We are in the process of designing a new outdoor decking area and while we are still in the early stages I’m already obsessing over the final (read fun and pretty) details. One thing we will definitely need is a load of lovely outdoor cushions. I am expecting we will be spending a lot of time out on the deck over summer, so I want lots of comfy places to sit myself. Perfect for spending an afternoon with a book or some embroidery.

I have had a few jumbo cushion inserts hiding in my stash for a few years so when Spoonflower* asked if I’d like to use some of their fabric for something fun, I knew instantly that it would be outdoor cushions. As part of a collection for Spoonflower showcasing Australian makers, they have kindly provided me with their Eco Canvas which is perfect for the job. It’s made from 45% recycled materials which give it a nice big planet friendly tick and that makes it great in my book. I’m always trying to find ways to be environmentally friendly when sewing. The colours are lovely and vibrant on the Eco Canvas and the printing is crisp too.

Spoonflower have kindly offered you, my lovely readers a coupon code too so you can join in the fun. Use the code ABBYTFB10 and you’ll receive 10% off any of their fabrics. The code is valid until 15/07/2018.

I did consider designing my own fabric, which I have done in the past (see here and here), but browsing through the designs already on Spoonflower I found so many I loved that I ended up choosing this cute budgie print by an Australian Spoonflower designer. I was looking for something bright and fun and this print fit the bill. It’ll give me a lot of choices when it comes to colour coordinating the rest of the decor too.

Have you made cushion covers before? I haven’t done any for ages and I forgot how easy they were! I whipped these up in less than two hours. The canvas is nice and sturdy so it’s a dream to cut and sew. My rotary cutter blade is a little dull but it didn’t have any trouble cutting through the fabric. There was one tiny fault in the fabric (a little bobble in the thread) which had caused a little spot of the fabric to not get printed on. I coloured it in with a fabric marker and can’t see it anymore.

I found these Adirondack style chairs out on the street in someone’s rubbish pile. I have no idea why they were getting rid of them, because they’re in very good condition. One man’s trash and all that… I find them a little deep to sit on, and these jumbo cushions fill the gap perfectly! The cushions are very nice to sit with. The Eco Canvas is great because it doesn’t wrinkle so the cushions look great even after sitting on them for a while. Since I mostly sew clothing, I tend to choose fabrics with natural fibres, but in this case synthetic is the way to go.

The boys love the new ‘birdy cushions’ too and keep running off with them.What’s mine is theirs, huh?!

*This post was made in collaboration with Spoonflower. I was provided the fabric for this project. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Yes, it’s April. I guess I’ve been a bit slack with the blog posts, but this sweater is so awesome, I have to tell you about it! About a month before Christmas, I decided that I HAD to have a Christmas sweater. I had some red and green yarn in my stash from a project that never eventuated so I thought I’d put it to good use. A trip to Bendigo Woollen Mills sorted me out for the white yarn and I was ready to go.

An evening of browsing Ravelry and I had the pattern picked too. The pattern is the Brewster Pullover by Alexis Winslow. The pattern is a top down knit with set in sleeves. It’s pretty ingenious really! I had a lot of fun knitting it and really enjoyed working the colour work. I like to hold one colour in each hand. The repeats were easy enough to keep track of so the knitting was fairly mindless. It was a pretty quick knit too and only took about 3 weeks. This is one of those projects where the inside is as interesting as the outside!

Christmas in Australia can get pretty hot, so I went for a more fitted shape and kept the sleeves at 3/4 length. I added some waist shaping and hip shaping to follow my body. It was a little tricky to figure out as I wanted to keep the pattern  working all the way around, but I got there in the end. For the details, check out my Ravelry project. I added a little extra Christmas flair with a Lativan Braid around the neckline. It looks like a candy cane!

As I said earlier I used some Filatura Di Crosa Zara from my stash for the red and green sections. For the white, I used Bendigo Luxury 8ply in Frost. I had almost finished when I realised I was not going to have enough of the red to do the plain sections on the sleeves. I went to Morris & Sons and found that their Empire 8ply had an exact match! I was thrilled and bought the extra ball I needed.

I managed to wear this to four Christmas functions, so it had a good run. I haven’t yet worked up the courage to wear it post-Christmas, but I’m hoping I can. Any ideas on how to make it seem less ‘Christmassy’ when I wear it?

We are having friends over today for the Australia Day holiday and there’ll be a few kids so I whipped up these biscuits. They are quick and easy and the result is pretty cute. If you don’t mind that they have crooked eyes, then get the kids involved in the decorating.

