My first Anna dress

Much excitement!  I have finally finished my first Anna dress, and I love it!  It's so simple, yet so pretty and it's relatively easy to make up.

My dress is made from some Indian sari fabric I had in my stash.  As I didn't have quite enough fabric to make the dress entirely spotty, I used the 'blouse' section which is found at the end of the sari for the back bodice.  I'm really impressed with myself that I managed to match up the stripes on the back, which with hand printed fabric is no easy task!

I really learned a lot about pattern alteration using this pattern - I had to do a full bust adjustment, which of course impacted on the waistline, but it was worth all the extra time to make a dress that fits perfectly to my idiosyncracies - it is just so comfy!  I'm intending to write a post explaining how I did my fba and other little mistakes I made  things I learned which should help both you and I avoid such pitfalls in future projects.  Watch this space ...

But I was excited to share my photos first ...

... and I've cut out 2 more dresses ... and nearly finished one already ... I love this pattern!

This time last week ....



At the top of a lighthouse - dad will appreciate this one!

... we were on our way to Yallingup near Margaret River for a small break.  Seems like a lifetime ago, we have been so busy since then!  We are expecting visitors from the UK at the weekend and our house is being given a very overdue spring clean ...

Thought it might be relaxing to stop for a few minutes and look at what we got up to on our trip; it might help me feel slightly less harassed about my present tidying task!

Visiting an op shop in Busselton ... lots of little treasures ... not at Perth prices!

Collecting shells ...

 

 

 and coral ...

found on the beach at Dunsborough.  A favourite past-time of mine, and one which the children have happily adopted as well.  Little Man found some great specimens.

Psychedelic cave ...

Our favourite outing on this trip, a look inside the Ngilgi Caves - AWESOME!  Lots of pretty coloured lights to help us on our way, lovely and cool and damp, stalagmites and stalactites galore.  Wonderful how nature creates beneath our feet without us even noticing ...

Side note: this was supposed to have been posted at the end of last week, with some other lovely photos of our adventures, but I'm having mega technical problems with my usual computer and can't find another that lets me download my photos - still the cave photos are pretty groovy!  I'll try and solve the problem asap.  Update - fixed!  More pics :)

Camping fun

Cam-oo-flarge

We are having an adventure tonight!

When I say 'we' I mean Little Man and his big sister, who although she will be 18 very soon, is almost as giddy with excitement as her younger brother!  

Happiness is ...

But I can't lie, I've been looking forward to snuggling up in a sleeping bag in a tent outdoors.

Though outdoors in this case is our very sheltered and safe backyard :)  We unpacked our igloo tent this morning, and I must say Little Man and I did a splendid job on putting it up and making beds from a bedroll, yoga mat and fluffy blanket.  Batteries were found and lanterns hung from the centre strings on the 'roof'.  Then as the sun shone through our camouflage net covering the tent, the two kiddies sat inside it for hours, reading books, playing on their DS and generally having a great time together.

Now the real fun begins, and as I type this I have a very enthusiastic Little Man looking over my shoulder, asking when I'm going to change into my pj's because it really is time to go to bed now.

More magical moments being created to be remembered with fondness in the future.

Yup, it's magic :)

Kanga and Roo

I never get tired of this.  Kangaroos in our front garden, how awesome is that.  And if you look closely you can see a baby eating grass with its mum - from inside its pouch!

I lay down on Little Man's bedroom floor and peeked through his window to get these shots.  I had to be very quiet and still - a rare enough experience these days :)  Very pleasant.

When I experience moments like this I feel like everything is well with the world xx

I want to make this .... I want to make that ...

The Darling Ranges dress that goes on and on ...

Grrrr ... sometimes I get soooo distracted by things.  Duncan often tells me if I was a Transformer, my name would be 'Distractor-tron'.  Ok - that's going off on another tangent now!

Why am I distracted?  Well, I'm trying to get on and make my Anna dress as blogged about the other day.  But when I was trying on the dress toile, and looking at the fabric I'm using which is quite sheer, I began wondering what on earth I could wear underneath it, and hit upon the idea of making a bra top. 

Which in turn led me to search for something I'd downloaded and printed from the net about drafting and making my own bra. 

Whilst rummaging for old patterns, I found a Darling Ranges dress I've been going back to on several occasions, in an attempt to make adjustments to make the darn thing fit (the problem is not with the pattern, rather what I have been doing with it).  So now I want to make the dress fit properly, and I did read on a blog the other day that to succeed in sewing one should always finish projects before moving onto another ... distractions, distractions ...

Pretty vintage fabric purchased online

But ... today I did trace out the remaining pattern pieces of the Anna dress and hope to start cutting out fabric tomorrow ...

In an attempt to keep focussed (ha ha!) I'm making a little list for myself:

1.   Cut out fabric and construct my Anna dress
2.   Unpick the Darling Ranges dress and reconstruct bodice (for the third time!)
3.   Take accurate measurements and draft a bra pattern - might leave the bra-making for another time, I'm just interested in making the pattern!
4.   Make another Anna dress
5.   Make another Darling Ranges dress with fabric that drapes more than the cotton I used the first time around :)

That should keep me going for a bit!