Sunday, October 11, 2009

Don't let the teenager clean the computer

Because now we are looking at having to buy a new computer. He is careful, and has cleaned out the inside of the computer many times before, but this time it died and refuses to go at all. Probably not directly his fault, but still! Since our laptop was away at the time this meant No Computer for two weeks. The two weeks of the school holidays. When it rained. A lot. Oh yes, fun times in our house lately! Anyway, laptop returned, we are at least back in the 21st century.

At least with no internet to waste time on I did do a bit of sewing. This is the latest crop of my own designs.


This is a tunic I drafted and cut out several weeks ago, but felt a bit ambivalent about, so left sitting. I dragged it out when I couldn't be bothered dreaming up a new project and sewed it. And what do you know, I ended up liking it! The back has the same concealed domes I used on the two pink shirts a little while back.


This shirt is the same basic pattern as earlier ones with the front pattern piece slashed on a 45 degree angle to create panels. I made one from a contrasting fabric just to jazz it up even further. After I'd spent a considerable amount of time creating the pattern pieces, cutting out and assembling the shirt I realised that I could acheive a very similar result by simply sewing bias strips to the front to create stripes. Just to really top it off I realised that I'd already had that idea and sketched it weeks ago! I should go over my sketches more often.




This one is from some beautifully soft linen I found while cleaning up. Obviously my reward for procrastinating since I was cleaning up the fabrilanche (the overflowing pile of unsorted fabric next to my desk, christened the fabrilanche by my very amused husband some years ago) instead of some boring housework I'm sure I should have been doing instead.


And finally a tunic from the same linen. It's very wide thanks to the central inverted pleat and even though it's from the 80cm height block, which corresponds roughly to an 18 month size, I wonder if it should have been a size 2. I think it'd be too short on a 2 year old, and on a hot day loose swingy tops are so comfy to play in. The buttons came from a packet I got at Spotlight when I had to go back to get the sewing machine needles I'd bought and found missing from my bag when I got home. My reward for having to go back I think!

So that's what I've been up to. I went and visited my very clever and creative friend J last week to make some care label/swing tags. When I sew for her she sits next to me and says "Uh-huh, yes, right, I thought so" at appropriate moments. When I visited her to do the labels it was my turn. She is a whizz on the computer and a scrapbooker, so she has a very good eye for that sort of thing. Yay for J! So I now have the labels I needed to be able to sell my designs. The girls are coming over tomorrow, so I think I'll pick their brains regarding what they're worth, and then I can take them in and see what happens next. Now I'm nervous again - what if no one likes them? Self confidence has never been my strong suit.

5 comments:

  1. Those are all fabulous! I just stumbled across your blog and wow! Your work is wonderful.

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  2. Your kids clothes are just so cute. Makes me wish my girls were little again. Oh well will have to wait another decade for the grandkids to come along.

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  3. J, these are seriously cute (as usual) and I can't see why anyone WOULDN'T want to buy them. "You can doooo iiiiit!", as my husband says.

    And OMG, I must appropriate The Fabrilanche! I just tripped over mine on the way to the computer and I think saying "Oh that darned fabrilanche!" will be much better than saying "$@#!! &*#%* @!#$*!!" Which is what I usually say.

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  4. They are totally cool - I love the pockets - on the girls clothing - so very sweet and the boy's top with the contrasting yolk piece is very clever. You make amazing stuff!

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  5. You much such beautiful things but it is the way they are finished off that makes them stand out. How funny that you ended up liking the tunic when at first you didn't. It isn't as fancy as some of the other things you have made but the simplicity is lovely.

    And thankyou for your lovely comment over my way Judy. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and advice. I know you understand! xxx

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