A pilot hat for a cute little pilot

Well, winter is well and truly upon us here in Melbourne - brrrr! My little man needed a nice warm winter hat so I made this from some polar fleece I already had. What do you think? It was really very easy to put together, I'm hoping to try a reversible version this weekend.

Mothers' Day Sewing

A little late in posting this but better late than never - right?

The inspiration for this apron came from this tute (warning: if you've not visited craftster before, chances are you will spend hours wallowing in all the great tutes). I know mine doesn't look much like the tute, but it was my inspiration. The fabric for this started life as a single bed quilt cover (it's just a normal cotton though). So all that great gathering on the skirt of the apron - not my work! That's part of the skirt of the bedspread :)

What did I learn from this project? Don't blindly follow tutes! I love a good tute, they save me from thinking, and this was a nice, clear tute. But if I had of thought it through I could've saved a fair bit of time on all the straps - each of them was two pieces sewn together, turned and topstitched - very time-consuming. Next time I will cut the strap twice as wide and only have one seam to stitch. And there will be a next time, I love the way this turned out, I didn't want to give it away, lol. I love the fabric, I'm thinking it will make a great summer dress for me.

Oh, and I also made two matching pot mitts :)


P.S. sorry for the ordinary photo - we were racing out the door to mum's when I realised I hadn't taken a photo yet.

Putting his best foot forwards

DS has been on his feet for a month so it was time to put some shoes on them. I didn't want to buy any and I'm glad I didn't! These cost me next to nothing to make - I got a bag of craft leather for five bucks at the op shop and used some old jeans for the denim. The elastic was the only thing I paid retail for!


So, h,Here is my little man showing off his cute new shoes. They have leather soles and the rest is denim. I made them from a tutorial on this site. They go together very easily - even more easily if you extend the back piece and fold it over to make the casing like I have here. Have a look in the gallery on that site for some inspiration - so many cute pairs of shoes.



The cute little duckie shoe below is the first shoe I made with leather. It is lined with denim. It was harder to do than the leather/denim purely because of the bulk. I did one shoe a while ago, decided it was huge, and made the denim pair at a smaller size. The denim pair fit, but not for long so I made the second duckie one. In between the first and second shoes, I got a new sewing machine, and as a result, the second duckie shoe is much neater than the first. I find it much easier to go slow on the new machine.