As always I looked at pictures but no patterns and made it up as I went. I was also very tempted to go buy more piratey fabric but resisted and made everything from my stash.

All waiting for the little pirate to wake up

The sash and bandanna were super easy as they are just hemmed fabric and the vest was meant to be ragged so I didn’t even hem that, just cut the shaped and sewed the pieces together. I put the elastic for the eye patch in the middle and I should have done it on the top but it still worked.

The piece I’m really happy about was the jacket. L wanted a coat like Captain Jack that flared out when he ran or spun and I had no idea how to do that so in the end he got a little flare but mostly a big jacket with a split in the back. I lined it with stripey fabric and made the sleeve extra long so we could fold them back for a different coloured cuff. J was most impressed with that look. Once we added mismatched buttons to the front and a pocket it was really coming together. I left the collar off as I am yet to master them but I did make L a small bag of coins (gold buttons) to keep in his pocket which he was over the moon about.

“Argh – thats my pirate face mum” (The pink bandanna is the one he got given by the school pirate not the one I made)

On the day L didn’t want to go to school or see the pirate but we got him there and when he got home he wouldn’t take the costume off Always makes a mama feel good when that happens!

I spent a few days figuring out how to lay them all out in a way that was balanced. With so many pictured and colours to work with it took awhile but I got there. and my customer was very happy with the layout.

with the tacky border

Originally I was going to put a white border around the entire quilt but once it was sewn on it looked a little tacky, like an after thought so I ended up cutting it off and just binding it with a black fabric with white travel words all over it. I really love it and now wish I had got more when I could. I have a bit left over which I plan to use in a rainbow quilt for my sister soon.

Queen Sized T Shirt Quilt

As a group we originally wanted to make 100 dresses and send them off.The women at church are very excited to be helping little girls who may have nothing bright in their lives with such a simple dress that doesn’t take much time or cost on our part which means that now at the end of our project we have 200 dresses.

We started out making the dresses from one fabric but I got a bit bored and wanted to spice it up so all I did was add a contrast band on the bottom of some of the dresses. I think they look quite cute! I have another 4 dresses here that are waiting to be hemmed and I will get them finished in the next week before we box them all up. L has been having fun helping me choose fabrics for these special little girls.

A sampling of dresses for Africa

I should mention that the little boys of Africa have not been forgotten and one group of women have been making shorts for them with 20 finished.

If you would like to make your own dresses or shorts sizes and patterns can be found on the website here.

All it took in the end was one piece of fabric and 4 notice board pins. I hammered the pins into my table to hold up the fabric and just like that my mess is hidden. It makes my whole lounge feel bigger without things everywhere when I look around.

Before and After