Tameika is our first item to be released in rayon.  You may remember from my blog on woven fabrics, rayon is a man-made fibre, made from natural materials, such as wood pulp!  It's a light, floaty material, which flows and drapes beautifully.

Tameika is currently only available in rayon, as other fabrics wouldn't give it the dreamy look we were looking for.  The bodice opens at the front, the ties are decorative, and the sleeves are elasticated at the wrist.

Please be aware there is a lot of fabric in this beautiful dress, and as a result, the skirt is heavy.  If your little one hasn't been walking long, it may not be the best choice!

Tameika costs $200 in sizes 2-8, and $220 in sizes 9-16.

View more images of this dress in our Tameika gallery.

As this is the final release for out Autumn Vintage collection, if you would like to view the rest of the photo shoot, it is now available - Page 1 and Page 2.

The third release from our Autumn collection is Pepper's collection - featuring Penny (000-1), Pepper (2-8) and Penelope (10-16).

Pepper's collection is a bodice with peter pan collar and button up back, with a simple gathered skirt.  Currently only available in the linen/cotton blend with wooden buttons, this classic dress has a choice of 3/4 length, or full length sleeves.

Penny also has the option of elbow length sleeves.

Penny costs $130, Pepper is $150 and Penelope is $165.  We have one final dress to release, which has already been shown on our facebook and instagram!  Look for the release next week.

View more images of Pepper's collection in our gallery.

Marc and I made the decision to keep the kids home from school last week.  With all the craziness surrounding COVID-19 and social distancing, it didn't make sense to us that schools could still operate, but everything else involving more than 100 people was cancelled.  As it turned out, we only did "Work From Home School" (as the kids called it) for two days before all the schools in the state went on early school holidays.  Still, this activity could be fun for kids who are socially distancing over the school holidays - it kept our kids entertained for a couple of hours!

I used the free colouring sheets available from Little Lizard King - they have some lovely sewing patterns as well, if you're that way inclined!  I set my paper to landscape and printed at 75% (I use A4 paper because I'm in Australia).  After printing, I folded the paper in half and glued the two sides together for extra thickness and stability, then cut out the clothing on the pictures.

After that, it was just a matter of handing the children a camera (we used a phone with no sim card in it), and sending them around the house and into the back yard to make some new clothes!

They came back with over 100 photos!  Mr 6 only wanted the "boy" pictures, so he used the shorts and shirt, and Miss 9 shared her love around the 4 pictures of girls I had done.  Lots of fun for both of them - now if only I could draw well enough to make colouring in pages of my own dresses and shirts!

You may have seen a few sneak peeks of this one over the past week or so, as we did the photo shoot for out Autumn Vintage line on the 9th of March.  As always happens, I had the best day; I just love getting all the kids together, getting dressed up and taking photos - it's just so much fun!

May I introduce you to our new Charlie shirt?  Available only in the Linen/Cotton blend for the moment, this relaxed, breezy shirt is a loose fit shirt with all seams completely enclosed.  

It comes in long sleeves, short sleeves, or long sleeves with roll up tab, and has been a big hit with all the kids!  I've already been asked for an adults version too!

Charlie is available in sizes 1 - 10 and costs $85 for short sleeves, or $95 for long sleeves.

View more photos of this gorgeous shirt in our Charlie gallery.

We did the photo shoot for out Autumn Vintage collection on the 9th of March, and I've been so excited to share them with you!  This is the first release for that collection - Matilda's collection.  

This peasant style dress has a generous fit, with an elastic waist and neckline to be both comfortable and stylish, and is available in three sleeve styles and a large size range.

Tillie, above, is the baby version, available in sizes 000 - 1 and starts at $75.  The Tillie dress made for the photoshoot has the cap sleeves, which looks super sweet on this little one.

Mattie is the kids version, shown here with the long sleeves.  The cotton lace casing holds elastic to bring the sleeve in above the elbow.  These sleeves add a little cost, with the lace and extra fabric, but they're worth every cent! Mattie is sizes 2-8 and starts at $90.

Matilda is the more gown up sizes, 10 - 16 and starts at $95.  This Matilda has the flutter sleeves.  I had lots of fun at the photo shoot, and I can't wait to share more of the wonderful photos with you all!