To put these together, you’ll need:
Arrowroot biscuits (or other oval shaped plain sweet biscuits)
Basic icing (1/2 C icing sugar, 1 tsp soft butter, water – about 1 tbsp)
Marshmallows
Chocolate coated peanuts (or sultanas)
Black food colouring (I used Americolor Super Black Gel Paste)

To make the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the butter and mix it in. Add the water a little at a time (add a teaspoon at first, then 1/2tsp at a time) mixing until it’s thick, but spreads and smoothes as it rests. Add one drop of colouring, to make the icing grey.

Cut the marshmallows in half to make 2 circles. I also shaved the back off the chocolate peanuts with a knife to get them to sit flat.

Spread about a teaspoon of the icing onto each biscuit and smooth out with a spatula or flat edged butter knife. Put a marshmallow piece on each side for the ears and a chocolate peanut in the middle for the nose. I put the ears slightly above centre and the nose towards the bottom.

To make the eyes, I put a drop of food colouring onto a spoon and then dipped the end of a takeaway chopstick into the colouring. Make a dot for each eye. For the smiles, I used a toohpick dipped in the colouring to carefully draw a little mouth.

Leave them to let the icing set and you’re done!

What an effort this cardigan was, but sooooo worth it! This is the ‘My Everything’ cardigan by Joji Locatelli. It’s my first major knitting project and took quite some time. I like challenging projects because of the new skills you can learn. Wrapping, grafting, provisional cast on and tubular bind off were all new techniques for me. Thank you YouTube!

I started this cardigan in July last year, and finished it just before winter this year. I was inspired by a circular cardigan that Jane Fonda wore in the show Grace & Frankie (hilarious show, check it out). I Googled the cardigan, discovered it’s a $1000 Ralph Lauren cardigan and promptly decided I’d have to make my own. Searching Ravelry, I quickly found a few suitable patterns. The cable on this sold me!

The construction is genius! you start with the back panel and the cabled ‘spine’, then pick up stitches all the way along the spine and work around in a semi circle. You then work the other side and graft them together at the top to form a circle. You can see below the before and after of the grafting. For a first go, I’m really happy with how this turned out and the join is almost invisible.

Since this was the first thing I’ve knitted bigger than a scarf, I stuck with some moderately priced yarn. I was worried I’d get half way and be so flustered that it’d get put in the naughty corner never to come out again. The yarn I used, Cascade 220, was good for this project and it makes a nice and warm cardigan without feeling too thick and heavy. It did make the gauge a little off, and the cardigan turned out a bit shorter as a result.

Once it was done, it was a bit of a lumpy mess, but a good blocking really made a difference. And I couldn’t believe how much dirt came out of it! I’ve never really had much need to block an item before, since I’ve always stuck to smaller projects. I can see how much of a vital step it is! Here is a before and after of blocking.

I made a few minor mods to this as I went along. You can read about them all on my Ravelry, here. The pattern itself is intended to have a bit of a ‘tail’ at the bottom, which I wasn’t a big fan of. I tried a few mods to get rid of it with no luck, so I left it as is. When the cardigan was finished, I folded the tail under and chain stitched it in place with a crochet hook. I’m happy with how this hides it. Another Raveler had the same problem, but seems to have found a workaround, so I would follow that if I ever made another.

I feared knitting such a large project might put me off knitting forever, but it doesn’t seem to have…I bought some more yarn to make a sweater.

I had been plodding away on this dress for the past few months, so when I received an invitation to a high tea for a pre-wedding event, I got my butt into gear and finished it off. I present you Weigels 2063!

It was so much fun dressing up for the event! I’ve recently gotten into victory rolls. This was my third go. I think if I grow my hair a little longer they would be easier, but I’m finding them fairly simple and a great way to get into the vintage vibe.

It is a lovely vintage pattern, Weigel’s 2063. I would have loved to put the collar on the dress, but sadly there wasn’t enough fabric. Keeping with the vintage theme, I used an old bed sheet I bought from an op shop and had to unpick the hems on the sheet to fit all the pattern pieces in! The skirt is made up from 5 panels. That translates to one long hem to stitch! The panels are heavily gathered and the front section is also pleated in towards the centre.

The Weigel’s pattern company has quite an interesting history. I had not heard of it before coming across this pattern. If you’d like to read the history of this Australian company, check out the Madame Weigels website here.

The fit straight out of the packet was pretty good on my muslin. When it came to my ‘good’ version though, it was sitting a little funny under the bust. My sewing bae, Sarah, kindly fixed it with some fancy ‘y’ darts. Thank you Sarah! You can just make them out in the picture above. The original pattern had one huge dart, which would work perfectly with a bullet bra…something at this stage I have no desire for.

The sleeve length was a little longer than I was after, so I folded them under quite a bit and then folded them up to give them a little cuff. I decided to secure it with some hand stitching and I think it’s a sweet little detail. It would probably look nice around the skirt hem too, but ain’t no one got time for that!

