another knitted tee

when I find a pattern I love I tend to go overboard and make it again, straight away, before I do anything else! So here is my second knitted tee...bendigo cotton, 3.75mm needles for the top and changing to 4.00mm after the sleeves.



I also tweaked the pattern by CO 86 stitches and when its time for sleeves do 4 x 43 stitches instead of 40 for the smallest size! This is a great fit for miss keira who is a size 3/4 and the colour is perfect! Plus with bendigo's prices being as great as they are you just can't go wrong, can you????



I also whipped up a quick pink skirt in Far Far Away....we're doing well with stock of everything EXCEPT Princess & the pea blue which is now only available in packs as I'm down to 1metre and also purple unicorn is running a little low!


STOP PRESS I LOVE THIS PATTERN SO MUCH I'VE GONE AND PAID SOME MONEY TO THE NICE LADY WHO MADE THE PATTERN SO I CAN MAKE IT MYSELF......SO WATCH THIS SPACE, IF YOU DON'T KNIT YOU'LL BE ABLE TO BUY THEM! WOOHOO!

moo

cute moo cards......I was running very low on my last lot so ordered some new ones!! I love how you can choose from any designer to match your style....and that would have to be cute


And a callout to all Sydney ladies....our Sunday Craft Day is coming soon, all details here ....we'd love to have you!

more burda love

I feel a subscription coming on....Burda 7/2009 has just come out over here and I'm definitely seeing some summery things that will be quick to whip up and lovely to wear! And in case you didn't know all the patterns are included in the magazine to trace....makes it very good value! so this issue has maxi dresses


sweet shirt dress



more dress love


oversized shirt, perfect for apres swimming


fishermans pants for kiddies (and a lovely jersey pair for mummies)


ok you get the picture, I can't photograph the whole magazine but its a keeper. I know a few of you were asking where to get a copy, I get mine at my local newsagents (Warringah Mall and Manly) and have also found it at Borders Chatswood. You can get a subscription direct for about EUR66 or I've found a aubscription here too! Phew!

oh and congratulations to meika who was the 10th comment and won a pack of smocking stickers!!! just let me know your address on info@retromummy.com and I'll get something in the post to you this week!

24 hour knitted tee

You have just got to love a project you can knit up and finish in 24 hours without too much effort. This little cap sleeved tee was a breeze to knit, mine is a slim line version and I think we could go up a size actually.



but keira loves it...not that you can tell by her face. We had just finished with some serious hair detangling before church and I was not her favourite person when I asked her to do some modelling.



Pattern is here and whipped up in Bendigo's 8ply cotton (colour is inferno).....I'm going to start it in a pink today and try the next size up too. Bendigo's cotton really needs a smaller needle than recommended so I used a 3.75mm knit picks (now called knit pro according to the packet) 40cm circular.



oh and this pattern is perfect for a beginner as you knit in one piece and just cast on, cast off, simple 1x1 rib and all knit rows for the rest! too easy!

meet my new girls....rhapsody and dolly

This morning was a mini road trip as we all piled in the car and headed out to pick up some recent ebay purchases...I never say no to a good deal and since these were a third of their retail price I'm happy to have them at my house to help me with sizing, modelling and display......keira named them and tillie was very confused and baby talking to them....


and if you're going to spend a bit of time in the car you might as well do a bit of knitting. Apparently I'm a much better back seat driver when I have a bit of knitting or crochet on the go, to the point that when I offer a bit of driving 'advice' I'm now asked where my knitting is?????? men!


Well its AFL grand final day so I'm off to supervise the kiddies while retro daddy enjoys two of his favourite loves....beer and football!

simple smocking stickers...a giveaway

I'm too generous sometimes aren't I!!! I just love sharing the love and have a new gadget to show you all...smocking stickers out of Japan. I've been eyeing these off in my japanese craft magazines but hadn't found them in the shops so whats a girl to do but stock it in her own shop!



You simply stick the stickers over the area you want to smock and you follow the numbers! How easy is that. Bring your needle up and down at each number, when you're done you remove the stickers and you've smocked!!!! Each pack contains 2 sheets of 5-10 rows of stickers and I'm imagining sweet dresses, tunic tops, little purses, bags.....oh I could keep going.



I'm also waiting for yo-yo makers to be back in stock, should be in a fortnight buy I did manage to get some heart shaped ones....


