The Beginners Guide to Thrifty Sewing

I love Free patterns, Tutorials and Tips. I love looking, reading, and then doing it my own way. When i first got the sewing bug in 2009, it was due to being pregnant with my second child. I wanted to do something special, because i knew there was no way I'd be taking as many photos of this child as much as I did with our first. So I thought I'd make a quilt, something special, made by me, that meant something and could, hopefully, be kept for a life time. I don't know if that is something a boy will treasure, but that is what I'm offering!

So I looked online for patterns and decided to do a charm patchwork quilt, but I'd do it MY way! I didn't want to follow a pattern (however I did get some great advise on how much fabric I'd need to get what I want, from a wonderful woman from Spotlight!). I went to some fabric shops, I asked for their advice as it was my first quilt. One speciality shop told me I needed to buy a rotary cutter, plastic templates, a cutting board and what ever else they where trying to flog off! I though, I don't need all that! If I have to fork out a huge amount of cash to make this quilt, it's not going to happen. There is no point buying a whole heap of speciality tools, if I find I don't like sewing and never want to do it again, then it would be a waste. I love spending money, but because I'm a Mother, I have to have a really good reason to spend it. So I usually look for the best deal, make do with what i have or repurpose something that I already have.

So my thinking was, I don't need a special ruler, I have a tape measure and a 30cm (12") ruler. That will do fine!

I don't need a rotary cutter and cutting board. I have scissors! 

Now many quilters and sewers are probably laughing their heads off at the moment, shaking their head and saying 'She has to be kidding!'. 

You may say that, or you might be wondering if it's possible, if you are just starting out or thinking you would like to get into sewing, but it seems too hard or too expensive. Well if your wondering if it's possible, read on.

I've been finding lately some very inspiring blogs. They inspire me by, colours, patterns, and blog ideas. Each of these blogs have something to give there readers, and I'm all for giving back to the sewing community and I'd love to be able to inspire others. So I thought what do I do that no one else does, what makes my sewing and creativeness special, that other people might benefit from knowing. It then came to me, I'm thrifty! I make do with what I have, I repurpose and use every little scrap of fabric.

So I want to share, if you want to read, my experience, ideas and thrifty tips.

Don't get me wrong, I don't skimp on quality! In fact I'm all about quality! Why bother making something at all if it's not going to last!  

Now I'm no expert! As I said I've only been sewing since 2009, but I do believe I have something to offer. So stay tuned for little bits and pieces. I don't know how much I have to give at the moment. I have found that reading other peoples blogs and their tips, I have felt compelled to comment with my own tip and have done so.

So let me tell you how and what I started out with.

Sewing Kit

I had a cheap little sewing kit, everybody seems to have. Even my Mum had a sewing kit, you know for repairs, but it seemed whenever something needed repairing it would go in the fifth dimension (linen cupboard) and we would never see it again. However I can't talk too much about that, I love sewing, but really don't like repairing things! Another reason I want to make great quality pieces.   

This sewing kit included a measuring tape, needles, cotton (I don't use this cotton for seam work), seam ripper, and thimble.

You may want to get a better kit then I have, or at least a better thimble. I don't use my thimble, because it's made of plastic! Now I would like to know, who thought it was a good idea to make something that is suppose to stop you forcing a thin metal needle though your finger, out of PLASTIC! However it's not necessary, as I don't use one, but it may save you a puncture, prick or the accessional piecing. I should get a good metal one, one day, as I have been using the back of the TV remote to push the needle though layers of fabric. That is me though, making do!

As I said before I have a 30cm ruler. As I write this I'm currently using it for a quilt I'm making. The strips I'm cutting are the length of selvage to selvage, this particular fabric is 43". The width is 2 1/2" and I'm doing this with my 30cm (12") ruler. I have thought about getting a ruler for quilting, but again it's not imperative!

Scissors

When I started out, I used a pair of scissors from the kitchen draw. Now I'll tell you it wasn't the easiest to cut fabric with, but it did the trick. I have since bought a pack of three scissors from Spotlight for under $10 (I think it was about $8 or it may have been $18, still not expensive). I have a small pair for cutting thread, a medium size pair for cutting paper and a large pair for cutting fabric. I don't use them for anything other than their purpose, so they are good at cutting. Now I'm sure that if I spent a heap of money on a really good pair of scissors, it would feel like I was cutting butter with a hot knife, but I still don't think I'd enjoy cutting anymore. Honestly cutting is my least favourite bit, probably because I just want to skip straight to the sewing.

