Ready to take on the Empire!

Here is my costume - a Rebel pilot- finally finished and ready to go to the "R" themed party.  A few people asked who I was...? But a couple of people recognized "me" including one guy who said "good to see the Rebel Alliance represented tonight"!

Hidden pocket skirt - free via Fabric Restash!

I have never sewn with scuba fabric before, so when I spotted a piece at Restash the other week, I quickly snaffled it!  ( Thanks FunkBunny for donating it in the first place!)

There was just enough to squeeze out a new hidden pocket skirt. I really need to draw up a proper pattern for it, as I cut the front out too short & had to join a piece inside the pocket.  You can' t see it, but I can feel the seam which I didn't think through properly, and should have sewn differently - it feels a bit bulky, should have made a bigger seam allowance & sewn this down flat afterwards.  Oh well, live & learn!
Now I think I need to make some more plain coloured tops to wear with it, the crazy, funky print is waaaay to busy to wear with stripes!

2016 Craft & Quilt fair

I went to the craft show today!
I did not buy any fabric.
I looked at - and touched!- lots of lovely yarns, but I did not buy any wool.

I ate my lunch during a free " listen & learn" workshop about Boro Sashiko Stitching.
I had a chat to some lovely ladies from the Australian Sewing Guild. Pity there is not a closer group - the Essendon group meet on a Saturday, but in Avondale heights. The Roxburgh Park group I know how to get to easier, but they meet on a weekday morning. 

I said hello to the lady from the Yarn Barn and told her I like the colourful balls of wool in the shop window, because it looks like a big rainbow smile! Some other ladies were looking at the stall as I was walking by, I heard them say " oh it is only on cones for knitting machines" so I said " no look they have balls of wool too! It's my local, they have lots of gorgeous wool!!!" ( hmmm, my " local" is a yarn shop, not a pub!).

I saw some amazing quilts, soooo clever and wonderful.
I caught the tram home & met the eldest on his way home from school (so not cool to have your mum on the tram with you after school!!!).

  Boro fabrics and my favourite quilt - all that it needs is a TARDIS!  So very timey- wimey!!!

Sewing something starting with "R"

I have been doing a bit of sewing lately, but not the usual sort. Regular readers will know I do have a tendancy to make things other than skirts and tee shirts occasionally ( hey I did just make a green sheep last week after all!).
The latest challenge I set myself (because as I may have said some other time, I don' t see the point of sodoku when you could be sewing instead. Hmm, " sew- doku" maybe?!) - was to make a costume for a birthday party. The theme is the letter " R" in honour of the birthday girl.
This is what I have made so far- 5 elements made, 1 to go  Can you guess what my outfit is?

Where is the green sheep?

I love Mem Fox,  I love babies. So when a  member of my husband's family had a baby last week, I knew I wanted to give the new family a gift of some picture books (hey I am a teacher after all,  I am always going to  gift books to kids at every oportunity!)
I thought I would try to make a green sheep to go with the " Where is the green sheep?" book. And being a sheep, it would have to be knitted, of course!  After spending quite a bit of time looking at various ( free) and easy knitting patterns on line, I ended up with a green sheep! He needed an extra woolly coat to look more sheep like ( without it he looked more like a cow!)  I think he turned out ok!

Heat pack obi belt

I have always wanted to try to make one of these - a fancy belt to hold a heat pack. So when I heard that a dear friend of mine has had some major back issues, I thought it was the perfect time to try and make one. I had an obi belt heat pack pattern in the book " One yard wonders" for inspiration, plus the ladies' belt pattern from " You sew girl" and did a kind of mash up of the two patterns.
Materials included a combination of some of the black drill from Restash; some fat quarters purchased at the craft show a few years ago; bag rings bought from  Nicole Mallalieu, and a bit of black iron on interfacing. I am quite pleased with the result, - and so was my friend Samantha! -might just have to make one for myself now.

Fairfield Restash 2016

A huge thank you to Team Restash- Sarah, Jane and Anna - for organizing the Melboure Restash event on Saturday.
I took along 3 bags of fabric, and my friend Janine also took a bag to donate/ swap!
It was a lovely afternoon and great to meet some lovely "blog ladies" in real life. We had lots of fun looking through the fabric and yarns, and especially the huge amount of patterns. There were some vintage patterns with classic drawings on them, I wish now I had've snaffled a couple of them just for the pictures!

I came home with a modest selection of 4 patterns and 4 pieces of fabric, though I have already given a piece of black gaberdine to Janine (she is  planning to make some cushions from a piece fabric collected on Saturday, so the black piece will be useful to back the cushions & thus stretch the grey print fabric a bit further!).

I am hoping to make one of my secret pocket skirts from the funky scuba print I found.  The fox print fleece is for my sister who loves foxes ( we even had a pet fox cub for a week or two when we were kids!). The black drill was earmarked for a project for work but after catching up with a friend yesterday I think I will try and make her an obi style belt to hold a heat pack against her sore back.  The retro green print will become a skirt, maybe the Simplicity " Amazing fit" pattern I got on Saturday!

And look, I even found a picture of me on Saturday- found via Blogless Anna, hope you don't mind me being very cheeky and taking a screenshot Anna! I think this was taken not long after we arrived and I was still trying to sort my fabric out and find room for it on the tables.  There was a LOT of fabric!!!

Random school holiday photos-

Stocking up on patty pans (for baking lunchbox muffins) at the Preston market.
Awesome op shop boots.
Hapoy yellow daisies to brighten a drab winter day.
Election day sausage sizzle - (first election for the last 9 years I wasn't there helping run the stall now we are all done with primary school!).
Admiring a sweet retro print "picnic" themed quilt made by my MIL.