Water …..

On By Sharon2 Comments

The Self Stitched September group decided on another lot of photo challenges and today’s was to pose with water.

Now the first thought I had was that Roscoe would love to play with the hose, but then I wouldn’t be too dry afterwards so that got put to one side.

You may have noticed the the large black pot in our backyard (MMJ had a lot of photos of it), what most of you don’t know is that it is a water feature, which we have to top up quite frequently and feed the goldfish that live in it. Normally this is done by attaching a hose to the water tank in the back yard, but today to get into the water theme, I am topping it up with our watering can that has had the Roscoe touch.

Dress: Simplicity 2648 made in brown linen and fully lined with sun silky (blogged here)
Jacket: Purchased Chanel style jacket in brown, tan and lemon tweed
Accessory: Gifted necklace and gold hoop earrings.
Tights: Chocolate Brown.
Shoes: Diana Ferrari.

SSS – Day 13

On By Sharon1 Comment

A beautiful sunny day here, but the office is still cold, so this is my outfit for today:

Top: Diana Ferrari burgundy cross over top with silk organza ties purchased in 2009
Trouser: Vogue 9537 in a black medium weight wool made in 2008.
Cardigan: Portmans grey cardigan with fabric pleating around the neckline purchased in 2010.
Accessory: Pearl necklace and purchased earrings.
Tights: Black tights.
Shoes: Courtney C21 Black leather with patent toe.

At last I am not wearing boots, so I asked DH to take a photo of the back view of the pants, they are a lot better than I thought, but I do want to get rid of the breaks so they fall straight.

Does anyone have any alteration suggestions I can try?

Back to work

On By SharonLeave a comment

My holiday is over, so back to my desk.

Jumper/Sweater: Purchased from Country Road in Oyster colour.
Skirt: Self drafted skirt in a green/cream tweed polyester (blogged here)
Cardigan: Simplicity 2603 in brown Mercury Jersey from Lincraft which you saw on Day 9.
Accessory: Me-Made crocheted necklace and earrings and Roscoe wearing his purple collar.
Tights: Chocolate brown.
Boots: Brown Nine West Boots

I really should have worn my merino knit cardigan, the office was freezing.

Repeat outfit for Day 11

On By Sharon1 Comment

So today was it, this is the same outfit I wore back in June on day 5 in the afternoon, but today it was all day and the best bit, I was in my sewing room (the wet sleeve is because I had to put the lamb shanks on to cook and of course water and wider sleeves means they get wet).

Top: McCall’s 9080 in a grey stable knit, made far too many years ago.
Trouser: Old fraying 550 Levis.
Shoes: Puma sneakers.

Some fun for Day 9

On By Sharon5 Comments

Today I attended a workshop by Connie Crawford at Hobbysew Australia at Top Ryde.

Connie is on her way to teach at the Australian Sewing Guild Convention in Launceston and McCall’s Pattern Service was able to organise for Connie to do this workshop on her way south.

The day started with Connie telling us about her career and then moved onto draping and how it all comes together. Connie also demonstrated the difference between the various cup sizes and how to create your own designs by using the blouse block.

Connie shared a large wealth of information and hopefully the notes that I have scribbled down will give me enough to go by. This was before lunch.

After lunch the other part of the workshop was that each attendee would be custom fitted for the blouse blocks that feature an A/B Cup, C/D/DD cup and F/G cup using pattern B5300.

Connie had with her a blouse block for each pattern size and cup size and we then all took our turn to be fitted by Connie with helpers taking notes of the adjustments for each of us that we need to do to get the blouse block.

Here I am having my custom fit with Connie (no she didn’t tickle me).

I did purchase the pattern as I was very pleased with how it fits around the shoulders and chest and the other adjustments Connie suggested are minor so I am looking forward to making up the blouse block to see how it looks.

For the remainder of the day I wore:

Top: Simplicity 2603 with 3/4 length sleeves in brown Mercury Jersey from Lincraft (blogged here)
Skirt: Burda 04-2009-101 in Salt & Pepper fine cord that you saw on Day 2.
Cardigan: Simplicity 2603 in brown Mercury Jersey from Lincraft.
Accessory: Gold choker band with cream oval and gold small hoop earrings.
Tights: Chocolate brown.
Boots: Chocolate Betts Boots.

It was a great day, I go to meet a few Internet friends face to face and of course there were quite a few Australian Guild Members attending as well as some of my real sewing buddies (thank you for the photos).

Days 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8

On By Sharon4 Comments

Well we are home again after having a wonderful time in Perth with family and seeing the sites as well as checking out the compulsory fabric shops.

