Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

Kelly

Buttons, bandanas and bracelets!

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More new hand printed linen buttons to tempt you with!

All from husband’s lino blocks.

Such a pretty blue methinks.

And some bandanas – hand dyed, printed or painted of course!

Random fact: my Etsy shop has never been as well stocked as it is right now šŸ™‚

And aside from all things Etsy but on the side of all things creative, look what the girls and I did with a few yarn scraps and some old beads. Cute?

Free post

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Postage is free within Australia in my cloth pad shop for the whole month of November! (Menstrual cups are excluded.)
Hopefully I’ll be stocking some new ones over the next few days, it’s getting tough to keep up šŸ™‚

Coffee painting

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I’ve been following Art projects for Kids for inspiration and ideas. I decided that the coffee painting looked like fun so I brewed a little coffee paint and away we went!

The coffee was quite weak on paper and then I remembered I had some Parisian essence in the pantry. The contrast of the weaker brown coffee and the very strong essence was beautiful and the girls came up with some really interesting paintings. They loved the novelty of painting with coffee too.
Yesterday was All Saint’s Day and our homeschool  group celebrated this morning by having a saints dress up day. So, from left to right we have Saint Lucia, Saint Bernadette and Saint Therese!

A little upcycling

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We often receive donations of clothing from others, which is really lovely and very kind, but often we have to pass the clothes on or make some adjustments due to immodest styles or slogans.
Lovely dress, lovely fabric, innapropriate style for a young lady.

Ditto.

Easy fix. Cut off the bodice, make a waist casing, insert elastic and you have a pretty, flouncy skirt.

Ditto šŸ™‚

Smaller sized apron

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The lovely Baukje likes my apron tute but wants to make a small apron for a grandchild turning 2 soon. So, here are the measurements you will need to make a smaller apron.

Size 2

Bodice – 8″x 5″ – Cut 1 main fabric, 1 lining
Band – 21″ x 2″ – Cut 1 from contrast fabric
Skirt – 35″ x 11″ – Cut 1 main fabric
Bottom hem – 35″ x 2.5″ – Cut 1 from contrast
Back ties – 20″ x 3″ Cut 2 from contrast
Neck ties – 20″ x 2.5″ – Cut 2 from contrast

Best of luck with it Baukje šŸ™‚

Oh, and a huge welcome to my newest followers, it’s so very lovely to know I’m not just talking to myself here!

Little girl’s apron tutorial

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To fit approximately size 5, but is also multi fit.
Start with:
From main fabric –
11 x 7.5 ” – Cut 2 (bodice)
45 x 13.5″ – Cut 1 (skirt)
From contrasting fabric – 
25.5 x 3″ – Cut 1 (waist band)
45 x 2.5″ – Cut 1 (bottom of skirt)
24 x 3″ – Cut 2 (waist ties)
22 x 2.5″ – Cut 2 (neck ties)
*Please note that I refer to serging as overlocking throughout the tute (cos I’m Aussie!)
Take all the ties and press them in half. Open out, then press each long edge in 1/4 inch. Press one end in 1/4 inch also. Fold over in half again.
Topstitch down the length of both sides of each tie (including across the short edge you folded in) Overlock the short raw edges that you didn’t fold in on each tie.
Pin the neck ties 1/2″ in from the sides of one of the bodice pieces. Place the other bodice piece on top with right sides facing. Pin, then stitch around 3 sides, leaving the bottom open.
Turn right sides out and press. Topstitch around the 3 sides.
Take the skirt piece and the bottom skirt piece. Sew them together, right sides facing. Overlock the raw seams, then press open. Overlock the sides and bottom of the skirt also.
Run 2 lines of gathering stitches along the top of the skirt. Gather up until it is the same length as the waistband. Pin the waistband to the top of the skirt, right sides together.
Now take the bodice. Measure and mark the centre of the skirt and place the bodice in the centre, on top of the waistband which will be wrong side up. The bodice will be right sides facing with the skirt. Pin on and remove pins from underneath where you pinned on the waistband so that you don’t sew over them!
Sew along the waistband and over the bodice from one edge of the skirt to the other. Overlock the raw seams.
Press. Now topstitch the top of the waistband to the bodice, sewing along the line you made previously. No need to topstitch the full length of the waistband, just at the bodice to attach them together.
Take the waist ties and sew to the edge of the waistband on each side.
Your apron now looks like this. The last step is to fold in the overlocked edges on each side of the skirt and topstitch. When you fold in the edges the ties will face outward and will be caught in the stitching. Add an extra short line of stitching to the tie to secure it more to the waistband if you wish.
Now fold up the hem and stitch.
Lastly, give it to a little girl and make her smile!
I hope you enjoy this tutorial and make lots of pretty little aprons. I’d love to see what you make šŸ™‚
You can use this tute for personal use and to make aprons to sell, provided you acknowledge me, Kelly Casanova as the original author. 
I’d really appreciate you letting me know of any mistakes or improvements – I’m no expert at writing tutes!

More buttons

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The rest of the hand printed linen buttons are listed and available to buy now.
I couldn’t resist putting these quirky ones in šŸ™‚

If you like what you see, pop over to my Etsy shop for more photos and details.
Thanks for visiting and a happy and blessed weekend to you all!

Melbourne Aquarium

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My Dad very kindly gifted us a family pass to the aquarium and we went along this week.

These little guys are so cute!
We did go when it first opened about 10 years ago and we were really impressed with how much it’s improved.

Aren’t jellyfish the most majestic creatures?

I really recommend a visit if you haven’t already, there is so much to see and the huge glass room and tunnel are such a highlight. Some of the rays were absolutely massive and it’s a wonderful experience to watch them floating overhead.