tin whistle Dec09

I am just scraping this December post in on the last day of the month (and year!). I had a pretty quiet month of custom orders- instead I concentrated on making christmas presents and consignment stock for the IRL store that stocks tin whistle here in Perth.

But back to the custom orders....

Pair of size 2 boys shorts. These are made from a nice lightweight denim- perfect for a hot summer.

The first of my 3 "made for profit" lazyday hats (the pattern license allows a seamstress to "sell" 3 hats). I really love this one, denim with a polkadot lining and I sitched some free-motion flowers onto the brim.
Hat #2.... denim and chambray. For this hat I used some pellon (lightweight wadding normally used in quilting projects) as the stiffener. It gives the hat a nice structure but without stiffness (as used with heavy interfacing or shapewell). After a few washes the loft subsides a little (so it doesnt look so puffy) but the stiffness remains.

Hat number three- this one is a lovely classic style made with Amy butler fabrics.

Oh woops! I have actually sold four hats. :blush: I have done so much promotion and free adversiting for this pattern on my blog and elsewhere I hope the pattern maker wont mind! Anyway this one is a childs hat using some "juicy jungle" and I think the monkey is a kauffman.

Size 6 long-line denim shorts.

Lugger bag

Pram liner. With slight adjustment of the location of the shoulder slots the tin whistle liner fits perfectly inside a Steelcraft Strider.

Tin whistle stock at big cartel store

Yep thats right. I have finally managed to get half a dozen items listed on my tin whistle store. Its all mainly items for bigger kids aged 5+.

There are approx 6 working days left until christmas so if you hurry it might just get to you in time for gift wrapping ;)

Ispy strippy doona cover

Lets just hope George doesnt have a growth spurt and get too big for his toddler bed!

Snapshot Sunday

I am going to try and do this every Sunday... take a snap shot of my WIP's and blog about them.

I am working some bedding Georges cot. This is not a quilt... but a doona cover. I have been having so much trouble deciding on a theme (jungle? spaceman? etc etc) for his room that in the end I decided to give up and stick with a colour scheme instead. So I stash busted these blue fabrics and am creating a strippy Ispy doona cover. LOL. Because its not quilted I have been overlocking the strips together, just so they dont fray when the cover gets put through the wash every week or so.

For the other side I am deliberating between doing the same idea in green fabrics... or doing something plain like denim. Its a christmas gift for George and with only 11 days to get it finished I think it will be time that will be the decider.

Here is where I am up to with table runner #4. I have used a charm pack by moda. They are the "pashmina" fabrics. I am not really loving the way this turned out. So much so that I am thinking of saving the charm pack I bought for the 5th runner for something else

Here is the reverse. I bought a 1/4 yard of one of the pashmina fabrics, but it wasnt quite enough for the backing. So I pieced a few of the left over charms into a block and inserted it into the backing. I think I like this side more. This runner is self bound so I only have the quilting to do and its finished

This is the new "big girl" design I am working on to add to the tin whistle range. I need to hem and add the waistband and then its ready. I really like it and think it will adapt easily to different sizes etc (I am not so hot on the old pattern drafting!). I have used Paula Prass Summer Sioree fabrics for this prototypes... probably most of the reason I like it so much :) I have to try it in some other fabrics and see if it looks as good.

Stock to Red Feathers

Hi all... I recently dropped some stock into Red Feathers and a Hula Skirt and I am itching to show them off in bloggy land. I decided to create some "not quite christmas" items. That is, gear you could dress your kids in on christmas day so they would look suitablty festive, but they arent overly festive in the choice of fabrics.

One last pair of tartan pants in size 1

Gecko shorts size 8

Trail Ride shorts size 6

Traffic Jam shorts size 3

Noah's Ark shorts size 4

Couple of skirts in OSFM

Red Fox pinny in size 7

The back of red fox

Retro flowers size 5

Row of flowers tunic size 7

Candy cane size 5 (my fav!)

If you're in Perth and you are interested in any of these items please contact Red Feathers direct... their info is in the sidebar to the right.

Simple baby boy quilt.

This is a really simple quilt I whipped up for a baby boy expected any day now. I didnt do any piecing for this quilt, just two pieces of quilters cotton cut to 35" square. One of the fabrics is a japanenese "patchwork" print and the other I chose from the range and textile traders to co-ordinate with the top. Its is chocolate brown with scattered birds, mainly in pale blue.

I used pellon for the inner (just to try it out). It creates quite a nice loft and really shows of the stipple I quilted all over. Yep I have finally nailed the meander/stipple. YAY!

On a blog recently I read about a quilter who always attached her bidning by machine. So I thought I would give it a go (seems this was the quilt for little experiments, and it was supposed to be a simple quilt afterall). The binding is made in the normal way and attached to the top side of the quilt, but instead oh hand stitching it down to the back of the quilt you instead stitch "in the ditch" from the top, right next to the binding (see below) catching the folded-over binding to the back of the quilt. From the front the stiching (mostly) hidden (first pic below) and on the back you have a (supposedly) neat row of topstitching along the binding edge (see bottom pic).

I am sure the topstitching gets neater and easier with practice, but I have to admit I do think that handstitching it down looks better and is a nice, relaxing part of the quilt making process. However, if I ever needed to do another quick quilt then I would use this method again... especially if it was for a non-sewer who wouldnt be examing (and judging) my methods too closely. LOL.

Vintage polkadot wrap-skirt

I have been thinking about expanding tin whistle to include clothes for girls and boys in the 7-12 age range. Partly because there doesnt seem to be much in that catagory out there in the hand-made boutique clothing world, but also becase thats the catagory where my own kids are heading, and they tend to be inspiration sources for most of us craftymama's right? The boys are easy, its just a matter of upsizing the shorts but older girls are harder, they dont always want to dress the same things they see younger girls wearing. To that end I have been mucking around with some idea's and styles for girls skirts. This one is a vintage skirt pattern that I picked up on Etsy. Its a goreous size 8-10 wrap-around skirt with a wide waist-band and deep frill. Its lovely, but not something that I will adapt/use for tin whistle simpley because of the amount of involved... this one took over 3 metres of fabric! I ended up selling this example as a "one-of-a-kind" garment.

Jimble jambles for the kids

I made Matilda these PJ's by using a womens tank top and some thrifted knit fabric. The raglan t-shirt pattern is my own.

This is a Nightgown for Elizabeth, made using the Prairie Rose pattern