floating world

cherry dress

There is something so sweet about cherry print. When I spotted this in Tessuti I couldn't resist it, and even though it's totally unsuitable for wintery June weather a bubble dress for Milla zoomed straight to the top of the to-sew list. It's the Oliver + S pattern and I loved sewing it - it's easy, but with lots of nice thoughtful details. I like the fully lined bodice, and the way that the back placket wraps around to the lining.

Milla is 8 months old and chubby, so I sewed the 12-18 month bodice but made the skirt the width of the 12-18 month size and the length of the 3-6 month size... I don't like long dress on babies. It's a perfect fit, and just the right length for crawling.

The only other change I made was to add some red piping around the sleeves and in the seam between the bodice and the skirt. It's beautiful cotton piping I picked up at a fleamarket in Paris last year.

And the buttons are little wooden ones from the Dalwood Jumble Sale.

I will definitely use this pattern again, I think I'll try the bodice next time with a non-bubble skirt - it wouldn't be hard to modify. I can justify sewing summer dresses in winter because hopefully we'll have some warm weather when we go on holiday in a few weeks, and Milla can wear them then.

brooch

This is what I made for the Flowerpress Brooch Swap. I don't do many swaps, but this was a great one, fantastically organised by Susie.

I started off thinking about felt and fabric but couldn't get excited, and then I saw that Lisa Solomon has been playing with Shrinkydink to make beautiful necklaces. Shrinkydink is one of those things that I read about as a child in American books (like Twinkies and bologna) but had never experienced. But now you can order it online, and I had fun drawing, shrinking and then stitching on to a felt backing.

I only used a tiny bit of my pack of shrinking plastic, so I see more of these on the horizon. And, in a nice twist, I just found out that I won the rainbow necklace that Lisa gave away on her blog, which was what inspired me to start playing with Shrinkydink in the first place. Bonus!

 

baby in a bonnet

There's something very cute about a baby in a bonnet. And practical too - Milla doesn't have much hair, it's cold right now, and she yanks beanies straight off. This keeps her head warm (it's corduroy lined with a beautiful floral brushed cotton), the sun out of eyes and it stays on. I wish I could say I sewed this one, but it was made by the very clever Christy over at Little Betty (if you've never visited her blog go and have a look, she is one of the most prolific and skilled dressmakers I've seen - look at this dress!)... but she has just released a PDF pattern so if you'd like to sew your own you can find it here. I am planning a couple of summer ones for Milla, it is a perfect way to use up cute bits of print fabric.

artwork and archiving

I ventured to Ikea this week and bought frames for my London and Manhattan screenprints. I picked up a few cheap A4 frames at the same time for some of Ali's artworks - the plan is for a rotating display, to keep the current favourites up for a few weeks before they are filed. I do pretty well managing his flat artworks, but right now he loves bringing cardboard boxes covered in glue and packing peanuts home from preschool, which present archival difficulties. Maybe I can photograph him holding some of the more magnificent ones, before discretely recycling some of them? But then he has a memory like an elephant and is likely to ask me where they are in a month. Something has to be done though, he's currently generating 3 or 4 each week and we live in a very small house. I find it so hard to throw away anything he's made, though.

(One of Ali's works in the picture above is the Small Object Paper Doll from Kiddley way back when - such a great download, I print them off to collage clothes on to or just to colour in / draw on).

It's a long weekend here, so hopefully we will have time to bang some nails in the wall and hang all these things up. I'm also planning some knitting (1.25 sleeves to go on the Garter Yoke Cardigan), some sewing (Oliver + S bubble dress for Milla, Lisette Portfolio tunic for me, and maybe a Tova top too) and some reading. I just returned The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to the library, and have started The Summer Without Men, which I have high hopes for because I loved the last Siri Huvsted book I read - What I Loved. It's cold and wintery here, but perfect weather for all of the above.

I hope you are all having a great weekend too.

baby oobee

I have been reading Leslie's blog since we lived in Japan, and I love her style and aesthetic - the quilts and toys she makes are just beautiful. We have a gorgeous Oobee that I bought Ali when he was small, so I was thrilled when I won a Baby Oobee Sleepy Set pattern & fabric pack in a giveaway.

This was a collaborative effort between Ali & me - he chose the printed fabrics from the scrap bag, closely supervised as I cut out and sewed, and helped me stuff the pillow and Oobee. Any wonkiness is a result of my inexperience and my impatient assistant, the instructions are really clear and have step-by-step photos and diagrams.

This pattern is excellent for a novice toy-maker because the legs and arms are all in once piece with the body, which makes it much less fiddly. Having the fabric pack is a great idea too, because it meant I didn't need to try and source toy-making fabrics I don't usually use, and the hemp/cotton fleece is so soft and cuddly, it makes the finished toy really lovely to hold. Ali really enjoyed seeing the toy come together with the fabrics he chose, and as soon as Baby Oobee was finished he disappeared upstairs for a slumber party with the other toys in his room. Thanks, Leslie!

roll-up pants

Another pair of pants for the boy child, using the second piece of pocket fabric he chose from C&I. I wanted a break from the Sandbox Pants, so chose the ロールアップパンツ (Roll Up Pants) from a Japanese Sewing Book Boys and Girls Standard Children's Clothes (ISBN978-4-579-11199-2). I have to say, out of all the Japanese pattern books I've sewn from this had by far the most horrendous pattern sheet. All pieces, all sizes, were drawn out in the same colour and weight of line. If I was sewing something more complicated than a super easy pair of pants it would have done my head in. And the patterns don't have numbers, they have names, so unless you can read Japanese it would be quite tricky to work out which bits to use.

But the pattern itself, once I managed to trace it off, is great - nice slim legs and the pockets and turn up details make them look a bit smart. They stay up better than the Sandbox ones, too. I made them from a lightweight denim from Kelani, so they're very soft and comfy but probably not warm enough for the cold snap we're having right now. Nevermind, they'll be handy for when the weather warms up. And for a northern hemisphere excursion we're planning soon, which will hopefully bring some warm weather too.

contemporary galleries at the AGNSW

Ali, Milla & I visited the new Contemporary Galleries at the Art Gallery of NSW today. I love seeing modern & recent art, and there were enough colourful, sparkly and strange things to keep Ali & Milla entertained too. Ali's favourites were two video pieces, one of white paint being dripped over black paint and visa versa, and the other of a man hitting railings with a stick. He liked the colourful Sol LeWitt rooms too, and we brought home colour-in pop-out versions to paint ourselves (an excellent freebie from the gallery). I think my favourite was TV Buddha, but I want to go back again soon and have a slower, child-free (or at least Milla only... she can be confined to a stroller) look around.

It makes me happy to go to galleries and museums with the children. I like it that I can still do something that I enjoyed pre-babies. And I like it that I look at artworks in a different way when I'm there with Ali, and that even though we tend to speed through and spend at least as much time on snack and toilet stops as we do looking at art, it's still a lot of fun.