Simply stylish ruffled skirt

Ruffles, ruffles & ruffles!

A girl can never have too many ruffles!

On a recent shopping trip at my local fabric store, I spotted some ruffled fabric that made me go week at the knees!

What to make…..what to make…..a simply stylish ruffled skirt for my youngest daughter!

I can sew anything for Miss Georgia & she is so appreciative.

She has even told me on many occasions that she loves the clothes I make her because they are made with love!

Awwwwwww!

She does have a way with words & loves to tell people how much she loves them.

Having the material already ruffled, makes a ruffled skirt so simple.

I love that this ruffled fabric has a LOT of stretch in it.

Now this skirt is so incredibly easy to make.

It is just 2 rectangles, sewn up the sides, fold over the top to make a hem & thread some elastic then finish it off with a tag so the front & back are easy to find!

I did not even need to hem this skit as I cut just under the sewing line of the bottom ruffle.

The rectangles are cut using this formula…

Sew up the 2 sides of the skirt.

Fold over the top, 1 inch, & sew around leaving a gap at the back to insert the elastic.

Thread the elastic so that it sits snug on the waist.

Back sew on the elastic so it is secure at the ends.

Sew closed the casing & you are finished!!

I love this skirt so much that I made my own!

Just have to make sure that we do not wear them on the same day!

Doily bunting, shabby chic

If you are anything like me, then you have a pile of doilies in your sewing stash. Every time I come across them at second hand shops, markets, anywhere…..I grab them all!!

To make them a little more funky, I love to dye them bright colours.

I thought that they would look great in Georgia’s Hoot Hoot room which has a shabby chic feel to it.

Sooooooooo…….I turned some blue & white ones into bunting!

I have made the traditional triangle bunting before but this was so quick & easy compared to the traditional bunting.

You just take a pile of doilies in all sizes.

Cut them in half so you have a whole heap of semi circles.

Play around a little & put them in a row to see what looks best.

I personally think that if you do it in a pattern of little, big, little, big then they look very effective.

Take a couple of meters of bias binding, as long as you want the bunting to be.

Leave 10cm at each end to make the loops to attach to the wall.

‘Pin the doily circles to the binding.

I left about an inch between each circle so that it hangs well.

Sew the length of the bias binding so that you end up with a long length of bunting.

 

Fold the 2 ends of the bunting over & sew to make loops.

Please excuse the bad lighting in the next photo’s!

I had to sneak into Georgia’s room early this morning to take photo’s as I had forgotten to do so!

This type of bunting would make a great present for a newborn baby or any little girl for that matter!

I know that Georgia loves it!

Baking on a Saturday

On our way home from our road trip this week,

we stopped at Applethorpe to buy some yummy apples.

It was well worth stopping because I picked up a 10kg box of apples (I am sure it is more like 15kgs!) for only $7!!

So today I have made 3 apple pies & a big pot of apple sauce.

This is the recipe for my Brown sugar Apple pie

While I was making the pies, Georgia was baking a batch of Biscuits for the masses

She made jam drops, choc chips & cinnamon sugar biscuits

Yes, Georgia was so excited that it was baking day that she didn’t even change out of her P.J’s!!

I love the Biscuits for the masses recipe because it freezes well & now we have enough to see us through to the end of the holidays.

Now comes the hard choice……..what should we eat for dessert???

Too many yummy things to choose from!!

Can I ask a favour? Welcome to our first sponsor!

I am loving doing this blog.

I know that a lot of you love reading it as I can see how many people visit this blog everyday.

Now, I am going to ask a big favour of you…..

If you are a regular reader, new to this blog or just visit from time to time, can you please “follow” it on the side bar of this page?

I am wanting to get sponsorship for this blog so I can hold competitions & giveaways for my lovely readers & to do this, I need to show companies just how many people visit this blog.

I have also set up a Facebook page called Sew, cook, laugh & live where I would love for you to post photo’s of your creations or yummy food that this blog has inspired.

I also love reading your comments under each post & would love to hear from you.

I get excited to read what you have been up to & what you think of the tutorials.

If you write your own blog & are inspired by something here, then I would love if you could link your own creations that have been inspired form here, back to here. I always link back to sites that I have been inspired from as it is a polite way of saying thankyou for your hard work.