WINNERS ARE GRINNERS...........CONGRATULATIONS TO COMMENT 10 meikaRandom Integer Generator
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10 Timestamp: 2009-09-28 02:29:40 UTC

Rosalie Quinlan Love

While we wait excitedly for the new Rosalie Quinlan fabric range to arrive at my store, I'm happy to say we now have Rosalie's new book in stock



This new book is just gorgeous and I can't wait to sit down and read it some more....16 projects, 52 pages of cuteness, a little bit country, a little bit retro



ranging from the small present...I see some serious jam making and stitching before Christmas going on at Casa Retro



and cute pin cushions to some lovely quilts



best of all there is lots of Grandmothers Flower Garden love going on! Well done Rosalie, you're such a clever lady and you're so darn nice too!

CWA Banana Cake Recipe

mmmmm bunkering down yesterday out of the dust storm meant that I had some time up my sleeve to bake. CWA recipes are great because they use basic ingredients that you already have in your cupboard, nothing fancy here. I do draw the line at their mock chicken sandwiches....grated cheese and mayo, not sure they would fool anyone in this house. Anyway, we tried out their banana cake as muffins and were not disappointed!



3 mashed bananas
2 Tbsp butter or marg
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups SR flour
1 egg beaten
2 Tbsp milk

cream butter and sugar, add egg and combine, then bananas, sifted flour and milk. Combine after each addition and we poured into muffin tins and baked for 25 minutes in a 180 oven but you can bake in a cake tin for about 40 minutes.

and here is the leftover shirt just to prove those cute shorts came from a daddy shirt!

dirty sky and daddy's shirt shorts

catchy, no??? well the sky is very dirty this morning and for the allergy and asthma sufferers of the house it spells a day indoors....


But last night I turned one of retro daddy's nice work shirts (he only buys them from london but has a tendency to put holes in the elbows) into some cute shorts, well they turned out as pants but daddy shirt shorts sounds cuter! It was only as I was cutting them that I realised I would get a pocket on the back too, nifty., can you see it????


They are more pyjama/home pants but since Finn totally trashed one of his lovely Country road pairs at a party at the park (and the second time he wore them) they are just what he needed! To make your own, I took a simple shorts/pants pattern (ottobre is always a good source), a man's long sleeve shirt and cut the pant backs from the shirt fronts and the pant fronts from the shirt back, sew it all up and you're done!!!


watch out retro daddy, I might sabotage some of your nicer shirts after this initial success.....oh and of course I left a few toast crumbs from breakfast on the floor and a big smudge on my camera there for effect! Just to give the impression we live in the real world, ha ha !

sharpies and winners

this is keira crafting with sharpies.....otherwise known as pins.....this was after she bought me a clump of her hair and told me 'look mummy, I got you some hair for your crafting'.....yes, we're so thrify in this house that we use our own hair in our crafts! (kidding, just kidding!)


and winners are grinners.......Becanne and Alissa drop me an email on info@retromummy.com with your pattern choice and your favourite colour.....well done and another giveaway next week when the lovely Rosalie Quinlan fabrics and new book are expected at my door......

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:

41 98 Timestamp: 2009-09-21 21:17:38 UTC

Now I'm off to attend to the sick boy.....spots are fading but now we are throwing up and cranky...

festive bunting

I know, I know, its too early to be getting all festive on you but I just couldn't help myself! I actually have christmas fabrics from japan arriving in the store next month (think little russian dolls hanging from christmas trees, I know, cute!) but I just couldn't wait to do a bit of christmas sewing now!


I also found a new spot to photograph buntings which are so tricky to photograph nicely! Retro mummy's retro bar........ahhh wood panelling, its so 1981! I was also glad to use up a bit of the cheap nasty bias binding that I picked up on ebay (cheaply) but that my machine absolutely hated as you can see by that little pucker. Last time I sewed with it the underneath of my machine decided to chew up some of it! I had actually dumped the whole pack in my scrap bin but resurrected it for the bunting but its painful to sew with.


And winner drawn tonight on the pattern giveaway to be fair to all our overseas readers who haven't got to sunday night yet! Thanks ladies for letting me know it wasn't Sunday night in your part of the world!

yo-yo addict...

