shop: my rocking wardrobe

All images from My Rocking Wardrobe

Loving this awesome online store for Mums & Babes. Fashion & accessories for women & children with an affinity to Japanese & Korean design. Super stylish & great prices. Go and have a browse around at My Rocking Wardrobe - you may just fall in love with it all! I did.

more kids winter sewing

Still practising on the clothes sewing front. I finally got around to trying the 90 minute shirt which challenged me a little but I got there in the end. I incorrectly drafted the neckline which came out way too big. After some unpicking, cutting & re-sewing it is now wearable. I guess each time I attempt the pattern the fit will improve. It also introduced me to an overlocker / serger for the first time. Luckily Mum has one and was willing to help me with the threading - hooley dooley those things need a lot of cotton! I had no idea. The finish is so much better for it - I especially like the result with using the contrasting orange cotton colour.

Then I had a little run with using fleece fabric. My kids are into comfort clothes at the moment - soft - no itchy or scratchy stuff. Fleece is cheap & I found it super easy to work with. 

These checkered fleece pants are the second pair of Hipsters for Slimsters I've made. I went with a longer leg this time and raised the back so they same up higher over his bum. I can see that the more I make the more I will be able to tweak the patterns for a better fit. The problem I had with these pants was the seams kept popping. My Mum suggested it may the tension on my machine or an incorrect stitch type. Next time I will try to use a slight zigzag instead of straight stitch. I have since used Mums overlocker to run over the seams and had no more popping. I'm starting to see the benefits of the overlocker/serger but finding it hard to justify the purchase cost at this stage.

moving on: Ebay style

So I'm having a clean out. A big one. It is a family trait to hoard things... I'm fighting the desire to hold on to each and every piece of clothing my children have owned. Ridiculous really. The cupboards are full and bursting at the seams so it's time to minimise.

If you are in Australia - in the need for baby/children's clothes - fine with the idea of recycling - then check out my Ebay auctions. It's a work in progress. I keep adding more every couple of days. Over the last week I've been sorting backwards starting from most recent clothes. Yesterday I made it to the first bag of baby clothes and ... well... that was interesting. Opening that bag was like opening the memory gate... it quite surprisingly took me somewhere I didn't expect and found myself in quite an emotional state. Totally didn't see it coming!! Let's just say I may be holding on to those ones a little while longer :)

playroom love

I go through stages of feeling love & hatred for our downstairs playroom. On the up side, it is downstairs and that is a big tick in the box. This means all of the crap stays downstairs (well that's the grand plan anyway) and we get to have an adult living room free of night time clutter. Tick. Secondly we are very lucky to have the space to afford a dedicated play room where the kids can spread their wings and enter in and out the house from the back yard. Muddy boots and all (the carpet was already trashed when we arrived so that's the way it will stay for a while longer).

On the downside, the amount of stuff that gets accumulated down there is ridiculous! Out of mind out of sight. Yesiree. The problem is that it gets in such a state that the kids can't find anything to play with amongst the mass of toys all mixed up and in a jumble. Enter Mum. Goodbye 2 hours. Hello playroom, don't you look fun! Let's start back at the beginning.

Today we started again. Back to the clean, organised state that I wish I had the energy to keep it in every day. I know in theory I should be teaching the kids to tidy the play room at the end of the day, but in reality that just doesn't happen regularly enough to create a routine.

I've planned to get the dress up play area into order for a long time now. The clothes & accessories were all packed away in a vintage suitcase, which looked lovely, but was just not practical for child play. Yesterday we picked up a clothes rack at Ikea for $14 and hung a market find coat rack that had been in storage. This weekend we plan to finish the job and install a mirror so the lovelies can admire themselves in all their glory. Sweet. I think they are pretty happy with the progress so far.