You used to be much more..."muchier." You've lost your muchness.

I've been feeling a little this way lately, so I'm going to find my muchness :)

I have had Alice on my mind lately as I just took a van load of girls to a Mad Hatters Ball.
What do you need to look awesome at a Mad Hatters Ball?
A Hat of course!

Cheshire Cat

March Hare

Alice

The White Queen

Antique looking - No character

Small Teal - No character

Blue/Black/Gold - No character

Orange - No character (my hat)

White Rabbit

I love them all but the best by far was the one I made my daughter

The Queen of Hearts

What a beautiful girl :D

To get some of my muchness back I'm thinking of auditioning for the next Project Run and Play Series.

I will use the costume I made for Adara

So stay tuned for that post :)

SKIRTS

I have been writing blog posts in my head for the last month but some how not getting them actually written.
I've been sewing heaps, I just really love it. In fact I will put off almost anything to sew!
OK here are some of the things I have been working on that haven't made it to the blog until now

All of these skirts were mage using this fabulous and easy tutorial
Simple Skirt Tutorial


Over at Simple Simon & Co they are hosting "Skirting the Issue"
They have been making skirts for foster kids, and posting at least 1 tutorial everyday for the last month :D
I wanted to be a part of the program but I don't live in the States so I contacted "Infinite Opportunities" to see if they were interested in taking the skirts and of course they said yes.
We have been making their emergency bags at church but they don't normally have a skirt in them. Anyway I talked with the lady who was running our activity about it and she thought this would be a great activity for the women at church. From this point we have had some huge miracles. You see we didn't have any budget left to make the skirts, so how were we going to do it?
First up we had an elderly lady in our ward die (this is sad, but...) she left the church 4 big boxes of fabric (YAY)
Then we went to get the elastic. I had found some great elastic a few months ago at our local Trash and Treasure shop it was only $20 for a 50m roll. We hoped to find just $20 in the budget but to great surprise it was marked down to $5 a roll making it 10c a metre(YAY).
We are so excited to say the least, we were hoping to make 20 skirts but I'm thinking 50 would be better!
We are running a little late as the program ends on the 10th of August 2012. We will have 1 sewing day before that. Of course this doesn't have to end on the 10 th in fact we have 2 other sewing days scheduled.
I have made 2 skirts to spark some interest.

And my last skirt I'm posting today is by far my favourite (only finished it yesterday)

It has 3 layers, a gather, and a removable rose pin/hair clip.
I love it!!!!!!!
Anyway best leave it there for now, I have been doing some "boy" sewing as well, but this post is long enough and the family needs me.
Have a great day!!!!!

Promises Kept

As Bianca promised in my last post she wore her Elizabeth Bennet dress to church.

We decided to curl her hair as there was no way she was going to wear the bonnet :)

Everyone loved it but she hasn't worn it again.

Why not? I hear you say

Well that is because of another promise.

I promised to make my mother in law a laptop satchel for Mothers Day.

I kept my promise too

Here it is

It is the prettiest one I have ever seen

(maybe too pretty lol)

It's made of dusty pink velvet with brown velvet ribbon and antique looking lace.

Recognise that beautiful brooch?

That's right it was on Bianca's dress

(I will try to get another one for Bi)

The strap is adjustable

 The front flap opens to reveal 3 pockets at the bottom and a zip pocket at the top

The main pocket is lined with quilted pink satin.

I found this bag really hard to make and don't think I would attempt another one. As for my mother in law I don't think she liked it (bit too girly) oh well can't win them all.

PRP-Movie Week-Elizabeth Bennet

I am madly in love with "Pride and Prejudice" 
My favourite is the BBC's 1995 production
I watch it all the time!
My 12 year old son rolls his eyes at me in the afternoon when he gets home and its on
"Don't you own any other dvds mum?"
Project Run and Play are doing movie week so I just had to do my own version of 


ELIZABETH BENNET

Colin Ferth is hottttt!!!!!!!!!!Jennifer Ehle is ok too

My model (my own child this week-Bianca 10yrs) looks a little more like Keira Knightly in the 2005 movie

So here she is

Up first is one very long but extremely simple dress

I simple used this peasant top tutorial with some modifications
Firstly the bodice length goes all the way to the floor and the width is 56cm (half the width of the material)
each sleeve is also half the width of the material. This of course makes it quite full and puffy looking with very little effort from me :)

The velvet sash goes under the bust and is tied in a bow at the back.
The flowers and beads are a brooch which I picked up at the last craft fair.

