Op Shop Fabric Finds

Since the first day we arrived, people have been telling me about Dunedin's legendary Op Shop Fabric Sale. Imagine it, table upon table of fabrics, notions, buttons (a whole room full), patterns and whatnot at rock bottom prices. I had to join the masses and check it out. My mission was to have a project in mind for each bit of fabric I bought rather than just, "Oh, look! That's pretty!" I must say I didn't do too badly. Of the eight bundles of fabric that came home with me, I have projects in mind for six of them:

Pretty blue pyjamas for Abner...

Some retro-inspired seat cushions for the kitchen chairs...

A nice comfy stripy dress and maybe a pair of pants or skirt for Abner...

A manly hot water bottle cozy for The Dear Sweet Husband...

...and the impulse buys.

What on earth should I make with those last two? Some dresses for Abner, perhaps? A skirt or two for myself? Got any ideas for me?

Fun new toy: Palette builder

I have yet to figure out exactly how this fun new toy will be of use to my life, but, honestly, how cool is the palette builder tool from Play Crafts?

Simply upload a picture, click a button and almost instantly, you have a selection of colours pulled out to match the image. Not enough colours? Click another button to add a few more. Not happy with the pixels being sampled for the palette? Just click your mouse and move them to a more pleasing colour.

I suppose it might be really handy if you were looking to make a quilt to match a picture. Just use the tool, print out the palette and take it along to the fabric store with you. Or, combine the palette builder with the Quilt Assistant from Cosman to make your picture into an actual quilt. Yeah, Quilt Assistant is another online tool I stumbled upon recently (when I should have been applying for jobs, ahem). Download the program, upload your picture and BAM...you've got yourself a block designed on your image. You just have to print out the templates and get cutting. How awesome is that?!

Alas, I am not into paper piecing (yet) and I have no need to match my fabrics to my artwork, so the palette builder will remain just a fun little toy for me for now. I've been wasting plenty of time playing around with some of my favourite pictures from the past while. Here are a couple of my faves:

Colourful twig art

I realized the other day that the pictures I posted of our lounge a couple of weeks ago were taken before I created my favourite piece of art for that room: colourful string wrapped twigs!

I originally saw the idea on Pinterest (just a pic, not a tute) and actually sat down to make these one night (bringing my pin:project ratio up to 200:1. Because my twigs are so large, they are a PAIN to photograph. Normally they reside up on the mantle and arch their way across the wall. I moved them down to the hearth so you could see them a little better against the white bricks.

Here they are in their normal spot. Lovely aren't they? I love how the bendy willow branches form a natural arch over the artwork.

The process is extremely easy if you want to make your own. Just go forage out in nature for some suitable twigs (any size will do). Use leftover bits of embroidery floss and just start winding. I tied off each end so there are wee little knots in spots, but it doesn't ruin the overall effect at all.

To display the finished twigs, I got The Dear Sweet Husband to hold them in position in one of my painted mason jars (my most popular pin on Pinterest by the way!) and carefully dropped small stones into the jar to hold the twigs in place. The heavy base also means they won't tip over as easily.

We still have that big blank white wall in the lounge...anyone got any DIY art suggestions for me?

Fashion re-make and re-do

This here, is my favourite of all of Abner's tops. It looks so cute paired with a long sleeve t-shirt and a pair of jeans. It reminds me of the kid's clothes you see in Japanese sewing books (which I am still obsessed with, by the way). This was purchased from H&M a while back now for something like $8. The trouble is, kids grow. This one will have to be passed on soon enough, but I thought I might try to make my own version - slightly larger - before it goes out the door.

Voila! It's really hard to see because of the print, but trust me, it looks great!

I placed the original on top of some craft paper and sketched out each piece of the pattern adding a little bit here and there to scale it up a size or two. I even lined the top part (yolk? Can you tell I don't do a lot of garment sewing?!) and added a wee bit of extra fabric as trim around the neck line. All of the seams are encased in French seams or with bias tape (made of the same fabric).

It's a little roomy for now, but should be just right by the time Abner actually does outgrow the original. I could always tack up the bottom hem if it bothered me that much, but so far, no complaints from Abner.

Now that I have the pattern pieces done, there's nothing stopping me from making up more of these. I even have a lovely Liberty-esque print picked out for the next one! Honestly, whatever did I do with my time before I started sewing?!

June weekend

Our weekend was filled with walks by the ocean and a trip to the art gallery [forget the art, Abner loves to watch the film archives]. Not a bad way to spend a couple of days together as a family. What were you up to?

Scrap busting: hair accessories

The scrap busting never ends around here. My go-to project for the smallest of my scraps is fabric covered button hair elastics. I originally got the idea from the Flax and Twine blog, but there are lots of people making similar items. These were the last of my button sets from Canada. I'm a little bummed out to see that similar products here in NZ are WAY more expensive (what else is new!)

The hair bows are a new one for me. I found the free pattern on the Oliver + S blog and have whipped up several for Abner lately. I have yet to sew a single Oliver + S pattern that I didn't like. Liesl is so good at what she does! The best thing about these hair bows is that each one takes less than five minutes!

What's your favourite speedy fast sewing project?