Recent Selfless Sewing

So today two friends received some presents I had made for them, so now I can share them with the rest of the world.

First of all is this this apron I made for my friend Alicia, she's an amazing cupcake baker and ice cream maker so I wanted to make her the best apron possible.

I find its always hard to take a photo of an apron when no-one is actually wearing it! I've made this apron a few times before - you can see it here and here.

I managed to find fabric which included nearly all of Alicia's favourite things - pink, glitter, heart shaped, skulls and of course baked goodies.

The second thing I've made recently for a friend is a My Little Pony purse for my friend Joy who is a big fan!

I decided to use this pattern again, it wasn't as bad as the first time I made it, but I'd be lying if I said there wasn't any drama! Also the lining of Joy's purse is the same fabric that I used on the pocket of Alicia's  apron.

I'm always working on some selfless sewing for my niece and nephew - but I will wait till after Christmas to share what I've made for them.

Unicorns and Rainbow Dress

Something very weird is happening in my creative world lately, I don't know quite how its happened, but lately I have no desire to make anything for myself outside of costumes. It's weird. Very weird. All of the projects I have on the boil are presents for friends, or friends children or some cool guy who has a birthday soon. I'm not really interested in making anything for myself.

Seriously, I don't know what's happening guys? I have a tonne of patterns and fabric for me, but none of it is calling my name. Why?

I guess the important thing is I am STILL sewing and I STILL want to sew, just not for me. Maybe that's totally ok.

Anyway on the topic of sewing, last Saturday my friend Emma asked me to join her and a few other girls to join her for a sewing day. She even made gluten free banana bread - hurrah!

So what did I end up working on? Well nothing for me - obviously. However, this year I've decided to embrace "using the good fabric" along with a couple of my friends. This Lisa Frank style unicorn fabric was definitely the "good"  fabric and I cute up a sewed with it regardless! MAGICAL!

This is a little dress I've made for my forever work BFF - we don't actually work at the same place anymore, but she's still my work BFF. She is having a baby girl in December, so I decided to make her a dress for the baby to be as  I knew she would love this fabric.

Who WOULDN'T love this fabric, I only had a metre of it so it had been lingering in my stash for a while as I didn't know quite what to do with it. I originally bought the fabric from fabric destash central, which is a NZ fabric destash group on facebook.

This is a tried and true pattern that you guys have seen a bunch of times here, here and here and I've made another version that I am yet to blog! It's such a cute and simple dress for a little girl. I also started another little project - it's nautical themed, here's a sneak peak.

Yes, those little whales are wearing tiny tailor hats. This is going to be a pretty cute dress when it's finished.

If you are a sewist, what have you been making lately? Anyone else found their selfless sewing mojo?

Charlotte's Birthday Dress

Recently our friends Ross and Shelley's daughter Charlotte celebrated her first birthday - as always, I wanted to make something and ultimately her present was late because I wanted to make something.

Ross and I have been good friends since we were 18 years old - so he understands how things roll with me. I always have good intentions and I will get around to that meaningful present - EVENTUALLY.

I have to say I was really happy with the way Charlotte's dress turned out - I had a look through my stash for some suitable fabric and  I came across this really fun fabric that I had actually forgotten about! I bought this at the Arthur Toyes closing down sale, I have to admit I had no real plans for the fabric when I bought it, I just thought it was so much fun.

 

I decided to use a "tried & true" pattern and made the dress with the same pattern I used for a dress for my niece Sophiia a few years ago.

Last time I made the dress I was pretty new at sewing, so I didn't include the pocket on the front as I was worried I'd just mess it up. But I feel a lot more confident now, so I included the pocket and I think it looks pretty cute - a great little place for a little girl to hide all kind of treasures. The photo makes the pocket look wonky, but its my photography skills that are wonky - not my sewing skills!

Here's the final dress - I popped it in the mail today - I hope Charlotte likes it! Her mum Shelley is a big fan of social media, so I will hopefully see her wearing it soon via the internet (if not in real life).

This last photo was taken before I added the hook and eye to the back of the dress - that was done before I sent it off.

I hope everyone is having a good week so far! Rich and I took Monday off because we headed north for my Mum's 60th birthday - so its a short week for us, hurrah!

A purple apron for Jess

During the Arthur Toye closing down sale I picked up some patterns I would normally never buy -including an apron pattern from Kwik Sew. I know some sewers aren't crazy about Kwik Sew patterns, but I found this pattern really easy to use. Lots of diagrams and the instructions were really clear.

I bought this pattern with a few different people in mind, but one of them was my friend Jess who sent me an amazing Christmas package just because she knows how much I love receiving mail - so thoughtful right.

Jess likes baking and her favourite colour is purple - so OBVIOUSLY I had to make her a cute little purple apron. Fortunately I had quite a few purple scraps in my stash to make up this pattern with - I love the purple with green poka dot fabric and I've been holding onto it for a while, waiting for the perfect project as I only had a small amount.

It's times like this (and many many other times) that I wish I had room for a sewing form, so I could show you guys the apron a little bit better. I just have to say I am so happy with the way it turned out, when I sat down to start this project I was CERTAIN I had some purple thread, but it turned out I had used it all. I decided to use some contrasting white thread instead and I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I just wanted to show a close up of the pocket as I was worried I'd mess it all up - turns out I can sew on a pocket pretty well. You can also see that great poka dot fabric better in this photo, I love it so much!

Now its March, I can let you all know what I'll be making this month for the Miss Bossy Challenge - the pattern I will be making is The Ashland Dress (19 votes) although Washi and Emery weren't too far behind (they got 13 votes each!)

Hope you guys have all been having a good weekend!