Now every sewer is going to need scissors, but I was told I'd need a rotary cutter and cutting mat. I do think that they would make life a little quicker and easier, especially if your a quilter or cut a lot of straight lines. Rotary cutters can range a lot in price, so I do think it would probably mean you get what you pay for. I did come across a pack at Spotlight for $20 that includes a rotary cutter and quilters ruler. I have been a bit dubious about buying it, because I just don't know how good the blade will be. I don't know if they are interchangeable with other brands. I will have to investigate, because I if i can change the blade with a better one later, then it might not be a waste of money. Again I don't know if I will like using a rotary cutter, so I don't want to pay a fortune for one. To buy a cutting mat you can easily pay $50 or $100 (for a fair size one that is)! I actually own a cutting mat, it is left over from my traditional scrapbooking days (it was a present). I don't know how much use it would be for cutting fabric though as it's not very big. So I think if you want to invest in one down the track, I'd save up and get the biggest one you can (probably a self healing one). These things are not high on my list of priorities.

Ruler

A sewers measuring tape (from my cheap sewing kit) and a 30cm (12") ruler. It is possible! I will show you how in later posts. There are yard/meter rulers and large quilters rulers you can buy. Ideally I think a yard/meter ruler would be great, because you wont run out of ruler so much when your marking/cutting. It is however another expense and you can do without to start off with, I still have exactly what I started out with. I have been looking a some rulers lately and found one i think would be handy for $20. It comes with a rotary cutter, but the thing I really like is it has a little slit in the ruler so you can mark/cut at the 1/4''. I think that would come in handy. However it's not a overly long ruler.

A4 Paper

I use A4 paper for drawing or tracing patterns. I don't even know how much it would cost for the plastic to make them out of. I just don't see the need. As a designer of soft toys and other wares, I find using A4 paper to make my patterns perfect. You can buy a ream of it pretty cheaply and most people have it for their home printer. Granted a lot of the time I have to stick a few pieces together with sticky tape to get the size I want, and you have to be careful when you are cutting out your fabric that you do not cut your pattern/template. However it folds up for easy storage, there is plenty of it if you make a mistake and it does the job well.

Something to sew with

Now the big question is what are you going to sew with? When I started I didn't own a sewing machine! I didn't until i was given one this year. I still haven't used that one though, as i discovered it only has 2 stitches. I'm currently borrowing one from my Father In-Law!

So the first quilt I made and a lot of other things since are all done by hand! Now you might not want to go as far to save money, you might be thinking if I had to sew by hand, it will never happen. That's ok. Most people I find already own a sewing machine (even if they don't use it), it's a good thing to have to do repairs, I suppose. I have always done any repairs by hand, sewn my Hubby's biscuits and name badges on by hand. I also hated doing all of that and I'm surprised I got into sewing.

I do love making things by hand, sitting on the couch in front of the TV and sewing buy hand. Once the kids go to bed, I'll sit there and sew till the early hours of the morning. True it takes a hell of a lot longer to do and when you stuff something up it takes a long time to correct. Case in point, the quilt I'm working on at the moment has white boards around coloured blocks. I noticed that some of the blocks were not lining up, so last I had to go back and unpicked a long row and resew it. After doing that (at about 2am) I noticed the last block I sewed is off (by a few millimetres), so I will have to unpick that and redo it, because on this quilt it stands out a mile! Hey I'm still learning as I go! When I do finish something by hand though, it means something. You see I'm a Virgo in every sense! I'm a perfectionist! So when I make something I want it to be, well, perfect. So being Artistic and a Perfectionist is hard! Being able to sew my creations by hand in a controlled manner is the best way for me to be both (within reason). There are lots of reasons (some complicated) to why I sew by hand, but the short answer is it feels great to have a finished product that is all by me and being able to show people that.

I will post later a few tips and trick to help with hand sewing later, but simply though, if you don't want to sew by hand, then you will need a sewing machine. You could try and borrow one, rent one, try one and if all else fails buy one. I really can't tell you if it matters how much you spend buying a sewing machine. I do know usually the more you pay the more gadgets it has. If your just starting out though, I'd suggest doing a little research, talking to sewers and buying a cheaper one for now. I think my Father In-Law paid under $200 for the machine I'm using and it's fine. I personally don't see the point of forking out a heap of cash for a top notch sewing machine, if you don't even know what half of the things on it do and what you would use them for. If you buy a cheap one and decide down the track that you love sewing and need a bigger, better one that does more things, then you can always use the first one as a back up, loaner or hand me down.

What did I buy?

There where a few things I had to invest in to start out with.

Tape

I bought masking tape especially designed for sewing. This was invaluable for me as a hand sewer! It would have been pretty difficult to quilt straight lines on the back of my quilt without it. I can eyeball a 1/4" and sew pretty straight, but when I stitched the ditch of my first quilt, I found that the needle doesn't always go though the layers straight. It differently would not have been able to quilt dragonflies without it. I ended up using a paper template on one side and a masking tape template on the other to make sure both sides had a dragonfly and not a complete mess of stitches.

Fabric

Thats pretty much a given. You can't make anything without fabric, but depending on what you want to make, you have some choices.

