WOW WOW WOW

Woohoo I got asked to do a post over at Project Run and Play!
How cool is that?
I have written a tutorial for Kanzanshi Flowers

You can check it out here.

I also received a box full of Tutus today. Wish me luck with this one, they are so beautiful I hope I don't stuff them up.

Mix & Match

Jack is off to a birthday party today for a little girl in his class.

I told her mother I would make her a dress but decided to make a whole closet full of clothes

(well almost but not quite)

I chose 3 colours for my palate.

Pink, Yellow and Turquoise.

I picked those colours because the singlets came in a pack of 3 in those colours.

I didn't buy anything else for this project.

My stash is getting huge and Martin said perhaps I should try sewing with some of it lol.

I made 2 skirts.

This first one is quilting cotton.

It is just a 3 layer simple elastic waist skirt.

The difference in length for each layer is 2 inches.

The second one is made from seersucker and is just a little more subtle in colour.

other than the fabric it is exactly the same as the other one :)

Each singlet was embellished differently to help them look a little less like singlets ;)

The clip/hairpin was an after thought to mix things up.

I love these backs with a pin and a clip.

All up I am very happy.

For those of you wondering why I didn't do a signiture style for PR&P I just don't know what it is yet.

Maybe I will know for next season.

PRP S5 "Fall" Holidays

First up I would like to say that this seems a somewhat unfair theme for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere for 2 reasons.
1. Fall/Autumn is 6 months away, we are currently in Spring and my kids will out grow any clothes I would make them for next Fall :)
2. The only Fall/Autumn Holiday we have is Easter!

Now that I have my rant out of the way lets get on with it.
The only holiday I felt like my project would fit with is maybe a Halloween Costume.
Something we don't really celebrate in Australia much but we definitely don't do Thanksgiving so here goes.

The ballet school my children go to are preparing for their end of year concerts and I got the chance to make some of the costumes.

One of the dances has a "Toy Sop" theme.

Here is my "Living Doll" and "Toy Soldier"

This is a photoshopped photo

The background is a shop in Melbourne called

The Tree Top Toy Shop

Here is my Living Doll

The dress is made from this pattern

The wig was my own design but inspired by this tutorial 

but mine goes all the way around the girls heads.

Now for my Toy Soldier

I made the pants by modifying this pattern

The coat was modified from this pattern

The ruffle sleeved shirt I have to give credit to my mother for she made it for my brother 25years ago when he played Franz in "The Nutcracker". It did need a little mending but I think its amazing it has survived so long.

And so there we have it Fall/Halloween/Ballet Costumes

Here are the original photos of my models without photoshop

It would seem I getting a name for myself, the school has now asked me to do a few more costumes.

I get to do 

3 monkeys

13 - Tutus (well I'm only plating them)

and

some ruffles

Life is good, see you next week :D

Update: I was just looking at these pictures and realised you can't actually tell that Jack's costume has tails so here is a picture where you can

PR&P S5 Boys Week

I know I said I had problems and had run out of time but well things change

Go figure?

Something simple for my Jack

One pair of Cargo pants

To make these I actually modified an overall pattern

This one

Now I don't buy a lot of patterns, but from time to time I will buy one that I know I can modify in lots of different ways easily and I have with this one 

(believe it or not it was also the base for Bianca's pants last week)

The fabric is a stretch poplin with a quilting fabric for the pockets "Asian Waves"

(Yes that is right Adara is still in Japan and I am missing her hence more Japanese themes lol)

One Vest

I just used a vest we already had as a pattern. I didn't even add buttons or button holes but then it looked really plain so I added the tie at the back with the Asian Waves fabric.

One T-Shirt with tie.

Ok I love to cheat, I just bought the shirt come on it was $3.50 I'm just not going to make one when they are that cheap.

I used the Asian Wave fabric again so that it would stand out with the vest.

I was going to simply appliqué the tie on but thought it would be cooler to appliqué the top but leave the bottom section loose so it was more like a real tie.

So that's my Boys Week outfit, I'm happy with it and so is Jack.

I didn't leave David out though in fact I started with David and it was disastrous which is why I nearly didn't do this week. Oh well he likes them (but I'm not posting a picture) and I will make him a nice set like Jack's only in blue or maybe red 

(I have the Asian Waves in both colours lol)

Adara is home tomorrow very excited!

An update from Japan

You would think boys week would be a breeze over at PR&P but no :[
I have had problem after problem and now I have run out of time.

In other news I finally heard from Adara, it only took a week.
She posted this photo on facebook

So I think she looks healthy and happy as do her friends.
They have been having a great time but they too have run into problems with 2 of the boys leaving their bags on a train (lots of money, a camera and a passport) apparently the teachers are on it and they will still all be home Friday, YAY

I really didn't think I would miss her this much.

