Lulu’s Oliver + S Music Box Jumper Dress

I really like this dress and enjoyed making it. The pattern was easy to follow. There are two options and I chose View B. View A has lots more pleats and I did not have enough fabric.

Again this stretched my sewing skills a little more as this time I did little pocket flaps, an inverted box pleat and a placket with no less than 6 buttons!

I used my automatic button hole setting and it worked like a dream. And then dear readers I noticed in the manual (while revising buttonholes LOL) that you can actually sew buttons on using the machine!! Seriously I never knew that!

The Oliver + S patterns give your garment a professional finish. The lining on the yoke is in fact hand sewn inside or you can use stitch in the ditch. There was no way I was hand sewing it (I am so lazy!) so I first put some fusible tape to get it into place and then I stitched in the ditch and it looks great because it is such a busy pattern you can not see the stitches.

This again was a “muslin” and I used this lovely paisley fabric that I actually got a few years ago in Australia. A friend of my Mum’s, Iris, had sadly passed away and another friend had a bag of her fabrics, wools etc. that she had gathered from the house to donate to charity. I picked out a few remnants and this was one of them so I feel very happy to have a little memory of her all the way over here in Oman. I am pleased it is a wearable Muslin.

I messed up the bottom of the placket a little when I was hemming it (you can see it is not sitting nicely) and if I was very diligent I would unpick it and fix it but I figure Lujayne moves so quickly and never sits still so no one will notice

I just noticed in this picture that I had not done up her bottom button, LOL, don’t worry I noticed when we got to school so her modesty was saved I assure you.

Of course I just had to make up a quick little hairclip for Lulu so she felt co-ordinated.

This was a simple fabric pom pom with the same button stitched in the center and then hot glued onto a hair clip.

Look at my little guy, he is just sooooo cute!

He smiles and laughs me for me all day. One of his smiles is worth a million prozacs I tell you, maybe I should bottle it up and make a fortune.

Just another one …

Tomorrow I am attending Lulu’s class to talk about Australia as part of their International theme. I was busy this afternoon tracing some Aussie icon animals for the kids to colour in and make little puppets for a story.

There is a bread theme worked into it and many of the parents come in and talk about their homeland and bring their traditional bread so tomorrow morning I will be up nice and early to make damper.

On that note I had better get to bed. Thanks for stopping by …

Sami’s Shark Shorts and Shirt

Amazingly enough I got these finished within 24 hours of tracing the pattern, gosh I almost feel like there is a light at the end of the tunnel (thank you Eyad for sleeping in your swing for so long xxx).

The pattern is Oliver + S Sketchbook Shirt and Shorts. It rates the difficulty level as two scissors (out of four) which I think applies mostly to the shirt as the shorts were pretty easy. Here is my “muslin” that thankfully is wearable.

Mum brought this fabric over with her last visit that she saved from the thrift shop when clearing out her house. Do you I think my sister purchased this fabric when she was still living at home? I’ll have to check with my Mum on that one.

I did learn a few things doing this one as it is the first time I have made pants with proper lined pockets, separate waistband and a faux fly.

The pockets were a breeze but the fly required some thinking so don’t attempt this one when you are sleep deprived!  In the end it worked out but I was still not 100% happy with the seam and the fly as it tends to pucker a little. These are great for Sami as they are easy to get on and off for those quick dashes to the toilet.

After finishing them I felt that some sharks on a shirt would be nice so I grabbed a t-shirt of Sami’s and appliqued some sharks to the bottom and shoulder.

I will definitely do this pattern again. It is like I have graduated from the very basic elastic waist shorts to a little more snazzy style with waistband, pockets and a mock fly. Now I also feel a little more confident to tackle some Ottobre Design shorts too.

Lulu popped into the photo shoot to say hi!

Isn’t that the ugliest design you have ever seen on a shirt! Zara really have some weird stuff. I cringe when I see it but Lulu had her heart set on it when we did our big shop last week. Knowing my luck that will be the one piece of clothing in her cupboard that these blasted little moths don’t eat!

Last night I traced and cut Lulu’s Music Box Jumper Dress and I hope to get that started today if the little man catches some decent zzzz’s.

Thanks for stopping by….

Sew Sew here we go!

Yesterday I finished cleaning up my sewing room. My oh my it was a big mess. There was bits and pieces of projects, paid bills to be filled, children’s art work, even some remnants of Christmas wrapping all covering my worktable. Having cleaned it all away and cleaned the rest of the room I was yearning to start some sewing.

I have not done any garment sewing for 5 months! Yikes, time can sure pass by quickly when you have a baby in the house.

“Sew” what project to start with??? I have so many on my list. Randomly I chose two patterns to get me going again (actually they were on the messy table in my bundle of opened but nor sorted mail!).  Would you like a hint …

 

Yes it is the Oliver + S Sketchbook Shirt and Shorts pattern (I am doing the shorts) and the Music Box Jumper dress. They say you should always do a Muslin (a mock up so as not to make mistakes with your nice new fabric) first especially with a new pattern but I am very slack and I usually don’t bother however as this is my first time sewing Oliver + S patterns I decided to stash bust some fabrics that would not be missed if I made a huge error and had to dump them but if they work out they will also be wearable.

My first impression of the patterns is good one. I like that the patterns comes with a cardboard sleeve featuring a picture of the finished garment on a little paper doll. I cut them out and gave them to the kids to play with.

The tissue paper is very strong,

the markings are clear and best of all I was able to refold it with ease.

While I was tracing the pattern this morning these little monkeys got drawing.

As it has just taken me over an hour to get this little munchkin to sleep I can see that the sewing will be a slow process but it feels so good to get started again.

