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Reverb '12: Days 25 - 28

More reverberating... Day 25:  How will you be vulnerable? How will you tend to your vulnerabilities, shield them, make them advantageous? Um ick.  I don't know.  In a craft sense, I am vulnerable to overreach and try and do lots of things for other people (unrequested by them) when I should focus on some stuff I need to get done.  I don't know how much I want to really temper the instinct to make nice things for people who will like them, but I do want to become more targeted to ensure I make things people will appreciate and get my stuff done too.  My planning lists may help with that, plus working more which will likely mean less time / energy to make stuff :( Day 26:  How will you make time? Hahahahahahaha. Seriously, I will have about the same or less time than in 2012.  I will make time by picking myself off the couch after the kids are in bed and doing some sewing / knitting. I will get in a few dedicated sewing days on annual leave days or by agreement with

Planning, organising, planning, procrastinating? Knit and Crochet

So everyone is doing this in bloggyland - sorting, destashing, putting their house in order ready for the new year.  Agonising over projects unfinished, celebrating those that were, making ready to start over with new plans.  In among all this resolution and reflection I am noticing, there is not so much of the doing. Before you get all excited that I might be posting some finished projects (and in fact I do have at least two to post but no pictures yet...) this is also my list for next year :)  I too, am doing very little and thinking should-have, could-have, would-have, will-do thoughts. This list is for knitting / crocheting items only (not much of that here recently) and is grouped by already started, already planned (i.e. pattern / materials purchased) and things I want to make but which aren't yet underway much, if at all.  As ever, the things in the final group are the ones that tempt me most...hence the hefty UFO list :)  I pretty much have the patterns for all of th

Reverb '12: Days 20 - 24 (Catch up!)

More catch-up for Reverb '12:  this is days 20 - 24. Day 20:  What was lost and what was found? Boring answer but I managed to lose a top I bought.  I wore it once or twice and then it just disappeared.  I have been waiting to happen upon it in a bag and so far, nothing.  This was back in April but am still shitty about it :)  I "found" lots of lovely fabric this year...I have it all safe in the cupboard, which is rather bursting.  I am of the opinion that I maybe shouldn't "find" any more until I get some of the existing stuff used! Day 21:  What's on the dream list? In 2012 I ticked a few things off the sewing / crafting dream list.  In particular the FBA and starting to make clothes for me in earnest.  2013 has various sewing dreams (bras, more knits, well fitting trousers) and also my honeymoon dream - five nights in NY.  I am not sure we will go this coming year, and perhaps we shouldn't, given I am likely to "find' more fabric

Reverb '12: Days 14 - 19

And here I am catching up again.  This time of year we can't really expect much more I think :) Day 14:  What was the path that brought you here? I find a lot of these questions very hard to answer.  I don't tend to be this introspective and don't really have easy answers.  I guess for me last year the path was one which I didn't really think about and which flew by without me even noticing (we are in December but it feels like about April to me) .  The additional explanation on this one question was what was the most important thing you learned in 2012...I guess from the sewing / knitting perspective I learned not to put myself under too much deadline pressure.  There were a couple of ambitious projects earlier in the year which I managed to get done but which I really should have abandoned or not attempted in the timeframe :)  From the sewing for myself perspective I learned I really need to consider what I will wear and what is comfortable... Day 15:  What tin

Reverb '12 - days 9 - 13

Continuing catch up from yesterday :) Reverb days 9 to 13 follow here... Day 9:  Your favourite book in 2012? Non-craft was Hillary Mantel's Bring up the Bodies [note:  you must read Wolf Hall first...].  Craft was probably Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing.  I don't love all the patterns or especially rock that style, but the book is a good all round technique bible and thought / inspiration fest. Day 10:  Your greatest risk in 2012? I don't know about this.  Do I take risks?  Note to self:  consider more risk taking in 2013... Day 11:  What was music to your ears? The sound of my biggest small person reading aloud.  The sound of my old Singer sewing.  That thing sounds wonderful :) Day 12:  What were your most intense emotions? In a list:  Happy (at home), Tired (at work), Hot (on days over 30 degrees), Tired again (at home),  Happy (at home).  2012 has not been an emotional rollercoaster - my life is good, though not without it's tiredness and

