Tag: Sewing Weekend

MMM’14 – Days 22 to 28

On By Sharon6 Comments

The tights are still in the drawer as the warm Autumn weather has continued again this week.

Thursday 22 May


Top: Sewaholic Alma blouse in tangerine polyester (blogged here)
Skirt: Self Drafted TNT skirt in brown wool, previously own on day 12
Cardigan: Jalie 2566 in a mixture of knits, previously worn on days 1, 14 and 18
Accessory: Me made crocheted necklace and earrings.
Hosiery: Voodoo Celestial 
Shoes: Tahari Melanie

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Friday 23 May

Woohoo I’ve got another day off work, this one was planned all along and I was thrilled that the boss gave me Monday off.  I am all packed up ready to head off for a sewing weekend with 29 other ladies from the Australian Sewing Guild.

These are the garments that are cut out, fused, and pinned ready for their first steps of sewing:

McCall’s 5433 Shirt which I lengthen for a shirtmaker dress in navy linen.
Vogue 1247 Rachel Comey Skirt in the same navy linen.
Jalie 2566 Cardigan in a multi coloured sweater knit that I purchased during an ASG Convention in 2012

Today’s photo them is “Polka Dot Parade” and I am thankful for Sydney’s run of unusually warm Autumn weather.

Top: Vogue 1247 top in navy with off white spot chiffon (blogged here)
Skirt:  BWOF 04-2009-101 skirt in brown cord, previously worn on day 11.
Accessory: Me made necklace and earrings
Hosiery: Voodoo Celestial
Shoes: Taupe flats

and my PJ’s – BWOF 11-2009-131 in spotted flannelette (blogged here)
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Saturday 24 May

Photo taken by Kristy

Top: Kwik.Sew 3740 in white, red, toffee, brown knit previously worn on days 3 and 15.
Skirt:  BWOF 04-2009-101 in burgundy cord (not blogged)
Accessory: Me made necklace and earrings
Hosiery: Voodoo celestial
Shoes: Taupe flats

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Sunday 25 May

Photo taken by Sandra

Top: BWOF 02-2009-108 boat neck in blue/brown/green knit, previously worn on days 6 and 17.
Skirt: Self Drafted TNT skirt changed to a denim style in green twill, previously worn on day 16.
Accessory: Purchased necklace and earrings.
Hosiery: Voodoo Celestial 
Shoes:  Taupe flats

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Monday 26 May

Top: Kwik.Sew 3740 blue/gold swirls, previously worn on day 12.
Skirt:  Marfy 0757 skirt in navy wool (to be blogged)
Accessory: Me made necklace and earrings (blogged here)
Hosiery: Voodoo Celestial
Shoes: Circa Joan & David Lux navy slingbacks

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Tuesday 27 May

Top: Vogue 8572 (OOP) in off-white damask, previously worn on day 1.
Skirt: Vogue 1247 Rachel Comey skirt in burnt orange (blogged here)
Cardigan:  Jalie 2566 in animal print, previously worn on day 11.
Accessory: Me made necklace and purchased earrings
Hosiery:  Voodoo Celestial
Shoes: Circa Joan & David Callalily brown pumps

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Wednesday 28 May

Top: Vogue 1822 in brown spotty Japanese cotton (blogged here)
Skirt: Self drafted TNT skirt in brown linen, previously worn on days 1 and 15.
Accessory: Purchased necklace and earrings
Hosiery: Voodoo Celestial
Shoes: Tahari Melanie

Not many more days left in May and it looks like the warm weather is here for a few days more!

All packed up …

On By Sharon9 Comments

and heading off to our sewing weekend.

This was last Saturday morning and after hubby had loaded the car for me I drove to the Mercure Hotel at Parramatta to meet up with 14 of my real life sewing buddies to sew and chat all weekend!

Here we are all busy and if you look closely you can see my trench coat hanging on the window sill at the back of the room.

At this stage the trench still had 18 steps to do in no particular order and those with a line through them were completed during the weekend.

– finish pockets
– secure pockets to seams
– install grommets on storm flaps both front and back
– attach back facing
– work out how to put zip in curved collar

– if work out then finish hood and install
– make collar and attach the Burda way
– make carriers for belt and sleeve carriers
– set in sleeves
– add batting to sleeve cap
– attach carriers
– baste piping around facings
– press hems in place
– attach lining – already made – basted in as I wanted to see how it looked 🙂
– handstitch/sew hems
– sew on buttons
– make belt for coat
– make straps for sleeves 
I spent Saturday morning making various collar prototypes trying to work out how to  put the chunky metal zipper into the curved collar for the hood.  No matter how much pressing and shaping of the zipper tape I did, I couldn’t get it to fit the curve of the collar so that idea has been scrapped, so my trench doesn’t have a hood, but I can live with that.
The remainder of the weekend was spent completing the other steps and here is how the trench looks at present:

There are still quite a few steps to do on the trench and they are going to take some time.  

Thank you ladies for a wonderful weekend of laughter, shared experiences and knowledge, it was a lot of fun!!

Not much other sewing has been going on besides the pants muslins but I have decided to join the Pyjama Party over at Did you make that? as I am in need of some new winter PJ’s as well as a lighter pair for when we head to the snow as our accommodation is centrally heated and I definitely don’t need my flannel PJ’s then.

Is anyone else sewing along?

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.

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.