Doings.

I am sewing.

I am knitting.

I am baking.

I am crocheting.

And I am singing Rain, rain go away, come again another day!

Have a happy and safe weekend out there.

Desperately seeking Forest!

What's cooking good looking?

The sun is shining and we are having a lovely morning this morning.

The washing is drying, the apple cake is baking, Jazzy is obsessed with that song 'anything you can do I can do better', Indi has gone to school late because she was busy finishing off her crane that can lift some wood 10cm off the table, Pepper is slowing me r-i-g-h-t down because she insists that she's Pixie and has to crawl everywhere and Bren and the boys are responsible for the wild and loud noise that is coming from the shed.

And me? I'm good too. I feel like things are speeding up towards the end of the year, I feel like my 'to do' list is so long that the things on the end of it are never going to see the light of day, I feel like being everything to everyone sometimes has me forgetting to breathe but truthfully I probably wouldn't have it any other way.

And I'm sewing a seam here and a seam there, so I'm happy.

If you think your Little Miss would look gorgeous in this Tree Dress 2, you can find it in my shop.

Oh and the desperately seeking Forest thing?

Well it seems that Bendigo Woollen Mills have delivered my order, but the ball of Luxury in Forest colour is currently unavailable. The ball that I needed, whereas the rest of the order I just wanted. The ball that I must use if I ever want to finish the sleeves and button band of my Tea Leaves cardi.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I am wondering if one of you guys has a ball, or a bit of a ball, of BWM Luxury in Forest that you could spare. I would LOVE to buy it off you if you do. Or, alternatively I could send you mine if and when it arrives.

Are you having a happy and sunshiny day??

Are you ticking your way through your list?

I hope so.

See ya!

Where I'm at.

I feel like I'm all over the place at the moment. Little bits scattered here and there.

I'm so tired after two big nights in a row. One spent drinking fancy cocktails and eating gorgeous food with my boy and the other driving down dark, windy roads somewhere out the back of anywhere to pick up Jazzy who had changed her mind about a sleepover at midnight after the lights had been turned off.

She's so sad today at the thought of her besties waking up together and having adventures today without her.

Indi is cutting out and colouring in paper dollies for her birthday party invitations. After weeks of agonising over the guest list, she's decided on the six old faves and I must say I'm pleased too.

Bren and the boys have revolutionised the egg department and now all of a sudden they have so much more time. Time for all the projects we always dreamed of but never believed there would actually be time for. First off they've been leveling the ground for a kitchen garden. Yay! I am beside myself excited to have vegies and herbs right outside the front door rather than down in the paddocks.

And Miss Pepper said she's tired of trying on clothes for me these days. She wants me to keep being her bunny rabbit and to eat the carrot she's trying to feed me.

I've cut out a pile of these smocks and am slowly sewing them together. Pepper lives in the four I made for her last year. They are the most practical things in her wardrobe. The one that is too small for her is hanging on a hook as decoration.

This one is made from vintage sheets and lace, a tree I screen printed last year and some crocheted ric rac around the hem to finish it off.

The Tree Dress is now in my shop.

I'm off now to cuddle Jazzy, check the details with Indi, discuss sleepers versus bricks for the garden beds with Bren and eat Pepper's carrots. And in between all that I'll be washing school uniforms, making lunch and knitting some more leaves (top pic), a quick project is a good project today.

I wonder if its the wind.

Happy Sunday. X

The green house dress.

So lovely readers of this blog, I have a couple of questions for you this fine Tuesday morning.

How many emails do you have in your inbox right now?

I'm asking you because right now I have 2,992 and I have a sneaking suspicion that that is a few too many.

Apart from the junk emails, most of the emails that come in are for Daylesford Organics,or are comments or emails from my blog. The business ones I try to answer as they come in, or I send them off to Bren. The blog ones are a different story. I have high expectations that I will be able to visit or reply to everyone who leaves a comment and so I leave their email until I have done so and then I delete it.

Do you do that?

Unfortunately, life gets in the way and I hardly ever get through the comments before I post another blog, and then I start again even though I am already behind.

Recently my IT guy, (farmer Bren), set me up two more mail boxes on my computer, one called archive and one called follow up. These were meant to help me sort through the emails quicker. Then I was meant to delete anything that didn't have a question in it. Great theory.

This morning I searched through my emails for half an hour looking for an application form to a produce day next year, only to find it eventually in my follow up folder.

Apparently for me, the more folders I have, the more places I have to dump emails and forget about them.