Reverb '12 - days 4 to 8

I  might have missed a few days of Reverb 12 but I have been rather busy...yet to come: Finished Washi (mightily modified) Finished matroyshka felt christmas tree ornaments Won a pattern pyramid thing  Made a quicky fold down waist skirt Went to Melbourne with my husband and no kids, with a little fabric shopping thrown in :) More on all of the above shortly... Meanwhile, that commitment I made to Reverb 12 has been on my mind, if not on my blog.  I have been thinking a lot about what I want to change next year to feel better about the things I am doing, and also about the things I am not.  I am likely to work more days next year (when to a degree I would like to work fewer) so I have consider the next year and what I want out of it more carefully - precious sewing time just got more precious! So...I have day 4 to day 13 to catch up on.  I thought that was worthy of a split post, so this will be day 4 to day 8 :) Day 4:  How will you celebrate you, this festive se

Reverb 12 - joining in again (days 1-3)

I seem to have a thing for joining in with Kat from I saw you Dancing .  This time she is hosting Reverb '12, the idea being that you use December to reflect on the year that has been, and start planning for the next year.  I wouldn't usually enter this as I tend to focus mostly on the sewing/crafting side of things, but I decided to give a whirl anyway. I am not likely to post every day (though I enjoyed doing so for Blogtoberfest) but might try and catch up roughly weekly or perhaps twice a week.  I will centre my responses on the crafty side of life where I can I think - makes it more in tune with what the blog is about and also it is an area where I need to take stock of what I am doing and why, plan for next year etc - so it fits nicely! The first three days have questions and answers for me as follows: How are you starting December? Perhaps not surprisingly, lamenting/wondering where the year went.  Craft-wise, I started the year with a resolution to try

Dumb and Dumber - or how not to make a Washi Dress...

[Note that I believe all the dumbness in this post is to do with my newbie status as pattern adjuster, some carelessness, some overconfidence and some just plain idiotic moves - not the Washi pattern!  I found the pattern itself really easy to follow and sew; and if you don't totally screw it up then it's quick to sew too!] So like everyone else that moves, I really liked the look of the Washi dress / tunic.  I bought the pattern and then ummed and ahhed about the FBA part. Dumbness #1: Clearly, I have to accept that I always require an FBA.  Why would I think otherwise?  I guess partly it was the measurements on the pattern; but the advice was clear and for my circumstances, an FBA was needed.  So here is attempt 1 - it was supposed to be a muslin and then I started loving the fabric was gutted when it didn't fit. Dumbness #2: Making a muslin out of a fabric I liked, then being crapped off when it didn't fit. Mmmmm squeezy! Happily my friend Danika selfl

FO - Go To Patterns Signature Dress sewalong

Sewing along with Amanda from Ellieboo again. I have to say - I love this pattern!  It was pretty easy to follow and really easy to sew. Looks good with a cardigan and is comfy and resilient enough for all sorts of play: The most fiddly bit was sewing the pleats at the front and that was mostly my fault as I couldn't be bothered to change my foot, which would have helped heaps. I used a zig zag stitch to hold the ribbing seam down. I would like to think of a different way to do this but think it looks fine this way too.  I think LLaydybird has a different way of sewing the Renfrew top neckline which is similar in construction, so I will revisit that before next time and see if that's applicable.  I am still so impressed that I found matching ribbing in my local Spotlight which is usually so terrible it beggars belief...The only thing I would change on this pattern is the arm construction.  I would usually have made a seam first, then sewn the elast

Go To Patterns Signature Dress sewalong - mucho progress :)

After the fun of the frothy sewalong with Amanda , we decided to do another.  This time I picked the Go To Patterns, Signature Dress. This pattern is great.  It's knits, which I love; it goes from 12 months to 12 years; and it has a heap of variations.  There are different sleeves, a hood, pockets, a tulle hem and waist elastic or shirring options. Yesterday I pinned the pleats: Then sewed them.  This was the most difficult bit of the dress I think - making sure these were even... And I attached the ribbing to the neckline. Then I got very cross with the overlocker, which wasn't playing nicely.  So I stopped. This evening - my overlocker was in a better mood...or maybe I was.  I added the sleeves and shirred the waist. I only did two lines at the waist, spanning either side of the blue band, because it looked good :) Then I sewed up the sides: And then I stopped.  I want to try this on the small person to check the fit before I f

