Sunday, March 23, 2014

Autumn

We are getting into autumn, although the days are still quite warm, but I started this encrusted embroidery in the height of summer. It seemed a little odd to be working with these colours when temperatures were well above 30C. However, I love the rich autumnal colours and the strong textures.




Monday, March 10, 2014

Christmas outfits

Okay, it's already March but here is the last of my December sewing bee - I can't remember what I actually made in December but there were dresses, hats, bags, Christmas stockings . . . And it's taken me this long to finish getting photos. 

Emma was reluctant to model her outfit: "I don't wear it every day, you know. It's only for Christmas and special parties". However, after some high-level negotiations involving chocolate frogs, she really got into the spirit of it. I used Simplicity pattern 5540 for the hat, dress and matching purple shorts (not visible in this photo) and scaled down the reversible bucket bag pattern from Lisa Lam's The Bag Making Bible for the matching bag - which is lined with the dotted fabric I used for the dress.


And here is Olivia looking very cheeky in her Christmas dress (Simplicity 7189):



Olivia wasn't very happy when they opened their presents on Christmas Eve. She acted as if there had been a gross miscarriage of justice - or someone had switched the gift tags around. Why? Because she didn't get a bag! So the next day (yes, Christmas Day), I made a bag for her to match her birthday outfit.

Here are the two girls with their hats and bags, posing with Daddy before heading off to the coast:


Both bags are reversible - this is the reverse of Olivia's bag: