First draft past the post!

I have been thinking/trying to do this pattern by Snazziedrawers for AGES, but have always been a bit scared off by the bias ribbon required. However, when I was cutting out bias for my Isabella flowers I cut an extra one and decided to finally make the Juliette La Fleur. First draft and I like the look of it - need to tweek how I do the rose centre as I made this one toooo big, but Izzy loves it and it looks super cute on. I love the shabby chic look of it and with a bit of practice, this one is going to be a great one to add to the collection!  Take a look...

Fantastic tutorial I have just found!

I have been looking for a blog tutorial to show me how to make ribbon flowers - I knew I would find one!  Check this one out. Very cool:) http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-make-ribbon-flowers.html

Life is like a box of...

Wow, what a crazy week! We have had a surprise visit from my husband's wonderful family for his 40th, a cyclone, there has been a devastating earthquake in Christchurch, we have all been sick with nasty colds and now my youngest has a nasty case of... well it isn't very nice and involves lots of dirty nappies!!!

However in amidst this madness, I have managed to make a few new flowers, receive some of my skinny elastic that I have been eagerly awaiting from the States and hey presto, some new Bella Blossoms have been born! I am currently working on a Juliette flower using a Snazziedrawers design. It has been a bit fiddly. Also I have a box of rolled flowers, and Isabella flowers awaiting their final designs. I am just working through the final designs in my minds eye!! Hoping to try a few out over the next few evenings.

So, I said life is like a box of... well I have been storing all my recent flowers in an old tin box that used to be a biscuit box as it is nice and big. It looks like a delicious box of ...Roses. Yummy! Some of these flowers would make gorgeous headbands for adults. If anyone saw the recent MKR, I noticed that a lot of the headbands the ladies were wearing are very similar to my creations. Perfect for anyone attending the Hedland Rotary Ball (notice the blatant salesperson pitch!)

In the meantime Isabella is getting first drafts of the flowers and her headband collection is getting larger and she is loving it and wears a new headband with each outfit! I am even "borrowing" some of her headbands as they are cute and suitable for Mum to wear too!!!  I am hoping that we are all better next week so I can get on with sewing but my lovely husband is off on a business trip so it may be a little crazy around here again (just for a change!).

Frantic, fabulous and Freaky February...

Wow, what a crazy few weeks we have had in February already! I live in remote NW Western Australia. It is normally HOT and DRY! For the last month though, we have had constant rain and all of a sudden, everything is green. And very WET! Good news if you are a plant, the land and it's a beautiful sight to behold.  However my parents have been trying to install a transportable house on their property and have had no end of troubles as it was firstly put in too low so every time it has rained, they have had to pump out water to avoid flooding.

Today I have felt very cosy at home listening to rain pour down, and been relishing a bit of peace as my eldest daughter went to daycare and spent some time with my baby girl and creating.

February also has meant birthdays - and very important birthday's in the Davidson family. Firstly my beautiful daughter Emily has turned 1, my FIL has his birthday (I won't disclose his age;)) and my wonderful husband turns 40 next week. We have also had lots of birthday parties to attend for friend's and it has been filled with me frantically trying to create handmade creations for little girls. I think I should have just bought dolls as the kids will probably appreciate them more, but their Mum's will hopefully appreciate the work gone into creating their daughter's unique pressies.

So just to demostrate some of the work that has gone into this month, here are a few photos.

Sisterly love! My gorgeous daughters and muses getting ready to go out to lunch. Both girls are wearing some hair accessories made by moi! These gorgeous dresses are actually from Target. My Mum always tracks down gorgeous dresses in fun and funky fabrics which look great on the girls.

Ms Emily's 1st birthday cake. A bit different from Isabella's sugar free banana cake. I made a butter cake using a cake tin hired from our local Toy Library which made it soooo much easier than having to cut out the shape.

A cute new design borrowed from the lovely Joy at Snazziedrawers Designs. This is the Isabella flower and of course I had to make some of these for my own Ms Isabella. This particular one was made for a friend of Isabella's for her 3rd birthday.

And a dress for Isabella's beautiful friend Ms W. It is a variation on the first dress I made my daughter but I prefer this design as it is shorter at the top which means it is a little less uncomfortable for the girls wearing it. I am still not sure about producing more than for family or friends but they are such cute dresses.

I have also been working on frilly knickers for my lovely SIL's new photographic business Little Goose Photography, but had a few disasters so that may have to wait.

Today has been a busy day of making Bella Blossom flowers, cutting out bias for Isabella flowers and finishing off a fantastic rolled flower ready to embellish! 

Fun headband for the weekend

I love how blogs give great tutorials and if it hadn't been for people's blogs, I don't think I would have got back into sewing and creating - and definitely wouldn't have made half the cools stuff I have. So I believe in sharing. I have just found this cool and cute fun headband which would take no time at all to make. I have a few designs to make other ones, but this one looks more simpler than most of the other ones.  Check it out!


http://myloosethreads.blogspot.com/2009/01/skinny-headband-tutorial.html

I guess there is a theme happening here...

Not sure what it is about fabric but it is a beautiful thing. Maybe it is the colour, the feel of 100% cotton or maybe it is the excitement of what you can create with it. I still get a little nervous when I have beautiful designer fabric in my hands that maybe I should use some of my more reasonably priced "spotlight" fabric, but of course when you actually sew with the better stuff, you understand why you pay more for it.  Anyway, there are birthdays coming up, markets coming up so I hauled out my increasing stash and prewashed and dried the fabric in preparation for a cutting out session in front of My Kitchen Rules and Parenthood this evening. The plan is to do a bunch of cutting out tonight then make the most of my child free afternoon tomorrow and sew as much as I can. Dresses and frilly knickers are the go I think, but then it will be onto skirts and headbands. My first Twilight Market is coming up on April 16th so this gives me a decent leadtime to get together some beautiful kids clothes and accessories. 

Here is a piccie of my first bunch of fabric to start with. This pile features Heather Bailey, Michael Miller and Patty Young for Michael Miller.  I am hoping to get another bundle ordered online at etsy tonight as I discovered another pile that looks beautiful with some more bold colours. I think little girls can get away with wearing bold colours and I love the way dresses now push the boundaries with bold patterns and colours teamed together.  You can peruse for hours on websites and get great ideas of how to match colours and patterns together - beautiful stuff! 

Well the baby is sleeping so time for me to cook dinner before I pick up Ms Isabella from daycare. I love the sound of silence!

As promised...

Here is the final product on Ms Isabella. I think it is a cute design, but may need a few tweaks to withstand my daughter and general toddler playing, but it isn't far off.