For the moment, you can see the rest of the photos of these gorgeous dresses in our Matilda Collection gallery.

Miss 9 did some growing just before Christmas, which meant that all her skirts, shorts and dresses were too short!  This doesn't matter so much for summer, but I planned to make her a new set of outfits for once it started getting cooler.  I started by purchasing a little over 20M of fabric from Bec Williams Design.  I got everything in Cotton Sateen, because I've bought that fabric base from her before, and it's just so silky and feels wonderful on your skin.  Miss 9 is a little bit sensitive, so soft fabrics are a bonus.  I bought from the "My Favourite Things" range, because the colours are stunning jewel tones, which I thought would be great for autumn and winter, and this is the result!

The first dress I made was this long sleeve with full circle skirt and a double layer bodice, which would be nice and warm as autumn sets in, and can be easily paired with navy blue tights when it's colder.  I loved the tie detail on the sleeves, and although I had a lot of trouble matching the buttons (I went with clear in the end, because I couldn't find the right colour!) the end result is lovely.  

The next dress was a revision of her 2017 Christmas dress - it's a great pattern to use a border print on, and the back is stunning!  I like to add wide cotton lace to the straps, to make the dress a little more sun-smart, but you still have to be lathered in sun cream before wearing this dress outside.

Dresses three and four are the same pattern, which will be releasing in my shop in the next few months.  Matilda has long sleeves, cap sleeves or flutter sleeves, so I made a flutter sleeve and long sleeve version.  The flutter sleeve version used the same border print as the previous dress.

The long sleeve version has a made-up waterfall (high-low) hemline, and an added ruffle, which is not part of the pattern, but something a bit special for Miss 9.  I just love the lace elastic casing on the sleeves, it's so pretty and Miss 9 really likes it too.

The final dress is another one which will be releasing in the shop.  It has long sleeves, and a floor length ruffled skirt which swishes wonderfully when worn!  This is my favourite of the dresses I made, and I'm happy to report that Miss 9 loves it too.  

I still have more fabric to sew up - Miss 9 will be getting a brown version of the floor length dress in a size or two up, and a Matilda in a larger size too; but this current wardrobe is probably enough for someone who spends 5 days a week in school uniform!

I hope you all had a great break over the Christmas period - we spent most of it at home, with a week away at the beach at the end of January.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the best, but we had a great time anyway.

I got a little bit of sewing done over the break - practiced my swim knit skills by making bathers for Miss 9 and Mr 5 and made Miss 9 a few pairs of school shorts.  Mr 5 starts school this year, which is exciting and scary at the same time!  He fits into a standard size, though, so he has store-bought shorts!

I also started cutting Miss 9's many dresses out of the Bec Williams fabrics I purchased last year.  I'm looking forward to sewing those up over the next couple of weeks.

Looking forward to new and exciting things this year - we're working on a couple of new releases and brain-storming for this year.  Fun times ahead!

This month I asked Miss 9 if she wanted to make a doll with me, to further her sewing skills.  I hadn't make a doll or stuffed toy in several years, so we looked at patterns and chose our designs.  On a whim, I asked my god-daughter, Miss 13, if she wanted to join us, and she said she would.  

Miss 9 chose a bunny, Miss 13 chose a fox, and I chose a deer.  I spent several days working out how much fabric we needed, then we went to Spotlight and picked out fabrics.  The actual fabrics for the dolls weren't very expensive, because you don't need much and you can buy it in 5cm increments after 20cm at Spotlight.  It was the needing to buy 5m of elastic, and 5m of bias tape, and a new hot glue gun, and a bag of poly-fill, and flowers for accessories that bumped the pricing up!

The following Tuesday after school, we cut out our pattern and pieces.  The girls didn't need my help with this, other than the instruction about what cutting "mirrored" pieces meant, and the occasional reminder to cut two or four.  I had ironed on the interfacing before we started, which helped with timing.  It turned out that I was minding Miss 13's brother that afternoon as well, so we didn't get as much done as we might have done, because we stopped after an hour or two when Uncle D arrived to pick up Mr 10 and Miss 13.

