On My Own Wave Length

VOTE FOR ME HERE

This weeks theme is Home Decor 

I have been planning on recovering my lounge for ages.

 I can't believe I let people sit on that couch :O

I would say Bec from Chasing Cottons inspired me with this post back in 2011

Then about 6 months ago I came across this post at HoneyBearLane

These were both great post but I found it easier just to do my own thing :)

I started by unsewing the seat covers.

I traced around the all the parts to make my patterns and then added seam allowances.

I then had my first go at making piping (yep you heard right my first go)

I heve heard that you can get a piping foot for your sewing machine but I didn't have one so I used my zipper foot. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I think it helps it look more finished.

The seats are covered in a cream and gold jacquard material and I have scotch guarded it.

(I have threatened the children with death if I catch them eating or drinking on it lol)

Cadbury Top Deck lol

Because my children are most likely going to ignore me about the food I decided to not use cream for the base. I chose a medium brown suede.

My goodness suede is as hard to work with as velvet (except there aren't bits everywhere)

You need to be really focused so it doesn't move or does move when you need it to.

As I mentioned above when it was finished it looked a little like Top Deck chocolate, so I added some scatter cushions.

I only used materials I had in my stash!

I wanted to try something different.

Chevron is everywhere right now and I love it. A good friend of mine (got me into sewing) Kate is a quilt designer and blogger and recently posted a tutorial for her Frequency Quit, she calls it a wonky zigzag/chevron design and it looked fun and relatively simple.

Simple is good right?

Well each cushion took me 6 hours to make, umm so maybe not so simple

I was however really happy with my work!

I haven't done any quilting for quite some time and certainly enjoyed it, but I'm not in a hurry to do anymore soon.

(actually my fingers really hurt from hand sewing the binding to the back)
I'm glad I only did 2, the other 2 took 10 minutes each max!

I have learnt so much about sewing from this project!
and a lot about myself too :)

and while I am happy with the result I'm not sure I'm in a hurry to do it again, unfortunately for me I haven't really got a choice

it was a matching pair.
This ones in even worse shape lol
Ok now its time to go vote!

Stephanie xoxo

WooHoo

I GOT THROUGH!!!!!

"I'm sorry what was that you got through to the next round of

"Kool"

A big thank you to everyone who voted for me! 
it was very close and some very talented women left the competition :(
Now I'm off to work on this weeks theme
Home Decor
Wish me luck!

Stephanie xoxo

"Too Kool for Skool"

Little Kool J (LKJ)
Watch out Little Ladies LKJ is in the house 
(or out of the house I'm not real sure lol)
This little guy will have them dropping like flies

LKJ is ready for anything
perhaps you need a date for the prom

He can certainly impress on the dance floor

He can lay it on for ya mother or play it kool for your friends

and he'll make you catch your breath with his death defying stunts

Oh no there are 2 of you ?

No problems he's got a brother

Little Kool D (LKD)

There you have it my entry for 
week 1

My Outfit includes

1  fully lined blue velvet jacket 
Pattern base : The Little Gentleman Suit Jacket by Peek-a-boo

with Denim pockets and gold decorative stitching
The denim pockets were from a pair of jeans I bought tat were too big :)
I loved the pockets though and I think they give the jacket a slightly grungy feel while still looking really dressy.

1 refashioned white shirt

found in the throw away pile (had lost all it's buttons)

new and extra buttons, button holes and decorative gold stitching.
I love the look of double buttons, I redid all the button holes as well as adding the extra ones so they would all look the same.

1 traditional bow tie

here’s an alright tutorial

while that tutorial will work fine I will at some stage write up how to make your own pattern because I couldn't get their idea to work other than to trace one but then my mathematical brain kicked in now I know how it works :)
I used a double layer of heavy interfacing to make it fuller. I watched a video(don't know which one) on how to tie a bow tie and it suggested to use thicker fabric for a fuller look but I love this fabric and it is wafer thin so hence the interfacing.

1 pair of suspenders

Black elastic, button holes to attach to the pants and gold decorative stitching
Just two long pieces of elastic, they cross over at the back.
Not really interesting I know but now I will tell you about my gold decorative stitching (also seen on the Jacket and Shirt). I used two threads in the top of the machine and two threads in the bobbin  I was so worried the bobbin ones wouldn't work, but they did, no problems. The colours I used were brown and a non-shiny gold. Gives it that grungy

dressed up feel again :)

1 pair skinny leg elasticated grey drill pants with contrasting pockets

To make my pattern I traced around some pj’s and then took 2 inches off the width of each pattern piece.The contrasting pockets are the same fabric as the bow tie. For some reason I have gotten into the habit of using 4 million different fabrics for one outfit so I do like to have crossovers so it doesn't just look like I closed my eyes and hoped for the best as I put it together lol.
There are buttons inside the pants at the front and the back to attach the suspenders.

