Swap - What I Received

Our latest swap involved listing 3 things you would like to receive and our swap partners were left to choose which item to make. I was so excited this morning and as soon as M was awake we decided to open my present. M knew all about the swap as I had been explaining to her why I was making a present for someone I didn't know and I think she was just as excited as me! Thank you to my swap partner Bec for the fabulous goodies I received.

Off to a good start...I spy chocolate!!


A superhero cape!! One very excited little boy kept saying "I can fly, I can fly!" It has his initial on one side...


...and a lightening bolt on the other. I love the fabric, it's perfect cape material.


Hanging out on the floor this morning wearing his new cape


I have been wanting one of these for ages!! A beautiful Make It Perfect versatile wrap skirt. I love the fabric Bec has chosen for my skirt - gorgeous! I first saw this fabric on Mel's blog and love the colourway Bec used. She was so thoughtful and even included a button in case I need to make a size adjustment. There was also some velcro to adjust the neck size of the cape if need be, thanks Bec.

My beautiful skirt!


M claimed the chocolate as hers and was happy with the 1 piece I gave her and I've hidden the rest in the fridge for later.

Thank you so much Bec, I love everything you made and you have done a fabulous job. I feel very lucky to have received 2 things from my list. The overlocked edges of the skirt are even in coordinating thread and thank you so much for the extra item in the parcel too that I have deliberately not blogged about but am really appreciative of.

Art Smock

I modified the Kwik Sew pattern that I used to make M's doggy dress up suit to make this art smock. I am pleased with how it turned out however it is much too halloween-ish for my liking. M chose the purple stars but we didn't have enough for the whole smock so I used the orange aswell.



Don't you love this pose!

My 1st Nicole Mallalieu Bag

I was petrified of this bag pattern (the flap totally freaked me out) which I bought back in September and had worked myself up about for 2 months LOL. In the end, with some encouragement from Emma and me repeating to myself that it's only a 1 flower difficulty rating, I started on the bag as a secret santa present for a special cyber friend.

Overall I am happy with the finished bag.

There was no heavy weight interfacing in the shop on the day so I went with shapewell which is very stiff. I'm hoping the bag will relax a little with use.

I wanted to make the strap adjustable but couldn't source a slide buckle in time.

I could only find bronze rings which I love and think match the bag but when I finished I wanted to add a twist turn lock to keep the flap down and could not for the life of me find one anywhere in Melbourne. I had no time to order online so had to use the only one I eventually found by pure luck, which was unfortunately silver.

I originally wanted to use a magnetic catch but I think I missed the step where I was meant to insert it into the flap before stitching it to the bag?? By the time I realised, I was finished and there was no way I was unpicking which is why I thought a twist turn lock would be good, if only I could have found a bronze one :(

I was scared to chop into my bag to insert the lock but all was good and I'm happy with how it looks.

Because of the shapewell, I went a bit nuts trying to iron the bag after turning it inside out (the right way) and was devastated to see that I melted some stitching. At least that's what I think happened? Has anyone ever had disintegrating stitches before? I could have cried!

I also made a matching tissue holder.











and the disintegrating stitches!

Christmas Caroline Dress

I had to make something Christmas-y so with not much time left at all, I made this Caroline Dress for M last night.

She wore it to the hairdressers this morning, here she is in her dress with her new short do.



Before we left



We're off to see Santa tomorrow so I'm trying to finish a pair of Little Explorers for the boy in some red dotty trim, Christmas-y without being OTT. Both new items of clothing will be worn for the Chrissy pic if there are no food/drink disasters between getting dressed and making it to Santa.