Tin whistle on sale- 50% off- perth residents only

Perth readers if you are after some tin whistle clothes then head over to Red Feathers and a Hula Skirt at 360 Marmion St, Melville, WA 6156. All the tin whistle clothes there will be 50% off.

Red Feathers are having a relocation sale and the Melville store will be shutting down in about 2 weeks.

Since I am no longer making kids clothes, I thought I may as well let the store sell off my last remaiming garmets at 50% off. There are lots of boys shorts and dungaree's but only a few girls clothes left. Prices will be around the $15-$20 mark.

1975 Simplicity 7397

I reckon I have have about a 50% success rate with clothes I sew for myself for me (as in 50% fit well AND look nice, the rest get ditched). This one I think will fall in the "keeper" catagory.

Collar and cuff.
Closeup of cuff. I happened to have the little white buttons left over from another project.

A little bit of careful posing in front of a mirror and tidying up the parts of the bedroom that appear in the reflection (dang I forgot a sock) and I can bring you a glamourous over the shoulder pose.
Check out the hair! 18 months ago I had it was a pixie cut.

I dont think I 've worn a collar this wide since I was 7!

I am totally loving this shirt- even in the cheapy cotton. I think a crisp white would look good too, but I'm still dreaming about getting hold of some voile or a liberty print.

Snapshot Sunday- finally a 70's blouse

Well after my little whinge about the weather in yesterdays post, this morning I woke up to a cool and overcast day! Its a lovely and refreshing 25 degrees with no humidity! I did contemplate giving the kids rooms a good clean out- i've been neglecting it for weeks because the upstairs part of the house is a hotbox. But then I thought... Naaah I will do some sewing! I felt the need to snap a pic of the backyard for you showing how our garden has come along (only planted last November) and the overcast sky.
So to the actual snapshot sunday photo. I am certain I blogged a pic of this pattern and fabric late last year some time but I'll be blowed if I can find the post. Anyway after languishing on the "to do" pile I finally dug it out yesterday and got going. I actually wanted more of a liberty print or a anna maria horner voile look, but thought it was safest to make it up in a cheap fabric first so picked up this cotton cheapy from Spotlight.

So far so good. I have done the collar and the yoke and attached it to the gathered blouse. Seems to fit ok so far.

There was a lot of creativity going on in the living room today to. Elizabeth spent about an hour building this massive train track for George.

Thinking about winter

February in Perth can be long and hot. Usually its a dry hot, which is a crisp kind of hot, and if you bunker down inside with the curtains drawn and some aircon blowing your way its very bearable. But this year there has been a touch of humidity in our hot- it sucks. Humidity has a way of sneaking into the house and turning your cool, dark santuary into a sweaty sticky, sauna. There has also been lots of easterlies (winds that originate from the middle of Australian desert) and no afternoon sea breeze. This summer it feels like if its not humid, there are easterlies and if there isnt an easterly there is no seabreeze. Basically, I'm just plain old grumpy and want it to be winter already *stamps foot*. Yes I know, its only one month of the year, but I am in the middle of that month right now and I am having a tanty! ok?! I cant wait for wintery things; Cozy nights in front of the TV under a homemade quilt, slow cooker food, rain, boots. You get my drift...

To try and get in the chilly mood, this week, on a particualrly nasty humid day, I pulled out some brown wool plaid and make George up some pants for the coming winter. I was literally dripping sweat in my sewing room as I sewed these up! There is a cute kind of irony in that- which at the time I just couldnt appreciate!


Of course its way too hot to actually get George to model these for me for the blog. So you will just have to wait a few months until it gets cold enough.

PS... last year in February I was in Sydney for a long weekend with Elizabeth. I was blown away by how humid Sydney was! Of course it didnt help that I checked out the average Feb temps for Sydney prior to packing my suitcase and saw temps were typically in the mid 20's (Perth usually mid to high 30's for the entire month of Feb) so I packed for autumn-like weather! LOL. So all you sydneysiders, please feel free to roll your eyes at my rather pathetic whinge about slightly humid Perth weather!

Tin whistle pram accessories- discount code for this weekend.

