Sew Scrumptious

Check out my new gadget!

2012-01-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

I actually had time to have a go with a new gadget I acquired this week-end. This was a treat to myself from John Lewis. A kit for adding poppers/eyelets etc. In the past I have always had to hammer on poppers which is really frustrating as I usually end up finishing things late at night and have to go on a hunt for the hammer! Its also noisy and generally inconvenient. Well not any more! Now I use my fancy new tool and with one squeeze, the popper is attached. I love it already.

The kit also lets you attach eyelets. The last time I tried to put in an eyelet I broke the tool and it was a complete disaster. This time it worked perfectly at the first attempt. I am so excited!

Izzy was also very excited as she managed to sew on a button all by herself. She even threaded the needle herself and didn't have any help at all with the button. I was so proud of her!

I went to a vintage flea market this morning with my friend Debi. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was great. I was quite restrained but couldn't resist this lovely piece of fabric. Its so pretty. Its much more blue than in the photo and I think I might make a skirt for Izzy out of it.

Some lovely ribbon

Some bias binding for dresses

Some doilies. If you look at my Pinterest page you will see why!

Some old postcards for a project Izzy is doing on Isambard Kingdom Brunel

and a lovely skirt which I thought was really old and vintage until I looked at the label and it said Per Una!! It was only £3.50 though so I bought it anyway. Its really pretty

Some lovely new pillowcase dresses arrived this week. The third parcel of dresses from the very kind Pauline. 20 dresses all as pretty as ever in a range of sizes and colours. Gorgeous!

and another 40 dresses from Jo who has sent literally hundreds of dresses. I don't know how she does it!! Again all of the dresses are absolutely beautiful with lovely pockets and little details. Such a treat opening these two parcels. I have learnt so much too from all your different ideas. You can find Jo's blog here

Don't forget you can still enter my giveaway here to win £50 of Experience Day vouchers to spend as you choose and if you like my blog please can you vote for me for Sewing Blog of the year here. A chance to win some fabric to make more dresses!!

Forgot to mention that 250 dresses were collected today to start their journey to Malawi. I'm going in to a local college soon to talk to the textiles students about getting involved in making dresses and I'm having my first pillowcase dress workshop with the #Pinaddicts team in March. Exciting times ahead!!

Sewing Stuff............

2012-01-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

Great news! I think I have found someone who can take 250 dresses to Malawi!! I'm just finalizing the details and hopefully I can give more detail soon. I have also found someone who can take some dresses to India later in the year. This is brilliant news as it was really important to me to get your dresses out to girls who need them as soon as possible. After debating the best way of transporting 250 dresses, someone gave me the idea of putting them in the bags that duvets come back from the launderette in. Perfect! This is what 250 dresses in launderette bags looks like...

I sort of rolled the dresses and put them inside as hopefully they will get less creased that way.

A few little labels to go with them

The other great news is that there has been a MASSIVE response to the pillowcase dress appeal over the last few weeks helped a lot by some mentions in Simply Homemade Magazine and also Craftseller magazine. So many lovely people have been in touch by email and via facebook. We have so many dresses promised and lots of schools, guide groups and sewing groups are wanting to get involved. Its very exciting!!

More lovely dresses are arriving every day including these two from the lovely Sue.

I love the little pocket with the matching button

and a pretty pink number

with the prettiest bias binding

and I also received 7 lovely dresses from the very kind Pam. Pam's dresses were made in memory of her daughter Samantha who very sadly passed away last year. Pam told me that Samantha actively supported several charities so I am very honoured to be able to accept the dresses in her memory. Thank you Pam.

I love the little frill on this pretty blue dress

2 lovely yellow dresses with pretty lace trimmings

2 gorgeous floral dresses. I love the ric rac detail at the bottom

and 2 pretty blue dresses

I just LOVE the retro looking fabric used in this dress. Gorgeous!

Cath Kidston had a sale last week and I couldn't resist a couple of metres of oilcloth as it was reduced from £20 metre to £6 metre! So any ideas on what I should make? I have an idea for the Pinterest challenge already but need some new inspiration too if anyone has any ideas?

I admired a rather gorgeous Hello Kitty fabric on the very lovely SewJustineSew blog and Justine very kindly decided to send me some! Thank you so much.The fabric is so pretty. Izzy already has her eye on it.

Sam got a new big boy car seat at the week-end and I ended up buying this seat belt cover for him as it was £1 in the sale along with a little 'Cars' cushion.

Of course once Izzy spotted it she wanted one too so I ended up making one which I was actually pretty pleased with. It only took 10 minutes. I love this fabric. Its from fabricland and was in a FQ bundle I bought for £3

Its got a layer of wadding in the middle to make it padded and its finished off with velcro. A perfect little make if you haven't got much time.

I also acquired a couple of new books last week. These two 'business' books which are really good. You can see a review on the Sewing Directory website I noticed today. They are also giving some copies away soon so go and have a look at their website for more details (and while you are there vote for me in the 'Best Sewing Blog' competition here!!) The others I bought with some tokens I received for Christmas. Haven't had chance for a proper read yet though.

and finally I attended my first ever Quilters group on Friday. It was great. There were so many people there who obviously knew their quilting and sewing. There was a very interesting speaker but best of all I was probably the youngest there by about 20 years. It was great and I am going to hang out there all the time now. I feel so young!! Another perk was the fabric sale they had for charity. It would have been rude to go home empty handed!!

Phew - that was a long post. Thanks for getting to the end with me! Don't forget my giveaway too. A £50 experience day voucher for the winner to spend on whatever you like. More details here.

Its giveaway time!! Want a fantastic 'experience'?

2012-01-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

I am very pleased to announce that the lovely people at Experience Days have very kindly given me a £50 gift voucher to give away on my blog. The lucky winner will receive a £50 voucher to spend on any of the fabulous experience days available on the website. I had a little look earlier and there are some fantastic experiences waiting for the lucky winner.

Now what would I choose???

I could certainly do with a Pamper Day Treat

a Chocolate Workshop sounds like a great way to spend the day

and how much fun would Indoor Sky Diving be??

You could be doing any of the things above as they are all under £50!! You could also put the voucher towards a more expensive experience if you wanted. There is something for everyone from flying lessons to rally car driving, cookery courses and wine tasting, a day at the races or skiing lessons. Perfect to treat yourself or as a gift for someone else maybe? It is Valentines Day soon!

All you have to do to win is take a look at the Experience Days website and leave a comment telling me which experience you would choose (you can change your mind if you do win!). You must be following my blog to enter. If you blog, tweet or facebook about the giveaway you will get another entry! The lucky winner will be picked out of the hat on 31 January 2012.

Good luck!!

Mosiac Magic

2012-01-18T15:40:00.000-08:00

A box of gorgeous dresses arrived a few days ago from the lovely Emma who runs the Cragg Sisters Tea Rooms. Emma has held several sewing events on behalf of 'Dress Girl Around the World' (you can see photos here) and very kindly sent me 37 (yes 37!!) beautiful dresses. I was hoping the sun would come out so I could hang them all on the washing line for a photo but it was not to be so instead I managed to create a mosiac of dresses (helped by the very kind Sarah from Chic Quilt Geek who told me how to do it!)

Thanks so much Emma. The dresses are beautiful. This takes our total to 690 dresses. My next target is 1000!!

Calling all Pinterest Addicts....Join us in the #PinAddicts Challenge

2012-01-16T13:59:00.000-08:00

I am so excited to be part of the #PinAddicts Team helping to run a fantastic new Pinterest Blogging Challenge organised by the fabulous Kerry. You find out much more information about the challenge on her lovely blog here.

In a nutshell we are looking for people who are addicted to both Pinterest and to making stuff to sign up to the Pinterest Challenge and make one item from their Pinterest boards each month. (If you have never heard of Pinterest - its a fantastic way of 'pinning' images you come across on the internet to virtual mood boards for you to look at later for inspiration. The great thing about it is that all the photos you 'pin' save the original link to wherever you found them. This makes it great for saving tutorials etc. as you can always find the tutorial you spotted months ago. You can also 'repin' ideas from other people. Have a look at my boards here to get an idea of what its like). Be very careful it is completely addictive and will completely take over your life.

So each month you choose one item from your board and make that item - it could be sewing, crochet, papercraft, baking or a DIY project. You choose whatever takes your fancy. You don't have to be a great crafter just willing to have a go and put a photo on your blog of both the original 'pin' and your attempt at recreating it.

On the first Monday of each month starting on Monday 6 February the host blog (one of the #PinAddicts team) will open the challenge for a week and you simply post a link to your blog so we can all have a little look at all the 'makes'. All week members of the #PinAddicts Team will be posting about their crafting efforts too to help ~~inspire you~~ make you laugh. The following week one lucky blogger will be chosen at random to win a lovely prize. The rest of us can simply bask in the glory of the collective loveliness we have all made! Then it all starts again the following month.

Make sense? Want to join in? Go to Kerrys launch blog post and say hi. Please feel free to tweet about it too (use hash tag #PinAddicts). The more the merrier and you can join in on any month. Don't worry if you don't have a blog. Just email us a picture of what you have made.

Want to meet the team?

There is me - Louise from Sew Scrumptious

Kerry - She started it all! She blogs here as The LoveBump!

Viv better known as Melksham Mum

This is Butwhymummywhy

Jess from Mum2Babyinsomniac

Kerry from SimplyOutnumbered

Steph from JustAboutAverageMum

Tempted? Please come and join in the fun. Its going to be a blast!

Its really taking off again!

2012-01-13T13:24:00.000-08:00

I've had so much interest in the 'Dress a Girl' charity over the last few weeks with lots of promises of dresses which has been fantastic. I've potentially made a couple of contacts re distribution of dresses too. There has been other exciting news. The Create Place in London very kindly ran a pillowcase dress workshop last Saturday. I just wish I lived closer so I could go along to these events! You can see photos of them making dresses on two lovely blogs 'Cheeky Handmades' here and 'The Dotty One' here.

