I'm a Winner!

I have been lucky enough to win a giveaway over at All Things Mum. Go and check out her beautiful blog and her gorgeous newborn baby.

Milly has claimed them as her own already so I'm going to make her a skirt from the bird fabric and a top from the purple/white fabric (which is even more beautiful in person).

Thanks so much Kim - I love them!

Christmas Craziness

It has been crazily busy around here the last couple of weeks which accounts for the blog absence. There have been Christmas concerts, Christmas parties, lots of shopping, and lots of gift making. Now that the school holidays have started we can start to relax a bit - the Christmas shopping is now complete (yippee!) so I don't have to spend any time at the crowded malls and can now relax with the kids. Unfortunately they are both sick with colds so we're just staying home, but it's actually quite nice to just be mooching around the house with nowhere to be. We've been making some delicious allergy-free Christmas cupcakes:

and the kids have been having a messy old time making their own special Christmas gift wrap:

Noah's school teacher for his first term at school has been really lovely and unfortunately he won't be having her again next year so we wanted to give her a special gift. I thought a Buttercup Bag would be ideal, because I've never met a woman without a fondness for bags:

I have lined it with a really beautiful Japanese cotton:

We also included a notebook for all those teacher-related lists she must have to make:

For now I'm frantically trying to get aprons completed for the kids and if there's time I'd love to make something new for me to wear on Christmas day. With only 4 days to go I'm probably dreaming though!

Wordless Weekend

The Mad Hatter

It seems that summer has finally arrived here in good ol' NZ and of course with the arrival of summer comes the slip slop slap of sunscreen, topped off with a hat to cover tender young faces (the kids of course - mine is already like an old leather boot after 34 years of sun exposure).

I have trawled the net for a free online pattern but they all seem to be a bit sparse or not the shape that I want. Next stop - Burda books. Although I no longer get Burda magazines I have quite a sizeable stash of them waiting to be used and whaddaya know - baby hat AND toddler hats. (7/2008 for sizes 38, 42, 48cm circumference and 4/2009 for 48, 50 ,52cm circ).

I had imagined that hats would be (a) difficult to sew and (b) require special materials that I would have to go and buy but I'm pleased to report that it was easy peasy and only required fabric and regular interfacing.

Here is the result:

The fabric I used was a Japanese quilting cotton I picked up from Spotlight awhile ago. I wish I had got more - I love it.

After Milly's haircutting incident recently, the more hats she owns the better so I intend on churning a few more of these out. Her hairstyle is now looking remarkably similar to this dude...