Second hand or vintage sheets (if they are in good nick). You could have a look in your linen closet or charity shop. There is a great blog that I follow called In Color Order by Jeni who uses vintage sheets in some of her quilting and she also sells them in her Etsy shop Ironsea. I tried looking for some vintage sheets myself, but I haven't had much luck yet (I need to try harder). I am thinking though that America might just has a better range due to it's long history and love of all things fabric. So I would recommed looking at Jeni's shop and her blog especially if you love colour. She always has a beautiful colourful array of vintage fabric to sell and her blog is full of inspiration and information on quilting, colour and fabric. I learnt a lot of helpful things from her Art of Choosing and she also has some tutorials on a heap of different things.

Old clothes. Point in case, my husbands pants had a hole in the crutch, but the rest was in good nick. I found a tutorial on the net to make skinny leg pants for kids out of adult pants, so I turned Daddy's old office pants into pants for my eldest son. He loves them, because they look cool, soft and Mummy made them!

You could also use clothes that the children have grown out of to make a memory quilt. I'm going to be making a quilt for my Father for Christmas. I'm making it out of his old t-shirts, so they are all cars, bikes  and bands.

So you can alter old clothes to make new clothes or cut them up and make something new altogether!

Samples, remnants, off cuts and scraps. I love them, I love them, I love them! I actually buy scraps! I buy them from the USA! There are so many things i can do with scraps and by buying them from overseas, I don't have to spend much on them and I can get a great array of designer fabric. Such as Amy Butler, Heather Bailey, Joel Dewberry and more. I love these designers, but you can't tell from the computer what they truly look like. So the great thing with scraps and such is you get to see the true colour and also feel it.

Not only that but you can make so many things out of scraps. I make softies and because they are for children and babies they are small. There is one thing I'm still working on (so I can't say too much), but it uses my scraps up so well, to the point where I only have a cm or so left. Then I can use those left over scraps to stuff bits of my softies that need a little structure. Such as my Baby Dragon. I stuff it's wings with scraps, to give it shape and it wont hurt the children or babies like wire could.

If you want to quilt and patchwork samples, remnants, off cuts and scraps can be great. I have some Amy Butler and Heather Bailey scraps that I purchased, that I'm making place mats and a table runner.

I also love going thought the remnants bin at Spotlight, you never know what you will find! It really helps to build up a stash. There really is an endless array of things you can make and your only limited by your imagination and execution.

Buying Fabric. As an Australian I know we should buy Australian, but sometimes that means paying a premium. I buy designer fabric from overseas. Buying straight from the US means I pay a lot less. Most fabric designers are in the US and the fabric is made in the US (or shipped straight to the US before going anywhere else) , so buyers in the US don't have to pay anywhere near as much as what we have to. Example: To buy a meter of Amy Butler's fabric in Australia is $20 or more. Now I recently bought 2 yards of Amy Butler's Lotus Wall Flower in Cherry from the US (i shopped around for the best price including postage) for $24.20AU. So 2 yards was $16.50 and $7.70 for postage. There is only one place where I live that stocks Amy Butler and they don't have that one, if I was to buy it on the net from Australia I would still be paying more, trust me I've looked. The only draw back I've found is that it takes weeks to get to me, but it's like Christmas when it does!

The great thing is a lot of suppliers sell there fabric in fat quarters, half yards and any other yard you want. I buy a lot of my fabric on Etsy, there are so many suppliers and they all seem as wonderful as the next, I can't choose just one. I also buy from Hawthorne Threads which have one of the best websites I have seen.

Thread

Not overly expensive. I personal buy Hand Quilters 100% Cotton Thread. I use it in the machine, softies, quilts, pretty much everything. You can start out with one reel, you may want a few in different colours or you might like just one or two (maybe black and white). I currently have 2 different greens, 1 red, 1 blue, 1 white 1 black and 1 grey in my quilting thread. Plus a heap of black basic thread for repairs to clothes, and whatever is in my cheap little sewing kit. However this is such a cheap expense as they tend to last me a long time, so I would put it down as a justifiable luxury!

Batting 

A given if you want to quilt. Although I have heard of people using flannel instead of store bought batting. I do believe there are a few other alternatives if you are willing to search. The reason I haven't gone down that path of thriftyness is because of allergies. I just feel better knowing there is a new 100% cotton batting in my quilts and I'm willing to pay for that, but I'll still get the cheapest one I can from Spotlight. You see I don't want to pay shipping on batting (just to much) and there isn't anywhere else in town for me to buy it.

Hobby fill (stuffing)

I'm currently buying my stuffing from Spotlight, although there is a eco version I've been thinking of trying, but as their smallest pack is 5kg, it's a lot to fork out. When I really get into sewing and selling my softies I'll give it a go.

What have I bought since?

There are a few other little things I have in my kit now that I didn't when I started out.

A pincushion

Not necessary unless your other half refuses to go near you because you have pins stuck in your clothes! You can use the lounge, a actual cushion, your pants leg, sleeve, or the container they came in. Or it could be one of the first things you sew. I sewed mine this year.

