A quick catch-up

I’m a bit shocked that it’s been a month since I last posted, that’s how quickly time has been flying by for me lately!

Work and life occasionally just become ridiculous and something has to give. I won’t bore you with details, this is a sewing blog after all but the good news is that last week I had a holiday and I am feeling super refreshed and now I feel like I am finally on top of all things so watch out world! 🙂

So, in brief, here is what I got up to these last few weeks:

I bought this sewing machine:

Barbie! And it’s wind up, it really “sews”!

I also bought this one:

Baby Singer – will post more about her soon

My newest cross stitch project is becoming recognisable:

Come to the dark side…

I worked on a vintage blouse as a combined WSBN Teal Deal/TMS Vintage Pattern project and sort of failed – Time was not on my side and also I think it will be too big but I have promised to salvage it for a second group photo shoot in November with the two other girls that missed out:

Completed night classes in NZSL 1a and enrolled in 1b – starting Oct 16th:

Yeah!

Got serious with planning our kitchen renovation:

Realised I had too many unfinished projects lying around so finally finished Lady Grey and then pulled out my finished Lolita Patterns Sugarplum. I made the Sugar Plum for Indie Patterns Month as a pattern tester but have only just now gotten the go ahead to show photos on my blog…so now I need to take some photos!

Evil sewing machine is evil

I flew up to Auckland for a work conference:

Look how cute my tiny room was!

Then I went on a holiday:

Ohh volcano!

I walked up a volcano!:

Mt Tongariro – Ketetahi trail. You can just see the one of the Te Maari crater vents smoking away in the background. Last year it got grumpy and spat some big rocks out, destroying the Ketetahi hut.

Finished Vogue 1250 – need to take some photos.

Worked hard to try to finish Rainbow Swallows Shirt Dress – it just needs hemming – and again, photos – the story of my sewing-life right now!

Bought some patterns – these are not all for me!:

By Hand London goodies thanks to Penny at dressesandme.com

Then I bought some fabric – this is ALL for me!:

L to R: Black and grey geometric printed silk, some sort of lining with embossed flowers, ribbed knit, 3 meters of each, total $33.00, yeah!

Hunted through my patterns for pretty dresses for Frock-tober – Harri “helped”:

“Make this one!”

Paired some fabric with patterns and then pre washed the fabric, this caused it to rain, but I got it all dry eventually:

Pretty, pretty, pretty!

Then I traced all these patterns, I want to make ALL OF THEM!:

Camouflage Harri supervised the tracing process – it was hard work, many naps were taken:

ZzzzZZzzz…

Then she decided that my paper bin needed emptying…otherwise how else would she fit inside?:

Caught!

Harri and I agreed that as a reward for all my hard work I should cut out a dress – I chose Papercut’s La Sylphide in tiny super cute owls:

Thn I remembered that I also have this dress still waiting to be sewn up – all cut out in a beautiful silk/linen blend, oops:

And finally, last weekend, because I was not in the mood for photos and daylight savings has got me dreaming about summer, I began to plan Vege Garden v2.0:

Current Vege Garden v1.0 – I have marked out the new garden space in blue twine but then I changed my mind and drew some pictures instead.

A grand plan

Getting into the details

Then I helped hack down some trees that were too close to our retaining walls. We will re-pave the lower area, a garden shed and glass house will appear sometime in the future:

Before…

…after!

I think after my new vege beds are in I will begin to investigate the possibility of having some chickens, I think I’d quite like some chickens 🙂

And that’s about it! 🙂 Phew, regular service should resume shortly, happy sewing!

Sewing Update

I have had a busy few days but I thought I’d share what I have been up to sewing-wise:

RNHS: Rugby Jersey

Not much progress to report. Everything is cut out, white drill has been acquired for the collar and button placket. I also found a tutorial for how to make the button placket since my photocopied Burda instructions tell  me to refer to another items instructions for how to make it…I did not photocopy that items instructions, not that it would have done me much good, we all know about Burda’s reputation for instructions… 😉

I need to finish it asap because even thought Nerdy Hubby hasn’t mentioned it for a while I will feel guilty if he pops into my room to see what I am up to and finds me cutting out a dress instead!

Look! I found it!

Simplicity 2364 – DO NOT ASK ME WHERE IT WAS – because the answer is that it was in the exact place where I looked for it 10 times. I took it with me to Sunday’s Fabric Hoarders meet and cut it out twice in NZ Merino, one grey, one almost-black.

Birthday dress progress

My birthday was in June, like almost 6 months ago…so I should probably stop stubbornly calling it that, but I won’t. I have been asked about the birthday dress twice now, once in person, so I though I better update. I have narrowed it down to two dresses but I will be making both anyway 😉

I think I will make Simplicity 1802 first which I found fabric for on Sunday from the Fabric Warehouse.

The only reason why I hadn’t started this dress was due to lack of fabric. It needs 3.0 meters and I usually only buy between 2 and 2.5 meters when I am stashing for future dresses so that meant I had to buy something. Fabric shopping for a particular garment is actually quite difficult. I looked in all my favourite stores and was originally going to buy that zig-zag cotton sateen I saw in Arthur Toye but I just couldn’t get my head around the pattern matching.

Next I fell in love with an expensive print in the online Tessuti store, I even loaded up the required 3 meters into my cart but then baulked at the total, even with free shipping, eeek!

As I was umming and ahhing the online shop suggested another fabric I might like, the same print but in a blue/green (I had chosen pink/lilac) but it was sold out (seriously, why bother showing me if I can’t have it?!)…still I really liked it, a bit more than the pink, so I emailed to see if they were going to get any more into stock.

It took them 3 days to email me back with a “no” and by then both fabrics were sold out.

So it’s a good thing I snuck by the fabric shop on my way back from the sewing meet.

I really like the 100% cotton I have chosen, it has a sort of woven stripe running through it, is nice and floaty and, at $12/meter, a much better price than some of the other fabrics I was only so-so for. Only the top of the dress is lined in the pattern but I will also need to line the skirt and I just need to choose which solid colour to use for the piping, maybe the dark purply blue? What do you think?

Vogue 1161 on the other-hand, I have had fabric in hand for about 2 weeks.

I did intend to make this dress from the stash but when I saw this silk/linen in Global Fabrics I had to have it – DO NOT ASK ME HOW MUCH IT COST – the answer is too much, but I LOVE it. It is grey with shots of white through it and pinky/white/yellowy-tulipy-leafy-blurry-floral thingees on it.

Good description huh? 😉

It was a bit stiff off the bolt but it did relax a little after the first wash so I think it will be ok.

I have had a quick little play in Photoshop (or you can do it with Gimp too) and now I am really excited about both these dresses! What do you think? 

A finished project

I did finish one project, actually a little while a go and despite wearing it really often I haven’t managed to get a photo of it yet so here is Scarlett doing an excellent job of modelling my new top.

It is from Burda 02/2009, top #108 and I made one about 2 years ago, as a copy of a rtw top (never blogged), in a grey merino that I wore to death. So now I have a new and very fun version to replace it.

I also have enough of the grey and almost-black merino from the Simplicity top to cut two more. It’s such a versatile top, I may as well sew them all up at the same time.

My only change this time was to add sleeve bands and a band to the hem just to finish it a bit nicer. Next time I will add a facing to the neck, instead of just folding it over, for more stability. I also used two short strips of twill tape on each shoulder seam to control any stretching there.

This is an interlock from Spotlight, the colour is called “flame” and it probably came from the children’s section 😉 but how cute are those little guys all over it?! Check out my three favourites: