that I am just not going to maintain this blog. I’m terrible. I confess. Any crafty action I have blogged in recent months has ended up on the kitchen playground along with the rest of my ramblings.

Do head on over that way if you are interested in any of my creations, both edible and not so edible!

Sounds painful doesn’t it?

The Breadwinner is getting old. Well it’s his birthday anyway. He didn’t want any money spent on him and he didn’t want presents and he was being al me-like and anti-consumerism. I can’t argue with that but I couldn’t not get him anything either.  So I compromised. I found a jacket for $1 at a favourite op shop.

Of course Mr Funky Dude wouldn’t be seen dead in a plain old suit jacket so I had a go at making it more interesting. I frayed the edges and added a dull blue trim. Then I had Son and Heir do a drawing of his Daddy which I copied onto the jacket in redwork (although in cream, not red). Oh and I added some vintage buttons from my stash. The originals were as boring as buttons can get.

One day, perhaps, if I practice a lot, I will be able to stitch a straight line. I’m fairly happy with my concept, despite my dodgy stitching. With more time, I could probably have found a better jacket to reconstruct too. I’m really pleased with the redwork though.

The Bread Winner was intrigued and not displeased with my efforts. Whether or not he wears it is altogether another question…

This is the original prototype of an idea I had whilst in Sydney. It hasn’t worked out quite like I envisaged. The pattern needs work. I call this little fellow Punk Rooster.

This one has matching pants but I don’t like them so didn’t bother photographing them.

This one I like better. It had two pockets so I moved them to the front. In the process of removing them I tore a little bot of the fabric so the appliqued flowers are there as a way of hiding that. I think it worked out quite well.

I had a field day on Sunday at Camberwell Market and again this morning at St John of Accord Op Shop in Greensborough. Lot’s of bargains, some for crafting, some for instant enjoyment.

My haul from Camberwell Market…

My $5 chair. For sitting on whilst crafting. It needs reupholstering, I just haven’t decided what fabric to use yet.

A $3 doll. I’m hoping she will clean up like new doe my niece.

Lot’s of lovely fabric. The small upholstery piece was $1 and will probably end up as soft furnishings for the Lil Miss’s doll house. The printed calico type fabric is part of a curtain and was also $1. The lovely red fabric is a divine thick flannel. It’s 1 metre 20cm and cost the princely sum of $2

Two shirts at 50 cents a piece for making more sun dresses.

And a $2 necklace for me.

This morning at St John of Accord, I found some black tights for the Lil Miss for $2.  Some lovely brown crochet braid for $3, a couple of metres in all.

Some lovely fabric in the form of sheets. $4 worth in total.

And my favourite find of the day. This  1979 folder of knitting patterns full of children’s and baby clothes as well as household knitting patterns, soft toys and doll clothes. Just fabulous.

Sorry for such an image heavy post but I’m very excited by all my bargains.

I picked up these 2 shirts for $1 each today.

I’m going to use this tutorial to make sun dresses for next summer for the Lil Miss and maybe my niece. Awful shirts but lovely fabric for sun dresses.

Job’s done! Love that tutorial. I’ll be doing that again.

The first shirt I’m not so thrilled with but the second (which ended up with a matching bag) looks fabulous.  The bodice trim is a lace scrap off a dress of mine I reconstructed into a skirt and cardigan lining. I really excited myself by recycling one of the original labels from the shirt which stated that it was made in Australia and gave the washing in instructions. All still applicable so I reattached it in an appropriate position. Clever hey?

I have one shrunken angora/wool polo neck jumper of the Breadwinner’s. One summer dress of mine that doesn’t look so good since my boobs moved south and a slightly too large denim skirt that I don’t love the cut of.

So my plan is to use the waistband and zip of the skirt and add it to the shirt of the dress to make a new skirt. The bodice of the dress will be used as binding on the cardigan I plan to make out of the jumper. I have no plans at present for the bulk of the skirt.

