Counting down to Christmas

I have been wanting to take a photo of this much loved Advent Calendar, complete with tickets, made by my sister for my kids.  I never got around to it, but I have just found a photo in a set that the kids took the other day, so here it is.  Now I don't have to keep track of days for every times my kids ask me.  I think my favourite pocket is No. 23.

It was a big project...I think she started it on Boxing Day last year.  Bernice has taken up both blogging and sewing clothes this year.  Go and check out her blog at Raindrops and Bellyflops.

Scrap Busting

We had a new babysitter last night.  At the end of the evening she reported that when she asked the children what their mother did, they replied that "she sews dresses".  The babysitter was surprised by this answer and wondered if I sewed for a shop.  No, she just likes to sew dresses.

Only lately, I have not had much chance to sew dresses.  I have had a skirt half sewn up for a couple of weeks now.  I should have got to it this weeked, but got distracted by a few stash-busting projects (can't get into the sewing room for all the remnants).

This little linen pouch is a gift for a friend. It can be folded to clutch size.  Unfolded, it is the right size for my Sudoku puzzle book.

I used some of my favourite scraps to make a little drawstring bag for my ballet shoes.  Not really necessary, but when I was sorting through the remants for gift ideas, I was thinking that everybody else ends up with my favourite craft items...perhaps I should make something lovely for me.  This one was quick to make and took very little fabric, so I have not really deprived my gift receivees.  It is much more lovely than the photograph suggests.

Now, I am going to nominate myself for a virtuous mother / virtuous aunt award for the next project.  10 pairs of childrens swimmers (not all photographed, as some are currently in the swimming pool).  This one started because I had a few lycra scraps left over from dance costumes.  Only big enough for a Size 3, but the lycra was such good quality that I didn't want to throw it away.  That got me started using up all the lycra scraps I had...it won't be much longer that I get to sew Sz 3 swimmers.  I don't need to sew bikini tops for the girls, because all the children up here when swimming shirts when they are swimming.  Whilst I was on a roll, I re-made some of last year's too short one-pieces into bikinis for me.

Lastly, an idea that won't use up much of the remnant pile, but needs scraps all the same.  I saw this gift wrapping idea in the lastest edition of Peppermint magazine.  Covered buttons.  I only had one button to cover, but I like this idea so much that I will go and get more.

Now, back to the skirt.

Pseudo Housework

Yesterday I was taken on a tour of my house. The tour included the corner where all my new sewing books are sitting, the corner where my recently aquired retro Burda magazines are piled up, the corner where I have left my drafting tools and sloper because I will get back to the sleeve sometime, the corner where I leave the library books (mostly sewing related) and the corner where my general reading books are because my bedside bookshelf is filled with Threads and Stitches magazines. Then we went and had a look at the purpose built bookshelf for sewing related stuff. Which was full. Funnily enough, the tour did not include the corner where guitars seem to be multiplying, the corner when the not-yet-unpacked suitcase resides between trips and the corner where useful papers get thrown in amongst useless papers. Perhaps I had to pay extra for that.

Anyway, today I have dealt with the corner where school notes pile up in the kitchen and there is no room left for cooking. It is all a bit country-cottage, but I have sewn an organiser to hold school notes, seed-envelopes to send money to school with those notes, and pens to fill in the notes.

The fabric, puchased at my local quilting store, is cute, but it does not seem great quality. It was pulled out of grain, stretched when I sewed it, and crushed very easily. All very unusual for quilting cottons. I decided that near-enough was good enough and did not get out the quilting ruler and cutting mat. This was probably in light of the lesson in perfection my daughter gave me the other day.

I had bought her a couple of fat quarters and she decided to make her doll a sleeping bag and pillow. I gave a little direction for the sleeping bag and then left her to get on with the pillow (her sewing machine is set up next to her bed, which is in the perfect location for an afternoon nap). I didn't have any stuffing. She wanted to use batting instead, but I argued in favour of waiting until I could buy some stuffing (mostly because I really wanted to nap). Her reply was, "Mum, Lisa is just a doll. She's not real, you know. It doesn't have to be perfect." And she was right, not all sewing has to be perfect.

A remnant quilt

I am not a quilter (I have far too many clothes to sew), but I have been wanting a quilt for my bed for a long time now. I thought that this year was the year, with my "baby" going off to kindy. I thought that I would take classes and progress it slowly over the year. Well, it didn't turn out that way (like I said, too many clothes to sew). Instead, I got by with a few phone calls to my mother, an email from a friend and a couple of internet tutorials, and put it together in under a month.

It is a very simple design, but it is exactly what I wanted. The squares are remnants from my dress-making and gift-giving, with the bonus that many days I can lie on the bed and be camouflaged, sort of like the lady in that coffee ad. I would have liked it to be one row longer, but given that I was cutting and planning late one Friday night, I had to stick to my resolution to use remnants only. Also, I think that choosing fabrics in a store with be too stressful for the Capricorn in me. Here it is...