Everything Just Sew

The Jinx Dress

2012-01-26T09:35:00.003+13:00

I don't name my creations as a rule, but some acquire a moniker as I go along. This is most definitely the Jinx Dress. It felt like the entire process was jinxed from the get go! Looks pretty innocuous doesn't it?

I am very pleased with the fern, but I would prefer it a little lower I think.

Yet another item created from other people's discards. In this case, cast off jeans from David and my BIL. Worn through in the butt so they weren't worth mending, the legs were good enough to piece into this dress. After I got over this hurdle.

Once I persuaded Nicholas that it would be much more comfy to snuggle on the sofa I was able to cut the pieces from the jeans. And then they fought being made in every way!

My worst problem was when I sewed the dress shoulder seams and facing shoulder seams, joined the pieces at armholes and necklines with the intention of turning them right side out through the shoulders before sewing side seams and finishing armholes. The point at which I realised I had not turned the dress right side out was after sewing and overlocking both side seams and doing two rows of topstitching on one of them. Yep, said some bad words.

I had multiple thread hassles - not enough topstitching thread (I had some more in a different brand which was close enough that I figured to h*** with it, it's not for sale and open to public scrutiny!), running out of bobbin thread 10cm from the end of the last row of hem stitching, and most intriguingly, going to the ironing board to give the completed hem a final press and finding a section of hem with no bobbin thread. I assume it broke and somehow caught up a new loop, but I've never had that happen before! I had limited topstitching thread for the hem so I couldn't just redo the whole thing (which I would prefer) and it has so many starts and stops in it! The teeth were gritted so hard by this point I expect the surfaces are flat.

Anyway, it was always intended to be a trial, to be worn by Isabella. Good sturdy Kindy dress which cost nothing but my time. Here's her verdict.

And here's my last teeth-gritting realisation.

It's more obvious in real life that the denims for back and front are too different. The back is heavier, which I don't mind, but it's blue blue while the front is made from two pairs which were more black blue. Damn! I like the original side seams on the back pieces but after the dress was made and on her the glaring difference in tone between front and back jumped out at me. Next time I should have some of each fabric in the front and the back if the contrast is too great.

Repeat to self: it cost nothing but my time, it's for kindy, it'll be covered in paint in five minutes, she loves it......

Showing my roots

2012-01-22T16:58:00.004+13:00

No, not the ever-increasing collection of grey ones on my head, these roots:

My Mum is English, as is my paternal grandfather, but really that's just an excuse for the fact that I've always liked the Union Jack (which I vaguely recall hearing on a Dr Who episode is really the Union Flag unless it's at sea) as a graphic image. And I like how it looks on clothes. The NZ flag is a Union Jack in the corner of a navy blue flag, so it's pretty much my flag too. The idea of appliqueing the flag onto a simple dress has been percolating for a while, and yesterday was the day.

This one is for Isabella. I'm trying out my size four A-line dress block on her(104cm height). As she won't be four till May, I'm very happy with how this fits her. The slight rise at the armhole edge of her left shoulder is the most obvious sign that the dress is a bit big, and within my "I can live with it" tolerance. She is a very enthusiastic and willing model.

But "stand still" pretty much doesn't register at all. That blur to the left of her visible leg in the pic below is her other leg.

Being the stickler for accuracy that I am I didn't want my Union Jack to be reminiscent of the flag, I wanted it to be precisely correct in it's proportions. (Yeah, accuracy in proportion is one thing, colour is another!) It took three seconds on Google to find how to accurately draw the flag, and from there I made a full-scale diagram on a full-front pattern outline. The photo is a bit faint, sorry.

Detail.

After cutting the fabric strips and stitching them on the front looked like this.

I spent as much time with the iron as I did with the machine I think - making sure all the fabrics were perfectly wrinkle free before marking and cutting the strips (with scissors because I keep forgetting to get new rotary cutter blades) and after applying each strip, none of which are fused in any way. Not to have pressed every time would have invited distortions, which would magnify with each successive layer. If you want to know more about why pressing is so essential, go read the Pressinatrix.

