Upcycled Bermuda Shorts

Lets start this post by saying....."This humidity is killing me!" Ok, I know there are plenty of others out there who live with this daily, or who are in even worse situations than me but for a Perthite this is pretty rare. It's currently 41C and bleh humid. It seems there is a cyclone off the coast that is scheduled to cross right through Perth on Sunday. I've lived here for over 25 years and I don't ever recall a cyclone coming through town. Ohhh, just as I'm typing the rain is beginning to fall!!! Geeze I hope there isn't any clothes on the line. Better go check.......

Nope all good. Now where was I? complaining about the weather...that doesn't make for an interesting crafty blog post so here goes with some sewing..........

Size L shorts, size 5 shirt - here on a 7 yr old

Ok, with all this heat we've been locked up in the house with the aircon & TV going so I've been sewing like a mad woman. I have made up 4 pairs of these Bermuda shorts and I'm really happy with. They are so uber groovy don't you think?

How cute are these 2 tushes!

I made a couple of similar pairs for The Boy months ago (looking back it was October, time flies), then a pair for a little buddy who turned 4 in January. I loved them so much I though I would whip up a few pairs and see how they go in the store.

Dork Boy stylin his pair of Upcycled shorts

These new shorts are a little more refined & professional- fully lined pockets, adjustable waists, double stitched side seams etc, and I'm really happy. Who knew that a scant few years ago I could barely sew a straight line!

SET 1 - Black & White check:

SET 2: Rockin' it in Lemon

I'm going to add them to the Facebook & Madeit stores so we'll see how they fare.

Because of the long-length cut of the shorts, I decided to make all the shorts with adjustable waists to make the shorts able to fit the widest range of kids. 

Sizes available will be:

LARGE - 25cm inner seam, fits ages 4-7

MEDIUM- 20cm inner seam, fits ages 2-4

SMALL - 15cm inner seam, fits ages 12mth-3

Of course this is just a guide, best you measure the length of your wee man and make your choice from there. 

Whew, what a pic heavy post. I'll have to scour around to find more shirts, I love this new gig!

Valentine T

I finished my custom Lil' Man Tie T-shirts last night but my fingers were still itchy to sew something.I had visited with my friend Lisa from mimumee and had come home with a handful of ribbon & trim to play with. Looking at this gingham ruffled elastic just screamed valentine. 10 min later and Miss T's t was finished. Then I thought, why stop at a heart? Let's Bling it up! My first try at those heat adhesive rhinestones using my iron. We'll see how they hold up after washing. So, there you have it - a little bit of love and a little bit of sparkle for My Valentine Girl.

"Cup Offee?"

My friend Candy took these photos of Miss T when we went over for a playdate. Aren't they gorgeous! I love the black & white shot. Miss T is at that wonderful age where tea parties are right up her alley.
Mum bought her a tea set for her birthday and she can easily spend half and hour in the bath filling, pouring, stirring and offering cups of tea & coffee with a stern 'SIT' while pointing to the stool to anyone unfortunate enough to walk past the bathroom.

PS. If you have time, check out her new website. We were up half the night putting the finishing touches to it. It looks pretty stylin' if I do say so myself! I wish I could put her in my pocket to do all our family pics!

Serendipity

I had a most wonderful afternoon at my new found pal Jen from Pikelet Workshop. She had been looking for a new 'assistant' (ie. the sweatshop worker, ha ha) to help her with the piece work for her poppet creations.

Well as she is hunting, Jen comes across a post on facebook on a friend's wall about my sister, Jacq's, new business Sew Simple. She takes a look & thinks, great this girl is for me! A few quick emails back & forth and Jen discovers that Jacq resides in Canada. Hmmm, a bit far away to be of any help. Jacq mentions that I live in Australia and may be able to help.

A few emails later and not only am I able to help, but I live less than 5 min from Jen's house! Perfect. I then find out that my great friend from Playgroup worked with Jen years and years ago in retail & had met Jen in the local Coles not 2 weeks before Jen contacted me by email. I also learn that it was a mutual friend of both Jen, Jacq & I who orginially posted about Jacq's new website AND (after not seeing her since last summer) I met her in IKEA the day before meeting with Jen. Perth is just too small.

