Hardee ha ha

Tidying up this afternoon I came accross a Fat Quarter I had been intending to use.

It's an Alexander Henry print and was very quick to knock out a little doll with Mini-me, she chose the two figures she liked best, we sewed them together and stuffed them:

A fine game! Mia called the doll "Ardee" or "Hardee". I have no idea why....

Nearly forgot...

I finished my ginger sewalong, finally. Here is a rubbish photo (better photo to follow, hopefully). It's my first attempt at piping which I made using piping cord and pink bias binding.

Challenged by the sewweekly challenge?

I am a bit stumped by the challenges at the moment, ideas rich, time poor. I really wanted to make the perfect summer dress a couple of weeks ago, I have this spectacular pattern I wanted to use:

I like view B, on the right. I have traced the pattern. Originally I was going to use this pattern with some fabric I got on Goldhwk Road in London at the sewweekly meet and cream rickrack;

 

But then time moved on and the challenge came up to do something black and white with a hat, like the races in My fair Lady. So I thought I would do the dress in white eyelet and blck rickrack. I have even made a fascinator:

But, as I pinned the pattern pieces to the white material, my heart wasn't in it. White is so not my colour - I even wore gold on my wedding day because white made me look ill. Plus, I have promised myself I will make stuff I can wear, not just hurry through the challenges for the sake of it. So I have gone back to the perfect summer dress, and the flowery material. Hope it turns out well!

I come from a land down under

Look at what the postie brought me from Australia, by sea mail. Yes, sea mail. I am imagining funnels and liners and deck chairs, evening dress and string bands. Probably not, but I am going to think that anyway. Amanda from sewweekly (another lovely person in the southern hemisphere) sent me some patterns she had been given that were in my size, plus this gorgeous gorgeous reversible top for mini-me. Love love love. Isn't the bird cute? The pattern is available on etsy, as a pdf download from Heidi and Finn. Thank you so much Amanda, who is a such a thoughtful and lovely person. Sending you love xxx

Sorbetto success story

I have made something I can wear! Finally.

It's a Colette Sorbetto from a free download. If you haven't got it yet, why not? It is two pattern pieces and bias binding. Plus, in this case, some lovely lace from Kat in NZ, which was part of the "travelling notions" swap on sewweekly. Thanks Kat, it was so great to use the lace, as it had come half way around the world. I wore the top this week to work, and felt dead proud.