Big Ugly Pants

When I bought these pants ($1) I thought I could make jeggings for myself, but after seeing this before photo I quickly changed my mind!

So I decided to make jeans for my little boy.

 First, I cut off the waistband (but kept the elastic for later), and cut the inseam and crotch seams.  This leaves a the side seam, which we will use for the side seam of our smaller pants.

Next, I use a pair of the kids pants as a pattern (because I'm stingy and they grow so quickly I don't want to buy every size pants patterns).  Just make sure your inseams (marked A and B)are both the same length, because they will be sewn together.

From here on in, you just make them like a regular pair of pants (inseams, crotch seam, finish the waistband).  I was able to use the original waistband elastic, but it depends on the construction of the original garment.

  Finished, at the moment they are still a bit big.  I'm sure it won't be long until his super-grow legs catch up!
One of the advantages of using 'plus' size garments, is that there is plenty of fabric!  I looked at my leftovers, and thought I might just have enough for a pair of summer shorts for my little girl.

  You can just see the pattern I have drawn on, with the little B at the back, and the pockets (obviously too big at the moment) at the front.

All I did was stitich a line to form the new pocket bottom, and then cut away the excess pocket.

Then, I just finished off the shorts as normal, except that I made them flat front and elastic back, because I only had a short piece of the elastic left!  I also used some thrifted braid from my stash so that they could be as long as possible.

I think they turned out better than the pants!

How'dya Like This Apple?

Hello Everyone!  Thankyou everyone for the ideas for delicious cracker flavours, I will definitely be trying lots of different varieties.  I have been a little quiet for a few reasons, as you know Panda is away so I am parenting (and indeed doing lots of things) alone.  It is times like these that the effort I have put into building relationships and becoming part of different communities really makes a difference.  Even though I do get lonely, the support I receive from friends and family is sometimes the only thing that keeps me moving forward.

In the past week one pair of pyjamas had a hole cut in, one tape measure got hacked up (to 'share'), and a monkey got a haircut.  I have lots of things like scissors and tape measures that the spawn find irresistably interesting.  So, inspired by this project over at my new favourite blog, I thought I would spend a quiet moment making a keepsafe jar.

Essentially it is a coffee jar with a felt circle 3cm bigger than the lid, gathered with a running stitch, stuffed and glued on top.  I sat it upside down to hold it on whilst gluing.

 

It looked like a jar wearing a shower cap, so I glued a leaf on the top, and some bright fabric around the base.  I think it turned out quite cute, although I have inadvertently created something ELSE to attract the spawns attention.  Have a great week!

Not Much to Report

Not much to report here...

 Bye Bye :(

The parmesan crackers were quite nice, and finished off by me, but the poppyseed crackers were a real winner and polished off by the spawn...

 I got this top for $1 but I hate turtlenecks...

Aaahh, much better...

Excited little head popping out from my finished front of the Bluebird Quilt...

And still trying to get the design right for the Quilt of Disarray.
Well look at that.  Seems like there was something to report!

Crackalacking Baby!

I have been entertaining myself playing around with combinations and flavours of homemade crackers, and have had some interest, so I'm putting all the info in the same place in a special 'cracker' post.

 It all begins with this recipe.  Which is basically 1 cup of plain flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 80ml water and 40ml olive oil.  Mixed, kneaded, rolled as thin as you can (in this case, the thinner the better).  Then baked at 200 degrees celsius for about 15 minutes.  When it comes out of the oven, crack it into pieces.  If it doesn't crack, it needs more time in the oven.
  The variations I have tried so far are:

Sesame, my all time favourite so far.  I used 1 cup plain white flour, and 2 tablespoons of sesame seeds (as well as the water oil and salt.)

Caraway, adults liked them, spawn not so much.  This one has 1/3 cup self raising wholemeal flour, 2/3 cup plain white flour, and 1 tablespoon of caraway seeds (as well as the water oil and salt.)

Mexican, lovely dipped in salsa or cream cheese!  I used 1/2 cup self raising wholemeal flour, 1/2 cup plain white flour, and 1 teaspoon of medium mexican chilli powder (as well as the water oil and salt.)

Garlic and Parsley, a hit!  This one had 1/2 cup self raising wholemeal flour, 1/2 cup plain white flour, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, 1 teaspoon dried garlic powder (as well as the... you get the drift by now!)
  So now I'm putting out a challenge - I'd like to hear your ideas for some wonderful flavours, and I'd LOVE to see everyones photos of their efforts.  So off you go, get Cracking!  (Sorry terrible pun, couldn't help myself!)

My Creative Space

My creative space this week contains caraway cracker dough.  I love making crackers, rolling the dough so thin when you pick it up to put it on the tray it drapes like embroidered crepe de chine and the light shines through it.  This flavour was pronounced by adults to be 'delicious', and pronounced by spawn to be 'Um... I don't really like it'.

Also in my space, painting of one kind and another, and working on sashing for the Bluebird quilt.
Hope everyone else over at Kootoyoo is feeling inspired warm and safe!

Love and Loss

I have finished the applique on the last block of the quilt I have been making for my mother.
This quilt includes pieces of all the other quilts I have made, as well as donations of fabric left over from my sisters' craft projects, and some fabric from my late father's shirt.

I miss my Dad.
I miss my Panda.  (Who is going away for three weeks to the middle of outback Queensland.)
I miss my first love, my friends who moved, my friends I don't see often enough.
I miss all those I've lost, forgotten, ignored, and neglected.

I love my spawn. (Showing off our table centrepieces depicting members of our family.)

I love sesame crackers, just about to be pounced upon from the corners of the frame.

I love skating.

My Creative Flurry

I seem to go in waves of flurried industry followed by doldrums of heavy inactivity.  At the moment I'm in a storm of production...

Working on derby skirts for a derby friend, and cutting out leaves to applique onto my quilt of disarray.

Experimenting with different ways to emblazon derby names on different garments.

Blogging and being unwittingly photographed in the early hours of the morning...

By the spawn who hijacked my camera (again!)
I wonder who else is feeling inspired over at Kootoyoo?

A New Quilt called Disarray

A new friend has had these 'block of the month' pieces languishing in her craft pile for years, so when she found out I love sewing (you'd only have to know me an hour or two to figure that one out!) she GAVE them all to me booyah!
  The original design is formal, traditional, neatly following a grid pattern.  So of course I had to mess it up!  There is something fascinating to me about the exceptions to the rules, the pressure points where things begin to fracture, the start of an unravelling.

  I have kept the formal grid for the main body, but will be cutting leaf shapes from different fabrics and appliqueing them in a pile which will be swept upwards across the quilt.  At this early stage I think I will leave the edges of the leaves raw, and hold them all down with the quilting.

Groovy Baby!

Well, the bathrobe refashion turned out pretty well, all I need now is the average daytime temperature to rise from 10 up to a nice 25degrees!

I used this jumpsuit pattern but made it a dress with a v-neck.

And I've used the original belt.