More Mixmaster Love

Still dreaming of a candy-pink vintage Sunbeam Mixmaster?

Here's one on eBay - display only - starting at 99c, and it's in Melbourne! The seller's included a tonne of arty photos on the listing so even if you're not bidding you can still go have a drool.

I WON THE CUSHION SWAP!

I've been devotedly checking the completed widget for Vic's Cushion Swap 2011, and while they're all great there's one that's been my favourite since the start.

I thought someone had already received it. I was looking forward to seeing which of the lovely cushions on the list would turn up in my mailbox.

The postie did his drop-off today. Ooh, something for me! I recognised the name Lola Nova and knew they'd done something cool, but couldn't remember what it was. Inside...


I delayed my gratification by reading the note on the back of the postcard before unwrapping it. But all my maturity disappeared when I saw the message, "I hope you enjoy your Call Me cushion!" I had a massive fangirl meltdown and tore the wrapping open.


Would you look at that. It's mine. It's in my house and it belongs to me.


I'm a huge Blondie fan and the chorus of Call Me is going to ring (ha) in my head every time I see this gorgeous, sassy cushion.

I apologise for the light in these photos, it's raining here and there's poor natural light in our house at the best of times. Please head to Lola Nova's blog to see this cushion at its best. I hope the cushion she receives is made of sunshine and golddust.

And with superb timing, my cushion arrived at its new home at Clare's Craftroom today too!

Thankyou Vic for somehow managing to arrange this swap while looking after two little kiddies. You're a gem! Please do it again soon!

Yardage Design scarf

I finished this scarf on Mothers Day - it's taken me so long to get around to posting it!

I was looking for suitably wonderful projects to feature my Yardage Design fabric packs and remembered Holly Two Cheese Please's rainbow patchwork scarf. To properly show off the prints I cut much larger pieces than in Holly's scarf. It also seemed the perfect purpose for my bit of Ink & Spindle fabric which I've had for nearly a year (which I wish was in charcoal or inky blue rather than teal, but never mind). I popped black pieces (once again, left over from that summer dress) in between so it'd match my winter wardrobe better.

I arranged the pieces with the blues up one end and the reds up the other, so that if I drape it one way it matches blue and green outfits...

...And if I drape it the other way it matches red and purple outfits.

I shaped the middle pieces so it would fit more snuggly around the back of my neck.

I love these fabrics.

I had planned to back it with black coral fleece but Spotty only had this midnight blue. Well, there were other colours but they all clashed horribly with at least one of the prints. Now that I'm used to it I think the dark blue is even better than black.

I've worn this scarf almost every day since I made it. Absolute love!

Cushion Swap Reveal!

Ever since Vic created a list for completed cushion projects I've been feeling very "Me Too!" Wanting to show off what you've been working (or not) on sure is a motivator to get the thing finished.

When I got my recipient's name Vic also told me they didn't like a particular element, and it's an element that turns up in a lot of things I make. Feeling worried, I headed to my recipient's blog to see what they did like. I scrolled through pages of blog posts, wondering how I could please someone who had such a different aesthetic to me. It wasn't that I didn't like her stuff - it just wasn't the kind of thing I make. Then suddenly I found a completed project so wonderfully wonderful that I immediately knew what to make them, and I even had all the bits already in my stash. Can't wait any longer to show you - even though if my recipient finds this through Vic's list she'll instantly know it's for her!

Some left-over cotton dobby, a doily, some vintage buttons and a sheet of inkjet printable fabric and Bob's yer missus!

I sneakily used some of the recipient's own photos to create the vintage button cards. Shh, don't tell her!

I wish I hadn't tinted that there card green. It's way too matchy with the dobby.

As well as button cards and doilies my recipient also loves vintage sheets. I don't have any as they're not quite my thing, but I found this piece of pastelly florally fabric given to me a while back.

Normally I'd finish a cushion cover with an invisible zip, but I couldn't have so many buttons on one cushion without at least some of them being functional! I've never attempted a button-up cushion before but I managed it alright without resorting to things like instructions.

I need to make one of these for myself. It's the girliest thing in the world! And I never would have thought of it if it weren't for the random allocation of this particular blogger.See more cushions here.

Remembered Dresses (a recollection of rara skirts)

Mum made pretty much all our dresses when we were little. When I see a scrap of fabric from one of my childhood dresses in her stash or in a quilt she's made, I immediately recall every detail of the dress, the first time I wore it, whether the top button choked me and how good the skirt was for swirling. I wish I still had all my homemade dresses so I could line them up in chronological order and have a fairly complete history of my young life. But strangely, this week I've had the clearest memories of dresses I never owned.

Being a little girl who loved dresses I pored over the latest catalogues from KMart and Fosseys looking for the latest in girls fashions. It was a time of peplums and rara skirts, and it makes my heart beat faster to see the same styles on the girls racks at Target now. How many years ahead can I buy my own daughter's clothes, and dress her for the next six years in the styles I coveted? I never thought I'd be swayed from my stance that putting non-walking children in dresses in completely impractical, but my current favourite thing to dress her in is a cheap little dress from KMart, like this one:

In Target last week I saw a similar little tunic and leggings in the Girls 1-6 section, in a dark pink with black dots. Immediately I was transported back to around 1987 and laying eyes on the Dannii range in a KMart catalogue. There was a tunic with a rara skirt and bow at the back and matching leggings with a ruffle around the waist. I was concerned that the ruffle on the legging would be covered by the bottom ruffle of the rara skirt, and why would Dannii waste a ruffle this way? I longed to have this outfit. I think I may have even talked Mum into saying maybe we'd drive to KMart in the next town to have a look.

