Heading Home

As I alluded recently, big things are happening in my small world. First let me give you a little history:

Near the end of 2004 my future husband and I made a huge life-changing decision. We packed our lives into two suitcases and January the following year we boarded a plane for Western Australia. It was very hard for both of us because while we were heading to exciting new job opportunities we were also leaving behind our families and our homes. There was plenty of emotion and indecision but a lot of anticipation as well. We had a 5-year plan (if we survived the first year), and then we would decide if we wanted to stay, move on, or return home. After settling in Perth life took off quick, we found a place to live and both got jobs almost immediately.

It wasn’t until my Mum visited us in 2006 2008 and bought with her my sewing machine that I really got back into sewing.

Elna 2130

In 2008 I also met Sandra and together we started Perth’s BurdaStyle Sewing Club.

Typical BSC Perth meet (but with sewing)

Suddenly I made all these incredible new friends who shared my interests and thought how I did. I really and truly got my first understanding of what friends really are. It’s a weird revelation but with Facebook suddenly connecting us all over the world I realized my “friends” weren’t those who geography, birth year and happenstance stuck me in a classroom with all those years ago. “Friends” are the people I was discovering now, who came into my life, who I chose to hang out with, they shared my hobby, my view of life.

BSC Perth 1st Birthday 2010

We are into our sixth year living here now. It’s hard to believe we’ve been here that long and it was time to make a decision. We both realised that neither of our hearts really left New Zealand so we have decided to return to our roots. Perth is beautiful but it doesn’t hold me, it’s not home. Emotions have been tugging me both directions. Despite the excitement at the prospect of returning home and getting started in the next chapter of our lives I knew it would be sad to say goodbye to my Perth friends.

We made a plan, it had a 2 year window for us to start preparing ourselves financially, mentally and emotionally but then suddenly the decision was made for us.

My husband received a job offer too good to refuse and now it is all on. Men come next week to pack up our stuff, put it in a container and send it to NZ. Wellington is our final destination and the 2 year window is now closer to 5 weeks.

Wellington from Mt Victoria – November 2009

It’s weird to tell people you’re leaving. Our real friends understand but not everyone has been able to grasp the reasoning behind our decision, they think we are mad, they simply do not understand. The last two weeks have been a crazy blur, I feel stressed, excited, nervous, happy but mostly I feel sad from saying goodbye to my wonderful sewing friends. I will miss our monthly sewing session, our spontaneous mid-week Potters runs, lunch, craft fairs and just plain old sewing together. Some groups say they ‘stitch and bitch’ but we just ‘stitched and laughed’, corny aye? But very true.

Typical Wellington Hillside

Ok, enough sniffling, the internet makes things easier and I’ll always feel like a member of BSC Perth (reporting in from Wellington no doubt). I’ll be back to visit and the girls know they are always welcome to visit me. I will take them fabric shopping in amazing creative Wellington and knock their socks off with a real coffee.

Tastes like Wellington

Now for the logistics: I will be without my sewing machines for a few months (I am guessing 2 minimum, oh the pain!) which I know I will find debilitatingly boring so I have made a list and devised a plan of what I can do to keep my fingers (actually my brain) busy.

First of all I really want to learn some crochet. I have plenty of books and several saved youtube videos to help me out so my plan is to learn and get a couple of cuties made like these:

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And seeing how that all goes maybe I’ll try a bit of (gasp) knitting 😉

From Heartfelt – Kim Hargreaves

I mean seriously, these are not your Nana’s knitting patterns. How beautiful! I have been swayed to give it a try.

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The second thing is actually several things rolled into one idea. I am dying to teach myself a bit more about pattern drafting and I’ll probably use one of these books to do it. I know I can, I just have to put my mind to it and not get distracted by sewing, so when I am sans machines will be the perfect opportunity. I’ve got plenty of books to read so I’m going to start with a few basic block patterns and see how I go.

In parallel with learning a bit about pattern drafting I have a few other books I want to draft some patterns from. After perfecting my basic bodice block I desperately want to try some of the things from the Pattern Magic books.

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Here are a few of my favourites:

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I also recently got hold of this really neat book called Lisette Pattern Designs

The patterns are sort of in miniature and you use the Lisette-o-graph gauge and your measurements draft the full sized pattern, sort of like this:

I’m really intrigued by this method but I have hardly found anything else online about this kind of drafting.

The book is mostly womens dresses with some really interesting details. The are also a few childrens and mens patterns aswell.

Here are a few of my favourites:

I’m really interested in how the fit will turn out.

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I’ve also been adding to my newest obsession, Enid Gilchrist books. For those of you not familiar with her she’s like the mother of Australian fashion design. During the 1950s and through to the 1970s she released several self-drafting pattern books which were very popular. I’ve grabbed myself a few off of eBay and this is my most recent one, ’70s Styles’.

You draft your own basic sloper from instructions in the back of the book based on your bust size. After you perfect that you then alter it as per each individual patterns instructions. I’ve heard her fit is particularly great so I’m looking forward to giving her drafting a go. I love the “crossovers” section and the skirts so I’ll be trying them first:

How cute is this tennis dress? It is made up from a combination of techniques in the book, Enid makes it all look so easy.

Dress bodice options

All of the above drafting I want to try and achieve using AutoCAD, a program I am familiar with through work, and if all else fails I’ll go back to old fashion rulers and pencils. If you’re interested on learning more about using AutoCAD for pattern drafting I’ll keep you up-to-date with how it goes.

The rest of my list is more bullet point and looks like this

•  Tracing new patterns from Patrones/Manequim magazine (goodbye large format copier/printer *sobs)
•  Keep filling in my fabric book
•  New blog theme – I used a simple theme to get myself started but I’d really like to find one with a bit more oomph and I might re-design my banner too. After setting up the Perth BSC blog I feel like mine looks a little plain now 😉 Watch out for a new look soon.
•  Look into Wellington sewing clubs and possibly setting up BSC Wellington…
• …Then find some ladies to sew with (If you are in Wellington and you are reading this please drop me a line, I’d love to hear from you)
•  Actually read some of my growing sewing book collection and possibly review them on my blog
•  Have a go at those shoes

That’s about it, I’ve tried to devise a list longer than it needs to be (I hope) and if I don’t get it all done then that’s cool.

Right now, up until my machines get packed away, I have two items I am desperately hoping to finish, one is a UFO, my forever jeans, I have the broken zipper unpicked and now I just need to get on with it. The second is the Manequim top that I mentioned a little while ago.

Manequim top WIP

It won’t take me long to finish, the trick is to actually photograph it as soon as it’s done 😉 but I don’t like my chances, they may end up being the first items I finish when I unpack.

So the sewing posts might be a bit light in the next month or two but stick with me, I’ll try and keep it interesting (or comical if my last crochet effort as anything to go by), normal service (if there is such a thing) will resume eventually.

Until next time,
the curious wandering kiwi xx