bird bag

Here is my new handbag, affectionatly known as birdbag to the children of the DM house

It’s a bit of a hybrid of bags made from two of Nicole Mallalieu’s gorgeous patterns (know to me as the bag queen)

Inbetween the bird bag and the first bag I made from Nicole’s panel bag pattern,  I had a faux leather cream quilted falling apart bucket sort of bag

Me and my bag on the way to Moomba (a parade in Melbourne in March)

I liked the look of this bag but was constantly looking for my keys.  They and all of the other things a mother keeps in her handbag fell out of the flimsy internal pockets when the bag was so much as placed on the passenger seat of the car.  So when the faux leather started to reveal black plastic piping cord it was time to upgrade.  First and foremost I wanted somewhere simple and secure with incredibly easy access for my keys and phone – a purse with a butterfly clasp stuck to the front of my bag would do it – and my new bag was born.

Fortunately working with patterns from the same designer the two bag patterns melded together with the greatest of ease.  I simply lengthened the base of the purse and omitted the boxed corners and sewed it into my front panel.

Inside I’ve got a gorgeous lining gifted to me by Anita at  Faboutdoor fabrics when the bird fabric was late into her warehouse.  I probably would’ve used a basic black from stash, so now I have a lining to make me smile!  I’ve put in a zip pocket and two compartment pockets – enough for all my stuff.

A magnetic clasp to close her up, some silver o-rings on the strap and some little feet on the base finish off the birdbag.  Being made from outdoor fabric I’m expecting it should last the distance, but am already eyeing off other fabrics for more bags….

Matilda took a few photos of mum and bag

Should be a nice pop of colour for winter

You may have noticed some photos are better than others – I haven’t got my camera this week and my gorgeous girlfriend Jo took the clear and composed shots.  The rest were taken with my phone – sorry!

 

 

purse

This is my first ever purse with a frame

I bought a pattern from the same place I got my  bag pattern a few years ago.  Nicole’s patterns are very easy to follow and tell you everything you need to know.  Having said that I would love to attend a class so I could learn more about attaching the purse to its frame.  Mine is not perfect, but still an acceptable first go.

This is my second attempt at the fabric part, and the purse is standing unassisted - with no stuffing or anything to lean on.   

The first bag was made from same fabric but with only lightweight fusing.  The bag was very floppy and it was obvious that the frame was going to be too heavy.

The finished bag has a medium weight fusing on both fabric and lining and fuseable wadding on the fabric.  Next time I won’t fuse the lining.  Fabric is from Ikea, lining from mum’s stash

It’s a birthday present for my dearest friend.  Hope you like it!

Spent an hour or so yesterday with my mouse sander and another hard rubbish find

 

sewing again

My machines have been serviced and now it’s time to get back into the groove.

I spent a few hours on Friday in the company of tradesmen (will this never end?) tracing off a few patterns for pyjama pants and then cutting….

I like to do a bulk cut so that when I get the urge to sew I’m not lost in the questions of what will I make, what pattern, what fabric and which trims.  It gives me the chance to then collect or order any extra items I need, and change my mind – as I’m inclined to do

I cut pj pants for each of the kids, 2 dresses for Matilda, a top for Amelia and another skirt for Matilda

I made one each for the girls this weekend

This version of the Maya dress was a top at 6pm last night and a dress an hour or so later.  After a fitting I told Amelia I’d trim the top with something pretty.  Looking around I spied this Liberty floral that is as good a colour match as you could hope for.  Maybe because both fabrics are from the UK (the wool jersey is the most beautiful quality Scottish wool I used many years ago…)  It was truly mindblowing to see these 2 fabrics purchased more than 12 years apart come together.

I made the hem reasonably deep and trimmed with a narrow velvet ribbon to give it some extra weight.  The ruffles are significantly larger than the pattern, again to balance the heavy weight wool jersey

Matilda’s skirt is made from this Lisette pattern I picked up at Spotlight a few months ago.  The Babushka cord was a winter 2011 purchase that I planned to make an A-line dress from, but this is far more Matilda’s style.  The teal/blue velveteen was a chance pickup last week when I was buying something else.  That’s often the way it works here at DM!