Last night as I visited some of the comments from yesterday's blog, I deleted all the other emails the same commenter had sent previously. That seemed to reduce the number substantially. But I forgot to check if they'd asked a question and now I'll never know.

If I only had the time to deal with every email as it came in. Do you?

So how many do you have? And how do you keep them at a reasonable number? And what in fact is a reasonable number?

Any help or advice would be hugely appreciated.

This Green House dress was made from a sheet given to me by a friend. It has op shopped bias binding, trim, lace and doily and has the words Everything but the thread sewn straight onto the dress. It is a size 4/5. Sorry for the lack of ironing, I was dying to get a picture before the rain. It is raining right now as I speak but the dress is safe and dry in my shop.

I hope you have a great day today and thanks so much for helping. X

My creative space.

Its so quiet in my creative space today. The big girls are back at school for the first time in weeks and Miss Pepper and I are pottering around, doing a bit of this and a bit of that.

First off was some hair for the dolly Amanda made her a while back. I've never sewn dolly hair before and just threaded strands of cotton through her head. Does anyone know how I can secure them now so they don't pull through?

I suppose she'll need some clothes now too.

Not content to just sit and watch me, Pepper decided she wanted to sew too, so we set her up with a hoop and off she went.

Then there were cupcakes to be baked.

And a few rows of The Rainbow Speckled Olearia to knit.

Its funny, I got so used to knitting with hot sweaty hands while we were away, that now I can't seem to get a grip on the wool and the whole experience is quite slippery.

My crochet ric-rac tutorial has been featured on the Craft Online magazine and on One Pretty Thing and I've started a Ravelry pattern page for it here. Wow and yay and oh my goodness!

Also sitting in my space today is an application to a gorgeous looking December market. But now I can't decide. Market or online shop?

So what's going on in your space today?

I'm off to Kirsty's to check it out and maybe then I'll unpack.

Have a happy Thursday. X

How to crochet ric-rac.

Hey there!

What are you up to this fine Monday morning?

Since my post last week, I've had so many emails and comments asking about the recipe for homemade, hooked ric-rac, that I thought I'd do a little how to.

Before we start there are a few things to keep in mind.

• I am using US crochet terminology.
• I usually use a size 2 hook but its fun to experiment. The smaller the hook-the smaller the ric-rac, the bigger the hook, the bigger the ric-rac.
• I use 4ply mercerised cotton but its fun to experiment with different plies and yarns.
• My words describe the picture above them.
• The stitches I am using are chain (ch) and double crochet (dc). If you are not familiar with these stitches just ask Mr Google, there are hundreds of great tutorials and videos out there to show you how.

Ok, let's get into it.

STEP ONE - Chain four.

STEP TWO - dc into the fourth chain from the hook, ie. the first chain you made.

STEP THREE - Do another dc into the same chain as in step two, chain, then do a final dc into the same chain.

STEP FOUR - Chain three.

STEP FIVE - Turn your work so that the crochet you just did is up the top as per the photo.

Then do two dc's, chain and another dc into the chain space from the previous round.

Then chain three. and turn.

STEP SIX - Repeat step five until you reach your desired length.

Always ch3 after each cluster and then turn.

Fasten off.

Stitch onto skirts, socks, quilts, cushions, frames, cards, dresses, tops, pants... anything really.

Here's the whole thing again in crochet language;

Chain 4 (only this once)

(2dc, ch1, dc) in fourth chain from hook, ch3, turn

(2dc,ch1,dc) in ch1 space from previous row, ch3 turn. Repeat this line until you reach the length you want.

I hope this all makes sense.

Please let me know if you have any problems with it.

Why don't you add your ric-rac projects to the Ravelry project page, I'd love to see some pics of what you make.

See ya!

My creative space.

After I finished knitting the long, long rows of plain and purl for the green cardi, I felt like knitting something small and complicated. Something that would make me think and concentrate.

The Vineyard wash cloth fit the bill perfectly. Details here. I loved knitting this pattern of intricate intertwined little leaves that came together so quickly.

This wash cloth is getting packed up with some soap and some seeds and heading to my secret partner in Jodie's Spring Washer Swap. I hope she likes it.

And what's a girl to do when she can't possibly concentrate on intricate pattern but needs a project to keep her hands busy while out and about? Why crochet ric rac of course!

This is for Ms Beccasauras for a little swap we did. A pair of Dortjes for a pile of crocheted ric rac.

And then there's the beginnings of another Olearia. I'm dying to see how the pattern looks in this multicolour yarn.

And finally, thanks so much for the gorgeous messages left here and on Ravelry about my green cardi. I appreciate and love reading each and every one. You guys are the best!

