**CLOSED** Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day 2011

****WINNER is MICHELLE from Daydream Believers****

I really enjoy the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day, even if I forgot to offer up a giveaway of my own last year (might have had something to do with having a four week old baby at the time?). It’s a chance to discover new blogs & enter giveaways for things you might actually like from people that are offering prizes just for the fun of it, not because they’re being paid to or because they are hoping for something in return.

I am offering two vintage Enid Gilchrist books, Play Clothes & Toddler Clothes. These are very popular amongst certain people in the sewing set, some may even say collector’s items, so count yourselves lucky I’m too lazy to draft my own patterns….!

With these trusty Enid’s you could make a range of retro classics for your baby or child; think simple shifts, funky coats or even swimwear! If, like me, you don’t think you’ll be getting out the drafting paper any time soon, these books are a brilliant piece of Australian sewing & home economics history & a wonderful addition to any crafty bookshelf.

Below is a certain little Punk (*sobs*) in a dress from Play Clothes, made by Tracy way back in April 2009.

HOW TO ENTER:

All you have to do to enter is let me know what was the most memorable piece of clothing your parents dressed you in as a child? Good or bad, enquiring minds want to know. Cast your mind back to your baby photos for recollections of hand knitted jumpers or a little later when perhaps you wish your Mother had warned you against that ra-ra skirt & matching top with mesh sleeves ensemble… I’ll choose the winner at random & I’m happy to post internationally. Entries close December 16th.

Big thanks to Deb for reminding me about giveaway day today or I’d have missed out again!

Good morning Sunshine!

We woke up this morning to some SUN! It really is amazing what a difference a little sun can make to your mood, it makes you want to jump out of bed rather than hide under the covers…

…& have a mini-photo shoot before breakfast!

Here is Miss Punk’s new hat, I made it yesterday, from her colour specifications (bloody pink, pink, pink, pink….) using the Make It Perfect Lazy Days Hat pattern. You see, tomorrow, *sniffle*, Punkerella is going to a few hours of day-care for the very first time. I am super nervous, perhaps more for myself than for her – she has never been looked after by somebody else before. I have never had to pack her lunch for her, so that she, like a big girl, could partake without me. I know I am going to cry. Or at least blame my watery eyes on hay fever. Or something. I digress… THE HAT. Since we’ve not seen sunshine for months, her previous summer hats have been lost &/or grown out of, so she needed a new one to be allowed to play outside at day-care.

I thought, as I presented it to her yesterday, how good it is that I can make some of the things she needs, just like that. Sure my stitching may be a bit wonky, & I may have actually SHED SOME BLOOD (…first sewing machine needle incident in quite some time), but she loves it, we didn’t have to shop around for something that wasn’t emblazoned with Bratz girls shaking their booties & it didn’t cost me a thing.

Wish me luck for tomorrow, won’t you… I’ll be the Mother sobbing at the door while her not-so-little-anymore little girl runs off to explore with new friends.

(Oh, & I think I might draw the winner of the pattern giveaway tomorrow, to give me time to get your address & post it off on Wednesday, so if you haven’t entered yet, do so here.)

Give it away, give it away, give it away now…

I bought this pattern a while back from Crafty Mamas, then forgot about it, then remembered, then forgot, then didn’t give the lovely owner my new address, then I did, and then it arrived last week and I can’t for the life of me think why I wanted it. I shall not make it. Not now, not ever. It’s not the sort of thing I would even kid myself about, and so, I’m giving it away.

It is the Alex jacket from Mamu Design; suitable for boys or girls from about 3months to 14 years!

The options seem endless – with hood, without hood, different types of hoods, with sleeves, without sleeves, with pockets… you get the idea… if only if my sewing skills corresponded with my aspirations!

To enter just leave a comment here telling me who you would make your first Alex for! If you are a very special yet obviously confused follower, leave another comment for another entry – I would have just picked randomly from you guys but what if, like me, you couldn’t make this in a pink fit?!

…and that’s it. You don’t need to blog about this, tweet about it, faff about on facebook or buy anything… but maybe you’d like to give away a pattern of your own you never got around to using? That would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Rock and/or roll.

Yesterday there was an absolute plethora of Garage Sales around these parts and Miss Punk and I took full advantage.

It was more of a “Garage Sale Gifts” day, though, as opposed to a “Lots of goodies for Vic” day… having said that I did get a whole bunch of sewing patterns for $4, and, all for under $50; talking family guy figures for my aunt, a frikkin POOL TABLE for the boy, toys, clothes, an Alice in Wonderland DVD and (my favourite) some FANTASTIC pictures for The Punk.

I had actually admired one of these pictures on someone’s blog a while back, and when I saw them on the table yesterday I was thrilled – and they looked even better in person. The lady told Punky that she had them in her room when she was a little girl (and she still had them… isn’t that great?!). A whole $5 was shelled out for the lot, and they’re already pride of place above Punkster’s mantle-piece.

For more flea market finds, you know where to go….

My Creative Space.....

...is conspiring with other forces around me to get some dolls made. Really it is.

First, I found a fantastic old book at the oppy with many a cutie-pie doll to make, then my Gran gave me TWENTY FIVE doll patterns (...even if they are ye olde folk art type ones...) that someone gave my Uncle & my Uncle gave to her...

And then, just in case I didn't get the hint, I found this purty green wool at Spotlight on a totally unrelated expedition, for a whole three dollars.

So. Doll making it is. The hard part really is choosing which doll to make...! I'm going to make my Softies for Mirabel doll (...and I really better get moving...) and a doll for Le Punk for her birthday.

For more, perhaps, advanced, creative spaces, I think you know where to go - kootoyou of course!