.Mabel and George.

I was recently sent some sweet fabric by Sarah Bulkeley of Mabel and George.Sarah is a secondary art and textiles teacher by day and engulfs herself in drawing, fabric design and sewing. Her fabric designs unique and her colour palette is soft and pretty.

Mabel and George fabrics are printed on high quality Kona Cotton by Robert Kaufman perfect for all sewing projects, big or small.

I haven't had much sewing time lately, but have been admiring these lovely prints and hope to work with them sometime soon!

Thanks Sarah for sharing your talents with us!

You can visit Mabel and George Etsy store here.

And blog here.

.Nani Iro from Miss Matatabi.

Just wanted to share with you some beautiful Nani Iro prints I received from Miss Matatabi during the week.

They are so dreamy that I couldn't keep them all to myself. These are all double gauze - except the coral floral on beige background...that one's a brushed cotton. You can't really tell in the pictures, but it's got little metallic bits through it. So pretty.

Nani Iro fabrics are by far my favourites. I'm sucked in every time they bring out a new season. And the double gauze is perfect for apparel sewing and really lovely to wear.
These fabrics were purchased from the gorgeous Miss Matatabi Etsy store. Frances gets the entire range in each season, it's rare to find another store that stocks the entire range but makes the decision of choosing just a few prints very difficult! If only I were a quilter, than I could stick to fat quarters and get a bit of everything. My usual minimum cut is 1.5 metres though if I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the fabric - that way I can be mostly guaranteed that I have enough fabric to sew something for myself.
Happy Sewing! I'm off to cut into some fabric now :)

.Fabric Review.

I was recently sent a stack of fabric from fabric distributors, FD Textiles.  These fabrics are both from (new to me) Aussie designers, Surface Art and Veritas Design.

Surface Art fabrics are a bold collection of vintage-inspired prints in an earthy colour-mix.  This is the first mix of quilting cottons that Surface Art have produced and they are ideal for someone who is looking for a more sophisticated print. I can see them being used for home decor (cushions, covered canvases, lampshades, etc.) and they would also make gorgeous women's skirts or dresses.

 

Veritas Design's fabric collections are all Australian-themed. But not in a tacky, souvenir shop kind of way. They use vibrant colours which reflect Australian flora and offer a modern approach to contemporary Australian-themed designs.

 

Surface Art and Veritas Design fabrics can be purchased online at their own stores, or in good fabric stores around Australia.

.Saffron's Wombat Wonderland.

 

We all love Saffron Craig, right?  She is a fab fabric designer, I've been a fan of her stuff for a long time.  Even before we became buddies in real life.  She pretty much rocks at everything she does.  

I was honoured to be asked to take part in her Wombat Wonderland blog tour.  Have you seen her new Wombat Wonderland range?  I was smitten from the first time she showed it to me...the colours are just lovely - soft and pretty and a beautiful representation of the Australian wombat.  I love Saffron's talent in taking Australian flora and fauna and creating fabric that is modern and contemporary.  Prints suited for both children and adults, perfect for sewing clothing, making homewares and bags.

Wombat Wonderland is printed on 100% organic cotton (something I think we'll see a lot more from Saffron) and has the most luxurious, sateen-y feel.  Kind of reminds me of a heavier version of cotton voile.  The soft drape makes it ideal for sewing clothing, just what I like!  

Saffron sent me a selection of her new fabrics to have a play with.  First up, I made a beanbag pod for the kids.  Super easy - two 1m diameter circles sewed together! 

Cute, huh?  I think it will eventually live in the rumpus (when we get around to cleaning it up!) and can imagine the kids playing with their toys on it.

For now, they've been enjoying lounging around on it (she comes home filthy from school...)

And it's been keeping Tommy nice and cosy as he recovers from a bout of tonsillitis this week.

I also sewed Lil a new Summer dress (one day soon it will be warm enough to wear it with short sleeves under!)  I used my Fab Frocks pattern and added a contrast strip to the bottom of the dress because she wanted it to be a "down" (long) one!  At this rate, it will fit her for the next 3 years!!

Thanks Saffron for sharing your gorgeous fabric with me.  It was a dream to sew with!

