Is it just an Australian thing to make children parade around in stupid hats (or bonnets as they're more commonly called) before they get to hunt for Easter eggs?
When it comes to holidays, living in Australia is a bit like living in a parallel universe. Christmas cards feature snow scenes and holly even though it's 35 degrees celcius outside, Easter bonnets are adorned with spring flowers, baby chicks and rabbits despite the fact that the leaves outside are turning yellow as it's autumn.
Both Lizzy and Mart wanted flowers, rabbits and chicks on their hats. I wanted them to be simple, quick and easy.
Between the three of us we came up with some crazy easter crowns. I cut a strip of felt to fit their heads, they arranged a whole heap of Easter paraphernalia and some silk flowers on them and we hot glued it all in place.
I was kind of hoping for some silly photos to compliment the silly headgear. While Lizzy wasn't in that kind of mood, this little guy was happy to oblige!
They both loved making their crowns, but best of all were the left over chicks that were adopted when they escaped the hot glue gun!
Simple pleasures...
Caroline
Let's start with the apology. We're really, really sorry that we've dropped the ball with our Beyond the Basics series. The series will continue, but we're going to have to take a couple of weeks break. We do have a good excuse though.
We're going to be on
Project Run and Play! Both of us are just so excited. We couldn't believe it when we received an email from Liz and Elizabeth at
Simple Simon and Co. We have been doing lots of planning and are feeling very inspired. One of the best things is that it gives us time to actually sew together, which despite our name, we don't get to do very often.
We do have a mini tutorial for you, though. One of the things that we made for last season's PR and P sew-a-long was Mart's dinosaur jacket. We have had lots of requests for a tutorial. Here it is! Actually, it's only a mini tutorial because it's super simple to make. We're just going to show you how to put the dinosaur spikes in the lining. Remember the jacket?
Click read more if you'd like to make your very own!
So it's time for my skirt tutorial. It's once again...um... fairly basic, but I really struggled with ideas for this one. Lizzy loves the finished product and has named it the lollipop skirt. That's probably because of the lollipop bribe that I had to give her so that I could take some photos.
Like Maryanne, I also decided to 'create' my fabric, then make up the skirt. Unlike Maryanne (who is the mathematical genius of the family) my fabric creation requires no maths. I sewed lots of strips together and then went crazy with the triple stitch on my machine. Complicated, huh?
The only real addition that I made were some cute (and useful!) pockets. Both my kids love pockets....
The buttons are just pretend, though. See?
If you'd like to learn how to make your own, just click on read more...
So here's my take on the basic skirt - box pleats, a fitted waist band and diy chevron fabric. I know it's not elastic waisted but it is really a big rectangle of fabric, gathered into the waist. I started with a piece of stripey fabric, cut and sewed and then got all those psychedelic chevrons.
__Why would I make it myself when there are some fabulous chevron fabrics around?
Well, firstly I just wanted to have a go and also it allowed me to choose the width of my chevrons and therefore cut them so they matched perfectly with the width of my pleats!
I love projects like this. Not a pattern to draft on paper but some maths calculations, cutting lots of rectangles and then off you go!
This skirt is definitely a project. Certainly not at all complicated but not a quick whip up. It involves quite a lot of cutting, finishing edges and sewing lots and lots of straight lines, but I think it is worth it. It also involves lots of fabric. The other name for this skirt is "The 3 trips to the Fabric Shop Skirt". I picked a fabric with lots of variation in the stripes and required 3 metres (yes that's right - 3metres!!) to make a 6 year old's skirt. Pick a simpler stripe and I am sure you could get away with a lot less. You will be seeing lots of this stripe and chevrons made from left overs on the blog in the weeks to come- I need to use it up somewhere - I don't want to let it go to waste!!!
To make this project you will need: - some stripey fabric - I would suggest you go simple until you work out how to cut the chevrons as efficiently as possible - it will save you going to the fabric shop 3 times!! I used home dec weight fabric and I think this weight worked well in this skirt.
- rotary cutter, ruler and mat
- ideally an overlocker/serger. You can finish your edges with an overcasting foot and zigzag stitch. I did this for a few of them- it is a little slow and a little wonky because of the bias cut of the strips.
This tutorial is brought to you by the inch. (no centimetres at all, I promise)
If you have lots of fabric(!) and are ready to make some chevrons, click the read more button for instructions.
Maryanne
The sewing god is certainly not smiling on me this week. There have been broken needles, I have run out of sewing thread (in the perfect colour, of course!) I have made crucial mistakes in cutting, Martin has been sick. I'm sure you get the general idea of the week that has been (and it's only Monday... wow!)
Why am I telling you this? This week's tutorial from me is going to be a little late. I know you're all waiting with baited breath and on the edge of your seats, but never fear, I will be back towards the end of the week.
I just realised that we haven't yet announced the winner of our
giveaway (apologies). The winner is Martha. Martha, please contact us with your email address as soon as possible and we will post your package off to you.
Congratulations!
In the meantime we've been over at
Whip Up explaining the rationale behind our current series. Pop over and take a look. And if you really can't wait to do something with your elastic waisted skirt, here's a
tutorial for a faux placket skirt that I prepared earlier (like a year earlier!) Enjoy - and see you all soon!
Caroline
The next pattern that we're going to have a look at in our 'Beyond the Basics' series is the elastic wasted skirt. Pattern is a fairly generous term for this one actually. Your basic elastic waisted skirt is a rectangle. Yep... that's right. That's all it comes down to.
If you are looking for some instructions on how to make an elastic waisted skirt there are about 27,000 tutorials that will show you how. Ok, so maybe that's a bit of exaggeration, but not really. The
Simple Skirt from Dana at
Made is probably the gold standard in elastic waisted skirt tutorials, but there are lots of other fantastic instructions out there, too.There is a whole collection of skirt tutorials at
Project Run and Play. Go and check them out!
While making an elastic waisted is exciting (and quick...!) look at some of the fantastic ways you can alter and embellish them.
Click on each image for its sourceFeeling inspired? Good... pop back later in the week to see how Maryanne and I alter our elastic waisted skirts.
See you then!
Caroline
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