Little Treasure Pocket Shorts

I cut these out during blogtoberfest (in fact during KCWC) but didn't quite finish them until the other day: To be honest I wasn't wholly sure about the Treasure Pocket Pants from Sewing for Boys .  I don't like the fabric they were made from in the book (I don't know specifically why) and perhaps that coloured me a bit. Instead of a contrasting fabric for the side panel I went for alternating the direction of the corduroy.  Then I added some bias trim leftover from a quilt for the hems, pocket inserts and waistband facing. I used trousers which no longer fit me for this pattern, as well as the leftover quilt binding.  That made me pleased about how little they cost me (whatever the cost of the thread and elastic was only!). I made two pairs: One for Noah out of black corduroy with green thread and the orange trim: And one for Marcus in beige corduroy.  For both, I alternated the waistband facing to the inside (on the original pattern it's on

Blogtoberfest (31) - The End! And My Centurian Post

I MADE IT!  Both to the end of Blogtoberfest and also to 100 posts! 100 posts really snuck up on me and it wasn't until a few days ago that I realised post 100 would fall on the last day of Blogtoberfest, which was pretty cool. Blogtoberfest (with a little KCWC thrown in for good measure) was a pretty marathon effort and I really enjoyed doing it.  I got so much done! I made some things from scratch: Frothy sewalong with Amanda from Elliboo (Emmaline dress from Violet Fields Threads) Pyjamas for James  Birthday dress for Gemma 20 minute skirt for Issy  A pair of shorts each for Noah and Marcus (not yet blogged) A washi dress for me, which didn't fit :(  more on that later when I redo the bodice! I finished off the following: Kinder Girls doll (I think that was finished in October) Three pairs of pants Disco Bot (not yet blogged) AND I started but have not yet finished: A new sewalong (Go To Signature dress) with Amanda - I have cut out so far A h

Blogtoberfest (30) - traps for young players

Okaaaaay.  So apparently replying to comments from within the blog doesn't necessarily generate an email to that person.  How weird is it that you can reply from email and it will email them but not from within the post so others can see it?  How stupid do I feel that I work in IT and apparently can't work out how to host a simple giveaway via a blog :) So Milly still wins the Zakka Style book and hopefully she will get my email and be pleased :)  The original winner picked was a no-reply commenter anyway, so I was probably out of luck there either way... Who knew this was so hard?!! See you tomorrow - I can't believe I have (kind of sort of if you don't count a small lag and then a day with four posts) made it through Blogtoberfest!

Blogtoberfest (29) - on pinning...

So something which has intrigued me about the world of Pinterest is what gets the most repins when I pin it.  Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes I am late to the party and am just repinning what everyone else already has, and sometimes things surprise me. I thought I would share my two most repinned pins, one made by me and the other not. The first one was the Incredibles costumes I made for the kids: I am totally surprised by this one as these costumes were stupidly easy to make (see here for detail).  I was pretty chuffed with how good they looked in them, but it seemed like such little effort that the numbers of repins surprised me. The second one was not originally pinned by me, I just saw it and thought it was cute: Apparently a lot of people found this cute! See you tomorrow :)

Blogtoberfest (28) - the Signature Dress sewalong

So Amanda from Ellieboo and I are embarking on another sewalong as mentioned here . I have already chosen my fabric, which is a jersey ponte from Spotlight. Having whined to Amanda about never getting good enough range of choice down here in Tas to find things like coordinating or match rib...I of course also managed to score the perfect matching rib :) So now I have to decide on the pattern options.  As you can see from below, there are many many options in making this one, all included in the main pattern, which is groovy. I have chosen as follows: ...tunic or dress [dress] ...knee length or maxi [knee length] ...optional tulle at hem [maybe...] ...hooded or not [not] ...cap sleeve, short gathered sleeve, long layered sleeves [short gathered sleeve] ...shift, elastic casing at waist, shirring (I think) [probably shirring] ...kangaroo pocket or not [unsure - might cut out in contrast rib and see if that works?] So there are the choices; a knee length dress w

Blogtoberfest (27 - late) - what I was making..!

One of the things I like most about sewing is doing it for other people.  In particular, kids seem to revel in the idea that you made something for them specially, without all the attendant worrying about whether they really like it and it's their style that goes with sewing for adults.  Kids just tell you if it's wrong - crushing though it is to hear :) My cryptic pos t from the other day had to be cryptic so my friend Belissa didn't see what I was making her daughter for her birthday.  I had originally planned to make her a matching "Swansea" dress like the one I made for Issy, but I had a bit of a fail when I tried the bodice on her (just to check fit) and realised it wouldn't fit over her head.  To make it fit I had to unpick the front pleat (which was kind of the point of the dress) and then the neck would have been all swampy and large when on. Rather than revisit the design, rework the dress etc, I chose just to abandon the bodice part (for now...)