Merry Christmas

This will be my last post before Christmas, so I want to wish you a very merry Christmas, with lots of love, fun, and family togetherness!!!


I have one more post to make about Christmas pressies. This one I made for Sofie to hold the make up brushes she had hinted at for a Christmas present.


I have to thank Summerset for her wonderful instructions on how to put this together. I can highly recommend making these - so easy (easier than aprons lol).




I used denim (so omitted the interfacing), cotton and ribbon. All from the stash. The funny thing is that the cotton print was a remnant I bought with the intention of making an apron. (Can't get away from those aprons.....). And because the project uses so little fabric I still CAN make the apron!


Merry Christmas!!!!

PJ's for Ellen

Today Sofie and I made some PJ's for Ellen. It has taken us a year! We purchased the fabric from Spotlight last Christmas.



We used McCall's 2606 - an old pattern that has straight leg tie waisted pants. I hadn't used it before but it is perfect for PJ's. We used elastic and ribbon for the waist (which we lowered by about 9cms). We also added ribbon and bows to the bottom of the legs.



I purchased a cheap top to use as the PJ top. We unpicked the label and added our own out of the PJ fabric and embroidered Ellen's name on it. We also added a bow.



Here is Sofie modeling. They should be a little bit looser and shorter on Ellen. Hope she likes them! PJ bottoms are so quick to make on an overlocker and you can do such fun things with ribbons and the like. A fun project.

One for us!

When making the apron gifts I accidentally cut the width of one piece of fabric too narrow, so I could not use it to make ruffles, so I thought why not make a Chrissy apron for us?

This was a combined effort apron. Sofie sewed, I ironed, pinned and made the bias tape and Ellen helped with the design.

Originally Sofie and I had made the apron with the main fabric and used remnants to make the binding and pockets. Here is a picture of the first draft...

I felt that there was something missing and that the pockets (yes they are on an angle) looked like they did not belong. I said that maybe we need the pocket fabric somewhere else on the apron. And that is where Ellen came in - she suggested the second ruffle to bring more fabric in.


And then just to finish off we put some bows and buttons on the pockets!

Now to some sewing that is NOT aprons......

Male apron

This is Adam's apron. A very quick project after 6 frilly aprons!


I used 3 Christmas themed cottons from Lincraft - the main one for the body, a second one for the binding and a third one for the top of the pocket and the ties.

I traced the basic shape of the apron from on old bought one floating around the house. I added a pocket by cutting a large triangle, binding the top and then stitching it onto the front of the apron. It was also stitched down the middle to form 2 sections.


I made bias tape to edge the sides and bound the top. I made ties and used a D ring set for the neck.



More photos, including showing more of the binding and the rings can be seen here.

Thank goodness the work gifts are done in plenty of time for our Christmas lunch on Friday!

Gathering using the overlocker/serger

I remembered while I should have been sleeping that I forgot to mention how I had gathered the ruffles on the aprons. I used the overlocker to quicken up the process.

This is a great way to gather large amounts of fabric using your overlocker. The picture above shows what happens after it goes through the needle.

Use these settings (or fiddle around to get what works best, or check your manual)

Stitch length 5
Needle thread tension 6 to 9
Upper looper tension 3 to 4
Lower looper tension 3 to 4

then serge away! Just keep a reasonable lengths (tails) of chain at the beginning and the end so that if you need to reduce the gathers you have enough thread so it does not unravel. Much faster than stitching 2 rows of basting stitches and pulling up.

In fact the gathering for all 6 aprons would not have taken more than 5 minutes! Got to love that!

Christmas sewing!

I have just spent the weekend (in between shopping, cooking, sleeping) making aprons. Each year I make gifts for staff at work. I usually make the same thing for everyone. Luckily there are only about 10 of us. And this year it is easier as one in on maternity leave, and the boss in in Thailand.

So for the girls....


I made ruffle aprons. This is a tutorial by Morgan that was featured on Sew,Mama,Sew! Aprons seem to be a very popular gift this year as there have been quite a few appearing in blogland. I pretty much followed Morgan's tutorial but made a couple of changes. I overlocked the ruffles rather than hemming- quicker when you are making 6! Also I accidentally cut the ruffles an inch too narrow. Not sure what came over me but these things happen I suppose and not hemming helped out!

I also made one long tie for the top of the apron. Morgan has you add a band and then attach the ties to that. Again I was after speed and this seemed simpler to me.

One long tie made with the centre left open to insert the apron.
You need to be careful when topstitching to also catch the back of the tie.
Close up of the band (a different apron) sewn at the top to secure.
And here are 3 pretty maids all in a row. The other 3 that I made are similar. Now onto the one male apron that I need to make - will post about that one tomorrow!

Latest Ottobre tshirt

Thank you all so much for your very kind comments and congratulations. We really do appreciated tham all. Ellen has been lurking and reading your comments and it really has added to her excitement!

She will need to do a short film next year for her final year at high school and she is still considering what it should be about. I have tried to convince her a story of the process of turning a flat piece of fabric into a finished garment would be interesting (and nobody else would do that) but she is not convinced! lol!

Anyway, on a more mundane topic - I finished another Ottobre 2/2007 tshirt over the weekend:
I purchased the poly onionskin type of knit from Frou Frou on our Pattern Review weekend. It was in the remnant bin - gotta love those remnant bins. It is a lovely turquoise colour.

For the trim I cut some strips from another fabric I purchased from Darn Cheap on the same weekend. I simply topstitched the strips onto the front of the tshirt.

And here you can see it with my skirt that I completed last week.

I am going to try and get a couple more tops done this week, then work on a sun frock for Christmas.