Ikea Curtain Christmas Dress

That IKEA curtain I bought on the op-shop tour is now a Christmas dress for Sarah.



 She did some of the sewing herself. It was basically a seam up the back, and a casing for the elastic. I sewed the straps, and VOILA! A Christmas dress.

  



Op-Shop till you drop.

Yesterday I headed out on an op-shop safari with the lovely Pippi and Cathy. We hit the Salvo's at Hornsby first and were greeted with this fabulous sight -1/2 price today! Woo hoo.

 Part of my haul. An IKEA doona cover set for Sarah (she loves it!), a quilted comforter and 2 pillowcases, a hobby horse, plenty of PB Bear and DK board books for Ben, and an abridged version of Gulliver's Travels.

 We visited 5 op-shops, and had lunch in between. It was a fab day, thanks girls.

And I scored these little guys, $1 for the lot!

Pram rug and thrifted shirt shorts.

My wonderful mother arrived this week to help out while Dave is in Japan.
She brought Ben this gorgeous pram rug that she knitted. I love the colours, and it is so well made and finished. Thanks Mum.
Ben is wondering why we have covered him up with a rug when the weather is hot and sticky????
At Monday Craft this week I made Ben a pair of shorts from a thrifted shirt. I traced around a pair he already had instead of using a pattern, and use the side seams that are already on the shirt as the side seams for the shorts.
This is such a cheap and esay way to get a funky pair of shorts.
$3.00 for the material, and $0.00 for a pattern.

Oh how I've missed you...

I have been trying to stay away from op-shops in recent months, as I tackle some of the 'stuff' in our house. This morning I spent almost an hour in one, and came away with only three things, (two pillowcases, and this gorgeous girl).

Pretty darn good I thought!!!

Look at the colour of those eggs. Can I say how clever our chooks are at laying big, beautiful, yellow yolks, and eating all our scraps? Someone remarked recently that they are the fattest chooks they have ever seen.

Can I say how clever our kids are at never finishing their dinner...

My very first zip ever!! I have been putting off making anything with a zipper for years now, which kind of limits what you can make. Well this week at Monday Craft I was a very brave girl and decided to have a go and.... it really was not that hard.

Recycled kid's clothes.

Monday Craft had a bit of a 'recycled' theme today.

Pippi made these pants for her Ben out of the sleeves of a men's business shirt. He looks so cute in these funky pants, very 'Zoolander' we thought!!

Then using the idea from the Soulemama book, I made some pants for my Ben out of an old t-shirt of Dave's. I copied the style of a pair that Ben had grown out of.

They are so soft and comfy, just perfect for crawling.

This quilt was bought for me by the wonderful Pippi at her local Op-Shop. It is so soft and well worn, and is fully of pretty pastel blocks. I am not sure where in my house it is going to live yet. Possibly at the foot of my bed, along with my other great find from a while ago.

Thanks Pippi.

And a few recent thrifty finds of my own.

This retro apron.

And these pretty doilies and bookmark.

And if your kids are anything like mine and love to write and receive mail, sign them up for pigeon pair's 'KID"S MAIL SWAP' . It looks like a lot of fun and you don't even need a blog to play along.

OK, I am off to try and finish my swap items before my inlaws take over my sewing space on Wednesday.

make way for hats!!

The weather is starting to get cooler and Ben, our little baldy, is in need of some hats.

I pulled this old one of Sarah's out of her dolls clothes box. It looks so cute on I would like to make Ben a few more.

Also a couple of mum's from my mother's group are looking for funky hats.

So Ben and I stopped in at a local thrift shop after the school drop-off this morning and he chose these t-shirts, destined to become new hats for him and a few of his little friends.

I am imagining a little 'Seven Dwarfs' look going on at mother's group.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho...

Op-shop Heaven

Yesterday I visited Pippi and her wonderful op-shop on the northern outskirts of Sydney.

It seems to always have wonderful things, and is very cheap compared to other op-shops.

For a grandtotal of $18.50 I bought:

a pair of jeans for myself
two warm jackets for Ben (Sprout brand)
a simplicity pattern for baby kimono style PJ's
Peter Pan and Wendy
Happy Days with Jamie Oliver cookbook ($1, what a bargain)
a baby doll
a travel size 'Othello' game (which grandma recently taught Jonty how to play, so now he has taught me)
Easter decorations (3 bags of assorted ones)

And these red boots for Sarah.

She was so excited when I gave them to her (even though they smelled like an op-shop she said.)

Op shopping and finally some sewing.

I bought this dress today at my favourite Op Shop for $1.50!! I am totally in love with it.

I bought a few other things as well; 2 tea cosies, some embroidered fabric, a pattern, kids sewing book, 2 vintage pillowcases, vintage buttons, and some groovy clip on earings.

Then a bit of sewing this afternoon.

This has to be one of the easiest things I have ever made. I can't believe how many generous bloggers produce free tutorials for their creations. This one can be found here.

I will definitely be making more of these.