I could reduce the thickness of the appliqued layers by stencilling the red areas onto a single cut out of the white areas, which I think would be sensible for smaller sizes.

Alabama Chanin #3

2012-01-17T12:39:00.004+13:00

After an estimated 80 hours work, all by hand, here it is.

What, the sunshine is too bright to show it up? Sorry, I'll go inside.

Is this better?

Profile shot. My only alteration to the pattern (from the Alabama Stitch Book, corset top pattern, size S) was to lower the hem at the front so it's more level with the back.

Gratuitous parting shot of the twins being cute. I swear if I hadn't given birth to them I would NOT believe they are twins!

The first casualty

2012-01-14T11:01:00.003+13:00

Remember these guys?

This morning Isabella handed me this.

The white patches at neck and butt are stuffing. On the bright side the twins love the mice. On the not-so-bright side they had a tug of war over this one. With bitter irony, it's me. I'm too battered to repair, so I'll have to make myself again.

To cheer myself up I photographed my injuries on my Alabama Chanin corset top, which I am now starting to seam together! Over his Christmas break David has been helping my wonderful brother in law on our bathroom renovation. My job is to keep the twins out of their hair, and with water turned off for the whole day a couple of times, housework possibilities were limited (yeah, hard I know) so I did get through quite a lot of the beading and running stitching this week, in short bursts between twin wrangling. Should be wearing it soon!

Other peoples cast offs

2012-01-08T12:34:00.005+13:00

There seems to have been a theme to my sewing lately - everything I've made has been whipped up in double quick time from fabric I have acquired from someone else's stash reduction. Exhibit 4) (or 5, or whatever) A much needed pair of togs for Isabella. Keely has been in major decluttering mode and gave me some cast off fabric to rummage through. A small piece of this swimsuit fabric jumped out and yelled "Isabella needs some togs! Dunedin has just had it's driest December since records began in 1913!" I hadn't found any I liked on my one attempt to do so, so whipped these up. Size four bottoms are perfect, but I had to add extra strips to the sides and a band at the bottom on the top to make it big enough. There was only just enough fabric to eke them out! Pattern is KS2884, which appears to be out of print. Shame - it's a great basic two piece bathing suit pattern.

She needed them to wear while doing this.

And another friend decluttered this from her house to mine.

My very own, much longed for treadle sewing machine. It was painted this colour when she got it, and I suspect that returning it to its original appearance is going to be a fair bit of work.

I had a very quick go at sewing with it, and to my delight, it goes! The mechanism moves freely and it forms stitches. The tension was WAY out of whack, but I was very restrained and went back to the tog sewing instead of spending all evening playing. Its time will come....

Oh, and I've just started the LAST piece of my Alabama Chanin corset top. Another couple of weeks should see it done, depending on distractions.

New dress for MEEEEE!!!!!

2011-12-12T09:08:00.003+13:00

When people know that you sew, they give you stuff. The fabric for this dress came from my very lovely Mother In Law (and I'm not just sucking up because I'm going to tell her about this post - she really is fantastic!). She had been given it to find it and some of it's mates a good home. And I took one look at this (70's ?) scenery print on something completely devoid of natural fibre and it screamed MAKE ME INTO BURDA 10/09 #119! (Many many thanks to Sewingelle for pointing out the Burda archives!). So I did.

My trusty assistant overseeing proceedings.

I am really pleased with how this turned out, with the possible exception of where the pleats are released. The fabric is very thin and both it's lack of body and tendency to be see through led me to underline it (in the ubiquitous red lining - the dress looks gold when light shines through it!) and while that is perfect for the rest of the dress it makes the area below the pleats a bit poofy. I am trying to decide whether or not I care. Edgestitching the pleats would flatten them, but I don't want to do that. I also don't want to sharply press them, so I'm wearing it today to see what I think. So far, not bothered.

