The Tuesday Afternoon Club. June report.

There have been so many wonderful ideas shared and The Swap Party as well over at The Tuesday Afternoon Club.  Now and then I have a post here for the ladies without Facebook.  This gives us an extra dose of hand made goodness!

Firstly we have Cookie.  I am excited about this one.  This tiered skirt is very like a skirt both my girls loved when they were little.

Best of all Cookie made it from some fabric from sheets she got for 25c each from the thrift store.  And she would have miles of fabric for other projects!    Now here is the pattern which you can make in any size...

Here's the formula for the skirt. Measure the waist at the natural waistline. Multiply that measurement by 1.5. for the second tier multiply the original waist measurement by 2. For the third tier multiply by 2.5. Next decide how long you want the skirt to be from you waist down. Divide that number by 3 in  order to get the length of each tier. Now add about an inch to the width of each tier  to allow for seam allowance. 

1st tier -- see the side seam and then turn under the top to make a casing, leaving space to put the elastic in later. For the girls I would probably use elastic that's about 3/8  inch wide. So make the casing accordingly. For myself I use 1 inch non-rolling elastic and make the casing 1 1/4 inches.

2nd tier-- sew side seam and then gather at the top and pin to the bottom of the first tier placing the gathers evenly.

3rd tier--see the side seam. Turn up the bottom hem about 1/4 inch, press and then fold over itself. Stitch up on the machine. Hem done.  Gather the top and attach to the bottom of second tier. 

Cut elastic same size as waist measurement and run it through the casing. Overlap it and see down. Close the casing.  It's finished!!!.

Thank you so much Cookie!  I will be making these up for the girls.  They will love them! 

Next Cookie made bowl cosies. They are so good as they both keep a bowl of food warmer and stop you burning your hands.  The solution too when you are having a bowl of soup on the couch or sick in bed.

Beautiful gift bags, cards and gift boxes...

The box is filled with homemade fudge! 

And Dandelion Honey! 

Cookie you always come up with so many beautiful things.

Jen in NS worked on knitted projects.  Her knitting is so divine my Aunt went to great lengths to get her hands on some!  In the end mittens travelled from Nova Scotia to South Australia!  

Look at this wonderful work.   It all looks so warm and cozy.  Just divine Jen.

Chloe made the cutest Easter little cakes.  

She found good packaging boxes in the cheap shop which made them look wonderful for gifts.

Clare made bubble bath and filled gorgeous containers from the op shop.  How lovely it looks!  Clare your photo looks like it is straight out of a magazine!

So many lovely ideas!  I hope I have not forgotten anyone... it has been just ages since I did one of these posts.  As it is this is late in the day.  I had a day going in to town for supplies.  I started feeding lambs and the calf at 7am and then next thing I needed to bath the little lamb she was in such a serious mess.  I have never bathed a sheep before.  It didn't do a lot for me getting out the door on time!  Anyway she didn't seem to mind at all and wagged her tail even.  And it turns out sheep shake off water exactly the same as dogs do when they do that big shake after a bath!  Lucky I was not dressed yet just in my dressing gown.  Now the worlds grubbiest lamb is white as snow!   So this is how my day went and here I am posting late!

I hope your week is going well!   If you are able come over to the Facebook group and see what everyone has been making plus some op shop finds!   We are almost mid year now.  I am on track for Christmas and Birthdays provided I keep going at the same pace!

See you on Friday! xxx

The Tuesday Afternoon Club. A post from Kelley.

This week I want to share a letter from Kelley.  Her crafts and gifts are always just gorgeous and have a way of being incredibly special yet so inexpensive!   Truly inspiring and creative.  So over to Kelley I am sure this will bless your heart!  

Using scraps from a nightgown/robe set and a skirt I’d made, plus lavender bedsheet scraps, I made hats for my little granddaughter.

I made yo-yos with more scraps.

Inspired by some I saw online, I made these sets of felt bunny hair (alligator) clips for my granddaughters.

Using an old Mary Engelbreit calendar and a 70 year-old children’s book, I made Mother’s Day cards for my girls.  (Our older daughter is expecting #2!)  I did some French knots on the Engelbreit “wallpaper.”  Inside, I copied a passage from Louisa May Alcott’s  Little Women, forming a little book.

I read Alcott books to our girls when they were little.  During some passages, tears streamed down all three of our faces!  Here is the passage I copied for my girls’ cards:

Finally, I embroidered these Mother's Day cards. They too were inspired by a card I’d seen online.  The two on the right will be mailed to Dave’s and my moms.

