Moon Glory: Roly Poly Along

 I had this Roly Poly tunic half-planned, and then when Rachael of Imagine Gnats asked if I wanted to be a part of her pattern tour I *leaped* at the offer. Funny story, the tunic I had half-planned I didn't actually make.

See I had an idea to make it into a cat face with ears, and then make a hooded shirt with cat ears on that. BUT there are some cool developments in a pattern I really love by a pattern-maker I also really love and I am saving the cat ears thing for that. That's all I'm going to say on the matter!

Instead we have this! Little Moon Glory!

Using all recycled materials, I made a second Roly Poly reversible pinny for Edison. The first side of the dress is made from a purple business shirt I had bought from the op-shop when I was trying to figure out what I would make for the Men's Business Shirt theme for Project Run & Play. I used the lower front of the shirt, incorporating the placket. The back of the pinny is made from the sides of the shirt, so I still have sleeves, collar, upper front and an entire back of the original shirt to use up.

I made this up in the 6month size, but it wasn't until I put it on her that I realised my little girl isn't that small anymore. Plumpkin is 10 months old now! Time to trace out the next size of this pattern!

The reverse side of the dress is made from this pretty pale blue broadcloth that were scraps from a dress I made a few years ago for a pin-up-model-turned-tattoo-artist I am friends with {I really need to try and find the photos of that}. It does have the centre pleat, but that is hidden by the cowl of the sweater of course. I apologise, Edison has not been a happy camper today and I didn't really think things through with the photos!

I added a big cloud pocket to the front. It's a kangaroo pocket so she can put her hands in the sides. Completely useless and pointless to a baby, but pockets are cool and this looks cute! I just noticed that Crafty Kitty also did a cloud idea for her Roly Poly! Great minds and all that ^_^

Sorry I didn't iron it *properly*. I know that my girls are going to be all snarkin' at me for that!

You can see the side-seams of the original shirt in this photo. The hat I made before Edison was born, it's an Enid Gilchrist 'helmet' pattern. I added ears to it. I've made this before when I made Vincent a fake-mohawk hat. Haha.

I also made a second Bimaa Sweater in the smallest size for Edison from two t-shirts in my stash. The underneath of the cowl is a purpley-blue(?) colour you can kind of see peeking out there. It fits really well, a little long in the sleeve for this baby but she's so porky it fits her tummy!

Want to win this pattern for yourself? 

Let me know in the comments what your favourite bug/beetle/insect is! 

 Please make sure you leave your email address so we can contact you! 

My favourite bug is one that I love to hate, Christmas Beetles! Oh they're so beautiful but in December they come out in HOARDES and ATTACK ME. It's terrifying. I can't deal with it. But they're really pretty. The ones we have here are iridescent  but they're legs snag onto my hair and clothes and they're like drunk when they fly. They don't mean to be scary, but I just.. I just can't.

By the way, the weather is pretty cold & cloudy over here! Love that I can layer Eddie up in this tunic, and she STILL looks cute AND warm!

You can see other Roly Polys in the Flickr Pool, buy the pattern here, or Catch the rest of the tour and more chances to win a Roly Poly pattern!

5.13 Jill Made with Moxie / Stephanie The Crafty Kitty

5.14 Stephanie NeurosesGalore / Cherie you & mie

5.15 Ari Max California / Caila Caila Made

5.16 Veronica SewVery / Tara Girl like the sea

5.17 Nancy owen's olivia / Adrianna Crafterhours

5.20 Ajaire Call ajaire / Sarah EmmylouBeeDoo

5.21 Laura Craftstorming / Jessica a little gray

5.22 Frances Miss Matatabi / Nicke kiss kiss quilt

5.23 Amy formwork design / Kat Sew Chibi

5.24 Joanne Rose & Dahlia / Amanda Kitschy Coo

5.27 Celina Petit a Petit and family / Delia Delia Creates

5.28 Christy a.Amelia handmade / Carolyn Fake It While You Make It

5.29 Bonnie Fishsticks Designs / Maria La Inglesita

5.30 Jane Buzzmills / Kate Things for Charlie

5.31 Polly Jack & GeeGee / Molly Rose & Odin

Special thanks to Kat's husband Jon for helping inspire me with the name!

Fancy Up Your Hosh Pants: The Kamino Kid

It's safe to say that I'm in love with every pattern that Loubee Clothing has created so far, and I got a sneak peek of what she is working on now and boy is it BEAUTIFUL. When Sarah asked me if I wanted to be part of her series on hacking up her Hosh Pants pattern, I couldn't reply in the affirmative fast enough! Most of my posts lately have been Hosh pants {1, 2 & 3}, Doli tanks and the one Bimaa sweater {which I need to get onto that and fill Edison's winter wardrobe with more of these!}.

This little guy has a bit of an obsession {Star Wars}, but I am willing to take advantage of it to encourage him to wear pants {it's getting cold!} instead of his preferred bottoms choice of shorts. And so, the Kamino Kid Hosh Pants were created!

Inspired by Boba Fett, the BAMF bounty hunter from Star Wars, I decided to make Vin some pants that were fun and a teensy bit costumey {Vince will wear pants if he thinks it is dress-up!}. They are made from grey stretch-denim, the exact same fabric I made these little skinny jeans for Vinnie from when he was a little bub! {Oh man how badly I sewed!}

From the front, the construction is similar to Boba Fett's actual pants. The knee 'shields' are made from yellow stretchknit. I used vliesofix to fix them in place where the knees are, then stitched around them like patches. Then I did seams straight across the knees to reinforce it, variegating the widths from close together to about a cm apart. 

