Mirroring Suzy Bee Sews - Life So Strange It Should Be Fiction

Wouldn't I love the answer to be 'ME', but no, I ticked this milestone off many a year back! But the creative Amity ...  ... from Amity Originals   is sharing her special 30th birthday today with her  Bloodhound puppy, Pumpkin who is also celebrating his first birthday. Special day for those two, I am sure. Now, straight to the point. Amity is having a super giveaway to celebrate her special day by putting together a swag of sewing goodies - from buttons to bra cups all the way to beautiful fabric!  So pop over to her blog, follow along, and put your name in the ring to win this goodie bag of sewing supplies - it would be like winning your own Sewing Christmas Hamper...good luck!

  After a big run of wadders lately (a skirt, couple of tops, a dress, kids boxer shorts and another MakeBra........) I needed a palette cleanser so made this little cot/lap quilt. Its a rag quilt made from this tutorial . If you've ever had any interest in making a quilt this would be a fantastic one for a beginner. No binding, no hand sewing and you quilt as you go so there is no basting and no free motion quilting. I used a charm pack from Moda's Coquette line which was not enough fabric so there's some plain and spotted fabric added that I had in my stash. The colours remind me of cupcake sprinkles :) The back loveheart wasn't planned ahead, I just ran out of the raspberry backing fabric and had to make do! Its turned out so soft and cuddly that my daughters put in an order and I want one in the lounge room too!

...to my last 9 blogger comments is what this award is all about! I give you  The Premio Primavera Blog Award.... The award appears to be a supportive   Thank You for giving genuine encouragement to others via our comments.  You pass the award onto the last nine bloggers (not including those pesky spammers) who commented on your blog, then they pass it on, and so on - it's like a huge nonstop undulating Thank You fiesta! And I in turn thank Cari Homemaker Deserves A Cocktail for passing this on!  What a great initiative at this lively time of year. Whilst during the year I do struggle to keep up with posting, I always try to comment on blogs I follow. Work just constantly interrupts my sewing plans - but those lucky Lotto numbers just haven't fallen my way yet, so work must continue (for now!) But holidays are here and sewing comes first. So it is my pleasure to pass on this award to the last 9 commentators on my blog, those that had a peek at my latest skirt. Th...

I will jump straight into my next version of this skirt. McCall's 5523 (same as last weeks skirt) but with a different rear-end feature.  Funnily enough, I have never had so many compliments about my behind as I have with wearing this skirt. Kind of like plain on the front, but one almighty kick from behind.  The feature on the back of this skirt adds such brilliant wearing ease, letting me chase after those little kiddies in the classroom gracefully! So this time I used yet another fabric from Spotlight - they certainly are lifting their game of late - a printed linen/blend in black and white. This is going to be very useful in my wardrobe - I have a heap of plain tops to jazz this skirt up with. Again, I lined it with a white cotton - but, again, not on the pleat detail area. I am really concerned if I lined the 'feature' section it just won't fall as perfectly as I planned. Really, since it is all behind me I shouldn't worry so much, but that's life!  You can...

Words cannot express the sadness I feel for my fellow teaching friends, students and parents at Sandy Hook Elementary School. To  honor  and remember all the victims I am participating in the Teacher Bloggers Day of Silence, today, Sunday 16th December, 2012...Judith

How good is it to know that all you have to do is whip up a new skirt, and you feel like you have a whole new outfit? And when it is an easy to sew skirt, with a little 'feature' it is even better. New skirt for a night out to a Thai restaurant with a few friends was just the place for McCall's 5523 to be showcased.  Not a bad little group of straight skirts, four variations to the rear hem area, and plenty of lovely sewers out there have already trialled, sewed, and taken the bugs out, so I was in for an easy sew-up.  I decided on View D with the 2 rows of flounces.  For a simple straight skirt it is very effective, and enjoyable to wear. I mainly aim at wearing it over the coming summer months with a little camisole tank top, or similar. Easy wearing, that's what I like! Now for a few quick details. The fabric is an animal linen/blend print from Spotlight. Beautiful to work with, but fairly frayable which annoyed me. So even though I have lined the skirt all ...

I've been loving reading about the Christmas dresses everyone has planned and decided to make one too. I'm still in love with this pattern - I've worn my first version heaps and have been itching to make another one. Same adjustments as last time - size 12 knit yoke and sz 18 dress with the eclair bodice. I also took a tuck about 1cm out across the bustline as I had some excess on the last version, plus took a wedge out at the lower back to straighten up the hem line. Fabric is sateen from Spotlight again, this is one of the very few fabrics in my stash that wasn't on clearance, lol, shows how much I love it! I still have about one metre of it left but not sure what I can use it for yet. Knit is an interlock from Lincraft. I had another Macaron wadder before this one, used a knit that just wasn't stretchy enough, I can't stress enough with this pattern to use the exact same type of knit that you muslin with! I wore this out tonight for my daughters graduation fr...