Again, inside my own mother’s card, I copied a line from Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women:

Isn’t that precious?! *tears*

Thank you Kelley!  

And so you see how much sentiment can make the most special and personal gift. Not something you can find in a store!  xxx

The Tuesday Afternoon Club, Kelsey's market stall and chickens.

Last year we saw how Kelsey had turned her crafting into a small business when she opened her Etsy store Spring Creek Loft.  I think this is good for us to see as the option of extra income from the things we make is a very good option to have.  Now Kelsey has expanded and is attending some local markets.  This was her first week...

I think you will agree she has her stall looking so pretty and appealing.  If I was there I would be drawn to it!

She made a ladies version of tool belts and hanging up they made her stall stand out also.

I said I thought these could also be adapted to be egg collecting aprons!  I have seen them with a row of little pockets for eggs! 

Kelsey grew all sorts of little plants to sell..

And made hand scrub..

Kelsey has expanded her chicken collection and is planning to sell eggs.  She has different varieties of hens so she gets pretty colour eggs such as blue, brown, green and speckled.  Oh my goodness! 

And she has chickens! 

So there is a lot of industry going on here!  It is just lovely!  I am pretty easily led  when it comes to chickens so Kelsey has really encouraged me to get more!    And now I have "hatched" my plan with Allie and I am waiting on the bantams to go broody again.  

There are quite a few Bluebirds who have made a sideline from their crafts, cooking, sewing, card making, egg sales and preserves.   Sometimes it doesn't take much to make a big impact on the weekly budget.  Pennies saved and pennies earned both help!  I think very often we have a talent or resource sitting right under our noses and we don't even realise.  In a similar way to making our own gifts it takes some confidence building sometimes to set up an online store, sell our goods at a market or just show people what we are making!   This is why looking around at the market place is a great idea as Rebecca and Alison do.  You will see things and be surprised by the prices, what is selling well right now and think "I could make that!!"   

Thank you Kelsey for sharing your photos!!  Next week we are seeing what Kelley has been up to! 

Last week I did forget someone!  I had the feeling... sorry Penny!
Penny has grown in her confidence to give her cooking as gifts and worked on presentation.   These are both issues I have been through... gaining confidence to give things I have made and good packaging has a lot to do with it.   Penny made gluten free biscuits (cookies) and the packaging is lovely.  I told her here in a store I saw a packet of 6 GF biscuits for $16!

Penny also made a Raspberry and Almond cake for a friend and a Tea cake for a Hens Party...

I think cooking is a wonderful gift.  It is a treat and often the gift of help also! 

Now I am off to post on The Tuesday Afternoon Club group.   It is very motivating to meet up every Tuesday! xxx

The Tuesday Afternoon Club, 9th April, 2019.

The Tuesday Afternoon Club has grown and grown!   If you would like to join in the main club is here.  It is a private Facebook group so that you can post what you are making without your friends and relatives seeing their gifts!   It is also a friendship group and we are holding a Swap Party in a few weeks time.

Now and then I post for some of the ladies who do not have Facebook here and this gives us even more ideas and inspiration!   The next two weeks I have additional posts from both Kelsey and Kelley.

Today first we have Jen in NS.   Jen made knitted mitts for my Aunt!  I had written to Jen as my Aunt was mad over her stunning knitting especially the cables.  And Jen made my Aunt these cream mittens!   This was just so lovely. So they traveled all the way from Nova Scotia to Adelaide!
Also here is a watch cap that Jen made for Mission to Seafarers and trimmed and embroidered kitchen towels.

Plus slippers to put away for Christmas time for her youngest daughter...

Jen you are amazing and your kindness to my Aunt was really a big blessing to her!  Thank you!

Next we have Tania.  Tania took the pincushions several of us have been making and made them into a bouquet of flowers.  This could be lovely as a way of giving one to each guest and decorating a table at the same time, like a bridal shower maybe!

Beautiful idea Tania! So pretty!

Cookie has been making little bunnies for Easter and all from fabric scraps.  She used a free pattern found on The Enchanting Rose blog.  These are her gifts for all the toddlers in the family.

I thought this also might make a lovely table centrepiece, or bunnies might be beautiful place markers on a set Easter table... so many possibilities! 

