Where I would rather be....

This is the beach my sister and her family lives near in NSW! How I would dearly love to be hanging with them today and swimming! Instead I am at home in 37 degree heat with NO air-conditioning! Anya is asleep in the bare minimum and I am sweltering at the sewing machine but have come out for air! (This is my nephew J).

I am trying really hard not to complain today... didn't do too well did I! My personal mantra is "There is always someone worse off than you". My daughter (& future sibling/s) will be sick of hearing me say that but hopefully it will become ingrained in them. I did one of those '25 facts / goals / unknowns about yourself' yesterday and one of my goals was to take my kids to Africa when they are old enough to let the trip be of life-changing value. So I will stop complaining about no a/c and go back to sewing.... till next time x

polka dots

I came across this gorgeous tulle which made me think Lady Bird wings.... and a skirt for Anya! She loves to dress up already!! So, we whipped up a quick and dirty skirt - I was very, very lazy and sewed the elastic straight onto the tulle, but it does the job.

MACRO Monday

I love my macro lens almost as much as ...... (choose words wisely) ummm, life itself! I took this shot in Canberra's botanical gardens a couple of weekends ago. We had a fun morning with Gordon keeping an eye on Anya running around while I actually got to take photos. It brings me great joy to take photos, especially macros. There is something special about crouching down in front of this tiny perfect flower and seeing all the detail you miss when looking from afar. It gives, stopping to smell the roses a new meaning for me. This is a re-sized image for my post, but when you enlarge the high res photo and see the tiny specs on one of those little pom pom looking petals - SPECTACULAR!

Mmmm Berry Tea Cakes

In early celebration of my 30 something birthday on Australia Day (Monday 26th) I made myself some little tea cakes! The delicious berries sunk to the bottom and they are taaasty!

First Lino print

Well, my first lino print since High school!!! This print is originally from a leaf I scanned in on the computer, then traced onto a piece of lino. I didn't have any decent paper so I printed on Calico. I love the natural colour of calico and it's versatile use. It was a LOT of work cutting though and the results are well, just OK for a first go.

I discovered you can buy textile medium (I used Jo Sonja) and add it to your normal acrylic paint. This worked a treat, I ironed on a low setting (with some brown paper in between iron and fabric) to seal the paint, then washed and re-ironed and there was no fading or running of paint. Since printing this I have also cut away at the mat some more to try and get rid of the lines and marks I don't want there. I also had no lino roller so I used a rolling pin!

I was encouraged to explore some more though but I have a feeling that screen printing might produce a better result, especially for fine details that I am hoping to achieve. It was fun and very therapeutic.

Living Creatively

Living Creatively has a cute little project on their website which is similar to an idea I had for the back of my door signs! I wanted to add a pocket for MAIL! Who doesn't like getting snail mail, it seems so foreign these days. Anyway, this website has some great FREE crafty projects to get your teeth into. I particularly like the clay Christmas ornaments!!

Felt Scraps

I have a bag of felt scraps that I don't want to throw out or waste... I am trying to think of a creative use for them... one option is to make felt garland as above (found on Anna Maria Horner's blog) or I was thinking a felt mosaic with some beading and embroidery but I would want some sort of picture to unfold unless I think I am brave enough to free-style (which you should never do when shaving hubbies head), or little flower brooches... then I searched felt craft on flickr and came across some cool ideas.... I could go nuts!

Local talent - worldwide recognition

Beltana Rd, Pialligo (ACT, Australia) is home to many beautiful nurseries with coffee shops and lovely gifts for inside and out but one of my ultimate favourites is, Bison. Bison home wares are beautifully handcrafted stoneware ceramics. The workshop has the most beautiful pieces... I love wandering around seeing the lovely stacked ceramics. They are simple, a little rustic, yet elegant all at the same time. The showroom always draws me in with it's old antique tables and quirky fixtures. I love going there... I come away feeling inspired.

Vintage sewing patterns

I was lucky enough to score bags of patterns from my sister's mother in law, some dating back to the 50's and 60's. They are so darn cool - I so badly want to make some clothes for Anya but she has so many hand me downs in great condition - that I feel any more clothes is a waste! I have some cool material from my childhood that I would love to use for her, maybe next year... I think the Simplicity 6855 would make a cool winter coat pattern - great for Canberra!

To do list " old school"

Those who know me know I LOVE a good LIST! I write lists for just about anything and take great joy in them and even more in crossing them off (yes, I know it may be a sickness). I read about these cool old school catalog cards from Alice at Peapods. How fun!

Come to think of it... my lists have dwindled somewhat these days... more along the lines of:"make small child eat dinner"... small child has her own list.... "encourage Mum to relax more by not doing everything she wants".... ahhh - sometimes Motherhood demands the opposite of what my brain is wired to give... BUT it continually produces great moments which compensate for the frustrations.

What do you do when it is too hot to cook?

Make Sushi!

