So endeth the Redondos...phew!

(Secret happy dance)

OK So 5 Redondos over the course of about 8 months doesn't seem like a lot but when I have a love/hate relationship with a pattern, it hangs over my head.

I can whip them up in a few hours now but still don't love doing them. Though I might try a knit fabric one next.

Pattern- Studio Tantrum Redondo

Farbics-
Yellow floral- vintage fabric from stash
Bold green/pink/white- I believe a Marimekko print
Yellow/pink/lime floral- VIP by Cranston
Dusty pink dot- Barefoot Roses by Tanya Whelan (Grand Revival)
Green butterfly- Simply Sweet by Robert Kaufman

Approval rating- Expected to be high as the recipient wants a twirly skirt!

The best hiccup remedy

It works every time! Seriously!

I got the hiccups today. It served me right for scoffing down a sandwich too quickly. And could have been worse- if I was a horse, I could have gotten choke. Now that is seriously uncomfortable. Just ask any horse you know.

Anyway, after a couple of minutes of entertaining the little ones, I did my fail safe hiccup remedy. Forget breath holding. Forget trying to scare myself. Forget standing on my head. I just pour myself a glass of water, lean over the top of it and drink backwards...or is it upside down?

Have you ever tried it? It has never failed to cure my hiccups but I wonder if it works as well for everyone.

Best Ever Summer Meringue

Simple and yummy.

Continuing my "Best Ever" series of recipes, I made up the name to this so it is probably actually the "Only Ever" Summer Meringue around.

Make up a mix of meringue and form into a large flattish rectangle. Cook and leave in the oven to cool. I am presuming that you have your own pavlova or meringue recipe. I make it flat as I like the chewy crunchy meringue rather than the marshmallowy bit.

Break up into chunky pieces and cram into a large serving bowl alternating with spoonfuls of vanilla icecream. Flatten and cover and put into the freezer.

Make up a coulis blending fruit of choice and icing sugar to taste. My favourites are raspberries (scrummy even if using frozen berries) or mango.

Serve up spoonfuls of the frozen mix and serve with the coulis.

I initially used to put coulis through the frozen mix but found that it lost its flavour when it froze and was much nicer when it was over the top. You may also want to take the dessert out of the freezer a few minutes before serving unless you have a jackhammer in the kitchen utensil draw.

Gorgeous dessert for those warm summer evenings. Enjoy!

Perfected the knit skirt!

In my not so humble opinion.

Continuing on from my attempts at a comfie, flattering knit skirt for myself, I whipped up another one last night. Another brilliant thing is that I can sew these up in about an hour.
Fabric is black Colorado from Crafty Mamas shop and the Asian print came from there too.






I am really happy with this pattern as it is flattering, quick to sew up, lots of room for variation and easy to adjust with that much anticipated weight loss!

A Cosy of Pyjamas

Yes, I made that up.

I am saddened by the lack of collective nouns available for items of apparel but some reward at the end of a sweat shop session is that I can make up my own.

Pattern- Kwik Sew 3234
Fabrics-
Plain- Stella from Crafty Mamas shop (Australia)
Pattern knits- European knits from CM
Car print cotton- Spotlight
Approval rating- 10/10 (my boys are easy to please plus they got to do a bit of the fabric chosing. Always helps make things a winner)

I have 2 boys- one nearly 5 with my figure (short and thick) and one 6 and 1/2 who is a bean pole. I ended up making these in a L (10) but hopefully that will give me (well, them) 2 summers out of them.

I used a squared off stretch stitch to hem them as I couldn't be pfaffed swapping everything back and forth on my overlocker to do the professional double stitch finish. And my boys wont notice anyhow. But I think it is quite a nice little boyish stitch compared to a 3 step zigzag.

So that's it- no more stripes and no more pyjamas for a while. It really reinforces the fact that I don't like making the same things over and over.

Some Crafty Business!

Some much needed motivation.

Sharon from Handmaiden ran a blog competition during Blogtoberfest and I found out today that I am the lucky recipient of her ebook Crafty Business. (Yes, the competition gods are still smiling down on me!)

I started my blog earlier this year and as a personal recording of my crafty pursuits and social commentary which occasionally attracts a vaguley interested reader, it is plodding along quite nicely. I opened my etsy shop July 2008, listed 7 things and those that haven't sold are still there with no new additions for company. Admittedly I am time poor and having 1 child in school, 1 in half day kindy and 1 still at home means that, for me, sewing with intent to sell is a challenge.

I don't twitter; I don't facebook; I daydream about hanging around with fun like-minded people at a regular market stall; and when someone asks me if I sell my clothing after admiring something my daughter is wearing, I timidly volunteer that I am meant to be but don't really have the time. (Don't worry- at this stage of recalling those conversations, hubby rolls his eyes too- and says "did you hand out one of your business cards?" Erm, the answer to that could possibly involve the word no...)

Sharon runs a forum and videos as well as an online workshop for anyone who would like to improve and build up their craft business.

So thank you Sharon. I am hoping that your information will motivate me, inform me, educate me and drive me to be a better blogger and seller.

Quality (and quantity) sewing time

Enjoying a rarity.

This afternoon I had one hubby and one goddess down for an afternoon sleep and 2 boys "keeping themselves amused for an hour or two". Amazing how our kids have so much but are so easily bored...but that's another post in itself.