Well that felt like 2 posts lol
Now if you love this as much as I do (and I totally love it!!!!!)
Please go vote for it and me by clicking here

Stephanie xoxo

I'm in love

I spent some time at our local Trash 'n' Treasure this week :)
I have fallen hopelessly in love with lace trim after my last post but I'm on this really limited sewing budget right now.
The only way around it was to head to "Clarksons"
They have everything there from food to books, cosmetics and even house paint but they have quite a large sewing section. There is a lot of fabric but you really have to look hard to find the good stuff 
However there are plenty of other sewing treasures :)
I had $36.90 in my wallet and knew if I put anything on the credit card Martin (my darling husband) would know what I had been up to (might not be quite so darling then lol)

My first stop was buttons.
There is a heap of options at 20cents a button
BUTTONS - $6

I have only ever used cheap thread :)
Spotlight (Joanns) charge me $2 per 1000m roll, Clarksons 50cents.
THREAD - $5

How about elastic lace? Yep they have that too.
Each roll was $2
ELASTIC LACE - $4

White lace trim by the roll

Yes that says 307 metres (over 1000 feet)
$5 each
WHITE LACE TRIM - $10

More lace trim
Soft blue, red, pink, black and green.
$2 a roll

The red one say 400m :D
COLOURED TRIM - $10

GRAND TOTAL - $35
Well under budget!

I spent the rest of the money getting little David some lollies, that way I was happy and so was he.
Now remember don't tell Martin lol

My Magnificent Mushroom Munchkin

Here is my Spring Dress/Top with matching convertable pants

on the Most Marvelous Model

Miss M

 Quite the gardener Miss M loves to grow Mighty flowers 

and you guessed it she is putting in Mushrooms

She is wearing Marvelous Mushroom coloured convertible pants 

They have contrasting pockets,

fake flap pockets at the back with cute flower buttons.

 Cute button up tabs hold up the pants to keep her cool

and can then be put down if she gets too cold

Or be really trendy with one up and one down ;)

There you have it

A Marvelous Matching Mushroom outfit 

on a Magnificent Munchkin

Miss M !

Check out the top detials here
Spring Dress/Top
pattern for the pants found here
PIER 49 CONVERTIBLE PANTS

Spring Dress/Top

Over at Project Run and Play they are doing a pattern remix of

Spring Fever Dress Pattern
I totally thought I had about another 12 hours to get this finished so you have to have photos with no model :(
This gorgeous top will also have pants to match.
I will be doing the photo shoot this afternoon and will post the whole outfit on my cute model in about 12 hours lol.
CLICK HERE for the whole outfit


It is a fantastic pattern and I will make one exactly the same at some point but here is my remix.

Trust me it will look awesome on my model :)

Who in their right mind would think to do this pattern with 5 different fabrics and the add a different colour lace into the mix too.

I'm not 100% sure that I'm happy with the sleeves, we will just have to wait and see how it looks on Little M.

You know me love a sash! This one is attached at the front. I didn't use the beautiful back in the original pattern as I thought there was enough going on with this top.

but I thought it was too plain to use a simple button hence the great big flower button.

All up I'm very happy with it.

Thanks for stopping by :)

update

click HERE to see it on my magnificent model :)

Dolls

Last year I started working on a couple of new dolls :)

They are a little more sophisticated that my past attempts.

here and here

I took my inspiration from a couple of different places.

To start with I used this pattern from

wee wonderful dolls

I then did my own thing with the hair in fact I used the same technique that I used to make my wigs in this post.

I also found this amazing doll maker here in Australia :)

Trellis Design

Her dolls are beautiful and she seems to make a couple of new ones every week and I find I feel really inspired by her style even though it is a little different from my own.

Trellis Design

Now that you have seen my starting point and inspiration I bet you would like to see my dolls :)

TA DA

This is Mae

She has the same hair and dress and the living doll in this post

This is Marni

My children take dance classes at 

Marni's Studio of Performing Arts

She has a white satin leotard with beading

red felt ballet shoes

blue velvet ribbon for her hair

Marni asked me to help with the Tutus last year so I thought she had better have a red tutu.

Here are her shoes and the back of her leotard

 

Here is a close up of her face

I was really happy with how she turned out.

The stitches on her mouth were nice and even and that blue star button is awesome!

She really is one of a kind.

Both of these dolls have gone to new homes

Mae went to our ballet teacher Miss Michelle 

and 

Marni went to ... Marni 

(she hangs out at the studio and one of the boys was doing some par de deux with her the other day, very cute)

Linking up with