By the way.......

Before I hear any protests - I am planning on making Thomas some very funky board shorts soon! I do admit, sewing for a girl brings way more options than a boy but he won't miss out! Just need to find the right fabric.

A bargain at DFO

Went to DFO Brisbane for the first time today. I know, I know, what took me so long?

Anyway........ I love Cotton On Kids and they had a great jacket for the bargain price of $19.95. I got to the register and the lady said, "oh I think these are 50% off", and sure enough, they were! A great winter jacket for $10. Doesn't get any better than that.

The cutest little dress!

Tonight I had my first "official" sewing lesson. I certainly didn't think I'd walk away with a finished piece. This dress took about 2.5 hrs but the next one will be much quicker as I won't have to wait for the cutting table, the iron etc....

I learnt how to do French hems (who knew there was such a thing?) and how to do bias facings.

The beauty of this dress is that when Mia starts to outgrow it, the ribbons can be let out a little and it becomes a tunic top to wear over jeans.

I'm so happy with it - creative bug has well and truly got me now!

*Fabric made in Japan - "Antique Treasures" - Spotlight $14.99/m

A t-shirt becomes a cushion

This is one of Thomas's favourite shirts. When he grew out of it I couldn't bear to put it in the storage box with everything else. So I turned it into a cushion and it now sits on his bed.

Sew the arm holes and bottom of shirt closed. Put polyfill craft stuffing through neck hole and sew closed. No need to sew around buttons. If your shirt doesn't have buttons then leave one arm hole open and put stuffing through there.

Bran fruit loaf - it's healthy!

Ingredients:
2 cups All bran (or similar) cereal
1/2 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped dates
1 cup chopped dried apricots
150g walnuts
1 cup self raising flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1/4 cup golden syrup

Cinnamon sugar to sprinkle prior to baking.

Method:
Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees/160 fan forced. Lightly grease loaf tin with butter and shake flour around to cover it.
Combine all dry ingredients and stir well. Add milk, oil and egg and stir till well combined. It won't look very wet or runny but this is OK.
Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 50 mins, or until skewer comes out clean. Sprinkle top of cake with cinnamon sugar just before putting in oven.
Rest in pan for 10 mins before turning out onto cooling rack. Serve with butter or cream cheese.
Enjoy!

Fetta & Garlic Dip

Try this dip next time you have friends over - but be warned, it's very addictive!

1 large clove garlic
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
250g goats fetta, crumbled (or any other very smooth and crumbly fetta)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons chopped chives
375g Philadelphia cream cheese, softened to room temp

Squeeze garlic through a press into a bowl. Combine the fetta, mayo, garlic, chives and cream cheese and combine in a food processor until smooth. Transfer to fridge, cover with wrap and leave for 2 hrs.
Lightly toast some baguette slices and serve with dip.

Note: Garlic will intensify over days if made ahead of time.

Breakfast pastries - so easy!

I made these pastries for brunch when our old Melbourne friends visited on Easter Sunday. They were a hit and so quick and easy to make.

Ingredients
3 sheets frozen puff pastry
Olive oil spray
12 eggs
200g chopped mid-rasher bacon
1/2 packet washed spinach leaves
1 clove garlic
100ml pouring cream

Method
Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

Thaw puff pastry and cut into equal quarters. Spray a 12 hole muffin tin and place pastry in muffin casings so four corners of pastry are sticking up.

Fry bacon and garlic in a frypan until browned. Set aside. Saute spinach until just wilted.

Put equal amounts of spinach in each casing of pastry. Top with chopped bacon. Add 1 tablespoon of cream over the top of bacon and spinach.

Now crack an egg slowly and gently over the top of the cream. It should fill to the top of the muffin casing. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, if desired.

Place tray in oven and cook for 20 mins. Serve with hollandaise or tomato relish. Delish!

My first finished (and successful) bloomers

I can't believe how well these turned out! I spent about 2 mins cutting out the pattern, 10 mins sewing the pants, 30 mins doing the bloody ruffles (but they're so cute), and another 30 mins finishing the pants off by adding elastic and tidying up edges. Very impressed and they will look gorgeous on Mia's chunky little legs this coming summer. And I love the red fabric too (thanks to Funky Fabrix at Mitchelton).

So I got all confident and made another pair, this time in just over an hour. This fabric was also from Funky Fabrix - great shop, highly addictive. The pattern came from here too ($9.95 bargain!). Fabric - not so cheap. But I had some left over and made a little brooch which I think will look very cute on a white t-shirt.

I'm developing a fabric habit!

So I've decided to get creative. I've always been creative but now I'm putting my money (and oh, it's not cheap!) where my mouth is and doing something about it. I've got fabric piled up in cupboards, collected over the years with the best of intentions but somehow work, life, and now kids got in the way. My daughter is now sleeping through properly (8 months old), my son (nearly 3) is at kindy two days a week (yippee!) and I'm ready to dive into doing something for ME!
I spent an hour at Spotlight by myself the other night. Bursting with ideas, I'm ready to start.
I've found a great fabric shop at Toowong called Peppermint Stitches which has unusual fabrics, great patterns and helpful staff.
Am going to try a stuffed giraffe first and see how it goes from there. LOVE the fabric I'm using!