The birthday project

A couple of months ago, I purchased some lovely material on sale at The Fabric Store (and made this top with some of it). In addition to the green-and-white checked fabric, I also got this very lightweight striped cotton.

My intention was to use it for a skirt, but any skirt would need lining (which I've never tackled before). I'd forgotten all about it until today, when a lovely friend gave me some spare tulle she had in her garage. Now, my plan is to make myself a spectacular gathered skirt lined with a tulle underskirt in time for my birthday!

After trawling through my patterns, I've decided that the best design to use would be the tried-and-true gathered skirt that I've made a few times (including for my first ever sewing project).

I don't want the tulle lining to go all the way up to the waistband (because it will be bulky to sew into the band, and probably scratchy to wear), so I'm planning to sew some black cotton lining the same as the main skirt piece, but at half the length. I'll then sew gathered tulle to the bottom of the lining so that it will show around 10 to 15 centimetres below the main skirt.

I'll then tack the top of the cotton lining fabric to the outer skirt piece, gather both layers and sew them into the waistband together. The bottom of the skirt should, when hemmed, look something like this.

The question I now have for others now is: will this work? Or is there a better way I should go about adding a tulle underskirt? Maybe I should use a different skirt pattern altogether! If you have any thoughts, please leave a comment. I'm not planning to sew this skirt in a day like I normally do. I'm going to chip away at it a little bit at a time over the next couple of months in the hope of having a finished piece for my 30th birthday. 

Hurrah!

Final post of birthday goodness: Home stuff!

Finally, a special thank you to the people who got me stuff for the home. My super awesome friend Rebecca paid special attention to my recent blog post declaring my love for Mozi products, as well as the fact that I've been baking a fair bit lately, and bought me the Medina apron I wanted - yay! How cute will I look when I make pikelets in this?!

Image: Mozi

Rebecca also bought me a Mozi recipe tea towel for orange and poppyseed cake - that cake John and I had for our wedding. Awwwww!

Image: Mozi

I also got a very fancy little Andy Warhol Rosenthal 'Flowers' dish from my friend Julie. Apparently it's a soap dish, but I think it's far too good for that, so I'll be finding it a home in the living areas. It's the little square dish on the far right.

Image: Rosenthal

Finally, I asked my sister if she would buy me some 'lady tools'. You know, hand tools in lady-like colours with squishy ergonomic handles? I ended up with the pink version of this kit. It even has a level!

Image: Gorgeous Gifts

So that's my birthday wrap-up - thanks for reading! Oh, I also know that Emma from Rain & Sundays has sent a little handmade something in the post, so I'll update on that soon!

More birthday goodness: Jewellery and accessories

How lucky am I?! This year I got so many fabulous gifts, including some from people I totally did not expect one from. It certainly makes me feel very special and loved!

As many of you would know, up until my recent visit to Finders Keepers I was experiencing a total brooch drought. Then, I won some more brooches (amongst other lovely things) from REread. Then, my very special friend Shilo added another one that I adore more than all of the others put together: an acrylic shiny red feather brooch from That Vintage. Shilo shares my love of birds (she loves checking out the weird Australian species, while I love putting bird symbols all around my home), and she also knows how much I adore shiny red stuff.

Image: That Vintage

On the weekend I also received an extremely thoughtful gift from my friend Jeni, who knows all about my Ethical Clothing Pledge. Jeni bought me a chameleon clutch from Biddy Bags, which is a local social enterprise that connects socially isolated nannas who get together to make lovely little craft items to sell. The crafters also get to keep over half of the sale price of their items, which is just wonderful. My clutch also came with yet another brooch - a cute little crocheted flower with a button.

Image: Biddy Bags

Then, I received a lovely little surprise in the post courtesy of Irene. Irene is currently visiting Indonesia and was unable to come to my little gathering on the weekend, so she arranged for me to receive a big set of origami paper badges from Pannikin. The really funny thing is that I'd only just discovered Pannikin jewellery last week when I was at Bleeding Heart Gallery, so it was an amazing coincidence to receive a little package in the mail from Holly only a couple of days later.

Image: Pannikin

Finally in the jewellery and accessories department, I got a new Polli black canopy necklace from my husband John. He has quite a knack for choosing great, quirky pieces that suit my personality, for which I am very grateful. This pendant is my second Polli piece from John.

Image: Polli

I received my other present from John early this year when I was sent to a five-week hula hoop course. I had no idea that I was going there until we arrived at the door, and I was a little freaked out to say the least. However, it turned out to be great fun and something that I want to continue doing. Plus, I got to keep my shiny red hoop as well!

Image: Polka dots, side view (Flickr)

Tomorrow, I'll update on my final batch of presents from some equally special friends and family - all stuff I received for the home. Thanks again to all of the awesome people who helped to make my birthday week special!

Birthday week over, now for some books!

Now that my birthday week is officially over, I thought I'd share some of the lovely presents I got. There are too many great things to mention in one post so I'm going to spread them over a few this week. To start with, here are some books I got from my parents and parents-in-law.

I asked my parents months ago to get me the gigantic Taschen New York Interiors book. I already had the mini version, but having seen the giant coffee-table size in a book store I just had to have it! I'm yet to have a good flick through, but I don't think I'll be taking it to look at on the train to work!

Images: The Design Files

The second book I got was Tossed and Found from my in-laws, which is a great book full of great (and sometimes really weird) stuff made from discarded junk.

Images: Apartment Therapy

I'll be sharing more of the wonderful accessories and homewares I received over the coming days. I did have a great birthday week this year, and particularly enjoyed spending Saturday night with some special close friends.