Sashiko inspiration!

In March this year I went to the Stitches and Craft Show here in Brisbane . It was a rare treat of a day all to myself and I was prepared this time by booking into a few workshops in advance by email.

Having lived in Japan in my 20s for 3.5 years, I have a fascination for all Japanese styles of handicraft and tried a lot while living there and on later visits back. Sashiko is something I've wanted to get into for a long time and have done a few smaller pieces in the past to make into greeting cards or coasters.

At the show, I went to a demonstration of Hitomezashi by Jane from Be Be Bold, which is a 'one stitch' style of sashiko. It is based on geometric patterns which run horizontally, vertically, and diagonally and you concentrate on one direction at a time, sewing through from one end to the other. I bought these little coasters above as a kit and sewed them up at home later. I love the simplicity of this method and how effective it looks. When I get the time (ha!) I would love to sit down and design some of my own patterns and try a larger piece. I also really like the white background with brightly coloured thread - it makes such a fresh change from the traditional white and indigo.

I also tried my hand at Boro patchwork for the first time, at a workshop run by Sue from Indigo Niche and ended up with this great little pin cushion at the end of the hour. I love the imperfection of it and the idea of using the old to make the new with the recycling of old fabric offcuts. It now has a practical use and a position in my sewing room. It's lovely to see my own handmade pieces being put to use in there - you can see it below in my sewing room, along with some of the Japanese pottery pieces I made when living in Japan, that I now use for storage.

Riches and Roses Etsy Update

For a mother of two kids aged 3 and 5, who works three days a week and has volunteer commitments, my Etsy store has been keeping me busy since around last Christmas with an average of about 4 orders per month since December.

Since then, I've updated my packaging and labelling, to use this cute little label on all my items:

I've also added in some new items including these baby doll accessories:

And some of my long standing products have suddenly become very popular, especially this cute little hungry caterpillar set.

The 5 most active products in my Etsy store so far this year have been:

1. Toddler Quiet Book.

2. Baby Doll Diaper/Nappy Carry Bag

3. Balloon Cover

4. Hungry Caterpillar Set

5. Kids' Toolbelt.

<3 <3 <3

Pinterest - Most Recent Pins - Sewing for Girls

Pinterest is my all time favourite social media tool. It's perfect for sewing, and even more perfect for the procrastinating sewist like myself. During the busy times when I don't have the time to sew, I can usually at least put aside 5 or 10 minutes to add to my pin boards.

My most viewed pin board is Sewing for Girls, due to a little tutorial I pinned on there from this blog about three years ago for a Toddler Pinafore Dress. It now has almost 26000 repins and 2000 loves on Pinterest and brings a lot of traffic to this blog too.

Here are my most recent five pins on the Sewing for Girls board:

Summer Wallets with Lanyards (Noodlehead)

I've actually already started making two of these, one each for my daughter and son. They love to choose their own fabrics and watch the process unfold as the fabric is transformed into something they can use/wear. These little wallets will be perfect for trips to the library with their new library cards and little shopping trips.

The Sally dress for Astrid (by Kollabora)

Geranium Dress (by Made By Rae)

Rainbow Dress Tutorial (by Made by Rae)

Easy DIY Swim Cover Up (by It's Always Autumn)

Happy Sewing!

The Massive Sewing Room Declutter (Konmari Inspired)

Last year I read The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, written by Marie Kondo.

I'm not about to claim that the book changed my life, but it did give me a way to start tackling the clutter that was bothering me in our compact little house. There were a lot of things in the book that went a little overboard, but mostly it worked for me. And I'm pretty sure that it's reduced the amount of daily tidying that I do around the house.

She suggests cleaning out by category, and this was useful. I pulled all of my clothing out of the cupboards and went through each item one by one, bagging up those clothes that no longer spark joy to send to a charity store. I did the same in my kids' rooms and then tackled their toys. I adopted her suggestions for organising clothing in the cupboards and this has made a huge difference! The hanging clothes do look lovely sloping upwards, but more than that, storing folded clothing upright in the drawer makes it so easy to find things.

I went through the bathroom drawers and then the kitchen cupboards. More bags and boxes were taken to the charity shops. The kitchen bench became uncluttered, as did the kitchen table. Old cables got thrown away and papers were shredded. Whole shelves in the study nook just off our living room were cleared out and the kids suddenly had a storage place for all their puzzles and board games.

And still the sewing room loomed. I actually wish I'd taken a before picture of the sewing room, because the transformation was huge. I culled fabrics that I would never use, then sorted the remaining ones so they were stored upright. Then I organised all the categories of craft supplies into their own little place - buttons, ribbons, crochet hooks, knitting needles, threads, safety pins, beads, etc. One of Konmari's suggestions is to reuse containers for storage rather than buying storage. In the process of cleaning out I found some of my pottery that I'd made in my time living in Japan, some cute tins that had come with soaps as presents, and some other boxes that had come via online shopping orders. Perfect for storing sewing supplies, and I especially love seeing the pottery pieces out of the cupboard being used now.

This room had been one of my big problem areas and required at least a weekly tidy up. The clutter in there had often stopped me from sewing. Now I have space to set up my iPad with a good TV show, set down a cup of tea and spread out my projects, so the decluttering process has definitely improved my sewing and crafting time.

