Finn's Goose is sending some gooses to some bruces!

3 Christmas Gooses - check! The goose stuffie is a really cute project from The Long Thread blog, found here. I made a couple last year too, but forgot to take photos. These photos were taken at 10am in the dark, yes folks, a 6 or 7 hour drive north from our house and you can kiss the arctic circle if you're so inclined. It has been a dark November and December, many of us are looking forward to winter solstice and longer days. There are more photos of gooses and contents of those drawstring bags on my flickr site, but if you are K, you aren't aloud to peek! I've already shown too much but had such fun putting these presents together that I couldn't wait to share. Finn will be excited to see his goose after school today. A few notes on goose-construction, it is really worth it to take the time to hand stitch the beaks first, then machine stitch. I learned this the hard way as my beak was very crooked the first time around (and Finn's goose has the most crooked beak but I'm hoping he won't notice!). I also skipped trying to stuff the skinny feet, it was beyond my patience! I'm impressed with Ellen at the long thread for stuffing those feet!

Square Neck Summer Dress - Happy Homemade Vol 2

Another lovely pattern and so quick and easy. The button loops at the back made for an easy closure - no button holes required.

Hope for Japan Fundraiser at Yukon College.

Hello we are back. This was a last minute idea but I sometimes buy lovely cottons and linen fabric and pattern books from Japan (here and here and here if you would like to help them out) and managed to make a few items with these fabrics for the Hope for Japan fundraiser at Yukon College Friday April 8th. 2 lovely belts, two Zippy coin purses and one Flat Tote will be available for you to bid on if you attend the silent auction. I don't have to say what a good cause this is do I?

Pattern No. 12 - Jacket with Hood and Big Pockets

I bought this Japanese Pattern book in February (yes, 9 months ago folks!) while we were in Portland, Oregon. The Hooded Jacket in wool was so great, I had to make it - obviously I was in a big hurry? I also bought some lovely (local) wool from Pendleton Mills in Portland too. The pattern was very easy, I think I sewed it up in one evening, and then the buttons and hand sewn hem the second evening. Of course I ask myself, as the count down to The Littlest Arts and Craft Fair is on, and the frantic sewing frenzy begins, what the heck am I doing sewing this treat of a jacket for me at this time of year??!! Ah well, must be a form of procrastination! So, if you don't get something handmade from me this year for Christmas, it's because I was busy sewing for myself! He he...

Happy Canada Day!

Kids Clothes Challenge, Day 5

Another pair of shorts from Happy Homemade, shorts "L". This time I skipped the faux fly since they're pretty busy with stripes, I didn't think it would be missed... The real reason is that I haven't managed to make that #@!#? fly without a seam ripper yet and I've done it twice! This time the pockets are lined with gears - just as good as frogs, if not better, for our little guy!

Day 3 - The REAL Day 3

So I got a bit ahead of myself and started this sewing challenge a week early! Luckily that happened since I haven't done anymore sewing since last week's, (correction, haven't sewn any KIDS clothing...) "day 3"! AND I blew it, over did it, as usual, and spent more than 1 hour on Day 3, probably spent 3 hours! I managed to finish some really cute shorts from the Happy Homemade pattern book in a train engineer's overalls stripe fabric but my model was not cooperating, as you can see! The shorts are the same pattern as the Pirate Pants. I haven't managed to start the shirt yet, not sure why... Coming soon though! I've also cut out another striped pair of shorts, same pattern, that look like fun too. So, after jumping out of the gate, last week, I'm not making any promises for the rest of this week!

Kids Clothes Week, Day One

I'm hoping to sew one hour a day for a week for Finn as part of Elsie Marley's Kids Clothes Week Challenge (see button on right side)! Often my projects mean ideas for Finn's wardrobe get sidelined so hopefully this Challenge will help! Hour 1 was drafting the pattern for Boy's Shirt q in my Happy Homemade Vol. 2, Kids book! It's a short sleeve dress shirt with grandfather collar. Wish me luck!

Top No. 21

Finally some photos. I was putting off ironing these, otherwise I would have posted them sooner, since I finished them weeks and weeks ago (not!). My favourite pattern these days. Since L has been wearing hers around town and getting so many compliments, I thought I would make a few for the Trunk Show. Size 11 or thereabout, they fit L, who is smaller than me, and they fit me too, so hopefully they'll fit a few other folks.

The Flat Tote

A new batch of stylish totes for a new retail venue for me. The Birdhouse Eatery and Cafe called a few of us local arts and crafts folks to provide goods for their racks and shelves. The newly reno'd cafe is a fun, bright place to have coffee (or crepes on Sunday - yum yum!). Lara's artwork looks great on their walls and I'm happy to have Flat Totes, Market Bags, Quilty Bags and Garden Goodness bags there too. I keep forgetting my camera but hope to have photos soon!

Happy Homemade Vol. 2 Pattern Book and Pirate Pants

Once again, I couldn't resist a really cute pirate print on a Japanese linen/cotton blend. Nor could I resist this amazing Japanese pattern book for children's clothing. The pants are shorts pattern "l" but I just lengthened the legs with pants pattern "o", which is actually the same pattern piece provided in the back of the book. They're a wide leg, bell bottomy kind of pant that are really cute in my opinion. Luckily for me our little guy will wear anything - so far! This is a great book if you are in need of cute duds for the post-toddler years. More for girls than boys, as usual but really nice styles nonetheless! Click on the photo to see a few more pics of the pants.

Another Japanese Top

This is my second Top #21. This time I took out the gathers across the bust for a cleaner look. This fabric was such a cute floral print, luckily I have more. Now that the presents have been given, I can start posting a bit more of what I was up to leading up to Christmas - since I was obviously not blogging! This was a gift for my good friend Lara - who spoiled me rotten, as usual with many one of a kind creations from her studio. She also gave me a stack of old dress patterns from the Sally Ann - what a great friend! Hopefully I'll post photos of them - there were some gems - including a cat suit that Lara needs in orange stretch terry!

Sewing in Japanese

When I was in Singapore in 2005 I'm sure I saw these lovely Japanese dress pattern books but thought - don't even look, you'll never be able to read the patterns! Well, thanks to blogs, I can now see that there are many brave women out there who have jumped right in and tried these patterns any way! Who knew?! So here is Number 21 (in the largest size published - of course!). It's a blousy top for keeping the sun off me while on holiday next week - a well deserved one I might add, as we've been enduring minus 35 for atleast a month now...! These books came from here and the guts to do it came from the blog at the workroom.

Number 21, originally uploaded by Georgi Pearson.