Tag: Fabric

A travel wardrobe

On By Sharon10 Comments

We have just arrived home from a fantastic whirlwind trip to Dublin and the United Kingdom and I thought I would share my travel wardrobe.

Time away:
11 days

Where to:
Dublin and the United Kingdom

Season:
One month into Spring and looking at the weather forecasts it was still going to be cool with temperature ranges from 1c to 18c being the warmest during the day.  The weather really turned it on for us, sunshine every day and only 1 day of rain and then I wouldn’t call it that much rain, grey and overcast with some drizzle and this was on our last day.  York even managed to turn the heat on reaching 22c but the mornings and evenings were still quite cool.

Expected Activities:
This trip was to visit my mother-in-law who is not in the best of health and do some sightseeing whilst we were there, so the wardrobe needed to be comfortable to do a lot of walking on cobblestone streets and sightseeing as well as being comfortable sitting about with family.

Colour scheme:
brown, navy, cream, burgundy, grey and a little bit of chartreuse.

What I packed:
(each garment is linked to its original construction post -top to bottom, left to right)

Taupe flats
Brown boots

Burgundy coat McCall’s 8522 made prior to blogging
Burgundy track pants Simplicity 3640 made for the trip, to be blogged.

Verdict:
This wardrobe worked very well, I didn’t feel as if I was in the same outfit as all the tops went will all the bottoms so at no time did I wear the same combination.  We managed to do laundry half way thorough the trip and a couple of tops got washed whilst we were on the road sightseeing.

I took two outer layers, my brown merino cardi that worked with all outfits and my burgundy coat went well with the jeans and this was worn early morning or during the evening when we were wondering about.   I also had a collection of jewellery that changed the look of the tops.  I’m sorry I didn’t take a second pair of winter shoes, the boots worked fine but my feet got a bit sick of them and the taupe flats didn’t work with the tights I took and were only worn on the flights.

My mother-in-law is in northern Wales and I had worked out that Linton Tweed was a 3 hour trip from her home so my darling husband made sure it was included in our sightseeing itinerary.  Of course two pieces of fabric followed me home:

2 metres for a jacket

2 skirt lengths of 1 metre each.

Then on our last day we visited Abakhan fabrics and I purchased 2 pieces of linen by the pound totalling 5 metres for AUS$18, which I thought was a very good price.

This colour is in the top tweed.

This trip managed to put a stop to the completion of my  2014 SWAP entry, I still had 3 pieces to sew before today, however work and jet lag has not been conducive to getting these completed.  No matter I have 8 new garments in my wardrobe and I love all of them!

February Stashbusting

On By Sharon12 Comments

I did have high hopes this month, cutting out 2 skirts and also making a new top, however the skirts haven’t progressed very far at all and the top, well all I have left to do is put in the sleeves and all I can say is that we are not talking to each other at the moment.

Thankfully my Marfy top was finished in February so I did manage to get one garment completed.

My other news is that a few weeks ago I received an email from Becki wanting to know my address as she had some fabrics that were orphans and they needed a new home and look what the postman delivered.

and inside packed in a Mood Designer Fabric bag was 5 pieces of gorgeous fabric:

Top to bottom:

  • Liberty of London Tana Lawn
  • Brown Wool that has a pattern woven into it
  • Silk charmeuse animal print
  • Silk cotton
  • Aubergine Wool Gaberdine

as well as two of the cutest Marfy labels

This is a very generous gift and has saved me from trying to find the Aubergine wool that was on my wish list!

Now February’s Curating Challenge was to find 10 of your most favourite pieces of fabric and here they are:

Why do I love them so much!
Most of them are wonderful memories of friendship and travel, as well as being in my colour palette and fitting in with my lifestyle.  Some are fabrics I wanted to challenge myself with e.g. 3ply gortex for a jacket and there is cashmere and camel wool for coats and jacket and the bottom row is for tops and a cardigan and a denim jacket, they were all purchased with a plan and so far that plan has not changed.

Doing this has now made me realise that I need some bottom weight green in my stash, I have the rust and browns to go with the multi coloured sweater knit and fine cord on the end, but some lovely moss or deep olive could be very handy!

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2014 Stash Out: 3.2 m
2014 Stash In: 31.75 m

Stashbusting once more!

On By Sharon11 Comments

I have signed up again for another year of Stashbusting with Emily and Cindy and made a public commitment to reduce by stash this year over at Tumbleweeds In The Wind and the 2014 badge is on my sidebar.

 I, Sharon of Petite and Sewing, commit to sew 3/4 of all projects in 2014 from Stash. Fabric purchases will be less than yardage used during the stash sewing in 2014.

