Sewing || Embroidered Pillow Case.

Oh hey!

Remember that embroidery craze I went through a while back? Well I wouldn't say it's hit me again but I'm enjoying doing some little embroidery projects here and there. You might remember I did another embroidered pillowcase back in January (oh wow I can't believe it was that long ago!) But I thought it was time for another one!

I didn't sew anything extra on it this time, just embroidery, and I actually remembered to embroider before I sewed the pillowcase together, which made it 100 x easier! I tried doing a bit of transition from lighter to darker thread colours but I'm not sure how well it worked.

The quote I used is a lyric from Alligator Sky by one of my favourite artists, Owl City:

"Dip your toes in the galaxy, cause it's yours to explore tonight."

I quite like the idea of exploring distant galaxies from the comfort and safety of my bed!

What are some craft projects you guys have been doing lately? I'm in desperate need of some new ideas!

I hope you all have a wonderful day, but until then I'm off to ride on shooting stars. See you later!

x Erin

Sewing || Patchwork Dress

I feel like it's been a short lifetime since I last sewed something. It was always such an effort to drag out my sewing machine, but now that I have my sewing room it's always sitting there just waiting for me to use it!

A few days ago I was cleaning out the big pile of fabric that was in my bedroom cupboard in order to fold it and store it nicely in a storage box. While I was sifting through the fabrics I realised I had quite a few bits of scrap fabric. You know the ones, they aren't quite big enough to be made into anything useful, but they're not small enough to warrant throwing them out. So I decided to give them the best fate I could think of, I made them into a dress! It was by far my longest sewing project that I've done recently. It took my 3 whole days to cut and sew everything together, but I really enjoyed it and it might possibly be my favourite thing that I've made in a long time! (Although I think that about every new project I make)

I started by cutting out a heap of 8.5cm x 8.5cm squares. This was by far the most boring part, but it couldn't be avoided! Then I started sewing them all together to make the skirt. It was fun trying to work out which order to put each square in so that it wouldn't match up with the ones on any side! Cutting the squares and sewing up the skirt took a whole day, so the next day I got to work making the top of the dress.

Remember this white dress? I put some baking paper over the top of it and traced around the outside of the top in order to make a pattern for this dress. I didn't know how well that would work, but it turned out much better than expected! I got to try out a heap of new things for this dress too, I sewed some buttonholes for the first time for the rainbow of heart buttons I was putting down the back of it. I also sewed some proper sleeves. (Well probably not "proper" but I like how they turned out!) I had no idea how to do sleeves at the start so I sort of just guessed and was lucky enough to have it work out.

I even lined the top of the dress like all the pros do! Then for some finishing touches I gathered the sleeves and added a purple cuff to them, and then made a thin white belt to tie the whole dress together.

The progress of day 1, 2 & 3.

For some reason the dress reminds me of something out of Alice in Wonderland (I think it might be the sleeves?) But I'm not complaining! It's practically impossible to wear this dress and not smile, and now I'm just waiting for winter to be over so I can wear it all day every day while wishing that tea-parties were a thing that people do around here. Maybe I'll just go on magical adventures in it instead, but I'll be sure to steer clear of any suspicious looking rabbit holes!

x Erin

My New Sewing Room!

Hey everyone! 

I have a super exciting post to share with you today, the transformation of our old storage room into a little sewing room! When I say little I mean little. It's about 2m x 2m but I love how cosy it is and I cannot wait to start decorating it more. It's a separate room off the house that you can only access through the garage, which means it has its own key to unlock it and everything!

We started clearing out the room at the end of April, and now at the end of June it's finally finished! I thought I would share some of the photos of the process with you all.

Unfortunately I never got a photo of the very beginning of the cleanout, but just imagine the fact that we couldn't get the door open more then about 30 centimetres. There was stuff everywhere and it took a couple of weekends to get it all out! After it was empty my dad painted the walls and the roof white while I sewed up a lace curtain to go over the windows.

Then last weekend we went to Ikea to get a couple of the essential bits of furniture! The desk, chair and shelf were my birthday presents for this year, and I spent a whole day putting them together on my own. Not bad for someone who's never made furniture before I thought! 

While I was building my dad attached a sheet of linoleum for the floor.

Then all that was left was to move in the furniture and start decorating! At the moment the walls are very white and very bare so I can't wait to find things to stick on them!

I have my desk and sewing machine (I swear I didn't realise it matched the desk and chair until after I bought them!) right under my window and a little rack with jars on it all containing different coloured buttons. I also have the sewing box my dad me next to the desk.

At the moment the shelves are pretty empty, but that's because I have convinced myself to go through and sort out my mountain of fabrics yet! When I do it'll probably be overflowing! All of the wool in the box was a gift from my grandma for my birthday, and I'm so excited just thinking of all the different things I can make with it!

Of course I just had to have a plant on the windowsill too, but I'm hoping to get heaps more too!

So that's my sewing room at the moment! It's pretty plain right now, but hopefully not for long!

Does anyone have any ideas of how I could decorate it?

I hope you liked my little look into my sewing room, and I'm hoping to start making a lot more things in there soon!

x Erin