goodgracie.com

This is Molly. She was legless and languishing in the Woodside salvage yard before she was re-homed with me via eBay. I don’t think Molly has birthed and breastfed two babies so our measurements don’t align well - too pointy and uplifted here, a little too much booty back there. But nevertheless she is willing to stand still and remain relentlessly cheerful and supportive of my making endeavours. Just what you need in a dressmaker’s dummy.

And this stack of hats and overalls is ready to be packed and then racked at Little Bird, sunny Port Elliot. Hi, Kate!

I love, love Carly’s hearts print in red. And blue too. And the elephants. And the quality of fabric is lovely too, textured and natural. More here.

I feel tired. But the up side is there is some strength in the sun, we have a new vegie patch and a dear henhouse ready to welcome the boarders back from my mum and dad’s. The ladies have been paying their way by laying well up there, so hopefully the move won’t put them off. The henhouse is made by my dad mostly from packing pallets from my brother’s warehouse. Rats not welcome.

I’m gradually getting past my fear of sewing with knits, mainly because they are quite forgiving of my habit of sewing a new outfit in the minutes before we’re due to go out somewhere. This is a kind of super long tank top. I’m hoping nobody actually points and laughs when I wear it out of the house because I quite like it.

And this bag I also made right before going out. Because I rashly put my ‘handbag’ collection in storage during the Great Decluttering, thinking that surely I could stick to the same one for a few weeks. And no, I can’t. This is just a simple shoulder bag with a zip pocket on the front made using thrifted wool and zip and a small piece of beautiful Pippijoe hemp cotton fabric, which is lovely and thick and soft.

As a rule I don’t make softies. My few attempts have been generally sad, sorry and or floppy. I leave them to the experts who are brilliant, and clever and genius. But sometimes a softie attempt is called for and this one was a gift for a non-mobile-owning friend so she knows that I would beep her if I could. Happy birthday, Karen. XXX

Long time, no post. But it’s been busy around here. All of a sudden we bought a new house and sold the old house, and there’s been uni and real work, and shop orders to fill and the husband working all hours and still the two children to look after. But now Little Bird, Port Elliot, has hats like this one

and Nest has pinafores like this one.

We’re moving house in five weeks and then we’ll have Natural Light. Oh yes, we’ll be living in a house that was built in the actual twentieth century instead of the old colonial days.

I’ve been working on some winter versions of the good gracie staples. Asha was a good sport to model for me in 30 degree heat. Although there was ice-cream incentive. See more here.

For a newborn friend. Made from a bundle of Cloth scraps I snapped up at the beautiful Little Bird at Elliot, where, incidentally, you can now find Good Gracie pinafores, hats and pants, which I’m completely thrilled about. Port Elliot is such a pretty spot. I went for a swim by myself when I went down to see Kate the other week. It was hot (when isn’t it?) and the water was blue and sparkling and cold. I watched some kids jetty jumping, admiring their courage and also wondering where their supervision was. Then trying not to worry about that. Because bad things don’t happen all the time. And I’m not actually a teacher yet, though that’s the plan this year. If I can somehow manage to bring all the childcare, lecture and workshop planets into alignment. Writing my first essay in 11 years should be comparatively easy.

To celebrate the South Australian government’s ban on plastic shopping bags from tomorrow, this is my tutorial on making your own grocery bag from a vintage (or any kind of) tea towel. It’s really so easy a tutorial is hardly necessary, but just in case.

1. Take one vintage tea towel quietly living out its lifetime folded away in a drawer.

2. Fold in half right sides together and sew along outside edges.

3. Turn right-side out and attach two wide drill tape handles. (Fold under raw edges of tape and sew securely.)

Easy to chuck in the wash, durable, strong, just the right size and colourful. Not guaranteed to make doing the shopping any more enjoyable, but at least your groceries will look pretty.

Oh, and Happy New year!

… my grocery bag. I have a thing about those green ones. Are we solving a problem or creating a new one? Anyway, they are unstylish in the extreme. So I like to make my own. But making grocery bags is a bit boring if you have to start from scratch. So whenever I find a vintage teatowel I fold it in half, sew on a couple of drill tape handles and bingo! They are big enough to fit stuff in but not too heavy when full, and easy to chuck in the wash when they get grubby. Is there any end to how useful vintage teatowels are?!