Sew Darn Tired

My niece came back from Japan yesterday and leaves tomorrow for New Zealand. She came past this afternoon to say goodbye in between seeing friends in town and going out for dinner with her parents and brother. After we had some afternoon tea and she showed me a couple of things she bought for the weather in New Zealand (which will be a lot colder than Japan and here where currently it is about 26-28 deg in the day time). She showed me some togs (bathers; swimsuit) she bought and mentioned that she wanted some swim shorts to go with them to wear under the wetsuit she'll have to wear when she goes caving (yikes!). So like the  yoga bag  I made a few short weeks ago, I made her a pair of swim shorts at the last minute...again! She chose the colours from my small stash of lycra. The hot pink was a remnant from Spotlight a couple of years ago and the navy was an Op shop find - I've made a few pairs of togs for Alex with this (another one nearly finished) and it's old but g...

Yes that is original '70's towelling. My Mum bought it in the early '70's to cover one of those click drop back couches that were covered in vinyl that was hot, hot, hot in the summer in Brisbane. However, as a mother of 5, she never got the chance so I grabbed it a few years ago. Looking for something else in my fabric bins, I found this again and gave it a wash.  It is a very good quality one - thick and soft. I love the psychedelic waves. I found perfectly matching bobbles  and some fantastic elastic that has cording running though the middle. (I put a label on the front left after I took the photos and it looks really cool). I should have taken a photo of the elastic - it's about 3cm wide and has the nylon cording throughout it evenly, but when you cut it and pull it out, there's plenty to tie up. I just made some button holes inside the 'waistband'. Basically this is just a rectangle with this elastic put on with the overlocker and then fol...