Pages

Monday 31 March 2014

One crafty morning I did some sewing for my sister's wedding - The Tilda Wedding Collection

Actually it was multiple mornings, and afternoons and evenings, but I am finally finished the Tilda Wedding collection for my sister's wedding this weekend.


It consists of a quilted table runner (1/3 shown here), two flower girl jackets, two lace sashes with sparkles, two headbands and four alligator hair clips in case the flower girls (aged 2 and 3!) decide they do not want to hear headbands. All made using gorgeous Tilda cotton fabric.


The quilted table runner is 46.5" x 17.5". It is quilted using cotton batting and a stitch in the ditch design.


For the jackets I used an Amelie and Henri pattern. It is made from quilters weight cotton and lined in a co-ordinating cotton. It features ribbon ties and fabric covered buttons.

The sash that will go on the flower girl dresses is made from lace ribbon and features a pretty diamonte applique that I hand stitched on.


Lastly, I decided to give the flower girls two hair accessory choices. Given that one of the flower girls is my Mimsy it is highly likely that there will be somewhat of a costume change between the ceremony and reception and both options will be used.

Photos of these creations in action, as well as the cake stand I made a few weeks ago, will be posted next week. Have a lovely week and weekend - I know I will!


Saturday 29 March 2014

13/52

The 52 Project - a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

Linking up with Practicing Simplicity.

Today is my 30th birthday. Today I am counting my blessings.

Photo by Tom Keating
I know I posted a photo of all of us last week, but here is another, in one of our favourite places, just because they make me so happy.


No matter which park we go to, Mimsy always finds the swings. Just in this tiny moment she looks a bit like my dad's family - these moments are rare! She usually looks just like her aunty Bianca (on her dad's side).


This one wasn't the greatest composition, and isn't all that sharp, but the pose is just so typical of Juju Man. He constantly has his hands on his head and often looks exasperated. I love it.


Thursday 27 March 2014

One crafty morning I created an instagram account

I know, I know, I'm late to the party! But I'm on instagram now. 

My account is very much the same as this blog: crafty endeavours, a little bit of my family and home life and other pretty things.





You can follow me @bridieraj or #onecraftymorning


Monday 24 March 2014

12/52

The 52 Project: A portrait of my children, once a week, each week in 2014.

Linking up with Practicing Simplicity.

Another busy week. I had intended on taking my children's portraits at my birthday party and Ju Ju Man's naming day, but I was having such a great time that I didn't pick up my camera once! Here is a little family photo from the end of the evening.

 So instead photos from this week are post party when we were all a little tired.

Ju Ju Man loves sleepy cuddles with Nannie.

Miss Piggy tails for Mimsy Boo.


Monday 17 March 2014

11/52

The 52 Project - a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014.

Linking up with Practicing Simplicity.

My 52 Project is quickly becoming a Tuesday thing instead of a Sunday thing! After a massive weekend with Lil Pip Designs at the Huckleberry Market, I'm only slowly recovering and getting back to normal life. With a lot of energy going into market preparations Mimsy and Ju Ju Man had quieter weeks this week.


It is no easy feat washing Mimsy's hair. Her gorgeous curls always make it worth it.

4 months old. I love this age - so interested in the world, so cheeky and quite possibly plotting world domination. Ju Ju Man has really found his voice in the last couple of weeks.


Tuesday 11 March 2014

One crafty morning I decided to create some gorgeous shirred dresses - how to shirr on a brother sewing machine

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
Photo by Emily Tedeschi

You may have noticed in my post about joining Lil Pip Designs some very pretty shirred dresses.

These lovely dresses were made using a BOO! Designs pattern. It's a fabulous and very detailed pattern which I highly recommend, but I did run into a small issue - I sew on a computerised Brother machine, making it somewhat more difficult that usual to shirr!

If you are planning on making a shirred dress and use a brother machine you'll need to follow these steps in order to get your tension right.

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
1. Slide the whole cover off so that your bobbin case can be removed (not just the little window that you would usually take off in order to drop in a bobbin).

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
 2. Remove the bobbin case.

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
 3. Drop your bobbin of elastic into the case with a tail hanging out.

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
4. Now this is the important step. You need to pull the tail of elastic through the tension spring. See that groove in the photo above to the right of where the elastic is coming out? You need to pull the elastic under that groove. It will pull under there very easily and then sit as it does in the photo above. Make sure that your elastic is going in the correct direction as per the diagram on your sewing machine.

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
 5. Drop the bobbin case back into the machine.

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother

 6. Wind your needle and use the top thread to pull the tail of elastic up.

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
7. Replace the cover on the machine.

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
8. Set your stitch length and tension. Most patterns and tutorials will tell you to set your stitch length to the longest possible length. I find that having my stitch length on 4 and tension on 3 works best on my machine.

Now you are ready to start! Here are my top 3 tips for shirring:

1. Use good quality shirring elastic!

There are a couple of reasons for this. It is much less likely to snap, but probably my favourite reason is because I find that I can use my machine to wind it onto the bobbin. You will need to guide the elastic with your hand rather than threading it as you would with normal cotton, but this saves time, keeps an even tension when winding and you can fit more on your bobbin.

I buy my elastic from here.

2. The iron is your friend!

Use it shrink the elastic at the end with a blast of steam and use it press your seams in the direction you want them to go. There is nothing more annoying than finishing off your dress only to realise that your seams flipped while you were sewing and now no longer sit flat facing the back.

3. Write out the dimensions of your dress!

If you are using the BOO! Designs pattern you will see that there are some fabulous tables that detail every measurement you need, for a variety of styles in a variety of sizes. If, like me, you are easily confused by lots of numbers I suggest writing out the size and style you want and just focusing on those numbers!

Of course, if shirring isn't your thing you are a local to Melbourne, I'll be at the Huckleberry Market Extravaganza on March 15 and 16 with a whole heap of gorgeous shirred dresses for sale.

If you have any questions about the above, please leave me a comment and I'll do my best to explain.

Happy shirring!

One Crafty Morning How to Shirr on A Brother
Photo by Emily Tedeschi





Monday 10 March 2014

10/52

Late again, and this time I don't even have a good excuse! Life is busy and these two are getting bigger and bigger!


Mimsy loves the Queen Elsa costume I made her for the Frozen sing-a-long at the Moonlight Cinema.



Nothing overly complicated about this one, in fact, Ju Ju Man kicked the blankets up with his excited little legs, but I do love looking back on how much he has grown. Especially compared to 5/10, he has grown so much! I guess 5 weeks is a long time when you are only 4 months old.

Tuesday 4 March 2014

9/52

The 52 Project - a portrait of my children, once a week, each week in 2014

Linking in with Practicing Simplicity.

I have a good reason for running late with loading up the photos from this week. I'll let the portraits explain why!

Mimsy with her hair full of beautiful Byron Bay sand.

Ju Ju Man enjoying his first trip to the beach (oh, and here is my good looking husband too!)

Ok, so the 52 project is meant to be just one portrait of each child each week. But I love this one so I'm going to include it anyway. Mimsy loves the beach so much. We arrived home this afternoon, she misses the sand already.