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Today I made a floor quilt for my newest neice, baby Mackenzie:

It didn’t photograph so well but I am in a rush tonight! The colours in the photo are a bit off but take my word for it that the blue of the trees etc does go well with that brighter blue border. Honest!  Here is a detail of the quilt so you can see it better.

I cheated a bit and started with a fat quarter that Amitie Textiles sent me. I quilted it to follow the flowing hills in the print and used a cute stash fabric for the back.

I’m off to rural Victoria and then Melbourne for the next week so bye for now!

So what have I been thinking about lately? Bad habits and how to replace them with better ones.

Yes, it’s time to lose the mummy tummy. Get rid of the jelly belly. I have set up a weight loss blog to track my journey over the next six months or so as I get healthier and trimmer.

Have you been to www.mvm.com and created your own weight loss motivational images? You should get over there - it’s free and it really gives you an idea of what different weight amounts correspond to on an actual body. No that’s not me there in the red swimsuit, but it does give you a good visual. Here are the “before” shots that show what an 86kg (189 pound) body looks like.

This is the shape I hope to look more like by next April:

My “healthy” weight range is calculated at 57 - 63 kilos which is why I chose the goal weight of 60 kgs, but I would be very happy at 65 I think.

Yes, yes I know it’s been ages. Hello again. I will try to be less slack about posting from now on. Did you miss me? Did you even notice? (sniff sniff)

If it’s any consolation, I have a big dose of Blogger’s Guilt so I thought I had better get busy and take some photos of things that I have been doing lately.

First off, this is what happens when you go in to buy a zipper:

I know the photo is a bit out of focus, sorry about that, but with the slackness and all I just couldn’t be bothered to retake the photo. Sorry! These are four lovely knits that are going to become lovely fancy tees, you know - with the pleating and the frilly sleeves and all those trendy details.

I have also been getting very tired of my jeans and so close to falling off the Wardrobe Refashion wagon. I keep feeling the need to buy a new pair of skinny (ish) jeans but I know that I can make them so I am going to keep my discipline and not buy any. It helps that it is warming up and I know that I won’t be wearing jeans for all that much longer. I have been working on drafting a perfectly fitting pants pattern that I can then just change the length and leg width and use that for most of my pants. I have bravely tackled the hitherto too-scary fly zipper and found that it’s really pretty easy as long as you have good image-heavy instructions. In seam pockets were easy too. Photos to follow once I finish the pair I am working on - grey thrifted drill, slightly skinny-leg pants.

There has been major tidying and reorganising of the huge amounts of STUFF that keeps finding it’s way into my studio space. I bought some new white cubes. They are the ones on the right side behind the sewing machine, overlocker and coverstitch - the ones on the left have been there for ages and I can’t believe it took me so long to think of buying more of them. I also bought a couple of cupboards to stash yet more stuff. I had to buy a bunch of clear plastic storage boxes too and it was a big (and expensive) process - very exhausing actually - but the upshot is that now I can find (and get my hands on) pretty much everything. My labeller went into overdrive.

Not sure if it’s interesting (who am I kidding, of course it is!) but here are my new cupboards. There is a tall one and a short one, both of them flatpack kitchen cupboards from Bunnings. The cubes in the pic above are from Magnet Mart by the way.

Yes, I have a big pile of stuff to eBay so stay tuned for that. Forgetting that I am supposed to stop bringing more STUFF into this room, I keep finding good thrifty things. Look at this - a big plastic bag full of crocheted flowers. This is the bag after I have already used up a whole bunch of these. I am guessing that some lovely old lady made them and who knows, maybe she died and her family just didn’t appreciate them and gave them to their local Vinnies or Salvos. I’m glad I found them and can give them some more life. All of this for only $4.00.

I have been making yo-yos and adding a button in the centre and then a brooch back on the other side and lo, they turn into beautiful flower pins, to dress up an outfit or pin to a bag. I will be adding these to the shop sometime soon. Here are a few I prepared earlier. I think I still need to add something to them, perhaps some ribbon or ricrac.

Emma is going to a little friend’s birthday party tomorrow so I made this cute little bag for her to take along.

Here is the present wrapped up and ready to go. Complete with flower pin.

I hope the birthday girl likes it. And I hope you have enjoyed this little recap. I promise I will be a good blogger again now.

I have finally updated the original Pillowcase Dress Instructions that I put up about 18 months ago. At the time, I was really only posting it because I knew a lot of people were searching for this and to keep it “bookmarked” for myself, to make me get around to trying it out.

Can you believe today I finally made not one, but two pillowcase dresses and yes, they are supercute and supereasy.

Please check out the original post (that I have now updated with new photos and instructions) to learn how to make this easy peasy dress from a thrifted pillowcase.

And it’s no coincidence that tomorrow, I am teaching a bunch of women from my Brindabella Women’s Group how to make this dress! If you’re in Canberra, then come along!