As always, I added pockets. That’s one of the perks of sewing your own wardrobe… You can add details that RTW is often missing. Very handy for secretly carrying around my phone and lipstick.

Given there is so much fabric in the skirt, I decided to add a waist stay. Ideally, I would have liked to finish it off with a large hook like they have on bikini tops so that it would be adjustable, but I couldn’t find one the size I wanted. Instead, I settled for some neat hooks and eyes. In retrospect, I should be a little looser, but it’s not uncomfortable to wear. I followed this tutorial to add the waist stay. The waist stay also stops the side seams from sagging if the pockets are well loaded.

I’m slowly falling into a vintage rabbit hole and I’m really loving wearing a more vintage silhouette, though it does take a bit of getting used to. And I am definitely not used to being stopped in the street by strangers when I’ve gone all out. I had several octogenarian men inviting me out to dance! Too cute!

I’ve been on a bit of a skirt sewing binge lately, and this is one of the latest. I’ve noticed that this winter I seem to be gravitating more towards skirts and fleece lined tights to keep myself warm and my wardrobe was in need of a couple more winter-ish skirts (I’ve been wearing my wool check skirt to death).

This skirt was made based on this pinterest pin which I have had pinned for a while. It started off as long as the inspiration skirt, but I soon realised that I’m much shorter than I think and it needed a good 6 inches taken off the length because it was overwhelming me. Not to worry! I must thank hubby for kneeling on the floor and pinning the hem for me, such a help!

I didn’t use a pattern for this as such. The skirt is a 3/4 circle attached to a contoured waistband. I used the waistband pieces from the Grainline Maritime shorts for shaping and made the waistband a bit wider. The belt is a long straight strip with channels stitched along its length, just like a karate belt, hence the name of this blog post. I made the belt just long enough that it can be tied in a bow, or simply knotted so I have a couple of options. To keep this a quick make, the hem is overlocked and then machine stitched. I didn’t fancy hemming all that skirt my hand!

I have had the fabric hanging around in my stash for a few years. I’m not really sure what it is, I picked it up at an op shop. It reminds me of fabric that a grandpa’s slacks would be made out of…haha! If you look up close it’s made from green, navy blue and tan threads which I find interesting and the end result is a nice teal shade. It did make choosing a thread colour tricky. I ended up using a navy blue I already had and it matches pretty well. I had 2.8m of the fabric which was 1.4m wide. It was just enough to make the skirt and belt, though if I knew I’d be taking so much off the length I probably would have had a bit left over to add pockets.

I really need to get back into blogging again! I’ve been so slack with it this year. I counted the other day and I have about 20 makes that I could post, just need to take some photos! I should set up a day with a photographer or something. Maybe next week, or when the weather warms up

This is my newest make, Simplicity 7308. The cold weather has arrived rather abruptly as it always does here in Melbourne. I am in desperate need of some winter skirts so I dug through the stash and pulled out this vintage Simplicity 7308 pattern. I’ve had this wool fabric stashed away (turns out for 5 years, originally blogged here) and they happened to make the perfect pair. The 1.5m piece of fabric I had was just enough to make the skirt and pattern match it nicely too…Gotta love some pattern matching!

Anyone else think the girl with the bob on the pattern art looks like Taylor Swift??

I got all excited about sewing the skirt up and forgot to fit it as I went. Turns out it’s a little bit big, but I don’t mind… it means I can tuck a nice thick sweater into it and still have room for lunch. I do wish it had pockets. I have some scraps of the wool left, maybe enough to put some patch pockets on? What sort of pockets do you think this skirt should have?

The cowl/scarf I’m wearing is the Stockholm Scarf. I finished it a few years ago, but have just realised I never blogged it. Naughty me! I really should as it’s gorgeous to wear.

Seeing as I’m quite short, I put a good 3″ hem on this skirt. Plenty of hem left in case I have a growth spurt…haha! The pattern originally had a small hem, but I think the deep hem helps it to sit nicely. I added a lining to the skirt as well. I know it’ll get a lot of wear with tights and I don’t want it clinging to my legs all day. I hand stitched the hem pretty much in the dark one night (the night before I wanted to wear it, of course!) and I can see it could do with a good press! Thankfully the cushy-ness of the wool means you can’t see my stitches on the right side.

This was my second go at a lapped zip and I love them. They give such a neat finish. I followed the directions in my old Singer Sewing Book and they seemed so much simpler than the first time I did it. I will using them from now on.

Aren’t my shoes fun?! They are from Shoes of Prey. I splurged and designed myself a pair of brogues. I figured I might as well make myself something fun that you can’t find in a store.

Finally a back shot, because I know all the sewists out there love to check out a fellow seamstresses rear. Those weird lumps in the back of my sweater drive me crazy. The strange construction is at fault, but they look so odd. I must try to remember to wear a coat with this sweater…or try and steam them out next time I give it a wash.

