A circly skirt

I've 'finished' my first project with my Yardage Design fabric packs. It's not really fully finished because I have to go back and do major alterations!


A skirt, woohoo! When I drafted and tested the pattern a couple weeks ago it was a perfect fit. However I'm mysteriously dropping kilos at the moment, and when I tried the skirt on today I was able to pull it off without using the zip. I need to take it in at least 4cm, grr. Very annoying when the lining hem has been hand-stitched to the skirt hem. That's not a real waistband you might spy - the piece of fabric I was using was too small for the pattern piece so I stitched another bit on top. When I cut out the skirt I discovered the darts had to go into the added-on bit. It sits fairly badly, as well as looking like I intentionally drafted a fake waistband without closing off the darts.


The black linen blend fabric is leftovers from my summer dress of 2009-10. Being a summer-weight fabric and this skirt being for winter, I fully lined it with an orange floral cotton fabric I have way too much of. The zip is a leftover from last year's skirtmaking for Olive Grove. Didn't spend a cent on this ill-fitting beauty! Plus, my sister just gave me her cherry Docs from when she was 15 so I've got free new shoes to match. I might have to give them back when my niece grows up and goes through an alternative phase. I'm desperately hoping my own daughter does that because I've got three pairs of Docs I'm saving (and occasionally wearing) for her.


I traced circles onto the backing paper of some fusible webbing, fused it to the reverse of the fabric and then cut out the circles. You know how applique works. After top-stitching the circles I used the 1/4" mark on my sewing machine foot to stitch circles in white and dark red to match the inks. I know I've seen this embellishment idea somewhere before. I checked a bunch of blogs but the closest I could find was one by Jodie using reverse applique. I checked the Olive Grove photo albums on Bookface and couldn't find it there either, but I suspect it was a Grover design that's influenced me.

So, I would be pleased with it if it came close to fitting. Instead I'll be pleased with my mysterious slimness. My next Yardage Design project is in progress and I'm lucky it's not something that has to fit!

Pink Sunbeam Mixmaster lurve

For those sincerely jealous of my yellow vintage Sunbeam Mixmaster (and who wouldn't be), eBay has a PINK! one for sale starting at $50, and the seller will post anywhere.



Two matching bowls! And it comes with a juicer as well. Get bidding, silly sausages.

London Prints

While I get around to taking photos of my latest project, here's some London prints. I was inspired to look for these by Oh Meaghan's post about These Are Things letterpress prints.


These Are Things Europa Touring/London letterpress print


Robert Rat Prints Double Decker NO. 9 hand printed art print


Two Ems Big Ben print


KokoHome London Bus print


Mike Lemanski London lithograph


Abbey Nekola Revitalising Elephant and Castle print< This one looks the most like the London Hubby T knows and loves. His favourite noodle place is in Elephant and Castle. You get about three people's worth of noodles for £3.50 and they go light on the vegetables. Yet somehow I don't think I'll be framing any pics of Elephant & Castle to adorn my walls.

Help find this bag

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The picture says it all.

This bag was possibly stolen by someone who went to the quilt show with the goal of stealing as much stuff as possible, rather than by a genuine quilt show visitor. The thief possibly does this often. I know the Northcote Kris Kringle market usually gets hit by thieves on the final night, stealing everything from little things on stalls to one stallholder's wallet holding $600 she'd made that night.

The thief will possibly either try to sell this bag (and the other things they stole), or give it to someone as a present, claiming they bought it. You might spot it anywhere. It could be at a trash-and-treasure stall or on the shoulder of an unsuspecting recipient of stolen goods.

I once worked in a boutique toyshop and it was only myself and a new teenage staff member on duty. A pair of experienced shoplifters came in and immediately made me suspicious. I tried to follow the one with the bag but her partner distracted me while she stole £100 of stuff from the shelves. I confronted her and got her to give one £20 item back but they ran off with the rest. Even beyond the expensive loss of stock while I was in charge of the shop I felt violated - these people had come into my space and brazenly stolen from me, even as I stood in front of them and said I could see what they were doing. Nikki's loss is so much worse because she made the bag herself and it features a beautiful button from her grandmother's stash.

The police told me the best thing to do in shoplifting situations, or if you see stolen goods later, is to call the police on your mobile while following the thieves at a discreet distance - preferably they won't know you're onto them - and wait for the police to arrive before approaching the person with the item. I worked with someone who got their stolen car back this way, months after it had been taken! I'm not sure exactly what you'd say to the emergency operator in the circumstance of tracking a stolen sample bag. In the era of camera phones it might be easier to take a few covert photos of the suspect and the bag and take the pictures into the cop shop.

