Happy Birthday!

My little cousin Lily is turning 6 on Tuesday and for the first time ever I'm giving a completely handmade gift. I'm very nervous about this!!

I chose to give her this bag because it's my favourite and I know she will love it. It's pink and flowery and perfect for a little girl :) My original plan was to just give her the bag and buy some little things to put inside it, ie some hair clips, lip gloss, beaded bracelet etc. Then I thought "Why not make those too!" (except the lip gloss obviously, I don't know how to do that yet =p)

Then while searching through my stash I found this dress that's made from the same fabric as the flowers and the lining on the bag. For some reason this dress doesn't photograph very well, it's much prettier and has a much nicer shape in real life.

And a little bracelet to go inside her bag. Ella made this one! :) I'm also going to make some hair clips to go with the bracelet and I might buy some little "Lipsmacker" lip glosses to go with it too. Her wrapping paper and card are going to be handmade too! I'm using some of Ella's paintings to wrap up the gift and Ella has already made her a cute little birthday card. So apart from the lip gloss it will all be handmade. I hope she loves it!

Cabbage Patch or Baby Born Dresses

New Stuff

Hot pink polkadots with black polkadot ruffle
Pink ladybirds with black polkadot ruffle
Pink polkadots
Popsicles and polkadots
Red and green apples

~ All are available here ~

Shirring Elastic: I Has It.

Remember my post from earlier on today when I couldn't find any shirring elastic? Well guess what my wonderful fiance found for me this afternoon....


He drove to Busselton, 45 minutes away, and spent 2 hours looking in every single store he could think of. And guess where he ended up finding it? Woolworths! We have 3 Woolworths stores here but I didn't check them =/ haha. Oh well, I has elastic!

And to celebrate, I made dresses! (and a skirt)

Popsicles and Polkadots

A top for me? Or a dress for Ella?

I made this as a top for myself but after I finished making it Ella asked if she could try it on and I realised it fits her perfectly as a dress =p It looks cute on her but I'm not ready to give it up so I think we'll share! lol

Shirred Dress

Not only is this the very first time I've ever sewn clothing for myself, it's also the very first time I've worn a dress since 1993. I got the fabric from Spotlight, on clearance for $2 a metre, and I have enough left over to make a dress for Ella (although I'm not sure about us having matching clothes =p) The photos aren't the best due to bad lighting and me having to take them myself since there's no one else around, but you get the general idea.

After seeing my legs in this picture I'm thinking a day in the sun would not be a bad idea! I could definitely do with some colour.

Also, I've discovered that the best thing about making my own clothing is that I can put the straps wherever I want. With this one I put my bra on underneath and then marked the straps exactly where my bra goes, so now I can wear a bra with it and I don't have bra straps poking out!

A few dresses & a skirt

Striped Dress. The straps aren't finished yet, but I'm lazy so I just pinned them on for the photo =p


Tinkerbell Dress. This is the first thing Ella has actually kept on for more than 5 minuts. I wonder if Tinkerbell has anything to do with that?!


Polka Dot Skirt. I'm not sure if I like this or not, it sorta sits funny.

Blue Summer Dress

I made this little summer dress for Ella today. I got the fabric from the remnant basket at Textile Traders for $1.00! The bodice and the skirt took about 15 minutes to make (thanks to my overlocker!) but the straps took about 3 hours, mainly because it took me 2.5 hours to figure out what I wanted them to look like. Poor Ella had to try it on about 6 times while I was deciding. I had a few strips of fabric left over when I was finished so I used them to make a matching headband.

Things to remember for next time:

• Make sure I have matching thread before I start! I have every colour in the world except blue so I had to use green and when you look close up it's quite obvious.
• Find a better way of attaching the straps. The stitching shows through on the front and looks particularly bad because it's green.