Bring on winter! I must give a shout out to Helen for being my photographer and Libby for making me do the right thing and put the lining in. Love you ladies!

I made these baked cinnamon donuts for our family lunch on Easter Sunday. I baked some boozy rum and raisin brownies first, but thought I should make something else that was kid friendly. I had all the ingredients for these on hand so whipped them up on Sunday morning. These turned out to be quite a hit and went like hotcakes!

I bought my mini donut tin when we were on holidays in the US. I wish I had bought 2 tins, but alas I only have the one. They are easy to make, though the baking can take a while if you only have one tin and need to bake in batches.

Mini Baked Cinnamon Donuts

makes about 60

1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For coating the donuts:
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F). Grease mini donut pan with pan coat or cooking spray.

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the cinnamon and sugar for coating the donuts. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking power, sugar and salt. In a separate bowl mix together the egg, oil, milk and vanilla with a fork. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and then pour in the wet ingredients. Whisk together until combined.

Pipe batter into mini donut pan filling each section about 1/2 full. If you don’t have a piping bag, you can use a ziploc bag and snip the corner off. If all that seems too hard, you can spoon the mix into the tin. It’s runny enough that’ll spread and sit flat. But it does take a lot longer to fill the sections if you’re using a spoon.

Bake for 5-7 minutes, or until they spring back when gently pushed. As soon as you take them out of the oven, put them straight into the cinnamon sugar and toss to coat. I did about 3 at a time. Re-coat the tin and bake the next batch.

I cleaned my tin half way through (after 3 batches) because the edges of the donuts were starting to get a little straggly.

You will probably have some leftover cinnamon sugar mix. It’s delicious on regular toast, or French Toast and great sprinkled over porridge.

The donuts are super cute and small enough that you can eat 5 or 6 without feeling naughty. Here’s a toddler hand snagging a donut for size reference. I can’t really tell you how long they keep for…we managed to eat all 60 in one afternoon!

This post is sponsored by Spotlight. All opinions are my own.

Last week I had the pleasure of going to the launch of Spotlight’s annual National Craft Month.  It’s always a great day and this year Ted came along to join in the fun and we had a great time. I love that Spotlight host National Craft Month. It’s a great way to try out a new craft and see what things are going in the craft world. They also provide great activities for kids, so if you are looking for a way to entertain them on the weekend, pop on down to one of their special days. You can see the event calendar here.

One of the products they had on display this year is Cleckheaton’s new Merino and Alpaca blend yarns. The yarns are made in Australia at the Wangaratta Woollen Mills which I thought was cool. It’s always great to find some locally produced products. There is a chunky yarn called ‘Merino Max’ which is perfect for quick projects and a gorgeously fluffy mohair style yarn called ‘Merino Light & Airy’. The samples they had on display were gorgeous! Almost made me want another baby! Haha!

They even had an Alpaca and some Merino sheep out the front with a lovely Border Collie keeping them in line. Ted loved hanging out with the animals and cracked up laughing every time the sheep said ‘Baaaa’.

He also thoroughly enjoyed the cupcake decorating station and had a great time decorating the cupcakes and an even better time eating them! Spotlight had their Roberts Cake Decorating supplies on show. They are another Australian made product which is good to see.

Have you ever joined in the fun of National Craft Month? If you’re thinking of taking up a new craft, then now is the perfect time. Head in to your local Spotlight store and see what’s on offer. Spotlight also have a competition running where you can win an amazing trip to India. Find all the details here.

I keep thinking about these socks that were on display. I’ve never knitted socks before, but these may sway me. They look so cosy!

For Christmas, I made my nieces some cloth dolls. I made one for their big sister years ago, and now they each have one. I didn’t want them to all be identical, so I mixed it up with each of their faces and hair. The fabrics used for the bodies are the same on each.

Cloth dolls are so much fun to make, and the hair is no exception! On one of the dolls, I used wool felt and stitched an extra circle of felt on for a bun. I did a little bit of free motion quilting to do the swirl on the hair. I was planning for it to look nice and smooth, but I actually like the wonky way it turned out. For the other doll, I made wool hair. I followed this tutorial to make two wefts of hair that are then stitched onto the dolls head. I am thrilled with the way it turned out! It’s so much fun to play with and was lots of fun to create. I am tempted to make one for myself.

The pattern I used for the dolls is based on the ‘Violet’ doll from the book Hop Skip Jump by Fiona Dalton. Sadly the book is out of print. It’s such a beautiful book and I’ve made quite a few of the sotfies out of it, like these softies and this fox. I’ve actually used the Violet doll pattern six times now! If you come across the book in your travels, then do pick it up.

I’d love to work my way through to book and make each softie. It’d be great to have them on hand for baby or kids gifts. What’s your favourite softie pattern?