Oriental Rose...

The name of this fabric is 'Oriental Rose' and I bought it on sale a few months ago for only $4 a metre from the craft print section. I loved the colours and envisaged making a dress for Rose from it. I also bought some grey wool flannel to go with it but I wasn't exactly sure how I would put it all together.

Making this dress has been on my "to do" list for a while now and yesterday afternoon, I had the opportunity to finally do it. I used one of my vintage patterns as a basis and adapted it as I went along by adding straps instead of the ribbon ties on the original pattern. I also added the contrasting band at the bottom which I really like.

It was easy to make and I am pleased with the final product. I think it looks a bit "different"! Rose wore it to church today and got lots of positive comments, I was quite chuffed. :-)

If you look very carefully, you can see that I used some white vintage rose buttons at the back of the dress. I bought them from the Beach Haven Hospice shop a while back for 50 cents and this was just the project for them! I love a good vintage button. :-)

"But I don't like pants anymore"!!!!

This is the phrase I hear every morning. Actually, it begins the night before when Rose asks, "Mum, am I wearing a skirt or pants tomorrow"?

And so begins the 4 year old phase, whereby pants are no longer cool and skirts or dresses are the only things that will do!

It was on one of these occasions that I popped out to the sleepout, aka sewing room, and whipped up this skirt. I was feeling like I wanted to create something but only had a few minutes to spare. Now that I am working full time, I am not visiting the sleepout as often these days! Sob, sob.

Being a freezing wet winter in Auckland, I needed something sturdy and sensible....denim!

I made up this pattern using some dark blue denim and a bright pink offcut, a few seams later and it was done.

I may have to make more of these if this phase continues! :)

House on Hill Road Twirly Skirt

I was at a local store recently when a fellow crafter decided to write down a couple of websites that she had used to make twirly skirts. It was a rainy Saturday so I headed home and looked through my "stash" to see what I had that would work. I chose a floral piece from Spotlight's 'Flowers and Fruits" range, purchased on sale of course! :-)

I decided to make the House on Hill Road twirly skirt from the following tutorial:
http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/photos/twirly_skirt/

I have to say, it was more time consuming than it looked, mainly because the fabric trim I chose was a pink drill and far too stiff for this style of skirt, I don't know why I didn't think of this to start with. I had to completely unpick the pink waistband and redo it again in the floral fabric which was a lot softer. I kept the pink hem band as it worked out ok and sort of "anchors" the skirt too. I originally made a pink waistband tie which proved too thick so I had to replace it with the white satin ribbon which is all I had on hand.

After all that, Rose really likes it and it fits her main two criteria, it's pink and it twirls!

If I make this style again (and I think I will) I would make sure the fabric is soft and fine and probably leave out the ribbon detail in the waistband.