What a weekend!

On By Sharon7 Comments

Well I’m home again after spending two whole days with 10 other wonderful real life sewing buddies.

I arrived around 8am to make sure all was set up and the others slowly followed me. By morning tea we were all there and getting stuck into our various projects.

The Mercure at Parramatta did a fantastic job in feeding us at regular intervals and were happy to assist with some very unusual conference requests e.g. a power board for each table and two irons and ironing boards please.

I chose to start on Vogue 8280 LBD and after doing the toile thought it would be finished that afternoon. How wrong can a girl be!

This is where I am up to after 2 full days of sewing. The wool I used gave me some challenges with easing the back onto to the flange (tighter weave) and there are just so many seams and darts that need pressing and clipping it just didn’t seem to stop.

Left to do is:

  • insert the sleeves, how come one always goes in with no pain and the other one just wants to fight you every step of the way,
  • Finish off the back neckline,
  • Hem both the fashion fabric and lining.

I’m extremely pleased with how this dress is fitting me (my body double needs to be updated) so I am keen to get this finished.

Needless to say the blouse didn’t even get a look in.

Sewing Weekend

On By Sharon10 Comments

For a number of years now my real life sewing buddies have been organising a sewing weekend away each year for us to attend. This year it is my turn.

So far we have been to Panthers at Penrith, Ferndale on the Hawkesbury River and The Mecure Hotel at Pararmatta.

This year we are going back to the Mercure Hotel at Parramatta (right across the road from the Rosehill Races which hosts the Craft Show in August).

We arrive on Saturday morning and sew to our hearts content until Sunday afternoon with food being delivered to us on a regular basis.

I really like to achieve as much as I can at these weekends so today’s job was to check that all the bits for my two projects are all there.

First up is the LDB which I cut out last week and now have made sure that all the pieces are together in a zip-lock bag including zip, wound bobbins and organza bias strips for inserting the sleeves.

I then plan to work on a lemon blouse that I started to make a while ago and made sure that I had interfaced all the pieces, wound bobbins, found some buttons so it is also ready to go.

Here they both are in their bags ready to be put into my sewing case.

I think I will purchase one of those collapsable crates to hopefully hold:

  • Table ironing board and iron
  • Table lamp
  • Pressing tools e.g. sleeve roll and ham

If I have time this week after work I would like to trace off Burda 5-2008-104, which is the dress version of the top I made in January this year. I have already done the adjustments to the bodice, so only need to add the skirt to the pattern. Then use this fabric to make it up.

There is a lot of “fingers crossed” going on to get this last dress achieved, so wish me luck.

So at the end of next weekend I will at have at least two garments to show.

Little Black Dress Workshop

On By Sharon2 Comments

I am a member of the Australian Sewing Guild at Rhodes and for the months of July and September we had a LDB Workshop, with Angie Zimmerman. Angie writes a lot of articles for Sewing with Stitches Australia (formerly Australian Stitches) and also has her own sewing workshops.

During July Angie helped us adjust our patterns to fit our various versions of the LBD and then in September I had my toile made up in gorgeous calico for the final tweaking of the fit.

I chose to use Vogue 8280 View F (top right picture, cream long sleeved dress) without the little cap sleeves and shortened the sleeves to 3/4.

We started with a size 6 using my High Bust measurement and a lot of adjustments had to be made from there LOL.

Here are the pattern pieces and I will try and remember what we did to each piece.

Front Bodice

Back Bodice

Flange

Skirt Front

Skirt Back – same as front except the addition at the waist is at the side seams.

Sleeve

Now Black is not a colour I wear near my face, so I have decided to make my dress in the Burgundy Wool that I purchased in Melbourne.

I’m not sure why but Vogue hasn’t lined the skirt of this dress but has lined the bodice. I will be lining the skirt as well.

Back soon.

Sewing Room

On By Sharon7 Comments

My sewing room is also our guest bedroom and gets used for this purpose around twice a year and has a double bed taking up a large amount of room in a small area. I have been discussing this with DH for a while and he designed a way for the bed to be raised against one wall.

This made my day on Sunday when he finally installed it (Roscoe just had to check out the extra space). I have soooo much more room to move around and I am still playing around with the poistioning of things but am rather restricted by doors, windows, French doors and the buit-in wardrobe but I am still smiling from ear to ear when I walk in the door.

Here is how it is set up at present.

This is where I think the cutting table will live and the slats on the bed base could be used for hanging my rulers from and I can also see it would be useful for draping fabric from for picture taking.

Now in the corner are my sewing machines on a Horn Cabinet. This is the next thing I want to find a solution for. I have a Janome Memory Craft 3500, Janome CP 1000 and my old faithful Singer 14u 34B basic overlocker. In the wardrobe is my old Janome JD1818 which is a great back-up machines. Now the Horn Cabinet worked very well when I only had two machines, but now when I want to sew knits I use the three machines for various sections and I am finding it very frustrating rearranging the three machines so I can sew. I would dearly love a corner type desk that will hold the 3 machines and then get some moveable drawers for underneath for storage that can be hidden when guests come and move out into the room when I want to sew.

On the opposite wall is the built-in-wardrobe. Half of this has my fabrics, magazines and books in and the other half is the linen cupboard (can’t find anywhere else to put this). I have even started putting some fabrics in boxes on the top of the wardrobe.

Now one thing I will miss is that the double bed provided a very large flat area that I could lay out all my bits and pieces on, however I don’t think this will cause me too much grief.