The lovely Emma also sent me photos of a sewing event that was held in her tea rooms 'The Cragg Sisters Tearooms' in Suffolk. You can find their website here. A box of fabulous dresses has now arrived and are waiting to be photographed over the week-end (hopefully in some sunshine!!) In the meantime have a sneaky peep below...

I can't wait to show you the finished dresses. Thanks so much Emma.

The very kind Natasha made my day by emailing me to say that she had used my bandana bib tutorial and made her gorgeous daughter Taylor some bibs. She even sent me photos. I can't tell you how great this made me feel! Thank you Natasha. I think Natasha probably deserves an award for being able to follow my sewing instructions!!

The very generous Annie (the fastest dressmaker in the country!) is having a little competition and giveaway on her blog. She has a number of pillowcase dresses cut out, bagged up and ready to sew. You just need to guess how many dresses she has waiting from the photo on her blog. The winner will win a lovely little prize! Pop over and join in the fun here and finally

If you like my blog, please could you pop over to Back Stitch and vote for me in their 'Sewing Blog of the Year' competition. It would be great publicity for the 'Dress a Girl' project and the prize is fabric!! You can vote here if you would like to

Goodbye 2011 Hello 2012

2012-01-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

I was supposed to be doing some sewing this morning while Sam is at pre school but my sewing mojo seems to have deserted me so I'm back on the computer looking back at my blog over the last year. What a year its been! I seem to have bought a LOT of fabric but actually did much less sewing (I blame facebook/Twitter/blogging/Pinterest!) I have enjoyed taking part in swaps, I've hosted giveaways and reviewed products. Best of all I have connected with lots of lovely like minded people and discovered some fantastic, inspiring new blogs.

I am proud of several things. I got involved with the 'Dress a Girl around the World' project and was really pleased to be asked to be the UK co-ordinator. A dress I made ended up being worn by a girl in Malawi. Amazing!

With help from all you lovely bloggers we collected 653 dresses which have been distributed to girls in Malawi, Kenya, India and Ghana. Big High Fives all round!!

I ran the Bristol 10k and along with selling some sewing kits raised well over £200 for TBACT who support disabled and abandoned children in Bulgaria. They do amazing work which you can read about here and here.

Horrible photo but proof I did it!

I wrote my first tutorials. A Personalised PE Bag here

and a Bandana Bib here

I made lots of PE bags, hair clip tidies, baking bags, bibs, purses and tooth fairy cushions and my things are now being stocked in a real life shop!

I developed an obsession with vintage singer sewing machines, ~~stalked~~ followed celebrities on twitter and got them to reply to me (sometimes!) and continued my love for Phillip Schofield. I even almost got a makeover on This Morning (long story!)

So what about the New Year. Well I have big plans for 2012!!

I have business idea which involves fabric which I am very excited about. I am currently putting together a business plan to see if I can take it further. That is really exciting. Even my other half thinks its a good idea!

I really want to get things moving with the 'Dress a Girl' project. I need to find more ways of getting the dresses to where they are needed. I'm going to try and gets lots more publicity. I want to run some workshops, get more schools involved and get Kirsty Allsop to make a dress!! I did make one of the bird feeders from her new book so its only fair!!

I want to go on a free machine embroidery course with Poppy Treffrey or Lou Gardiner (birthday hint!!). Both are amazing and inspiring.

I want to do more tutorials. Shall I do one for the Ninendo DS case??

I want to make something I have never made before every month from online tutorials or sewing books and plan to put a to do list on my blog so I don't forget! These will def be on my list (I found lots of these ideas on Pinterest).

A Fabric Basket from Pink Penguin

Pretty Dress by From an Igloo

Mini Art Folio by Gingerbread

Sprocket Pillows by Cluck Cluck Sew

I will make more non sewing related things too!

Like this button letter picture from American Crafts Studio

Wild Horses from Design Sponge

Doily Lampshade by More Design Please

The New Year has already started well. We have been featured in Simply Homemade Magazine (issue 12) this month!

This was thanks to the lovely Clare from The Craft Studio who has been running free workshops for people who want to make dresses. I have had lots of interest following this article. My next target is 1000 dresses!

I also want to ask a favour. The Sewing Directory and Backstitch are running a 'Sewing Blog of the Year Award. If you like my blog please could you vote for me here or here. It would be fabulous publicity for the dress a girl project and the prize is free fabric which means we can make more dresses!!

Happy New Year!

The ups and downs of Christmas

2011-12-30T16:06:00.000-08:00

Christmas was great but spoiled slightly by the fact that my mum has been in hospital for the last 9 days and only came home today. It was also her birthday on Christmas day so she had a pretty horrible time stuck in hospital. We are hoping to do another Christmas lunch early in the New Year so she can join in!

On a more positive note I received some fabulous things (helped I am sure by the list of sewing related gifts I blogged about just before Christmas!)

From Izzy and Sam I received this gorgeous cotton reel holder

Jon bought me the www.sewscrumptious.co.uk domain name and hosting as well as a build a website package so this is one of my projects for next year!

Possibly my favourite gift ever - a portable bobbin winder. Seriously. You have no idea how much I love this thing.

Some fabulous vintage spools for my ribbons

A lovely book

Gorgeous fabrics from Fabric Rehab

A fab book about selling craft online

A gorgeous ribbon holder

The cutest Cath Kidston 'Owl' pyjamas. For some reason I can't find a decent photo online and mine are in the wash but they are soo cute!

Tickets for The Waterboys! You can read about my love of The Waterboys here

and lots of other bits and pieces. I was a very lucky girl!

Sam loved his 'Grandad' bear made by the very talented Abby of Bubs Bears and now insists on sleeping with him every night.

I tried my hand at freehand machine embroidery and made these aprons as Christmas presents. What do you think? Poppy Treffrey eat your heart out??

OMG I have had a proper look at Pinterest tonight. I am so addicted already. This is going to be dangerous.

Lets hear it for the boys!

2011-12-20T13:34:00.000-08:00

Several people following the 'Dress a Girl - UK' appeal on facebook have mentioned that they might like to make something for boys. I checked and you can make shorts for the boys if you like. Jo and Annie recently sent me my first batch of shorts that they made out of old t-shirts using a tutorial on the 'Dress a Girl' website which you can find here. Thanks so much Jo and Annie. You are both amazing and the appeal wouldn't have been half as successful without the hundreds of dresses you have made and donated this year. I really appreciate it!

There is also a lovely tutorial for boys '10 minute trousers' here which I have permission to share from the lovely Solveig who has a gorgeous blog called Randomness by Petchy.

I also received a gorgeous box of dresses from the lovely Betty in Italy last week. Betty has also made some warm dresses that were sent direct to the USA for girls living in the South Dakota Indian Reservation so she has been busy. Not only did Betty fill a box with 13 gorgeous dresses but also some other bits and pieces that might come in useful including some long skirts that might be good for teachers. Thanks Betty!

A big thanks also to Alison who blogs as Peggys Pickles. Alison has done an amazing job and with the help of her friends and several sewing parties has made 140 dresses!! Not only that but Alison arranged for 50 dresses to be taken to Ghana with a friend of hers and has just sent off another 70 dresses to an organisation in Kenya which runs an orphanage and school. You can see more on her blog here. Alison hopes to have some photos from Ghana soon which she will share. Fabulous effort. Thanks Alison. Alison also blogs about her adventures in dress making.

The lovely people at St Pauls Church in Northumberland Heath have also held a sewing event and hope to do more in the New Year. They sent me some photos to share. I can't wait to see what they make! Thanks to everyone involved for all your support.

and last but not least the lovely Laura from 'I Love Crafty' VERY kindly designed a blog badge for people to use on their blogs or websites. Laura did this free of charge and in her own time after I very cheekily emailed her (I had long admired the blog badges on her pretty blog!) Please check out her gorgeous website. If you look at the side bar on my blog you can copy the html code which will display the picture below on your blog and also link back to my information page (check me out!!). Please feel free to use it if you would like to. There is a general one and one especially for people who have made dresses.

Thanks again to everyone mentioned in this post. You have all restored my faith in human nature with your kindness which is lovely especially at this time of year!!

She works!!

2011-12-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

I received a lovely new slide plate for my new/old Singer machine this week. I tried it out today and it fits perfectly. Thanks to www.singersewinginfo.co.uk for their help.

The best thing about the new slide plate was that I was able to try the machine out properly and she works!! She feels so much more solid than my modern machine. I still need to fiddle around with the tension slightly but apart from that she is as good as new!

Izzy decided she wanted to make some lavender bags for her cousins today so we had a bit of a sewing morning. Out came the pink sewing machine!

and here are the five finished lavender hearts for her grandma and various cousins.

Izzy choose all the fabrics, ribbons and buttons. She sewed the hearts on her sewing machine (with a bit of assistance!) and then helped me stuff them. I finished them off as she got a bit bored half way through and ditched me to go and make bracelets! She lasted a good couple of hours though and we had lots of fun.

I did a bit more Christmas shopping yesterday. Two of my nieces aged 8 and 11 are just getting into sewing so it was a good excuse to buy them some bits and bobs (quite literally!). I couldn't resist this little sewing box for Daisy aged 8.

Of course I had to fill it with little goodies. I braved Fabricland again! Fabricland still sucks all of the joy out of me. It hasn't got any better.

and for Molly (who you can see here) I bought Cath Kidston's 'Sew' book, the cutest little travel sewing kit in a pretty tin. I also bought them both some fat quarters, some ribbon, ric rac, bias binding and some little 'made by me' labels.