The Thursday we started sewing.  I had ironed the interfacing pieces in place, so the first step was sewing them all down.  We shared a single sewing machine between us, and again, after a demonstration, the girls did their own without my help.  Miss 13 is a St John cadet, so had to be home in time for dinner and meeting, so we only did a couple of hours.  Miss 13 got her overlays sewed on, and her fox face made, and her limbs pinned to sew.  Miss 9 got her overlays sewed on, her bunny face made, and her limbs sewn.  I got a bit enthusiastic, and made a fox out of the scraps as well!  Miss 9 and I stuffed our limbs after Miss 13 had been dropped home.

Miss 13 wasn't able to come to our third sewing session, so Miss 9 and I finished up sewing the bodies and the clothes in a couple of hours after her piano lesson.  We then had Miss 13 over another day, and she finished her fox.  The last sewing session for Miss 13 took a little longer than Miss 9's, because she had a little more to do, and her skirt was more complicated.  It was fun sewing with the girls, and I think they both enjoyed it!  Total cost for the project was about $100, but I have lots of stuffing, elastic and bias tape left over for future projects.

Miss 9 says: That was great, I loved it. I did actually find it a bit challenging for some parts but it was fun and I liked the dolly that I made.

She also thinks my deer and fox should swap skirts, so that happened too!

Following on from my last post, this blog entry is about the other main type of fabric - Knit fabric!  Knit fabric is a different type of weave, which makes the fabric able to stretch, though you can get "stretch woven" fabric, and woven fabric can be made to stretch by being cut on the bias.  The knit fabrics I work with are Cotton Lycra (Lycra is a brand name of elastane, or spandex as it is more commonly known in the USA) and swim knit, which is the fabric bathers are made from.

The cotton lycra I use is 95% cotton and 5% Lycra, and it comes in three weights - 180gsm, 220gsm and 260gsm.  I haven't made anything in the 180gsm as yet as the 220gsm suits most of my needs!  220gsm is my go-to weight for skirts and dresses, and is what I have used in almost all of the items I've made.  The 260gsm is a great weight for heavier skirts or dresses, though so far I've only made one in the heavier weight.  We're still product testing these skirts and dresses, so there's nothing available for sale in this fabric as yet, but the skirts will likely be added next year if we decide to run with them.

The swim knit I use is sourced from Australian businesses, based in Queensland or Perth.  The fabric I use most often is 82% Polyester 18% Lycra (Prints) or 78% Recycled Polyamide (recycled nylon) 22% Lycra (Solids), though the custom print swim fabric is 86% Polyester, 14% Lycra.  I use this fabric for bathers for my kids and my friends kids, and also for light weight summer dresses.  This fabric dries very fast, so is great for those hot summer days when you know you're not going to be able to stop the kids running through the sprinklers or the water feature!  I don't offer these items for sale on the website yet, as I'm still working on improving my skills with this fabric!  Time will tell if I get good enough to satisfy my perfectionist tendencies!

Keep your eyes on the facebook page if these items appeal to you, I'll be posting my progress on there!

I thought I'd write a little bit about fabric types, and the type of fabrics I sew with.  There are two main types of fabric - woven and knit.  The easiest way to distinguish between the two (though not fool proof) is stretchy or not stretchy!  I think it's fairly obvious that I am most comfortable with woven fabrics, so let's talk about that first!

Most of the items I offer for sale are made from woven cotton.  I use three weights of cotton woven - cotton poplin, which is a light weight, thinner cotton which I occasionally use for shirts or summer dresses; quilting cotton, which has a nice dense weave and a heavier weight than cotton poplin and is my most used fabric; and cotton drill, which is a heavy weight and sturdy twill weave (if you look closely at the fabric, it has diagonal lines in the weave), which is what I usually use for shorts.  I love working with cotton, it's a natural fabric which is great for my daughter's sensitive skin, it holds its shape nicely and it is usually colour fast.  The down side of course is the never-ending ironing, that it can shrink if accidentally tumble dried on hot, and that it frays.  Quilting cotton is usually pretty good for not fraying inside a garment, but I have had it happen where a shoulder seam in a poplin dress has started fraying after a couple of years of continuous wear, or the inside of a pocket gets pushed through with overuse!  I also usually manage to (mostly) avoid ironing by taking it from the machine as soon as it's finished, shaking the item out and hanging to dry on a coat hanger.  I would still need to iron it if it was being worn for photos, or an event, but for day to day wear, this is sufficient for us!

