I'm so glad I found the time

I've had the idea for making Barbie fashion kits ever since I visited March's Made 'N Thornbury market and saw primary-school-aged girls cruising the stalls, pocket money clutched in their hot little hands, feverishly looking for a little something within their Saturday morning budget.



I left them until last because I wasn't sure I'd have time to do them, and I wasn't sure they were worth anything without a pattern included. Because otherwise it's just a pretty bag of offcuts, right?



But I'm so glad I found time to make these, for a number of reasons. Firstly, sorting and trimming the fabrics reminded me of every wedding and dress-up occasion the fabrics were associated with. They are scraps with happy memories. Secondly, the spirit of my eight-year-old self danced around me trying to get a look at what I was doing, thoroughly delighted with the prospect of taking home one of these bags of lace and silk* and making magic happen.



The KMart radio station is currently running a nostalgia-based ad campaign for Barbies, with adult women talking about what their Barbie doll meant to them as a girl. When I flick through Mixtapezine every interviewed crafter seems to have had a childhood of dressing up her doll in homemade gowns. Putting these kits together made me feel like I'm giving something back, or rather, passing it on to the next generation. The little trigger one or two kids might need to become a life-long crafter. Or just provide a boost for their mini-stash.



Next time, they'll be proper kits with a simple pattern, needle, pins and thread. But for a last-minute project I think these are pretty special.

* All of the packs include silk dupion, and some have silk organza or silk satin. There's not many Barbies out there wearing actual silk evening dresses! Trimmed with genuine polyester lace, no less.

Joy to the world!

I've finished my machine sewing for this Saturday's Made 'N Thornbury market! Suddenly everything feels under contolr*. My to-do list now consists of:

- Making felt badges
- Cutting up ribbons and lace and assembling Barbie fashion kits
- Re-sewing corners of cushions to make them rounder (alright, that's machine sewing but it's quick and easy)
- Buying more cushion inserts (I keep almost forgetting this! DO NOT FORGET!)
- Making price signs for everything (and maybe shopping for things to stand then in/on)
- Redesigning and printing business cards (I already designed some but have a new concept now)
- Printing care instructions for Mum's Eye Spy quilts
- Making some kind of signage for the stall
- Putting together a float (the cash kind, not a decorated motor vehicle. That would be like an end-of-season twist on Project Runway: "You've got 12 hours til your market stall, everything's ready, now... Design a parade float expressing your design philosophy!")

I'm even contemplating making more than a fleeting appearance at Mum's Group this arvo. I've also got the Sudanese sewing group taking up 3.5 hours tomorrow and may even fit in a visit to Cranbourne to see lovely new baby on Friday. But that may be pushing it. I should probably be realistic and save Baby Emma as a reward for Monday once the market's over (and hopefully a success).

* That typo amuses me so much I'm leaving it in.

Eight days to go

Today I've been genuinely surprised to discover sewing two cushions takes half as much time as sewing four. Having a cold makes me kinda dumb like that.

I had been planning to only sew one more - blue prints with Jack's name as the destination - but then I went and sold one. Yes, my first sale! A friend saw them on Facebook and asked if he could buy one for his mum's birthday this weekend. While I'm really pleased by the positive reception I'm almost equally upset that I now have to sew another cushion for my quota of four for sale on my market stall. But as I said, it's not taking nearly as long as I expected so that's fine.

I still have to put together the Barbie fashion kits I've got in mind, but I'm waiting for Mum to send me some cellophane bags to package them in plus I'd like to make up a pattern sheet as well, which means I need a Barbie to fit the pattern on. I checked the op shop for one on Wednesday but they didn't have any. So do I widen my op shop search, or give up on them for now? Nah, when have I even given up before?

I think the felt tram badges might not make it this time though. But only time (eight days' worth) will tell. I have made these though:



After looking at other bloggers doing Made 'N Thornbury I realise I should really update my long-unloved Blogspot with W Class Cushions. Maybe I'll redirect my URL to the Blogspot page. And then I should set up an Etsy or Made It shop... I think all this will probably need to wait until after the market!