In addition to underlining it I added 4cm to the length (I hate my knees) and scooped out a chunk of neckline as I'm not a fan of a high neckline on myself. Other than that, straight from the pattern.

So once again a project which wasn't even on the horizon a short time ago is made and being worn. I suspect I have sewing ADD.

Four down...

2011-11-28T11:37:00.003+13:00

... four to go. Progress on my latest Alabama Chanin corset top currently stands here.

I would like to finish it by Christmas, but I keep getting side tracked by the urgent need to make things like this:
Owl from here. (I saw an owl ornament somewhere with antlers, so naturally added them to mine.) Fox very liberally adapted from here. Star from a magazine. Bird from several places.

Oh, and Cayden needs some clothes. I've also photographed his bass (front and back) which I'm going to print out and laminate so mini Cayden has real Cayden's actual bass! I really do amuse myself. The idea and tutorial which I've adapted for this is from the brilliant Jodie of Ric Rac. (The tutorial is on her sidebar)

Some of the mouse family need clothes too, and they need a house.

At least the advent calendar is pretty much ready to go. I just need to apply the embellishments, some sewn and some (eep!) glued. I'm avoiding having to glue stuff.

Christmas is less than a month away. No pressure then.

My turn,my turn!

2011-11-10T09:50:00.003+13:00

As is so typical for me, this isn't one of the umpteen trillion queued projects waiting to make it to the head of the list. A few days ago it wasn't on the horizon, and here it is already finished.

I was looking for a different pattern (which I found) and this one was in the same box. I'd traced it from a Burda mag I borrowed from the library and forgotten it! I knew immediately that my dear friend J would love it too (we have very similar taste, so she's hugely fun to shop with!) and I excitedly tried to find it on the Burda archives to email her a pic. They only go back two years, so no luck for her, or to link to here. (I had to get it from the stacks at the library so I can trace one in J's size). For the record, it's Burda 02/2009, #129.

This is unusual for me, as I'm not a frilly, bow-y person, but this spoke to me. The fabric is a mystery synthetic intended for something else but willingly sacrificed for a wearable muslin. I'm very happy with the fit, but next time I'll spend more time on the front neckline to snug it it a bit. I did have to chop 10cm out of the neckline elastic (I hate unpicking three-step zigzag) and the sleeve elastic is a tad snug, but bearable.

Verdict: Broke the drought and scored a win!

Actual garment sewing. Just not for me.

2011-11-07T08:44:00.003+13:00

When inspiration strikes I've learned to just go with it. That was the case with this - three remnant pieces of broderie anglais edged dobby voile. It jumped up and down and told me it'd be perfect made as the Oliver + S ruffled halter. (Available as a free download here).

The broderie edges are on the top ruffle, bottom ruffle, and back. (Trying to photograph a three year old is challenging enough without worrying about actually showing the details!).

Speaking of the back, I'm not a fan of halters for kids because they seldom sit nicely so I made this more like pillowcase style by making the back from the same pattern piece as the front and cutting a facing to match.
Isabella is gratifyingly pleased with it, and when I showed it to her delightedly squealed "You made a pretty top for MEEE!!!". Her training is coming along nicely.

Keely, this is your fault

2011-11-02T08:56:00.002+13:00

Well, yours and Lara's for getting to craft night and asking me if I knew how to crochet a granny square. And then if I could show you. The feel of hook in hand after quite a few years got me inspired to make the crochet roses I've been pinning.

My first attempt. Slightly more open than the original, and it looks pretty naff in variegated acrylic, but you can bet your life there will be more, in the pretty pink yarn I have lying around waiting for a project. And I have three more patterns on my desk to try as well. Because I have sooooooooo much spare time and need another hobby. Thanks ladies!

