Loxie decisions + inspiration

Hello everyone, meet Pia.

She is the newest little sweetie in my Little Loxies range. She was made using red dress-making offcuts and (another!) old Japanese cotton skirt of mine.

Thank you for all your comments on my last post, helping me come to a decision on my 'Dashie' designs - it was really good hearing your thoughts :)

As you can see, I went with the 4-legged Dashie as I think it is more true to my original inspiration, but also reflects how little people see the world. (Unfortunately this kiddie quirkiness is so easily lost). I tweaked the design yet again to separate the legs into two lots of two.

Well, I'm quite pleased with this little cutie, and my new 'Dashie' pattern. I am hoping to put it into pdf format so that I can share it on my blog ... stay tuned!

Little Pia and her pink friend (from the previous post) are making their way over to my LittleJellygnite etsy shop to hang out with all the other LittleLoxies.

And while we're on the topic of my LittleLoxies, here's another drawing done yesterday by my boy - I just love the giraffe's face (and yes, our 'magna doodle' is looking a little worse for wear with those grey splodges on it!) ... I'm thinking this one could be a new LittleLoxie design too!


Finally, head over to ReRead's blog. Hayley is giving away another of her gorgeous brooches - check it out!! I know these brooches are wonderful as I own my very own - a cute little deer (that my students love!) - that I bought at our Christmas BrisStyle markets last year.
Head on over to Hayley's blog for a chance to win!


Have a happy weekend :)

New Little Loxie

Meet 'Dashie', he is the newest addition to my Little Loxies. He's a little sausage dog based on one of my son's drawings.


Here is 'Dashie markI'. This one is made using an old skirt of mine and some of my grandma's ricrac. He has found his way under my little girl's arm most of the time, or tangled in her bed!



And here is 'Dashie mark II'. This one is made using a vintage sheet and stripey scraps. I felt I needed to make a few little adjustments to make it look more like a dog and less like a rat/marsupial mouse/possum (?). I took the two middle legs out (which makes it heaps easier to stuff!), made the tail 'flappy' - not stuffed as part of the main body, and 'streamlined' some of the lumps and bumps.


Now, I have a problem ... I'm not sure which one I like better or which one looks better ... Can you help me? I love the basic shape of him (perfect, as I said for underarm-cuddles), but just not sure on the finer details.


I'd love to hear what you think!

Handmade Book Swap #6

Yesterday I received my book for the 6th BEST Book Swap. It was all the way from Bonn, via Canada to my door! My book, well, two books actually, were made by Hilke from Buechertiger . They are so stylish and lovely. The books are quite small (which I love!); the biggest one fits in the palm of my hand!


BEST is the etsy street team of book binders; we have been having swaps every three months and I've participated in every one of them. I love the idea of making a new book (usually something I haven't made before) and then packaging it up for it's journey! The book I made this time was Japanese stab- bound with the covers covered in 1940's wallpaper with a little peep-hole in the front. (I made one similar to this, but smaller for our recent BrisStyle 'lucky-dip')


You can see the rest of the lovely books from the 6th swap at the BEST bookbinders blog.

Happy Friday everyone!

Market Community

Today was the first St William's market for the year and it was lovely. I love the community - it really is like a little social outing as well as a market. It was nice to see the ladies on the cafe again (my table just happens to be right next to the food :) - my little market helper loves this fact!) as well as regular and new sellers. I was also pleased to discover that a woman had visited the markets becasue she had read about them on the BrisStyle blog! (yay!)


My Little Loxies had their first market outing today; they were extremely well-behaved and procured smiles from passers-by. These little cuties, Susie and Beau blew kisses goodbye and went along happily having found their new homes.

Back to the fabric stash to make some more me-thinks! :)

Re-Fashionable

Being a thrifty kind of a gal and loving all things related to up-cycling, re-using, re-fashioning .... I recently bought two dresses for myself from an op shop. They were crazy prices - $2.50 for one, and $3 for the other!! I decided that I didn't need to try them on; they looked like they would fit, and for the price, I wasn't that worried!

Well, the lovely red, pink and black spotted one (which is a little shift dress, 60s style) fitted like a dream and I added a little ribbon belt with button closure. Lovely.

The second one, a black and white 'mod-looking' creation, alas, was a little 'firm' around the bottom/hips area. I have been enjoying reading the Wardrobe Refashion Blog (and BeckyBean's recently "new" dress!) as well as trying my hand at other re-fashioned bits and pieces, so ... not wanting to waste my $2.50, or some pretty stylish fabric (not to mention a lovely invisible zipper!) I got to work re-fashioning it from a ladies size 10 to a little girl's size 2. Fun.

I cut off the hem first which went to creating the shoulder straps. The original dress had a pleated high waist with side 'tabs' so I cut off the bodice and put a big pleat in the skirt so that the tabs overlapped (just the right size to fit around Emi's chest) and finished with a button. My stash of ric rac came in handy to add wiggly details to the straps and hem.

Because of the thickness of the fabric, it's ended up quite 'chunky' around the chest, but I'm really pleased with the overall result!


Someone looks happy with her new dress! (Dolly likes it too!)

Tomorrow is the first St William's Craft Markets for the year so I'll have to put my refashioning on hold for a little while!!
Come along if you're in the area!
St William's Church, Dawson Pde, Grovely 8am -12pm

New Threads from Old

My previous post showed a half finished dress on my work table. Here's the finished result - I love it! (... the dress, not the photo!)


I used Simplicity pattern 4675 and after adjusting it in the bodice, it fits perfectly! I decorated the drop waist with some vintage Japanese ricrac - which I am really loving at the moment; a whole bundle of it was given to me by my aunty recently. The vintage fabric was so lovely to work with - such lovely polished cotton. Thank you to Donna who so thoughtfully passed it my way! :D

Another new thing that got made was this little half circle skirt for my girl. (It pushed into the 'to-do' queue leaving the other things still waiting!) It's made out of re-purposed fairy fabric, old fitted sheet fold-over elastic and trimmed with cotton lace at the hem. (the thing in the right of the pic is a cardboard box elephant, made by my busy boy!)

Ah, the happiness of re-purposing and re-inventing old things new again! :)