Underneath the knee pads I attached two thin patch pockets made from the same grey stretch denim. Token lego pockets you know!

The butt pockets are where I decided to party, and move away from the 'costume'-ish look of the front. Two patch pockets decorated like Boba Fett's helmet. Vincent informed me he didn't want to pose for a photo with his hand in them, which is fine because we all know what pockets are for right? So here he is looking casul with his 'blaster'.

The patch pockets were made from green stretchknit that I had bleach-sprayed a few years ago. I reinforced them with the grey stretch denim to stop them from stretching too weirdly out of shape. I cut up an old maroon cord button-up shirt my dad donated to me {I don't even know how it existed as a thing!} and some black scraps. Using vliesofix I made some cool T shapes to turn them into Boba Fett's helmet! Sort of! I top-stitched the pieces on the pockets, then sewed the back pants pieces together at the centre back seam before positioning the pockets and stitching them down.

We have a pretty massive trampoline, and a gym ball is always left inside it. For some reason Vincent has called this gym ball Chewbacca and he has to wrestle Chewbacca almost every afternoon. It was only fitting then, that as Boba Fett he should wrestle a wookiee.

As you can see, these pants give an awesome skinny-leg look, but are comfortable enough to run and jump and play and wrestle wookiees.

Fun Fact: The bleached out green and the yellow fabrics were originally bought two years ago when I was going to make myself a Boba Fett dress! That never happened, and I started to use the fabrics for other projects. Pretty cool that I ended up using them for a Boba Fett inspired piece anyway!

Get your Hosh Pants pattern here!
Keep an eye on the Emmy Lou Bee Doo blog this week for more Hosh Pant hacks!

My Backpack's got jets

Thank you to our friend Chris who GAVE Vincent that Boba Fett helmet!

May the Fourth Be With You

A very original title for today! Ha. Identical to last year!

 Today is International Star Wars Day and also Free Comic Book Day! Guess where we will be?

Our local library and our local comic book store are combining forces to have a bit of a Star Wars party. It's going to be awesome!

I will be wearing -

{Tutorial here}

Vincent will be wearing -

{Details here!}

And Edison will be wearing -

{Details here}{If I can find it!}

I wanted to make Edison a beanie with Princess Leia buns on the sides but I couldn't find anything brown in my stash or in my reconstruction pile!

Check out last years round-up of all my Star Wars projects & tutorials!

The LITTLE Skater Dress

By now you probably would have read about the Skater Dress by my talented friend Amanda of KitschyCoo, right? The pattern is in sizes 18months to 8 years, which is going to rock - when Edison is that big. In the meantime, guess what Amanda has done?

She has graded the pattern down into two smaller sizes! 6-12 monhs & 12-18months! YES!

It sews up easily, really easily, and I learned A LOT about my sewing machine and it's capabilities toward sewing knit fabrics that I did not know! I sewed up the 6-12month size for Edison who is 9 months {and a size 0 in Australian standards} and I am definitely going to sew this pattern up again. Next time, I will shorten the skirt, since Edison is crawling now and also my personal preference for baby girl dresses is above the knee. I am also going to use the bodice pattern, lengthen it, and use it as a base for Edison's t-shirts in the future!

I didn't use a twin-needle, since I couldn't find mine {need to buy a new one!} but the alternatives Amanda suggests worked REALLY well for me!

The fabric is little scottie dogs on a grey knit and is super super SUPER soft! Similar deal to the lobster knit I received, except this is from The Fabric Fairy. I am definitely going to start buying all my knit fabrics online now, at Girl Charlee and The Fabric Fairy. The quality is so much higher and lovelier than anything local here!

You can get the Little Skater Dress pattern as a free add-on to The Skater Dress pattern, if you have already bought it or if you plan on buying it! I had literally just bought the Skater Dress pattern, since everyone had it {I'm good with peer pressure like that haha}, the night before Amanda sent me the Little Skater Dress to pattern test!

Pattern: Little Skater Dress {see above for details about the add-on}
Notes: In future I will shorten this pattern a few inches to above the knee
Fabric: Scottie Dogs Love from The Fabric Fairy

Thank you Amanda for doing this!

a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away

Edited to Add: Check out girlfriend SewChibi's post for today. We both made Star Wars clothes. We seriously did not plan it. Sew Geeky!

I was a very very lucky little girl when I received a parcel a little while ago all the way from Chibi land. Inside was lots of goodies, including this Star Wars blueprints fabric!

 I made Vincent a pair of Surfers Slacks from them, but I haven't taken a photo of him in them yet! If I was more organised I would have done a little duo shoot of them all matchy matchy but we are on a four day weekend in Brisbane and I forgot to pack his pants. Nice one mum!

With the rest of the fabric, I made Edison a Roly Poly tunic! This cute pattern was designed by Rachael of Imagine Gnats. She's pretty amazing I have discovered.

I've made little tunics similar to this one, but I LOVE this pattern. It's reversible, YES I KNOW RIGHT, and when I added these snaps to the shoulders I discovered I didn't need to add another pair for the other side. I would have done buttons and buttonholes but I couldn't find my buttonhole foot for my machine!

This pattern is ridiculously quick & easy to sew, with a cute little pleat in the centre front! It has inseam pockets, but I ommited them. Also the pattern eliminates the sideseam, but I'm super smart, S-M-R-T, and cut it out in seperate pieces.



I cut the front out of the Star Wars fabric, the back out of some blue tartan and the lining is all blue.

You can nab this pattern for $7.50 this week! Nice one Rachael.