Make sure you check out Wombat Wonderland in Saffron's online store. 

And to follow the rest of the Wombat Wonderland blog tour, take a look at the schedule here.

.Of late.

Lots of little things going on behind the scenes here lately...

Lilsy has been asking for a mermaid costume for about a year. I had this shiny fabric last year to make her one but it took a church Disney themed activity for me to actually do it! She loooved it and it was really quick. I had enough fabric left over to make her a pair of little green leggings to wear so that her legs blended in with the tail. She was super happy!

There hasn't been a lot of fabric that has wooed me for awhile, until Erin McMorris worked her magic again with her new line "La Dee Da" - looooove it, love her style and I even managed to make Lil a new dress over the weekend out of it.

The Pernilla Dress was blocked and finished!  It's very cute, but there were some minor finishing set-backs...I'll take some proper pics and share soon. Plus a bit of jumbo cross-stitch and playing with polymer clay just for fun!

We've had a few farm days this month - one at a friend's beautiful farm (I call it The Secret Garden) for the Serendipity photo shoot. Gumboots were absolutely necessary after a full night and morning of heavy rain - I'm loving my gummies this winter!

Then we visited Hagley Farm School with Oscar's class for a school excursion. So cool to be going with him to the places that I went on school excursions as a kid!

And my knitting obsession continues to grow - I'm working on a Milo vest now. Beautiful pattern, I'm about half way through and only started 2 days ago!  Knitting comes in handy as we've got MAJOR MasterChef fever this year.  Ben (now in the top 5!) is my buddy from school and we are cheering him along every night!  He is doing an awesome job and is as kind, loving and gracious as ever.  Can you believe we used to have muffin-making competitions in lunch breaks and free periods at school during year 12!  Fun stuff!  Go Benny - we're so proud of you!

Our special Aunty and sister, Ashleigh came for a visit last week. She is a gem to have around and we all adore her. Check out Tommy with her and Uncle Cade below - so glad my kids have family around to love them.  I've been catching spare snippets of time here and there, reading Bloom by Kelle Hampton. It's a lovely read, reminding me to stop taking all of my blessings for granted.

(P.S. I Instagram under make_it_perfect.)
Hope you've had a great weekend! x

.Shot Cottons.

When I was first putting together the Poppy Tunic pattern, a friend suggested I try using Kaffe Fassett's shot cottons for the main fabric.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a huge Kaffe Fassett fan.  I know that he is extremely popular, but his style just doesn't grab me. His shot cottons looked great though and I was lucky enough to get a selection to try from Alan at XLN Fabrics.

Wow!  They are absolutely perfect for sewing clothing - especially when you are looking for something with a nice soft drape.
Unlike other solid fabrics, shot cottons are not completely solid.  They have a more organic look and feel about them, with colour variations and imperfections in the weaving giving them lovely individual stlye and detail.  The weave of a shot cotton is quite loose and they are fairly lightweight, thus creating a nice soft drape and feel for garment sewing.  And there are more than 50 colours in the range!

The cotton is woven using two different tones of thread  - the lengthwise warp threads and crosswise weft threads are usually a different colour.  Sometimes the difference between the colours are very vivid and other times they are much the same.  Each shot cotton has a unique dimension and seems to give off a different colour depending on how the light reflects against them.  When the raw edges of the fabric frays, a bright stripe of colour appears (see photos below - and check out these funky shot cotton scarves!)

I highly recommend using shot cottons in garment sewing and know that I'll definitley be visitng these again in the future. There are loads of great colours and they are really comfortable to wear.

It is difficult to properly determine what colour your shot cotton is going to look like in real life from the swatches that Kaffe provides.  Here are the ones that I have in my collection so far, along with their names.  I'll be sure to photograph others as I collect them to help out with determining colour choices.

.Cushions replaced!.

A change is as good as a holiday, right?  I finished new cushion covers to live in the loungeroom last night and couldn't be happier with them today.  You might remember my old cushions...I made them at the end of last year and they just haven't worked for me or our home.  Wrong colours, wrong designs.