A sewing table

Mine is a old dressing table I have had since I was a little girl with a $3 stool that is unfortunately still to high to sit with my legs underneath it. I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could find something that would fit, I just don't sit there enough yet for it to bother me. I just have to say I do love the idea of using a old piece of furniture, because you could get creative with it and make your little sewing corner, space or room something really special and inspirational! I love the idea of covering my dressing table with fabric (like decoupage) or painting it robin egg blue/green. sigh.....

Sewing box

My cheap little sewing kit comes in a little plastic container and holds pretty much only what was supplied in it. I was lucky enough to received a gorgeous sewing box from my husband and sons for Mothers Day this year. It's wonderful! It has spaces for my cotton reels, a tray with three compartments that comes out and space underneath it for more! I love it, because they made it and I can keep all my sewing things at hand.

A draw or two, cupboard or shoe box would do fine to start out with.

So there may be a few other little bits and pieces I may have left out, I don't know. If so they are probable not important or they are crucial and I just thought they were a given. I do hope to add to this later, so if you have any comments, questions or something to add, please feel free to email me or comment below. I'd love to here from you!

If you find this helpful and wish to show others you are welcome to add my button to your blog.

I hope you enjoy your Thrifty Sewing!

Leacena (aka Mother Dragon)

Working progress

So since last post I've had my birthday, my brother and his wife, children and dog visited for two nights, I donated plasma, finally got health cover, celebrated my husbands birthday + Father's Day (Yah I was finally able to give him his work bench and tool chest!), sewn and received two deliveries of fabric. 

The first lot of fabric was scraps from thesplitstitch. It included a lot of pieces of Amy Butler's Love and Soul Blossom Collections. I've been wanting a sample of quite a few of these (or pretty much anything Amy Butler!) and I'm so happy to see the real colours. The monitor/photos really doesn't do justice to some of them. Amy Butler's Love Sandlewood Turquoise for one, on the monitor it looks very acidic, but up close and personal, it's as lovely as I hoped it was going to be. The same goes for Love Bliss Bouquet Teal.

The second lot of fabric from beyondweddings, I thought would never get here (Due to postal services, not the supplier). Then it arrived yesterday. As alway, I went out to the mail box hoping it would be there, but then saying to myself, before I open it, it wont be there. That seems to work, because it was there! I'm not sure if I let out my excitement at the mailbox, but I do know when I get back into the house I let out a squeal of excitement and said 'My fabric is here, my fabric is her!'. Sometimes I sing "I'm so excited!"

So here are some pics of of the fabulous 2 yards of Amy Butler Lotus Wall Flower in Cherry that I bought especially for the back of my It's a Hoot Quilt. 

I do have to say again, the monitor/photo, doesn't do this justice. It looks white and red, it's actually more a off white/beige and (cherry is not a very descriptive colour, because it makes me think of deep red cherries, this is more a glazed cherry) a pinky red. That's my best shot of describing it. With these colours it almost has a natural look to it. I love it!

Next is some pictures of my It's a Hoot quilt top, it's a working progress.

I keep going back and forth of how I'm going to quilt it. I bought the Amy Butler Lotus Wall Flower in Cherry, because I thought that i could quilt around the pattern. I'm thinking this will take a long time to do by hand. I have also thought about quilting the Wall Flower pattern on just the white bits of the quilt top. Then I thought maybe just quilt 1/4" out from the lines of the quilt top. Originally I wanted to do a meandering continuous stitch or something really different like a tree and other things till it was quilted all over. However I think at this point of my life (having young two children at home), I don't have the patience or inclination to take on such a huge task.
Isn't enough I'm doing it by hand! That last statement is for myself. I would really love to be more artistic, but I also have to do this quilt and move on, back to making things for my Etsy store.
So if you have an opinion on quilting this, I'd love to hear it.

This is one more thing I have been doing since my last post that I wished to tell you a about. A couple of nights ago I was struck with a epiphany. A way for me to give back a little to the sewing community or future sewing community, what ever the case may be. I'm still working on it at the moment, but I hope to have something for you soon. So stay tuned.

As I write this post, my youngest son (he doesn't talk yet), came up to me and tapped me to get my attention and then pointed towards the hall, so I followed him (what is it Lassie, has Timmy fallen down the well, lol). He stops at the door to his room, so I opened it, we go inside and he walks up to his change table and stops. He wanted me to change his bum! I think that is just SO clever of him!
I better go now, but keep a look out for my next post.

Happy Birthday to............me!

I was nicely woken for the second time this morning to a phone call from my Dad and Step Mum. With the combination of that and the dream I was having about a friend that died a few years back, i couldn't go back to sleep. In my dream my friend was just about to tell me why he didn't actually die, when I was woken the first time by my gorgeous Husband, who wished me a Happy Birthday before he went to work. 

Have you ever woken from a dream and went straight back to sleep hoping you can continue the dream where you left off?