And on the subject of pinning, Georgia absolutely loved this penguin and made these three all by herself. She's going to make one for each of the family to put on the tree this year.

This weekend we're having the neighbourhood girls over to make felt ornaments as a group. I sincerely can't wait - indoctrinating the next generation in the ways of making stuff.

No excuses!

2011-10-25T14:19:00.004+13:00

So a few weeks ago I took up running again, after about a twenty year lay off. I'd given up because it became inconvenient, rather than due to injury or hating it! Hugely inspired by my fabulous friend J, who has dedicated herself this year to her health and getting fit. Running a half marathon fit. I go to the gym regularly, but don't do a lot of cardiovascular exercise, so decided to start running. Which of course required appropriate kit. After buying good shoes I only needed a sweatshirt/jacket for the days I walk the twins to kindy and then run from there, or when it's cooler. (I live in Dunedin. Cooler is always a distinct possibility.) So I made this. I call it the No Excuses jacket because it's function is to prevent me from having an excuse not to go! It's Jalie 2795, made from cotton sweatshirting.

It's perfect - nice long sleeves to keep my wrists warm, a hood that sits nice and flat, close fit through the body so I don't have excess fabric bunching around the place, room through the chest/shoulders for a complete range of motion swinging my arms. The only change I made to the pattern was to add a zip to one pocket so I can take my phone and house key without worrying about losing them. I've worn it twice, and it works really really well.

Progress on the latest Alabama Chanin corset top is slow, as expected, but steady. I've got this far so far.

And I've still got an increasingly worried eye on Christmas. Mostly because a so-called friend helpfully reminded me that I needed the advent calendar by December 1. Which is not that far away! And Cayden (for whom I'm making a doll of himself) has only a couple of weeks left of school, after which it'll be harder to work on anything I don't want him to see. So today I made a trial version, using one of the failed photo printing efforts. To very simply transfer my sewing line to the fabric I just pinned a paper copy of it to two layers of fabric, lining up the face, and sewed through the paper. Afterwards I just had to tear it out - easy!
Trimmed and turned through he looks like this:
I'm pretty satisfied with that, so now I can make the real one and stuff him. Which I'm going to enjoy. Then make him some clothes.

And the advent calendar now has pockets. Some finished, some still needing fused appliques to be stitched down.

So yeah, been doing stuff.

In the meantime....

2011-10-07T16:46:00.004+13:00

So far the first (of eight) pieces looks like this:

So in complete contrast to a very very long slow project is this - cut out a week or two ago, but sewn together last night and this afternoon.

Front, collar and sleeves: Jalie 2919. (And my assistant. Can't do much without his input.)

Back: Vogue 1061.
Nothing wrong with either pattern as they stood, but I never wore my Vogue one - turns out I don't like cardigans which can only be worn closed. I gave it to a friend, who looks a lot better in it than I did anyway, so we're both happy!

It came to me in a dream

2011-10-04T10:55:00.003+13:00

Almost literally. At craft night last night I got the typical hard time for scarcity of posting, and I cited my typical queue of projects awaiting thread, interfacing or something. One of the projects was this one - awaiting inspiration. My third Alabama Chanin corset top. I found some cotton T shirts on sale in Kmart for $2 each a few weeks ago and got a couple to use as the basis for the top. The thought of white on white has been percolating for a while, and I had a rose stencil chosen, but I wasn't sure how to proceed. I didn't really want to follow the freezer paper and paint route because I didn't want to introduce another colour. One idea I'd had was this - draw on the roses with a water soluble pen which I could subsequently wash out.

And last night I dreamed vividly that this is exactly what I did, and stitched in white. Oh, and in my dream there were some beads too. So of course this morning as soon as I could I got to work. Another eighty hour top. I really like the idea of some beading. I still have some of the beads from my wedding dress left over....

