Favours and Family Fun

Selfless sewing doesn't feature highly on this blog. Sewing is my creative outlet, my yoga, my relaxation time and my chance to be selfish. However, when my sister arrived from Canada with my two nephews she did come with a small stack of Liberty and the request of a favour.

As a beginning sewer, she needed help making a few items, but with two small kids of her own and my three, it's wasn't easy to coordinate a sewing session. So, I asked her what she wanted and snatched the fabric so that I could just make her garments for her. She didn't receive any sewing tuition, but she did get three new garments.

First Vogue 1349, which I have made here and here for myself. Thankfully, as my sister is the same size as me - well mostly - we were able to use my existing garments to test the fit for her, making this quite a fast garment to fit and make.

Sarah arrived with about 1.5m of Liberty Holly, worried she wouldn't have enough to make this frock, but as Liberty is wider than standard 112cm wide fabric, it was plenty.

We lined this dress in a deep purple voile to help keep the dress cool and I added flat fold piping along the shoulders in a hot pink, that coordinated with some of the splatters in the fabric. I love this dress and it will be really nice for her to wear in the humid Toronto summer.

I also whipped up a simple Scout tee in Liberty Alexandra in turquoise. I love this look and hopefully will replicate it soon for myself. I have Alexandra in this colourway in my stash, but am not sure that shade of blue will suit me.

Lastly, I made two versions of the Burda wrap blouse in Liberty English Field, one for me and one for her. It's the least I could do after she pointed my towards this awesome print and supplied me with enough fabric to make a top for myself.

Before I go, I thought I'd share some snaps from our recent holiday with my sister, her kids and my parents. We headed to Orange in NSW for a few days. While my kids were a little disappointed that the Orange wasn't orange, nor did it have any oranges, we had a great time hanging out, playing and eating.

We stayed at the Black Sheep Inn, which is an amazing old shearing shed that has been very stylishly converted into a B & B. It's not really suitable for kids, but we hired the whole place out. It still has the chutes for the sheep to slide down, remnants of the old shears, the old wool sorting table converted into a dining table and an old wool baler. Seriously cool!

Photo: from Black Sheep Inn

The kids loved it here and so did we. There was a fenced yard area that the kids played in...

While we supervised from the deck with nibblies and wine.

At night, after the kids went to bed, we all sat by the wood fire and chatted for hours. It was such a great way to catch up.

If you are ever looking for a place to stay that's a little different, I highly recommend the Black Sheep Inn. Next time we go to Orange will be without the kids, so we can head out to some wineries. With the big wool sorting table, I also think this would also make a great crafty retreat - all you'd need is to bring a little extra lighting. I might have to look into this.....

Anyway, tis all for now. My selfless sewing for the year is now complete and I can go back to regular programming.