Twas the week before Christmas

On By Sharon9 Comments

and I decided to make some Christmas presents.

Luckily they were all very quick to make and I had some great tutorials to follow to achieve this.

We have 5 nieces and nephews between us that we give gift vouchers to each year and after seeing this great Gift Card Holder Tutorial by Shabby Art Boutique I thought I would use it this year.

My first problem is there are 3 young men amongst the above and I don’t imagine they would be too thrilled with the very pretty holders that are shown in the tutorial. Luckily Kerryanne emailed me and suggested checking out the op shop for some “manly” options, where I found these very appropriate board shorts. for $3.

Once home I proceeded to cut them up for the men, as well as rummaging through my bag of scraps to find the more colourful pieces to use for the ladies, I found the cute Christmas figures at Spotlight for $2. I am very pleased with the end result.

Next up was 2 sets of 12 Christmas Tree Napkins that Kathryn made back in 2010 for my Mum and Sister-In-Law as we spend Christmas day with both of them (1/2 hour apart) each year.

Finally a necklace for my Mum using the colours of the fabric she purchased whilst in Bowral this year, and my Sister volunteered to make it into a skirt for Mum.

Now back to some sewing for me.

Minoru Jacket

On By Sharon4 Comments

I’m starting to notice that January seems to be the month that Sew-Along’s commence and yes I have signed up for another one.

This time I am going to point the finger at Tessuti because when they reviewed Julia and Minoru on their blog, I just had to have this jacket pattern (and so did 2 of my real life sewing buddies), as I really like the shape because most jackets make me look like a box and with the wet weather we have been having a lighter jacket than the gortex one I wear when walking Roscoe will be a nice change.

Tasia the creator of the Minoru Jacket is having a Sew-Along commencing on 16 January and finishing around 20 February 2012.  You can find out more about the Sew-Along by clicking on the badge on the side bar.

The pattern was ordered and it has arrived.

I have traced off the pattern and plan on making a toile, as these patterns are drafted for the “pear” figure.

I have some navy ripstop in the stash intending to make a jacket so I just need to find some lining.  I also fell in love with Julia’s metal zippers so I have been checking out ZipperStop as I need a 71cm separating zip and 45cm closed-end zip for this jacket and of course they have to be navy and have metal teeth.  Fingers crossed the order arrives before we get up to that stage with the Sew-Along. 

I’m estatic …

On By Sharon14 Comments

I’ve got jeans that fit, no back gaposis, YES!!

After being worn all day

 I have joined the ever increasing number of ladies who are loving the Jalie Stretch Jeans pattern 2908.

Over at PatternReview.com they had an online course back in August “Blue Prints to Blue Jeans” by Jennifer Stern, J. Stern Designs, this is just what I needed to get me organised to make up the Jalie Jeans pattern that has been in my stash for a while. 

The amount of information that Jennifer has available for the course is amazing and her knowledge and willingness to assist with fitting issue to the course attendees on line was incredible.

One of my sewing buddies from Alexandria Achievers was also doing the course and as I was away she offered to find some “toile” denim for us both and found these amazing remnants of white stretch denim from the Remnant Warehouse for both of us.

I had these cut out in Size R when we had our “fitting session” with Angie Zimmerman back in August, so I took along my coverstitch machine and used the chain stitch to whip these up so Angie could fine tune them for me.

The adjustments that Angie made were minor:
–  take 1.5cm from the top of the back yoke back to the original pattern at the centre back notch (with the pattern pieces pinned together on the stitching lines)
– deepen the back crotch curve

 and then the back waistband looks like this

I also took 1cm off the width from the hem to the knee on both sides of the front and back patterns.

Note:  I used 1.5cm seam allowances as I didn’t’ read the instructions !!

It then took me to November to stitch these up when I packed them up to attend the ASG Bribie Island Sewing Retreat with my DM for my DS’s special birthday (how perfect time with family and sewing).

They didn’t get finished at the weekend but at the ASG meeting at Rhodes a week later they were all but finished.  Hems done and dropped them into Mick’s for the buttonhole and rivets and here they are at the end of a days wear.

Here is the pocket design which I copied the idea from the review that susiestitcher has on PatternReview.com

You will definitely be seeing more of the Jalie 2908 Jeans in the future, as well as the rascal below!!

At last they are finished …

On By Sharon8 Comments

Finally, the reveal from our sewing weekend that I hinted at back here. Hemming is one of those jobs that I just can’t get motivated to do.

The top is Kwik.Sew 3740 without the cowl in the chartreuse/grey/ink navy knit fabric. I am really liking this pattern as a basic T-Shirt and the only adjustment I made to this pattern was to raise the neck edge by 5cm (2″) and take it back to the original shoulder seam.

You have already seen this top worn during Self Stitched September here and here.

The pants are V7881 in a navy wool crepe which are fully lined and I finally finished the hems last night as today was forecast for 19 C (66 F) for the 5th day of summer, this is still a bit cool for light summer skirts so I thought I would see how I like the pants.

Pattern adjustments

Front:
– Add 0.5cm to side seam from end of curve back to nothing
– 1cm wedge in centre front taking back to nothing at side seams.
– raised the centre front crotch by 0.5cm

Back:
– reduce the back side leg by 1.5cm
– Deepen the crotch curve
– 0.5cm off inseam to below the notch on the pattern.