This time around I took my time selecting the fabrics.  I didn't want anything matchy-matchy so grabbed a few of my favourite fabrics from my stash and played around until I came up with a collection I was happy with. 

There is definitley nothing matchy-matchy about these fabrics!  Although the more I look at them, I can see why they work well together - there are a few from the same ranges, the scale of most of the prints are small or have a small detail about them and there is a focus on grey, lilac, aqua and green...

Cushions really are a quick and easy way to spruce up a room and freshen things up a bit - could I claim this as my spring cleaning for the year?!

My favourite method for making cushion covers is hiding the zipper under a folded flap of fabric.  It gives a really neat and professional finish.  I don't like envelope closures as they always tend to stretch open and look sloppy over time.  If you are interested, here is a handy tutorial to hide the zippers in your cushion covers.

I was a little worried about using regular quilting weight cotton to make the cushions.  In past experience they have become saggy and stretched and haven't been able to withstand the beatings that our cushions get (see below) so this time I fully lined each cushion using a piece of (dodgy) scrap fabric I had lying around.  Nothing fancy with the lining, just cut a piece the same as the exterior and overlocked them together around the edge and then worked with the joined pieces as one.  It has made a huge difference in the stability of the cushions and I'm confident they will be long-lasting.

Now, as much as I love my cushions to decorate our home and inject a pop of colour, the kids love them more to throw around and play with!  Some days it drives me C.R.A.Z.Y!  I am constantly picking cushions up off the floor, but the small-fries love it!!

Hmm, looks like fun...I might have to join them in their antics next time! 

SUPPLIES:

Umbrella Prints, Floating Flowers

Umbrella Prints, Elephants

Umbrella Prints, Raindrops

Erin McMorris, Summersault, Pixiestick Posies in Turquoise

Erin McMorris, Summersault, Raindrops in Celery

Erin McMorris, Wildwood, Checked Floral in Green

Saffron Craig, Magical Lands, Magic Spots

Lizzy House, 1001 Peeps, Pearl Bracelet in Purple

Jennifer Moore, Monaluna, Hip to Be Square in Steel 

.Bargain fabric...I couldn't resist!.

I'm the first to admit that I'm a fabric snob...I'm all about good quality and style.  I haven't bought fabric from Spotlight in a long time.  In fact, I only try and visit the shop a couple of times a year and stock up on thread, zippers, buttons and other bits and pieces that I need.  This time I needed bits and pieces but also wanted to check out the Denyse Schmidt fabric exclusive to Spotty.

We are still on school holidays here, so we packed up a picnic, piled into the car and drove off to Spotlight with the promise that after we had finished we would find a nice grassy park to have a play and some lunch.

So I got all of my needed bits and pieces but when we got to the cutting table I discovered a huge $2m clearance table and I just couldn't resist!  I made myself look for the best quality and only made purchases with projects IN MIND...and i'm going to actually use it!  The kids were INSANE.  Spotlight for them = running races and hiding spots and crazy antics.  The man who was serving me at the desk asked them about 50 times to stop climbing on the shelf, don't stand on the fabric, get out of that hole...all the while I smiled sweetly at him and them.  Isn't it nice when someone else does your parenting for you!  Seriously man, if you are going to have a massive $2m table piled high with fabric then get cutting and ignore the naughty children!

So, back to the purchases...these pinwhale cords are going to be some lovely summer skirts and shorts for the kids - I like the fact that these are going to be super cheap to make so won't matter if they get them stained in the first wear!  I bought HEAPS of navy blue - it's the kids school pants colour so I figure I can get good use out of it over the next few years!

 Couldn't resist some checks and ginghams...

I found a big roll of hounstooth!  LOVE it and can't wait to make myself a pencil skirt out of it!  Also a jungle print jersey knit (not the best quality but good for a simple baby wrap) and some dress up fabric for Lil - ballerina and mermaid here we come!

And lastly, the measly amount of Denyse Schmidt that I went for!  I spent more on these three pieces than everything else above combined!!!  It is a lovely collection, but I couldn't see myself doing much with the country-style prints.  The spots are great though and the check is going to be really cool for shorts for the boys!  

Looks like I've got some sewing to do!