The pattern went together reasonably well.  I cut the large 1 piece pocket and facing into 2 pieces which was much more economical, and used my favourite gathering method (swimsuit elastic) at the hem which will probably get a fair test from Matilda

 Now that the machines are warm I’ll have to see what else I can do!

(wordpress just did a song and dance for my 200th post.  woohoo!)

 

silicone

In another story of shortcuts taken by the previous owner of our house I’ve spent the best part of the past 2 days in our ensuite

The first chapter starts with really awful silicone (I still don’t know the difference between silicone and caulk?) that was going black

and the second was the join between the floor and tiles,  just finished with grout that was cracking and falling out

After removing all of the old silicone I cleaned with a mould killer (and am still high on the fumes!) and then started scrubbing the floor.  In a Cinderella marathon I cleaned the whole floor that incidentally was so poorly laid, grouted and finished that it can’t be cleaned with any conventional mop or sponge.  Water pools in the uneven tiles and deep grout lines, and fibres from the mop tear on the rough surface of the stone.  Unfortunately cleaning often involves a stiff brush, so this time I decided to make it last and I’ve coated the floor with a tile and grout sealer.  Fingers crossed

Rather than just using white, I’ve used 3 colours

Light grey at the edge of the marble vanity.  It one of those accentuate what you’d like to see – the benchtop does now look bigger to me

White around the basin and the bath

and Ivory at the floor edge

Hopefully it all blends in and no-one will really notice it – that is the idea I guess

The colour palatte they chose still grates on me, but there’s not much I can do about that in the short term.  The combination of rustic flooring, subway tiles, carrara marble vanity and a reproduction border tile with bullnose capping is confused, but drawing on the grey as my feature and adding to that with the grey silicone and recent grey paint it’s starting to get a little cohesion.

Maybe I’ll kook for a grey bathroom rug (not a bathmat) to cover this decorative panel

I’ve tried doing my own silicone before and it wasn’t this successful, but I saw these at a big hardware store and they made all the difference

I used the 10mm first then the 8, all with the detergent spray bottle.  I also wore disposable rubber gloves and they were surprisingly good, especially if I needed to refill any areas as my fingers didn’t stick

How does your silicone look?  This is easier than you think

 

Outdoor cushions

You could be mistaken for thinking cushions in this fabric were for me – but no, they are for my Dad and my step Mum (who is not actually my step mum as they haven’t married, but calling her Dad’s partner doesn’t tell the story of the role this lovely woman plays in our family)

I’ve made 6 of these cushions for a teak outdoor setting, the four you see above and another two of a slightly different size

The fabric is specifically made for outdoor use.  It’s heavy weight, water, fade and stain resistant and I backed that up with quality foam rated for outdoor use.  Having said that I’m pretty sure these will be kept under a verandah and will hopefully make a comfy addition to their outdoor setting.

I really like this fabric and have been considering it for some time to use by the pool – but sometimes you can go OG (that’s overgreen)

I am buying another fabric from the same store today

but you’ll have to wait and see what I do with this

 

 

bedlinen

Bedlinen is one I always find tricky.  As a sewing job it’s not at all complicated, yet unless you go for a patchwork or stripe effect the wide-width fabrics on the market make your choices fairly limited.

For some time now I’ve been looking for something for the girl’s bedroom.  I made both girls a wall hanging quilt before they were born as a gift from their grandmother ‘dearMolly’

 

I’ve been looking for something pink, green, bit of a taupe/ecru colour…something that would tie the room and all of these colours together

and whilst searching for StarWars bedlinen (another story) I found this beautiful sheet set.

What reads flat sheet, fitted sheet and pillowcase to you, reads doona cover and sheets to me.  My kids have never been good sleepers under a flat sheet – they end up wrapped in sheet with no doona or blankets, so to make a doona cover from the flat sheet works perfectly for me.  It’s also a really affordable option and doubles the print use as we mix the fitted sheet and pillowcase with our existing doona covers and vice versa, so we’ll always have butterflies on the beds.  I’ve used a plain pink on the reverse.