The next day my best friend flouted the school uniform rules and wore her new Dannii outfit, the one from the catalogue, to school. It was beautiful. Never had I seen such a sophisticated pink and never had ruffles and a bow been combined in such a stylish way. My best friend proudly proclaimed that her dad had bought the last one and all the Dannii clothes had sold out. She was right - you can hear more about it on John Safran's Music Jamboree. This outfit was never to be mine. I'm seriously considering visiting this week's 20% off kids clothing sale at Target to get Baby Amy the outfit I never owned.

By the next year I had recovered sufficiently from my disappointment (but obviously hadn't forgotten it) and was looking through the latest Fosseys publication fresh from the letterbox. Inside I spied a surprisingly charming summer dress. It's no surprise that I was seduced my the rara skirt with alternating spotted and striped layers, but by the fact it was blue. I think the catalogue even said there was a pink one, but the blue one pictured looked so good that I was converted to this new colour. It was available in my size, I think it was $12 (considering Amy's KMart dress was $10 that must have been a decent amount of money back then), and I made my desire very clear to my parents. I don't specifically remember doing that, but young girls have no subtlety so I must have done. I went away to school camp for a week, the image of the blue ruffled dress tucked away in the back of my mind.

I arrived home from camp having survived bush walks and leeches and was greeted by my little sister wearing that dress. She casually showed it off, not overly humbled by having been bought a rare spontaneous present (even a shop-bought dress!) and clearly undeserving of this ravishing garment. I was heartbroken. I asked to go to bed early and, when asked if something was wrong, just said I was feeling tired. That was the first time I was aware of telling a white lie to protect someone else's (my parents') feelings. At some point a trip to Fosseys to get me the same dress was made and I clung to the promise to get me through to shopping day. When we got to Fosseys the gorgeous spotted and striped dresses in my size, in blue or any other colour, were all gone. I was bought some weak substitute which I didn't love and have no recollection of.

Perhaps I wouldn't remember these amazing rara dresses if I'd actually owned them. Perhaps the unfulfilled longing is what has stamped them indelibly on my memory. I'm sure my mum will be surprised to read this and probably not remember any of it. In wanting to buy replicas of these lost dresses for my daughter I'm partly trying to avoid her experiencing these relatively insignificant disappointments in life. But if I remember these dresses only because I didn't own them, there's no way I can protect her by buying everything she asks for. Especially when she's only seven months old and has no idea what clothes are. Maybe she won't even like dresses. What irony that would be for a dressmaker's daughter.

I won lots of dresses now. With the combination of patternmaking and dressmaking skills and a large dress fabric stash I can make myself as many dresses as I want. Unfortunately I don't have the time or energy to do so or the panache to wear a frock when I spend my days looking after two kids, but in theory I could have a new dress every week (so don't feel too bad, Mum). Today I'm heading off to Rathdowne Remnants to find the stuff for a dress (I love in Laura Ingalls Wilder books when she refers to "the stuff for a dress") for an evening wedding at NGV International. I'm taking Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing as my general style inspiration and may attempt something like her recent black eyelet dress, if I can afford the fabric. Or I might be more realistic about my available time and simply make a high-waisted skirt to go with a top I've already got. The one thing you can count on is I won't be wearing a rara skirt.

Seven Months

Late as usual, here's Amy's latest portrait!








This is how my baby smiles. No teeth yet but a very tender lower gum! Commando crawls like it's going outta fashion.

Amy's new hat, and local mushrooms

My mum made Amy a hat.



We checked the measurements over Easter weekend and decided it was going to be much too small, so Mum made it bigger than the pattern.



Now I may have to take it in a bit!



All Nations Park in Northcote was built on top of a tip, and at this rainy time of year it's full of mushrooms. Here are some we saw today.

Pretty Ditty Apron for a two year old

ANZAC Day was my local niece's second birthday. That girl's never going to have to go to school or work on her birthday! I used the toddler size of Jamie Christina's Pretty Ditty Apron pattern. My niece is blonde so I thought she'd look lovely in blue.


Side note: I've made one change to the kids pattern, which is the length of the ruffle. I made the medium kids ruffle piece 1 inch shorter and the toddler ruffle piece 2 inches shorter. I did this after making my first medium kids apron and the ruffle being so gathered I could hardly pin it on.


The most enjoyable part of constructing these aprons is deciding how to match up the different prints. On the first one I made I followed the pattern directions, with two prints on one side and one print on the reverse. The two I made for my overseas nieces I swapped things around a bit, but made them match each other. I had planned to make this one in the same way, as I'd selected the same balance of prints, but when it came to the last step of assembly I turned the bodice the other way around. The bird print is my favourite, but I loved the mix of polka dots, dark skirt and bird pockets. And this way if she loves the birds too she can wear the all-bird side!


All fabrics from Spotlight. The greenish one is actually a reproduction from something at the V&A Museum. I don't have all the details as I didn't buy enough to get the whole selvedge.

I asked for a photo of my niece modelling the apron but all I got was photos of her having a tantrum and throwing it on the floor! So here's one I prepared earlier.


I only got one photo before Jack took the shortest route to a mud puddle so you'll have to be satisfied with this for now!