April stocking

I am just sneaking in this stocking in this month. And what a month it has been. Especially the last week! I was so so lucky to be asked to help my friend have her beautiful little baby boy last week, followed quickly by a 4 day camping trip in the cleansing bush to celebrate my little-now-big 7year old boy's birthday, and all the while I have been trying to get this stocking up!

So here it is. There is some new stuff. As there always is. Including some "fickle" pieces for those whojust can't decide which fabric they like the best (this is me. Most days.)

And then I got all enamoured with the idea of peek-a-boo caterpillar toys clutched in chubby little fingers and hiding in pockets:



Who could resist a retro owl like this? Bring on the ric rac I say:

And, of course, there are nappies. Some new prints, some classics. How cool are those viewfinders?

So, the details. The stocking will be on Saturday April 30th at 8pm Central Standard Time. If you have a life and still go out on Saturday nights, you will miss it. But you will be out, in the world, having fun, so that's fair. All stock can now be previewed on the mangolime site.

Don't forget I will also have some stock at the Firefly stocking on May 22nd, to be previewed a few days before.

And finally, I am sorry to say I have had to increase my poistage price to $6.30, in line with Australia Post's price increase. And while we're on the subject, this will be the last stocking with nappies at the current price of $30. They have been this price since I opened over 12 months ago, and with the rising costs of fabric I am afraid to say I will have to follow suit. As of the next stocking all nappies will be $35. So get in quick while you can!

Enough yukky talk about money. Let';s talk abotu customs. UI have decided to have a custom list open at all times. There will be a limit of 5 items on the list, so that I am only ever making 5 customs at a time. Once a custom is finished, I will announce a newslot. I will probably do this on my facebook page only.

(For those who aren't quite sure wtf I am talking about, a "custom" is where you order a nappy, dress, shorts etc etc and choose the fabric from my stash. I will make the size you need, and will use my standard designs. This means you don't have to try your luck at the stockings!)

Tired now, nighty night!

Fireflies

Well its all about dragonflies here in Darwin as the Dry well and truly hits, and suddenly you can move again and parenting is a snap and and there are beautiful smells in the air and the dragonflies are swarming in the crispy 27 degree mornings - bliss! (This is cold for us!)

But its all about fireflies over at mangolime because I have been selected as a guest WAHM (Work At Home Mum, not the George Michael thing) for the Firefly Collective's May 22nd stocking! I am so excited and feel a bit like Charlie Bucket, upon unwrapping The Golden Ticket.

Now, what should I make.....?

Ric rac

New obsession with ric rac. That's all.

Everyone's a winner baby

I distinctly remember the last time I won something. I was 8, and it was the school barbeque, and I won the raffle. The prize was this very weird contraption that was a futuristic (for then) pillow that you could plug into a tape recorder. The music or whatever was on the tape would then float into your head when you lay it down on the pillow. There was some strange suggestion on the box of plugging the pillow into a language tape and learning another language by osmosis in your sleep. More tempting than 6 years of French I can tell you. I gave it to my mum for mother's day, feeling extremely sophisticated. I'm not quite sure what happened to it, but I never did get to try the learn-a-language-in-your-sleep idea.

Haven't won anything since. Till today! I won a metre of this gorgeousity:

Thanks to the wonderful Earthgirl. YAY! Thank you! Always room for more Echino....

Now what do you think? Skirts? Dresses? Nappies?

Another custom

Ooh I'm churning them out this week! Have somehow worked out a way of doing bits and pieces with Arlo at my side. He won't work on his own projects like some kids will do when mum is sewing, he has to be right in there. And I mean RIGHT in there, with his head practically in the overlocker. But for the last few days he has been happy to hand me pins, and then put them back in the pin cushion (with a running commentary about red, gween and rello), and snip threads for me with the much-loved birdy scissors, and help change overlocker threads. It all works OK as long as I have projects at the almost finished stage.

So here is the latest custom - another birdy peasant dress but this time with elephant sleeves. I would never have thought of pairing these fabrics, but I like it. This one went to Breezy.

I love the back of this dress - the flock of birds flying off all pink and then all grey - maybe from dawn to dusk?

PS I am so embarrassed about all the spelling mistakes and typos in my last post. Me, an English teacher's daughter! My only excuse is that Arlo keeps picking the keys off the laptop and every time I put them back in they are still a bit wonky. Haven't had a functional "n" for ages.....it works, but only if you bash it. Not nice.

Customs

I have been doing lots of customs this week. I am quite liking it. Knowing exactly who you are making something for gives it a sense of love and identity, rather than sending your pieces off into the big world to bags themselves an owner. (Can you anthropomorphise fabric? Think I just did.)


Hmmm...maybe I'll do customs every month, as well as the regular stocking? What do you all think?

Anyway, here is a dress for Rhianna's little girl:

Peasant style, with flutter sleeves, size 1, with (if I may say so myself) gorgeous turquoise bias-bound armhole facings:

I do love these details.

These dresses (in sizes 0-3) cost between $32-$38 depending on the fabric, and a bit more for larger sizes.
And a skirt for Claire's little girl.

The back is cute too:

Claire scored this sweet size 1 linen skirt in my facebook page  giveaway for her wonderful ditty about why she loves mangolime (yes, I have no pride):

"Mangolime you are sublime, I love everything about your design. You're a Darwin chick, you're fully sick, where oh where do you find the time??"

Ah! Basking in the love. Basking.

Pockets

The thing I love aboout sewing is how, even when you feel you are gettiung good at it, there is always, always, more things to learn. And things that once seemed so hard, so out of reach, a little later on down the track are suddenly totally do-able.

Like pockets.

(Aside: I hate clothes without pockets, and have you noticed how many dresses and skirts (aka women's clothes) are bereft of pockets? Surely its an anti-feminist plot to leave us without keys and money and thus totally dependent on men carrying such items in their ubiquitous pocketed clothing? Am I overstating things here?)

So, when I say pockets here I am not talking about your ordinary patch pockets (though I do love these too. Evidently:)

not even the super-sweet gathered pocket (which also has a secure place in my heart)

No. I am talking about Double Seam Inset Pockets (shall we call them DSIPs just to sound bureaucratic?), which when you first said out loud sounds way too technical for the likes of me, but is actually quickly mastered thanks to a wonderful tutorial by ikatbag.*
I am putting them into a custom skirt. (Excuse the unironed and obviously ufinished sewing)

This will eventually be a skirt with DSIPs:

These are really not hard to make. They are one of those sewing origami things for which you need some time away from the constant chatter of 3 year olds so you can just map it out in your head, and then you will be off and away. Trust me! Now I've got them down pat, I am thinking of all sorts of variations. Peeky out lining, bias bound pockets, the sky's the limit!

Am so in love with myself right now.

Off to put pockets on everything.




*If you are still interested in pockets after reading this post (well done), you may want to check out ikatbag's full series of pocket tutorials. Pure genius.