 

I definitely have curtains for these eave bed spaces on my to do list, especially now Amelia has become an avid reader who enjoys snuggling up with a good book.  Curtains will make sharing this room a little easier.

And I have to paint that bookcase

The non-matching quilts at the end of the beds are ones I can’t bear to part with, and the girls love because they know their grandma made.  The blue one was mine, hand stitched hexagons, made by mum for my 21st.  The green quilt mum made for her mother.  So many memories!

Did you see what the girls did with their hairbands from the disco party? (bedside lamps)  Just a shame I bought a purple one for Matilda.

This week I’m madly sewing cushions and should have more to show you by the weekend

Lx

 

 

seven

Last month Amelia turned 7

Sorry Dear Molly for my absence – parties, crafting and enjoying the holidays with the kids have kept me far away from the computer

She decided to have a disco at home

I’ve blanked out our personal details from this invite I made in the humble ‘paint’ program.  I would dearly love to know my way around photoshop and illustrator enough to justify buying them.  I’ll put that on my to do list!

I can’t take much of the credit for this great party as we had a kids disco and karaoke company come to run the show with 2 great hosts, all the music, lights and games.  But we dressed the room with plenty I kept after my 40th disco a few years ago and a new mirror ball we found at a discount store and a downloaded spinning disco ball for the plasma.

We invited the whole class and they all came!  then a few more from last years class.  There were 26 kids bopping away and they were under the spell of their disco queen as she guided them through a lightning fast 2 hours of dancing and karaoke fun.  They hardly even stopped for food, so I was justified in my decision to basically lay on chips, lollies and pink sprinkle biscuits and little iced cakes instead of lots of hot food.

The cake was nearly a disaster!  I’d seen a great cake online that was simply a bought cake with kit-kat’s around the edge filled with smarties.

photo: flickr the great british cakery

Problems started when I didn’t have enough kit-kats to go around.  My gorgeous cousin Clare was helping me out in what became a comedy as kit-kats were falling off and the smarties became a cascade…

So I was totally astounded when the kids all gave a ooohhhhh, wow  when the cake made it to the table

Did I mention Matilda had a ball!  You’d never know there’s 3 years between them

Then there were 24 presents to open and the resounding theme was art and craft.  Thankyou to everyone who gave Amelia such gorgeous and thoughtful gifts.

Luckily I’d decided that Amelia needed a desk in her room for writing and drawing (rather than the craft table in the girls playroom)

I bought a dressing table on ebay.  When she grows and no longer fits under the middle draw I’ll just take it out

I used an old chair from hard rubbish (again!) and got to work repairing it

 

red?  because I had this in my stash.  It came from Mum, so Dear Molly was a part of this project too. x

Primer, paint and wadding

I now own an electric staple gun.   Unfortunately I did this before I saw a similar refurb (notice I’m not calling it a restoration) on BHG last weekend.  The presenter simply upholstered a piece of mdf then screwed it from underneath to the seat of the chair (sorry no image available).  This would’ve been so much easier!

Amelia loves it, and those drawers are full!

 

Garden

Last weekend I spent quite a few hours painting more white trim – doors and skirtingboards – in the back family room and kitchen.  Not much to show and now that it’s done I don’t think many people would notice, but I can announce that the back living room is officially a            Nana yellow free zone. 

But it was during the week that something quite amazing happened

I worked in the garden!

When we bought this house nearly 5 years ago it was mid-drought with strict water restrictions.  Despite this the owner watered her huge garden for pretty much every minute she could to keep a lush oasis of water thirsty plants.  We arrived and adopted a ‘develop a drought friendly water habit or die and be replaced’ strategy.  Many plants died, others proved their resilience.   The front of the house looked like this

The tree branches on the left are from our nature strip (verge) tree that has been pruned hard away from power lines by the power company/council in line with the new bushfire regulations.  Good news for us is you can now see our beloved palm tree.  The tree at the bottom left was a cherry blossom that died.  We’ve been told it was a combination of old age and drought, along with its position facing west when most of its foliage was burnt a few summers ago.  At that same time we lost quite a few roses.  I’ve been wanting to update these garden beds for some time.

