Lovely lace toddler dress

We recently went to a lovely wedding, the first we've been to since we had our daughter. And she was also invited! Of course that meant I had to make her a beautiful lace dress.

I chose to use the Amsterdam dress from Little Lizard King again, you can see others I've made here and here.

This embroidered lace is so lovely and soft and I had no idea how to work with it! Thankfully this time I was organised so I had plenty of time to play with new fabrics. Even the navy rayon twill I used underneath was new to me. It is also lovely and soft, but slippery and a little stretchy - not something I like to work with.

I got there in the end, the biggest hurdle was stopping the embroidered bits of lace from unravelling. Some I unpicked completely where they weren't connected to the rest. And wherever needed, I stitched two rows over the embroidery in the seam allowance. I had to consider which colour thread I used as well - I used a golden yellow or light blue in the embroidered sections, and for the seams where it was just tulle I used navy so it blended into the navy dress underneath. Everything needs a lot more thought and planning when the seams are visible!

And of course I completely forgot to take a before photo which means you get to see the end result of a toddler wearing a lace dress. Luckily even with the runs in the fabric, and where parts of embroidery are completely unravelling it still looks nice. Hopefully she gets another chance to wear her fancy dress again before she outgrows it!

Goodbye to my garden

While moving to a new house and huge block of land is exciting, it's still a little sad to say good bye to my garden. It's been almost 12 years of work, changing, tweaking and the bonus of picking lots of homegrown produce. 

I'm happy that I got to see my crepe myrtle starting to flower - I have quite a few cuttings to be planted at the new house! This spot was originally my bee garden, the crepe myrtle has grown so much that I moved the bees as you couldn't seem them anymore.

And my pumpkin patch, there might be a few ready to take with us! I have been picking them as needed, but there are a few that are starting to brown at the stem so hopefully they are ripe enough to store. The ones in my previous post have since ripened and been enjoyed.

So while I'm sad to leave my garden behind, I have 5 acres of space that'll keep me busy. It is much hotter and drier so there will be a big learning curve for me - mostly remembering to water the garden since I'm used to the rain doing that for me! The many potted plants that are coming with us will have a big adjustment to the climate, especially since we're right in the middle of summer!

Hopefully it's not too long before I can share new garden photos with you - don't hold your breath though, there aren't any existing gardens, just random trees and lots of grass!

3D Printed Matching Cards

 We had that Panda Crate subscription for our daughter and one of them came with a cute little matching card game. But it was made of cardboard, and apparently carboard is great to chew, just like all her books - who knew toddler books were a close supervision only toy!

She did enjoy playing with them, sorting them and packing them into little bags but they quickly got confiscated when she decided to keep chewing them.

So now she has her very own set of matching cards that are plastic and not so nice to chew on!

She still likes sorting them into little bags but I also cut a slot in the lid of a bucket which she loves filling with toys and transporting all over the house!

I've posted them all on Thingiverse and if I make anymore I'll add them to that post.

Zucchini success

 This is the first year I have successfully grown zucchini and I've picked 5 so far!

And of course this happens when we're moving soon, here's hoping I have success in our new garden!

Normally the plant doesn't grow very well because of the mildew thanks to all the humidity where we live, but this year it's coping just fine. It did have a slow start but something changed without my help - whatever it was I'm happy now that we're finally eating homegrown zucchini!

Trolley Liner

 It took me forever to finally sew up this trolley liner - and I had it cut out, ready and waiting for so long. I guess cute little outfits were more appealing to sew.

I can tell you that I did not enjoy sewing it, and probably won't ever sew another one. Perhaps it would have been easier with an industrial machine rather than just a domestic one.

At some point I would like to add some flaps or something at the sides - they seem to be the focus for little hands, which instantly go in little mouths of course.

But it's done, it's great, and now I can do a full shop at Aldi since they don't have click and collect. I normally just took the pram but that doesn't leave much room in the car for said groceries.

The pattern I used was from Muffy Duck Designs, the instructions were great as usual, it's just big and bulky which makes it awkward to sew. Like the pram liner, I made it out to be much harder than it actually was!