Birdie Sling Tutorial

As my former post explained I hit a snag with sewing a gusset in my Amy Butler Birdie Sling. Now I am no dummie but I have to admit I stared at that diagram for way to long and pinned, unpinned and pinned again. It wasn't the actual marking of measurements from the instructions that I found confusing but the diagram threw me, I think it over-complicated the instructions. I was unsure where I was sewing the curved line etc..and the thought of getting it wrong on expensive fabric, a lot of prep effort and then cutting a seam allowance.....eeeeeeeek! The minute I 'got it' it all seemed so simple...

So, as I love to share information and help out fellow gusset strugglers, I have put together a little tutorial for you! First we will start with my diagram!!

Now don't laugh but I was actually pinning this triangle underneath to the bottom of the bag and wondered how on earth I was going to sew the darn gusset! duh..

I found it easier to mark out the bag like this.

What it looks like once it is sewn, before making a seam allowance

The seam before it is cut (looking inside the bag)

Trimming the 1 1/2 " seam allowance

what it looks like inside the bag once seam allowance has been trimmed

What the gusset should look like outside the bag

The finished bag!

I decided to go with a plain colour for the lining and band and stretch Amy's lovely forest/wood fern fabric (Nigella range) as far as I could.

Yes it is a fairly large bag like everyone says but I like it and took it for a road test this morning to playgroup and it was great! I am really happy with the end result and taking the time to make something for me!

A few thoughts:

• Next time I would use the same weight fabric all over as the band was in a slightly lighter cotton and couldn't handle the interfacing - it looks ugly close up!
  
• As many others have said, I would probably lose the stiff interfacing in the strap and outside. I like the soft padded feel of a big bag and wish my handle was softer.
• I did a silly thing and clipped in 3 places instead of one as per the instructions in 7C. I did it because it didn't look right to do as instructed (go figure...), so I clipped either side of the seam and close to the middle. But I found once I had finished the bag, just under the bottom seam on the band there is a little bulge that looks odd and I am sure not supposed to be there!
• Next time before start a project - I will do some more research!!
• Here is a great post on the birdie sling by Kathy at Pink Chalk Studio
• Also, join the online sewing community for free at Sew Mama Sew and enjoy some of the great forums discussing such things as this.
  

I hope this has been useful!

6 years of bliss

I know this post is supposed to be my tutorial post but I decided I should wait until I finish the bag before I go sprouting "this is how you sew it" and my bag doesn't work out! So in the meantime... I couldn't help but let the world know what a wonderful husband I have!! We celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary yesterday and couldn't be happier! I have scored the most amazing, supportive, encouraging man who loves me for me and cheers me on no matter what I do... work, motherhood, hobbies.... He is always present, patient, loving, gentle, fun and the best full-time company a girl could want, seriously!

Birdie Sling....

I am making the infamous Amy Butler birdie sling... with the above yummy material and got stuck when it came to the gusset! I have never made one before even though I have sewn a lot. I pored over many a forum, blog posts and sewing sites to try and find images explaining how to sew a gusset like this bag requires... but nothing. I eventually figured it out last night {thank goodness} and I am going to dedicate my next post on "how to sew a gusset" for this type of bag. I think I will write to AB and suggest they do some simple podcasts for things such as this or draw a better picture. I think the pattern diagram was way off for this one! (Just for the record the rest of it was easy).

Food glorious food....

In celebration of today's effort...mini Pavlovas or meringues whatever you wish to call them... they are going to be consumed with mascarpone cheese and fresh berries yum! I love their delicious imperfections... Oh and I would throw on some persian fairy floss just because it looks so darn good!


Photo courtesy of pariya food website - see link above

How to Gocco Print

I was stoked to find this demo on how to Gocco print by none other than the fabulous Etsy labs but disappointed to discover that the bulbs used are one-use only bulbs and not fabulous for the environment :-( Will do some more research.

New Ideas

I am dying to try some lino cutting and screen printing for some new designs I am working on in Illustrator. They are live traced from photos I have taken. I will be taking photos with a new mind set from now on - it's all about capturing your subject as a simple silhouette, no background is highly desirable. Here is a quick and dirty example I played around with and loved it so much I popped it under one of my favourite photos (my two treasures) xx stay tuned....

A book for Olivia

I recently sold a soft book for a cute little bub - I hope she likes it! I tried a new variation on the sewing and layout of her name. I like the texture it gives the cover, yet another surface for tactile enjoyment.

A fab new find and things that inspire me...

I do love to share fabulous finds and picnik is one of them! For most people who don't have Photoshop, illustrator or such programs - this is the perfect solution to manipulate photos in the interim. I had just sat down with Gordon before Christmas to have a little photoshop tutorial to learn how to do a grid/montage of photos for my blog or round the corners on a photo (much to his disgust, {design snob}!) and found it a little frustrating... I still fight the tools in photoshop and must confess I get impatient while learning.. so when I stumbled across Picnik through Flickr I was thrilled...

Photos - Rosalind & Gordon Grace (wedding photo Jason Mclay)

Frilly skirts

I love how we can draw creative inspiration from nature... and I love how creative God was with nature! His detail in flowers especially blow me away! See my macro collection on flickr!