Day 3

Top: Kwik.Sew 3740 View B with long sleeves and neckband in the chartreuse/grey/ink navy knit fabric.
Trouser: Vogue 9537 (OOP) in black denim (blogged here)
Boots/Shoes: Charcoal Betts Marathon

Day 4

Top: Kwik.Sew 3740 View A in coffee/grey/cream knit (blogged here)
Skirt: BWOF 04-2009-101 in brown cord (blogged here)
Tights: Chocolate Brown.
Boots/Shoes: Chocolate Betts Boots

Day 5

Top: Butterick 3344 in multi striped knit (blogged here)
Trouser: Vogue 9537 (OOP) in black denim which you saw on Day 3.
Boots: Charcoal Betts Marathon

Day 6

Top: Purchased T-shirt.
Skirt: BWOF 04-2009-101 in brown cord which you saw on Day 4
Tights: Chocolate Brown.
Boots: Chocolate Betts Boots
Accessory: Me made earrings.

Day 7

Top: Purchased T-shirt.
Trouser: Vogue 9537 (OOP) in black denim which you saw on Day 3.
Cardigan: Simplicity 2603 in brown merino (blogged here)
Boots: Charcoal Betts Marathon
Accessory: Me-Made crocheted necklace and earrings.

Today I’m back home and have just got home from running around restocking the house and collecting Roscoe who now wants to go to the park and play.

Day 8

Top: Simplicity 2603 top with sleeves in brown Merino (blogged here).
Trouser: Purchased 550 Levis.
Jacket: Jalie Jean Jacket 2320 in a lightweight brown denim made in 2008 and has Hong Kong finishes on all seams.
Boots: Betts chocolate boots
Accessory: Me-Made crocheted necklace and earrings.

And last but not least the compulsory picture of the purchased fabric:

Left to right:
Brown/Green/Cream abstract print from Fabulous Fabrics
Gina Dry Handle Crepe in purple from Knitwit
New Caledonia Floral Knit Brown from Knitwit

SSS Day 2

On By Sharon4 Comments

Thank heaven it is Friday, it has been a hectic week.

Top: Burda 02-2009-108 in biscuit Mercury Jersey from Lincraft (blogged here)
Skirt: Burda 04-2009-101 in Salt and Pepper fine cord (blogged here)
Cardigan: Purchased rust cashmere cardigan whilst in China in 2008.
Accessory: Me-Made crocheted necklace
Boots/Shoes: Betts Boots

Now I’m off to pack and set the alarm for 4.00am tomorrow morning to head to the airport for our flight.

This is where my SSS may come undone, small suitcase, limited clothing, fingers crossed.

See you in a week.

Self-Stitched September

On By Sharon1 Comment

Here we go, our first day is grey and showery here in Sydney and my office is still cool, so layering is still a necessity.

Dress: New Look 6348 in deep olive lightweight wool purchased from Tessuti. This dress was made in 2007 to wear to a presentation being made to my DH for a rescue he assisted in whilst skiing in Japan.
Jacket: Vogue 7975 in brown and blue tweed which you saw a lot of in June.
Accessory: Purchased necklace and earrings.
Shoes: Diana Ferrari

See you tomorrow.

I must be crazy

On By Sharon3 Comments

because I have signed up for Zo’s Self Stitched September.

My pledge is:

I, Sharon of Petite and Sewing sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched September ’11. I endeavour to wear at least one self made garment each day for the duration of September 2011. 

I still need tops and the one I made on the weekend, isn’t going to go very far.


September will be an interesting month.


Perfect way to spend a weekend …

On By Sharon6 Comments

is with 12 other sewing friends, at the Courtyard Marriott from 8am on Saturday to 5pm on Sunday.

This year was a new venue for us and they did an excellent job fitting us in, but their guarantee that we would all fit in one conference room just wasn’t going to happen, so thankfully they had also assigned us a 2nd conference room to use for fitting etc, so we were able to set up some of the group in there. This meant a lot of crossing the hall to see what each other was doing, getting advice and general chat.

I worked on two projects:

  • Vogue 7881 Claire Shaeffer’s Custom Couture Collection Pant.
    These had been fitted by Angie Zimmerman at the fitting weekend I referred to in a ink blue wool crepe and are fully lined.
  • Kwik.Sew 3740 with a bit of variation in a chartreuse/grey/ink navy knit fabric.

Both of these are up to the finishing stages, the pants only need the button holes, buttons (these hadn’t been purchased) and both the pants and knit top need the hems completed.

Hopefully it won’t be too long before I can show you the finished items as I am rather pleased with how they have turned out.