I also bought a couple of metres of extra fabric for Molly. I hope she likes it. I can't wait to see them at Christmas.

I also discovered this gorgeous postcard on Zazzle for only 84p each. They are so cute! A vintage Singer advert called 'The First Lesson'. See I told you I was addicted!

Once Upon a Monster!

2011-12-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

Today we have been playing 'Sesame Street - Once Upon a Monster' a Kinect game for the Xbox 360. Now when I say 'we' what I actually mean is my other half and the children. Games are really not my thing. I don't even know how to switch the thing on! I knew the children would love to try the game though so I agreed to do a little review. You can see more here..

Izzy who is 6 absolutely loved it! I am constantly amazed at how quickly children pick up games and know how they work. She needed a bit of guidance at the start of each game (clearly not by me!) but very quickly was able to play the game with very little help. Sam was quite happy to sit and watch as was I roaring with laughter as Izzy jumped and danced her way through the game. We did try the 2 player option with both of them playing together but it was too stressful with both of them vying for space in the lounge (this says more about my children than the game!).

Izzy didn't really know the Sesame Street characters before she played the game but seemed to really enjoy them. She gave the game a 10/10 and would have happily played it for hours if allowed. It seemed like a really good entry level game for younger children and I can see Sam having a go really soon. Who knows maybe I might even have a little go over Christmas!!

I think I have a new addiction (oh dear!)

2011-12-14T15:49:00.000-08:00

Those of you who read my last post will know that Jon has inherited a vintage Singer sewing machine from his mum. The lovely Hilary who blogs at Lemon Loves very kindly left me a comment telling me I could date my machine by looking here. This was very exciting but once I started finding things out about my machine, it made me want to know more and now I have to admit that I am slightly obsessed with vintage Singer sewing machines generally!

Our 99k

Once I found out the year it was made, I wanted to know where it was made and what model it was so I emailed Singer in America who responded yesterday telling me that 'Our records show that serial #Y1593897 belongs to Singer Model 99K manufactured on December 13, 1923 in Clydebank, Scotland'. This makes me think that maybe Jon's mum inherited it from her mum (who is still alive at 93) so I need to investigate whether it was bought new.

Its a hand crank

Still haven't worked out what these do!

The dates were later confirmed by the very kind Judy who runs a vintage Singer Sewing Machine Information website www.singersewinginfo.co.uk. She told me that my machine was part of a batch of 40,000 with a birth date of 13 December 1923. The next batch of serial numbers issued for 99K’s was on 21 June 1924 so mine would have been made between those dates. The spooky thing is that yesterday was the 13 December so it was actually the birthday of my machine which would have been built exactly 88 years ago (sort of!)

Judy has a lovely website all about Singer machines and other makes of vintage sewing machine which I found really interesting and easy to use. If you have a interest in old Vintage sewing machines then you need to have a look here. She has very kindly allowed me to use a few images from the site to share with you. The machines are just so beautiful and well made. I am also really pleased that she was able to find me a bobbin slide plate to replace the one missing from my machine. Judy told me that her website gets over 3000 hits per month such is the popularity of these lovely machines worldwide.

128k

I stumbled across a couple of other interesting sites too. You can find out more about the history of the Singer Sewing Machine Company generally here. This website has some lovely photos of vintage machines. I want them all! You can also find general info about Singer machines here or here. I've even managed to find a copy of the original manual for my machine to download for free! Have a look if you like - its here.

28k

I can feel an obsession coming on. I'm already lusting over one of these!!

ebay here I come.....

Sew Scrumptious in dress shocker!!

2011-12-08T12:44:00.000-08:00

I went to Cheltenham last week-end with my friend Laura. We stayed overnight in The Big Sleep hotel and got two child free shopping days! It was fab!! Please excuse the photo we had to take one of ourselves.

We went to Raymond Blancs Brasserie Blanc restaurant for dinner. I have to say I was slightly disappointed with the food although the sticky toffee pudding I had for desert was to die for.

We did a LOT of shopping. I'm not very girly and I hardly ever wear dresses but I was tempted during this shopping trip and egged on by my partner in crime I did actually buy one. Here is the evidence. What do you think? I love it. The fabric is really soft and its really pretty with a Cath Kidston like pattern. It covers everything up and looks ok with tights and boots. Perfect!

We didn't stay out late partying but went back to the hotel and lay in our beds under the duvets drinking wine and eating maltesers whilst chatting. It was so much fun.

Laura was the brains behind our recent cake stall success and is a baking genius! I'm not sure I showed you photos from her daughters recent 'bug' themed birthday party. She has such great ideas. The fake grass on the table looked great.

Bug cupcakes

A beautiful bug birthday cake

Worms in jelly!

Marshmallow cakepops with butterfly sprinkles

The birthday girl Amelia with Izzy

She even did bug themed party buckets instead of party bags with snail biscuits, more worms in jelly, a bug pot etc. She should write a blog!

Jon had the horrible task of clearing out his parents house recently. He came home with a big wooden box which turned out to be this gorgeous vintage Singer sewing machine. Its a lovely thing to have inherited. I can't wait to see if I can get it working. Anyone else have an old Singer?

I finally did a bit more sewing. A Nintendo DS case for Izzy's friend Sawyer. This is similar to the one I made Izzy only it has a thing that he can attach it to his jeans rather than a wrist strap which I much prefer. Its padded again to protect the DS if it gets dropped.

its lined in a navy blue fabric

with more pockets for his games. I hope he likes it!

I also made some little hair clip tidies for my mum to give as presents.

I received a gorgeous parcel from a lovely online craft shop called Pur-ple today. All packaged up in cute little paper bags. Firstly some buttons and charms

lovely postcards and bakers twine

The lovely lady at Purple also sent a few little extras too. How lovely is that?

I love these charms. So cute!

I also bought a lovely little owl door stop for my friend Debi

All such good value too. I really recommend checking out the website. Couldn't resist adding this photo of Izzy and Sam tonight. Looking cute just before Sam poked Izzy in the eye and World War 3 started!

All I want for Christmas is...

2011-12-01T11:44:00.000-08:00

I've been doing some online window shopping over the last few days and I want, no make that I need, all of the following things for Christmas. (Actually some of them I already have but you might want them too!). Make sure you leave this post open on your computer for your husband or partner to see (or just tell them to buy it for you!). My top 20 sewing related Christmas gift ideas are as follows....

1) A 'Mollie Makes' subscription. If you subscribe at the moment you get a beautiful fabric pack from The Makery included which is worth £36!! A subscription for Mollie Makes costs £24.24 for 6 months. Its a fab magazine full of inspiring ideas

2) I love this 'English Rose' Fabric and Ribbon Gift Set from Seamstar (£25)

The tin includes 4 fabrics each measuring 50cmx55cm (1meter in total); Large Rose Trim 1 meter; Fat Crochet Trim 1 meter; Decorative Ric Rac 1 meter; 8 meters of 10mm ribbon; and 4 meters of 3mm ribbon. Gorgeous

3) How about a Fabric Hamper also from Seamstar. This one is a bit more pricey at £52 but look what you get! I got a smaller one of these last year and it was gorgeous! You can see it here. Such a lovely present to receive.

This one contains 12 different pieces of fabric with a quirky theme (3meters overall); 24 meters of ribbon; and 10% off your next order voucher. All wrapped in tissue paper in a beautiful box which you can keep after to store your bits and bobs. I can definitely recommend!

4) I am also lucky enough to have one of these gorgeous mannequins from I love Vintage Mannequins (£79.95). My lovely sisters in law bought me one for my 40th birthday and they are fab. Have a peep at mine here. Really great quality and so pretty.

5) I am definitely adding this Buttons and Charms Gift Set from pur-ple (£10.75) to my wish list. Fantastic price and who wouldn't want a box full of buttons and charms. It doesn't get any better!

6) I also love these Button Stamps from Skull and Cross Buns £8.50. So cute and perfect for making little tags.

7) This personalised sewing machine card from Cotswold Artisan Soap Company is gorgeous. It doesn't have to say Happy Birthday either. You can choose the words on the front and inside. They also make really pretty soap! The card costs £5.95

8) Fabric Rehab have lots of gorgeous fabric bundles which would be perfect as a Christmas gift. I love this spotty one called 'Brighton Rock' but they have lots of bigger and smaller bundles which are equally as cute. Note to any men reading this. We love fabric. We can NEVER have enough fabric. NEVER! Check out Fabric Rehab. This one costs £9.99

9) I must be psychic because I KNOW that I am going to get this 'I love Sewing' cotton reel holder for Christmas from my children. Mainly because I bought it for myself at the week-end and just told my other half this was my gift from them. He is happy that he doesn't have to shop for something and I am happy. Result! Its from The Makery and is a bargainous £10

10) I really would like this for Christmas too (hint hint). Its a Singer Buttons and Trinkets Box from Dibor and costs £17.95. It would look so pretty in my sewing room.

11) I love these Jam Jar Sewing Kits too from Sew Sew (£14). Such a great idea and love the colours they have used for the pin cushions

12) Also loving these Vintage Style Wooden Spools from Gertie and Mabel (£3 each). I have so much ribbon just lying around that I could wrap around these spools. So handy and so pretty.

13) Now it may seem bit random adding a set of tiles to my list but these are THE most gorgeous tiles I have ever seen and are inspired by childhood memories of sewing patchwork squares. Seriously how gorgeous are they? I am very tempted to go and smash all the tiles in my bathroom just so I can replace them with these. I need to start saving and stop buying fabric first. One day these will be mine!! Welbeck Tiles (£160 for the set of 32)

14) This 'Happy Seamstress' charm necklace by Adrianne (£16) is gorgeous too. I can't decide which one I like the best as they are both so pretty.