The Stashbusting sew along is also having the usual monthly themes and to add a bit of interest are including a Curating Challenge each month as well.

The theme for January is Itty Bits for all those small pieces of fabric you keep around that are under a yard and I have got just the thing to make; and the Curating Challenge is to answer the following questions:

Why do I Sew
To have garments that fit me, in the colour I want and the styles that I like. It has also let me meet some wonderful sewing buddies and we meet up frequently to sew and chat. Sewing also is a great way for me to unwind after a hard day at the office.

What’s on your list?
This is a bit harder for me to determine, there are so many ideas going around in my head and you all know that I am working on my 2014 SWAP and have committed to the Marfy Sewalong. The only other think I have on my list at present is to make some activewear!

Why am I Stashbusting
I have quite a bit of fabric, maybe not as much as others but a lot more than my current storage is capable of handling.

I also want to feel comfortable that I can purchase fabric that has to come home with me so the stash does need to reduce so I can find somewhere to store it!!

I hope you did notice that I haven’t said I won’t purchase fabric, because Sandra (Dilliander) and I went on a fabric tour the other week in search of activewear fabrics and look what followed us home!!!

Our first stop was Standardknit Fabrics, are a wholesaler but will sell to the public as long as you purchase a minimum of 5 metre lengths. Luckily Sandra and I like the same colours so we agreed to split the 5 metres.

SportsPlus Micro – Sand and Maroon
Stella Cotton Elastomeric – Navy, Pumpkin, Brown and Sand

Our next stop was Pitt Trading, mainly because Sandra had never been there and of course this wonderful navy and orange knit jumped into my hands and just had to come home with me.

From there we went to Metro Fabrics where we purchased two pieces of Supplex 

Ink Navy
Grass Green

This little tour has had a major impact on my Stash already this year, so I had better get sewing!!

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 2014 Stash Out: 0 m
 2014 Stash In: 19.25 m

Marfy 3 piece suit

On By Sharon20 Comments

I have admired Marfy patterns for a number of years, and even have 2 of their Annual catalogues as well as completing one garment but this was with the assistance of a sewing teacher being beside me as Marfy patterns have no sewing instructions.

Then late last year I found the free Marfy patterns that you can download to print at home.  I just love this suit.

You do need to register or sign in to your account to get the downloads, but that is only your email address and you never know you may want to order a pattern or two!

Then during the final days of the Little French Jacket sew along (I am still going to make mine) Leisa from A Challenging Sew posted that she was going to hold a Marfy Free patterns sew along.  This decision was made after Leisa had received a number of emails asking her to show how to make the various Marfy patterns that she had constructed during last year.  With the free Marfy patterns available the sew along makes it perfect as everyone has the same pattern to work from.

So you know what is next don’t you, I am sewing along and this will very likely be my 2nd 3-pac for SWAP 2014.

Here is my fabric, navy wool which was purchased from the Fabric Cave when my sister and I visited it last year before they moved to their new location at 112 Bowden Street, Meadowbank.  The crinkle georgette silk is from Tessuti purchased last Saturday specifically for the blouse or I have some tobacco silk crepe de chine that would work for the top as well as the lining for the jacket, now that is a thought!

Is anyone else going to sew along?

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2014 Stash Out:    0 m

2014 Stash In:     19.25 m

 
 

Chanel inspired workshop

On By Sharon25 Comments

Back here I mentioned that I was working on a 2nd Chanel inspired jacket and I am now happy to say that the jacket is finished.

Now it all started back in October 2012 when I saw an advert in Dressmaking with Stitches magazine.

Rita Camastral from Ricama Fabrics had written a 2 part article for Dressmaking for Stitches, Volume 20, Issue 7 and Volume 20, Issue 8.  Then in Volume 21 Issue 2 Rita advertised this workshop for early 2013 and I very quickly contacted Rita to find out about attending.

As the workshop was being held in Brisbane I chose to only attend the main workshop that was over the weekend of 9/10 March and Rita was very generous in sending me the pre-workshop information as well as samples of her tweeds and gro-grain ribbons.

I also did some shopping and found this perfect cotton tweed at The Silk Shop

and purchased this silk crepe de chine and the foldover gro-grain ribbon directly from Ricama Fabrics.

This workshop is a technical workshop and because my fabric didn’t fray I had all my pieces cut out and the edges fused as per Rita’s instructions (this is very different to the LFJ). The other advantage about the workshop being held in Brisbane is that I could stay with my sister, so before I headed off to the workshop on the Saturday morning we overlocked the jacket edges and cut out the silk ready for quilting (again following Rita’s notes).

