Honey (and other) joys.

We are now in Kindy holidays which means four kids at home! Days are full of backyard time, kids battling each other for pens, puzzles and food, and me trying to distract them with music and baking. As well as the usual huge amounts of washing. And requests to go to Kindy!

Meanwhile I am slowly working through my fabric stash after abandoning two(!) nearly finished boy's jumpers from winter. I'm quite sad admitting to this and regret not just making one in full. But I'm loving sewing and fantasising about cute clothes for summer. So far I've a few items for Miss S done needing to be blogged, and I'm hoping to keep making some simple stuff every week.

Last summer's dresses- Part 2 (or the Three-way dress)

A couple of Three-way dresses from Ottobre 3/2009.  Cute, summery, easy pattern.  Made the 92cm (smallest) size for Miss S who was nearly 3 at the time.



This one was out of lovely Japanese seersucker from Be Be Bold- got it out of half a metre (helps that S is quite small), but alas, not enough for sleeves.




This one is in a cute elephant patchwork print poplin and Spotlight Spots and Stripes, with the frill sleeves.  I think of this as the Vicky Cristina Barcelona dress, as that was what I was watching on SBS when I made it (love that movie).  


And here is Miss S in it on her 3rd birthday, our wonderful big girl.  

Last summer's dresses- Part 1

Must blog about these while I still vaguely remember making them.  Miss S wore all of these a heap last summer, yet I seem to have next to nothing in the way of photos with her in them.

First up we have the Oliver + S Ice Cream Dress (which first appeared in this post ages ago).



This was worn through most of last year- in cooler months layered with a white long sleeve top and red tights.  A lovely pattern, beautiful inside and out (I did French seams).  The strawberry fabric was scrap left over from a dress of mine from Uni days.  Miss S loved it and it got heaps of compliments.  I will definitely be using this pattern again.

Next we have this Raggedy Ann print sundress made using this tutorial.



Very easy pattern and looks great on (much better than on the hanger).  The border print fabric was left over from a dress of my sister's- and I think I still have enough for another dress! Trim fabric is Spotlight Spots and Stripes.

Here is Miss S looking very grumpy in it.



I do remember the straps slipping off a bit- maybe need to tweak the placement next time.

Other dress details to come!

Recycled cashmere bunny

Finally I make something out of the considerable stash of old jumpers I have been saving.  I love the idea of making stuff out of old and otherwise unusable stuff, but I can't say my craft habit really means much for the environment- often it just means I hold onto stuff I may never use.  Anyway, this was an easy gift for my cousin's baby.  It ended up wonderfully soft and charmingly imperfect, I think!

Pattern from Martha here.

I used my Mum's favourite cashmere cardy that got eaten- machine washed and dried to be extra fluffy.
Plus a scrap of old Liberty for the inner ears.



Did a Dick Bruna inspired face, and had to add a tail.



Can I now get through my old jumper stash by making one of these for every baby that comes along?

The new one.

This is what has kept me so busy for the past twelve weeks!  Miss D here has been wonderful of course, as a fourth child in under five years must.    Some days I really feel on top of this parenting/running a household thing, others I can just manage the bare minimum to get by.  But how lucky we are- four beautiful little souls now in our home, getting in each other's way all the time, but then so happy to have one another.

Bunny girl

This dolly is the last thing I needed to make, but of late I have been impulsively cutting out various projects in the middle of the night and then I have to make them.  I just get excited thinking if I cut it out it will be done soon!  I had ambitions of this being Miss S's Easter present (like she needs another doll, and how much do kids really need at Easter anyway?), but there was no way I could have actually made her in time.  So now complete, she is just hiding in my study awaiting a purpose- next Easter seems a long wait though!




Pattern (with face panel) is Roxy Longsocks from The Red Thread, with my addition of bunny ears and tail.  Made entirely from stash materials in what seemed to be perfect Easter colours.  I was particularly glad to make use of the yellow floral -beautiful Italian pique left over from one of my favourite dresses made years ago, and this old blue floral again.




Like the other Red Thread stuff, a lovely, fairly simple project.  It took me a few nights though, mainly due to some hours of stuffing difficulties (those crazy ears did not help).


I am such a sucker for these cute dolly projects, particularly those with freckles, and have spent far too much time admiring this one!

Stracciatella!

Since mastering my custard technique (and we got an ice cream maker) I have moved on to ice cream. And despite some other great flavours so far (vanilla, chocolate, burnt caramel, and a not so great coffee), I think I'm most thrilled with this, my first attempt at one of my favourite gelato flavours.

Recipe is Nigella's vanilla ice cream from How To Eat with a block of Lindt 70% melted and drizzled in in the final stages of churning- which gave the lovely chocolate shards I was hoping for! Yum!