Up-cycled dress for my Little Miss

I always enjoy searching and finding new blogs to add to me reading list, since becoming a whole lot more interested in sewing lately I have been on the hunt for inspiration, help, tutorials and ideas.
I became filled with utter delight when finding I Am Momma -hear me ROAR, Cheri is a talented Mother full of creative idea's ,lovely designs,tips and tutorials....YAY!
Upon finding her blog a few weeks back, I have had fun reading back though her older posts and finding lots of inspiration in many area's of creativity and it's always nice when I see there is a new post to read :)

I had no doubt in my mind when seeing THIS post that it would make a perfect first dress to make for my own Little Miss.
The tutorial was so easy looking, using old T-shirts and up-cycling them to create a unique and funky dress. I loved the way the seams where on the outside, giving the dress a messy rough look, almost as if it had cute little frills on the outside due to where the seams were placed.

My Thalia is quite a girly girl with a streak of tom boyishness, she is the one that always wears a little bit of bling, adores anything pink, gets ubber excited when it's time to do her hair and pick a hair clip, loves pretty things, has loads of "children" (dolls, babies, teddy, little people), Sings with great joy, twirls to see her dress/skirt fan out, already has a thing for nail polish and quite a collection of hand bags. Sure she oozes girly but on the other hand she loves getting dirty, Queen of the mess, enjoys anything cars, eats like a man, loud and never ceases to amaze me when I see her petite little frame in dare devil mode.

So with this dress the potential of having a messy patchy look matched with girly materials and frills was just the thing I could see Thalia wearing, be it on a play date, out in the garden or dancing.

On finding a few t-shirts at a sale at the shops lately with this dress in mind I got to work.
I have only made one up cycled dress so far (for next years cooler months) due to finding an adorable size 3 shirts for $7 new!

I went through my own wardrobe and put aside tops I no longer wear, tops with holes, tops I have grown out of and placed them in a bag to be up cycled, something I hadn't thought of doing before starting this sewing journey. After some matching and cutting of two of my own old shirts this is what I came up with...

Before the sewing started.
The green material from a shirt of mine that had a hole in it,
but I adored the colour and feel of the fabric.
You can't see it well in this photo but that other fabric is
grey with a tiny blue floral pattern.
I love stripes and thought since I had enough material
I would only use these materials instead of using multiple fabrics.

 Since I still had some left over fabric from my tops
I thought it would be nice to add some extra detail.
Using both the fabrics and tracing around a flower shaped cookie cutter,
I made a design to hand stitch to the top of the dress,
 giving it that bit more girly appeal as well as some hand stitched love.

here is my cheeky girl trying on Mummy's newest creation!
 Although it doesn't quite fit right now you get the idea,
hopefully it will be a nice fit next year in the cooler months.

Thanks again to Cheri of I Am Momma -hear me ROAR
for the inspiration!!!

Vintage Retro cushion

Just thought I'd quickly share with you the cushion I made last night while watching telly :)
I think it's a bit cute and will fit in nicely over in our book nook.

After typing up my last post the sewing bug has hit I felt like creating again and
remembering the utterly gorgeous mother goose fat quarters I brought ages ago made it very tempting indeed.
I tried to combine my love of vintage, retro, spots and stripes to make a lower back cushion all in under an hour. Loving the vintage charm that it brings in the lounge room!

here is a peek

the front

the back

The sewing bug has hit

I like to dabble in different creative fields will all sorts of media, and where I can I try to incorporate creativity into each day with my children weather it be cooking, craft, painting, dress ups etc

I find handmade things beautiful and full of love and I always think it's lovely when I receive a gift that's thought through and made just for me. I try where I can to make gifts when I have the time for friends and family and I'm always trying to challenge myself with new creative skills and projects.

When it comes to sewing I've been doing it for years but I've only ever been comfortable hand sewing and up until a couple of months ago I had never attempted to use a sewing machine.

Let me try to explain...
 Previous to 2 months ago I would think about using a sewing machine and it would scare me, it sounds silly and it is ...but when it comes to creativity I like to have control, the control of holding the needle in my hand gliding it through the material stitch by stitch, making unique stitches, each one different to the next.

I like the character of a hand stitched item and thinking about a using sewing machine made me think.....the control would be somewhat gone- I would be somewhat board- I would break it!- cause myself some odd type of injury. All of the bad and none of the good thoughts.
It was almost as if the simple object of a sewing machine was some evil form of robot, not that different to a deceptacon from the world of transformers. It was sure to transform into my worst enemy and be the object between my creations and me.

I know it's sounds so spastic beyond belief but I am happy to say that I am cured of this horrible sewing monster robot fear and my creative juices are still flowing.

I have had my Mothers Old perfectly good sewing machine sitting gathering dust for years now and it was time to give it some life again.
My Mother made all her clothes when  she was younger and enjoyed it immensely but she hasn't used it since her late teens when she became a quadriplegic due to a motorcycle accident.

Now that I am a Mother of a little girl I really wanted to learn how to sew her some clothes so the day came when I asked my Father if he could give me a sewing machine lesson...Yep you read it right. My Father is rather domesticated and can use the sewing machine!!!
So with Mother talking Dad and I through the ropes of the sewing machine, me cursing and dad trying to remember how to thread the cotton to prepare the machine, my journey of machine sewing began.

I have to confess I am now hooked and believe that the sewing bug has hit me bad.
I'll let the following pictures tell the tale of my sewing journey so far....

I started practice with cushions

a up cycled men's transformers shirt

and one of Miss Thalia's

owl shirts that no longer fit

(couldn't resist hand stitching around the owl for further detail :P)

next a cushion for each munchkin

material of their choice

Thomas for Declan and Thalia's "Peter Rabbit'

Then Hubby insisted that he needed a cushion for his car too,

he often has a snooze in the car before work if he gets there early enough :P

next came a birthday present

for a gorgeous little 1yr old

nick named "the strawberry princess" since  before birth

a dolly for miss Thalia

named "Maisie"

a dolly babushka for a newborn

baby girl

a birthday pressie

for a Big 4 r old boy

who loves trains and plays soccer

(the small soccor ball and train fit in the babushka's pockets)

He has been named "Bob Bushka"

by his happy owner

another pic of the large fabric soccer ball

in comparison to the real deal

small babushka taggie

for yet another newborn girl

*I then made another large Babushka with babushka baby to fit in her belly pocket but didn't get a picture before giving to a little girl for her 2nd birthday*

next was a Dr Seuss cushion for our lounge room :)

a personalised name pillow and tooth fairy pillow

for a Big 4yr olds Birthday

(Cat in the Hat being one of his faves)

a personalised bunting for Declan's

racing car party

and the last creation was

a babushka girl along with a pillow/babushka bed

for a 3yr old girls Birthday.

now that our busy birthday months have passed I can attempt to tackle some dresses for my little princess....wish me luck cause I'm going to need it! LOL

I sure am glad that I started on the sewing machine and I can't see that I will be stopping anytime soon.