With two young children in the house, as well as work and other commitments, carrying out the whole process throughout my house has taken several months and I'm still not finished. But I'm currently savouring the last phase of decluttering - the photos. The whole process has been very reflective and brings with it lots of memories (both good and difficult), but sorting through the last 15 years of photos, which include six years of working and travelling my way around the world and five years of motherhood is bringing me lots of joy.

Baby Doll Swaddle - Pattern and Tutorial - Easy DIY

You will need:

• Approx 0.5 metres/ yards of a print fabric for the main fabric.
• Approx 0.5 metres/ yards of a plain lining fabric for the inside of the swaddle. 
• Approx 0.5 metres/ yards of a light wadding, such as Pellon fleece.
• Velcro
• Small scraps of felt for heart decorations.

1. Start by printing the three pages of the pattern and cutting out the pattern pieces along the solid line. The pattern pieces for the main part of the swaddle will need to be joined together along the dotted line, by matching and then taping the two pieces together.
2. Place pattern pieces with the marked straight edge along the folded edge of the fabric and cut out one piece in each of the two fabrics (main and lining), as well as the wadding.
3. Depending on the wadding used (and following the directions for the wadding type), iron the main fabric over the wadding piece to secure.
4. Begin by sewing the darts into the separate fabrics. Fold over the fabrics along the centre line of each dart and sew along the outer line to create shape in the foot pocket and top part of the swaddle.
5. Then take the two pieces of lining fabric, right sides together, and sew together around the round bottom edge. Repeat for the outer fabric. Snip along the curved seams and turn one of the fabrics out the right way.
6. Place this piece inside the other, so that right sides are together. Now join the two fabric cases together by starting in the middle of the top seam and sewing around all of the edges, leaving a space of about 4cm (1.5in.) as you return to where you started.
7. Trim all corners and curved edges and turn the swaddle out the right way. Iron the seams flat, especially where the opening is at the top seam.
8. Top stitch around all edges, closing up the opening at the top seam.

9. Pin a strip of velcro to the position indicated on the pattern for the foot pocket. Sew this down and sew the matching velcro to the flap that you prefer to fold down first (on the inside). Then sew two small pieces of velcro onto this same flap, but on the upper side and the matching velcro to the underside of the flap that will fold down last (see picture above for velcro placement).

10. Finally, attach your felt shape (be imaginative to match your fabric, or to suit your child's preferences here!) to the top flap.

Simple Rainbow Ribbon Skirt Tutorial

Miss 5 loves rainbows. Her first drawing that resembled anything was of a rainbow. Since then, we have had rainbow beetles, rainbow birds, people wearing rainbow clothes and more feature in her drawings.

I saw a skirt somewhere online that had bias binding strips along the bottom to create a rainbow effect, but as I am always on the lookout for the most simple and effective ideas, I thought I would replace the binding with grosgrain ribbons.



To start, I measured my daughter's waist and doubled the measurement. That gives you the width of fabric needed.

I then measured the length from her waist to where I wanted the skirt to end (in her case that was just on her knee). I added around 4 - 5cm and that gave me the length of the fabric needed.

Open out the rectangle and fold over the bottom edge by about a centimetre and iron down. Pin the ribbons along the skirt. The bottom one serves as the hemline and the spacing is dependent on personal preference really and how many colors you choose to use. Sew the ribbons down by sewing along both edges as close to the edge as possible. To finish off at the ends, fold the ends under and sew down.

Fold the rectangle with right sides together and sew down the open side. Then press the top over 2cm and then another 2cm. Sew along the bottom fold as close as you can to form the elastic casing. Leave an opening of about 2 - 3 cm and feed the elastic through. Sew the ends of the elastic together and sew the casing closed.

Oh so cute!

Party Bag Coloring Activity - Tutorial

My five year old daughter loves coloring in. She has had an obsession with it now for about 3 or 4 months, since just before her fifth birthday.

A while ago I bought a whole lot of this Tidny fabric from IKEA. Sadly they are not stocking it anymore in our local store. But it is seriously amazing and I'm hoping that they will replace it with something just as amazing (if not more so).

Anyway, I had this idea for her fifth birthday party - little party bags that each of the kids could color in themselves and then I would fill them with goodies as they leave to go home.

I cut a rectangle out of the Tidny print and another of the same size from a plain cotton fabric for the back. Placing the front and back fabrics with right sides together, I sewed along the sides and the bottom.

To make the drawstring casing, I cut a rectangle from the plain fabric that was two centimetres more than twice the length of the top of the rectangle and around 4cm wide. I folded the ends over by 1cm and ironed down, then folded the strip in half lengthways and ironed it down. I pinned the long folded plain fabric along the top edge of the bag (right sides together) and sewed along. Folding the plain fabric up on the right side, I sewed a top stitch along near the top of the Tidny print fabric to finish off.

Thread a drawstring or ribbon through the casing and admire the cute little bag!

A huge hit with the five year olds!

Kids can color the bag with fabric markers and by applying heat with an iron to the colored in area (place baking paper or similar between the fabric and the iron), the colors will last longer.