making poi

my latest crafting endeavour has been to help Miss 13 make poi for her PE (physical education) assessment. This is the second set of poi that I've helped her make. My job was to tightly braid the 4 strand cord that the balls hang from.

For those of you who aren't familiar with poi, it's a traditional performing art by the Maori people of New Zealand. The poi are made up of balls hanging from flexible cords. They are held in the hands and swung in  circular patterns. Historically the poi were made from all natural plant materials. Now, people use whatever is handy. We used dacron stuffing, supermarket plastic bags, bin liners, cardboard, sellotape and wool. If anyone is interested I'm happy to post up a tutorial on making poi. Just let me know by posting in the comments section or send me an email.

They are a lot of fun to make and use!

quiet

I wish I could write about brilliant things that I've been creating. Instead it's been very, very quiet on the creative front while at home it's been a hive of activity.

With the arrival of winter, Miss 3 has been sick with a terrible cold and has spent the best part of almost 2 weeks at home recovering, Miss 13 strained her neck at netball and had to take a few days of school to recover and Mr 11 is having growing pains. On top of this I've struggled on with a nagging head cold and feel absolutely drained at the end of every day.

Suffice it to say, that my motivation to be creative is at an all time low. Hopefully I'll get back to making stuff soon, as there's a few things by the sewing machine ready to go...

a mother's day

it's breakfast in bed

 special cards

lots of hugs and kisses

and then back to

washing

dishes

shopping

and more...

all that makes us mums great!

party skirt

with the arrival of another birthday party invitation for Miss 13, there's always the usual question of what to wear? She found inspiration in the Dec 09/Jan 10 issue of Dolly magazine with a canary yellow Ladakh frou frou skirt RRP $79.95. I made a quick trip to Spotlight for some black cotton satteen, black tulle and an 18cm zip. I especially chose the satteen for it's sheen and weight. It can hold out the gathers well without going all limp. A tulle underskirt would complete the skirt.

the skirt itself was easy to make. It's basically a shortened drindl skirt made up of 3 rectangles. I think nearly every sewer I know has made one of these at the start of their sewing experience.  I put in a centred side zip that pulled to the top of the waistband edge. It gives the skirt a neater and cleaner finish. The tulle petticoat was ditched at the last minute as we both agreed it was too much frou frou and reminiscent of a ballerina tutu. It does look really great on especially since Miss 13 has a nice pair of legs inherited from her Dad.