I'm sick of putting 'frou frou' into the titles of my posts. Will anyone notice if I stop?

Yay for thrift store adventures!

Generally, I've only found utter crap it this particular shop, and it seems to be frequented by men in long, heavy woolen trench coats (this is in the middle of summer by the way), but today I found these:




Four soup bowls. I dream about turning up to Antiques Roadshow with them, and finding out they're worth a squillion dollars and saying, 'oh, the value doesn't matter. I'll never sell them. You see, my cat just loves having his biscuits from them'.

Minisnap, where have you been all my life? I need your FrouFrouOsity in my life.

1. Martha rocks.

2. So it reasons that anyone she likes also rocks.

3. She likes Oy Vey.

4. Oy Vey definitely rocks.

5. Oy Vey likes Minisnap.

6. Now I like Minisnap.

7. Thanks Martha and Oy Vey. You guys ROCK.

Frou frou advice for life and sewing.

Eliminate the "shouldas" from your sewing life. Has a project descended into that abyss from which it shall never emerge? Write. It. Off. Don't let it hang around your sewing room like some Dickensian ghost. Give it away, cut it into quilt squares, mash it up for papermaking, hold an unfinished-object-swap with all your sewing friends, heck, throw it out or burn it if you have to -- I don't care what you do with it, but once you get to the point where thinking of it makes you feel guilty and self-flagellating, it is not a "unfinished project" but a curséd albatross. Sewing is no longer something people need to do to survive on the frontier [if you ARE on the frontier, pls ignore this part]; it's a FUN HOBBY. Vigorously expunge the parts that aren't fun. So you screwed up. So what? Bury the evidence, deny, deny, deny, and move ON.

Thanks A Dress A Day. You've just lifted about 6 weights off my shoulders. I'm off to start the bonfire now.

What's going on in the world frou frou?

John Campbell is not wearing a tie tonight. I repeat, JOHN CAMPBELL IS NOT WEARING A TIE TONIGHT.

Is this the first horse of the apocalypse?

Frou frou comes in different forms; being stalked by Nikki is one of them

I've been fortunate to be stalked by the wonderfully entertaining Nikki. Ahhh, such good times over lunch at the Matterhorn. And it was a lovely reprieve from my sleepless haze.

I even got to check out her latest batch of knitting - gorgeous! And we agreed that even though I want to steal the lovely Hannah to play dress-ups and tea parties, I won't.

I popped into the best fabric shop in Welly on my way home and picked up some stunners (spending twice my fabric budget; oops, but I blame it all on Remy!).

This is silk. Rather Hundertwasser, yes?


This is some crazy velvety something with a border print. I've started cutting this one for a little winter jacket. I've got some black and white silk for the lining.


I know I'm a more is more kinda girl but this one is, um, 'more' even for me. At least the colours are restrained. I'm thinking girls' dresses, possibly with sashes. Hahaha! Like that? One minute I'm saying the fabric is too much; the next I'm making dresses with SASHES, because, obviously, sashes are never too much.


This one will be the lining for another hoodie, this time a winter one with a black cashmere outer. Yum!

Bananas and chocolate; froufrouish goodness

Banana cake with chocolate ganache. Mmmm, yeah.

Couture techniques on kids' clothing is uber frou frou

As I've said before, I plan to use more couture techniques this year, and I'm starting with matching the pattern on fabrics at the seams (does that make sense? My brain is such mush at the moment but this isn't a poor me post, no, no, no!).

For my first attempt I'm going to use the Zambesi fabric I bought yesterday and some black cashmere wool blend to make a winter kids' jacket.

These are the blocks I made for my kids' jackets:

The only one that needs to be on a fold is the back block so all I have to do is get the centre of the fabric lined up with the fold. Easy!

I'll just do the arms so that they have the same pattern on each. Pretty easy because no one will see inside the arms (unless they are very tricksy customers who turn the jacket inside out before they buy it, and I'm not sure I want customers who are going to be tricksy).

Not so easy is the hood. I want to make it look like there is just the one piece instead of two, so I have to cut the fabric in two but match the pattern in the middle remembering to add the seam allowance.

This is what I have so far (Tama the cat is providing moral support). I'm about to cut. Wish me luck!

I think I can, I think I can, I think I can...