Recently in Dressmaking Category

I bought the 'more softies: 22 new friends for you to sew and crochet' book from Basement Books last week for a discounted $7.95 (RRP $29.95) and tested one of the patterns out successfully.

Meet 'lil pup'.

Having only sewing dresses, skirts and shorts before, I'd never actually thought about soft toys. I made this little cutie over 3 nights, approximately an hour each night (night 1 was spent tracing the pattern and cutting fabric, night 2 was stitching up the basics and night 3 involved a lot of stuffing and hand-sewing).

My hand-made soft toy - lil pup

So my conclusion is that soft toys are so easy to make and they're fantastic gifts. There are endless possibilities with just a change of fabric.

I was all inspired to sew up a dress this weekend but after a few mishaps (i couldn't get into the top half of the dress!), i decided to unstitch and re-use the bottom half of the fabric.

Here is my Spring Is Here skirt. I love the vintage-looking peachy floral cotton (by David Textiles) and matched it with a light champagne satin trim. I've also used anti-static lining beneath the skirt for comfort. It is a classic elastic skirt which sits just above the knee.

This might be new to some of you, but occasionally, apart from eating, thinking and photographing food... i like to sew. With bits of fabric from The Remnant Warehouse, Spotlight and the ribbed elastic from K-Mart, I made this over a few hours last Saturday.

I'm calling it the 'Skip to the Weekend Skirt'. I love the flowery checked pattern on the cotton... this was an impulse buy from The Remnant Warehouse. The silk slip was a luxury thing which hiked up the raw costs of the skirt.

Anyway... so, I wore the skirt on Monday and loved it :-)