I am totally in love with this bonnet
It took every bit of my creativity to come up with it. I looked at lots of tutorials but nothing was really what I wanted so I came up with my own, it took hours but it turned out great.
It is velvet and my goodness is velvet hard to work with, there are tiny bits of it everywhere!
The feathers came from a feather duster, the ballet pink ribbon came from an old pair of ballet shoes, the heart is a button, and those pink things in the middle are sewing pins. I love finding things around the house and making them work overtime :)


So what's the verdict from Bianca

She thinks she looks just like Elizabeth Bennet (or maybe Jo from Little Women - she wasn't real sure lol)
Apparently she will wear the dress to church but NOT the bonnet.
I'm happy with that because the bonnet fits me and I'll do my knitting and hand sewing with it on and pretend I'm Elizabeth Bennet :)

PRP - Color/Colour Week

Yeah I know I missed Earth week but it was my daughters 14th birthday and I was busy organising her party which included this

and this

and this

But onto this week

Colour Week

I chose 

PINK

The outfit consists of

1 Pink paisley full circle dress

1 Pink Ribbon tie 

1 Pink knitted long sleeve shrug (told you I could knit)

and a Pink velvet ribon and flower headband

I am totally in love with this outfit, I am ready to make more of these dresses with a few adjustments but really sooooo easy and quick to put together.

and what little girl doesn't love to twirl :)

and twirl some more

here is a closer look at the headband

believe it or not the most expensive part of the outfit :o

added this pretty butterfly necklace to make it look really girly

(but I didn't make that)

Now we had some problems with getting together for fittings and so forth so my lovely little David stepped in to help out he is a bit smaller

but he has the attitude down pat!

(good 21st photo I think)

So next week is movie week and I have no idea what to do and I'm really busy so if I wake up in the middle of the night with an awesome idea then you might see something next week lol

PRP - Sportswear

This is killing me!!!!!
We are on school holidays here and I am exhausted and just to top it off it has rained heavily all week!
I have however finished this weeks outfit for Project Run and Play.

Sportswear

When I think sportswear I think LYCRA

and I LOVE LYCRA

We have here

1 pair of white bike shorts - cotton Lycra

1 white singlet - cotton Lycra

1 Green skirt with white stripe - one of my old t-shirts and some scrap cotton Lycra

1 purple cropped hoodie - I'm not sure what this fabric is, the docket calls it sea spray its like a thin t-shirt material

1 pair purple leg warmers - sea spray fabric?

I love it all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How cool is that hoodie?

I am soooo happy with this outfit.

The bike shorts worried me but turned out to be a walk in the park.

I really thought the hoodie would be my favourite item but its not

 that award goes to.....

the leg warmers!

Her mother was devastated that I didn't knit them.

I can knit but lets face it knitting takes forever and I had a week to do the whole outfit.

These were so simple!!!!!!!!!!! and they can be worn so many different ways

(maybe I should do a tutorial)

BTW both of the leg warmers stay up but I thought one up one down looked cute :)

One last detail

See the strap on the singlet.

 I didn't take a photo but the straps cross over at the back.

This sounds weird but I felt like it gave it a sportier feel.

Well there you go sportswear done!

Next week is Earth week I have promised my husband I will make something for one of our children.

Lastly an update on last week.

We didn't win the official sew along but

Ollia didn't stop wearing the dress for days.

It went to 2 birthday parties, the markets and church.

Her mother tells me everyone commented on how lovely it looked.

As far as I'm concerned I WON!!!!!!!!

PRP-Circle Skirt Remix

Well its that time again

Project Run and Play is on again

This week is the Circle Skirt Remix

For those of you who have read my blog before you would know I love this tutorial.

I have done layers with it and used it for costumes but I wanted to do something different.

Then I remembered that I had promised my little friend Ollia a dress, she had picked the fabric but we hadn't finalised a pattern so this is what I came up with

So the top is made from lycra

There are 3 layers on the skirt

Top layer - a heavy printed chiffon

Middle layer - white poplin, slightly longer

Bottom layer - white poplin, 4 inches shorter (gives it a fuller look)

Then some capped sleeves in the chiffon. I used this tutorial.

I went around this morning to show her and have a mini photo shoot

She loved it! YAY!

I also made the pretty headband. I just plaited some of the lycra with suede and a string of beads.

What a princess :)

Straight after the shoot she had to head out to a birthday party - but she didn't get changed :)

she added a coat, still cute

Next week is Sports wear, I've started and Ollia says she is happy to work as a model again.