Kaye had been telling me she was going to begin card making.  Next thing she is making gorgeous cards like this....

And lovely bookmarks like this!

Kaye they are just so pretty! 

Also Aly had been telling me how she was learning to sew.  I love it when I hear about leaning new skills!   She has already learned so many sewing techniques as you can see here in her Christmas tree...

And her table runner...

Aly you are doing the most wonderful job you should be so proud! 

This leads me to... if there is a craft you want to learn just do it!  I hear so often how someone wishes they could crochet or whatever... really mostly you are a day away from basically knowing how to do something like crochet.  After that it just takes practice!   You can find free tutorials on almost anything, You Tube is my usual source of instructions. 

I hope I did't miss anyone!  Next week we are going to see what Kelsey has been up to as she has been creating so much that apart from her Etsy store she has had a market stall.  Her ideas were so good I thought many of us might be inspired by them.  the following week we are seeing what Kelley has been making and you will love it!

I hope you have had a good week of making and creating, using things up and setting things to good use! xxx

The Tuesday Afternoon Club, 19th March, 2019.

This week we have some photos from some of the Tuesday Club members who like to post here rather than in the Facebook group.  So even more ideas to inspire us!
 It is a busy day!  I am off to see the girls with Mum after I report my crafts, use it up and set things to good use.    If you would like to join The Tuesday Afternoon Club come over and sign up  here.  The goal is to encourage one another to make all we can and especially use up resources we have to fill our give cupboards, to decorate our homes and to help others.  We especially meet up and report in on Tuesdays!  So I love Tuesdays! 

Here today we have a photo from Jen in NS.

Jen is just about famous amongst us all for her stunning knitting, sewing and cards. As usual Jen this is all beautiful!

Lorna has been so productive making things for her new home including curtains.  Lorna also has an Ebay shop and you can find it if you look up Sewingcreations15.  She has been making bread bags...

I have to mention that I have tried so many things to keep lettuce fresh and have found a bag like this placed in the crisper is just AMAZING for keeping leafy greens fresh!

Also sleep masks...   

Lorna makes them many layers thick so they truly keep out any light.  There are so many things Lorna makes for her shop!  also she sells her garden seeds and herbs.  So industrious! 

Clare sent me a photo of her giant pumpkins!  In another photo her dogs were next to these and they are miles bigger than the dogs!  They are HUGE!  Clare previously shared a photo of a wheel barrow of giant sunflowers.  I asked her what is in her soil as the things she grows are gigantic!  I would love to grow these!!

I love pumpkins and thing they are beautiful.  I am hoping to be able to have my own pumpkin patch next spring, we need to improve the soil in the area I have room to grow them then I am set.  

Jen in NZ completed a blanket for her daughter.  This is just beautiful and her daughter loves it!  A project of this size is such a gift of love.  It is amazing Jen.  I am about a quarter the way on mine! 

Jen my Mum made me a pink and white rug when I was little... about the same size.  Chloe has it now! We still have it!  It is still in perfect condition too! 

Tanya made her sons some shorts.  They love camouflage print!

And one son a pillow with his initial on it...

She also made her little girl some very pretty skirts..

My girls loves skirts like this as they loved to be able to twirl and dance in them! 

Beautiful work Tanya.  You are so busy and achieve so much!

As it has been a few weeks now I am terrified I have forgotten someone! I hope not. 

Thank you all for sharing your photos!  There is so much we can do!  Busy hands make happy hearts! 

Have a wonderful day! xxx

The Tuesday Afternoon Club. Rebecca's Post.

Last week we had a report from Alison who along with Rebecca founded our Tuesday Afternoon Club with their get togethers to make all their gifts on Tuesdays!  You will find so many ideas in these posts.  This week we have Rebecca's post.  I love the way the girls approached this!  Over to Rebecca...


Motivated by Annabel’s discussions on making gifts through the year so that by Christmas we would have a stash available to give away, two or three years ago Alison and I started getting together on every second Tuesday to create and craft.  Together was more fun, we shared the work and doubled the motivation, and between us we came up with a much bigger range of ideas.  I think last year was our best, so I would love to share what we did and what we plan for this year?

Our first step was to actually go shopping – but not to spend - to research.  We visited some of the top end giftware shops and looked, examined, smelled and considered, seeking products that we could make with our skills and resources and which our recipients would want.  We took notes on the packaging and which scents we liked and what we already knew how to do. 

