Sewing for the Whirling Dervish

I have been dabbling with a bit of clothes sewing for my daughter.

I haven't done this in a long time as she didn't wear any of the previous stuff I made 

and I actually really don'y have the time, 

but occasionally I have to do something other than work or household chores...

I made her 2 pairs of shorts, but she is not keen on them. Even with pockets!

Then I saw this yellow cat fabric and thought that it would make a nice little something...

The dress pattern is from The Great British Sewing Bee,

a free pattern from the Daily Mail many moons ago....

The dress is a hit... a fudged the zip as I didn't have an invisible one, 

so I just used a regular one that I had to hand. 

And I didn't quite follow any instructions 

to get the zip in, but it works and she loves the dress. 

She has a party this week and if she hasn't worn it out by then, she plans to wear it.

Now to use some fabric from my stash and try something else...

Happy Easter!

I made the mini rabbit dress 

which matches my daughter's Piccalilly dress.

Making rabbit dresses! It must mean it's Easter!!

Wishing you all a happy one xx

Why yes I did!

I did get a bit obsessed with Bullion stitch...

And made more and more 

including some with roses and rosebuds!

And I did make Miss-Kalico a princess dress....

BUT I didn't make a purple one!

So a purple shirt underneath had to do.

And Minnie mouse slippers completed the look ;o)

Wordless Wednesday: Making Kids Clothes or as I like to call it: Stashbusting!

Snow days and 'No' Days

We've had a bit of snow,

not enough as far as the children are concerned.

Enough for me!

And not enough for snowmen

(hence our snowman's nose being eaten ;o)  )

*****

Miss Kalico's friend had a birthday 

- apparently the birthday girl liked her custom bag!

BUT Miss Kalico is not so sure 

about some other things..... 

I told her that I had made her another dress....

 Her response: "Why?"

Oh dear, guess I'll not mention 

that I made her 2 skirts as well!!

Kids, eh?! At least the hugs are worth 

the lack of interest in my garment sewing!!! ;o)

What's Been Up

Finally, I can dig my head out

and blog a little...

 Summer has been a great time for creatures.

Creatures in the house however have NOT been great.

This cat is on probation for Mousing!!!

(Trying to find a mouse under the sofa 

at one in the morning is not my idea of fun! 

Not finding it is even worse! 

Wondering for a few days if the half a mouse 

outside the back door was the same mouse is no good either LOL!)

*****

The school holidays are finally over and the little people

in the Kalico household are (mostly) back at school.

I didn't get much sewing done over the school holidays,

just a few dresses for Miss Kalico.

I cut a new dress pattern for her

and although it's a little on the large side,

she'll grow, and these dresses can be whipped up 

in a day...

Great for playing (and potty training!)

I made a reversible dress:

Roses on the one side... 

And baby cord with a pocket

on the other side...

*****

We had a week in South Wales: fabulous!

Family time is just so precious.

The other few weeks we were around and about locally... 

and just enjoyed the lovely weather...

A friend (and fellow blogger) 

and her family came to stay....

It was great having 'Southerners' to stay with us 'up North'

as we got to do some great walks and explore our local surrounds.

This is the walk from Clapham to Austwick 

and I had never done it before...

In Wales we'd done a 'herb walk' at the Botanical gardens

and I'd learnt that these were Burdock pods:

 Nice and sticky LOL.

We all walked through the tunnels to Clapham

 that were built by the local landowner many years ago 

so that he didn't have to watch his workers walk home...

Bit of a cheek, me thinks! But a nice walk.

*****

And now that the kids are out of the way ;o)

I have been able to quilt again

And why, yes, before you ask,

Miss Kalico does need another quilt :o) 

I cut the binding without measuring to check I had enough,

as I sewed the first side and a half on, I remembered I was going to measure...

But it fitted. Phew!

 With only a small piece left to spare!

*****

The next quilt is ironed and ready to be loaded.

Oh, I do love my Longarm machine!!

Sewing Bee

I'm home!

I'm having a few little issues

with my wound,

but generally feeling good to be home

and glad that it's over.

Before I went in for my operation,

and one of the reasons,

I was such a bad blogger

was because I was dabbling

 with a bit of garment sewing.

I used patterns from 

The Great British Sewing Bee

and made myself 3 tunics

(one long enough to be worn as a dress)

and a tunic for Miss Kalico.

I also made my friend's husband

and Mr Kalico some shorts

from a pattern I cut myself.

It was lovely to look out the window one day

and see them wearing stuff I'd made.

I have bought the second book

and hope to make a few more things 

when I can drive my machine again.

In the meantime I am handsewing the borders on 

my rose star hexagon quilt for Miss Kalico.

BIG Backing

This morning I went to my LQS (Local Quilt Shop)

and bought the backing and binding fabric for

my Celtic Solstice Mystery.

Here is the quilt top laid out,

but still folded in half on the lovely big tables at

Quilting Antics in Settle.

After much ummming and ahhing and

quilt maths, I decided on a nice pale yellow swirl for the back 

and a brighter diagonal stripey yellow for the binding..

Decisions were not easy,

but at least Miss Kalico was kept busy

making fuzzy faces...

...and drawing and cutting.

(Cutting in a quilt shop you say!! 

It was scary, but she was well behaved ish! lol)

And here I am, about to fold up the quilt top.

*****

Here's a parting shop of Miss Kalico

in the dress I made her.

Playing with buttons. 

I remember fondly playing with my Mother's button box.

And here's the back of the dress.

Only about the 3rd time, I've done buttonholes,

but phew! they worked!

Raspberry Skirts

When saving these photos to the boys computer

I had to think of a name for the folder...

Raspberry Skirts because,

Well because I made Miss-Kalico a few skirts of late

(another distraction)

 Love this baby-cord fabric, so easy to sew up!

(There's another skirt with roses (of course!), photos to follow...)

And I made these yummy scrummy Coconut & Raspberry biscuits

(mine are on the right and the photo from the book on the left

I used the wrong coconut, but they were so so good nonetheless!)

 From my favourite Gluten free Cook Book:

Over 10 years of being Gluten-Free

and this is still my favourite recipe book!

*****

Miss-Kalico loves her pom-pom

jumper knitted by Vicky!

And it looks great with her new skirt ;o)

And I love this new pantograph for my Longarm that a friend sent me!

I know I should be doing quilting freehand, 

but this is so cute and so easy,

it's like doing it freehand ;o)