Day 226 - Race day accessories.

A little bit of midnight crafting going on here. It's all about the accessories. :-) Who needs sleep anyway?

I decided to add a little bit of spring and yellow to a few items.

These are old sandals. They are super comfy and I'm going to wear them.

I dug out my wedding handbag and added a row of flowers too. 

Hair clips. I decided to add some flowers to these too. Probably won't wear these but I am trying to grow my hair a bit so they might come in handy. If not I'm sure Juliet will love them.

I had better go to bed now. I do need a wee bit of sleep.

Day 225 - Mellow Yellow 1960's dress

Tomorrow is a public holiday in my town - Bendigo. It's Bendigo cup day, and I'm pretty new to this town (we arrived a little over a year ago) and have never been to this event. I decided to go with some other school Mums to see what it's all about.

Arriving at school and sitting down to talk details today, I discovered it's quite big. 2 mums were getting fake tans, frocks and shoes were discussed and nails were being painted. I wear makeup about 5 times a year, still wear the same lipstick I bought for my wedding day 9.5 years ago, and am basically a take me as I come girl.

This is my shoe collection.....Birkis, Doc Martens, Thai hill tribe boots and shoes, spotty rubber boots, coloured thongs....

A slight panic descended as I remembered past events being with girlfriends and makeup being applied etc and always feeling very out of it. Then I quickly zapped myself into action to get ready for cup day in my own way.

Enter 1960's dress. Awesome colour. Also, coincidentally yellow is a fashionable colour this year. (Not that I am ever fashionable). I purchased this dress about 10 years ago at on op shop but have only worn it a handful of times because the fabric is too sheer.

I went op shopping and found this nightie (I think that's what it is). A few sizes too big. I took it in and then sewed it into the inside seems of the dress - transparency problem solved. I wanted this lace to come out the bottom of the dress too. More on that later.

Vintage buttons were sewn into the neckline to cover a little stain on the white.

The lace ended up poking out only about 2mm from the bottom so I cut if off the bottom of the nightie/slip and sewed it onto the hemline of the dress.

And this is me.

I like it! It's going to be 33 degrees tomorrow! Lots of sunburnt people me thinks.

Now to work out shoes and accessories. Don't want to be last minute or anything.....

Day 224 - Dog tutu marries Christmas onesie

Yesterday ended up being a massive day for us. After Juliet and I made the skirt, two children learnt to ride a bike in one day, and then she lost her first tooth. It was the perfect ending to a lovely weekend barely leaving our property.

Here is Ms Happy Gappy. So, so excited.

This refashion began with a dog costume. A dog tutu that was always miles too big for my maltese cross pooch. Here it is. Sitting around feeling unloved.

I decided it should have a marriage with this Christmas onesie that came in a bag of baby boy clothes someone gave me years ago when I was pregnant with Mr 3 year old.

 I cut the dog costume off under the arm area.

Found some lace to add.

And attached both of them to the bottom of the onesie. Now we have a Christmas fairy. Cute? I think so.

This is for a one year old girl so My D was kind enough to model it for us. He is going to be one very soon. Aaargh!!

Day 223 - The sewing school files - a skirt

Another beautiful day here today and the boys went out for a couple of hours this morning to milo cricket, so Juliet and I decided to do another sewing lesson.

After our big day yesterday we opted to skip baths in favour of collapsing into bed after books, so you may notice that Juliet still has remnants of face paint from yesterday's party, and a bit glob of glitter paint in her hair from our outdoor painting.

We started off with one of her favourite skirts - made for her by my sister in law.

When we had a look at this skirt we discovered that it was simply the width of the fabric (112cm fabric) cut into a strip and sewn along one side. Easy peasy!

So Juliet set about cutting out a strip - this is leftover fabric from a dress I made her when she was about 3. I love this fabric.

 Happy!

Then she chose some cotton, and this time I showed her how to insert the bobbin and she even threaded the sewing machine needle herself. First time! Sharp eyes.

Here she is sewing up the side edge.

Then I even let her use my overlocker - under close supervision.

After she had overlocked the side seam I overlocked the top and bottom edges and pinned a hem and a top elastic casing for her.







Next I showed her how to press the hem and casing so that it was easier to sew it properly. This is her first time using an iron.

She sewed the hem and the casing, and then inserted the elastic, with a little bit of help from me.

Here is her skirt. Gorgeous!

And here is the model.

 

All this in about an hour! Well done my gorgeous girl, I'm so impressed.

 

Day 222 - In the garden

Today we were all outside in the garden getting our veggie patch ready and planting our spring crop. Mr 365 crafty is not particularly crafty but he is good in the garden. He prepared the garden beds for us and did some seed planting. Now I have to nurture the seeds.

I took Juliet to a birthday party this morning and I thought I would share her outfit. She has such a unique fashion sense I think she should start her own fashion blog. At the moment she is into layering. She is wearing a long sleeved tshirt, dress she bought in Thailand, skirt I made her from an old sweater, leggings, socks, shoes she bought with her own money and on op shopped ballet top. Accessories are a headband and a bangle collection. Whew!

When I got home Mr 365 crafty was hard at work in the garden enjoying the sunshine.

I found these old wood offcuts in our shed a while ago, left behind by the previous owners, and decided to make some garden signs to label the vegetables that look similar.

Liam and I painted them. We were having a lovely quiet time together, he loves it when he has me all to himself.

Here are the garden beds.

Liam looking rather relaxed having some time with Mum to himself. It's rare to capture him on camera smiling.

Then the other two discovered where we were. They joined in and everyone mixed and played with paint for well over an hour.

Mr D woke up from his nap and watched from the safety of his car. One minute they are babies, the next they are behind the wheel of a car. Who would believe it?

More mess making.....

Labels are ready now.

 Mr 365 crafty makes an appearance. Planting seeds. :-)

Seeds have been planted. We have basil, cucumber, zucchini, capsicum, oregano, spinach, rocket and 2 types of tomato. Very exciting!  While all this activity was going on we saw a beautiful wedge tailed eagle flying in the sky above us. This is a pretty rare sighting and one of my favourite birds to watch in the sky.

After dinner we went for a walk in our front paddock and did a little search for echidnas in the bush out the back.  No luck!

Here is Ms J in about her 10th outfit for the day. :-) What a wonderful day, reminding me once again how beautiful life can be.

Day 221 - Pirate Loot Bag

You may remember a month or so ago I made a potato stamp and stamped some fabric Day-188-potato-stamping-on-fabric. Today I used the fabric I stamped to make a loot bag for one of my little pirates.

I simply overlocked (serged) the three sides of the bag and then made a casing for a drawstring. I left the casing open at both sides so the string can be pulled from each side.

Aaaargh!!! Another pirate post to be sure.

Day 220 - Tooth Fairy Wings

I'm the tooth fairy in our house. You might think I'm crazy. After this post you may never again read the blog of such a mad woman, but I actually wear fairy wings when I deliver coins and collect baby teeth. It makes me laugh, and after all, my kids will only be young for such a short time and I want to enjoy it as much as I can.

Juliet is about to lose her first tooth, but today Liam lost yet another one, that's four in about a month.

I've been wearing some of Juliet's fairy wings, so this afternoon I decided to make my own pair, a little easier to put on.

I used 2 coat hangers for a frame and taped them together with masking tape.

Found some fabric in the stash.

Stretched the fabric around the coat hangers and tied it in the middle by winding around some feathery length from the dress up box. Then I tied on some hat elastic so I can wear them and glued on a couple of sequins and also glued down the fabric where it wasn't quite flat.

Here I am ready to go. Doesn't the setting sun make me look quite authentic?