Last year we planted a row of Magnolia Little Gems along our front-side fence (no photo sorry)  inspired by the same ones we planted when we renovated our old house

I also loved the Gardenias, and when Matilda and I visited our local garden centre during the week and they were on special and looking so big and healthy, we just had to buy them!

I like the idea of plants as fashion for the house, and to move this plant combination on from 2005 I’ve been inspired by my neighbours who have gorgeous Cordylines in their front garden.  Rather than copying, I feel this will see our gardens complimenting each other.  And if they don’t see it this way I’ve chosen the optimal time to plant as they’ve just sold their house and the new owners won’t know I’ve just planted mine!

Now our garden looks like this

I really like the Cordylines with the new paint colour.  Here are a few extra pics from Instagram

This is the site of the old Cherry Blossom Tree and we may still plant a small tree here, or even behind the Cordylines.  If you’ve got any suggestions, please let me know.

 

 

white, blue and frost

I’ve been scratching paint splatter off my glasses, my hands and even my feet for what feels like a few weeks now.  At least a few of the jobs I’ve been putting off are now finished – specifically Lachlan’s ceiling (that oops – was replastered after the re-roofing incident about 10 months ago)

I chose this picture so you can see the great bulge in the cornice (top left) where the plasterers have just packed out something that didn’t fit with filler. grrrr!  It wasn’t really obvious when it was all a combination of grey plaster sheets and cornice and white plaster, but now… hopefully when the room is complete I’ll be the only one who notices.  And those lines on the ceiling are shadows from the blinds.  I should’ve waited for morning light tomorrow for photos.

Our back dining area shelves have been incomplete for a long time too – waiting for me to decide what to do with the walls inside them.  Paint, wallpaper, stencil?  Well I decided on paint and more may come later.

So it’s gone from this

to this, picking up more of the blue I now have a fondness for

Yesterday I was standing in my ensuite looking at this (the frosted window)

and I decided I’d had enough of looking at the lace curtains in our bedroom.  Sure they serve a purpose – especially when  your bedroom is near the front door and has a line of site to the ensuite – you have to be careful and I’ve been considering options for a while now.

Plantation shutters were my first choice but we’ve been reluctant to take that step, so at $15 and removable if we don’t like it I’ve frosted the bottom windows and done away with the lace

I now have another shelf  (this too will be a work in progress, not my best styling work here!)  and I think it makes a feature of the leadlight and the whole window look more attractive.  The cupboard in the right corner was removed some time ago, as was the baby change table!

The light coming in is a cleaner, white light.  I’ve also used some Indian beaded belts as tie backs.  They’re different colours but that’s part of their charm as re-purposed items.

And now even with the lights on at night you can’t see in!

Have a great weekend

L

 

drum

I’ve been working on this project for some time now.  I won’t dare to calculate the hours of research, shops and businesses visited, people I’ve spoken to – all trying to source the items required to make an oversized drum lampshade.  Of course they all exist, and I’ve found some amazing products along the way – just not the size I wanted, nor the quantity or the price.  I will be trying materials from here.  They look pretty good and now stock the size I need.   Let me know if you have used these or anything similar.

I have two light fittings I don’t like in my formal lounge and dining rooms.  Some time ago I saw these images that set me to thinking

I wondered if I could take my 5 prong pendant light

take off the glass shades

and hang a large drum shade over the top

 

I’ve had it hanging at a few different levels but like it here as you can see the bronze detail of the old light fitting

It looks lovely at night (sorry the sunblind is still down after a very hot weekend) 

Now I just need to finish another one for the lounge.

This would also be a great idea if you are renting – just make sure you use fire rated materials and keep a safe distance from your globes.