Skirt making

Recently Brid and I have been sewing and creating. She has been making presents for Fathers Day and I have been Embroidering. My Nanna taught me to embroider as an early teen.
This began to inspire me to finish off making Brids' skirts. I found a lovely pattern that suits my slightly built darling a few months ago, and it never ceases to amaze me how good it looks on her. I have made a couple of skirts from this pattern.

this one looks heavy, but its very light and so pretty on.

As most are aware it is very hard to locate modest wear. The only real alternative is to sew. So what I did was convert 3 dresses that I couldn't give away as they were gorgeous, into skirts. I have been avoiding this, as I didn't want to make a mistake. So led by inspiration, I have now completed them all.

This was the easiest to alter, and it gave me confidence to tackle the next two

I just cut the bodice and used it to make the waistband

So now we have 3 fresh skirts ready for spring and summer.

I'm a little surpised

Lately we have been teaching Brid new skills; such as cooking, sewing and ironing. She has adapted to them very well- apart from having a careful fear of the heat of the iron.
Our homeschool community is going to Tocal Homestead, for an old fashioned day. The girls have decided to dress up for the occasion, so today we had friends over so the girls could make little bonnets under our supervision.
The girls cut and pinned there fabric and then one at a time sewed on the machine, whilst the boys just played, and we loosely kept an ear and eye on there project.
I was rather delighted to watch the items come together. The girls were taught some finer points of sewing, and also some that we just made up as we went along.
We got the bonnets nearly finished before heading off to our weekly homeschool event.
This evening Brid continued her project. She has made another apron to go with the whole colonial theme. She has made it from scratch, with very little assistance from me.
All I could hear tonight was the sewing machine going rather fast. it rather surprised me.
I was delighted with her efforts.
Can't wait to see them all dressed for the occasion next week.

We are ready

Completed Quilt.

. On the Machine, nearing completion.

Quilt in bits, it just looks like it is complete.

Now read the happenings

Our Grocery shopping is done, gifts purchased and wrapped. Brid's Christmas craft projects complete and wrapped, next batch of cooking done, Our hearts are so ready.

We will go to Confession tomorrow.

The last few weeks, I have been working on a special project of my own, for Kristie, as you can see from above. Many years ago I made Louise a quilt for her birthday, but never got around to making one for Kristie. Soooo......I made one for her for Christmas. She's a bit of 'greeny', and doesn't really like commercialism, so this is a good present for her.

We were all working together to finish it, because I ran out of time. Dermot was on the cutting station, and Brid was what we call in the Operating Theatres the "scout"- or runner.

Louise dropped in today, and she was on the ' I need a womens' view' station. She somehow liked that.

Now I can relax and enjoy some well deserved rest.

Crafty Brid

We have had a lot of well deserved craft fun this week. So again while Christmas carols playing, and Brid encouraging me to harmonise with her we started ...... this.....

Brid has been gathering craft ideas over the last few weeks. With ideas flowing back and forth between us, soooo in between readers, Advent lapbooking, we have been secretly ssshhh! been getting Brids' Christmas presents together.
She is painting plywood discs to put pictures on for each family member, wrapping them and putting them away in a secret hiding place.

The SEWING BUG-
I like 'doing' sewing from my head, let me rephrase, I rarely use patterns, which gets me into trouble when I am teaching an eager beaver, like Brid to sew. Yesterday, she made an apron, and we made it up as we went along. But it looks wonderful, and guess what Brid did 90% by herself, just me sitting next to her explaining how to move her fingers with the sewing machine.

Christmas Dress:
Brid picked out some material for her Christmas dress, so we will tackle that next week.

Skirt, first of many:-
SO along with my pattern and idea in my head- I made Brid a skirt, UUmm from another skirt, just lengthtened it. altered it along the way, and found a little frill for the hemline. Her Skirt is above- she wore it proudly to Mass today.
So here as you see are the photos as promised.