little vintage style

This last week has been somewhat of a doozy.  We have our fair share of crappy days in this household but I generally avoid blogging about them.  

But this week it's the story behind the pictures, so I decided to share!

On Tuesday this week I had both my girls at home.  Miss A came down with a fever last Friday, which developed into Tonsilitis over the weekend. 

On Monday night, at 11pm to be exact, Miss B woke up covered head to toe in welts, some as big as the palm of my hand, and scratching like mad. 

An obvious allergic reaction to something I knew (thanks to her history of allergies), but what??? 

I gave her anti-histamine but an hour later she was going almost mental with the scratching. 

It was upsetting to watch her because there was nothing I could do to make it better. 

So off to the hospital we trotted. 

Two hours later (by which time the welts had finally resolved thanks to the anti-histamine) the lovely doctor came out to see us and tell us I'd done all the right things and sometimes you just don't know what causes these reactions...............

So, home again, home again, jiggity jig and we got to bed at 2.30am. 

Thankfully we all had a nice sleep in on Tuesday morning. 

Seeing though Miss B and I had had abit of a rough night, and seeing though Miss A was under the weather with Tonsilitis I decided to just go with the flow on Tuesday.  So when the girls requested to dress up in their "olden days dresses" as they call them, I happily obliged.

I've been admiring Ingrid's little vintage style posts over the past few weeks so decided to join in with hart + sew and photograph my girl's in these circa 1970's dresses handed down to me from my mother-in-law.

These dresses are not just saved up for rainy (or in this case sick) days, they do often wear them out. 

Last year when Miss A's school had a mufty day she chose to wear this dress to school.  I can only imagine what some of the other mum's were thinking!

Miss A

The tag on this dress reveals it is a Woolworths brand dress.  All cotton - it feels like flannel, very warm in winter.  It has sweet little pink and purple flowers all over and is trimmed with lace around the collar, waist, sleeves and skirt.  It has a ruffle collar and a panel of smocking around the waistline.

 

Miss B

This dress is also Woolworths brand and is a cotton/polyester blend.  Definately a summer dress.  The print is little pink and orange flowers.  It has a lovely peter pan collar and lace trim down the front.

Miss B is wearing a vintage cardi, also passed on to my girls by their Nanna.  I do believe this was made by my husbands Aunty on her knitting machine.........

Now please tell me, don't they look sweet?!

Dolores dress - aka August (2010) one per month project

Finally finished.

 

I have never been so pleased to finish a project. 

Not only because I have kept my sweet daughter Miss A, who so desperately wanted this dress for her 6th birthday, waiting e.i.g.h.t. months for this dress, but also because I am so OVER it.

Having said that, I do love this dress. 

I am so glad I persisted with it, and that I didn't rush it or cut corners or say "that'll do" when certain elements weren't quite right.

Like the neck - which when finished as per the book was quite large (as is the whole dress). 

  So I added two rows of single crochet and one row of picot to match the edging around the sleeves and bottom of the dress. 

I did contemplate doing these rows in pink and red as per the sleeves and skirt but felt it would have made the dress too busy.  I'm glad I stuck with green.

Or the belt which turned out so long it could've wrapped around Miss A's waist twice.  So I frogged about 30cm off the length of it and re-crocheted the red border. 

So, afew details about this project.

Pattern: Dolores dress, Crochet Design for kids - Lucinda Guy

Yarn: 4 ply Luxury in Forest (green), brick (red), baby pink and baby blue - Bendigo Woolen Mills

Time: started August 2010, finished May 2011

I made this dress following the pattern for a size 4-5 (the largest size in the book). 

After taking Miss A's measurements I felt sure the dress would fit her.  But as the months rolled on by I got more and more concerned as to whether it would still fit. 

I needn't have worried though, the dress is actually still too big for Miss A - phew! 

Not only because it still fits, but also because it means that after all that time and effort the dress will see another winter's worth of wearing. 

And that's before it gets handed on down the line to Miss B!

Thankfully Miss A still loves it, and wore it to a birthday party on the weekend!

On-the-Go Art Satchels for sale!!!!

Get yours now!
 
Available on-line from my Etsy shop
 http://www.etsy.com/shop/lovelylittlesweetpea

or, if you're in Sydney, from
Shorties at Newtown
Molly & Jack at Oatley
 or
 my messy room at Summer Hill.