Ok girls - can you guess what'll be coming to the next few craft nights with me? (As long as I get more thread)

Modern Pattern Design PDF

2011-10-01T15:10:00.005+13:00

They say it's not what you know, but who you know, and that is so true! Keely sent me a text alerting me to Pam's blog, which had a link to Michou's blog, in which she has made available a downloadable pdf of Harriet Pepin's highly regarded 1942 book "Modern Pattern Design". Since I'd spent a bit of time enjoying it on Vintage Sewing Info before that site sadly vanished, I was delighted, and raced off to acquire my copy. (THANK YOU MICHOU!)

Sadly for me the chapter on childrens wear was not included, but somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered seeing a link on a blog somewhere at some point in the past in which the author had found the Vintage Sewing Info site using a search engine which finds pages as they appeared at some point in the past. (It's called Wayback but that didn't pop back into the memory, as I had never heard of it previously). A minute or two with google popped up Magdamagda Design Studio and her post on the subject. And here is the whole book. Et Voila - I had all the information again!

I am incredibly grateful to all the people who have pointed to these resources, which are fantastic. I love the internet.

And because I prefer posts with photos I'll end with this extremely blurry shot of Nicholas. He had gone into the kitchen and was suspiciously quiet. Upon investigation I found this - he had got the bowl from the cupboard, milk from the fridge, poured it and put the bottle back (lid on and everything) and got a couple of biscuits which he was happily stirring with a spoon. Apparently he was making a pikelet sandwich.

Since June?! Really?

2011-09-26T08:48:00.006+13:00

I got an email from the shop where I have my designs on consignment suggesting suppliers might like to think about spring/summer stock because it's about to be cruise ship season. Good idea I thought, and got sewing. After completing a dress and getting out my tally list I discovered that it was the first garment I've made since JUNE! (And there was only one that month). I guess my winter apathy is worse than I thought! Anyway I've been sewing up a storm for a couple of weeks and yesterday delivered all of these to Little Chalmers.

Well, this one was all done but for the buttons for probably about a year. I was terrified of mangling a buttonhole on the satin and ruining the whole thing. Naturally once I got started the Greist (buttonholer) behaved perfectly, as always, and everything is fine. I feel like an idiot for worrying. Nothing new there.

Fairies. I actually designed the fairies myself by manipulating croquis and wings. I really like them, so I hope some little girl sees them and begs her Mum to buy the fairy dress. (I originally made this design for Isabella to try out the back fastening and V front and back. She's been wearing that dress for almost a year and it's been great, so I'll call that trial a success!)

This is New Zealand. Silver ferns are pretty much mandatory.

Butterflies.

I really like the colour combo and spot applique on this dress. The idea for that came to me when I was lying in bed one night and I was terrified that I'd forget it by morning! Obviously, I didn't. The butterflies in the dress above are the same tecnique, but I think it's less successful with the gingham. I'll do it again though!

Now I have all that out of the way I really should get on with one of the seventy squintillion projects in various stages of planning for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Just crafty type stuff.

2011-09-01T13:45:00.004+12:00

My real-life friends have been giving me increasingly pointed reminders lately that I haven't updated my blog for a very long time. Basically because I haven't got anything to show - I hate winter and find my motivation to sew always vanishes. I also invariably put on a few kgs over winter and don't want to sew for myself when I'm fat. I always lose the extra in summer, and then want to sew. The fact that I live in the same boring clothes because I'm not motivated to make new ones doesn't really help my enthusiasm for life either. Maybe I should make my winter clothes in summer?

Anyway, what I do like to do in winter is craft sewing. I like to claim that my English heritage is what makes me so enamoured of winter Christmases, but I think it's actually because just about all the movies and tv programmes which feature Christmas are set in the northern hemisphere! I've been meaning to make a new advent calendar for years, and this is the year I start. So far it looks like this:

Based on a design from a Homespun magazine, with houses and sleigh from a variety of Homespun and Handmade magazines. Most of the applique is done, but there will be a lot of embellishment added! I like Christmas to look festive.

