Monday madness!

I had an AWESOME day! 

My millinery order arrived at lunch time 

(But not the flowers) 

As well as some white trim which somehow avoided this photo which was thrown in complimentary. It's so wonderful, I'm so excited to play and create! 

My fabric order should also be here this week, apparently not until Friday though :( there are a few more bits in that for my fascinating fascinator encounter! 

Also WE HAVE HOT WATER AGAIN! Right after writing this out, I'm off for the best shower I've had in seemingly forever! 

And! This arvo I knocked off work, did the food shopping, then got stuck into the piles of leaves, branches, and rubbish in the back yard, and weeding the gravel beside the lawn. So rewarding! Rippy helped, as always. 

Helpful Rippy is chewing up his treasures, eventually they might even fit in the bin! 

I'd love to compost more, but our gardens are a foot deep in rocks, which doesn't lend itself to mulching all that well... So I'll do my best just to keep the rocks tidy instead! 

Happy Monday! Have an awesome Tuesday! 

Tuesday

Another creative day! Loving it!

One of my friends is having a baby later this year, I'm seeing her today (Wednesday) before I go back to Hedland for several months, so I thought I'd make her a little gift. This is a nappy wallet (for the handbag) from this tutorial by Melissa Esplin. She has many variations, I chose the one most in my comfort zone - the sewn one! My friend doesn't know the gender of her baby, so I thought orange would work. And orange is awesome!

 Then, work continued on the sprocket cushions. They got gussets and backs and they even got stuffed! I enlisted the help of my wonderful Mother, who seemed to be looking for something to do! She took it as a great opportunity to pull out her old Bernina which had been out of service for about 18 months, after visiting the sewing doctor, it got a new capacitor and is now a pleasure to sew on once again!

I have no really exciting photos of my dress progress, I sewed and pinned and sewed and pinned and ironed and sewed. I (think I) have 4 constructed bodices and 3 constructed skirts, just waiting to be joined together, zippered and have the lining attached!

"Neat" piles for each dress

Finally, I have another friend who I am catching up with before I go away, and it's her birthday this month (Agh! July already!!) So I used this tutorial from Sweet Verbena to make her a bag. It's not quite the same, I was limited by the fabric I had in my stash. My bag is a couple of inches smaller, has shorter handles and drawstrings, and a different method of attaching the lining. This bag made me think of my friend when I first saw it and I'm so happy I made it, I think she will really love it!

Cinched up tight!

about 19" square, plenty of space!

Musical fabric to line it

Exciting achievements!

Despite mum's overlocker being serviced at the same time as mine it's playing up and is noisy, today it feels like there's no power at all, it was struggling!! So I pulled out my never-used-by-me overlocker that I *may* have been slightly scared of, I had to re thread one of the 4 cottons as the spool had only about a meter left one it (and then re thread it again because I didn't pull the thread through far enough... Doh!) and I OVERLOCKED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME! A very small achievement, but oh so exciting to be over that fear! And here is my proof: 

Now mum can use my overlocker to finish what she is doing, and while hers goes back to the shop for a "please explain". But I had to use it first. And I'm so happy. 

I am actually studying somewhat successfully today, although it feels like it could be lunch time soon. Exam tomorrow, I can't wait until it's over! 

I had to clean up our dining room yesterday, packed up all the excess mess and hid it away in the sewing corner... I thought an effective way to condense the mess was to finish interfacing my "projects" pile. 

9 purses that aren't part of the custom order. 

Now they are all in a pile, all the pieces for 4 bags and 13 purses (photo soon) all interfaced. 

I do still need to cut fabric for my zipper pocket for each bag, and buy zippers for 9 purses... But the mess is hidden until tomorrow night!