I tried, but it didn't work :-(

So it looks like it's going to one of those days! Eythan is a wonderful sleeper! However he woke up only a few minutes after the phone call and was crying! This is SO rare! 

So a much earlier start today and not even time to lay in bed and wake up. Oh well.

I was a lucky girl last night, I got one of presents early! My hubby listened to me and bought me the bookcase I showed him. It's only purpose is to house and display my fabrics! 

Yum! 

This is my sewing area by the way, but as you all know i don't do much sewing there. I usually sit on the lounge. Can you blame me!? Have a look at the seat and then the bottom of my sewing desk/old dresser! I think I be asking for a sewing desk for Christmas from Santa lol!

You can also see in the picture bits of the It's a Hoot quilt lying over the awesome sewing box my husband made me for Mother's Day. Also on the sewing machine cover in the middle of the desk, is a place mat I'm in the middle of. I will have to show you more of these a bit later.

I had to tell you about the last lot of fabric I got in the mail. I ordered a heap of Heather Bailey and Amy Butler (at last! My first lot of Amy Butler fabric, I have only been wanting some for ages!) scraps! i purchased them from imaginefabric. I was so rapped with them and that is what I'm using in my place mats. Here is a little pic of them.

You might (probably not) be wondering why I haven't posted for awhile (ages)? Well there is no good reason. I've been working on presents, my It's a Hoot quilt and anything else non- business related. I'm just not feeling inspired Mother Dragon Creations wise. Although I do have ideas galore! It seems like I'm always making something for someone else (manly presents) and I'm hoping once I've made a few things for us, I can get back to work.

My eldest son finally wished me a happy birthday at about 10am. He is 5, so it's ok. He remembered his Aunty, Uncle and the twins are coming to stay today and he had commented on the early "present" I got last night, but he hadn't twigged that today is my birthday! He was watching TV and someone said it was Wednesday, and I couldn't wait any longer. I asked him what else was today? So he said the day his Uncle, Aunty, the twins and there dog where coming to stay! Yes I say, but what is special about today? Um......It's winter! he says. i give up, so I told him it's my birthday. He runs off and does something and comes back a bit later. "So do you have something you want to say to me? "Oh yes Mummy, Happy Birthday!".

Finally!!! He woke up today talking pretty much non stop, but couldn't remember the one thing he needed to say. Oh well, better luck next year son!

i better go set up the portable cots in the spare room, so i better go for now. I will try not to leave you for long this time. 

Leacena

Birthdays, Birthdays and more Birthdays!

Wow! It's been awhile, I know. I have been super busy, making birthday presents! After Red Granny Dragon's Birthday, then it was my Dad's. I never know what to buy men, and because I'm trying to make presents at the moment, I decided to make him a note book cover too. Man use note book too don't they?

Oh well, I decided to make him one and man it up! I designed this one as well, it's different to the last one. 

Sorry about the photo, I had to take it at night.

I worked the GT badge into his name. If nothing else he loved that part. His own little logo!
I also made another one of these in the Patricia Bravo material, that I have been using lately. That one was for my Sister In-Law. I didn't remember to take photos of that one :-(

While I have been doing all this, I have also been making things for my eldest son's birthday. We had his party yesterday. Everything has been working up to then, designing during the day, very, very late nights sewing. I had to put my new design on hold and work on by son's gifts. Although it's wonderful that while designing something especially for my son, I think I have come across a new line for my business.
Masks! A Fox Mask!

I recently was inspired by a fox hat we bought for our son from Etsy for his birthday. I fell in love with it and wanted to get my son into pretending to be a fox. He loves animals, he loves dressing up and he loves pretending. His latest thing has been frogs. However it is hard to find a good frog costume or mask, because it just looks like the frog is swallowing the child to me! Lol. So I can't bring myself to buying any frog stuff. Before you think I'm a horrible Mother, he has the following costumes, Iron Man, Bumble Bee, Optimus Prime, Sporticus, Speed Racer, Superman, St George Dragon (sadly the last two no longer fit him). So he is not deprived in anyway and no I didn't buy them all for him, so I don't spoil him either.
I did make a frog mask. The idea I think was good, however I'm not overly happy with the execution of it, so I'm not showing a photo of it. My son likes it though and I'll work on the design another day.

Now I'm working on a Drawing, activity, notebook cover with a place for pencils (another design of mine) for my Son's Birthday. I hope I can get it done in time!
I then have to make my Nephew a hat for his Birthday. He is two days younger then my eldest! We all had our children close together!


After that I can work on my Niece's Birthday present for next month. Finally I get to make something pretty and famine! And what better thing to make a little girl, then a Tutu! When I was out shopping with Red Granny Dragon Saturday last week, I bought some beautiful pink, and cream (black as well, but that for a different one) coloured tulle like fabric (it's much softer then most tulle, I hate the ruff stuff) and some gorgeous coloured ribbon to make the Tutu. I can't wait!

I bought some business cards the other week and they are on there way. I can't wait to see what they turn out like!

