mermaid costume making

bookweek is on monday and madeline has decided she wants to be a mermaid. inspired by the shell crown my mum made her to wear to her mermaid party last year, that was what she decided it needed to be this year, so she could wear it again. so. this mum got to work.

inspired by this shirt i found online, i bought iridescent iron on vinyl patches from spotlight, traced and cut a pattern from tracing my computer screen and proceeded to cut each individual piece out, one by one. shoot me now, that's never happening again. 

but it worked and oh did it work, so it was totally worth it of course.

see, piece by piece, not fun. 

i ironed each one with a tea towel over the top to prevent it melting, but i think it was just sheer luck it worked out.

the skirt was very much inspired by this skirt my friend made for her daughter years ago for a costume day at their school, i had to search back for ages on her facebook but finally found it and just guessed and kind of winged it to make it the right shape.

which also miraculously worked, so maybe i am finally nailing this barbara junior gig hahaha. i can vouch though, the famous fork pleating video online works an absolute treat - cause that is how i managed to get this fishtail skirt to sit so nicely. 

she is so thrilled and i am chuffed, she can't wait to show it off at bookweek and keeps bragging to everyone that i made her costume. well, yes i did, so i guess i can be a little bit proud of myself too! ❤

 

mask making

now that we have to wear masks again, i thought it would be fun to make some from the school tartan for the kids teachers. 

joseph's teacher had one that was a great shape and i borrowed it for a few minutes to make a rough pattern, which i took home and got to work. 

school tartan one side, a cute blue floral the other, so i guess they could be worn either way - and then thin hat elastic to hold the sides in place. they were a first attempt and certainly were not perfect, but i think with a little practice i could get them looking nicer.

but i did think they were fun - matching with the dresses - and the teachers thought so too. both of them said they had been worn, so that's a good thing! 

sister shortland

last week this incredible and very talented lady passed away and dozens of lds girls in wa felt the world grow a little dimmer. erica shortland made hundreds of dresses over the years, my wedding and bridesmaid dresses included.

all of the dresses in this picture other than my flower girl lauras (which was made by my mum) were made by this amazing lady. she managed to make so many, to all be exactly what we wanted and always made them happen, no matter the time restraints, your budget and how many you needed. she was quite simply a magician.

not only that, she was so incredibly kind. in the fifteen years i have known her, she has always found the time to say hello and ask how i am, even in the last few years when her voice hadn't been as strong as it once was.

i loved this dress and the lady who spent hours making it for me. she was just a wonderful lady and i will certainly miss seeing her at the landis get-togethers we are often invited to.

thank you for my dress dear sister shortland.

i will be eternally grateful. 

stitching for the babies

sometimes i like to sew. i find stitching back and forth creating words or an image quite therapeutic. in december one of my friends from church had a baby and i decided i would make a little sampler of his name for his room - and it only took me three months to get around to it - and less than three hours to finish it hahah. add a cute coloured edge frame from our local reject shop and ta-dah! i thought it was sweet. 

then our adorable next door neighbours had a baby this week. a long awaited rainbow baby who will be very loved! i thought what the heck - let's do another one... 

so baby april got one too. i loved making them - hopefully their mums liked them too. 

a doll for isabel

never, ever again. until the next one of course. baby isabel has arrived and i (stupidly) decided she needed a handmade doll as a "welcome to the earth" present. i have made this pattern once before (see here) and it went pretty well, with no major issues... but this time i wanted to ditch the doll and set fire to the pattern! hopefully she will love it... but i would be lying if i said that a lot of love went into it. more like a lot of cursing and anger haha.

but may i present the yet unnamed doll i finally managed to turn out for miss isabel. please feel free to offer name suggestions in the comments... but mark my words it will be a long time before i attempt another... if ever! augh.

a new old sewing machine

as a child, i learned to sew on my mums elna sewing machine. i would collect scraps and make little bags and whatever other easy things took my fancy. i watched her sew so many different things over the years and i have always had a love for her machine.

when the time came for me to have my own, mum searched for one the same to no avail. she eventually bought me a modern one which does the trick, but is plastic and just not the same. i had always hoped to find one the same one day and this week it finally happened! i was on the local buy, sell, swap page and it just happened to appear in the newsfeed... at an excellent price! i was so thrilled, as was mum when i showed it to her - as apparently it's the model up from hers! ♥

cannot wait to get sewing with my "new" machine

dress making!

it's been a goal of mine for quite some time to sew myself a dress. not just any old dress, but an awesome vintage inspired one, in a funky as fabric. i've been looking on pinterest for quite some time now for inspiration (and hoping madly that i would find a pattern some day) and i finally found one!

all 3 of these dresses are made from the same pattern and found on different blogs, but i love them and i am so excited... because i found the pattern (simplicity 1652) on ebay and bought it! i am going to make one - this year. i assume i am fairly safe saying that, as it gives me just over 8 months to do so. so stay tuned... i am going to do this... and you will all be my witnesses as i show it off some time in the (hopefully near) future. ♥

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supermum

it has come to my attention that my mother is basically supermum... i show her something i like, and next minute she presents me with an awesome copy of it. exhibit a... i am reading em falconbridges blog and see her particulary cool circle scarf, now i'm no fan of pink (rather inconvenient being that i just gave birth to a girl) but i found this awesome as piece of green stretchy material at the op-shop in singleton a few months ago and could see it becoming one of these scarves one day. so i show mum the fabric and the picture here and voila! one cool as circle scarf, which has barely left my neck since!

oh - and did i mention the awesome bag i found on etsy - that she also copied. honestly - my mum is awesome, can copy anything and saves me bulk cash when i have my heart set on something. what a legend. love you mumsie! xx