Rhinokey and {birthday} Cake

It was Nicholas' birthday yesterday. 5! And he's obsessed with monkeys. obsessed. I managed to find a pattern for the Wuzzle Rhinokey, who Nic loves.

We went to Spotlight and chose fabric and then i made Rhinokey. The pattern wasn't too difficult to understand. Fur isn't the easiest thing to sew with but i got it done. His mouth proved the most trouble. I just couldn't get it to look right, luckily Nic doesn't care. :) I am happy with how he turned out. He is cute and fuzzy and very much loved.

 And now Ethan wants a yellow and orange one....

And here is the cake! It was lemon on the top and banana on the bottom. And coconut cream cheese icing. it was SUPER yum!

Cakes
The two last cakes i did. 
This one was for a 12 year old girl. She likes spiders apparently. So i tried to make a spider cake a little girly. It's chocolate fudge cake with blue buttercream between four layers. White passionfruit flavoured fondant and white chocolate spiderwebs.

This one was for an 8th Birthday/Baptism cake for a girl. her favourite colour was lime green. Six layers with purple buttercream between the layers. Unfortunately i don't have photos of the cake cut! I would have loved that.

Jane Austen and Regency Wear


In the last month I've been making Regency clothes for the Jane Austen party i'm going too on the 23rd of July. I've got my dress, bonnet, spencer jacket and now my corset is almost done! 


My dress was pretty simple. I had a maternity dress that i hadn't worn for ages(even when i was pregnant) so i just made a new bodice out of some taupe chiffon and cream ribbon.

The bonnet i made from a straw hat using this tutorial. The fabric is the same as my dress.

The spencer jacket still needs some work. It need some long sleeves put in under the puffs.And i might even redo the whole thing.

The corset i made from this pattern and instructions. This is the second one i did and it turned out just perfectly. It took me several hours but i got it done in one day. It's extremely fiddly and time consuming but worth it. There are 18 eyelets up the back. I opted for metal eyelets rather then handsewing it. I'm not THAT crazy. lol I need to buy some cords for the back and i need a busk. 

Sorry those are crappy pics. Hopefully Graham will be able to make me a wooden busk for the center of my corset. And maybe i can lose some weight in the next month so i can fit into it. lol So now i just have 3 boys costumes and Graham's to make too. no sweat. 

Blog Changes

I am going to be making some changes to my blog layout and possibly a new name...so over the next week or so don't stress if you see some funky things happening. :)

Ruffle Skirt

I used this tutorial to make this skirt. Turned out good i think. :)

It's 2 sheets i bought at the op shop this morning. Grand total of $3. The elastic was more expensive because i bought that new at Woolies. It was $4 something for a packet. The lace was a curtain my mum gave me.

My {Boys} Creations

I found a pair of ladies pants from Katies at the op-shop for $1. They are now a cute pair of pants for Lachlan. I used a pj bottom pattern to get the general shape. I kept the original band on the pants and added elastic at the back-as you can see in the first pic here.

Super cute!
This was a mens t-shirt. Now it has a v neck and it opens with snap clips on one shoulder.
I made this from scratch. It's just a plain tshirt with 2 snap clips on each shoulder that a bib can be clipped onto. When you don't want the bib on you just clip the white shoulder thingys on.

Shoe Fixup {SpongeBob Style}

Lachlan LOVES his SpongeBob shoes. Unfortunately they were falling apart. He's been wearing them broken because he just won't wear any other pair of shoes! So today i decided they were broken enough for me to fix them. lol

see?! all the velcro was coming off and the part up the front was broken so the strap had nothing to slip through.

First i cut off the straps and the middle strap holder(i have no idea what the real name for that part is) and cut new pieces out of black FOE. I also cut 2 new pieces of velcro(the fuzzy side).

Then i hand sewed the velcro on to the ends of the new straps and rounded the ends off so it wasn't spikey. I could have machine sewed it but i was too lazy to get lift my machine from the floor to the table. lol I used thick thread too and a nice strong needle.
Then i sewed the little middle strap holders on and i sewed it over existing stitching so you can't even tell. :) Then i threaded the straps on like they are supposed to be and sewed the ends onto the shoes. Finally i hot glued pieces of black felt over the parts i sewed so that it was hidden and it won't rub on his cute little feet.

The Summer {winter} Boy

It's not often you come across blogs that cater to boys. And since i HAVE 3 boys it's rather disappointing. But then i came across MADE. Best blog ever for boys! I can't seem to stop sewing little boys clothes and i always seem to have ideas floating around my head. lol YAY FOR BOYS!!!!

Refashionista!

That's what I'm calling myself these days. I am OBSESSED with refashioning clothes. Also called 'upcycling', refashioning means taking an old piece of clothing and turning it into something else. I raided my husbands wardrobe and found some old shirts that he didn't fit into anymore and made them into new church shirts for Lachlan. I also make a cordaroy jacket and a vest.