So what are you up to today?

I'm off to Kirsty's to check.

Happy Thursday y'all. X

Ella's skipping dress.

Not so long ago I wrote here about my passion for sewing. About how sewing just one seam can help make my world make a bit more sense.

But then just under a month ago two things happened:

1. I discovered and fell in love with knitting.
2. A little symbol came up on the screen of my sewing machine telling me that it needed to be serviced.

So I turned it off and walked away and knitted and didn't deal with the fact that I really had to book Nina Bernina in for a service.

The funny thing is that I didn't want to take her in for a service in the first place, because I couldn't bear to be without her for as long as it took. In actual fact it has been so much longer.

Today when I couldn't put it off any longer, I switched her on and the symbol was gone. I felt so grateful to her that she was letting me sew, that I promised to take her in for a service this week. And I will.

This skipping dress is made for a princess that lives in a patchworky castle. Check out what Andi made my Jazzy for her birthday as a swap. Isn't it the best!

This dress was made from bits of cord and vintage sheets from my stash, an op shopped zipper and bias binding and a crocheted by me motif and ric-rac. This time I stitched the Everything but the thread bit straight onto the binding.

Now I just hope it is pink enough for the princess.

Ok, now the sewing is done I can do a few rows/rounds of this before school pick up.

I hope your Monday is a funday. XX

Everything but the thread.

This is the first photo of the first piece in my new range called everything but the thread.

Everything but the thread will be a small range of clothing that will be hung and hopefully sold in a new shop opening in Piper Street Kyneton in the next week or so.

Like the name says, everything it takes to make this new range is repurposed, op shopped, gifted, or from my stash. I will buy nothing new to make the clothes except for the cotton to sew them together and some of the cotton for the crocheted motifs and trims.

This dress was made using a tea towel for the front, some thrifted denim and a part of an old sheet for the back, some op shopped binding and lace and zipper, some crocheted ric rac and a motif. The red love heart was bought in Thailand years and years ago to embellish costumes we were making and wearing to dance parties at the time.

Originally I had many more trims and motifs pinned onto this dress but I started to think about pricing and took them off. I want the dresses to be almost like treasure hunts with bits and pieces all over the place.

But the price thing does concern me.

So all you Mama's, Grandmother's, Aunties, friends, shoppers, makers and sellers, do you have any thought about pricing a dress like this? What would you pay? Think is reasonable? Think is too much? Any help would be gratefully accepted.

Before I go I'd like to say a HUGE thank you for all your emails and comments on my last post. Things have calmed down here and we've had a great few days but its still wonderful to know that I am not alone. That we all struggle at times and change the rules as we go along.

I'm really happy to be into my second year of blogging now, blogging without guilt and just for fun.

I hope you all have a wonderful and fun weekend out there. XX

...oops the lovely farm boy has just pointed out that I have written nothing but the thread. Looks like its back to the sewing room for me.

A pinafore & 2 winners.

When Ms Dance For Cheese (formerly known as The Craft Gypsy), put the call out on her blog for some reversible pinafores to be sewn and sent to the girls of the Dago Dela Hera Orphanage in Kenya, I knew I had to make one.

I had this doona cover in my stash that seemed perfect as it was covered in Australian animals and a farm scene.

I have sewn quite a few pinis in my time and was confident in drawing and cutting the shape but it was the reversible part that got me.

I love the idea that a Kenyan girl who has so few dresses will get a new one that is really two, but I had no idea how to sew it together.

So rather than wasting time shopping for a pattern I decided to cut each of the three pattern pieces out twice and then sew them together, turn them inside out and make the pini the usual way.

While great in theory, my way ended up with wrong bits in the seams on the inside dress. I was tempted to unpick it and start again but I have limited time today and I think a finished pini is better than a pini on my 'to do' list.

So I stitched the seams down and made a feature of them.

I also had no idea how to do a reversible closure so the girl who gets my dress might need to ask for help when fastening the dress on the pink side.

If I were to do this again, I think I'd make two dresses and then sew them together at the end.

And now for the giveaway.

The screen printed, vintage sheet panel and the three meters of crocheted ric rac will be heading across the seas to Malaysia where they might be turned into a zippered pouch by comment number 55 Whimsy Loft.

And because I was a bit overwhelmed by all the new visitors to my blog and because my favourites are really the day to day regular visitors, I did a secret little second giveaway.

And the winner of my secret giveaway who will be receiving this screen printed, vintage sheet panel and these two lengths of ric rac is Kristi!

Congratulations Grace and Kristi, I'll be emailing you soon for your postal details.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend. XX