Colourful Little Market Bags

In honour of our upcoming trip I made all the girls a little market bag to tote around

Isn't this bug material super cute?

I added a pocket to the outside for collecting sea-shells, rocks or whatever else might need collecting.

... and beacause I enjoyed making them so much, I made an extra one (yes, that is 4 in total) for a friend at Jessica's school who has a birthday today.

Dotty Dress

I love this material.

I made this dress using a polka dot material and pairing it with a wide dark brown ribbon. The colour combination worked really well (here are some previous ones).

It was a gift for a friend at work's little girl for their beach holiday. Megan is fair skinned and these colours worked so well on her.

I finished the hem with white ricrac, and it finished this simple dress off beautifully.

Pillow case dress ... version 2

I have done it! I made another Pillow case dress, and following these instructions more carefully, it came out so much better. It is fuller and prettier and a lot twirlier....

She likes it too!

I still didn't line it, as it is just too hot in these parts, but overall I am very happy with the outcome!

My very best friend is moving to Zanzibar this week (who wouldn't want to go there?), and so I made 3 of the exact same ones... One for Jessica and the other two for my best friends girls...

I can just see them on one of those shiny white beaches in these dresses, playing on the sand...

We will miss you dearly... and hope you are going to love every moment of this wonderful adventure!

Some sewing to share...

As part of the previous post (that I lost when trying to save), I wanted to share all the other bits of sewing I have done in the last while..
I made this sunny, green and yellow dress from this Butterick pattern:

I love the bright yellow, and it is such a light dress for the summer!

Then I also made my Sweet Little Girl a Pillowcase dress, using this tutorial from A Little Loveliness. Except, I did not read all the instructions, and in my haste to get it done, I did not cut the fabric wide enough, and so it lacks that beautiful fullness, that makes Melissa's dresses so gorgeous.

I used a pretty print, and it turned out a fresh sun dress...

(Can you tell it is Summer in South Africa?)

I have a few other things that I would like to share, but have to take some more pictures first....

To all of you on the other side of the world whom are just awaking to this day, I hope your Monday is fantastic!

Sewing Weekend Fun!

So I am terribly frustrated as I have just written a very long post and when I tried to upload it, I received an error message, and of course the entire post was lost!!

So in a nutshell....

I brought my sewing machine down from our bedroom to our dining room on the weekend so that I could do some social sewing whilst watching the kids play in the little baby pool we had put up on the grass...

My Granny let me scratch around in her stockpile on the weekend, and I found a huge amount of fabulous fabrics... some dating quite some years ago...

Jessica fell in love with two of the shiniest bits of fabric, and so I made her two very simple twirly skirts:

See the ghastly '70's shiny blue metallic one? Well, she loves that one so much she went to bed with it.. I kid you not!

A few of my favourite things............

My hubby's mom brought me these wonderful old children's clothes patterns from her jumble collection.......They are an absolute treasure and I can't wait to get sewing.....

Note!!! I am starting out with the "EASY" pattern......... no button holes and zips. Just little poppers to fasten at the top, although I have a feeling I might try my hand at making some button holes as I have some very cute buttons that I would like to use.

I found this gorgeous fabric with the butterfly print at a small little sewing shop in our village, and what a find it was. They have the most beautiful fabrics and a nice little scrap basket, with off-cut pieces at a really good price.

So, inbetween trying to get my first quilt done and everything else, I am going to try and cut the pattern this week..... will keep you posted!