The vest was a womans one with some weird neck and i thought it would be PERFECT for my little man. It's brown and just so soft. It was a shame to cut it up. He looked very daper on Sunday but wouldn't stand still for a good photo. lol

Jammies!

Winter is coming up and i realised that Lachlan didn't have many pairs of winter jammies....actually he only has one. So it was time for some sewing!

Lachlan is 2 today!!!! He's such a sweetheart and a joy. Unfortunately don't have any good photos from today. Everything turned out blurry. I will try and get some tomorrow. But until then, here's the cake. Nothing too fancy today. :)

Baking day today! Why is it that we always run out of food before the end of the week?

Brownies -

Lamingtons-

Another cake...... are you sick of cake yet? lol

This was for a 5th Birthday Cake. Fondant planes are not my strong suit obviously. lol But i was pleased with how it turned out. And the little boy liked it so that is the main thing :)

Sorry I've been busy these last couple of months! I've been getting into my hair accessory business and having some good sales. I even have a Facebook page now. :) I've also been making cakes!

It was Ethan's birthday and he wanted a Harry Potter cake so i made The Monster Book of Monsters. The first thing to get eaten was his eyes. lol followed by his teeth. I think he is pretty cute!

I also made a cake for my friends baby shower. She had a little boy. the colouring is off in the photo but you get the idea. The elephant is adorable. I'm still getting the hang of draping the fondant.
Then it was my friends daughters 8th birthday and i suprised her with this cake. And i got the fondant to drape like it's supposed to. YAY!
I have another birthday cake to do this month. Should be fun!

Raspberry Apple Streusel Custard Pie

I got a Kenwood Patisserie Mixer for Christmas. Holy exciting! So i've been busy using it for all sorts of things. Yesterday was Australia Day so while Graham was bbqing our dinner i whipped up this pie. I changed a couple of things and it became Raspberry Apple Steusel Custard Pie! I did every step in my mixer and it came out wonderfully. This recipe is definately a keeper!

Ingredients

• 1 uncooked pie crust - i used half of this recipe. ps i LOVE Jamie Oliver
• 1 can condensed milk
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1 1/2 cups frozen raspberries
• 1 medium all-purpose apples, peeled and sliced
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) i left them out.

Method

Preheat oven to 200C

1.Roll your pastry out and put in a greased 20cm spring form pan or you can use a pie dish. Something with deep sides.

2. Mix together - condensed milk, eggs, water, cinnamon, raspberries and apple. Pour over pie crust.

3. Mix together brown sugar, flour and butter until it resembles bread crumbs. Sprinkle over custard mix.

4. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes on 200C. Then turn down to 180C and bake for 40 minutes or until brown and crusty on top.

5. Let cool and then put in the fridge. I recommend you eat it cold because it's easier to cut and the custard will firm up nicely.

Serve with ice cream or cream or whatever you like.

and no i didn't eat three pieces. *nervous laugh*

Tutorial : Jeans to a skirt

I was given a pair of high waisted 'mom' jeans. And even though i AM a mum these are hideous and i would never in a million years wear them. I did try them on and the waist was up near my boobs. So ya. Hideous. SO i decided to make them into a skirt. Why waste good demin, right?

So here's the jeans - a lovely 15 inches from crotch to waist

The first thing you wanna do is cut them off at the top. I measured my hips and then found the spot on the jeans that would go around my hips. Cut through the zip or if you want to keep it - unpick it. I hate unpicking so i just cut right through it and then cut the zip out of the part that was staying on my skirt.

Measure from the top down to how long you want your skirt. Mine is 21 inches. And cut it off on both legs.

You should have something like this -

Next cut up the seams on the inside legs. don't unpick them, just cut neatly.

Next cut about 2.5-3 inches up the crotch. Neatly, like so -

It will look like this once it's folded over. It needs to sit flat because there is nothing you want LESS then a buldge in the front of your skirt. lol If it's a little knobbly at the end just cut the excess fabric away. Sew it down. I used black thread sewn closely to the existing thread and you can't even see it.

Flip it over and do the back. And because the back used to be for your bum there will be extra fabric. So unless you want to look like you have a tail - cut it off

I cut mine on both flaps. Just make sure it sits nice and flat like the front. Sew it down.

Next -With the cut off legs of the jeans you need to make a triangle shape to fill in the gap. Front and back.

Sewn on the front will look like this - so go ahead and pin and sew both triangles on. Now try it on. If it's too big you can just pull in the sides a bit by sewing down both sides equally. I had to to that.

Now for the waist. Grab and old t-shirt and cut about 7 inches off the bottom. Measure around your waist about an inch below your belly button. Take that measurement and subtract off 1-2 inches. Join the seams at the end.

double it over and pin it to your skirt. Since you are pinning on stretchy material, pin the front, back and sides first and then stretch the rest of the fabric around. Sew.

You should get something looking like this!! Now you can hem the bottom but i'm going for the casual look so i'm leaving it unhemmed so it will fray.

And this is the end result!! No more Harold High Pants.

Happy Sewing!!!