First up is the jumper. I have heavily zigzagged along where I want to cut top hopefully prevent fraying. Then I cut off the neck, leaving a crew neck and down the middle of the front, creating a cardigan. I cut long strips from the bodice of the dress and zigzagged the edges of them (gosh I’d love an overlocker). I have used them to bind the cut edges. Next it needs some method of fastening. I can’t see how I could make button holes through the thickness of the binding and the lace overlay would probably fall apart if I tried. So instead, I decided to make little loops to hook over buttons. The loops are made from the straps of the dress. I didn’t have any buttons I was happy with so I covered a couple with a little more of the lace overlay from the bodice of the dress.

Next job, the skirt. Attaching the waistband of the denim skirt was easy enough. The challenge was the zip. Normally, a zip would be inserted into a seam.  Due to the way I had deconstructed the dress (and the delicacy of the fabric), there is no seam. Secondly, the use of the denim skirt waistband dictated the zip placement. So what I ended up doing is sewing the zip to the outside of the skirt so ti is fully visible. I  did tuck the bottom edges under and heavily zig zag them in place to secure the bottom but the edges were just sewn on top. I used a close together zig zag stitch in invisible thread and sewed several layers of stitching. Then I simply undid the zip and cut the fabric to make the opening. I hope the zig zagging is enough to keep it together in the wash!

I am absolutely thrilled with the result. It’s the loveliest outfit. I managed to retain the gorgeous fit of the dress when I turned it into a skirt and the cardi sits just perfectly on the hips to be quite flattering. I can’t quite believe I’ve made a great little outfit that can be worn separately or together that looks quite so good. OK I’m no sewing guru and I’m sure there are many talented people out there who could do far better but for me, this is a fabulous job. And new clothes for nothing are a joy!

This was a lovely brown merino jumper of the Bread Winner’s that had moth holes in the cuff and collar. Far too nice to throw out so I cut a much larger neckline to remove the holes and shortened the arms to my length. The neckline is now like a boat neck but comes down in a V in front. I zigzagged the edge heavily before cutting and bound in a remnant of a green floral quilting fabric. I added a fuzzy brown vintage button at the base of the V just for fun.

The neck is a little wider than ideal but certainly wearable. Not much I could do about that though, the placement of moth holes dictated neck width.

The original jumper. A little hard to see but it had a polo style collar.

And now

I found this sheet for $2 in an op shop recently and teamed it up with a wonderful tutorial on making circles skirts from What The Craft

I wanted to make a waistband out of the large strip that runs across the top of the sheet but wasn’t quite sure how to do it. Instead I made a stretchy fabric elastic casing and hid it inside. The wide strip waistband attaches at the back with a press stud allowing the llng bits to fall behind like a bustle. I’m quite happy with the effect. Not bad for a first go anyway.

The Front

The Back

I’ve been a bit slack getting these posted because I didn’t want to deal with sorting the hundreds of photos we took on holiday. I’ve finally done it though so I can post a few things I’ve made since we got back.

While I was away, to keep me in the moment, I made this knit dress for Lil Miss’s baby born. I sort of made up the pattern on the fly and without the doll to measure so it’s very rough. Nothing for a 2 year old to complain about though. It will suffice.

Son and heir requested a dinosaur top. I decided to bite the bullet and try sewing with some stretch knit fabric I found as remnants. I used Simplicity 5271 to make a size XS long raglan sleeve t-shirt and appliques a dinosaur to the bottom front and pocket sleeve. The neckline is quite puckered. Stretch knit sewing seems to be an art unto itself. I decided to get straight back on the horse that threw me and made another with elephant applique and managed to do a better job. Still nowhere near perfect but I’m starting to get the hang of it.

In another fit of appplique madness, I made this little bird. I really, really like the bird and I’m guessing there will be many more birds to come. I made one for myself on an old running top to test it out and then, because I was happy with it, I made another for Lil Miss. I positioned my bird peeking around the side rather than fully on the front and I was very happy with the placement as well.

I almost forgot this little sundress in the most divine retro fabric.

And that’s all for now!