Boys week was a bust, time to focus for next week - "Holidays"
I have already started - very happy so far

I'm turning Japanese, I really think so!

Adara has decided to take off and leave me all alone (well not quite alone lol)

She has gone to Japan for 2 weeks with school.

In her honour I have decided that this weeks PR&P project will be dedicated to JAPAN and all things Japanese.

This weeks theme was the "white sheet challenge"

I totally loved this one!!!!!

I used a King Size sheet from Kmart 225 thread count

I started off by making a top and pants

The pants are double layered with the top of the sheet as the cuff.

The top has kimono style sleeves and ties at the back.

Bianca quite liked it but was happy to take it off and I was thinking great another outfit to sit on her bedroom floor. You know how it is nice but nothing to write home about.

Then I thought lets try dip dying

I did the right thing and googled heaps, then went out and got my dye :)

I wanted the outfit to still be predominately white so I used this tutorial

but I only did one dipping at full strength and I boiled the water.

It still looked a little plain to me so I grabbed some of the extra fabric and tried a couple of other dying techniques.

1. Rubber bands

2. knots

I then cut it up and made Kanzanshi Flowers

Here is the closest tutorial I could find to how I do them

I learnt at a craft show.

The only difference is I use squares and trim off the extra on the bottom before sewing them together

(maybe I will do my own tut at some point)

I made them in 4 different sizes

1 inch squares

2 inch square

2 1/2 inch squares 

3 inch squares

I used an iron for the 1 inch squares as they were quite fiddly.

I then played around with how to place them I even let Bianca have a say (isn't that thoughtful of me)

We then had another photo shoot with a new hair style

a chop stick bun

Tutorial here

After this shoot I couldn't get her to take it off :D YAY

She is off to Dinner Friday night with Nanny for Yum Cha and has decided she is wearing it and thinks with the right skirt and shoes it will also be worn to church on Sunday.

Now then the right shoes

I had quite a bit of sheet left (remember it was King size) so I thought shoes, well slippers (needs to be traditional) but I just didn't have time to work it out so I bought her a new pair of white thongs (US-translation FlipFlops) and started making more Kanzanshi flowers from the left over tie dyed white sheet.

Wow did this turn out to be harder than I thought.

First up I broke 3 needles putting the flowers together.

Then we glued them on and went for another photo shoot.

We have a Japanese garden about 1/2 hour from our place, couldn't think of a better backdrop, but the flowers fell off the thongs, and I didn't have anything to stick them back on with (learnt my lesson should always carry a hot glue gun lol)

Jack and David came for the drive (so did Anthony but he didn't want his photo taken)

We did the shoot anyway - hence the awesome photos for the sew along.

When we got home I re-glued them but I glued the back as well (can't really explain but they stay on now)

That of course meant another photo shoot. Bianca may never want to see another camera again.

So that's it. I really love this outfit and I'm really proud of my work.

Now on to next week. I think I better use the boys as models next week, which works out great seeing as its "boy week"

p.s. I thought I would add one more shot to show the play ability of this outfit, it also shows Bi being more like Bi

:)

PR&P Week2 Fashion Icon

 I know I missed week one :(
I was so flat out, I've been sewing costumes for the dance school and preparing to send our 14 year old to Japan, but I was so inspired by this theme!
Who did I pick?

I knew I wanted to do Coco Chanel almost immediately.

I say almost because I was thinking Audrey Hepburn but that fabulous twosome from Simple Simon and Co did that a few seasons ago. I totally think my Bianca looks like Audrey Hepburn but she also reminds me of  Audrey Tautou who was fabulous as Coco Chanel.

Here is the original Coco

and here is Audrey 

and Bianca

Coco Chanel was well know for the pant suit but this picture of Audrey Tautou kept popping into my mind and I knew navy strips would look cute on BiBi

she also has the best pair of legs I've ever seen - they are skinny and go on forever! so I knew some high waisted straight leg pants were in order.

Not the greatest shot but at least you can see the top of the pants

I used linen for the pants so they crinkle up beautifully

I must tell you that Bi can do attitude in a photo shoot with ease

so I got some nice shots

but boy was she tired today and I got some shots to prove it lol

this one is "you want me to do what with my leg"

"You want me to get off the chair"

My absolute favourite 

"Are we done yet"

She really was a trouper

Before I finish I will just tell you that I did actually start to make a chanel inspired coat to go with this outfit but time got away from me and its only half done. Unfortunately it may stay that way for a while :(

Hopefully I will be back next week with week 3 

(better look up the theme hey?)