two grey elephants balancing ... okay, so they are not grey

I had fallen in love with the Unforgettable Elephant in the Sew Everything book and had been looking for a while to find the right fabric. I eventually settled on a flowery corduroy with pink ears. The idea was to cut it out one night and sew it the next. Despite being a little tired I plodded along and what did I discover the next morning? Well, I had 2 right sides instead of 1 right side and 1 left side, because instead of doubling the fabric I had cut it separately in order to line up the flowers that would be the eyes and since I was tired ...

Anyway, since I am striving to be a lemonade kinda gal I decided to make two elephants instead, which was a good thing, because the second one was decidedly better then the first one.

I left off the buttons for the eyes, because the flowers were enough. I also I knew for the second one that I needed to make the seam allowance on the trunk as small as possible in order to give the elephant the biggest trunk possible and I added a seam to give the legs more stability.

Isn't it beautiful?

My daughter has no preference for either, instead she is grateful of her every growing 'My Mummy Made It' collection. My son has requested one for himself, albeit in not so 'girly' colours :-)

a cloak fit for a princess

I have put myself on a fabric diet. I will not buy any more fabric until I have used up a substantial part of my stash. It's not that I regularily spent lots of money of fabrics, but I frequently pig out on remnants, because at 2m a metre, who can say no. Well, my bedroom reflects that inability to say no. It seems like there is fabric EVERYWHERE. There are also clothes that need to be altered and a crochet blanket that needs the ends to be stitched in and some yarn for another two scarfs and so on. In short it is a mess and that is actually more depressing then inspiring to sew.

In an effort to stash bust I have made a costume for my little girl out of 2 pieces of stretchy panne velvet. It frayed and shedded like mad, so there is pink fluff everywhere now :-)

It has a cloak - I am really proud of sucessfully drafting and attaching the collar

a skirt - I intended to just make a gathered skirt with a light pink trim, but I didn't have enough light fabric for that, so I made a panel skirt instead

and a little scarf - I tried out making a lettuce edge without an overlocker (serger) and it worked, yeay

She is very happy with the results of 3 days sewing and has refused to take it off for the last 3 days. I call that a sucess :-)

After this I have the greatest admirations for the mothers, who regularily create costumes for dance recitals and other competitions, because the material slips and slides and sheds and it takes time and effort to be percise and accurate with it. Onwards to the next remnant ...