Yes, my name is corrie and I'm a clover yo-yo maker addict....'hi corrie' you're all supposed to say now! Its true, I am addicted to those little plastic yo-yo makers that come from japan in all shapes and sizes


so much so that I'll be stocking them in my shop soon so that I can satisfy my addiction, the latest japanese magazines tell me that there is a butterfly one coming, oh heaven help me!


today I'm adding them to headbands.....they take a little longer than the regular yo-yo's but are just perfect!

feels like summer

wow we've been having some warm weather here in sydney.....so it was a perfect day for fish and chips down at the beach.....



keira just loves a good day out as a family and we all love fish and chips (mind you we're having salad for dinner just to balance it all out in terms of healthy eating!). Do you notice keira's little hair clip,



I'll show you more of them tomorrow whipped up with another new yo-yo gadget.......



hope you've entered my giveaway and of course my lovely blogless readers can enter!!!

brotherly love

yesterday we welcomed a new little brother to the family.....an overlocker!!!!!!!!! pretty cute, no? I like that I can pick up the phone, order it and have it here the same day without leaving home!!!! nice service, nice prices so its win win and I can have nice neat seams and easy nappies! I was really taken with the easy threading which is oh so important in overlocker land and an instructional dvd, sigh if only everything in life came with that dvd.....


and since it feels like the middle of summer here in sydney at the moment, I whipped up a quick skirt to potter around the house in. Nothing fancy, won't win me a spot on project runway but its cute, comfy, light, quick and cost me next to nothing!


I think I'll whip up another one today a wee bit smaller!

its another giveaway

yes time for another giveaway! I'm so busy looking after little mr chicken pox (who looks like he's been taken from a page of a medical journal) that there has been no time for sewing or showing you beautiful things I've been making...



All done! Thanks ladies for entering...keep an eye out for next week's giveaway!

far far away...phew

Yes....phew, the entire range of Far Far Away is now up in the store to purchase individually....that was a big job! If you can't decide, then you can purchase the entire range in fat quarters (metric) or half metre pieces......



don't laugh.....some of you have done that already!

ready for the library

Its been a while since I've stocked cute canvases but they are just made for little library bags. No lining required, sturdy but easy to sew and best of all.....



done in no time and ready for Keira to take down to the library for story time! But that will just have to be next week as we're housebound with chicken pox (Finn this time). So there's nothing else to do but bring the cubby into the loungeroom......



and play house! Hours of fun!

new fabrics instore today

a few super cute fabrics arrived today..... if you have boys you'll be happy because there are trains, cars, trucks and robots now that I have a little boy to sew for!



Anyone else excited about the final of the 'The Farmer wants a wife' tonight? or is it just me? I love this show every season and I know it will be one long drawn out episode full of lots of dairy farmers ad breaks..... but I'll be parked on the couch , making yo-yo's and watching it!

weekend productivity

now that its warming up, I can sew at night time in the back room and not freeze to death! So last night I whipped up a few things.....a simple linen skirt, less than half a metre does this little skirt in no time!



a french apartment skirt or the barbie skirt as keira likes to call it as the little ladies look like the barbie logo...this is actually her favourite!



and I turned some pre-shirred fabric from last summer into a quick dress for keira! she loves it and I know its just a poly/cotton fabric that won't last too long in the wash but its so cute and pre-shirred is a huge time saver for me! Oh her dear little face in this picture...



and then I did some store housekeeping, adding some new patterns from this lovely lady, tweaking prices and today I will list the entire range of far far away to purchase individually! no small feat I tell you!

sweet summer dresses

we are having the warmest weather at the moment so it was the perfect timing to finish off a pile of dreses I'd been working on....



I've also found the sunniest spot in the house to photograph finished items for my blog.....an unlikely spot, the twins wardrobe!

awww thankes everyone for your nice comments. I did make the pattern and sized them up myself checking on other little girls that my sizing was correct! and yes I'm hoping to do a new market in december and february along with my fabrics! good guess!

I love new gadgets!

I had a $10 spotlight voucher burning a hole in my pocket yesterday so decided to 'splash' out on a new yo-yo maker...Keira decided upon the love heart maker and I think the colour had something to do with it! so girly....



and the final product is pretty cute too, thats a regular yo-yo on the right!! I still need a bit of practice with it but they sure are addictive.



it won't replace my other yo-yo makers but for little girls its pretty cute! miss tillie is modelling a 000 singlet, delicate little thing that she is....



Ok back to waiting for the NRMA to arrive....my car alarm bipper thingo has died and I can't get into the car without activating the alarm for what seems like eternity!! And its loud and annoying and makes everyone cry including mummy when she can't turn it off!

I want to sew!

is it the weekend already? Can retro daddy mind my little ones and let me do some sewing



So many ideas with all the lovely new fabrics in store today



oh and magazines...I just want to keep it all to myself!



better wait till the weekend and till then get back to my home duties!



Free new fabric pieces in every order received this week!!!