MMM Week 2

I have some more varied photos to share this week. None are terribly good, but I have been exploring new locations around the house. I'm terribly jealous of those bloggers who are able to venture out to cool locations for their photos. It's just not something I can do right now. One day...

Tuesday 8 May - Home with sick kids - still!

Tova dress in Japanese cotton. I adore this tunic. It is probably the most worn of all my Tovas.

Wednesday 9 May - Spotlight fun with one slightly sick kid.

I had to use my 'spend $100 pay $60 voucher', so headed to Spotty to pick up some quilting supplies including a new cutting mat and rotary blade. You just don't realise how blunt your rotary blade is until you get a new one.

Renfrew in interlock.
Thursday 10 May - Hanging with the kids and dinner with the girls

Wrap and Go skirt made with Tessuti denim. Definitely the most worn skirt this past summer.

Vintage Simplicity 3461 & 4841. I love this dress and wish I could wear it more.

Friday 11 May - kids day (again!)

It must sound like I just hang out with my kids all the time. I do work, but this household sickness really took us down. Thankfully we are mostly back to normal.

Sewaholic Crescent skirt

Saturday 12 May - Grocery day *yawn*

Renfrew in merino knit and a new, me-made chevron scarf.

This scarf was made with a yard of voile purchased from Spoonflower last year during a free shipping promotion. When it arrived, boy was I disappointed! The voile from Spoonflower is more like gauze. Something I would wrap a baby in, not what I would use to make a garment. I was waiting for a baby to be born, so that I could give someone a cool, orange chevron print wrap, but I'm glad a saved it. I have simply folded in half and sewn right sides together, then turned it back out. Easy peasy.

Sunday 13 May - Mothers day.

Another new item made this week, which I have totally ripped off from this blogger. This time a simple, self drafted, knit skirt made with fabric from Tessuti. I lined the skirt in some spun polyester purchased from the Op Shop for a small $1 and the wide black elastic was also from purchased the Op Shop for just 50c. I wore the tee un tucked after this photo and it looks much more relaxed.

Total skirt cost:
Argo #4000 Jersey from Tessuti. 60cms = $22.80
Lining = $1
Elastic = 50c
Total = $24.30

Monday 14 May - Sewing day!

New loose fit knit top with cuff sleeves - a free pattern from Dixie DIY. This took just one short nap to cut and construct. I love a fast make. I'm quite happy with this, but think I might size down a little next time and probably make the tee a little longer. I sewed a scant 1/4 inch hem and I think it needs just over an inch more. Better yet, it was made with a remnant of fabric from one of my first Renfrews, so I believe this project has a $0 cost according to my accounting system :)

Me made Angel scarf

Tuesday 15 May - Work day.

This outfit is a bit of a cop-out. Only a me-made scarf. Even though I am wearing me-made jarmies, I think I might have to wear two items tomorrow.

I can't believe we are already half way through Me Made May. I just love seeing what other are sewers wearing. Are you following MMM on Flickr?

Quilty

Boy quilts now finished, just in time for the winter chill here in Sydney.

I've been collecting fabric to make quilts for the boys for some time now. In the mix here is some Heather Ross, Saffron Craig, Umbrella Prints, Sevenberry, Sarah Jane, Denyse Schmidt and much more.

I'd love to take full credit for how awesome these two quilts are, but I really should acknowledge the help of my mother in sewing these babies. As she has a little more time than me and she's much, much, much better at quilting, she pieced the tops of both quilts.

She used this great pattern from Kate at One Flew Over. Each generously sized quilt is 2.5 times the size of this pattern. The are quite large, which I prefer.

I pieced the backing, quilted and bound them. I even hand stitched the binding. I love the quilting style I used, called 'organic lines'. I had never heard of this before, but it basically means not straight or wavy lines. Mine are 1-2 inches apart. I love the effect and really, who can't sew a crooked line??

The boys are extremely happy with them. They love searching for little pictures on the fabric - seahorses, cars, rockets, paper air planes, elephants, girraffes, bugs.

This is how they look in their bedroom.

And when I'm not sewing, I'm often fixing. This wardrobe was found on the side of the road. Hubby brought it home for me, where we noticed that it has once housed a colony of cockroaches. Eeew! Thankfully they had long gone, but the inside was terribly stained with poop. So not only did I paint the exterior with 4 coats or white paint, but I also fully painted the interior. Needless to say, I'm quite happy the process is over now.

So now the question - which quilt will come next? Do you have any quilty plans to supplement your garment sewing schedule?

3 x Renfrew = Happy

I enjoyed a half day without the kids this week. They are on the mend at last! I used this time wisely, choosing to build my t-shirt wardrobe with some lovely new fabric.

Merino knit from The Fabric Store

Merino knit from The Fabric Store

Cotton double knit from Harts Fabric. I tried to modify this one to create more of a boat neck tee by raising the neckline 1.5 inches and widening the neck by 1 inch each side. It isn't perfect, but still wearable.