These adjustments were made in calico and I felt confident enough to cut out the wool crepe that I had to see how they would make up, also realising that they are very different fabrics which could give me very different results.

Here are the results. As you can see there is a lot of fabric in the front crotch area.

and the back isn’t too bad, they fit very nicely for my sway back and besides that pleat of fabric I think the leg width is too wide for my frame.

I’m still working on the frustrating journey of pants fitting, do I try and get the excess out of these or go back to the drawing board, decisions, decisions.

Now Jeans are another matter …..

I’m still here ….

On By Sharon2 Comments

How did we get to the end of October so quickly, I can’t believe how fast this year is going.

I haven’t managed to get any sewing done this month but I did have the wonderful PR weekend to attend with so many wonderful ladies and thought I had better follow up my promise of the Self Stitched September Wrap Up.

Even though it is a bit of work, I really do enjoy participating in the Self Stitched groups as it forces me to not take the easy option each morning by just pulling out the regular outfit for work, but to have to mix it up and make it look different has shown me that even though my wardrobe is small I can still get quite a lot of different looks.

I did receive a couple of questions about the Kerry Linen I used in my shirtmaker from RebeccaHoward and kbenco and hopefully I can help.

The Kerry Linen was purchased mainly for the fact that I was looking for a linen for the shirtmaker dress and the colour just had to come home with me.

I do love linen, but all my other pieces (brown dress and skirts) are either lined with Sunsilky or underlined/lined with Sunsilky which reduces the wrinkles in the linen during the day but of course it doesn’t completely stop them, which is okay by me.

The shirtmaker is the first linen garment I have that is not lined. I feel it wears reasonably well and here are some late night, terrible photos to try and show how it looks after being worn all day.

Looking at these wrinkles, they are no worse than the 100% linen garments that I have lined, so I can see more Kerry Linen making its way into my stash wardrobe.

Now here is the collage of my outfits for the month of September.

And you know I said I was getting in the car for a 6 hour drive on the last day of September, well this is what I woke up to, big fat snowflakes!

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that November will see me and my sewing machine spending some quality time together.

Pattern Review Weekend in Sydney

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The SSS Wrap-up was delayed as I was finalising the organisation of the Pattern Review Weekend here in Sydney which has just finished and what a weekend we have just had.

It all started at 9am on Friday morning with 26 of us boarding the coach for the all important fabric shopping tour and Gay and Lena have posted some great photos and information about the shops we visited and here is most of the group at the end of the day.

Saturday morning was a Knits: stretch and shrinkage factors workshop with Lena and a Come Alive with Colour workshop with Wendy, with others sewing or taking measurements for others. In the afternoon Wendy took the measurements for the Simply Stylish: Your Ideal Silhouette workshop which continued on Sunday morning, while others headed back to The Fabric Store or Tessuti after having had their colours done.

On Saturday night we went out to dinner at The Clove and had a very enjoyable Indian Banquet and then seeing it is PatternReview.com’s 10th Anniversary this year, I organised this very tasty Bon Vivant from Cuisine Patisserie and topped it with an edible image from Custom Icing for dessert.

Sunday saw half of the group complete their workshop with Wendy, while some sewed and others took turns in wrapping each other in glad wrap – Saran wrap pattern making method.

Here I am wrapped and MelJ is marking in my waist line, before packing tape is taped on top the the glad wrap on centre front, centre back, shoulders, waist and neckline.

before it is cut off along the centre front and centre back lines,

I had to do some further cutting to get it home, and I will share this later.

It was a really fun weekend, and getting to meet the girls from the Sewing Down Under board on PatternReview.com was just wonderful.

So much for …

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finishing off SSS with an all made me outfit, it didn’t happen.

As soon as I finish work I will be in the car for 6 hours, so it is comfort again.

Top:Purchased cream t-shirt
Vest: Purchased grey knitted vest.
Trouser: Vogue 9537 modified in black denim worn earlier this month.
Accessory: Me-made necklace and earrings
Boots: Betts Marathon

It has been another interesting month, and I will post a wrap up soon.

Comfortable

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Today I was in the office all alone, and my priority was to archive, a word that I am not particularly fond of, so I made myself very comfortable.

Top: Kwik.Sew 3740 in blue/brown tie die knit from Spotlight worn on Day 17.
Jeans: Levis 553 purchased a few years ago.
Accessory: Purchased gold band choker with ink navy disc and purchased earrings
Hosiery/Nylons: Brown Tights.
Boots: Betts brown boots.

I’ve just collected the empty yoghurt containers from around the yard, here is how they are cleaned –

It is late

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The last photo challenge for the SSS group was a night shot, so here I am getting home from work and unloading the car with my dry cleaning in hand and reaching in to push the button to close the roller door.

Top: Purchased dark brown jumper/sweater with red, purple stripes in the front from Country Road too many years ago to remember.
Skirt: Vogue 7937 in dark brown wool crepe worn on Day 20.
Jacket/Cardigan: McCall’s 3750 in the same dark brown wool crepe made in 2003
Accessory: Me-Made Necklace and earrings
Hosiery/Nylons: Voodoo Celestial
Shoes: Circa Joan & David Callalily Pumps