Well I must go now, sew much to do, sew little time (sorry for the sad pun)!

Leacena

I've Been Busy!

I've been busy!

I did forget to mention last week that I made a pincushion for my father in-law for his birthday. I used yellow and blue felt, Parramatta Eel's colours. He said he like it and that he needed a new pincushion (yes he sews!). I made my own pattern, cause it's not hard! It did turn out rather big though, he will probably be able to stick every pin he owns in it!

Next I made myself a pincushion, yah! Finally!!! My husband is pleased that I no longer use my pants, or the couch as one. I did use a free pattern I found online.

It's called Square Deal Pincushion by Heather Bailey. I don't know why, I used a pattern, it wasn't exactly the easy way for me. The reason being that I don't have a good printer, nor does it have any ink in it (I've given up on it!). So I (I can't help but laugh at this myself!), had my ruler against the monitor, measuring the pattern! LOL! I never do things the easy way, even when I do use a pattern! 

Next I made a notebook cover for Red Granny Dragon Birthday. 

This one is a design of my own. Again, not too difficult. I really enjoyed making this. Not only was it finished in one day (I sewed it by hand), I didn't have to stuff it! 

I don't know about you, but I'm see a pattern here. Yeah I made both of these items in my latest fabric delivery from Hawthorne Threads. Bazaar Style Exotic Flora in Deep and Lace Elements in Plum by Patricia Bravo. I'm loving this fabric, if you can't tell. 

I also finished the Baby Dragon for Sam.

As you can see I have changed the eyes slightly as some people thought the last one had white pupils. What I'm trying to achieve is refection of light on a large black iris, in other words, big puppy dog eyes. I  think this version achieves this and they just cry out to you "Pick me up! I want cuddles."   

I'm loving seeing my logo stitched into my work.

At this time I don't know when I'll be starting on my next Baby Dragon. As I have a fair few more things to make for Birthday presents this month, and a new pattern to design, so I better get to it!

Take Care

Leacena 

Fly Dragon Fly!

I've just gotten back from the post office. The Baby Dragon is on his way to America! Flying of course. He should arrive sometime next week.

If that wasn't exciting enough (exciting for me and my eldest son, anyway), my fabric arrived today!

This is Exotic Flora in Deep from Bazaar Style by Patricia Bravo and Lace Elements in Plum.

I can't wait to see what it will look like, when I make my next Baby Dragon, using it. What do you think?

Well just a quick post today to share the news. I better go feed my boys and get them to bed for a nap. Then get to work sewing! :-)

Take care

Leacena

Bye Bye Baby

I woke today to my first sale on Etsy! Yes, the first Baby Dragon in the Lizzy House - Castle Peeps fabric, listed on Etsy has been sold. I'll be shipping him off to the US this week! I hope he is loved as much, if not more, then I loved making him.

I'm currently in the middle (hopefully closer to the end) of make another one in the same fabric, for Sam. I hope to be finished sometime next week.

I'm also whipping up a quick birthday present for my Father In-Law. His birthday sort of starts off the long list of birthdays for June (although his is the end of May). I have five family member having birthdays next month! That's just my family!

I thought i would have been writing my blog on Friday, but sadly my fabric didn't arrive, so hopefully it will be here on Monday. 

Although I was quite happy, just after I published my last blog, I receive a free bunch of large upholstery samples! Score!! 

I don't know what i'll do with it all yet, but I'm thinking, maybe a cushion out of the green one?!       

I did feel a bit guilty this afternoon for having a nap (instead of sewing), but seeing as I woke up with a idea for a new Softie, I don't feel so bad. Now I just need sometime to work on it.

Well I have to go and finish off the present for my Father In-law.

Speak to you again soon.

A good week

Hello all! I hope you are all well and have a good week since I last posted. I know I have! It really helps being able to write down all the good things, so I know I did have a good week.
A bit has happened since then. Firstly, I have my first order for a Baby Dragon! My lovely brand new friend Sam has ordered one as a special gift for her third baby. Lucky Baby! My own sons don't even have one yet, but I do and they keep playing with it! Lol!
I just meet Sam the other week, online though connect2mums, she has a online business called Beautiful Fairy. They make personalised memory albums, greeting cards, wall art and more! Beautiful Fairy is a great name for their business, because the work they do looks like what a Beautiful Fairy would do! They can take a photo of your beautiful bundle of joy and make it into a work of art! Here is an example of one of their pages.

Isn't it beautiful! It's so bright, soft and sweet. I know like me, you'd love to be able to open a beautiful bound book and see your little one in a gorgeous page like this one! Go check out there site, it is well worth a visit.

I was pretty excited to receive my fabric labels in the mail yesterday. I love them! It's awesome being able to see my logo on fabric! I can't wait to sew one in a Baby Dragon!

I purchased them from Sasha at Tags & Labels Etsy Shop. She also makes stickers, business cards and other such things. Sasha is a busy little bee as this is only one of three shops she runs!

