Inspiring you?

Yesterday I made up for the loss of the day before. Yesterday I spent the morning in the kitchen baking and jamming and cooking and scrubbing and the afternoon in the little girls' room. I filled five boxes up for the op shop and two boxes up for the tip.

I sorted and folded and chucked. There were baby clothes in Miss Pepper's shelves and too many clothes in Miss Jazzy's. I was ruthless and it felt great. My three year old played DJ and helped me with the folding and showed me her dance moves.

Yesterday I didn't stop until the girls were in bed. Then I had a long bath, listened to a This American Life podcast and went to bed. Wrecked.

Today I have paid for it. Today I am so sick again and I have barely achieved a thing. Today I feel flat and sorry for myself. Miserable.

So lovely people I was wondering if you could help me out. I need inspiring. Please.

So what is inspiring you today? A blog you love, a new craft, your clever kid, an exciting project, your garden??? Anything. Please.

And thank you. You guys are the greatest.

XX

Ripped jeans.

This morning as I was hanging out the washing I was relieved to find a hole in Miss Pepper's jeans. You can see it there, just under the red flower.

Bren's Mum bought these jeans for Indi waaaaay back about eight or nine years ago. All three of my girls have worn them. They've been hemmed, let down, patched and repatched many times. Loved. The other day I noticed that they were a tad too short for Miss Pepper, my littlest and last.

So what do I do with them now?

I was relieved to see the hole because it narrows down the options and some of the guilt.

I am so happy to hand most things on to friends or op shops when we are done with them if they are in good condition, but there are some things that I just can't.

One of my friends has recently inherited a suitcase of baby clothes that her and her sisters all wore and then all her nieces and nephews wore and now its time for her own babies to be dressed in these white hand knits and nighties.

I love the idea of keeping clothes my kids wore for their kids to wear but most of the things I want to keep are well worn items I made, my girls wore and wore and wore and will realistically never serve any purpose but the sentimental one ever again.

So far I have two and a bit boxes of clothes Miss Pepper has outgrown and I have put away. Two and a bit boxes of little hand made bits and pieces I have made, friends have made, or bought or knit by a grandmother no longer with us. Each has its own story.

These little patched up jeans will be carefully folded and added to the contents of the boxes this afternoon. Maybe one day the girls will take them to school for show and share, maybe one day we'll sit together and go through the boxes telling the stories, maybe one day I'll tell them to their kids or maybe one day I'll come across the boxes and see that I've kept way too much and chuck them out. Who knows.

Its a little bit sad to think of these jeans not being worn again and put away in a box, but they sure have had quite a life...well you know what I mean.

Do you keep many of your kids' old clothes? How many? How do you decide what to keep and what to give away? Has anyone actually made one of those quilts out of all their baby clothes? And if you don't have kids yet, have you started a collection of clothes for when you do?

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend where ever you are.

Bye now. XX

Pot holders, trim and a top.

I'm sure you're not at all surprised to see a couple more pot holders for the collection.

The yellow Rose petal Pot Holder.

And this pink and white one that I can't think of a clever name for (suggestions welcome). It turned out a bit flimsy, so I crocheted a thicker back for it too.

I'm not thrilled with how it turned out, but I think it'll fit right in on the ever growing pot holder wall collection. I just have to decide which side to hang it.

I started to think about my New Year's resolutions yesterday. Every year I write some down and then put them away. A year later I dig them out, only to discover that I haven't really made an effort to resolve any of them.

So yesterday I decided to tackle number one for the past two years; Make myself a piece of clothing.

I grabbed a sheet from the stash and drew a front and a back of a top that vaguely resembled the one I was wearing, and then cut it out.

I stitched it together and then tried it on, cut some off, stitched it back together and then tried it on again.

Then I stitched another bit on to make it longer.

I fiddled around with the elastic and made several more modifications and then wear tested it for the afternoon to make sure it was comfortable and covered my bra and didn't itch or creep.

Today whilst sitting in the car while Bren did a million jobs in Ballarat I crocheted this trim.

I plan to make another of these tops tomorrow or the next day, then sew the trim to the neckline and then I'll cross number one off my list.

Hows great would that be, a resolution in the first week of the new year?

I hope you are still feeling the new year optimism.

The last 3 things.

So here they are, the last three things I will make in 2009.

(I snuck another one in after the photo to make three.)

A dress using the same pattern concept as this top for Indi. She chose the Ikea fabric from my stash.

Another one of these tops for Indi. This is one has no ruffle and is made from an old bed sheet.

And this dress for Jazzy.

I am so pleased with this dress because it is made from a thrifted sheet given to me by my gorgeous friend Beck, the cotton for the ruffles is from Bendigo Woollen Mills that is less than an hour's drive from here and it was cut, sewn and crocheted here, in the lounge room and in the sewing room. It is a low clothing miles dress.

I learnt to crochet back in May, so I could add details to the clothes I was sewing and now I have. (Oops, I spy a thread that still needs to be sewn in.)

I have so many plans for further clothing embellishments...watch this space in 2010.

I hope you have the most wonderful 2010!

I hope it is filled with creativity, love, happiness, inspiration, passion, satisfaction and many completed projects.

I'm off now to paint the girls' nails, put hair masks in and write our New Years' resolutions.

Have a great night.

XX

Dressing a nine year old.

We've been having a bit of trouble buying clothes for our nine year old.

It seems that there's a bit of a gap in the market for the kids that don't want to be covered in slogans, brands or dress in skimpy, sexy clothes.

So our nine year old has been wearing the same denim shorts and a couple of t'shirts on high rotation since school finished a few weeks back.

This morning when both those t'shirts were in the laundry pile I decided enough was enough and when visiting the local craft shop I decided to check out the pattern section.

I have made plenty of clothes in the last few years. Many for my kids, for presents and for sale. But I have never made any from a pattern. I have devised a cut up old clothes and trace the pieces technique or just draw straight onto the fabric a shape I like and cut it out.

But for some reason sewing for the nine year old seems different. It has to look right, feel right and be comfortable and cool.

When I saw modkid's Nina All season's peasant top pattern I had a feeling it would work.

We came home, put Pepper to sleep, set the girls up with some Das and off I went to choose some fabric from the stash.

I did something I've never done before. I followed the pattern.

And it worked!

And she loves it!

And she wants another one in different fabric and a longer one she can wear as a dress!

I'm totally excited about sewing from patterns now as this one was so easy to follow. It comes with the pattern for a short sleeve and long sleeve version too. The only thing was that the pattern pieces are for size two to seven so I had to trace bigger pieces for size nine.

She's run off to the shed to show her Dad and I'm typing away as fast as I can because I can hear Pepper waking up.

I hope you are having a great day. XX