Yet more trams

Another little fella whose siblings will be headed to the Made 'n Thornbury market.






Whoops, he needs a french knot headlight. He looks a bit like a house with a tiny chimney.


I think I'm going to iron a heavyweight fusible interfacing to the yellow felt before stitching the other bits on to make it more durable. I wonder if I could sew a bit of grosgrain ribbon to the back and then sandwich it between the pin bit of the badge and the other metal bit. I know what I'm talking about, it doesn't matter if you don't!

Joy Joy Joy

This seat reserved for passengers with cute needs

Hail driver when tram approaches

Destination

Turn this...


...into this!



Pardon the colours and graininess, the lighting in my sewing room is crap. And I wasn't using my posh camera.

Eureka!

I was pondering the reverse applique/Easy Fix issue whilst giving Jack his bedtime bottle just then. I had resigned myself to doing the reverse applique as it doesn't make sense to have the windows sitting on top of the body of the tram. I'll just have to be very careful with staystitching the cutout areas, fold them over precisely when I iron them, trim them as closely as I can...

Or why not use Easy Fix to reinforce the yellow, cut out the windows completely and fuse the window fabric underneath? Neat edges and raised window bars! And no staystitching!

I am a true genius. I should send my idea to the Easy Fix company to be used in their promotional materials. *nod*

Trams running to Sunday timetable

Beautiful beautiful public holiday. T and Jack watched Starship Troopers in the loungeroom while I worked on tram cushions up the other end of the house. Not all day, but I got hours more sewing done than the average weekday. And with only three weeks until my first market stall and currently only Mum's quilty bits to offer... I need all the intensive sewing sessions I can manage.

Last weekend I showed Mum my tram cushion progress and went over the different fabrics and techniques I'd been trying. Coming from a dressmaking background, it's fascinating getting a quilter's perspective on this project especially as it's closer to her skill area than mine.

She said mixing broadcloth and drill shouldn't be noticeable, which is good because I can't get a full set of pleasing colours in either one or the other. Then again I'm working on some paisley trams and may abandon my original solid colour concept all together in favour of patterns and prints.

The other thing I wanted opinions on was the reverse applique technique I've been using on the destination, windows and headlights. It works well for the (mostly) right angles of the first two, but turns into a complete mess when I attempt small circles for headlights. Mum suggested a product I've often dreamed of but didn't realise existed - Vliesofix. To C&P from a missing Google result, Vliesofix is a double-sided adhesive for fusing fabric to another surface. You iron it onto the reverse side of your fabric, cut out the shape you want and peel off the backing paper, iron it in place on the other fabric and sew around the edge of the piece to keep it attached. If only I'd known about it when appliqueing Jack's cloth book!

I went to GJ's Fabric which is a truly excellent quilting store these days. They prefer Easy Fix to Vliesofix. I took some home and tried it on some headlights - perfect! You might be able to see the difference between rubbish reverse applique headlights and lovely Easy Fix headlights in the picture below.

But this leaves me with a new dilemma - do I Easy Fix the windows as well? The destination?



Easy Fix Pros: Neater edges, especially on window curves. Much simpler to get a tidy result, should be consistent rather than hit-and-miss. Don't have to spend time stay-stitching the cutout areas. Slight fraying around the edges of Easy Fix pieces may be endearing.

Easy Fix Cons: I actually like the way the reverse applique creates raised bars between the windows. Reverse applique hides the ends of the 'overlap' on the window panes.

I think I'll definitely stick with reverse applique for the destination (unless the endearing fraying is a factor). Your opinion on the windows? I guess I want to be told it's okay to Easy Fix the windows.

I'm also considering a few different names for these. Three possibilities:
• Grandma's Tram (On school holidays she always used to take me on the Number 8 along Toorak Rd to get into the city)
• Koskies ('coz they're stuffed)
• W-Class Cushions
The second one is a nice gimmick but I'm leaning toward the third.