Saturday I got to escape! I left the boys with my Hubby and went shopping with my Mother Dragon, Red Granny Dragon. She wore me out! Damn that woman can shop! The shops closed before we were finished. 

Here is a pic of something my Mother Dragon bought me.

An M with a Dragon on it. How appropriate. I love having an alias!  

So my fabric delivery hasn't arrived yet, but I'm expecting it sometime this week. So I'll probable post some pics when it arrives. I don't know if I'll be taking photos of it in the washing machine this time.

There was also a very precious delivery on the Thursday of last week. My friends Toni and Gareth had a little boy and called him Alex. He is a long awaited addition to their family, and I'm just over joyed for them! It seemed like her pregnancy went on forever, but that is just because I was just so excited and couldn't wait for the birth. I'm enjoying looking at photos of him online, and hope I can meet him one day soon. Congratulations Toni and Gareth, you did a great job, he is gorgeous! 

Well I think that will about do it today. I'm sure I'll be posting again soon.

Take care

Mother Dragon

A lovely way to spend a Saturday

I learned yesterday, that I couldn't rely on my Blogspot to sell my goods. It was down on Friday (read only) and then they took recent posts off to fix a problem. Then they said they were restoring the posts they removed. However  when I checked it yesterday something was still missing and it still is today. Oh well!

So I spent a good part of yesterday opening My Etsy Shop and dressing it up.
My Etsy Shop was open for about an hour when I got a message from Danielle from Alphabet Emporium. She had listed my Baby Dragon in her Five Gifts to Give or Get on her site http://alphabetemporium.tumblr.com/post/5471715968/five-friday-gifts-to-give-or-get
Danni also gave me some wonderful advise about starting out on Etsy and making my business grow. Your a wonderful, thoughtful woman and I thank you again for your wisdom and caring.
You made my day!

I also did some shopping! <3
I put in a order for some custom fabric tags for my creations. Which will look a little like this.

I ordered some more beautiful fabric from Hawthorne Threads. I have a couple of things planed for these.

This is Patricia Bravo's Bazaar Style Exotic Flora in Deep.

This is Patricia Bravo's Lace Elements in Plum.

Gorgeous aren't they! I've seen some pictures of these fabrics used in quilts and clothes. Thanks to Hawthorne Threads great website! The colours look a lot brighter in those, so I'm so excited to see them up close!

I also made a quick trip to Spotlight, however I'm sure my husband would try and say different! There I got some much needed filling, some of my favourite coloured thread (green!)

and some beautiful, vibrant coloured felt! The colour in this photo is good, however the true colour is so more vibrate in the turquoise.

I can't wait to use them all!

So I'm hoping at some point today to start cutting and sewing my newest design. Well I made one before, but I've thought of some changes I'd like to make. I never like making things simple! It's a small design, but it has a lot of detail. I made the first one for my son over a year ago now and it still looks great, if I do say so myself! Lol!

So take care!

Mother Dragon

Launch Day Part 2

Here it is! I don't know about you, but I have been waiting for what feels like forever to launch this.
Introducing! (Drum roll)
Mother Dragon Creations Baby Dragon.

My Baby Dragons Measure approx. 16" or 41cm tall.

This particular Drake has been made with Lizzy House Castle Peeps Fabric. I love how the fabric makes it look like the dragon has scales all over his body. The castle pattern, I thought, was some what appropriate on a Medieval Dragon. 

My Baby Dragons are machine and hand stitched with quilter thread, high quality cotton fabric and stuffed with polyester filling.

The wings have been stuffed with cotton fabric off cuts from past projects. It gives the wings some stiffness and wont poke or hurt your child if they wish to sleep with it in their bed.

The arms, legs, head, wings and scales have been stitched in the seams twice to give it extra strength to help withstand the punishment it will surely receive from children.

Mother Dragon Creations Baby Dragons are $45.00 plus $8.05 postage.

I hope you love him as much as the our Dragon Family does.

Please note he will go on sale at 6:30pm this evening. There is only one at this time, so make sure your ready and waiting, button poised, at http://motherdragoncreations.blogspot.com/p/shop

Good luck

Mother Dragon

Launch Day!

Hello!
Welcome to the Mother Dragon Creations Launch Day! I have completed my first Softie for sale! I have two teasers for you now and at 1:30pm I'll be posting the full photos.
At 6:30pm tonight I'll be listing it for sale in my shop http://motherdragoncreations.blogspot.com/p/shop.html
I only have one for sale at this time, but I hope to have more for you soon. So it's first in, best dressed.

So here is Teaser number one.

And Teaser number two.

I'll be back at 1:30pm with full photos for you all.

Mother Dragon

What a wonderful day

What a exciting day! Firstly my wonderful Sister In-law helped me by putting the word out about my Facebook Page. Now I have 35 likers and because I have over 25 I now have my own username. So if anyone wants to have a look and maybe like my page :-) you can go to http://www.facebook.com/motherdragoncreations

Secondly.
The fabric I ordered is here!!!! It feels like Christmas! I've have taken heaps of photos of them already, even while they were in the washing machine! (embarrassed look) Can you tell I'm excited?!