I have recently found the first sponsor for this site & would like to send a big thank you to ..

Wrapped in Fabric sell some of the most beautiful fabrics & patterns.

I recently made the Travel Chalkboard Mats from material & chalkboard fabric that I purchased from them.

That is the reason why I have joined up with them as I am a customer & have made several purchases from the online store.

When you head over to Wrapped in Fabric’s site, make sure to let them know that you heard about them from this blog.

I will only ever have sponsors who I know provide a wonderful experience for the customer.

So if you would kindly show any potential sponsors just how much you love this blog, then we can all benefit from any sponsors & hopefully have some spectacular giveaways soon!

Festive Friday, #2

So Festive Friday has arrived again!

This week I have been working on some ornaments that the kids can get involved with.

Around most of Australia, school holidays are in full swing or in some states, they are just about to start.

If you take the kids to a local park, or even for a walk around your neighbourhood, you may just find pinecones.

I had been driving past a massive pile of them on the side of the road for weeks & I kept forgetting to stop & get them.

I made my husband pull up on the side of the road one night & the chickadees & I filled the car with with big, beautiful pinecones.

This is what we did with them….

Now I have to admit that this was not what I had set out to do. If you read the steps below, you will find out what happened!

It just shows that if you try & do a rush finish on a project after a week of holidays that you will make big mistakes.

With a can of spray paint (or a paint brush), paint them white.

I sprayed them 3 times, allowing each coat to dry for a couple of hours in between.

Ok, so I had one BIG fail in this project.

Late last night, I thought I would put some glue on the pone cones & sprinkle with glitter.

Maybe I should have used a paint brush to brush on the glue instead of pouring it on.

While they looked pretty at the time, when I woke up this morning, the glitter & glue had run off leaving a big glittery pile of glue on the plastic plate & not on the pine cone!

So I changed my mind & the project!

I grabbed a can of purple spray paint left over from another project, some aqua paint that I had intentions of using for something else & ended up with some thing a little like this…….

Now these match my Christmas colour perfectly!

But they also match the decor in the rest of the house so I really could use these at anytime of the year!

I have seen these sold in home decorating shops for between $5 - $10 each.

You can buy cheap spray paint from Bunning's or other hardware shops for around $3 a can & 1 can would do a massive pile of these.

Or you could do as I did & raid the shed for leftover paint & it would be free project!

Travel jacket cover, a tutorial

So, it is day one of our family road trip.

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the beach….now we are in the bush!

We have driven with 2 chickadees & 1 very spoilt dog in the backseat.

 

We have driven through bush fires….

We have had to stop for sheep in the middle of the road….

We have seen some things that you just don’t see in the city…

And we have had a great day being a family….

One thing that I really do not want to do on holidays is….iron!

So when I was packing for our road trip, I  wanted to be able to hang my blazer jacket up & not have to shove it in the suitcase.

I always take my black blazer jacket as it goes with EVERYTHING! Wear it with jeans, t-shirt, a bangle or 5 & ballet flats for a casual lunch or with jeans, a nice big necklace, sparkly top & high heels for a lovely dinner date.

It also looks great over a dress or with a skirt.

My black blazer jacket has a little stretch in it so it keeps it shape really well & can be washed in a washing machine on gentle so it does not have to be dry cleaned.

I don’t like your regular suit bags as the smell a little too plastic for me & you have to air your clothes before you can wear them.

I wanted a jacket bag that let my clothes still breathe while protecting them.

So this is my alternative…

I had 2m of this beautiful Pretty Bird by Pillow & Maxfield for Michael Miller Fabrics.

It was so easy to do.

I just laid the jacket on the hanger on top of the folded material.

I traced around the jacket to make the pattern.

Sewed around the curved edge of the fabric, making sure to leave a 4cm opening at the top so that the coat hanger can fit through.

You should be left with an opening that looks like this…

Fold the edges over & pin them then sew around it to keep it stable.

You can then hem the bottom of the jacket bag.

I chose just to use the rolled hem function on the overlocker.

I also made a matching draw string back that is big enough to fit my ballet flats, high heels & sneakers.