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a few party preparations have been underway this week, including birthday party dress sewing.

i used a pattern from ottobre summer 3/2011 but added the lace to the sleeves and skirt.

instead of an invisible zipper i decided to use an exposed metal zip to give this very airy fairy dress a bit of an edge.





i think i'm going to have to make something like this next. i particularly like the yoke she constructed. most likely i'd like to see reao shorts with this future hypothetical romper and probably just straps instead of sleeves but that petal sleeve is very pretty. mainly, i'm a sucker for any fabric anna maria horner designs.

in fact, there could be an adult sized romper on the cards, i wouldn't be surprised. . .

fabric balloons

last week i was in a toy store and came upon a toy that i could 'totally make at home'

you know when you see something in a store and you say to yourself 'i'm not buying that i could just make it!' but then you never do?

well, this time i did.



this little invention is a fabric cover that you blow a balloon up into. it is essentially a balloon cozy. i know, sounds pointless and strange but hear me out.

it looks so much nicer than a balloon. it feels a million times nicer than a balloon and masks the latex smell. it makes the balloon bounce like a proper ball and it loses that floaty sort of problem when you throw it.
lastly, it does not pop straight away like a balloon.

i used this pattern for a fabric beach ball from the purl bee, but any ball pattern would do. i'd like to make a slightly larger one.

calico rabbit, a softie for bea and mirabel



this is a little bunny softie who turned out rather well! i'm a softie novice so any project that works out to being close to what i envisaged is a good project.

she was made by roughly using bits of the mimi kirshner doll pattern, namely the idea of using buttons as hip joints to give her legs a bit of swing and the dress pattern. this bunny also has button joint shoulders. she was one of bea's birthday presents and has been named melissa. funny, eighties inspired name choice huh?

PS i also made this rabbit but with a different dress (and named louella) for the softies for mirabel drive that ends tomorrow! i didn't get a chance to take a photo of her because i was embroidering her face features on the train and sent her off yesterday at lunch in a rush! i hope she gets there OK, i will be thinking of her. . .

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bea's party with her friends isn't until next weekend so monday, (her real birthday) i had the day off and we did some fun stuff over the long weekend.

• birthday bunting, pink enough for her tastes i think - we had it up in the morning so when she came down the stairs she breathlessly exclaimed 'what's that?'. a suitably cute reaction
  
• opening a gift from grammy
• the gift turned out to be a real winner. a lilac tutu one-piece which was not removed for 2 days except for sleeping and bathing
• a dress i made for bea that she doesn't like as much as the lilac tutu, but the lilac tutu is very cute so i am OK with it
  
• making finn style pancakes for a birthday breakfast
• strolling down at the bay after a swim at the wynnum salt water pool
• running across the playing ground at the windsor bowls club. that flat grass surface just screams 'run on me!' doesn't it?
  
• home-made little bunny who bea named melissa, not as favoured as some sparkly manufactured fairies also received (although she let melissa play ring around the rosie with us this afternoon so i think she is warming to her)
  
• upsy daisy cake, as requested. i would have liked to make a tasty cake, with chocolate ganache and whipped cream, and without the fondant icing laced with food-colouring but alas, 3 apparently is old enough to have preferences and whenever i asked her what sort of special food she wanted for her birthday she would request upsy daisy cake every time. did not forget about this cake idea even when the topic was not raised for 3 weeks.
  

sigh. . . sometimes (and sometimes more than others) i find it hard to play up against all these greater powers that seem to be ever present, like manufactured plastic fairies and television show characters, and not get frustrated. i know she is bound to be influenced by the 'outside world' at some stage but already? i guess when given the choice and with a lack of understanding of the deeper meaning behind 'things' most young children unconsciously choose the bright shiny colours of plastic and glitter over a calico rabbit, and the flashing images of a television over a book, most of the time. we can try to expose our kids to what we chose in our own homes but what about everything outside of our bubble that seeps inside, inevitably? and i don't really want her to grow up in a bubble - i suppose all one can do is provide options and instill some values and hope it all falls into place as they grow.