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Showing posts from January, 2013

Planning, organising, planning, procrastinating? The Sewing for ME edition...

I already blogged my knitting / crochet goals for 2012 here .  Sadly, those goals have *already* been waylaid by an emergency present for my sister-in-laws 30th birthday on Australia Day (she wants a knitted cushion to match a throw she just got).  *Sigh*.  I did think I would stick with the plan a little longer than 15 days into the new year when I cast on that rather naughty new project :) This email is the first part of my sewing goals.  The first part, I hear you cry?  Yes, I have so many WIPs and UFOs and ideas and plans and goals, that I need to further categorise the sewing posts into separate sections.  Cripes.  Here goes... Sewing for ME:  Things already underway (oldest to youngest) Silky Denim Shirt Dress This is one of my oldest WIPs and only maybe the second thing I ever sewed (or am sewing..) for myself to wear.  It's McCalls M5847 (view A). http://mccallpattern.mccall.com/m5847-products-10059.php?page_id=528 I was/am making it in a kind of silky indi

Pattern Pyramid Giveaway!

Hooray!  I won a pattern pyramid from Quilt, Sew, Sew, Sue (see here for her giveaway)!  I love winning stuff :) This pyramid was originally started by Karen from Did You Make That? in this post back in June of last year.  Since then the pyramid is slowly winding it's way around the world of the blogosphere (can a pyramid wind?) and indeed around the actual world - as Karen lives in the UK and I live in Tasmania... Here are the patterns which Sue sent me, along with a lovely card.  She added in the Vogue Sandra Betzina pants pattern. There is a Simplicity (7355) "jumper" or top.  It's pretty cute and retro, though too small for me and too large for Issy for a while, so I won't be keeping this one:  There is a Vogue Doll Collection pattern (V7985) which already has doll bits cut out inside it, from the looks of things.  I find these dolls moderately creepy, so I won't be keeping this one either: There is a very lovely Very Easy Vogue dress

FO - Easy knit pencil skirt

This is something I made in about 20 minutes at the end of a sewing session before Christmas.  I loved this fabric and made Issy her Go To Patterns Signature Dress in it (blogged here ).  I managed to grab some more in a Spotlight sale a while ago, so I made a simple quicky skirt for me :) Why do I have my bag with me in the garden?  I am not sure... And apparently it's good for strange dance-like moves. The side view.  What I like about this skirt is that I can dress it up and wear it out, add smarter shoes / tops and I can wear it to work, add thongs (or flip-flops as I would call them) and a t-shirt and I can go to the beach.  It's also super comfortable :) What you can't see very well in the above picture, is the waist fold over.  I have some other skirts like that (bought) and I like the extra firmness in the waist.  My original construction technique for this went something like this: Measure widest part (for me the hips).  This is the cutting

Wishy-Washi

Like everyone in the whole entire world, I loved the look of the washi dress when it came out.  I have already documented my significant struggles in trying to make this dress (all my fault) in this post .  My first try was too tight (who would have thought I would need an FBA?...).  My second try was a proper muslin for sizing purposes.  My third try was a top which worked quite nicely (but was unpicked to use to make pattern pieces before I photographed it).  My fourth try was my first version of this dress, but despite the two muslins, I forgot a few bits and generally just fucked it up (no other way to put that really). So...after all that - here it is! Fabric is Valori Wells, Nest and I love it! As you can see from the pattern piece differences (shown here against the top), the adjustment was significant. And as you can see from the picture below, it's still nowhere near perfect. It pulls around the sides from being sewn and resewn.  The main bust darts are

Have you met Jessie?

I went to an antiques / collectibles place yesterday called The Margate Train.  It is literally an old train where all the cars have been converted to shops, a pancake shop etc.  I had a day off with just the little lady so we went for a pancake and a sticky beak. LOOK WHO CAME HOME WITH ME!! Isn't she lovely? I am totally in love.  She is much more adjustable than the more modern Singer one I had my eye on in my local sewing shop.  See how the two chest pieces look uneven in the photo above?  That's because they are individually adjustable (not that I have uneven boobs or anything but it's still mega cool...). The super adjustability comes from it being held together by these adjustable slidery screw things (technical term there...they must have a real name?).   That means I can make it have enormous shoulders (just like me!) as well as adjustable chest and hips and so on.  You can have a broader back and narrower front (or like me, ginormous both).