I've also started another project in my quest to have as much of a handmade Christmas as possible. I absolutely L.O.V.E.D this project by the inimitable Jodie of Ric Rac. Having a teenage son in a band myself, it just cried out to be made. Following this brilliant tutorial on Dolls and Daydreams (which I linked to before, but didn't credit, for which I apologise. Thank you Sarah!) I printed this photo of Cayden's head onto fabric.

That was the third attempt. I had a lot of problems getting the fabric to feed through the printer due to it rolling at the sides, and after a couple of paper jams which had me fearing each time that I'd stuffed my printer I did get it printed, only to have this happen when I put it into the vinegar to set:

And that happened twice - I thought I hadn't given it long enough to dry before the vinegar soak so left it overnight the second time, but got the same result. Then I wondered if it had printed in colour even though it looks black and white, and when I checked it in photoshop that was indeed the case, so I changed it to greyscale and this time it worked! A small amount of ink did shed when I put it in the vinegar, but it was only a tiny bit and the photo is fine. Can't wait to make a teeny tiny Cayden. Hopefully he thinks it's funny.

This last photo is for J, who set me the homework of sewing the button on this cardigan for Isabella a couple of craft nights ago. Just to prove I DID do it! Isabella loves her cardigan and chooses to wear it at every opportunity.
She really is the happiest child in the world.

Returning to our regularly scheduled programme.

2011-07-27T13:40:00.004+12:00

I know I said I was going to make myself a dress, but then I was idly surfing the web (as you do) and found a link to Your Style Rocks latest free pattern. And it jumped up and yelled at me to be downloaded and made NOW PLEASE! (The pattern intrigues me - separate upper and under collar pieces allowing for turn of cloth, separate lining patterns, interfacing extensively indicated, differing seam allowances for different seam types - I hardly knew what I'd struck!)

I checked their measurement chart and decided that a size 10 should fit my bust, but I would probably need some extra room over the hips. And I wanted to add a chunk to the back so that it is a racer back rather than halter, so I needed to toile it. (After spending a very long time taping the 56 pages together section by section because I don't have room for the whole thing in one place, and tracing the pattern). Once again in the bargain red lining, of which I still have a considerable amount.

I used the left front twice rather than the asymmetrically pleated right front since I was only interested in the fit. To my surprise, I don't need to add any extra to the hips. That made me feel good! I'm not 100% sure about the bust princess seam, but I suspect most of the (not very serious) problem I saw on me was due to this being flimsy unsupported lining.

To work out how much to add to the back I just pinned a chunk of fabric to the back panels and the collar,
And cut away what I didn't want. (I've now added half that shape to the centre back panel pattern piece)

I'm now ready to actually make this, if only I could decide which fabric to use.....

People who make cheeky comments about glue...

2011-07-23T09:37:00.003+12:00

...get presents like this for their birthday.

My dear friend J is the glue queen. There is no problem she isn't convinced could not be fixed with glue. (I'm sure she feels that World Peace could be achieved if only we all used more glue). Her birthday was a couple of weeks ago and last night we went out to mark the occasion. Several days ago I'd discovered that Urban Threads sells hand embroidery patterns for download (reason #2,847,486,844 to love the internet) and I found this one. It made me laugh, so I bought it to make for J in every shade of pink. I even did a properly mitred quilt binding, which gave M the opportunity to give me a hard time about not squaring it before binding, about which we'd had a knock-down drag-out hair-pulling cat fight, I mean 'spirited debate', at craft night recently.

On a topic other than craft sewing, I think it's well past time I shook off the winter blahs and made myself a new dress. I have fabric in mind for the woven Pattern Magic top I started working on a while back and I think I know how I'm going to put a skirt on it. Now, how long till the kids go back to school?

