Little Spools

Hello my friends!  I've been meaning to put this up for awhile, but didn't get around to doing it just yet. This project came about in a rather funny way, actually, so I'll tell you the whole story. I was about to dump a whole bag of stuff at the local op shop when I noticed a pair of still almost-perfect jeans sitting on top. The jeans were silently screaming, "save me pleeeeeeease". Then I remembered a tutorial I had found much earlier in a craft mag about how to turn jeans into cute overalls! So I heeded the call of the jeans (very happily!), rescued them, and brought them back home. What a great moment of inspiration! Here's a "before" picture: They're pretty basic, just a pair of dark blue denim mens' jeans from Rodd and Gunn. The overalls I mentioned actually have a skirt bottom instead of pants, modelled on the one from the Great British Sewing Bee's book Sustainable Style. However, due to a trifling discrepancy in the instructions...

Saturday, 20 February 2021 (posted on a later date) First of all, Happy Chinese New Year!  We can't believe how fast the days whizzed by - February's nearly over, and our second stall of the year is over!  (P.S. Do you like our lantern-and-fairy-light bunting? It was a special decoration piece for the occasion, as well as our outfits!) Looking back, this stall was rather slow paced and business dragged a little, despite being in the CBD, but we still came home feeling like it was worth it. And bonus points for the aircon which wasn't blowing in our faces this time round (like the previous time) since we moved up a couple of slots! We managed to escape the heat of the day and even took a couple of trips around the market to stretch our legs. It was a full house and all the stalls were incredibly unique and filled with amazing stuff! A favourite among them all: the one opposite us, selling handmade macrame decor.  As some of you might guess, our masks did make an appearance...

Hey friends!  This is another small post to record a memorable experience we've just gone through. As most of you know, especially those in Western Australia, it's been a pretty worrying week! A snap lockdown for a week with barely a day's notice is definitely not something I'm used to. But throw in a mandatory mask rule, and suddenly a creative pathway has opened. Thanks, Mr McGowan! I've been sewing masks for a while: they were recently introduced as a new product at Little Spools' market stalls. We found a free pattern on the Spotlight website and tried it out in three different sizes. It worked pretty well for the first round of samples so we made them an official product!  On Sunday night we posted a reply to a Facebook post that was asking if anyone in the local community was selling handmade reusable masks. With a minimal-profit goal to support as many people in the area as we could, we decided to sell each mask for $6. Since so many people had replied to...

 Hey guys! This is a really short post, but I just wanted to show you two little dolls I made a while ago using Sweet Softies' Baby Bean Doll crochet pattern. It uses the amigurumi method to whip up a fast, versatile and beginner-friendly doll base. So far it's my favourite and each doll took about a day to make.  I borrowed some tips she gave to make the girl doll (Anne of Green Gables), then decided to wing it and improvise on my own design for the guy doll (Gilbert, from the series too). They turned out better than I expected, haha! Here's a closeup of them: Aren't they adorable? His legs are a little wonky but I'm surprised at how well her apron turned out.  The hardest part was braiding her hair because it was so fiddly. I also added a neckscarf to jazz his outfit up because the shirt and pants looked a bit basic.  (P.S. I also skipped safety eyes and did the embroidered versions instead because I didn't have any on hand. In my opinion safety eyes look way ...