So finally I have something to show you! Here's a little teaser.

So I tried Zig Zag stitch on the cut edges to stop it from fraying. As you can see below, it worked rather well.

A cold hand wash in the front loader with a NP fabric detergent (which i always use) and a extra rinse.

I put them in the dryer, because it softens them up without having to use fabric softer (I think the less fragrances and cleaners the better).

Then I ironed.

Which has never been a family favorite! Growing up at home, if my Mum got the iron out, we got the camera, because it was a really rare site, The Domesticated Mother! Lol! Same was done with the sewing machine. If something ever needed repairing it went in the Fifth Domination, also known as the linen cabinet, and was never heard of again!
Funny enough the same goes with me! Lol! My husband irons he's own clothes, i buy clothes i don't have to iron (definitely a trait i got from my Mum). It bewilders me, people that iron everything including underwear!?
I hate repairing things, which means when I sew something from scratch, I aim to make it last!

However! I liked ironing this fabric!
Note to self: Buy an ironing board already! It will make life easier! A new iron wouldn't hurt either.

I don't know about anybody else, and your probably going to ask me, why I do any of this, but I don't really like cutting out the pieces! It would be nice to leave the beautiful fabric all folded up in a lovely colourful pile, but I enjoy the sewing (especially by hand!) and the completion too much! It's just so time consuming (I want to sew and I want to sew now!) and a little worrying, because most of the time I'm trying one of my own designs and I'm still new to this sewing thing, and I don't want to waste beautiful fabric!

However I have tried out my design on some old pillow material and if it can look good with that, it should look wonderful in this!

So you should hear from me again very soon! In the mean time I'll should be kept very busy.

Take care
Mother Dragon

Extra Long Weekend

I hope you had a wonderful Easter! We have had a good one, although with the extra long weekend due to ANZAC day, it's still going. Our eldest has had it very good this year. He has been to the Circus with his Oma and Opa, camping with his Father and  LOTS of Easter eggs! I think he has loved being able to eat a lot of it at just about any time he chooses, but I think the no chocolate before midday rule will have to go back into place tomorrow. Sadly things do have to go back to normal sometime.

I have done all I'm going to do on prototype two. There is no point in finishing it, because it was just to check the changes i made to the pattern, which I'm very happy with. Now I'm just waiting on the fabric to get here. It would have been nice if it arrived before Easter, but i have so much to do anyway, I'm not too disappointed. 

I started a new design on Easter Sunday and worked on it till the early hours of the morning (I'm always up then anyway). It's a Bunny and it's something I've wanted to do for awhile now. I tried looking for a pattern ages ago, but I just couldn't find what I was looking for. As usual, I hope I get it right the first time! 

I currently have three designs in the works. It seems now every time I want to make something it has to be from scratch. That way it's mine and I have no problems selling it. I can't wait to have something to show, something to sell. Overall get some sort of reaction to it.
Well better go for now. 
Take care all and enjoy the rest of your break.

Welcome to my new Blog!

Welcome to my new Blog! I originally started this blog for Scrapbooking, but a lot has changed since then, and a lot of time has gone by. So I thought, out with old and in with the new. I do hope to come back to it now and then, but this blog is dedicated to my new love...... sewing.

When I was pregnant with our second child, I got this strong urge to sew. I have always been artistically inclined, but I hadn't done any sewing since high school and all I made then was a hanging bag for plastic bags (which my Mum still uses today, Awww!). The only other time i tried to sew something, i think i was in primary school and i sewed a top. Which was basically a piece of straight material that wrapped around that did up with lots of eye hooks at the front and straight straps over the shoulders. So when I had a urge to sew a patchwork quilt, it was a little daunting, but I loved it! I love sewing even though back then, as well as today, I have to do things the hard way. I didn't want to trying binding, I thought, at the time it was a bit beyond me, but it would have been easier just to do it. I didn't have a pattern, but really, how hard is a square patchwork quilt to make. When it came to quilting I stitched in the ditch and then stitched dragonflies on 9 squares. I probably should say at this point that I didn't use a sewing a sewing machine. I love to sew by hand and was very, very reluctant to use a sewing machine. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago (before I wrote this) that I familiarized myself with a sewing machine again. With a little help from my Father In-law (thanks for your instructions and the use of one of your sewing machines) and YouTube, I finally got the basics of driving it sorted.

So between the quilt and now I have made lots of different thing and I'm working on my own designs and hope it won't be long before I can list them here for sale. Softies (Soft toys) will be the main feature, I'm currently working on the second prototype and am awaiting a fabric deliver to make the first batch.

So I hope to Blog to you soon. Take care.

Here is a picture taken last year of my cheeky little man, modeling on the quilt I made him.