15) Check out this 'I Love Sewing' print by Steph Says Hello (£12). I have this print in my sewing room and I love it. So vibrant and colourful.

16) This Pincushion Ring from Blondes Backyard is a perfect stocking filler at only £5. So sweet and really useful. I always end up with a mouth full of pins when I am making things.

17) Another great stocking filler are these Hand Covered Liberty Print Buttons from Sew Sister at only £1.25 each. Again so pretty. I just like looking at them never mind actually using them!

18) Another print I have in my sewing room is 'The Singer' Ink Drawing Print by Ink and Stylus £14. Its so lovely. I look at it every day and wish that I looked that graceful and serene when I am sewing. I'm usually swearing at my sewing machine!

19) I couldn't resist adding these sweet little sewing badges by Jings Things (£2.75) Another great little stocking filler.

20) I do like a cup of tea so this little tape measure would be perfect for me. The Tea Cup Tape Measure is from SassandBelle and costs £5.95

and finally my life is now complete. I have discovered the Portable Bobbin Winder from The Cotton Patch (£23.75). I cannot tell you how much it annoys me when my bobbin runs out half way through sewing and I have to unthread my sewing machine to wind another one. Well no more! I will just use this (if I get it for Christmas!). This has made me so happy you have no idea (I am clearly very easily pleased!) so I have had to add it as no. 21 in my list!

Well thats my Christmas list. What do you think? Do you have any favourites? Let me know if you end up getting any for Christmas!

Day trip to Bath

2011-11-30T16:29:00.000-08:00

I went to Bath on Sunday with my lovely friend Debi for a day out. It was fab! It felt really Christmassy and we had a lovely time perusing the shops with no children for a change. The Christmas market was lovely too.

I bought a few things. I found this lovely fabric for only £5.99 a metre.

and bought a few little things as stocking fillers. Couldn't resist this owl badge

We found The Makery shop which I was so pleased about.

The Makery runs craft workshops and now has a little shop too which is full of lovely things. I treated myself to this cotton reel holder.

and a few other little bits and bobs. I could have spent a fortune but was trying to be restrained.

I love this little stamp set

The staff were absolutely lovely. So friendly and chatty. Just what I want from a shopping experience. Those of you who read my blog will know about my experiences at Fabricland! I could have stayed and chatted and browsed all day but there was more shopping to do! I bought this little heart for my sewing room

and a few bits from a haberdashery shop we found. The green buttons are destined to be dinosaur eyes but more of that another time!

Love these dinosaur buttons

These pen holder and scissor things are magnetic and will hopefully stick to the radiator next to the table where Izzy does all her writing and making. We are forever losing scissors!

I love this little pink calculator

A few more stocking fillers

Izzy will love this little fairy

and this hook for her bedroom

Shopping is hard work so we had to stop for a bit of refreshment and found a lovely cafe

This shop window was FULL of vintage Singer sewing machines. The photo isn't very good because of the light reflecting off the window but I wanted to show it anyway. It was amazing. Didn't make me want to buy the clothes just the sewing machines!

It was such a lovely day out. Thank you Debi!

I also managed to finish my first Nintendo DS case for Izzy at the week-end. I sort of made it up as I went along. Its padded to protect the DS if dropped with a little wrist strap.

I made a couple of pockets inside for games

I think I like it. I might do it slightly differently next time but not bad for a first attempt! Izzy was very pleased which is the main thing.

I also wanted to share this lovely hand embroidered picture. I bought it as a present for Jon's mum when she was ill to cheer her up. The Star Flower or Borage as it is also called is supposed to have medicinal qualities and is used for healing. Sadly Jon had to clear out his parents house recently and so the picture came back to me. I still really love it and will put it up in my sewing room to remind me of his lovely mum.

It was made by Helen Drewett and you can see more of her work here

Fabulous 500!!

2011-11-27T14:35:00.000-08:00

Another 25 dresses arrived this week taking the total to a fabulous 500!! An amazing achievement from all of my lovely sewing buddies. Thank you everyone. As the sun actually came out for 5 minutes I made the most of it and put them up on the washing line for a photo.Don't they look pretty?

I received another 21 dresses from the lovely Pauline. This is her second batch of dresses. You can see the first dresses here. These were just as lovely...

All with beautiful little details

Some gorgeous fabrics

Sweet little pockets

So pretty

The next four dresses were from Hilary who has a lovely blog called Lemon Loves. These dresses were gorgeous too. Such pretty colours and patterns

I love the blue roses.

and the ric rac trim on this dress.

Thanks Pauline and Hilary. So far 250 dresses have been sent abroad or are going in the New Year. My next task is to get the next 250 to girls who need them. I'm working on it!!

Its been a busy week-end. My friends and I were responsible for running the cake stall at Izzy's school Christmas Fayre on Saturday. Its the first time we have done it so it was a bit scary. We were very lucky that my lovely friend Laura was in charge of organising us (think Monica from Friends when she was organising Phoebes wedding!). Laura planned and baked like a maniac all week so the stall looked absolutely fantastic. She had great ideas like marshmallow cake pops, star wands and bags of shortbread biscuits which went down very well. We iced the cupcakes on Friday night over a couple of bottles of wine. Lets just say some of the cakes were discarded in the morning and there was a lot of icing on the floor of my kitchen! We had a great time though and took a fantastic £300 on the day which is amazing. Look she even made us wear matching aprons (We love you Laura!)

and the best thing was that we sold every single cake. There was not a crumb left at the end of the fayre!!

Star of the week

2011-11-20T14:22:00.000-08:00

Izzy was 'Star of the Week' at school and bought this lovely certificate home on Friday. I was so proud! It also meant we had to entertain 'Fred the Ted' for the week-end. This involves looking after the year one teddy bear and taking it everywhere you go over the weekend. You have to take photos and write a diary to send back in to school on Monday.

Pictures like this one. Its taken me hours to finish! Not sure I was the one supposed to be doing it though!!

I'd like to pass on a Star of the Week Award too! Mine would go to Wipso and Twiglet (AKA Jo and Annie) for their continued support and another fantastic parcel of dresses. They have quite literally made hundreds now for 'Dress a Girl UK' and I am so grateful. Here are the latest batch of 37 dresses. All absolutely gorgeous. Each dress has its own little detail to make it pretty and unique. I never fail to be amazed by how beautiful they all are and how well made too...

They also sent a little something for the boys but more of that later in the week!!

Thanks guys. It is much appreciated and takes the total to 475 dresses!!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

2011-11-17T14:06:00.000-08:00

I've started my search for fun little presents for Izzy and Sam's Christmas Stockings and have come across some gorgeous things on the internet which I thought I would share. Can you believe that all of the lovely things below are £5 or under!!

My top picks so far are..

Pretty Compact Mirror from Jenny Arnott Textiles (£2.75). Perfect for a little (or big!) girl

I was also really tempted by her beautiful butterfly badges too at £5

I love this Personalised Rockets Storage Bag from Becca Bugs (£5.00) Its so nice to find something lovely for boys and you can even have a name embroidered on the fabric label!

This Personalised Door Plaque from Handmade Gift shop (£4.50) is so pretty. They do gorgeous ones for boys too.

I love this Gardening Set from Creative Cotton Bags (£4.99). Such a great idea. You just need to add a packet of seeds and off you go.

I also love this Baking Set again from Creative Cotton Bags (£4.99). Such a pretty bag and a great idea for budding Nigellas!!

We love making things in this house so a Make Your Own Cupcake Trinket Box from Find Me A Gift (£2.99) would go down very well. We also like Trinkets!!

These Dinosaur Crayons from Colour Me Fun (£3.50) will be in Sam's stocking this year! They are already on their way. Such a great idea and such a cute little bag to keep them in! I also bought Izzy some Love Heart ones.

I was very tempted by these Name Crayons too also from Colour Me Fun £4.00

I am completely in awe of the beautiful things in the next shop and was so pleased to find an Embroidered Lion Bookmark from Fiona T (£4.50) that I could add to my list. Amazing free hand embroidery. Gorgeous!

These little First Sewing Kits for Children by Oakapple & Rose (£4.50) are fab! Perfect for learning and practicing your stitches. I started sewing on Binca fabric like this but only today realised that was what it was called!

These Bag Charms/Keyrings are so beautiful from Oh Sew Lovely (£5.00). I love the colours. Check out the Oh Sew Lovely facebook page for lots more gorgeous things. Wish I had made these as they are so pretty!

This Spiral Pets Paper Craft Kit from Find Me A Gift (£1.99) is great too. I used to make things like this all the time when I was little. Wonder if my children will have the patience to spend hours making things like I did?

We also like making jewellery so this Rainbow Bead Jewellery Making Kit from Find Me A Gift (£4.99) would be a perfect little present. Love those strawberry beads!

I found this cute little Boys Vehicle Apron at Posy Sews (£5.00). Perfect for keeping little boys clean and tidy (well I can dream!).

I also discovered another new shop today which had some great little present ideas. I like this Princess and the Frog Magnetic Tic Tac Toe Set from Tickseed (£2.50). Perfect for in the car.

I'm a big fan of the Flowerpress also from Tickseed (£4.50). I have pressed a flower from Izzy every year on Mothers Day so far and Izzy loves looking back at them now and remembering the flowers she gave me.

This Childs Personalised Bracelet from Jewellery by Tracy Stevenson (£3.75) is really pretty and I know lots of little girls who would be very happy to get one!

Sew Scrumptious boys purse (£4.00)
Thought I would blow my own trumpet and put a couple of my little boys purses in too! I only have 5 left now as they have been really popular this year. They are all lined with gingham or spotty fabric and I'll even throw in some chocolate coins too. Just email me if interested!

These little Miniature Wooden Matchbox Sets from Tickseed are so cute and only 60p!!! No I can't believe it either!!