I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for stopping by …

Rainbow Day 2011

Every year the school has Rainbow Day which is an afternoon of fun games on the field. It is not about winning and losing it is simply getting together with your class mates and having a bit of fun and exercise.

Laith was in the Yellow team.

Can you tell he has Arab blood by the way he sits?

I wonder when my kids will start to be embarrassed about having their Mum out on the field snapping away?

 

It started at 1.30pm which did not leave enough time to pick up Lujayne and Sami, take them home and then get back for the beginning of the event so instead we all had lunch in the cafeteria and then went out to watch Laith play. Mind you munchkin 2 and 3 were really more interested in just playing on the swings.

The teams made their way through several different activities stopping for a snack somewhere in between.

Here is a short recap of the day.

Rainbow Day 2011

Some activities required more skill than others.

Some were just plain silly but fun.

Others left you exhausted and sweaty!

Sadly our “winter” is coming to an end and already the days are heating up, man those cooler few months just flew by too quickly.

And now for a random shot of Laith and Eyad.

I hope they will be close as they grow up even though there is a seven year difference in their ages. Can you see that Eyad has a “Bonds” terry onesie on (it is his one and only), gosh how I miss Bonds clothing I think their singlets and onesies are the best!

Thanks for stopping by …

EC Sports Morning

My two little munchkins had such fun this morning at their sports “day”.

The field was set out with different activities and the focus was on fun not winning or losing.

I love that the high school students came down to help out. They are always so good with the kids.

 

Both kids had so much fun I thought their faces might hurt from smiling and laughing so much.

 

Then it was time to cool down with a drink and nice snack under the shade of the tents.

I actually remembered to bring my video camera but wouldn’t you know it I did not charge it properly and then I was trying to video and keep little Eyad happy at the same time so there was only a small amount of footage taken.

Well done again Teachers and Parents, I just love, love, love this school!

Oh and here is the cheeky little monkey himself. Doesn’t he look like an “old soul”, gee I wonder where gets that lovely double chin from .

Thanks for stopping by…

My Darlings and some Sweet Potato

Just wanted to share some pictures of my gorgeous family.

Tonight doing her class project.

Sami is ALWAYS smiling when he gets some “iPad time”.

Getting ready for bed.

She has him wrapped around her finger … can you tell?

My little baby is getting bigger by the minute, he is so kind to me xxx

I have not posted much “deceptive cooking” lately as I keep forgetting to bring my camera to the kitchen. We have had some great hits and a few definite misses!

Tonight I added some mashed sweet potato to the spaghetti bolognaise sauce which tasted great.

We usually don’t get the proper (as I know it) orange sweet potato here as the ones grown in this region are white and very starchy and not very sweet. A few days ago I saw them in Al Fair and although the price was extortionate I decided to buy just 1 as treat. They were about 3.5 Omani Rials a kg (about $9 AUD or USD) so I roasted this large one up and used some with the roast beef on Saturday and the rest in meals over the past two days. Lulu loves it just on its own but for the others I have to “hide” it. 

Thanks for stopping by …

Operation Cookie Dough

Sometimes my days feel like they need to be strategically planned in order to achieve anything, just like a military onslaught. Today I had three main things to achieve.

1. Clean my sewing room / office

2. Make cookies for tomorrows sports / games morning

3. Help Lujayne finish her “Homeland” poster for her classroom

I thought things were going well with #1 until Eyad woke 35 minutes after putting him down and then the rest of the morning was shot. I made a start and that has to count for something

# 2 I will discuss below.

and #3 I started but had to delegate to poor Ali as soon as he walked in the door as it was near bedtime and Eyad was tired, hungry and fed up of being the wonderfully patient baby that he is.

Ahhhh well tomorrow is another day LOL.

So lets get back to “Operation Cookie Dough” . Tomorrow Lulu and Sami’s classes are having a fun sports / games morning (the bigger kids have theirs on Wednesday) and we were asked to provide something for the snack table. I decided on cookies. I needed 60 for Lulu and 40 for Sami and then I figured I may as well bake more so I can freeze them to have on hand for the kids.

 

I love this recipe. It came to me years ago as an email about a woman who paid $250 for a recipe from Neiman Marcus by mistake. It works out the whole things was a hoax (read here) but that’s ok because I only care about the yummy cookies.

It is a VERY SIMPLE recipe (I did that in caps for my friend Sylvia who says she can not bake but I know she will be able to do this one ).

This is the original recipe (my changes are noted in red)

(Recipe may be halved which I usually do except today as I wanted a large amount):
2 cups butter  (for convenience I use a 400g bar / stick of butter)
4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda (or Bicarb Soda here)
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups brown sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal (measure oatmeal and blend in blender to a fine powder) (I use a tin of regular rolled oats)
24 oz. chocolate chips (300g bag is enough)
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey bar (grated)  (I think adding this makes them sickly sweet)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice) (this time I used 50 roasted hazelnuts and blended them in the food processor) (Be careful incase your intended cookie eaters have nut allergies)
2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F or 180 C. Take out two large cookie trays and place greaseproof paper on each (just helps with the washing up).

Blend the oatmeal in the food processor – set aside. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey bar and nuts.

As this makes such a large amount either use a very large bowl or divide it up into two bowls to make the mixing easier.

Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. My version is take a small pinch of dough and roll into a ball, place on the cookie tray a finger width apart.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies. Have Fun!!! I made 280 with the above recipe.

I have made these in the past a little bigger and added some mini marshmallows. They freeze really well and in fact the kids like them straight out of the freezer! When I have not had choc chips,  which are often out of stock here, I get a block of chocolate and just smash it into chunks.

Ready to go for the morning!

Thanks for stopping by…