Hello - it's me!

This is a dress I made after being inspired by My Mama Made It who was inspired before that by Anthropologie.

Since I've made it I've noticed that all the high-street shops in Israel are selling dresses where the knit top is attached to the skirt.

I keep finding myself furtively lifting the dress and checking the seams and lining...Not altogether sure what the shopkeepers think of me, lifting hems and never buying a thing....

It's not actually a skirt attached to top, it was just a gorgeous off cut that I found in a sales bin near the Shuk HaCarmel in Tel Aviv.

It wasn't enough to make pyjama bottoms (drat)

so I simply sewed the two sides together, and gathered the top.

Unfortunately gathered waisted skirts are not known to be flattering on

girls with hips,

hence the metamorphosis into a dress.

Mens Shirt - Girl's Dress (yeah, me too.)

I know.... everybody and their cousin have been

making things out of mens' button down shirts.

This one didn't cost me a penny,

being a found item* in size 2XL

and

the pattern was inherited from my mother.

She used it to make the underdress for my sister in 1984 - I love the pinafore. It's still hot here, by the way.....

I intended to use the button placket from the shirt

all the way down the back of the dress,

but got excited and mistakenly cut it out as the front!

In the end I think it works.

I added cute little pleated pockets

using this tutorial from Made By Rae,

and Ana loves those pockets!

I will have to make more pockets on more things.

* Ahem.... I know, you're cringing that this was found on the street. But being there's a chronic lack of charity shops and since there's no such thing as a Goodwill for people to pop down to, means that it's common practice put unwanted but still usable clothes (and other items) outside neatly folded on a bench, or displayed on the rock wall in front of their house. It's the Israeli way of reduce, reuse, recycle!

And, yes, the cited blogs in the first line are two of my favourites, and I will take this opportunity to introduce them to anyone who is looking for inspiration! You can find them among the list of blogs that I follow......x

Personalizing Babygro's

I tend to give these as gifts to new mamas - cross over babygros with sleeves that turn down into build-in mitts. I think they're the best design ever! Slouchy, floppy newborns are so difficult to pull cloths over their heads - this kind opens up and you just lay the baby down and wrap them like a parcel.

The tag I've removed so it doesn't scratch the neck

and re-sewn it as a cute patch on the back.

Flowers are felt circles embroidered to bunch like a flower,

and buttons are from the button box I inherited

from my grandmother.

I figure that age 0-3 months won't yet be at

danger of removing buttons and choking....

So here we go, then!

To be honest I'm already a blogger. I am a Doula, and to see what other wonderful, beautiful, hands-on, new-lives type of work that I'm passionate about doing, check out sarahvine.wordpress.com

But my other passion is making dull things beautiful, without costing the earth. I've done this for ages, lurking on my favorite blogs which I promise to link to as time goes by! (No need to do everything at once.) However, to be honest, it all started with my paternity - I was raised in a little isolated fishing village in Bristol Baby, Alaska. There's not much to do all winter long, and couple that with no shops and upright parents who actually like their kids: and you get people sitting around a wood stove teaching their kids how to knit, crochet, sew, embroider, draw, carve, re-purpose, while reading out loud to eachother all winter long.

I don't live in the village anymore, but I continue to do these things on my own. I brought some knitting to a bridal shower lately (which I rightly anticipated to be rather on the sedate side) and everyone thought it was a terribly strange thing to do and called me 'safta' (granny.) So I've finally found my community on line and being thus inspired have churned out quite a lot of crafty items this year. My husband insists I start a blog. He's so sweet and you can find his artwork here.

So, for my first post, I'll use my daughter's

Queen Esther dress.

I didn't use a pattern, just pieced together

bits from the oddments bin from different fabric stalls,

and fabric flowers from the local shekel shop.

(Same thing as a dollar shop, or a pound shop... you get the idea.)

The boy's King costume was also for the holiday of Purim

- from the Biblical book of Esther.

How did I get him to want to dress up

as King Ahasuearus rather than Spiderman?

Well, the king gets to carry around a scepter

and tell everyone what to do!

And if someone doesn't obey him, then that man dies....

Ooh. Drama. Attractive.

(Of course, the costume I made was complete with

sceptre, quilted belt, sword and big black boots.

A boy will wear what a boy will wear,

and by his expression I think he's okay with it.)