Christmas De-stash

I'm still on a major fabric and yarn de-stash (really! it's never-ending!), so I decided that this year's Chrissy outfit would have to fit into my no-buy, use what I've got brief :) The majority of my Christmas fabric is small patchwork sized pieces, but I did find two pieces that were big enough for clothes ... the red fabric I really love because it is Christmassy, but in an understated way, with white meandering holly leaves. The pocket fabric I thought looked like baubles until I finished the skirt and then decided that it looked more like a Target Ad :(  But no, in my head I'm sticking with the baubles thought :) The apron fabric is tiny poinesettas and holly ... I like the choice of this one because it has a slightly old fashioned look, good for a pinny I think :)

...so, the pattern specs :)

The skirt was taken from Sew Serendipity by Kay Whitt ... I lost the plot slightly as to what size I made, but I think that it was roughly size small (following the pattern measurements I made a mock-up skirt in small, which was way tight, so made the skirt in a medium, which ended up being way big(?), so finally went with the medium but took in huge side seams ... it wasn't the best solution as the pockets are now a lot narrower than they should be, but at least I'll have a better idea of size next time).
The apron is again the Patternless Kitschy Apron by Jordana Paige, well a variation of it as I didn't have enough fabric for the cool crossover top ... love the possibilities with this apron pattern (thanks Jordana!)

Take one thrifted tablecloth, Part 2

The good thing about buying manchester instead of fabric off the bolt, is that it goes such a long way ... definitely value for your buck (especially when it's thrifted!) :)

After making my dress out of the tablecloth I bought from Savers, I still had heaps left to make some much needed aprons. I couldn't decide on waist or full length, so of course, ended up doing both :D

The pattern for the waist length one came from Cath Kidston's Sew! book, the only change I made to the pattern was not binding the pocket top ... the tablecloth had a neatened edge, so I saved myself a step by utilising that instead.

I did the same thing on the hem of the full length pinny ... I love this pattern, especially the way that the curved side edges wrap around the back giving maximum coverage :) The pattern is called the Patternless Kitschy Apron by Jordana Paige and its a freebie from here

...ok, guess I'm off to do some cooking now then :D

Inspired to Sew

Now that I'm back home again after my few weeks in the UK, I've got a mad urge (yep, even madder than usual!) to get into my knitting and sewing :-) My instant gratification came in the form of this apron, which, according to the pattern is supposed to be a top (just thought that my girls would give me absolute heaps if I wore this out in public as a top!!)....hence, it will definately be worn as a pinny. As far as I can tell, the only thing making it a top, is the fact that the skirt part goes all around at the back as well as the front.
The pattern was one of my op shop buys for 20c...a McCalls 2 hour sampler wrap top/dress from 1983. I love the finished look of it (although I did have to put a couple of darts in the top, to prevent a drapey neck), and I love that fact that it did take less than 2 hours :-D

Just a few days before my hols, I had an another awesome find in the op shop (another 20c bargain!). I found a really old, coverless copy of Enid Gilchrist's Play Clothes. I'd never even heard of her before, and was really surprised at how many sewing patterns and information were in one book. Of course, as soon as I got home, I googled Enid's name, and couldn't believe how many things she had published, for both adults and kids. I got straight onto ebay and bid on a whole heap of her books. They were all here at home waiting for me when I returned from overseas....sooo....I had a few days of awesome jetlagged reading :-D
When I was searching for info on her, I found this amazing blog called Inspired by Enid. I was really happy to find another Enid fan, and even more so when I realised that the blog belonged to Tracy from Madquilter, one of my favourite crafty bloggers :-D (Tracy, I've got a couple of doubles that I don't think you have..Suits and Dresses 5 to 12 years and the New Idea special publication Baby Book...if you don't already have them, let me know and you're more than welcome to these :-))
I'm not sure yet, what I'll be sewing next, but I'm having great fun trying to decide ;-D

Power to the Pinny

...As promised, a modeled shot of my pair of matching(ish) aprons :-)
Meet James...he was the only member of this household who didn't have a problem modeling a pinny with me! :-D
I really should edit the photo, and have a thought bubble coming from Mighty (the dog)....he's looking at our daughter who's taking the shot, and thinking "what the hell do these two think they look like!!?!!" :-D
The pocket on James' one is maybe a bit low...I did it like that because I quilted it with the idea of using it as an oven glove, and I thought that lower would give it more flexibility...I haven't put it to the test yet though.

Instant knitting gratification!!...I have a new Nintendo DS lite(yay!), which I really don't want to get scratched in my bag, so I made it a cosy (to go with all of the other ones that I made for my phone..ipod..keys..sunnies...my handbag contains nothing but cosies!).
I used the same basic pattern as with the phone socks, but cast on extra stitches (30 in total), and just knitted until it was the length of the DS. The yarn is Daisy by Seansheep, the same as I used for my Unbiased bag, but this time in a brown...(yep, I'm still working my way through my Seansheep stash :-))

....and as for my fabric stash, I laid out a couple more bag blocks for my handbag quilt...now I just need to get working on their embellishments :-)