Birthday Dress In 3!

What Katy really wanted for her birthday was to have a dress that matched me and Lizard.  Obviously I obliged!

Matchy Matchy!  We love a bit of matching!

The fabric is a delightful t-shirting print and I still have some leftovers, so there will be some more items made from it!

Katy's dress has a cross over bodice and is fully lined as are the sleeves.  It has a circle skirt and hemming it took as long as making the entire bodice!

 Lizard's dress has a t-shirt style bodice, which is lined and t-shirt sleeves which are not.  It's skirt is a gathered rectangle and it has a ribbon waistband.

 I am so in love with these dresses!

I totally failed to get a photo of mine, so you will have to wait to see it on another day!  But mine has a t-shirt bodice and a 2/3 circle skirt and is unlined.

Don't we all look amazing?

Belated Birthday Dress

Dreadful pseudo aunty that I am, my smallest pseudo neice got her brithday present late this year.  Oops?

How pretty did this turn out?  I love the dark orange and white together.

I'm reliably informed that this will be the perfect base of small's festival fox outfit this summer!

Button Flowers

Katy and Lizard came round last week to make a super cute craft that we've been admiring at our friend's house for a while now.  Button flowers!

These are so simple a 3 year old can make them (our three year old decided she preferred arranging them instead though!).

Simply arrange a pile of 2 of 3 buttons to your liking then push a wire through them and twist it closed.

We put ours into pepper mills but you could just use a vase!

 It's excellent colour play and a great way to use up odd buttons if, like us, you have a supply of such things!

My vase is now sitting on my coffee table and I smile every time I see it!

Homemade Chocolates

Not all my crafts go to plan!  We had a go at homemade chocolates and the results were tasty, but not particularly photogenic!

That said, someone enjoyed making and taste testing!

A New Bag for Nursery

Apparently a new bag was absolutely needed for nursery and it had to be embroidered.  Who am I to say no to a request like that?

It's calico and the design is madam's own (well in that she picked it from the presets).

It closes with a drawstring inside the bag in a bias binding channel, the drawstring was also chosen by madam but I think it's a lovely match!  Clearly she's developing an eye for such things!

Sweet Pea Blanket

I'm still working away at this, when Lizard lets me, anyway!

Look at that cheeky chocolate face!

Gingerbread House

I was lucky enough to be invited to a Gingerbread House Icing party last week! 

Unfortunately our gingerbread house suffered from sturcutral defects and sho halfway through needed emergency scaffolding applied inside.  Katy Page is an engineering whizz and fixed it!

I iced one half the roof and added vines, a door and a window (as seen above!).

Of course, Lizard was the main decorator!

Proud Godparent Moment

Normal Service will be resumed on Thursday, today I just want to tell you I saw Lizard perform in her first ever ballet show on Saturday and I was bursting with pride at her performance!

Here is my star ballerina after her show!

As a bonus here's a picture of her watching Royal Opera House Ballet videos on youtube and earnestly explaining them to a picture of her Big Best Friend. 

Lizard - I am so very proud of you!  Love you so much!

Sunflower Dress Mini Me

Clearly, the best way to accessorise your new dress is with an adorable matching small person, right?

Lizard refused to stay still though, so you'll all have to wait for better pictures in the spring when we've planned a photoshoot for both of us!

Tiny Ballet Costumes

I've made a few more outfits for my ballet school's Christmas production!

Here is Lizard, kindly modelling them for me!  She doesn't actually get to wear these on Show Day, but she's definitely enjoyed checking on my progress as I sew!

The dress is a modified version of this dress, I drafted my own sleeve pattern and added extra fabric at the sides.

It does up in a cute bow at the back and has elastic gathering the sleeves!

The shorts are this pattern and I've used buttonhole elastic for the waistbands to make them as adjustable as possible.  The original shorts I based this off have elastic gathering the short legs in, but whilst I've left a small gap in the seams in case that's a neccesity, I have currently left them ungathered as I think these look sweeter! 

In case you are wondering, Lizard is doing her best ballet moves here, hence the blurriness of all the photos!