We also hit the op shops looking for resources – cups to make soy candles in, sheets for fabric and even wrapping materials.  We of course also got on our computers, looking for ideas and tutorials – Pinterest was fantastic for this.  Alison made us a shared Pinterest board to make it easy to share ideas.  

Every two weeks we tackled a new project – soy candles, lotion bars, lip balm, soap and cards, so that by October we each had a cupboard full of goodies to give away, and then we focused on  

presentation – and if I had to say what was the best thing I learned last year in this project, it was how important how the gift looked was when we gave it away.  For instance, I have come to understand that people assign a different value to “homemade” versus “handmade”, and we considered this when we made our labels.  The last few months of the year, our crafty Tuesdays were spent looking at ideas how to wrap our soaps and lotion bars, and how to label our candles etc.  We found a stash of beautiful paper and card that my husband had rescued from being thrown away several years ago, and this made boxes of many kinds, labels, sleeves for soap or sewing items and bags to put them in.  We bought little brooches like Annabel uses, and pretty ribbon – not spending much, but making our gifts look amazing!

I have had so many positive comments from our gifts last year, including several who suggested  

we could go into business – I took that as the ultimate compliment towards our aim of trying to look professional with our product. Also, having had a discussion about how interested he was in environmentally sustainable food packaging on a school trip, I was pleased to be able to give my son’s 62-year-old male teacher a washable sandwich wrap and snack bags – filled with homemade spicy nuts and fudges as an end of year “thank you” present.

It was exciting to see how well received they were and that we were able to give away "Artisan" products that didn't feel or look like "budget" items - yet they were.
As well as gifts we also had a few craft days that were just for us or our families - when our own card stocks were getting low for example.
We also tried a few new things like making cheese together - Alison taught me how to make feta and I taught her to make mozzarella - we must do that again soon.

So what do we have planned for this year?  I am pleased to say we still have lots of ideas. 

After last year’s success, we will be making soap again (I gave away nearly all of mine for Christmas), and we may be brave and try colouring some this year?  I’m also keen to look at making some good stain removing laundry soap?

I would like to try making vanilla essence – found these cute little bottles at an op shop (unused, still with price tags) I am dying to use.

New Zealand is banning single-use plastic bag from the middle of this year – so roll-up shopping bags seem like a good present.  I made some years ago that I use all the time, so we will be making some of these.  Lightweight, convenient, simple to make – and a good way of using some of my fabric stash, of which I have too much.  Some will also be made of shower-proof fabric, so useful for messier items like meat.

The lip balm (pictured above) was a success last year so we will make some again.  We will probably invest in some more of the tubes as they are so convenient to use, and it is nice to have a product with such lovely ingredients in them.

Annabel and other Bluebirds have created some beautiful gift tags, so we will be making some of these.

We have lots of fabric we can use, so as well as the shopping bags, there will be several sewing projects.  One of these is little pot plant bags.  I made some low bags (from the cut-off legs from a pair of jeans!) to fit inside a drawer to store my daughter’s hair ties in, but taller versions with a pot inside would look sweet.  We plan to do cuttings and seedlings of basil, parsley and rosemary, in time for Christmas.

 Also to be sewed are these bread storage bags. They exactly fit one of my breadmaker machine 

loaves, are quick and easy to make, and as Alison suggested, would make great hostess gifts (with or without a loaf of fresh bread).

Garden Pat has posted photos of her lovely soup bowl cozies – Alison made me this one for

Christmas a year ago and I love it, so these are going on our list to make.

On our list also are bowl covers – we have both been playing with different ideas and ways to make them – I have bought some toggles to make some with, which will hopefully make them really adjustable.

We still have plenty of the PUL fabric which we made some snack bags and sandwich wraps with last year, so we will be making more of these.  Great for popping a snack in a bag or pocket and then throw in the washing machine when they get dirty.

We still need to plan some baby presents to make – always nice to have in the cupboard to bring out when it is needed.

So it looks as though we will have lots to keep us busy crafting this year.


Thank you so much Rebecca!  How exciting to have so much year ahead of us!  It is wonderful you and Alison have such a good friendship and you help each other so much.  I think both a deadline and regular dedicated days help with getting so much done.  Also having a buddy to work with is very motivating.  

The Tuesday Afternoon Club can be your buddy and we will all support your efforts to make your gifts and things for the home, set things to good use and use things up.  You can find us over here... 
The Tuesday Afternoon Club.