Customised Play Tent

Here is a tent that I made for someone who ordered it at the ICAN gallery / shop (at Redpoint artspaces in Port Kembla) - just finished it this morning, and I am really happy with how it turned out!

The customer like the example I have at the shop also with hexagons, but wanted a retro boy feel to it. I stuck mainly with the blues and oranges - some great retro reprint fabrics were used.

A New Dress For Me - Retro Style - Simplicity #7888

This is the pattern I used - I found it on ebay. It is a very easy pattern. There is the front (cut twice), the tie (cut twice), back bodice (cut once), back skirt (cut twice), a collar (cut twice), there is also a pocket you can add, and the usual facings around the front and neck.

I constructed mine a little different to the instructions, using more modern methods, but the outcome would look the same. And instead of putting a hook & eye for the inside of the wrap, I just added a small tie to the side seam. It took me two nights (after the kids were in bed!). And to be honest I only straight stitched the seams (no overlocking - because Troy got to my overlocker and de-threaded the whole thing and I couldn't be bothered fixing that on the weekend; and no zigzag - quick results are good!). The seam allowances on these older patterns is quite large (1.5cm), and I doubt this fabric would fray that much anyway.

The below photos are how it turned out, quite happy really! I'm pretty sure I will make this again. One variation I would make next is a rolled collar.

Easy Lace Skirt Free Tutorial

This is so easy it takes under an hour to whip up!

1. Find cheap skirt - I got a stretch knit skirt from Supre for $10
2. Find lace to attach - mine is a lace trim from an old curtain
3. Work out how many layers of lace you need. Overlap the lace by a bit so that you don't see any stitching - I only needed 2 layers, and overlapped mine by about 1.5"
4. Work out how long you need each circle of lace. If it's a non-stretchy skirt you can just measure width of the skirt, double it, and add 1" for a seam. If it's a stretchy skirt you may want to make your lace circle bigger and stretch the skirt as you stitch it on - check how much your skirt stretches when you walk. (Note - if your lace is quite stiff, it will probably not hang nicely if you have to stretch your skirt too much when sewing) - my lace circles were only 4" or 5" bigger than the skirt.
5. Sew the seam for each lace circle, and press seams open.
6. Attach the lace circles to the skirt. The bottom row should be attached so the lace is longer than the skirt. The top row should be attached just below the waist band. For a non stretchy skirt you can use straight or zig-zag stitch. For a stretchy skirt use a wide zig-zag stitch. Quarter the lace circle and the skirt, pin together and stitch.
7. Wear with pride! 

Funny Faces

Here are just a few funny faces I have snapped over our Christmas and New Years break ...

Cousins:

Troy at Christmas:

 Troy's first birthday - love chocolate cake mum!:

Big sister Lilly brushing Troy's hair; Troy about to fall asleep!:

Kids Play Tent (Teepee)

This tent was for my neighbour - for a combined Birthday & Christmas present for her nephew. I think this one turned out great - really love the colours. This time I did a 4 sided tent. I think it is a little easier to put up, and it's still about the same size. I made this pattern up myself (really not that hard to do being an engineer by trade!), and it used 4m of 140cm wide fabric. This one I picked up from Spotlight - they also had a lovely red and orange stripe fabric too.

There are two velcro fasteners down the front, and the closing straps are also finished with velcro. I think this would fit about 3 x 4yr olds (based on the size of my 4 yr old). Hope this boy loves his tent when he gets it!

Some Christmas presents - play tent & house bag

This year I made a few Christmas presents. (What a surprise!) So Lilly and her best friend both got a house bag. I forgot to take a photo of Ellen's, but this is Lilly's. (Ellen's is more or less the same, but with a blue and yellow flower print on the outside walls.)

And Connor got this play tent. We had to try this out in the back yard and it was a hit! Love the Ikea fabric.

A few more of these tents may have to get made I think! This one was a 6 sided tent, and I think I might try a 4 sided one next. Electrical conduit (25mm PVC pipe) was used as the poles - as you can see I didn't cover the top ends of the poles - but I really don't think the kids noticed!

Refashion: Remodelling a shirt

 

This shirt is going to be part of my demonstration at the Viva-La-Gong Festival this coming weekend (Saturday 12th November). As you can see you get the before and the after all in one!

What I did:
Darts in the front and the back, as well as taking in the side seam to shape the shirt a little better. The shoulder was still a little big so I also added two little pleats to take care of that. The sleeve was the trickiest. I did want a puff sleeve. I unpicked the sleeve and traced the shape of the sleeve pattern. I also unpicked the cuff from the sleeve. Then I used a 'slash and splay' technique to create the puff sleeve pattern: I spaced 5 vertical lines evenly spaced across the sleeve pattern (not under the armpit though), cut along these lines, spaced the pattern pieces about 1" apart, redraw the sleeve pattern. I then used the sleeve to cut out the new sleeve pattern (I did need the join two pieces to make a piece of fabric that was wide enough). I then re-attached the cuff (with a gap to make sure it goes over my arm/elbow). The collar was also modified: unpick the back of the collar, turn inside out as much as possible, re-stitch collar to the size you want, trim excess, turn right side out, topstitch opening shut.

Do I like it?:
Apart from the obvious fact that only half the shirt is done, it does seem to fit really well and I can't wait to do the other half!