I think for my next Renfrew I might  size down to a 4, there is a little extra ease in these tees due to how stretchy the merino is.

Happy sewing!

Rainbow Beanie

I have so many finished projects with photos to blog, but am struggling to find quiet time in front of the computer. The kids are getting better though, so I'm sure it will come.

This beanie is adorable and the pattern was free. It came together very quickly and the little girl loves it.

Check out this smile. This is why I sometimes encourage my kids not to smile for the camera. Love the food filled mouth too.

Matchy Matchy

My third pair of PJs are now finished and there was just enough fabric to make Adele some too.

Clearly the kiddo was still sick when I took this photo *sigh*. The fabric is so thick and warm, which is surprising for Op Shop flannel.

Total cost for both pairs $1 + plus some ends of elastic. Makes me happy :)

MMM Week 1

No fancy photos here. I fear all of my MMM photos will be crappy indoor ones, but that's what happens when you need to take photos quickly as you rush out the door.

Tuesday, 1 May - Home day with sick child No. 1

Me Made Refrew, originally blogged here.

Wednesday 2nd May - Fabric shopping day with semi-sick child No.2

Darling Ranges dress made in Liberty Lantana, blogged here

Thursday 3rd May - Work day. Teaching year 3 at a new school.

Vintage Simplicity 3523 - love this dress!

Friday 4th May - home again with sick, sick child no.2.

New look 6775 blogged here. Despite the fact that this blouse isn't finished very well, I still wear it quite a lot. I really must make another...

Saturday, 5th May - home again with sick children!!!

Refrew, originally blogged here.
Scarf, blogged here

Sunday, 6th May - day 8 with sick kids.

No MMM photo today. I caved after a shocking night up with two sick kids. When will it end??

Monday, 7th May - home again (missed a day of work!) with sick child no. 2 and 3

As I didn't wear a me made item yesterday, today I wore three.
Jeans originally blogged here.
Renfrew, originally blogged here.
Scarf blogged here

We've now endured well over a week of sickness in this house and I'm dying of cabin fever! It's just unfair when sickness travels through the family one child after the other. Why can't they all get sick together? I'd much rather 3 days of hell over 15 days of equally difficult hell. Fingers crossed we turn a corner tonight.

Gosh I'm looking forward to leaving the house again and feeling the need to dress up!

The fabric diet ends.

Well there have been a few slip ups on the self imposed fabric diet recently, and this one is a biggie. Despite the fog of family illness this week, I did manage to slip away to some lurvely fabric shops with my mum to spend my birthday money. It was supposed to be a kid free day, but one kid was slightly too unwell to attend daycare but still OK to go shopping, so he came too.

We spent most of our time at The Fabric Store and Tessuti and this is the loot..

The three pieces on the left are merino knit from The Fabric Store. Hopefully this week they will become Renfrews. The two right pieces are from Tessuti, the coloured cotton knit is destined to become a midi skirt and viscose black/white knit for another Renfrew.

Tessuti conveniently announced their $10 roll sale just in time for our visit - yay! These are my two $10 purchases, both destined to become trousers. The top fabric is a black and grey check of mystery content, which is just long enough for one pair of trousers. The roll of fabric, yes a roll of fabric, has the tag pictured. It says it's a Fendi fabric!! which is viscose acetate blend. It is a dark charcoal with thin stripe. It has a lovely hand and some stretch, which I think is mechanical. The awesome thing about this roll is there is over 7 meters of this stuff! I might have to give some away.

The roll sale was funny to watch. There was only one other shopper looking when we were, early on Wednesday morning, but by later in the morning, the small roll area was packed. I saw one woman walking out with a massive, full roll of thin, white, sew-in interfacing and I was kicking myself for not grabbing it myself. Just imagine all the pattern tracing she could do with that?? Or interfacing?

From Tessuti also, a blouse length piece of this white printed check voile which isn't awesome, but it was 50% off. I'll save it for summer. Lastly, this super light weight denim from Kelani fabric that I ordered online (via post) last week. I have big plans for this denim.

Just a note: This fabric at Tessuti is just divine!

I really wanted to buy some. Really, really. It feels lovely and the spots are spot on. The only problem is that placement of the spots is right through the middle of each panel, running selvage to selvage, rather than along the selvage. I would love to make a dress from this, but couldn't figure out how, so let it go. I'd love to see someone do it though and then I will definitely race back in a snap some up.
We also had a quick browse around the Remnant Warehouse, but didn't get the time to buy any goodies as time was running out to do the school run. I'll definitely head back to the Remnant Warehouse though, there were some gems that caught my eye as we were racing out the door.

So the best bit about this big fabric binge is that it didn't cost me a cent! I love birthday money!! Woot woo!