So today the sewing goddess was smiling down on me and I got a couple of hours to myself. OK, so I was meant to be sewing my boys some more summer pyjamas but they have a pair each so I promise I will get the next pairs made for them before the PJs walk themselves to the washing machine in grotty despair.

As promised, my 1st venture into my new Japanese pattern books was to make the little wrap style dress on the front of the girls pattern book.

This was super quick to run up. I have only ever made 2 things out of these books but they tend to be simple and quick. I'm in love!

I took a guess on the size and made size 100. Just fits but not much room for growth. Oh well, just have to make her another one. I'd love to make this in winter fabrics to be worn with a long sleeved tee inderneath.

Pattern- from Japanese girls pattern book
Fabrics- spot- Ava Rose (Grand Revival- Tanya Whelan)
- blue floral- vintage fabric from stash
- crochet edged bias binding- Holland Fabric House
Approval rating- The little princess tried it on with the promise of a Dora the Explorer DVD on the telly and left it on. So far, so good!











Well, that was fun. Sigh. Back to the pyjamas...

Adventurous Sewing

Japanese pattern books

I must admit to a love/hate relationship with Japan. After all a country that is responsible for foisting Pokemon and Hello Kitty on the world is not easily forgiven.
But then I adore the traditional Chiyogami (or Yuzen) papers. And a place that prints such beautiful and cute fabrics and sewing tape such as those by Kokka has a definate place in my heart.
And I don't need to mention the plethora of cherry blossomed fabrics, papers and the like. Can't go past a lovely cherry blossom print.
But then one of their food delicacies is eating a puffy fish which could kill you. (But then we eat the good old Aussie meat pie which one could argue is no different)
But then they created sushi.
But...
OK I could go on.
Anyhow, a couple of years back I splurged on a Japanese sewing book. Cost a bomb when shipping was included. But there is something elegant and quirky about the books that I adore.
So one of my discoveries for 2009 is yesasia.com. Prices are in American dollars but the books come with free international shipping. Suddenly they are a heck of a lot more reasonable, especially with the current strength of the Australian dollar. You need to know a bit about which book you want unless you are a fluent Japanese reader (I must have skipped that morning at school) and you will scroll through a lot of pages but if you know that book cover that you want and it's there, it's the cheapest way I have found to buy them.
My 3 purchases arrived today, perfectly packaged.

These aren't for the faint of heart. As you can see, there is not any English to speak of. But it keeps sewing exciting to have an adventure every now and then doesn't it?

(My 1st project is going to be the little girl's dress on the cover. I've adored it from afar for ages!)

Drafting a non-nanna skirt

If at first you don't succeed, cheat a little.

For a while now, I have been wanting to draft myself a knit skirt that was flattering...well, let's say- a knit skirt that wasn't unflattering (Don't want to set my expectations too high, do I?) I have a few knits of so-so quality that I have bought off ebay for their print and have some black quality knit ready to go.

Last week I used one of the previously mentioned pretty-print-of-dubious-quality knit fabrics to sew up a self-drafted elasticised A-line skirt using Sew What skirts. Lovely little book that has not yet been given the attention that it is worthy of by yours truly.

Anyhow this ended up as a pretty little nanna skirt (sorry to all the hip nannas out there; no insult intended) I love A line skirts but I don't think that they work for me if they are gathered.
Trinny and what's her name would have a conniption if they pulled this little number out of my wardrobe. Add to that, I found a hole smack bang in the middle of one of the 2 panels. That was the proverbial nail. I think that I will put it towards the back of my cupboard and pull it out in 25 years or upcycle it to a tee for my daughter.





Deep breath. Wipe the brow. Pause and refocus. Ding, ding. Round 2. I have a favourite skirt with a yoke, gently elasticised waist and 6 panels that I love. So I pulled it out along with my ruler, pencil and paper and made myself up a pattern essentially the same. Pulled out another pretty-print-of-dubious-quality knits, cut it out, whipped it up and what an improvement. There is a gentle gathering at the waist as the elastic is inserted in the top of the yoke. I made this one with 3 panels but there are no gathers below the yoke so it gentle flares out to some fullness. The knit was a bit...plasticky but coped with a lettuce edge rolled hem. And I love the result.





Hard to see details due to the colour.

Next up I want to make black panelled skirts and experiment with knit print applique. Nothing fancy. Just to create a focus point.

Will keep you posted.

Eye Candy

My favourite kind of lolly!

I have been following Blogtoberfest in my role as an interested admirer. It turns out that it wouldn't have taken a lot more effort to blog daily than the effort I have been putting in this month anyhow but I am really still a blog novice when it comes to a lot of things so I hovered in the background trying not to bring attention to myself.

However my other role has been as an avid blog competition participant. I only entered those where I wanted to win the prize in question and where there were no strings attached. That role appears to agree with me as I have had 3 emails notifying me that I have been lucky.

So let me share with you my 1st little goodie courtesy of a giveaway over at Adelle's blog.

Adelle was giving away, courtesy of another Adelle (confused?) the prize was a ring of your choice from 2nd Adelle's etsy shop Delicious Designz or her Zibbet shop. Of course I am always thinking about food if I'm not thinking about coffee so I chose one entitled "I'm Going for Icecream"

And look what arrived in the post today!

Sweet!

Thank you so much, Adelle and Adelle.

I love it.