I like to think of it that some things were just meant to be.

Here is just a small sample of the fabulousness she creates. I think there are to be fun times ahead, I can feel it in my waters!

[image source]

The Party Dress

My Miss T turned 2 on the weekend. I'm sure you all agree when I say, "Where did the time go?"

From Tilly's birthday

To celebrate, I made her this fabulous Party Dress. It is made from 100% silk, a steal from the Spotlight clearance sale at a mere $8/m. Bargain! I bought 1 m thinking that would be tonnes but it turns out I had to do some wiggling and jiggling, shorten the skirt & waist tie and had to line the front of the bodice with some teal jersey to make the the pattern fit. 

From Tilly's birthday

Don't you think it is perfect for a wee girl's birthday? Once she was all dressed up, we had somewhere (she can't be all dressed up with nowhere to go!!) so a quick call to our our good friends Candy & Lew and off to her first restaurant dinner!

From Tilly's birthday

Thank you Lindsay for your fantastic pattern & tutorial. Head on over and take a look at her blog & gorgeous shop.

Sippin on gin & juice

A great friend of mine Candy wanted a hand sewing up a Burlesque Bustle Skirt for her Roller derby friend. We found this great pattern from Cut Out + Keep by Bekka K (tutorial below).

Candy shopped for the fabric (grey pinstripe suiting, black satin & fuchsia silk to accent), cut all the pieces & ironed the hems (with some tutorship over the phone!). When she came over after the kids were in bed, she came with choc bites, CC's & salsa AND tonic!!! Whooo hoo, sewing with great company and Tonic for G&T, you can come over anytime Candy.

It took a couple of hours to sew it all together (but that could have been the G&T's I was drinking) but the skirt itself was fairly straightforward. The hardest bit was sewing through all four layers of tightly  gathered fabric but I brought out the workhorse Bernina minimatic and it powered through. The only big modification we did from the original was to use grommets & some grosgrain ribbon to lace the skirt shut. This made it easy to allow for a perfect fit, regardless of how high or low on your hips you chose to wear it.  

 Candy must have whipped home and set up this photoshoot in her studio and managed to upload them to facebook before my head hit the pillow! Holey, if I could sew as quickly as Candy can drive home, get dressed & beautiful, take pics & upload them I'd be in business baby!

Thanks for the fun, lets do it again!


See Burlesque Bustle Skirt and 1000's of others - or share your own on Cut Out + Keep

Button Giveaway

Just kidding! Not that kind of button anyway. Thanks to Oikology 101 I made a MollydagMade button and whilst I was at it, one for my partner in crime Mellebug & one for my gorgeous sister in Canada SewSimpleDesigns.

So girls, grab your own button & throw it on your blog! You'll find them after the jump.

And if any reader of my musings here happens to want to have a Mollydag Made button of their very own, you would make me most happy. Sharing is caring......

<br /> <br /> <a border="0" href="http://mollydagmade.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh13fd1dLEeWUta52W5mClI6zefw8WrI6mm8EIEOprYStilwSQnIPGU1cAEpYQlL635VrUA9yccF_gz81iPmCDFIgtjO17bzXoLfQFU8MqztEVPjlMcUwOX_Gcu3WTIayw8x4CSZH0DOAVO/"/></a><br /> <br />

PS. when searching Google Images for 'sewing button' for this post, who do I see staring out at me on page 22........Me?? How weird was that. It is from a post on the old Craftymammas blog from March 2008.

Tulle Pom Pom Puffs

Ohhh I think I've fallen in love!


How cute are these little Tulle Puffs? These pompoms are made with the same uber soft tulle the FruFru TuTu was made from and they puff out at about 5cm (2inches).


While they can be worn as is, the Puffs would look great on a headband or used to embellish your beanie, hat or even your dress (see note below).

If you want to check them out, they are listed in the MollydagMade Store. I'm listing them for $9.50 for a set of 2 a huge array of colours. You can even order a custom colour combo!


Note: Check out this photo of Miss T, I tried to show you what they look like on a simple white singlet but she insisted on wearing both. Mark & I both think she looks like she is wearing misplaced pasties! Not a good look!