I also offer items in a linen-cotton blend.  The blend I use is 55% linen, 45% cotton, which gives a good balance between the structured look and feel of linen, without the level of crumpling (ironing!) than pure linen dictates.  It is a similar weight to the quilting cotton.  I love the linen-cotton blend fabric in the new shirts that we're releasing next year - no sneak peek of that yet, though, you'll have to admire the fabric in these shirt rompers instead!

I also sew with rayon, which is a natural fibre, which is man-made - confusing right?! Unlike most man-made fabrics, rayon is not synthetic, it's made from wood pulp.  Rayon takes some careful handling - because it shrinks dreadfully you can't wash it on hot or tumble dry it.  It's also a much lighter weight fabric, which is what gives it that beautiful drape and flow, but this also means that it's easier to damage.  Miss 9 has been product-testing this rayon skirt for me, and it is love for her, but I'm not sure how other people will feel about it.  We'll be looking at offering some rayon items for sale next year.

That's all I have to share for the moment - I'll do another post about knit fabrics soon!

September - what a month!  It started off quite normally - my parents got home from holidays and I was able to give Mum the skirts she ordered from me before they went away.  They turned out quite nicely, if I say so myself, and she looks great in them!

Then, we had a small hiccup - or not so small, as it turned out.  Mr 5 fell from the monkey bars at school and broke his arm above the elbow, requiring surgery to put pins in, 24 hours in hospital, and a very large and heavy cast until the pins could come out (three and a half weeks later).

Because of the size and weight of the cast, getting dressed was a challenge, so I modified a few of his t-shirts and pjs, to make life just a little bit easier.  When you're having to help your very active five year old do absolutely everything, anything that makes things easier is a huge help!

Having a broken arm hasn't really slowed him down much - Marc caught him jumping on the couch a couple of days after surgery, and I think "Don't run!" or "Slow down!" have come out of my mouth more times in the past 4 weeks than they ever have before!  Fortunately, he got his pins out this week, and is now in a smaller, lighter cast which makes everything a lot easier.  Another couple of weeks and we'll be back to normal, and I think everyone is looking forward to that.

Our family went to Europe recently, for a family wedding. Marc was in Budapest for work, so the kids and I met him there before continuing on to the UK (via Paris). As we were doing a bit of travelling, and we needed clothes for four people but only had two people to manage the luggage, we had to pack light! I limited each of the kids to 6 outfits in the case, and one which they wore on the plane. I knew where we had easy access to washing facilities, so planned accordingly for the 4 weeks we were away!

For Miss 8, I mostly packed dresses - two Lilys and two Saskias - plus a pair of pocket shorts and the long skirt we're product testing at the moment. We knew we'd have a variety of weather, with the English summer having a well-deserved reputation, but also spending a week in other parts of Europe where it would be warmer! We also planned a stopover in Perth, WA on our way home to see some friends of ours.

For Mr 5, I packed shirts. I wanted him to have outfits that coordinated with Miss 8, so we could get some photos of them together in different parts of the world, and have them look like they were supposed to be together. I packed 4 Riley shirts (two short sleeve and two long sleeve) and two plain t-shirts, because I also packed his dinosaur pants and a pair of simple shorts, which wouldn't have gone with his shirts - as well as 2 plain pants and shorts.

Unfortunately, best laid plans and all that - either the weather was uncooperative, so the kids were wearing their jumpers over their outfits, or they wanted to wear different outfits on different days! I shouldn't try to plan these things, it only works when I have control of what they wear!

I did get to discover that the clothes traveled well and the kids had a great time, and in the end, that's all that really matters, right?

In my blog about the hunt for the perfect dress, I mentioned that our lovely bride had suggested getting a bridesmaid dress, which I could cut up and use for fabric.  This is what we ended up doing!  The dress does not come in child sizes, so we got an adult 12 for me to cut down to fit.  As soon as Miss 8 saw the dress, she wanted to keep it exactly as it was, to match the other bridesmaids.  Part of the draw was that it's strapless - Miss 8 has wanted me to make her a strapless dress for months!

