Undies (last one I promise)

I am making Matilda some undies using the that darn Kat pattern. If you remember I made George a whole heap of boy ones and bloog about them a couple of weeks ago. By the time I got to Matilda's I was pretty over them, but in particular the fiddly part where you have to add the ribbing to the leg and waist holes. I decided to cheat a bit with one pair, to see if it would save time, by adding the ribbing first then sewing up the side seams. Its a bit quicker to work with ribbing on the flat, but the down side is that you dont get that nice smooth cisrular band- plus you end up having to cut and add 4 bits of ribbing. A good compromise might be to add the leg bands on the flat, then sew up the undies and add the waist band as a circular piece. The Undies are still just as robust when worn and washed, so this might be a good option if you are planning on sewing up a big batch of undies.

Snap shot sunday

Closeups of a big custom order that will be heading to the UK when I have finished sewing them.

George finished up daycare last week and I am REALLY missing my sewing time. He starts at a new private kindy in about 4 weeks, but only for 2 half day sessions, not the 2 full days of daycare I have been used to for the last 18 months! The end result is that I just cant churn out tin whistle items like I used to. Let alone all the quilts and clothes I have lined up to make for family and friends.

Ok little whinge is over... perhaps I should stop blogging and start sewing?!

Tin whistle backlog

I havent done this type of post in a while. I have, however, been regularly updating finished tin whistle items to my flickr so you can always pop over there if you want to see want to see tin whistle garments and pram accessories on a more regular basis. I am trying to make this blog more about personal sewing since I stopped posting about tin whistle items, I dont seem to have much to talk about. Thank goodness for the snap shot sunday post or there would be cobwebs in here. Maybe I also need to start a WIP Wednesday post too!

Anyway back to tin whistle... Winter is coming so I have had lots of requests for dungarees

And last but not least, some boys shorts!

Snapshot sunday- Unisex Zig Zag.

I planned this out a couple of months ago and decided indulge myself and work on it today. I intended to use the half triangle square method to make the quilt but stumbled across this tutorial last week and decided to give it a ago. Its a fabulously quick way to put together a zig zag quilt, although a little bit of wastage is involved as you have to cut off the "points" to square up the quilt.

I changed the measurements slightly from the tutorial- instead of 3" strips I cut mine 3.5" and then sliced them into 6.5" blocks (compared to the 5.5" in the tute). I got 6 blocks per strip (compared to their 7). At the moment the quilt measures 30"x 42" and this size would make a nice bassinet or pram blanket. To make it larger you could simply add a border or just keep adding zig zags!
An even simpler and quick way to build a quilt like this would be to use a jelly roll. A jelly roll has 2 strips of each fabric, so you could get a complete "zig zag" from each fabric in the roll. Jelly roll strips are only 2.5"- which after joining would create 9 x 4.5" blocks. Hmmmm

it would look faboulous in a Kona solids jelly roll......

Tremble little lion (and also a snapshot sunday post)

I still have an undie sweat shop in full swing. The undies I made last week have been a huge success- so this week I popped out to spotlight and picked up some lion knit to make some more. While I was there I also picked up a girly knit to make some undies for Matilda also (which you can see in the top right of the photo).

When I showed George a completed pair of the undies he grinned and asked if they were his special "Tremble little lion undies". Thats because his favourite song on the radio is

He likes it because it has a lion in it. Matilda, on the other hand calls it "the swear word song". I have tried to convince her that the singer is "Mucking it up this time" but she wont be duped.

Captain Underpants

I thought I'd expand on my snapshot Sunday post a little more. Our George is almost 3.5 yrs and has been very very resistant to toilet training (and thats a huge understatement). I subscribe to the theory that when it comes to toilet training you just wait- wait until the kid is physically ready and mentally willing. I just dont see the point in soiled undies for the sake of toilet training at a "decent" age- especially super cute undies you have made yourself.





Anyway George surprised us- we were planning on doing "preperations" for a few days (make undies, get potty out, talk about potty, buy special "sleeping" nappies that you cant use in the daytime ;) etc etc, when on Saturday morning he spotted the pair of newly made "animal undies" and decided to put them on. First few potty attempts resulted in a nudie George while I quickly finished off another pair of undies. But I am proud to say that by Sunday afternoon George had been wearing the same pair of undies all day, gone to the potty beautifully half a dozen times and was also insisting that he could manage overnight with just the undies too. (possibly he could have, but we compromised with a "sleeping nappy" with undies over the top. )

I am hoping that this is it.... he is trained. But even if he isnt, he is certainly off to a fabulous start.

Undies pattern by That Darn Kat- I highly recomend it. Fabric from the stash (car and animal prints from spotlight several seasons ago). Cute boy by me.

Snap Shot Sunday

Undie production line.
I'm using this pattern by That Darn Kat- I highly recomend it. Both the older girls have some I made last year from this pattern and they are all still going strong.