Look what the Postie delivered

On By Sharon2 Comments

JoAnns in the US regularly have Simplicity Patterns $5 for $5 which is just unbelievable. Even with our exchange rate and postage I received 5 patterns for $20 Australian Dollars, you can’t get patterns that cheap here even with the sales on.

One of the main reasons I was keen to get my hands on these patterns was that at Pattern Review they were having a Simplicity 2603 Cardi sew-along and after watching the video and seeing it made up by all sorts of shapes and sizes and looking good on all, I felt this would be a good top layer for someone who is always cold.

Luckily for me one of the lovely ladies on Pattern Review offered to purchase the patterns on my behalf and post them to me.

So I ordered 2 of 2603, one for me and one for DS; DS wanted 2648 and I liked the look of this so ordered I ordered one myself as well and then Amanda from Amanda’s Adventures in Sewing made 3775 in a cute floral so thought I would add this to my pattern stash.

On Saturday I had to go to Spotlight to get some stretch sewing needles to sew my knit garments for the WiaW.

Of course I had just collected the patterns from the post office, so you never let an opportunity go buy to purchase fabric so I just had to check out what knit fabrics I could find and trying to keep away from brown I chose this turquoise “Dry Knit” Polyester/Spandex at $10.95m.

It does have a nice drape, but after purchasing it I did think that it may be a bit thick for the knot tying that goes with the various wearable variations of the cardigan. I did see a very nice patterned knit with the pattern on both sides that would be wonderful, just not sure if it would be too much in this style.

First of all I need to hem those pants.

Not quite finished

On By Sharon1 Comment

With all the good intentions, my plans didn’t work out for WiaW.

DH came home with a cold last week and by Friday I was thanking my lucky stars that I had’t managed to get it, unfortunately I came down with the sore throat and stuffy head that night.

I had managed to sew the Black and Burgundy Wool pants during the week after some major frog stitching and letting the seams out, and these are up to the hemming stage for both the pants and their linings.

The Mauve cross over top was next on the list. This is the first time I have sewn mesh and I have learnt a few things maybe about this mesh in particular e.g. when I sewed the Seams Great around the neckline I usually pull this reasonably tight to prevent gaposis, however after I had coverstitched the tape under, the side seams didn’t line up, so frog stitching again, the coverstitch is quick to unpick once you find the looper thread but the zig zag I used for the Seams Great took forever. Second attempt was much more successful until this afternoon.

I have learnt a very large lesson – do not to touch the overlocker when I’m not feeling 100%.

When I first did the coverstitch hem on the neckline of the cross over top it just wasn’t working so I logged onto Pattern Review – Sergers, Coverstitch and Blindhemmers Message Boards and I found under Vonnevo’s Tips to use the Bostik BluStik to glue down the hems and once dry this gives the mesh enough body for the coverstitch and it washes out in the wash. It worked brilliantly.

The plan is to finish the pants and make up the mauve cowl neck top and take my mesh top to the next ASG day to see if any of the ladies there can show me a creative way to fix this.

Giraffe Toile

On By Sharon4 Comments

I thought I had better toile the cowl neck pattern that I drafted this week to make sure it works before I cut out the mauve merino wool. The base pattern is V8151 and I have used the tutorial by Pamela Kerr in the Australian Stitches Magazine Vol 14, No.3 page 30 to draft the pattern changes and construct the cowl pattern.

This has been a quick put together and the hems still need to be done, but I am quite happy with the cowl drape and look of the pattern and will finish it.

This is a knit fabric that velowsewer gave me a little while back and it has an elongation ease of 80% (using Christine Jonson’s “Perfect Sewing” Worksheet) and the Merino Wool has 100% elongation so I may need to reduce the length of the cowl.

Friday is nearly here, but I will have to wait until I get home from work to start sewing.

(Sorry about the grainy photo, not sure what I did wrong)

WiaW – Prep Week

On By Sharon2 Comments

I’m almost ready!

I’ve cut out the black and burgundy wool pants and their lining and have pinned the darts and inner leg seams for the first sit down at the machine, also the bobbins have been wound for both and all the pieces are together in their zip lock bags with the invisible zips and threads.

The Burgundy Abstract Mesh Print Cross-over top is cut out after much fiddling to make sure there would be no bull-eye’s present once finished.

Trying to follow instructions on how to adjust your knit t-shirt pattern to create a cowl collar is not the easiest thing to do at night after work, but at last I got the pattern finished last night and might try and sew up a quick toile tonight before I cut into the Mauve Merino Wool.

Chanel Fabric

On By Sharon3 Comments

I have found my fabric for my Chanel Jacket.

I visited The Fabric Store last Friday afternoon and found this wonderful tweed and it was on sale as well.

It has a cream base with mauve, aubergine, brown through it and it really lifts my aubergine wool. I’m so happy.

I am trying to find some interesting lining to use. I keep changing my mind about my trim, will I use the fringed edge or braid. I have 2 Chanel jackets and they both have braid and I think I do prefer this style.

One of my problems is that I’m having problems finding any trims here in Sydney so if anyone knows where I can look please let me know. My sister is visiting me from Brisbane this weekend, so I will give her a sample of both of my fabrics so she can visit Scakfs Fabrics (who advertise such wonderful trims in the Australian Stitches Magazine) for me when she goes home to see what they can come up with.

Last week this book found it’s way to my home.

I must admit to not reading too much at this stage, I’ve been busy getting my prep week in order for the WiaW.