Bloglovin' post, please ignore...

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/3488190/?claim=mpkh56sju65">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Promise I'll be back with some new projects soon! M

Giveaway winner!

After much delay, and procrastinating, and forgetting (on my behalf), it's finally time to announce the winner of my giveaway!

And the lucky lady, as chosen by a random number generator is...

Comment number 17, Miss Emmi!  Congratulations, and I can't wait to send this pattern on to its new home with you!  Keep an eye on your inbox, I'll be emailing you soon to get your address.
One small tradition I'd like to add to this pattern is putting a photo of what you've made from it in the pattern envelope.  I will be enclosing a picture of my strawberry dress, and if it's alright with Debi I'll print off copies of the photos of her dresses to keep to!  And ideally Miss Emmi would be as borderline obsessive motivated as me and occasionally stalk our blogs for any updates, but of course it's not necessary!

Anyway, thank you for all your entries and your helpful tips, finally starting to settle in to the new place!  And welcome to the new followers, hopefully the sporadic posting won't annoy you too much!

Sew Grateful Giveaway - Style Print 1283

Oh my goodness, I can't believe I almost missed Sew Grateful week!
This week has been absolutely insane, with moving house and starting back at uni, and at the moment I am sew grateful for my family and the two lovely girls I am living with - but more on that later!

For today, I'm hosting my very first giveaway - a pattern I won back in the very first Sew Grateful week in November 2011, then made up and posted for the second Sew Grateful week in February 2012.  And now it's time for this beauty to make its way to a new home - don't worry, I've made a tracing so I can make a few more versions, and trust me, you will want to make a few more versions!

This pattern is Style Print 1283, from roughly the 1950s - I can't seem to find the exact date, so if anybody out there knows what it is that would be much appreciated!  It comes with very simple instructions for a shirt-dress with either a (very) full or straight skirt, and short or long sleeves.

I'm feeling a bit presumptuous posting my humble little creation next to the lovely Debi, who hosts this week, but I know how much I love seeing a pattern made up!

Click the pictures for bigger versions!

Left to right: Debi's Mid-Century Madness dress, Debi's Pumpkin Pie dress, and my Strawberry Style Print Sew Grateful dress,

To enter this giveaway, just leave me a comment below (only one!) with your best tip for setting up and settling in to a new home, and include your email address!  I will draw this giveaway next Saturday the 16th of February at 10am AEST (that's midnight GMT, work out your other time zones from there), so make sure you leave your comment before then!  I'm happy to post worldwide, and when I draw the winner I'll contact you to get your address.
This giveaway is now closed, announcement of the winner coming soon!

There is only one condition on this giveaway, and that is that while you can hold on to this pattern for as long as you like, when you do decide that it's time for you to part make sure it's a gift - as a giveaway on your blog, a personal gift to someone, whatever you like, just please don't sell it!

I can't wait to pass this wonderful pattern along and share the joy!
Thank you again to Debi, I am sew grateful you host this lovely lovely week!!

Another Liebster blog award!

I'm lucky enough to have been given another Liebster  blog award, this time by Giggles in the Sun, a lovely lady from Brisbane.

Since I've already done the random facts and tagging thing, this time I'll just answer the 11 questions asked by Miss Giggles in her post!

1. What is your favourite craft? At the moment, sewing (as in for dressmaking), but I've been doing a fair bit of knitting recently - it's really good to have something to do with my hands while watching TV or a movie!
2. How do you learn a new craft? Usually find a picture of something I like and jump in the deep end... when I taught myself to knit in the round I just opened up the book and tried to follow the instructions, and went from there!!
3. Have you ever lost interest in a craft and why?  Not really... I used to do a lot of embroidery when I was younger, but I don't anymore - not because I don't enjoy it, but because there's only so many samplers one can have!
4. How do you make time for crafting?  Usually... wait until the holidays!  I'm not very good at time management, and because I don't have a dedicated sewing/crafting area the 30 minutes a day approach doesn't work for me - it takes me 30 minutes to set everything up and pack it away again!
5. What does your family think of your crafting?  Not really sure, actually!  Dad just wants me to fix his pants all the time, mum seems to think I'm too ambitious, my middle sister is a bit mad like me so she thinks it's good, and my younger sister is one of those people who goes "Can you make me ____", so I make it, and then it never gets worn - so that's frustrating.
6. Would you do your crafting for a living?  I don't think so... I'd love to be able to do it all day, but not have to as I would if it was for a living
7. How did you get started crafting?  I don't think I ever really got started, it's just always been there!
8. What is your favourite item you have ever created?  My strawberry dress... I wear it all the time, and I love it to pieces!
9. And already I am starting to run out of things to ask, so what is your favourite weather or season?  My favourite season is the time of year called spring - though up here we don't really get four seasons, we just get wet and dry!  Around the September holidays because it's warm enough to swim but cool at nights, and the stingers aren't out yet.
10. If you could live anywhere, where would it be?  Anywhere?  I'd love to live in a small town in Tasmania, but I don't cope well in the cold so that wouldn't work out very well for me!
11. Frosting or cake? Do you create more basic items in your sewing/knitting/crocheting that get used a lot or do you have a tendency to go for the special occasion items?  I think it's more sort of frosting, but not fancy frosting - just everyday frosting, haha.  I'd love to make more cake!  But what I seem to have ended up with are the things that are a bit on the fancy/weird/extravagant side of normal.

Thank you so much for this award - and sorry I don't blog more often, if there was a bad blogger award I would be getting that!!  I do have a number of projects to show, but it's just finding the time to do photos and write...

Help needed!

I was just about to cut out a pair of shorts from McCall's 6328, and realised I've somehow managed to lose piece 12 - the back yoke!  So I was just wondering if any of my readers happen to have this pattern and would be willing to scan that piece of the pattern and email it to me... that would be really great!
Thank you in advance, and hopefully I can either find a piece of the pattern or make one up so I can get stuck into these shorts!

Package bonanza!

Over the last two weeks, I've received the most post I think I ever have, aside from birthdays!  Here's my little collection, three packages from three lovely ladies!

From Kat over at Petticoats and Peplums, I have my Pay It Forward gift.  She's made me a crocheted (I think??) pincushion, purple on one side and green on the other, and also sent a set of adorable heart shaped buttons and a thread tin with a lovely vintage lady on the front.

Next, this amazing polkadotted knit fabric and a copy of Tiramisu from StephC at 3 Hours Past!  I won this one in a massive giveaway she was doing, and I count myself very lucky to have won.  Can't wait to sew up this dress!  I wonder if the direction of the dots will give a similar effect to the stripes in the pattern illustration... that will be interesting to experiment with, I've not sewn with anything polkadotted before!

And lastly, a treat to myself after finishing exams, from Sarah at OhhhLulu (her blog is wonderful, and I would love one of everything from her Etsy shop!!) - the Bon Voyage underwear set!  No pictures of these on me, so you'll have to take my word that they fit perfectly and feel amazing on - definitely recommended!!

All in all, I'm counting myself very lucky this week before Christmas!  And once again, I want to say a huge thankyou to Kat, Steph, and Sarah for my wonderful packages.

Sneaky preview!

Just thought I'd post a quick preview of what I've been working on since exams finished!

Here's me and my friend Kim out for breakfast this morning before she heads back to Darwin, me with a slightly dopey face on (I may switch out this photo if it turned out better on her camera!) and my new circle skirt with little anchors.
Full post about this skirt hopefully coming soon, when I can convince my sister to help me take photos!