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