I am a sucker for go anywhere dresses.  The sort that can take a day at daycare or impress the grandparents at the drop of a hat.  This dress certainly fits the bill.  It is the perennial dress by SewPony.  There is even a free tutorial for it.


The colours may look familiar, and they are.  I am trying to recapture a favorite of mine that I made 2 years ago.  This one is made of a light stretch denim with an America Jane print as the accent.  Of course there is truckloads of bias tape in there too.  The red accents around the neckline are peeks of the singlet beneath.  I can proudly claim that this dress has withstood the rigors of daycare and lived to tell the tale.

Terrariums and I are slowly scoping each other out.  I rediscovered them over at the hipster, too cool for cool, series of Terrium Tuesdays.  I picked one up thinking it would be great for at the office.  E had other ideas and when she has ideas, she makes plans.  It was just what I needed to get me out of a post modern, "is this passe?" rut.

When she asked if she could draw me a plan, I thought we were just talking about where things would be planted in the small globe.  I was wrong.

What you can see above is a description of the organisms and animals living in the soil and garden*.  There are snails, worms and spiders.  Each is carefully attached with double sided tape to the outside to avoid damage when watering.  Some have crowns to show that they are the kings and queens.  They are also keeping the house pixie company.

You can keep your icy succulent filled, styled terrariums in the pages of your magazines and pinterest boards. While this terrarium was not quite what I had in mind, it is exactly what we need in our home.

*Go soil science enquiry units at school!!
**E, you can style my lounge anytime you want, as long as your room is tidy first.

 Vintage boxes intrigue me.  They keep me guessing.  Wondering what makes a box special enough to keep? And what could possibly be special enough to be kept inside?  This box was a strange juxtaposition of lingerie and sandwiches.  Complete with intact labels and what I can only imagine to be a sandwich pixie keeping guard.  The little faces are made from poylstyrene balls, toothpicks, pipe cleaners and tinsel paper.  I am seriously tempted to have a go at making  some

Other boxes are just what they say they are.  I thought I was being so sensible and frugal when I passed on an $8 ruffler foot for my machine a few years ago.  Of course, this meant that it would be a very long time until I saw one again.  So here it is, my new toy, a new to me ruffler foot.




 Linking in at Op-Shop Show off.

Once upon a time there was a beautiful  ball gown and a lovely little sister.   They were perfectly matched.  The dress was just right for school balls and other glamorous occasions and the sister was, of course, lovely.

Over time the dress grew a little tired and the little sister grew too.  They were no longer the perfect match that they once were. 

This is how I came to start unpicking my sister's ball gown.  We scoured my Burda magazines looking for options.  The skirt was carefully hand washed, ironed and unpicked some more.
We settled on burda 12-2011-102 .  She traced and I cut.  Initially there was going to be a muslin, but that became the lining as deadlines loomed closer. Hemming was fine line between taste and daring.

Finally, it was finished.
Sweet curved neckline doubling as straps, fully lined, shiny bow and floaty baby hem.  What more could a you want?  The dress gets to live another day.
 Perfect for each other again...

I have a weakness for bias tape and all it's uses.  I found myself making more tape this week as I couldn't put my hands on some I had made earlier.  The tape  is often left in the "might use oneday, but can't remember where it is " pile when I finish each project. 

This had me reflecting on just how many time I've been using this stuff.  It turns out I use it alot.


Thanks to bias tape we have facings to little dresses, pockets trims, buzzy bits of piping, jigsaw puzzle bags.  Sometimes I have a mind to turn all my stash into long strips of bias tape...

 Before...

A beautiful basket of threads from the church garage sale.  I carefully took it home and wound up the threads, trying to imagine a world where you would need so many reels of orange, coral or variegated pink threads.  There were even the sweetest little reels holding only 12 yards of thread, dearly marked "Nora". The basket is now nestled next to the couch awaiting it's next adventure. It looks like I have a little bit of sewing ahead of me..