Evidence that I am also a slow learner

2011-07-13T14:02:00.002+12:00

I took the teeny soggy bunny (and this toy to work on) to Monday's craft night, and my so-called friends laughed to my face at the incontrovertible proof of my insanity. Thanks for that girls!

Despite their derision (or probably because of it) I forged ahead anyway. (Only 13 pieces for this toy!) Only to have this toy look like a deer (according to the teenager) when the ears were attached. I generally find that if I stare blankly at a problem for long enough a solution will present itself, and this time it was to undo the ears (which were folded and inserted into slits on the head and stuck pretty much straight up) and sew them on as flaps. I think I'll round off the points a little, but at least this time Nicholas could identify the species when I showed him! I'm not particularly happy with the back of the head, but to redo it means cutting new main body pieces and if I'm going to do that I might as well just make a whole new dog. Well girls, guess what I'm bringing next craft night?

Further proof that I need my head read

2011-07-06T14:39:00.004+12:00

Exhibit #435, a teeny copy of Isabella's favourite soft toy, Soggy Bunny. Approximately 6.5cm tall, comprising 14 separate parts.

Nicholas reckoned that he and Isabella need their whole family represented in mouse form for their Christmas present. Fair enough, I can do that. (Currently six down, one to go, plus wardrobe, plus house.....) Then Georgia thought it'd be great if Isabella Mouse had a tiny Soggy Bunny of her own. So I thought - "Yeah, I can do that!" and dug out Bean Bag Buddies, (which is a great book!) and found a suitable rabbit pattern. Traced it for ease of scanning, and used the computer to reduce it to 20% of it's original size and made it out of felt. 14 teeny weeny pieces of felt. And now I'm thinking that Nicholas Mouse might need a soft toy too. Good thing Christmas is months away because this project might not ever get finished.

Pretty dress for someone else

2011-06-18T11:42:00.003+12:00

I love making pretty dresses for other people. I like making pretty dresses, but there is very little call for a formal, strapless, ruched chiffon bodiced dress when dealing daily with two three year olds, so I don't make many for myself, funnily enough. (Not that I've ever worn a strapless dress myself anyway). Fortunately every so often I get a call from someone who was given my name by a friend for whom I made something once, and I get to make something pretty.

Note to self: Don't try to photograph flowy skirted dresses outside if there is even a breath of wind. It doesn't look blown about, but the skirt is wonky in this shot compared to the last one, and this was the best one!
I was going to document the construction a bit more thoroughly, but the teenager borrowed the camera batteries, the 11 year old had flattened the batteries first, and I just ran out of oomph on that idea, and much of it was sewn in the evenings when photography is difficult anyway so these two are all I have.

Bodice with ruched overlayer:
With empire band:
The dress has a separate boned corsolette with waist stay, and the dress itself is only joined at the top edge. I love this technique for strapless dresses - they STAY PUT and hang smoothly. This dress is the for teenage daughter of a teacher from Oliver's school (who was given my name by the secretary who was given it by one of the kids' teachers) for her school formal. She brought me a picture and I modified a Burda magazine pattern which is how I create almost all patterns for adults. So much easier than drafting from scratch!

Now back to the mischief of mice. (Apparently the collective nouns "horde" and "nest" are also applicable, but with a son like Nicholas "mischief" seems eminently more appropriate!

Getting a head start

2011-06-03T10:58:00.003+12:00

So last year I made Nicholas and Isabella fabric activity books for Christmas. They were a great success, and I absolutely loved making them (and LOVE seeing the twins playing with them), so decided that I really should do more of this sort of thing. I was going to make an adorable mouse family and house for Isabella for her birthday, but, um, didn't get around to it. So right after their birthday I figured that it'd be great to make for Christmas, and if I start now I should get it all done with months to spare to make other presents. Good plan!

Here's prototype #1 for the mice. Cheap black acrylic craft felt, all hand blanket stitched. (Much easier with small fiddly pieces).