 

I'm so excited about this!!!

 It's been eighteen months since I designed and made my first

On-the-Go Art Satchel as a Christmas present for Miss A.

 

I loved it, she loved it and lot's of you loved it too. 

I've had such supportive, encouraging feedback about the Art Satchels I've made, not only from you guys via my blog, but whenever we're out and about and people notice the one's I made for my girls. 

Over the past eighteen months I've made at least half a dozen more as gifts for both boys and girls and I have been assured that each and every one is treasured, loved and most importantly, put to good use!

After making the first few, the idea of making and selling

On-the-Go Art Satchels did occur to me, but there was something holding me back.  Self doubt most likely. 

Would anyone really want to buy something I made????

Then a couple of months ago I was at the parents and kids yoga class I regularly attend with my girls.  Miss B has not yet got the stamina to do a whole class so we took her Art Satchel along. 

After the class, our most wonderful Yoga teacher Eleni noticed Miss B's Art Satchel. 

She was completely and utterly taken with it!  And totally blown away when my girls told her I had made it.  She asked me then and there to make some for her to sell through her Yoga Studio and she wanted a couple for her nieces too.

So I decided if I was going to do this I might as well go the whole hog as they say and try selling them via other outlets as well.

I approached my messy room and was super excited when the lovely owner Stav said she would take some.

The past six weeks or so have been taken up by choosing and buying fabric.  Making the Art Satchels and most time consuming of all, deciding on what kind of labelling I wanted.

 

Once I decided on that, I had some swing tags printed and

ordered a lovely little sweetpeas business stamp.  Oh the excitement of it all!

Last week I finally delivered four On-the-Go Art Satchel's to my messy room,

see them there, hanging in the front window.

I also delivered six to Eleni's Yoga and Movement Studio.

So that's ten Art Satchels I've now sold!

In addition to selling hand made On-the-Go Art Satchels through actual shops I'm also going to open an etsy shop - stay tuned for that one.

As a by-product of all this I've decided to remove the free tutorial for the

On-the-Go Art Satchels from my blog. 

Sorry if this puts you out at all.

 

But I am also in the process of updating the tutorial with a couple of minor modifications and alternate options I have developed after making so many of them, which improve the overall finish and make the whole process quicker and easier then before. 

This new and improved tutorial will also be available for sale as a downloadable pattern once I get it finished. 

Did I mention yet how exciting this is?

So once again, I've written a long winded post - but that seems to be my style.  Short and sweet just ain't in my vocabulary.........

happy mother's day

from my garden to you!

Hope you are spoilt rotten tommorrow

because you sooooo deserve it.

do you scoubidou too?

If you have a primary school age child you will probably know what I'm talking about!

Just as addictive as any other hand craft..................

After months of begging from Miss A, I finally set about learning how to make "scoobie chains".

I found many, many tutorials on YouTube, each one less helpful than the last. 

Miss A advised me that a girl in her class knew how to do it, so I arranged a visit to her house during the school holidays and sat down with her mum who showed me how to do it!

So the question remains, do you scoobie?

retrospective - Miss B

April 2006 - 5 days old

April 2007

April 2008

April 2009

April 2010

April 2011

I did this when Miss A turned 5 and really wanted to do it again for Miss B now that she is 5.  As a keepsake for me.  Also it gave me the chance to take some time to look back at how my beautiful girl has grown!

Born unexpectedly 7 weeks early, she weighed just 2.2kg - not a bad size for a premi actually.  There was no stopping her though, the hospital sent her home just two weeks later, much to Dean's and my distress.  Our main thoughts at the time were, "she's not even supposed to be born yet.  Are you sure she's ready to go home?"

She's a real trooper our little Miss B.

Strong, determined, funny, shy, a daydreamer.

Our little one.

my creative space

 I bought some Kona cotton solids from fabricdepot.com back in January so that I could make a number of quilts I've been planning for a while.

I have a stack of Liberty fat quarters, a hunky dory charm pack, a california dreamin' jelly roll and a Saffron Craig fat quarter pack which came with a quilt pattern Dandelion Window's. 

I have started the Dandelion Windows quilt, truly I have.  I'm using different solids to the pattern though.

Hopefully writing this and publishing it will encourage me to actually finish this quilt - and the others!

For creative spaces from crafty types who actually have something to show for their time, go here.