Loving Oliver + S

I finished the girls' first Oliver + S playsuits over the weekend and I'm in love with them! They have turned out so well and look gorgeous, even if I do say so myself. I traced the pattern onto some light interfacing (something I do with all my patterns) so I will be able to keep the pattern and make more up as the little ladies grow into the bigger sizes and so little fingers around the place can't rip precious pieces! The instructions are detailed and easy to follow and help you produce a garment that looks quite professional. I'm so glad that I got the bubble dress and PJs pattern too and I'm really looking forward to sewing them up now (c'mon Park Slope and Daisy chain fabric, I need you!).


The playsuits are made with material from Spotlight. I originally brought it to make more of the pinafores I blogged about last week but when the pattern arrived I knew the material would be perfect for the playsuits and thoughts of pinnies were brushed aside.


I have already started on my next pair of playsuits for them. I'm trying to get them done as soon as possible as we are at the beginning of an awful heatwave and the girls need more summer clothes that fit (cheeky things have grown out of a lot of their summer things, just when the heat has started in earnest).

I've been shopping

Online shopping that is. With three kiddies 2 and under online shopping is the second best thing ever (getting all the babies to have an afternoon sleep at the same time is the best!).

This week I received some Oliver + S patterns from Duckcloth. I got the bubble dress, tea party dress & play suit and the kimono pajamas patterns. All are absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to sew them all up. I've started on a couple of play suits with some material from Spotlight I had laying around and hope to have them finished by Saturday.

I am waiting on 8 yards of yummy quilters cotton from the states. Fabrics from Erin McMorris Park Slope and Amy Butler Daisy Chain lines are heading my way and I can't wait for them to arrive. I have plans for bubble dresses and tea party dresses with it. They are going to be adorable!

I also have subscribed to the children's Ottobre magazine. With 40 patterns each issue it is great value and I'm totally in love with the baby girls patterns in the 1/2009 issue so I'm itching for it to arrive.

Easy peasy pinnies

I found a wonderful simple pinafore pattern at a shop called Bearbumz on Etsy. As soon as the pattern arrived (well really the next day, when all the babies were sleeping and Jared was home to watch them!) I rushed down to Spotlight to get some material so I could get sewing. I got both girls different prints but both with pink and green (my favourite colour combination, you'll be seeing lots on pink and green on this blog) and hot pink for the lining. They were so quick and easy to sew I got them done in a evening. I stayed up way past what I normally would but was spurred on by the fact I wanted the girls to wear them out the next day lol

I think the girls approve!

Pinnies are great for Melbourne weather. The girls are going to get so much wear out of them as they can be worn on their own or with short or long sleeve tops/onsies making them perfect for all conditions and also makes these $4 pinnies wonderful value!

Pants, pants and more pants

I wanted to make the girls some light cotton pants to keep their little legs covered. I came across a tutorial for Flat Pants and the fact that I didn't have to have a pattern to make them appealed so I decided to give them a go. They are so quick and easy and would be great for using up scraps too as they are just different sized rectangles of material. I downsized the pattern and it fits the girls who have just moved into 00s wonderfully with some room to grow.

We call these ones their happy pants, they are very bright! I love the retro flower print.



The material on these is so sweet, the flowers actually have a purl sheen to them. Notice the different placement on the pants? I like to have the girls 'matchy' so I thought it would be fun to make them the 'same but different'.

Oliver needed some more pants too. He is growing so quickly, up to a size 3 already and he has just turned 2 not long ago. Mum gave me some camo print material that I decided to pair up with some Michael Miller 'Flying High' quilters cotton to make him a a funky pair of pants with. There is plenty of growing room and hopefully they will still be in rotation in winter.

Big Sis and Little Sis Pillowcase Dresses

Although these ones aren't really made from pillowcases! Pillowcase dresses are really simple and quick dresses to make, they have been made for little girls for many years and yes some are really made from old (or new) pillowcases. After seeing lots of for sale on Etsy and seeing how simple the design was I decided to go a quick google search to see if there were any tutorials out there. Quite a few came up. I used the armhole template found here and the sewing instructions found here. In no time at all I had two matching pillowcase dresses, one for a two year old and one for a five year old, the only difference in the dresses is the length.


I'm definitely going to make lots of these for Lillian and Charlotte next summer when they are toddling around. Perfect for a hot summer day.

For the Elmo lovers out there...

I have a friend who has a little girl who is totally and utterly in love with Elmo. So I was inspired to knit her a pair of Elmo shorties. The story of me creating monster knitwear goes back to autumn last year when I stumbled across the funkiest longies/shorties I had ever seen over at Cranky Pants. They are so sought after that I knew I'd never be able to nab a pair in the monthly lotto draw that happens on the first of every month so I decided to have a go at making my own. After some head scratching and so frogging this was the result...

Cute huh?

So I thought I'd take it one monster step further and try my hand at a pair that looked like everyones favourite little red three year old monster. I'm so pleased with them!


Ollie shouts Elmo and jumps up and down when he sees them so I think they pass the "do they really look like Elmo?" test, hehe.

I also made a matching appliquéd t-shirt to match...
I can't wait to hear what Chelsey thinks when they arrive in the mail for her!

I think the girls might need some monster longies come winter. How cute would pink and purple ones be?!

Christmas Dresses

I am so proud of the dresses and matching bloomers I made the girls for Christmas. They were my first attempt and sewing dresses and following a store bought pattern (not that I ended up following the instructions for some parts!). The first dress probably took about 7 hours but the second was much quicker and I got it done in an afternoon and an evening. I'm sure future dresses using this pattern will be even quicker.

I chose a print with a white background and bright red cherries so it would look festive enough but can be worn long after Christmas too. I wanted little puffed sleeves so I used shirring elastic on the instead of making a casing for 6mm thick elastic and love how they turned out...

Lillian

Charlotte

A gift for brand new twin boys

A friend of mine had twin boys on the 19th December. I thought a great gift would be some tops with hand appliquéd letters on the front so people would easily be able to tell "which one is which" (something twins mums are asked ALL the time!). I love the fabric (it's called Whimsical Frogs by Robert Kaufman) and how it looks like the frogs are all fighting to be in view. They were nice and quick and I was able to whip them up while the kiddies were all sleeping on Monday afternoon.



I have plans of making some for Lillian and Charlotte too but haven't got around to it yet- it's on the to do list!