It does, however, have long fabric ties, which can be used to help hold the dress in place, and also gives a different look to the dress, depending on how they are tied.  The first step was to remove the foam cups, and unpick the whole dress.  This took a while!  Then I estimated by taking 2 inches out of each of the 4 bodice seams, and 5 inches out of each of the side seams.  As it happens, I was pretty close!  I had to take a little more out of the front seams (mainly to straighten them up, as they were shaped for a more womanly figure) and take a little less out of the waist seams (again, mainly to straighten them up a little more).

Then, I sewed it all back together and went looking for shoes so we could hem it.  Miss 8 wanted high heels, of course, but the bride had suggested white or cream flats, so we got a cute pair of ballet flats and I cut enough off the bottom of the dress to make her a top!

The dress was a huge hit!  Miss 8 is so pleased with herself, having such a pretty, grown up dress, and she spent the entire evening visiting the ladies room to tie her dress in different ways for different looks.

We wedding was beautiful and we all had a wonderful time with our UK family

This year is an exciting year for Miss 8 - she is going to be a bridesmaid!  I was much MUCH older than she is the first time I was a bridesmaid, but seeing how excited she is, I think 8 year old bridesmaids are the way to go!  This is the same wedding that Mr 5 is a page boy for, so you already know the wedding colours are pink and blue.  

Prototype One was my usual Saskia dress, with a lengthened circle skirt.  I did a half circle for the underskirt, and two full circles out of tulle, which gave it lovely movement.  As this was just a proof of concept dress, I shopped the clearance section at Spotlight for appropriate fabrics.  Fortunately for me, Miss 8 is not especially tall, and the height she does have is mostly in the torso, not her legs, which meant I could JUST get away with fitting the circle skirt across the width of the fabric.  This meant I could get away with 3m of tulle, instead of 6m!  So I needed 3m of Bridal Tulle and 3m of delustered satin for the look I was going for, which works out to be $108 in fabric.  This clearance-table version cost me about $40!  I think this look really works as a bridesmaid or flower girl dress.  I like the thick "tie" sash rather than the full bow too, though I'll have to measure that and work out the scaling if I'm going to offer that as an option!  She loves it, but when we received the colour description "pale blush pink", there was a better fabric match on hand...

Prototype Two was my first attempt at making Miss 8 a dress in the same colour as the other bridesmaids.  The cross front bodice and straight floor length skirt mimics the style of the other bridesmaids, and the interesting back is another feature.  This embroidered polyester taffeta was on sale, and cost me $35 for 5m.  I only used half of it, because it was super wide!  However, colour matching across different fabric types is really difficult, and you can really tell in professional photographs if the colour is just a little bit off!  The bride and I both felt that this fabric was just a little bit too dark.  

Then our lovely bride suggested getting a bridesmaid dress, which I could cut up and use for fabric.  I'm working on Version Three at the moment - the first step was seam ripping, which is the worst part of sewing!  But it's getting there!  I look forward to sharing Miss 8's final look with you soon.

We've been invited to a wedding.  When my brother and sister-in-law got married two years ago, we made the kids matching outfits (as seen in Wedding Bells and Introducing our Latest Model) - Mr 3 (at the time) got a shirt, and we borrowed a suit to wear with it.  This wedding will be a little different for him, as he's been asked to be a page boy.

The wedding colours are pink and blue, and Mr 5 hates having things "tight" around his neck, so won't wear a tie.  So I planned accordingly - pink shirt and blue suit!

I used my staple Riley shirt for the pink shirt, with long sleeves and cuffs, size 5 slim fit.  I do prefer the slim fit for Mr 5's body shape, especially at the moment when he's just moved into the size 5.

I used the Sew A Little Seam Nathan Vest and Grady Pants, which have just been released, for the rest of his outfit.  The vest is a size 4 with size 5 length and the pants are a size 5 graded to a size 4 at the waist.  I think next time I'll just do a straight size 5, as I don't think these will fit him for long!  Hopefully they last until the wedding!

If anyone is interested in buying the patterns I used, The Nathan and The Grady are 20% off with the code in the Sew a Little Seam group making them US$5.60 each, (they also have a pattern for a button up shirt included in the sale). They are on sale until Friday.

Mr 5 seems to like it!  I'll be doing another blog entry about Miss 8's outfit soon!