Pattern Testing Day

Yesterday I pattern tested the October block pattern for my Eye Spy Adventures BOM. A cute birthday cupcake.

Upcycle Project

This is simple skirt number 4 in as many weeks. Again this project was an upcycle, the fabric was harvested from a cotton doona/duvet cover that I bought in an op/thrift shop for about $5.  

Bargain Buy $5

I am in love with print matched front pockets, so handy and easy.

I'm living in the other three skirts I've made so far, so it's great to have another one ready to wear! I wear these with a simple tshirt and it's a terrific Spring vibe (yes it's Spring here in Australia ATM 🌏).

FYI I'm working on a quick free printable tutorial for this type of simple elastic waisted skirt.

They are terrific for the beach! 

Simple Skirt Upcycle Project

I love to upcycle old fabric items such as sheets and doona (duvet) covers. Today I whipped up a quick skirt: 

The black on white print of Australian animals caught my eye and I couldn't resist it for a few dollars in a charity shop. It was originally a single doona cover.
The skirt only took about an hour to make. It has an elastic waistband for comfort and only one French Seam in the back.

I also added a faux drawstring just so I easily know where the front centre is when I'm dressing. 

To make it more practical for everyday wear I added a cell phone pocket to the front right but I print matched it so it's camouflaged. 

This only used about half of the animal  print fabric and the other side of the doona cover was white, so there's plenty of leftover fabric for other projects. 

And then to de-stash a few leftover HSTs from a project 4 or 5 years ago I whipped up a quick dribble catcher to pop under our dogs water dish. 

So I was only in the studio for a couple of hours but it felt quite productive. 

Productivity

Productivity doesn't always mean working on a cute project. Yesterday I spent some time winding bobbins with scrappy thread reel leftovers:

But look at that 15 bobbins ready to use! Just from the reel ends of three reels.

This habit means when I get little snippets of time to be in my sewing studio the next few months I don't need to waste time winding bobbins before I sew. 

Scrappy Dog Bed

I basted and quilted a scrappy rectangle today to make a patchwork dog bed:

It features 330 scrappy 2.5" squares & I used a scrap of batting. 

For projects like this I favour simple quick meandering lines quilting:

Quilting as seen from back of dog bed top

I added a simple backing with a zipper slot so I could insert a couple of cheap store bought pillows. 

Front

Back

This is huge it has two pillows and a smaller cushion inside to fill it and should be really comfy for our 15 year old Spoodle Henry.