My Project List for 2015 - so far

One of the blogs I came across last year that I really enjoy (particularly her stash-less series - so good!) is The Craft Sessions.

Recently she listed her projects for the year and I thought I have one of those lists! Her's is categorised into months but as most of my sewing and projects are purely selfish (sad but true) I can attack them in any order I please.

Anyway, because I do love a good list and the crossing off of a good list I thought I'd share mine here.

Do you have a list?

This list comes pretty much entirely from my stash audit at the start of the year and will mean I basically need to buy no supplies (maybe your should hold me to that!) until all the sewing projects are done. Exceptions are marked with an **. Furniture makes/make overs will need supplies.

In no particular order:
Standing Lamp makeover
Where the Wild things are Dress - NL6805
Strawberry Dress
Rose's Dress (an incomplete project I received from a friend that I will complete - the most wonderful fabric ever!)

Palazzo Pants
Coffee Table makeover
Kimono style T-shirt: Paisley and Grey
Dining Chair paint - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Kimono style T-shirt: teal

Broderais Anglaise Dress - remake, a second hand dress I was given that needs work before it's worn
Floral Satin Stretch Dress V8787
Doll for my niece **
Pink Sheet Skirt
Decoupage Dining Chair

Simplicity top 9626: Grey
Maxi Skirt DONE
Paper Planes Belladone dress
Bed cover from vintage handkerchiefs (I need some more to complete the size)
Denim and Plaid Blazer ** need denim and possibly a pattern

Stretch Top Simplicity 1849 ** need 1.3m fabric
Birds Skirt
Kimono style T-shirt: Monet-esque fabric
Simplicity 9626: Grey and Seagull DONE
Green Sheet Skirt

Wool Amebas Skirt
Red and Blue Vintage Floral Dress NL6000
Bandeau DONE
Faces Coat ** extra fabric needed for this
Doll for my other niece **
Blind to hang outside the kitchen window to block out the sun (yawn!)

So far that comes to about 35 projects if I count each of the dining chairs separately. I'm sure there are other things I will do but at the moment I want to work hard to focus on the sewing of these items which will basically reduce my stash to nothing but pieces for crafty projects, and that would be supremely impressive I think.

Do you have a lot of stuff in your stash?
Are there pieces you feel stuck on? If so I highly recommend having a friend cast their eye over it - it may take you in new directions!

love you more than a list to tick off xxx

2/52

We found this 'dip' on the bike home from church.

The little one fell off on the first try - his bike landed on him and he got tangled up. There were tears and then I asked "do you want to have another go or leave it?" and he wanted to do it again.

I wouldn't have had another go but he did, and the big one? He kept having a go and kept to the side and quietly encouraged without bossing. He let it be about someone else when they needed it to be.

They are growing into nice people these boys and I am blessed by the characteristics I see in them that I lack myself.

It's a 2 way street this watching and imitating thing.

love you more than a dose of perseverance xxxx

Learning Together - A Year in Review

This is about the most irregular series ever! However on I go ...

This is something we did together on the last day of the year at dinner time. There are lots of nice lists to be found but this one was hurriedly written on the back of a used paper bag about 5 mintures before dinner - I know you are so impressed by my organisation!

It was a nice way to stop and help the boys reflect on their year in Aus and also focus them on the coming year without it being too arduous.

Self-reflection and making goals are great skills to have in life and it's also good to spend time as a family with space and time to give some weight.

I did write down their responses but more as a sweet record than some kind of laws they had to work towards.

Do you make these kind of resolutions?  - my own are pretty flimsy at the moment but I did enjoy chatting through this list and some more with my sister as we toasted in the new year with soda water (we are such rage-ers!!).

Learning Together a series for primary aged children and their parents - activities that break up homework monotony, promote skills and create positive experiences together.

love you more than a sweet conversation xxx

This Week Remember

My message to my lovely ones this week

I hope you feel it too

love you more than a tidy corner in a messy house xxx

For The Pictures Alone

There are some books that have a magical quality  Mouse Mansion: Sam & Julia at the circus by Karina Schaapman is one of those books for me.

Each page is created from the tiniest of scraps - little woollen mice, houses and shelves and all sorts of little bits that I would have loved to make myself and would have entranced me for hours as a child.

Small things have always delighted me - tiny pieces of dolls house furniture, scraps of fabric, things made in miniature....

Each page in this book is a window of wonderland at the back you see the whole creation laid out as a wonderful masterpiece - can't you just imagine hours and hours of work in this?

The story itself follows 2 little mice Sam and Julia and Julia and her mother's involvement in the circus that comes to town. There are others in the series too - each time the author creates new scenes to realise the plot.

This book is for anyone small or big who loves handmade scenes and little scraps of wonderful. For me the story is secondary to the magic of each page with all the details to pour over. The book ends with a delightful letter in which the author details her own childhood experiences that led her to the story.

for the beauty and wonder of the workmanship alone this book is perfectly delectable for dreamers and makers big and small

details - allen&unwin Nov 2014, RRP $24.99 HB

love you more than a teeny, tiny haberdashery shop xxx

Yeah I Made It....1 and 2 and a half/52

this is going to be my sharing spot for the things I've made this year

So far there isn't a link to anywhere else that I know of so it's just us

One of my very talented sisters shared Christmas at our place and did over my fabric stash with me and helped me to choose projects for all my bits of fabric - oh so good to have another eye over the collection and patterns.... I now have about 20 projects planned for the year.

The first was this maxi skirt - I have been wanting a simple stretchy maxi skirt for a while. Covered up on super hot days and hairy leg days. This is basically a tube with an elastic waist at the top. I put twill tape down both the side seams because they don't need to stretch and this kind of stretch (the type that is like togs fabric) is a real stinker to sew.

I hemmed it with a stretch stitch then turned over the top and sewed that with a stretch stitch too.

I have worn it so much already that I'm not sure what I wore before I had it - don't you love those projects?

The second is a very simple cross-over stretch top using Simplicity 9626. I used this pattern last year to make a stretch dress. The front is a plain grey and the back is the same seagull fabric.

When I look at a rear view of myself in this ensemble I think it would be hard to argue against any figure other than hourglass on me - don't you agree?? Also I always seem to look rather lopsided in these backwards shots - I think I'm not like that in real life but who can really tell!?

The top was sort of a happy accident as I was planning a plain grey top as a wardrobe staple but I cut too many fronts so now I have one in 2 tone (more fun) and an all grey which I shall show you another week.

The 'half' is a little bandeau I whipped up (and by that I mean I cut a strip of fabric and overlaid it and sewed it together and the back - no hemming included). It give the rather deep V of the top and other things I own - some modesty so that my super engineered undergarments and other bits are kept out of the limelight.

I bought this grey fabric at the same time from the ASG's fabric de-stash event - second hand fabric is so good ethics and sewing in one easy transaction.

All worn with one of my all time favourite necklaces made for me by a certain 5 year old I love. (He's 6 now but he was 5 when he made it.)

Do you have a project list? I'm rather excited by mine.

what are you making at the moment?

love you more than air-flow on a 42 degree day xxx

Fifty two... ends and beginning

The final week of the year

Christmas day with Uncle A and modelling Christmas Eve PJs

present opening on Christmas morning

new years eve pizza dinner - goodbye 2015.

Week One
Piano maestro with Uncle A

and super selfies

love you more than a project finished and straight into a new one xxx