All girls like pretty Hair Clips and these are super cute from Maybe Daisy (£3.00). Love all the different colours. Really great for slightly older girls (and grown ups!) too.

and finally the sweetest little Finger Puppets from With Hugs and Kisses (£2.49 each). So sweet!

Phew! Well thats it. I just need to work out who I have to buy for and what I need to order now. The lovely people at Find Me A Gift have also very kindly offered a 10% discount to anyone ordering from them in November. Check out their Christmas gifts. You just need to use the following code CHRISTMASGIFTS10

Happy Shopping!!

Fabric and Pudsey!

2011-11-14T14:44:00.000-08:00

More lovely fabric arrived at the week-end (I really need to start making things!) A lovely fellow blogger called Charley recommended La Chakra for fabric. They are based in America but I had fantastic customer service and the fabric arrived only a week later! You can find their ebay shop here.

The town where I live held its annual craft fair on Saturday complete with bric a brac stall and book sale. I go along every year and its always a great morning out. This year I was sporting a little bit of a hangover following my book club the night before but I still managed to hunt out a few bargains including this lovely vintage china. I want to make some cake stands for Christmas presents so I am on the hunt for pretty old china. This blue china is so pretty. I managed to pick up 2 cups, 2 saucers and 2 plates for £2. I'm a bit scared of drilling through it though in case it cracks and breaks.

This pretty plate was also £2

and this one 50p! I'm still looking for more to match.

This was my best find of the day. A Ladybird 'Learning to Sew' book for 30p. I absolutely love it!! Perfect for Izzy.

2 cute little hand knitted mice for Christmas stockings

A little robin decoration for 50p

I also wanted to share this little sewing kit that I bought for Izzy a while ago in Wales. Its such a great idea for a little girl learning to sew. A little fabric tray for keeping all your sewing things safe.

It comes with the cutest little pin cushion

A little button bag

and a needlecase.

Absolutely gorgeous and a great idea. Just wish I had thought of it!!

I also just wanted to mention that Build-A-Bear Workshop are teaming up with Children in Need again this year to raise money for them. They will donate £5 for every Pudsey or Blush bear they sell to Children in Need. Last year they sold over 11,500 bears and raised over £135,000 for the charity which is fantastic.

They will also donate £1 from any clothes that are purchased for Pudsey or Blush. They have 55 stores all over the UK. You can click here to find out which one is closest to you and remember that Children in Need is happening this Friday 18 November 2011. What a lovely way to donate!

The world of the Lite Sprites!

2011-11-12T13:15:00.000-08:00

One of the perks of blogging is being asked to review products and I couldn't resist trying out 'Lite Sprites' as I knew that Izzy would combust with excitement at the chance of playing with little fairies that actually change colour! We were sent a lovely box full of Lite Sprite items to review.

Lite Sprites are basically little fairy like creatures which light up. One sprite can change the colour of another and you can also change their colour by using the special Lite Wand. The Lite Wand can also capture colour from other things like a favourite tshirt or book and then change the Sprites to that particular colour - now that is magic! We were also given the Tree of Life which is where the Sprites hang out in their pods, it spins around, lights up and plays music. Its quite hard to explain how it all works so have a look here. They explain it much better than me!

The Lite Sprites were a huge success. Izzy (age 6) and her cousin Isla (age 4) loved playing with them (although also spent quite a lot of time fighting over them too!). Sam (age 3) has also enjoyed making them change colour and Izzy's other cousin who is 8 also joined in for a play so they appeal to a wide age range.

There is also a naughty Sprite who can steal all the colour and change them to white!

They look really pretty when they are all lit up particularly now it gets dark earlier so you get the real effect of the colours. Izzy has been doing lots of imaginative play with the set and even said she likes them more than her Nintendo DS. Praise indeed!! As a parent I like the fact there are not hundreds of small bits with this toy and it is pretty easy for younger children to use too. You can find out where to buy Lite Sprites in the UK here.

The only negative thing I would say is that you need a LOT of batteries to get it all working. These are not supplied and we needed an emergency trip to the shops to get some. I also have to mention the amount of packaging it comes in. Do we really need all this packaging??

Izzy loved it though and keeps going back to play with it again and again which is the best recommendation you can have I guess. You can check out the Lite Sprites website here.

The tooth fairy arrives for the first time

2011-11-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

Its been an exciting week. Izzy lost her first tooth and so we had a visit from the tooth fairy (after much consulting on Twitter re the going rate!). Its £1 and a chocolate coin in this neck of the woods! Izzy is showing off her shop bought tooth fairy cushion that she has had since she was 6 months old. Its been a LONG wait to use it!!

In honour of Izzy's tooth falling out I decided to make some new tooth fairy cushions particularly as I had been asked to take some of my things into a lovely gift shop with the possibility of them stocking some of them. Typically I left it to the night before and spent the early hours of this morning manically trying to finish them. I'm quite pleased with some of the new fabrics I used though. I added a little poem in the pockets addressed to the tooth fairy.

Fronts

and backs

some old favourite fabrics too

I also made some new hair clip tidies with the left over fabric. These are slightly smaller than the other ones I have made and only take hair clips not hair bands as well. I've already had 2 orders for these from friends.

The shop seems to like what I make and I have left them with a whole range of bibs, PE bags, baking bags, tooth fairy cushions, hair clip tidies, purses, felt tip rolls and activity bags. Its a gorgeous little tea shop and gift shop called 'Teacups and Treasures'. Very pretty with some beautiful items for sale. You can find them on facebook here and if you live near Clevedon pop in and have some tea and cake!

I also took advantage of being childless for a couple of hours and did a bit of shopping whilst in Clevedon. I love these little cardboard letters I found. Perfect for Izzy's bedroom wall. I choose 'Isabella' and also the numbers 1-9

A cute little butterfly yo yo maker which I thought Izzy might like in her Chritsmas stocking

Some fabric for Izzy and Sam

A little picture frame for me

Some lovely fabric to add to the pile!

Mother and daughter sewing scissors - they are pink and spotty. I couldn't resist.

some cute little Christmas decorations

I also came accross this strip of Cecily Mary Barker 'Flower Fairies' fabric. Izzy and I love the Flower Fairies book and illustrations. I have no idea what I am going to do with them but they are just so pretty. Any ideas?

Two more gorgeous dresses arrived for the pillowcase appeal. This time from the lovely Sarah. A pretty salmon pink dress with cream flowers

and a lovely blue dress with little green flowers. Both finished off with a cute little pocket. So pretty. That takes our total to 438 dresses. Thanks Sarah.

More exciting news from Alison at Peggy's Pickles blog. She has held her second pillowcase dress making party! You can read more about it here.

She has also found a lovely lady called Jennie who is involved in a project in Ghana called the 'Nyaboo Ghana Development fund' who is taking some of her dresses out to Ghana next week.

Alison has now revised her target to make 100 dresses!! Fantastic!!

The lovely Annie very kindly sent me a gorgeous picture of her new grandson wearing the bandana bib I sent him. How cute is he? Gorgeous!

I think I will be making a lavender heat bag at the week-end. A while ago I made one of these.

You can read about it here. It was for my mums 70th birthday. (I gave her 70 presents with the help of my blogging friends!) Earlier in the week she lent it to me as I pulled a muscle in my neck and I needed a heat pad thing. I'm not sure what I did but it now looks like this

Whoops! I somehow managed to scorch the thing heating it up in microwave. I'm not sure how. So do I just make a new one and not say anything or should I fess up??!! Better get sewing.....

Things about dresses

2011-11-05T17:08:00.000-07:00

I've just found a great tutorial for a tiered pillowcase dress and have very kindly been given permission from Jamie at Scattered Thoughts of a Crafty Mom blog to share the link and a photo. The dress is gorgeous and as soon as I saw it I thought it might inspire people to have a go at making one for the 'Dress a Girl' appeal.

Want to find out more? Go and have a look at the fab tutorial here and while you are there have a look at this lovely blog. Thanks so much Jamie. I really appreciate it!

Another 50 dresses have been packed up and posted off ready to go to India next year with a lovely lady who will be volunteering with this charity which helps orphaned and homeless children. I can't wait to hear more about the trip next year. Many thanks to Jan from Lemonade Kitty whose donation on behalf of her sister paid for the postage of these dresses in the UK.

Another flurry of parcels arrived this week too containing some more beautiful dresses. These four lovely dresses were from Dina. I love the lace detail on this one.

Gorgeous handmade bias binding on the dresses too!

along with cute little pockets

This pretty pink dress was from Nikki. You can find her here on facebook. She makes gorgeous jewellery and is donating a £1 to children in need for every sale during November so pop over and have a look. Nikki also made her daughter a matching dress too which you can see on her facebook page. She looks soo cute!

I love the pretty appliqued heart.

and another two dresses from Mrs A of Its an Alien Life blog. This one is so pretty. A patchwork dress that includes the gorgeous 'Sherbert Pips' fabric that I have been drooling over for some time now.

Lovely flower detail too

The second dress is a pretty pink dress made from vintage upcycled clothes and fabric and finished off with gorgeous handmade buttons made from shrink plastic and water colour pencils. So clever!

Look at the lovely detail

Thanks everyone. That takes the total to 438 dresses!

A huge thank you and well done to Alison over at Peggy's Pickles for organising the first pillowcase dress party!! You can find out more and see lots more lovely photos on Alison's blog here but here is a little taster...

Phew - busy week!

Its a good excuse to buy new shoes!

2011-10-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Its that time of year when you need to get out your old shoe boxes and fill them with presents for Operation Christmas Child who then very kindly deliver them for you to children around the world who would otherwise get very little for Christmas. We do this every year and its a really fun way of giving something back but also a good way of discussing the subject of poverty with young children. If you need any other reason to get involved then please check out the photos on the Operation Christmas Child facebook page. If the smiles on the children's faces as they receive their boxes doesn't warm your heart and make you want to send a shoe box then nothing will!