By the end of Saturday I had machine stitched the side backs to the back, the front sides to the front – this left the side seams open as well as stitching the 3-piece sleeve seams leaving the under seam open for both the Tweed and Silk. My homework that night was to tack the silk lining to the tweed ready for quilting the next day.

On Sunday I started quilting the silk to my sleeve and then realised that if I focused on the sleeve for the remainder of the day it would have me accomplish:

  • Sewing the last seam of the tweed
  • Finishing the silk lining on the seams
  • Adding the bias binding edge to the sleeve vent.
  • Adding the special gro-grain ribbon (it has a groove in the centre) which will bind the whole jacket. 

For the remainder of the Sunday, I then worked on quilting the remainder of my pieces and then proceeded to tie-off the ends in-between the silk and tweed by the time the class finished.

It was at the beginning of October that I picked up this project again.

At the workshop Rita also gave us cardboard templates for the sleeve edge and neck edge for us to pre-shape the gro-grain around the corners with the addition of some small gathering stitches.

Whilst working on the jacket I realised that I needed some additional trim.  I found this rather challenging and even pulled a lot of threads and crocheted a trim but it needed some additional threads to make it better.

Crocheted trim from threads pulled from fabric

When I was at the ASG meeting at The Remnant Warehouse I found this trim and Patricia suggested I place it on the edge, perfect.

Purchased trim

Once the trim was hand sewn in place, I headed to All Buttons Great and Small at Newtown and let the girls find all the different buttons that would be suitable for my jacket.

Then it was off to see Mick at Quick Buttonhole Service at Alexandria to get the 7 buttonholes stitched, which cost $27, very good value in my mind. I waxed my thread and sewed the buttons on.

Finally the chain was stitched just on top of the gro-grain ribbon at the hem edge.

and a few more views:

oops I must have moved!

This will be my first piece for SWAP 2014 – “if you have an item you’re working on now, you may include it as long as it is completed before the official sewing date of 26 December 2013.”

It is also my first piece to be completed for my December Garment of the Month, now to get my skirt hemmed!

I also must thank one of my lovely sewing buddies for loaning me her copy of Claire B Shaeffer’s book, The Couture Cardigan Jacket it was a wonderful resource.  Fingers crossed my 2nd copy arrives, not sure what happened to the first one.

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Stash Out:    29.45m

Stash In:      24.80m


Little French Jacket

On By Sharon13 Comments

It had to happen, I knew as soon as I saw this silk mix it would be another jacket and guess what I have found, the Little French Jacket sewalong.

The icing on the cake for this sewalong is that both of the organisers, Leisa from A Challenging Sew and Inna from Thewallinna have both attended Susan Khalje’s – classic French Jacket course and Susan Khalje has also offered to consult along the way!

I would love to attend one of Susan’s classes but at this stage that is a dream so even though I have plenty of projects on my wish list, I’ve decided to join this one as well.

There have been a number of discussions so far and the schedule has been posted. 

I’m going to use Vogue 7975 again, it has been fitted for me and so far I have made two Chanel inspired jackets from this pattern (well the 2nd one is progressing) so I am not going to do the muslin that started on October 7.

Seeing I’m not 100% certain what else is mixed with the silk, I will do a burn test and then figure out how to pre-treat the fabric.  The girls at The Remnant Warehouse did advise not to dry clean it as they felt it would loose some of its lovely hand.

It will be fun working out what colour the lining will be, looks like I need to go shopping and I’m not even sure where to start with the trim!
 

Make A Garment a Month

On By Sharon10 Comments

You may have seen that I have in my side bar a badge for Make A Garment a Month challenge which SarahLizSewStyle is hosting to help keep us focused on sewing a little each day for ourselves.  There are a lot of wonderful fellow sewers joining up.

My garment for October will be this raglan t-shirt from BurdaStyle Magazine as I have a RTW coral one that I wore constantly last year as I really liked the style.

However, I also want October to be the month to completely finish a number of garments that I have  in various stages of completion:

  • Chanel style jacket, that I started back in March during a weekend workshop in Brisbane. It is up to binding the jacket with a special gros-grain ribbon that has a groove in the centre.  Once this is done the sleeves are set in and then the buttonholes (I think I will let Mick do these once I have purchased the buttons from All Buttons Great and Small).
  • Pencil skirt in the same fabric that has the darts sewn and ready for the invisible zip.
  • Denim style skirt in a forest green twill that only needs a buttonhole and jeans button which I have ordered from M.Recht to arrive.

