birthday bunting

This is one of my favourite things - a birthday bunting that my man puts up the night before each birthday, so that the kids get to see it when they wake up the next morning. The older kids know that we only put it up to celebrate a birthday, so there really is an air of festivity in the house when they see it!

It was really easy to put together since it only involved sewing straight lines - the hard part was having to cut all the alphabets out of felt and hand sew them individually. It was worth the work though - with four kids, we get to use them four times a year!

gathered skirt

I saw this tutorial on MADE and promptly put this on my list of to-dos. My kind of project: straight lines, no buttonholes or zips, looks cute and doesn't take forever to complete.


I decided to do the double layer skirt. I had some chambray left over from making the boys' shorts, so that became the bottom layer. And I used half a yard of a Riley Blake print for the top layer. I did make some tweaks to the tutorial. I didn't want to fold down two layers of cloth for the elastic casing because I thought all that cloth(four layers and the elastic!) bunched up would make it a little uncomfortable. And there are fewer things more frustrating than to make something for a fussy child who refuses to wear what I made! Instead, I made a tube casing for the elastic at the waist by sewing the two pieces of cloth right sides together, and then flipping it right side out and topstitching another line of stitching to create a casing for the elastic. I also made the top layer only two inches shorter than the bottom layer, even though the tutorial recommends a three inch difference, just because I wanted to use up more of the pretty print.


She looks happy enough to be wearing it, no? Noah is busy stuffing his face with ice cream in the background.

Now to make her a top to go with the skirt. I still have a mermaid iron-on match that she picked out to use, maybe on the pocket of a new top?

true story

Ok, so. True story.

Late 2003, I was pregnant with my first son. (He was born March 2004 and is now SEVEN years old!) I was talking with my husband on the phone and said, "Hey, won't it be cool if I get a sewing machine, then I can sew clothes for my baby!" I thought it was a brilliant idea.

Silence on the line. Then he says something to the effect of how I'd end up going crazy frustrated with the sewing machine. Anyway, new baby on the way, how would I find the time?

This was not quite the enthusiastic response I expected.

Then, Joshua was born. This baby turned our lives upside down because he refused to sleep. Of course he was cute, and sure, we adored him. But we were so sleep deprived. He was the reason my man started drinking coffee. And I was tired, all the time.

In 2009, and four kids and a helper later, I wondered again if I could get a sewing machine. This time, my man hauled me and our four down to town to buy me a sewing machine. I chose the simplest one I could find, just in case I did lose interest!

And now I sew.

noah is three

Noah is in exactly the same place that Joshua was when he turned three - train crazy. So he got a choo-choo train cake for his celebration at school. I think he liked it because he came home from school and gave me a kiss and a hug, and said, "Love you, mommy."

Apart from the cake, I also made a birthday outfit for the birthday boy. Dark blue chambray shorts from an Easy Fit pattern off Etsy; and a appliqued monogram t-shirt to match. He calls the shorts his "birthday shorts" and he loved them, so I was happy. The shorts took a bit longer to make with the patch pockets and double line of stitching around the hem, but I was quite pleased with how they turned out: not so homemade looking.

Maori much?
I don't know why he decided to pose like that, other than just because he was so pleased to be wearing his birthday shorts and wielding his birthday present: a Thomas umbrella. Such fights that has led to between him and the baby.

This was Noah when he first came home to us. This is on the car ride home - first time in the car seat! He looks suitably bewildered. How he's grown.

daiso buy

The older kids spent the afternoon at grandma's house, so I made a quick dash down to Spotlight. I couldn't resist dropping in at Daiso just to see what they had - not that I've ever managed to make it out of Daiso without buying anything!!

Anyway, I found this piece purple checked cloth for $2 and couldn't pass it up. There was enough to make a simple dress for Lucy. I based it loosely on the ruffle sleeve top tutorial here, but somehow the ruffle on my sleeves ended up much shorter. Oh well, it was still cute anyway. I added a line of ric rac around the bottom, so that it wouldn't look so plain. Otherwise, it was a loose, comfy dress, cheap and quick to make.

I thought Lucy looked really cute in it, especially since she let me put her hair up in two ponytails. She lasted all through church with her hair done up, but the moment we got into the car to leave, she pulled the ties out of her hair!

ruffles are not my friends

Eva dress pattern from Manimina on Etsy

Lessons learnt from making these dresses:

1. When making matching dresses for the girls, don't go all the way matchy-matchy. I sewed these two dresses at the same time, and ended mightily confused when I sewed the bottom green strip from Lucy's dress onto Emma's. The dress looked extremely unbalanced, with the narrow green bottom band, and I was so annoyed that the pattern seller had gotten her measurements mixed up. Until I figured out that I had mixed up the pieces from the two dresses. Oops. Major unpicking and some silent swearing.

2. Making ruffles for a gathered skirt is ok, but doing four tiers of ruffles in one sewing session is too much. I took a while to recover from all that ruffling.

3. Emma loved the twirl factor of her dress, which reminded me of why I did all that ruffling in the first place.