Izzy, Sam and I went round to my friends Laura's house to do ours together. As well as buying things for the box, I also asked the children to choose some of their own unused toys to send.

Laura and Amelia

Izzy

Sam

Amelia

You can now find out where your box is going if you donate online at the Operation Christmas Child website. You get a little bar code to put in your box and they email you with the destination. A great idea! The website has lots of blog banners and badges which you can use if you want to help publicise the work they do and encourage others to get involved. See here. You can also find Operation Christmas Child on facebook and on twitter

Another 9 gorgeous dresses arrived today for the Pillowcase dress appeal. All little ones which is perfect as I have just found someone visiting a nursery school in India in the New Year so they will be just right! They are both slightly different versions of the the pillowcase dress too which I love.

The first two were from the Domestic Goddesque who has a lovely blog which you can find here. These two dresses were a lovely dark pink.

This one with a pretty ruffle

and this one with a pretty flower trim

The elastic in these dresses runs around the neck line so there are no ties. I am learning so much from receiving all the different dresses.

I also received a lovely parcel of seven dresses from Pat who used a vintage pattern for her pretty dresses. This pattern hasn't been used for around 30 years until now!

The dress were lovely. The fabric was a mix of cream, blue and gold patterns and the dresses all had pretty handmade ties. So sweet!

All beautifully made - another great design to try out.

and did I mention Pat sent seven dresses!!

Huge thanks to both of you. This takes the total to 436 dresses! Also more exciting news from Alison of Peggys Pickles. She has arranged a pillowcase dress decorating party at Drink, Shop and Do in London on 6 December from 6.30pm so if you are in London pop in and say hi!

I also won a fab giveaway this week on the lovely My Love Bumps blog. How exciting. Pop over and say hi! My prize was a gorgeous purse and brooch made by the very talented Pants and Paper. They are absolutely gorgeous.

Another lovely week!

More things to do in the holidays

2011-10-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

Izzy has become a bit of a seasoned tester/reviewer for the 'Find Me A Gift' website over the last year. They always choose such lovely things for her to make and review. She has tried a felt heart sewing kit, painted some wellies and made a dolphin mosaic picture all of which we have really enjoyed making together. The challenge during this half term was to try out and review the Straw Art Kit.

I thought Izzy would enjoy this one as she loves designing and making things. The box comes full of brightly coloured plastic straws and lots of different fixings.

As you can see Izzy takes her job very seriously!

We actually found the instructions to make things such as the dinosaur below quite hard (although this probably says more about me than the instructions!). You have to cut the straws to make some of the more complicated designs and young children would definately need quite a lot of help I think.

But rather than give up I put the instructions away and told Izzy to see what she could make all by herself and you know what, as soon as we did that she started having fun! She just used her imagination and came up with all sorts of things. This we decided looked like the front of a combine harvester

This was our windmill

A flower in a vase

A double combine harvester!!

and our pièce de résistance a double hanging bird cage

Complete with chicken!

Izzy really enjoyed this set once we started doing our own thing and she has asked to get it out 3 days running now which says it all really. She has booked in her dad to try and make the dinosaur with her at the week-end!!

Some other lovely things I spotted on the Find Me A Gift website were these gorgeous

Love Heart Stamps

and I love this Chocolate Cake Mould

Its well worth checking out the Find Me a Gift website and facebook page.

Bandana Bib Tutorial

2011-10-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

I've been making bibs for ages now and sold lots over the last few years but have never got round to making a Bandana bib. I thought I would give it a try today as I had to make a present for someone going on maternity leave at work and it was surprisingly easy!! I thought I would share it as a little tutorial. If you are a novice sewer give this a go. Its all straight lines!! This size bib will fit a new born baby to around 1 year. Once babies are weaned and eating food you might want to make the bib slightly longer and wider to cover more of their clothes.

Are you ready?

I made my own pattern. The bib is basically a triangle shape with the top measuring 17 inches and the two sides of the triangle 12 inches. I didn't have a piece of card big enough for the whole thing so I had to make a template for half a bib which I then place on the fold of the fabric so when you cut it out and unfold you have the triangle.

Cut one triangle from a nice cotton fabric and one from a nice absorbent fabric. I like to use towelling fabric for the back of my bibs as they are great for soaking up milk. Lay the two triangles on top of each other pattern facing downwards and pin like so

You then need to sew all around the triangle leaving a small gap to turn it inside out. You see the gap below? Make it bigger! Much bigger!!

You should then clip the corners to make them less bulky

like this!

Turn the bib inside out through the gap that you left - if you make your gap as small as mine this will be a complete pain in the **** and will take you ages amid much swearing. If you make it bigger it will be much easier!

Once you have managed to turn it inside out, you need to iron your bib flat. It should look like this with a small hole in one side. Make sure you iron over the gap and ensure the edges are neatly folded in ready to sew over to seal. You then need to top stitch all around the edge of the bib. This will close the gap and also reinforces the bib and makes it neater. You could do this in a different colour thread if you wanted.

You can then add your fastening. I use the snaps that you hammer on as I think they look really professional. They seem to be quite hard to get hold of though. You can use sew on ones or velcro instead.

Ta da! The finished item ready to be worn by a cute baby!

and inside

and modelled by a teddy as I don't have a baby anymore!!

and heres one I made earlier..

If you make a bib (well done for being able to follow my directions!) please let me know how you got on. Remember I want photographic evidence please!!

M is for.................

2011-10-21T14:06:00.000-07:00

M is for Make another gorgeous new fabric website I have just discovered. Super fast delivery and the most gorgeous fabrics.

M is for More Fabric. I just couldn't help myself after discovering the website above! I love this foxy fabric.

Couldn't resist another butterfly one

This was in the sale so it would have been rude not too!

LOVE LOVE LOVE this one - also in the sale!

This is pretty too

This is a lovely organic fabric. Love the colours for a boy. What shall I make?

M is for Making Stuff (finally!)

So what is it?

A little recorder bag

whipped up in 5 minutes!

M is for More Bibs!

Sorry about the cheesy teddy photo but I don't have babies to model them on anymore! These little girl ones are going to baby Dotty to be tested out

and these are going to baby Stephen to try out for me. His lovely grandma and great aunt have made hundreds of dresses for the 'Dress a Girl' appeal. You can see more here

M is for Making me broody!

Annie also let me see a photo of her 2 other new grandchildren wearing the bibs I sent them. How cute are these twins?

M is for More Tutorials - I'm going to post a tutorial for the bandana bibs at the week-end so watch this space!

Lets get ready to Frumble!

2011-10-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

I've discovered a lovely new online fabric shop called Frumble Fabrics (sorry I just couldn't resist the title of the post - people of a certain age with bad musical taste will understand!!). Seriously though I was very impressed with both the fabric I ordered and the service which was really fast. Just what I look for from a fabric website particularly after my terrible experience with this fabric website. So what did I buy??

Frumble do a fab 'essentials' range which is only £7 per metre which is cheap when you compare it to the fabrics which have to be imported from the USA which are usually nearer £13 per metre. I was really impressed with the designs on offer and the quality.

These were in the essentials range too

I couldn't resist this Michael Miller 'Hearts' fabric.

Each heart is made up of lots of little flowers.

Another Michael Miller fabric. Wonder who this is for?!

This is really cute too. Have already made a little bandana bib out of this for a colleague at work who is going on maternity leave. Going to do a tutorial very soon!

STOP PRESS: Sew Scrumptious actually sews something!!

Also want to say a huge thank you to the lovely Roberta in Germany who sent me a box full of dresses for the Dress a Girl - UK appeal. They are all beautiful. Nine in total!

I think this was my favourite. A really summery stripey fabric

with gorgeous butterfly pockets

Love this vibrant blue fabric too. There were 2 of these lovely dresses

cute little pockets

and co-ordinating ties

Two of these lovely dresses as well. Love the handmade bias binding and ties which co-ordinate with the pockets.

Another lovely stripey dress this time with flower pockets

and 2 dresses made from this lovely patchwork fabric

Love the trim on the pockets

The second one with red trim

and last but not least a pretty blue and pink fabric with co-ordinating pink ties.

Thanks so much Roberta. This takes our total to 427. I've just made a contact who may be able to take some of our dresses to India in the New Year where they will be given to a day care centre to distribute and also to abandoned and homeless girls.

Mary's Meals

2011-10-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

Izzy's school have been taking part in the Backpack Project for Mary's Meals - a charity that provides daily meals to children in school in developing countries like Malawi and Liberia to encourage school attendance. They are an amazing charity currently feeding over 500,000 children in 16 countries!

Schools, colleges, workplaces or individuals donate a backpack and fill it with things that children need for school as well as basic clothes and toiletries. Very often the children that receive the backpacks cannot afford to buy even very basic items such as pencils or notebooks. This year alone 36,949 backpacks have been donated to children in developing countries and the charity have delivered 245,600 Backpacks in total. AMAZING!

Izzy and I wanted to do our bit so we found an old Elmer Backpack and filled it with items we thought might be useful.

One of the items suggested to go in the Backpack was a dress which got me thinking........
I have a bedroom full of pretty dresses!! I emailed Mary's Meals and I am very proud to say that they were very happy to collect some pillowcase dresses along with the Backpacks from Izzy's school today so 50 pillowcase dresses will soon be on their way to Malawi! Result!!!

Can you see your dress??

A dress will be put into 50 individual backpacks to be distributed to little girls who need them at schools in Malawi. Mary's Meals told me that for many children the backpacks will be the first gifts they ever receive. Izzy was very proud to be involved.

