Way back in February I had a fairly poor attempt at shirring a pillowcase dress using shirring elastic.  I’ve finally given it another try and this time I’ve figured out how to do it properly!

This is a op-shopped pillowcase.  There was only one seam, so I rotated it to the centre back of the dress.  After chopping about seven inches from the closed end of the pillowcase I made four narrow straps.  The skirt was already hemmed because it was the open end of the pillowcase.  I made a narrow hem around the top of the pillowcase where I’d chopped some off, then got out the shirring elastic.

I wound the shirring elastic onto the bobbin by hand without stretching it, then did some test sewing on the leftover piece of pillowcase I’d cut off earlier.  For my machine I needed to lengthen the stitch length to 4 and loosen the bobbin tension significantly to get a satisfactory gather and stretch.  I did 13 rows of shirring one centimetre apart, then tried it on Clare and sewed the straps into place.

She happily danced for the camera, of course!  This morning it was to Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker – we’re going to see the ballet next month so the music is on high rotation in our house.

Whenever Stella hears music from the Nutcracker, she says “Barbie” (we have the Barbie and the Nutcracker DVD on high rotation too).  Poor Tchaikovsky has been ousted by a plastic doll.

Fabrics from top to bottom: from Anna Maria Horner’s Good Folks; Heather Bailey’s Pop Garden; Heather Ross’s Mendocino; Kaffe Fassett.  Bought here.  The Pop Garden fabric is destined for children’s clothing, and the others for quilts.

The scale of the floral motifs in this fabric is huge!  I’ve included a charm pack in the photo to give you an idea of scale.

For more Sunday Stashers pop over and visit Tamara.

I’m sure that all the Melbournites and Victorians are loving the rain.  At our house it is also raining inside the kitchen - the skylight is leaking and there is water all over the floor and the benches.  I think that almost every towel we own is laid out over every flat surface.  I had better things to do today than wash towels and clean up the kitchen.

Sarah London has a mystery project on her blog most months, where she reveals a new project over the course of around four or five blog posts.  This month started with bright green and fluffy white yarn – suggesting something very christmassy, of course.  So I dived in, and ended up with this.

A crocheted Christmas Tree, made from granny squares.  Mine is smaller than Sarah’s - she crocheted enough grannys to make an advent calendar tree, but since I already have an advent calendar in the works I stopped at seven squares.  Mine will hang on the front door come the beginning of December (which is way too close for comfort).

That fluffy yarn really does give a terrific snow dusted effect!  Both the green and white yarns are cheap acrylics from K-mart.  It’s very kitschy crochet Christmas.  I strongly suspect that this is in the realm of completely love it or completely hate it.  Now to crochet a star to go on top.

Shawls.  Other than ponchos, crocheted bikinis and granny squares, when I hear “crochet” I still often think “shawls”.  The stitch pattern and motifs for the bottom/background shawl are divine, but I’d definitely choose a different colourway and ditch the fringe.  I don’t think that we need fringes on our clothes nowadays.  There are loads of beautiful crocheted shawls on Ravelry too.  Who actually wears shawls?  Do you?  Maybe I need to crochet a shawl…

Back in 2007 I did a review of the Little Hip Skirts pattern by Favourite Things.  I liked this pattern so much at the time that I made three skirts for Clare from it and bought the adult size to make one for myself (which coincidentally I’m wearing as I type this post).  Two years later I’ve pulled out the pattern to make Clare another skirt in the next size up.

This really is a terrific pattern.  You’ve seen the fabrics before and I used every little bit in this skirt.  There are ten panels making up the skirt, so the hemline is a significant diameter while the shape of the panels and the pleating means that it isn’t bulky around the waist.  High twirlability without bulk.

I was very happy with the effect achieved by alternating the panels.  The waistband is fairly wide and is elasticised at the top.  Clare wears it on her hips, as always.  She like the belt loops and tie belt.

I used the size 7/8 for this pattern – if you make it you really do need to measure your child and check which size the pattern says you should cut.  I usually sew a 6 or 5 for Clare but in this she definitely needed the 7/8.

We’re only halfway through November and I have already had half of my Around the Block patchwork blocks returned to me. 

I have to admit that I really had no idea about how these would look, particularly in terms of my fabric choices.  I was worried that they’d be too dark because of the number of chocolate fabrics I had chosen, but as it’s turned out they’re not dark at all.  There’s a lovely variety of pattern and value – well, I think so.  I am so thrilled with how this is coming together – thank you SO much everyone who put in the time to make these for me!

It’s often a little risky laying out patchwork blocks on the spare bed – see that little blonde in the corner of the photo?  A moment later I was looking at this:

And then she was jumping.  I made sure to rescue the blocks before I rescued Stella.

Rather than showing you additions to the fabric stash (and don’t worry, that will happen soon – just placed a couple of orders, shhhhhhh don’t tell) I thought you may be interested in some of the additions to my patterns stash.

I recently bought these four patterns through Crafty Mamas and I’m really keen to make some clothes for myself.  If only I could work out what size I am and what size I’m likely to stay – I’m praying that all my efforts at the gym will kick in soon and I will lose some of the padding I have accumulated over the past winter, as evidenced by the number of summer clothes that no longer fit me.  These patterns have terrific details and there are videos on YouTube to support their use.  There is more info on the Hot Patterns website.  The first one I’m going to try is the cowl top from this pattern.

For more Sunday Stashers pop over and visit Tamara.

Take one invitation to a disco 7th birthday party.  Add a request for sparkles.  Search out some lycra and stretch foil sequin remnants from GJs Discount Fabrics.  Mix in New Look 6797, entirely inspired by a disco party top made by Nikki.

And you end up with this:

Clare decided to have the ties knotted at the back rather than at the front.

The sequinned fabric can be a little scratchy, so it is underlined and bound in the hot pink lycra on the top and some stretchy slinky gold something I found in the stash for the skirt.  I left the sleeves as is – a little bit sheer, and not too scratchy because of the loose flutter shape.

A leftover piece of fabric made a super quick headband – cut to length and tied.  She was very happy and has headed off to the party with a huge smile on her face.  Apparently “Groovy Girl” is going to be there providing some dancing lessons, and there will be a mirror ball.  Oh to be six years old turning seven!

More designs from the same pattern book I showed you last week.  Once again, very crochetable today.

I especially like the tops in the bottom photo.  What about you?

Now this is what I called a tried and true pattern!  You can see earlier versions here and here and even here.  And I suspect that it is going to get another whirl to make Christmas presents for my cousin’s daughter.  This is View D/E, made in a size 1 for my skinny little Stella (who is almost two and a half years old but has no fat on her whatsoever).

The fabric is yet more of the $2 per metre bargain cotton from Spotlight you’ve seen before here, with the facing in a superb Kaffe Fassett print that matched perfectly.

And the most exciting part?  Stella wore it today and I even managed to snap a quick photo.

Perfect for today’s very hot weather!