My Little Pony jackets...

I've been getting patterns from other blogs the last while and I need to pay my dues with one of my patterns.

Before starting new sewing projects, I usually Google and find out what patterns are available (for free) or look at other blogs for inspiration. But when I Googled clothing patterns for My Little Ponies, I didn't find much in the way of apparel for My Little Ponies - instead  My Little Pony Halloween costumes.

So I got out the felt, was inspired by a little dog jacket from another toy and came up with this outfit.

As promised, here is the pattern for the little jacket. It's super easy and could easily be sewn by hand, although I used a machine.

Good luck. If you need any help, please post comments.

Now Novel, an online book writing course

If you've been wondering what I have been doing for since the beginning of the year (my friends may have noticed that I have been in hibernation for a while), you can check out the Now Novel website -  it's an online novel writing course designed to get you started quickly.

I had to learn how to program in ruby using ruby on rails (RoR) - I am a Java developer usually, so it was quite a steep learning curve, but very enjoyable.

Unfortunately I haven't had much time for sewing since I have been coding after hours, but I will put up a template for a My Little Pony jacket I made last month. Super cute!

moo is for cow

I had to share with you my latest creation. I was given a square to be made into a quilt for a friend who is expecting shortly (themed black, white and red) and came up with this cow (the ears stick out, the fabric is furry and the bow can be tied). It's a very sweet idea for a baby shower and it will be interesting to see the end product. If my mom was around she would have been impressed I'm sure (she always organised her fellow teachers to sew activity books for the babies born to their colleagues).

Throwing away stuff

Yesterday I got that sinking feeling when I realised I had given away or thrown away two things I desparately needed for my DIY project. It was one I had been talking about for ages - turning my laptop (bought 2nd hand in 2000) into a digital photo frame... The lifehacker post Most popular DIY projects of 2009 had once again gotten me inspired. I started cleaning up (uninstalling all the programs I wouldn't require) and then when it came to transferring the programs I had downloaded it all hit me: I had thrown away the dialup modem attachments, given away the only USB stick drive I had installed on the laptop (it's running Windows 98 which requires USB drivers), and thrown away those good old stiffy disks (3 1/2" floppies). Arrrggghhhhhhhhhh.

City living is eco

I've been helping out the caretaker in our apartment building. He digs through the rubbish looking for cardboard and glass, and finally the body corporate has asked everyone to separate those and he will collect. Unfortunately this is purely a cost driven exercise for this bloke, so he isn't interested in anything else of limited value, but I was thinking of starting a compost heap (a friend of mine is organising a worm one in her block). This got me to thinking how it's so much easier to co-operate when you live in close quarters... city living can be eco sometimes. All we need is lift sharing or car sharing and then we're sorted. Hmmm..

Fabrics from Uganda

I had a work conference in Entebbe, Uganda this week which was great. I got to meet some people I have been working long distance with for the past month or so, and of course I managed to sneak in some fabric shopping in Kampala one afternoon!! See photo of my catch(es)

Summer time... hats!

The other day I mentioned making a sun hat for my little girl. It's summer here now, so having some protection is essential.

I know the current style is to make a tutorial with photos, but sometimes I find a sketch is clearer, so this is my first experiment.

Baby sunhat pattern ages 6 months to 2 years

By the way the photos is taken by a friend of mine who used the application poladroid to get the retro feel. Love it!