You can find out more about Mary's Meals here. Maybe your school would like to get involved in the Backpack Project? You can email Mary's Meals to find out more at backpacks@marysmeals.org. Not only are you helping children get an education in developing countries but its a really good way of helping your own children gain an understanding of the difficulties faced by children in other countries and how we can all make a difference even in a small way. Its costs just £6.15 to feed a child in Malawi for a whole school year! Thats not much is it? If you want to donate you can find out how here

I'D like to say a huge thanks to Allyson from The Bellingham Soap Company who came across me on Twitter recently and sent me a box full of fabric to make dresses with.

There is so much fabric! Its fantastic. We will be able to make so many dresses with it. I have been toying with the idea of having some sewing parties since reading about them on Peggys Pickles blog. A few local bloggers have expressed an interest in learning how to make a dress and now I have this fabric its seems rude not to so watch this space!! Thank you so much for your very kind gesture!

I have very kindly been featured on Peggy Pickles blog recently. You can read it here and also get an update on her dress challenge!

Dress a Girl? Lets Dress 400 Girls!!

2011-10-09T14:44:00.000-07:00

A great week for the Dress a Girl appeal. I was given some gorgeous fabric by the boss of a friend of mine. Thank you Esme. I've been told that it is a Liberty fabric which I've never used before. Its so soft. I love it! I'll get dress making with it next week hopefully.

66 more dresses arrived! A beautiful dress from Suzanne at Sky Blue Sea. Suzanne makes beautiful textile art which you can see on her website here. The dress was so pretty.

I love the heart appliques

and the cutest little hearts on the ties

Another gorgeous dress came from Sarah at Tilly Mint Boutique. Sarah also has a lovely blog which you can find here

I love this bright and vibrant fabric with dragonflies and butterflies.

Pretty pink ties too. Lovely

and to finish off the week in great style a parcel of 64 dresses arrived from the lovely Annie and Jo who never fail to astound me with their generosity and kindness and the speed at which they sew! Special mention to Toni (a friend of Annie and Jo's) who made her first dress with their expert tuition. I think you will agree that it is an amazing effort and absolutely gorgeous!

Pretty little pocket

This lovely crossover dress was also kindly donated to Jo and Annie for the appeal. Its very pretty.

and the ususal array of beautiful dressesas we have come to expect from the fastest sewers in the UK!! Such a shame the weather is so bad I can't do my usual washing line shots...

Every dress is so unique and individual. The cutest pockets

and frills

and applique

and flowers

All beautiful and in all sizes so that every little girl will get something pretty to wear. This takes the total to 418 Dresses! AMAZING.

Annies daughter has just had twins so I sent a little parcel for them which I hope they will like......I'll share when it arrives safely.

Annie also makes the cutest little mini bears which come with little poems. I couldn't resist buying some. A little birthday bear for Izzy's friend. 2 Christmas bears for Izzy and Sam to hang on the tree. 2 little bears to go in the shoebox appeal we do every Christmas and a Grandma and Grandad bear for the Grandparents from Izzy and Sam

Special mention as well to Alison at Peggy's Pickles who has challenged herself to make 52 dresses for the appeal. You can follow her progress on her blog. Not only that but she has managed to get her husband to make one. Yes really!! The first dress made by a man. That is fantastic! We need more men involved. So who else can also get a man to make a dress??

Its not supposed to be this sunny

2011-10-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

23 new dresses arrived this week taking our total to over 350! I took advantage of the lovely weather to take some photos in the garden.

A fantastic parcel of dresses from Pauline who sent 20 beautiful dresses and has promised more!! They were all absolutely gorgeous.

All different sizes

Lots of different colours and fabrics

Lots of pretty pockets and detail

They looked so pretty in the sunshine

I also received another upcycled dress from the very talented Valerie. You can see the before and after photos on her lovely blog here

I love the little crocheted flower detail on the dress

and the co-ordinating hairband. So cute

The lovely Jo from Bearpaw also sent another 2 gorgeous dresses

I love the spotty handmade bias binding and ties on this one. Lovely.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate you all sending so many dresses. I think I have just made a good contact in terms of getting the dresses to where they are needed so will keep you updated on where they are going!

We've had a busy week-end in the sunshine. Saturday was Izzy's butterfly party for her 6th birthday. We went to a local butterfly house and then back to ours for tea. The weather was fantastic and meant all the children could go in the garden which saved the house being destroyed. I'm a bit butterflied out now after scouring the country and ebay for butterfly themed things!

Butterfly paper chains from the local pound shop!

Hanging foil butterflies from Woolworths

Butterfly plates and cups

Butterfly party bags - fabric from Fabric Rehab

Beautiful butterfly biscuits made by my lovely friend Laura

Real life butterflies!

and moths

and cocoons

Sam and a huge moth

Izzy and a tiny caterpillar

The butterfly man!

Butterfly cupcakes with my best find - edible Hello Kitty butterfly cake toppers!! I nearly combusted with excited when I found these!

Marshmallow cake pops again made by the lovely Laura

My bodged attempt at a butterfly cake. I don't do much baking as you can tell!

More butterfly biscuits

I think Sam liked them!

Happy Birthday Isabella!! Lots more gorgeous photos which I can't share as I haven't asked the permission of the other parents. Lots of dancing in the sunshine!

I want my own fabric shop!

2011-09-26T07:09:00.000-07:00

A little video clip from Malawi. I finally worked out how to upload it on to the blog!

Another gorgeous dress arrived recently from Fiona and her daughter Hannah. Its so pretty. I love the combination of spots and stripes.

I love the pockets too which were Hannah's idea. Gorgeous!

Thank you so much. Fiona has a lovely blog called Poppy Makes which you can find here

I feel like I have lost my sewing mojo again recently. I've been really busy with other stuff and organising the 'dress a girl' project which I love but I'm finding the whole computer thing is just eating away at my time. Blogging/facebook/twitter etc just seems to take up hours and hours. How do other people manage to do both? They are great tools for networking and I love using them but I never manage to do any sewing anymore! I have decided to challenge myself to making an item a week for the rest of the year. Anyone want to join me? Just thinking about what I want to make!

I did manage to finish a little bit of sewing this week. Butterfly party bags for Izzy's birthday. They look really sweet so I hope they like them.

Full of butterfly themed things!

I popped into Fabricland today and found some gorgeous really cheap fabric for some more dresses and other projects all at £3.50 a metre. Some Licorice Allsorts fabric!

A lovely shabby chic rose fabric

and another pretty rose fabric

I have to say that I am always so disappointed whenever I visit Fabricland in Bristol. The staff are just so miserable! Nobody ever smiles or wants to help or talk to you about what you are making. They are missing a trick. Fabric shopping should be a fun activity where you spend hours browsing and chatting and feeling inspired and SPENDING MONEY. In Fabricland I'm too scared to ask anyone about anything. I usually get scowled at for queuing in the wrong place and a friendly chat about your latest project is NOT an option. Is this experience limited to Bristol or is it nationwide? I always come out dreaming about what my fabric shop would be like if I had one and how friendly and welcoming it would be. If only!!

This makes it all worthwhile!

2011-09-23T06:04:00.000-07:00

I received some fantastic photos yesterday of the first batch of dresses which were taken to Malawi. I'm feeling pretty proud today and even a little bit tearful!

This is the update from the person who took them for me. "The trip to Malawi went very well apart from the fact that there were demonstrations against the government in the middle of our visit and we were more or less confined to the hotel for two days as the demonstrations became quite violent and at least 8 people were killed. We managed to do most of the things we had planned including helping to finish the nursery school/church building in a village called Biwi. On the second Sunday we had an opening ceremony and about 30 people were baptised. As you can imagine it was a very noisy occasion. The distribution of dresses was equally noisy. We actually did it inside the new building. Some of the dresses were held back for a nursery school in a neighbouring village and the team we were working with promised to take some photos when these were distributed"

I don't think I need to say anything else other than Well Done Everybody!

This and That

2011-09-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

I had completely forgotten that I hadn't received my swap package for the Unbirthday Swap organised by the Undomesticated Scientist until it arrived the other day. What a lovely surprise! A box full of lovely goodies from Clare at Weekend Crafter. She had chosen some beautiful gifts for me. I was VERY pleased with my lovely things!!

My lovely box full of pressies and a cool card...

A pretty little wooden house and a gorgeous cupcake badge

A beautiful handmade hanging heart. Love the fabric.

The sweetest little wooden hanging apple. So pretty

A little strawberry bag charm

A very pretty little oilcloth purse which Izzy has got her eye on

Some lovely gifts to represent where Clare lives - we have a Welsh tea towel, Welsh rock, Welsh recipe book, Welsh chocolate and some Welsh postcards!

Gorgeous Cath Kidston tissues and mirror for my handbag. Perfect!

and a lovely little hanging blackboard with a little teapot and a peg for keeping things safe.

Thanks so much Clare. Really well chosen gifts! I love them all.

I had a second lovely surprise in the post when Jan from Lemonade Kitty very kindly sent me another donation towards postage for the 'Dress a Girl around the World' appeal. The donation was in memory of her sister Karen who would have celebrated her 50th birthday on Monday. I am delighted to accept this donation in Karen's memory and want to thank Jan for the very kind gesture. I will make sure that it is used to get dresses to girls who need them.

Izzy's gorgeous picture arrived from Utterley Butterflies today. Its so pretty. I love it! It has her name on one of the butterflies and will look gorgeous in her bedroom.

Her butterfly themed party is only 2 weeks away. I really need to finish those party bags!!

There is a lovely giveaway over on The Village Haberdashery blog. A lovely quilting book. Pop over and join in and have a look at the lovely website too!

Just ordered a copy of this for our next reading group. Quite excited about re reading it.

Anyone rediscovered an old classic recently?