I have started uploading stock into my tin whistle online store in the last week or so. If you are interested in any pram liners for your pram then take a look. http://tinwhistle.bigcartel.com/

If you use the code 'blogdiscount' this weeknend you will get a 20% discount off your total order. I do not charge postage for parcels shipped within Australia :) This offer finishes 9pm Sunday 20th Feb (Perth time... so mindnight Eastern States shoppers, or sometime Sunday morning for most of the rest of the world!).

A pigeon pair of "Dandy Damask" liners for the Babyjogger City Select pram

Universal liner in "first Sight" fabric

Snapshot Sunday- Vintage style

I love womens 1970's patterns. Maybe its because my Mum was a huger seamstress and I have childhood memories of her wearing really (at the time trendy) outlandish 70's garb. One of my favourite dresses she made for me (and a matching one for my sister) as a small child was a brown velvet floor length dress with ruffled cap sleeves. I've seen hundreds of similar patterns from that era in thrift shops. I also see some really great vintage womens patterns in thrift shops, but mostly feel like I dont have the right personality to pull them off. I did see this one yesterday, though, and couldnt resist. Its a McCalls pattern from 1973. I am going to have to take my time hunting out the right fabric to make it up in though. It calls for wool or synthetic jersey knits.

Ottobre Minnie

When ever I need to make clothes for children, either my own or as presents for others, I always like to try out a pattern from one of my Ottobre magazines. The brief from a friend was to make a dress or skirt for her 8 year old as a birthday present. I had plenty of patterns that I had traced off and made up before so while it was tempting to just redo one of those I flicked through my magazines and picked out "Minnie", Pattern 20 from Ottobre 6/2010. The pic (above) indicates its a little girls dress but the pattern sizing goes up to size 134cm. I used the 128cm size, as that is the approximate height of MY almost-8 year old. You can see Miss Matilda happily modelling if for me below. She looks a bit sun-kissed and windswept because we had just returned from Nippers (surf life saving for all the non-Aussies).

It turned out to be quite a simple, sackish type dress. Very straight forward to sew. I used Stella knit in lime and chocolate (from craftymama's) for the main body and used some cute heart knit (Etsy) for the waistband and binding. After it was made I realised it was probably a tiny bit too short as stand-alone dress, and not having enough fabric for the macthing leggings I opted to add a 3" frill to the bottom using the heart knit.

While I was at it I also made a gathered tiered skirt in bright fabrics

And a Redondo using red/white/blue cowboy theme

Out of all three garmets, I think the tiered skirt is the most fun and is the most visually striking. Isnt it funny how the simple patterns are sometimes the best?!

Tin whistle for 2011

Now that the kids are back at school I have kicked off sewing for tin whistle by completing my first custom order for the year- a polkadot liner pictured above. This year I have decided to focus my attention on pram accessories, and will be trading via my tin whistle online store

At the store you will find pram accessories for sale that are ready to ship (I am hoping to add 1 or 2 new items per week). Soon I will also have for sale 'semi-custom slots' and 'full-custom slots'. My waiting list is now closed to new additions, and in the future you will only be able to buy a custom order through the online store, when you see them listed. If you are currently on my waiting list you just need to hang tight and I will get to you as quick as I can (hence why no custom slots will appear on the store for the near future!).

At this stage I am offering 3 types of pram accessories:

A Pram liner specifically designed for the Babyjogger City Select pram.

A Universal Pram liner- it fits many makes and models, including Mountain Buggy Urban, Quinny Buzz and Zapp, Bugaboo Cameleon, Steelcraft Strider.

A Stowable blanket. This is an invention of mine and is a medium weight quilted blanket that is attached to the bottom of your tin whistle liner. *Yay! it cannot fall off or be lost!* It folds into its own pocket when not in use and sits on the footrest of the pram out of the childs way. Or it can be detached from the liner and stored elsewhere. When the blanket is opened out covering the child the pocket at the bottom serves as a footwell for the child, ensuring their little toes do not get cold. The blanket is generous enough to tuck snuggly around the child or even place over the hood of the pram to create a dark cave inside. No Zips mean its easy to gain access to the child should you need to. The stowable blanket can be ordered with either the Universal or City Select liner.

PS- I have already had some feedback about customers being dissapointed that I am no longer selling kids clothes. If you really desperately want some tin whistle dungarees or other tin whistle clothes then you are welcome to purchase a custom slot and discuss your needs with me.