FO: Leila's Everyday Blouse (+ Giveaway)

This wee blouse is another test for Lydia of Little Kiwis Closet.  This is the third time I have been lucky enough to test one of her patterns and I have been impressed each time by the attention to detail in the pattern, the myriad of options that she fits into each pattern and also the thoroughness of her testing process.  This time around unfortunately I only had time to test version one of the pattern, which while it is just adorable has actually been improved upon and made even more adorable (can you believe that?).

When I got the call to test this I had a look through my stash and Miss M's wardrobe and I decided to use up some lovely vintage broiderie anglaise that I inherited from Mum's stash, every girl needs a nice white blouse in their wardrobe after all.  In keeping with the vintagey theme I went with the sweet peter pan collar and the puffed sleeves with frill (rather than a band).  I am so thrilled with the result and Miss M loves it.

Although Miss M is 3.5y I actually made her the 18-24m size and added length as required as this size best matched her chest measurement.  I would suggest sizing this by chest measurement as it has plenty of positive ease built in anyway.  After this version was made up the pattern was adjusted slightly to have be narrower in the shoulder so that the sleeve isn't too 'dropped', but other than that (and the fact that I lengthened it) the overall silhouette is the same.  I finished off the sleeves of mine with some vintage lace and used cute kitten buttons I picked up at a fabric sale last year.  I found that this pattern went together well and the instructions were very easy to follow.  The skirt worn in the photos is by the lovely Anne of Threadalicious.

This is a fabulous staple blouse pattern.  There are two collar options (peter pan and a ruffle collar) and size different sleeve options (puffed with band, puffed with frill, puffed with long sleeve, flowing long sleeve, flutter sleeve and cap sleeve), so there really is a blouse for every occasion in there.  It also covers sizes 9-12m up to 8y :-)

Because I love this pattern so much, and I haven't had a giveaway for ages I've decided to run a little giveaway with this post.  Just enter via rafflecopter below and I will draw the winner on 30/3/14 (NZ time).

Thanks for looking and happy sewing.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Staglands

Over the summer holidays our local library ran a a reading challenge for school kids.  There were a series of stages which were completed by reading a certain number of books and completing activities, and with each stage completed you got an entry into the prize draw.  We were very lucky to get a phone call to say that Mr A had won a prize and he was so excited when it turned out to be a family pass to Staglands Wildlife Park.
Today we decided to use the pass, packed up a picnic and headed off.  We had an awesome day there getting up close to the animals.  Here is our day in pictures.

This must be one of the few places anywhere where the main things bugging you for food scraps at lunch time are magnificent peacocks.

 The kids loved the obstacle course and flying fox :-)

 And we ended the visit with a well deserved ice cream and coffee.

A huge thanks to Staglands, the library and Mr A for a fab day out.

Time for the Tooth Fairy

It has been a long time coming but today at 6y11m Mr A lost his first tooth.  It hasn't actually been wiggly all that long and he was so proud.  I picked him up from OSCAR to be presented with this

It came out at lunch time and the teacher taped it to the paper so he wouldn't lost it.  So when we got home he wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy on the back and it's now safely tucked under his pillow.

Here is the aftermath!

And because she doesn't like to miss out here are Miss M's teeth too as she requested, hehehe.

Now I just hope the Tooth Fairy remembers to come tonight.

Maybe I have a Slight Problem?

One of my dear friends, who is also very crafty, came to visit last week and asked to borrow one of my patterns.  I dragged the big box (note not the only box) up from the garage and we found what we were after.
Now my amazing DP is writing me a database for all my patterns and I'm slowly adding them all into it so I can search for patterns without having to go through boxes and boxes of them.  I have put all the patterns in this box into the database so while it was upstairs I decided to put them all in numerical order so once located in the database they are now easy to find.

Hmm maybe I really don't need all of these after all, but you never know they might come in handy one day :-)

Girls Night In At The Movies

I am very lucky to have some fantastic local friends who are just as crafty and nutty as I am.  We get together as a group to debrief on life's events, put the world to rights and occasionally do some knitting as often as possible, well officially once a week but I'm more likely to make it along once a month or so.  I've decided this year to make much more of an effort to make it to these wee get togethers this year after I became a bit of a phantom member of the group last year as life got in the way.
A couple of weeks ago we had a girly night in at the movies.  We decided to watch The Breakfast Club and we all contributed something to goody bags for everyone.  It was a fabulous night of fun and gossip and laughter, some movie watching and a little crafting.  Here is what ended up in our goody bags, we were all so spoilt.  Everything was themed around the movie and people did so well with their 80's/breakfast themed ideas.
The whole lot.

 The yarn (which is so scrummy)

 Rubbish photo of some gorgeous teapot stitch markers.

FO: Our Reptile

This last week I had Mr A home from school sick with tonsillitis.  By Tuesday he was getting bored of begin off school and not seeing his friends so I needed to think of something fun to do, and quickly.
Back at christmas time the kids gave me an awesome book of fabric and knitted toys to make.  Of course they both went through and picked out their favourites (which totalled over half the book).  I have been a totally bad Mum and not made anything but thought a day home with a sick child was the perfect time to start.
So we dragged out the book and decided on a pattern.  Step one was to draft the pattern and pick the fabric colours.  Mr A picked a wee lizardy thing called 'Zoltan' and we delved into my fleece fabric box and off we went.

The pattern called for detail on one side only, but who ever heard of a one sided lizards thing?  So we doubled up on the eyes etc and got to cutting out.  I did all the sewing while Mr A chilled out watching a movie and then it was time for him to start helping.  He spent ages stuffing his 'monster' and did a fab job of it in the end.

Then I sewed up his tummy (the monster's not Mr A's) and added his mouth.  Hey presto one lizards thing that Mr A has named 'Our Reptile' (because we made it together).