Knowing me and my smart-arsery, I'd probably approach the person, start raving about the beautiful bag and asking loudly where they'd got it, and cause a massive scene. I'm not very appropriate (or necessarily safe) in these situations.

Share this image on Facebook, Twitter or wherever. The bag has probably moved beyond the craft community and the search needs to as well!

Naughty Librarian mag bag

Here's a project I finished back in January but only just gave to recipient. My bestie and I went to the Stitches & Craft Show last year and started some charming Sublime Stitching pieces at one of the Craft Bars. My piece lay around for most of the year (as the permanent wrinkles attest) until I resolved to finally finish it off and show it off. Where better to display it that on a magazine bag for my librarian bestie?



Book bag in all her Glorie!
(I don't know, maybe Glorie is the librarian's name.)
Sized to fit great works of literature.
Black is velveteen; grey suiting is the same I used for this summer's dress, before I discovered it stretched.



Lined with alphabet fabric, carefully cut to include recipient's initials.
Just remembered I never got around to hand-stitching the lining closed.
Haven't done that on the bag I made myself circa New Year 2009/10 either.



And a close-up of the lovely librarian, creases and folds now permanently set with interfacing.

I made the pattern myself and followed the construction method from a Nicole Mallalieu pattern. Nikki M's pattern was a great reference as I had no idea what a zipper gusset was until I followed her instructions for making one.

Hopefully the recipient will now be inspired to send me the photos of the other 'literature'-related present I made her, which she's had since December! We are the slackest present exchangers.

Something for me

It's been a difficult week. Baby Amy has her first tooth coming through and was additionally unsettled by her six month injections. Jack's experimenting with headbutting as a means of communication. I didn't get a job I really really wanted. I'm tired and impatient most of the time.

On the positive side, I made choc chip cookies with my beyoutifool Sunbeam Mixmaster and now love it even more. I used setting three - 'Mixing cookies and fruit cakes'. (Really should invest in the smaller size bowl though!) We had another photoshoot to celebrate.









And the thing that cheered me up the most was receiving a somewhat belated birthday present from my bestie.


I am the delighted possessor of two Yardage Design fabric packs, which are so lovely I can't bring myself to untie them. I've been trying to think of the perfect project to showcase these six lovely fabrics together. At the moment I'm leaning toward a pieced scarf, wantonly ripping off Two Cheese Please's rainbow scarf. But then maybe I should wait to get my hands on Nikki's nearly-here You Sew, Girl! book for more ideas. And waiting means I don't have to untie my little fabric parcels just yet.

Baby Amy's having her first nap of longer than 30 minutes all week, so forgive me for dashing away to take greater advantage of the semi-quiet time.

My birthday present - Sunbeam Mixmaster in yellow

So here's what I eventually chose.



















This ticked all my boxes for spending birthday cash. It's a big thing I could never usually afford which I can look at for years to come and know it's the result of my 2011 Birthday Cash. It's for the house we are yet to buy. And being a lovely yellow and black, it'll blend much more easily with unknown decor than the candy pink one I blogged yesterday. Plus there's the fact Hubby T does most of the cooking and he's not much of a one for pink.

And it works! It's not just a showpiece. I can even rationalise that my old blender broke after last year's train birthday cake efforts, so I'm not really adding another appliance to the collection.

Spewed 4 out of ten is for 'juicing citrus fruit'. Do you imagine one simply peels them and throws them in the mixing bowl? Maybe there's more attachments for it out there. (It[s alright, I've seen the pictures on eBay now. There's at least a smaller bowl, a juicer and a mincer to go with it.) I'm going to have to look around for a manual. Mill Markets did have a large colour advertisement for this Mixmaster for sale. Not much practical help, but perhaps something for next year's birthday spending!

I can read more about the Sunbeam Mixmaster here, about its design influences here, and an interview with a collector here.

Spending my money - finally!

On Saturday I took Baby Amy on an impromptu roadtrip to Mill Markets in Daylesford. I was hoping to find either a canister stack:


This one on eBay has a cracked lid and is currently $31.05
or hopefully an adorable bakelite cookie jar:

Who knows what this collectors item is worth!
Surprisingly Mill Markets didn't have either, so I spent hours deciding whether to spend my money on lots of little things...


Nally flour canister, $16


Mitsubishi dark pink blender, $48


Tarax and Schweppes soda spritzers, $22 each



Library file card drawer, $12

...or one big thing.


Sunbeam pinky pink pink Mixmaster, $1xx
So what did I choose? Find out tomorrow!

Six months!

Amelia can almost sit up on her own - here she's being helped out be her latest ted.

Amy the whinger. Amy who in the last seven weeks has only slept through the night twice. Amy the shrieker. Amy who laughs like a fat old man when you blow raspberries on her tummy. Love you, Roxy Girl.