 I wonder how much I will achieve?

Now it is confession time, look what has followed me home from my last two ASG meetings at The Remnant Warehouse, the girls there are so obliging in pointing out fabric they think you will enjoy.

Silk mix (more silk than anything) with every colour in it for a jacket
Very dark brown and cream stripe knit for Vogue 8904

Looks like I have got November’s garment already lined up, but first I need to purchase the pattern whilst it is on special at Spotlight!

Pyjama Party

On By Sharon13 Comments

I was disappointed last year when I missed Karen’s Pyjama party so as soon as she posted it was time again for another Pyjama Party – Tofino Style I jumped in.

I really liked the look of the Sewaholic’s Tofino pattern and was wondering where I could get one from closer to home when Sandra pointed me in the direction of Sew Squirrel who stocks a huge range of indi patterns and the prices are exceptional.  I placed the order on the Friday before the long weekend and the pattern was in my hands on the Tuesday, now that is service.

My stash contained 2 pieces of fabric that had been earmarked for pyjamas, a cotton with cute owls on it

and a flannelette,

 
 
both purchased from Spotlight.
Continue reading “Pyjama Party” →

Glittery Jersey

On By Sharon13 Comments

I mentioned in this post that I have started working on my Evening Collection for the 2nd half of my SWAP.

My wardrobe has very little evening styled garments in it, and during the year I do have a number of dressy occasions to attend and this hopefully will reduce the mad sewing for an event for a while.

When Ann from Gorgeous Fabrics posted her Gala Top I quickly popped over to her online shop and found some fabric named Disco Glam Jersey – Bronze and just had to have it.  Luckily my boss was in the USA at the time and he so kindly agreed to be my courier. 
When this arrived, I knew exactly what it would be, it has such a wonderful drape! 
Another KS 3740 the wonderful cowl top, but this time I have made it sleeveless.
For this version I have:
  • taken out 1cm (3/8″) from the underarm to tapering back to nothing 4cm (1 1/2″) lower
  • as the fabric has a bit of weight to it, I have added a ribbon across the back neck to keep it from falling off my shoulders.
So here is my first top for the Evening Collection of my SWAP.

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Stash Out:  4.95m
Stash In:  0

ASG Convention 2012

On By Sharon10 Comments

I really like looking at people’s travel wardrobes, it gives me ideas and after reading Carolyn’s travel wardrobe and the interest that was shown in the comments about looking at other people’s travel wardrobes, I thought I would share what I took with me to Adelaide for the ASG Convention.

Time away:
7 days

Where to:
Adelaide

Season:
Spring one month in and looking at the weather forecasts it was still going to be cool with 24c being the warmest during the day.  The weather really turned it on for us, some nights as low as 6c and most of the days ended up being around 18c except for Wednesday and Thursday when temperatures reached 26c.


Activities:
Attending the Australian Sewing Guild Annual Convention, so there is a lot of walking to/from accommodation, classrooms, dining hall as well as a lot of stationery activity during the workshops.

On Wednesday we either had a tour of the fabric shops in Adelaide or a tour of the Adelaide Hills.

Colour scheme:
black, pale brown, chartreuse, grey and navy.

What I packed:  (each garment is linked to its original construction post – left to right; top to bottom)

brown/grey/black top;
Minoru jacket; worn every day
cream boat neck top;
chartreuse/grey/ink navy knit top
Shona vest;
black jeans;
salt and pepper skirt;
navy jeans;
grey cardigan;
black loafers;
taupe flats;
brown/green/cream abstract print top

Verdict

This wardrobe worked very well, I didn’t feel as if I was in the same outfit as everything got worn at least two days each, except for the jeans they were worn for a total of 3 days each and the skirt for 2 days.

I mixed and matched the four tops with the jeans and skirt and the Shona vest went with both green mixed tops as well as the cream boat neck top and the grey cardigan went with all the tops and was a very handy layer under the Minoru jacket for the cold mornings and evenings. I also had a collection of jewellery that changed the look of the tops.  I’m glad I took two pairs of shoes as this let my feet wear a different pair/style each day.

I decided to go on the Fabric Tour to check out some of the fabric shops in the suburbs of Adelaide, however only one piece followed me home for a cardigan and two pieces of quilting cotton for another version of this bag for a very close friend who requested one for Christmas (who luckily doesn’t read my blog).

Blue, caramel, cream, rust, brown sweater knit
Floral print for the exterior, dots for the interior – Spice of Life bag

Now to find time to take a photo of the finished Fractured Knit Cardi.