Ottobre patterns and make her a birthday gift from one of those. I chose the Kerttu tunic, pattern 14 from Ottobre 1/2009.

Matilda's little friend is a tall girl, about the same size as Elizabeth, so I used Elizabeths measurements when drafting off the pattern. And since this meant the tunic would also fit Elizabeth I decided I may as well make her one too!

I got Matilda to pick out the fabrics for her friends dress, a blue polkadot with a pink paisley floral.

Pocket detail

Elizabeth chose the ones for hers- Good old Farmers Market with some Amy Butler Mid Western Modern. Elizabeths tunic is about 2-3 inches shorter than the pattern dictated because I didnt quite have enough of the cherry fabric. To compensate I did a smaller hem at the bottom, and made the o the honeycomb panel is slightly longer.

George decided he had to have a turn modelling the dress too.

This dress is a simple and sweet cut and quite simple to construct. Some of the details take a bit of time (the heart-shaped pocket and the drawstring casing and drawstring) but arent difficult in themselves. Because of this the pattern is quite suitable for a beginner sewer. As long as they are patient they will get a dress that is a little bit more special and interesting.

Hats, hats, hats... and shorts

I gave the lazydayz bucket hat pattern by Made it Perfect a really good work out over the weekend, making 5 bucket hats. One each for 3 of my nephews and for George.

Angus chose tan corduroy with fish on reverse.

Sam has a soft spot for pink, which he teamed up with a Juicy Jungle stripe

Henry picked another fabric from the Juicy Jungle range and matched it up with Orange corduroy.
Georges hat (being modelled by Matilda) is a teal corduroy with a retro style monkey fabric.

I managed to snap a pic of George in it later on.
Also made George a couple of pairs of summer shorts.

Still loving "Traffic Jam" so, despite having a pair of shorts in the cream colourway last summer, he had to have another pair in the turquoise in the next size up.

I also made Georges little buddy, Oliver, a pair for his 3rd birthday.

much better

I unpicked them all and started again. Much better yes?

After making 8 of the batik blocks I decided to put the batiks aside and work on my Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt. It has been lying idle for almost 6 weeks while I pondered the borders (and got distracted by other sewing). I had to add another little bit to the top so make it cot size and decided on 2 simple borders, one 1" wide (blue stripe) and the other will be 5". I dont have enough of any one VHC left for the 5" border so I have decided to buy the required amount. I have plenty of V.H.C fabrics to piece a border together but I really think it needs a border in a plain, solid fabric (thats my excuse to shop and I am sticking to it! LOL).

Something different- rainbow batiks

I bought a jelly roll of hand dyed rainbow batiks back in April at the quilt fair and was planning on making a coin quilt with it, I wasnt 100% set on that and have been waiting for a quilt design to spring at me. The other day I was checking out Two little Banshee's blog and came across this and thought it could work ok. Only problem is that I didnt really look at the block or colour layout before I turned off the computer and got started. As a result I think I have created a completely different block and colour layout. I think I have created a half-log cabin block, where as I was supposed to do a bento-block????

I am not feeling 100% confident about this quilt- I think its because its batiks, which is a bit out of my comfort zone. I am feeling a really strong desire to add a natural coloured sashing between all the blocks to "sophisticate" it up and stop being so hippy. Am I doing my batiks a disservice?? Using some sashing means I can stretch out what would be a lap-quilt into something single bed size with 3 kids I find single bed quilts a lot more useful than the lap/cot size ones.

This is the first time I have actually cut up ALL the quilt fabric at the start and organised it into containers! Most of my past quilts have been scrappy/random piecing so there was no need to cut and sort all in one go.

25% off winter sale

I am making way for spring/summer gear so I have discounted my winter items by 25%. This discount is only available through my online store....

tin whistle online store

Making Margaret

Here is a pic of Elizabeth with her hand made creation "Margaret". She made her during a 2 hour Parent and Child workshop at a new eclectic 'lifewears' store called Red Feathers and a Hula skirt. I was introduced to the store via a friend and was so enamored that within a few days of my first visit I had shopped there, signed Elizabeth up for a sewing class and talked my way into having tin whistle gear hanging on the racks. But getting back to Margaret...



During the 2 hour workshop Elizabeth created a doll of Elizabethsized proportions, literally. She lay down on a piece of skin-coloured fabric and we traced around her. Then Kerri, teacher and part-owner of the shop, took her through all the hand and machine sewing steps involved in turning her into a life-sized doll. Here is a pic of Elizabeth winding up wome wool for the hair while Kerri does some minor adjustments to the doll. It was SUPPOSED to be a parent/child class bonding thing but I was way too busy poking around all stuff in the store to help much. Tee hee hee.

I did take a bit of the glory at the end though.
The course is designed for children aaged 4-10 years. Elizabeth managed the sewing quite easily

withot too much adult help. Younger children or novice sewers would need a lot more parental input (eg. sitting on mums knee and guiding the fabric under the needle while mum's foot is on the machine pedal). Margaret trying on some of the Red feathers gear before we took her home

When George spotted her he was completely besotted. Here his expression says it all.... BACK OFF she's MINE!

Having breaky after sleeping top and tails with Elizabeth

There's a new girl at school.

If you are in Perth and love to make, wear, admire or just be inspired by anything vintage, recycled, reclaimed or organic then I highly recomend you visit Red Feathers and a Hula skirt. It is almost impossible to describe the range and breadth of things to buy there and stuff you can learn, but I KNOW for sure that there are some tin whistle garments on the racks ;)