Day 201 - Sewing School - Bear gets a dress

Ever since she made the pink bear Juliet has been desperate to make it a dress, so today we had a little sewing lesson where she made the dress on my sewing machine. She has a little kids sewing machine but it is so fiddly and hard to use that we have only used it twice in almost 2 years. She was really excited to have a turn at using my machine, was very cautious with the pedal and listened very carefully to all of my instructions. It was heaps of fun for us both.

Here she is choosing some fabric.

Sewing.

Adding elastic to the casing at the top of the dress.

And proudly displaying her creation. (Oops, we hadn't brushed her hair yet )

I made this dress too, which she calls karate bear. Sewing the tiny little neckline was really tricky. Do people have special sewing machines for this?

Side note: Brag your best buys competition.

Erica at Recycled Fashion and Brotherhood of St Laurence have been running a competition for the best thrifted fashion.

Entries into Brag Your Best Buys thrifty fashion contest, are now finished, but voting on the outfits is still open.

Juliet and I each have an entry in the competition at numbers 14 and 30. If you want to vote for our op shopped outfits you can do it here http://www.recycled-fashion.com/p/contest.html.


Here is Juliet'sthrifted outfit. Pretty cute!

Jacket $2 Vinnies Centre - Bendigo
Skirt 50cents Uniting Care - Golden Square
Tights 50 cents - View Hill Bargain Shop (brotherhood) - Bendigo
Hat - Crochet by her Nan
Shoes - $1 Best and Less clearance

And mine.

 
Vintage dress Cheltenham Salvos - $8
Naot sandles - $4 brotherhood of st Laurence - Centre Rd, Bentleigh
Leaf Bangle - $2 View Hill Bargain Shop - Bendigo


Thanks.

Sharon

Day 200 - T party dress.

Wow! Can't believe I'm up to day 200. I definitely would not have made it this far without my blog and the people who stumble upon it and take time to read it, so thankyou all very much.

Today's craft is a t-shirt refashion. I love the print on this top but I  like to wear my t-shirts a little longer so I never wear this. I was going through my clothes looking for some stuff to send off to the charity shops and I decided to refashion this one.

First thing I did was to cut off the sleeves and the side seams.

Then I cut a V shape in the back as shown below, took the sides in a little more for an a - line shape, and made the armpits and shoulder section smaller by picking apart the seams, cutting some out and sewing them back together.

Then I found this lace in my stash of trims that used to be my Grams. Very girly, perfect for my girly girl Juliet.

I added some to the back of the t-shirt, and some to the bottom.

Mum and daughter are both pretty happy with the results. Ms J thinks it's a princess dress. This little princess really didn't need another dress, but she's just so gorgeous to make things for, and little grade preps do seem to get invited to a lot of parties. She seems to have the best social life in the family. ;-)

Day 199 - A bush hospital

A bush hospital, in the bush behind our house.

Day 198 - Paper blossom

Yesterday Juliet and  went to a school holiday workshop at the Bendigo art gallery. We have done a workshop each holidays since we moved up here, and have thoroughly enjoyed them all. They run for an hour or so and cost virtually nothing. It's also wonderful getting to work while surrounded by old paintings in a beautiful old building. We are very lucky where we live.

Yesterday's workshop involved making tissue paper flowers and a bird and attaching them to a branch.

Here are some photos of our creation and the workshop.

Pretty cute hey? And super easy to make.

So I thought today, I'd make a flower, and show you how it is done.

Step 1 -  Put 4 to 6 layers of tissue paper on top of on another.

Step 2 - Fan fold the paper

Step 3 - Tie a string around the middle of your fan fold

Step 4 - Cut an arrowhead or point at each end of your fan fold

Step 5 - Spread out the fans.

Step 6 - Gently separate the layers of tissue paper

Step 7 - Keep separating and shape the paper into a shape you like.

And there you have your pretty blossom flower. Enjoy! I hope you enjoy it as much as I am enjoying the beautiful Bendigo spring weather. It's currently 25 degrees.

Day 197 - Teaching my 5 year old to hand sew.

Today I've been teaching my 5 year old daughter Juliet how to hand sew.

She made this amazing softie, mostly on her own. I showed her how to do a plain sewing stitch around the edge. She cut out a template, and sewed around the edge of her doll. I fixed up a couple of bits where her stitches were too far apart, but she was amazing.

I helped her with the buttons she chose for the eyes, and then she stuffed the doll herself and stitched it closed.

Here she is at work. I'm really proud of her. She wants to make some clothes for her bear now.

Stitching.

Here is her bear before stuffing, she chose the eyes and nose and I sewed the button eyes on for her.

She stuffed the bear.

And here she is looking very happy with her creation. She is currently snuggled up in front of the TV with her bear watching a movie.

Day 196 - Dress

I made the dress. So excited! Love it to bits. My days are always a little bit brighter when I make something from scratch on my sewing machine. It's absolutely me in a way only something I made myself could be. I think there might even be some nice sunny days this week to wear it.

I used the vintage fabric I found at the op shop last week, and some other scraps I had lying around, so I have a new and custom made dress for less than $10.