2011-09-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

More lovely dresses arrived today. The first package contained another 2 lovely dresses from Valerie. Valerie upcycles her dresses from clothes she no longer wears and they are so pretty. If you look at her blog you can see the before and after pictures. She doesn't waste a single scrap of fabric.

They have such pretty details

I love the little crocheted flower. So pretty.

and more matching hairbands. The dresses came wrapped in an old sewing pattern which looked so cool. Great idea!

I also received 5 lovely dresses from the the very kind Anesha who also has a lovely blog which you can find here. She made 2 of these pretty little red dresses

with the cutest little flowers on the straps. Another great idea to ~~steal~~ borrow!

A lovely check dress

with another lovely flower

a very pretty floral dress

and a gorgeous lilac with a check band at the bottom. All so pretty.

Lots of multi coloured dots on this fabric.

This takes the total to 328. I've also had exciting news from a local college who will hopefully make some dresses with students on their textiles course. I love the idea of getting young people involved and can't wait to see what they make! Will keep you posted.

I actually did some sewing today. I'm halfway through 10 butterfly party bags for Izzy's birthday in a couple of weeks. Please excuse the state of the table and yes that is a bowl of dry cheerios in the background. A girl has to snack while shes sewing!

I also wanted to say a huge thanks to Abby of Bubs Bears for making us 8 beautiful remembrance bears. My father in law sadly died earlier in the year and Jon and his sisters weren't sure what to do with his clothes. I suggested they look at Abby's website as she makes beautiful patchwork remembrance bears. You send her a selection of the clothes that mean the most to you and she makes them into lovely patchwork keepsake bears. We had 8 made. One for each of his grandchildren.

They are so beautifully made. Jon said that he can remember which piece of clothing each part of the patchwork bear is made from and can remember his dad wearing it. Its a lovely way to remember someone and I think it helped the family with the horrible task of clearing out the clothes.

Jon's dad did lots of running and ran many charity races and marathons. He was often awarded tshirts at the races and one of these was incorporated into this bear

The idea also works really well for keeping your children's first baby clothes or you can have a bear made out of your wedding dress.Thanks Abby. They will have pride of place in Izzy and Sam's bedrooms

How many dresses??

2011-09-07T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Dress a Girl Around the World - UK appeal has now collected over 320 dresses! 321 to be exact. Its a fantastic achievement. Huge thanks to everyone. I've been away for a couple of weeks and returned home to find not only had another 52 dresses arrived but I had also been featured as a guest writer on a lovely blog called 'I Love Crafty'. Laura who writes the blog has a gorgeous shop in Bristol selling handmade lovelies which I am ashamed to say I haven't managed to visit yet despite only living about 10 miles away and a lovely website too. Thanks Laura. I will be in to visit you very soon (without my 2 very small children!)

The first 3 dresses were donated by Valery who has a lovely blog called Its an Alien Life. Valery managed to make 3 gorgeous dresses out of one of her old dresses. They are absolutely gorgeous and all slightly different which I love

Look at the pretty detail

They also came with 3 beautiful matching hair bands.

Izzy took a bit of a shine to these and offered to model it for me whilst practicing her new recorder (just how many times am I going to have to listen to London's Burning?) We had to have a little chat about who needed the hair band most Izzy or a little girl in Africa but I finally managed to ~~wrestle it off her~~ persuade her to put it back with the dresses!!

and ANOTHER fantastic parcel of dresses from the sisters who I think must sew in their sleep Wipso and Twiglet. Another 49 dresses from them!! Just such an amazing achievement. Thank you both. I hope you both realise how much I appreciate your involvement. You have really motivated me to continue and push forward. So the next step is to find some more contacts to take the dresses abroad for us. This will be my focus now that the children are back at school and I have a bit more time.

I was hoping to take some more washing line shots but given that its rained solidly for the last week I had to change my plans...

So many beautiful dresses and individual little touches as always

beautiful machine embroidery.

Cute pockets

I do love frills. I really must try this.

Please join the facebook page if you haven't already. You can find it here. I just found out the The Dress a Girl charity in America have now delivered 46,717 dresses since 2009. Get sewing everybody we have a way to go!!

Not just tea towels but works of art!

2011-08-26T14:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not known for my love of household chores so I have to admit that when I was offered the chance to review some tea towels by the lovely people at All Tea Towels initially I wasn't very interested. That was until I had a look at the website. These are not your ordinary supermarket tea towels. Oh no. These are works of art! Seriously. After much changing of minds I finally decided on these two..

This one because I really do like a nice cup of tea (or ten!)

and this one just because I thought it was really pretty

and they were just as lovely in real life (everything gets photographed on my washing line now!)

The tea towels are so much nicer than the boring ones I usually buy and you can tell the difference in quality too. These are 100% cotton and really thick and absorbent. They get softer the more you wash them too. I have washed mine already (I have 2 children under 5 so am always mopping up spills!) and they wash up really well. They were both really well made and have a nice loop for hanging them up at the top which is actually really useful. I was going to post a photo of me drying up with them but the shock might have been too much for anyone that knows me! The tea towels are only £6.50 each which is pretty good value and postage is free!! If you buy one for a present you can even have the tea towel sent direct with a free gift card. Hows that for service! Would make a great fun gift for a student who has moved out of home for the first time maybe!!

I couldn't resist showing you some of the other tea towels that I loved (that does make me sound old doesn't it!)

This one was so nearly my first choice!

This would make a fantastic wedding or anniversary present

and with London 2012 round the corner

Thanks All Tea Towels. I love my new tea towels.

Lots more lovely dresses

2011-08-25T14:58:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the lovely response to my last post showing girls in Malawi wearing some of the pillowcase dresses we have made. It was so exciting seeing the photos and has really motivated me to do more. Today has been another lovely day. It started off with a dress in the post from the lovely Auriol who writes about all sorts of crafty things on the Groupon blog which you can find here. Auriol has very kindly featured the appeal on the blog. Her dress arrived in THE most gorgeous envelope (you can find out how to make these on her blog!!).

It was a very pretty pink and white dress with white ties. Gorgeous!

I was also delighted to meet Tricia when she drove over from Somerset to hand deliver me 31 dresses that her sewing group had made! A big thanks to Tricia for driving them over and to Bek from Oh Sew Lovely who organised the making of the dresses. Bek makes the most beautiful things. Check out the photos on her facebook page. I managed to squeeze in some photos of the dresses between the rain and look at how lovely they look.

The dresses are all made from upcycled pillowcases and each one has its own unique embellishment.

beautiful appliqued love hearts

Bows and buttons

butterflies

Felt flowers

Simply beautiful. I thought I would show you some lovely photos of Bek's sewing group hard at work!

Thanks guys. Amazing effort all round!

I was feeling like I needed to make some more dresses too so had a little shopping trip to Fabricland with Izzy. The staff are still miserable but its SOOOO cheap. Some lovely fabric at £2.99 a metre. Perfect for little dresses!

I couldn't decide on this one. I quite like it. Izzy loved it and my other half thinks it looks like an old ladies duvet cover! What do you think?

I also bought some bias binding, ribbon and ric rac at a lovely ribbon shop in Bristol

Remember my John Lewis fabric? I did actually get round to making a dress for Izzy. What do you think??

and finally I had quite a drastic hair cut today. I'm not sure I like it. Its very short for me. Want to have a look?

It will grow back I guess!!

This makes it all worthwhile

2011-08-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

I was absolutely delighted to receive these pictures today. The first photos of our dresses being delivered to girls living at the Home of Hope Orphanage in Malawi. 50 dresses were taken over by a group of young people visiting the orphanage. I am hoping to get a first hand account of their trip soon to put on the blog but thought I would share these photos with you in the meantime

Beautiful girls wearing beautiful dresses! Thanks everyone. This is the reason we are making dresses.

Please check out the website for the Home of Hope Orphanage if you are interested in finding out more about the fantastic work they do. It was founded and is still run by Rev. Chipeta an inspiring man now in his 80's! The orphanage is in Mchinji, Malawi, just next to the Zambian border and is the oldest private orphanage in Malawi run by Malawians. They care for over 600 orphans from all over Malawi, providing food, shelter and good quality education in a loving environment. It looks like such an amazing place. I can't wait to find out more about the work they do.

Sewing faster than the speed of light

2011-08-22T13:57:00.000-07:00

I have to say another huge thank you to Annie and Jo AKA Wipso and Twiglet in blogland who have sent ANOTHER 50 dresses to add to the 30 they have already made AND they are still making more!! There is no stopping these ladies who sew faster than the speed of light and will soon have single handedly dressed a whole continent of girls!! Amazing achievement I think you will agree. The sun finally came out so today so here are the dresses in all their glory....

Jo's are on the top and Annie's on the bottom.

I picked out a few of my favourites to show you...

This dress is made with the cutest puppy fabric with a little love heart pocket

another gorgeous pocket on this pretty purple dress

Some gorgeous fabric with retro animals on

in blue too!

Love the matching bias binding ties and top and bottom band on this one

This beautiful flower corsage is finished off with glass beads. Beautiful! Annie and Jo have made a whole range of sizes including some for older girls too which is fantastic.

a lovely appliqued heart pocket

appliqued flowers and a frill' on this pretty dress

more lovely appliqued flowers

I love these flowers which are finished off with buttons

This pretty dress is finished off with gorgeous ribbon detail

showing a farmyard scene

another lovely pocket

I love this fabric. So vibrant!

I love the pretty stitching detail on these two

and lots and lots of pretty dresses....

The total now stands at 237!! Thanks Annie and Jo. I am very grateful for all your support.

Other news - We now have a facebook page! 'Dress a Girl around the world - UK' Please come over and say hi. I'm also now the official UK partner for the 'Dress a Girl' charity in America and can be found on their website. There is no stopping us now. Lets show them what we can do UK bloggers!!