He (no idea why he's a he, but I'm certain that he is. Till I make "him" a dress) has his feet on the issue of Homespun from which part one (of two) the pattern is taken. (Issue #89, Vol 11.10, in case anyone wants to know). Designed by Rosalie Quinlan, the project has a family of four mice and their house as a carry case. This mouse, um, isn't one of them. The head comes from a Handmade magazine from at least ten years ago, and the body I think I drafted myself. I did use Rosalie's limbs. I seem to be incapable of using pretty much any pattern as the designer intended.

I expected this guy to be prototype #1 - ie, that more prototypes would follow before I splash out on nice wool felt to make the real ones, but I'm really really pleased with how he turned out, so he may end up being part of the family! I fancy shades of grey. (Georgia wants a purple one. Which I think I'll make her)

As before I'm not making any attempt to hide the making from the twins, and Nicholas has been fascinated by me making a mouse. This may well end up being a shared gift - the bane of twin childhood!

I Demand A Recount!!!

2011-05-24T11:00:00.003+12:00

According to the calendar today is the twins' third birthday. It can't be three years since they made their seven-weeks-early entry into the world!

It is incredibly hard to get two three year olds to cooperate for a photo intended to showcase their new clothes.
Isabella's dress is the one I made a couple of months ago and wasn't happy with. Yesterday I suddenly thought that adding godets would provide the needed fullness, and sat up feverishly sewing till after 11.30pm to finish it. It wouldn't have been so late if I hadn't also had to sew a new shirt for Nicholas. He has seen the robot stencil appliques I've put on other things and rather plaintively asked "My ah-but?". So I made him an ah-but shirt of his own. I also made him new trousers. (I only had the hems and elastic to do on those yesterday though). He chose the dragon applique and when shown them yesterday afternoon insisted on putting them on immediately. (The gigantic sweatshirt is the one he wore home from kindy after playing very enthusiastically with the water table).
Just as well I took the pic as soon as he put them on because about 30 minutes later I was reminded that small boys who are not long potty trained shouldn't be put into new trousers which you want them to wear the next day.
I love this stretch corduroy but my overlocker hates it so I had to zig zag the seam allowances. Thank goodness for my walking foot!

What I did In My (Kids') Holidays

2011-05-02T11:10:00.005+12:00

Man kids can get underfoot! I happily waved them off this morning, back to school after two weeks and sat down to the computer without anyone whining that it must be their turn!

I'll have to get the girls (there were five for two days) to bring over the voodoo dolls "we" made - two solid days of entertainment - for a photoshoot. (They very quickly dropped the voodoo bit in favour of fashion)

The Teenager has provided much of the fodder for this post. I got up one morning to find this on my desk.
He'd been asking for days, so this was pretty polite, so I fixed his jeans.

Then there was his other request, "Mum, can you make a mask like a balaclava with no eye or mouth holes?" (He was asking if I was able, before asking if I would!) "Um, yes, WHY?!" For a photography project involving a doll which comes to life. The doll has no features so the person playing the doll-come-to-life needs a mask of no features. I haven't made the actual mask, but have worked up a toile - I'll post the details when I've made the mask!

Which led to his next request - could I please make a tiny suit for the doll which was to come to life. He told me his photography teacher had those poseable artists' dolls which he could borrow, and would bring one home for me to dress. I thought I could just alter Barbie clothes patterns and it'd be fiddly but doable. Till he brought home the doll and I realised that it is 12cm tall. Instead of slightly enlarging Barbie patterns I had to scale them to 50% of their original size and then modify them a bit for use. Holy Cow that boy owes me big!!!
I used acrylic craft felt because I figured it'd be easiest to use. It was easy to use, but I still had to sew all those teeny tiny seams by hand. It's not even close to perfect, but it is good enough. And I am NOT doing another one!!!!! The Teenager is perfectly happy with the suit and admits that I'm the Best Mum In The World.

Eagle eyed readers may have noticed my back drop:I chanced upon it on Book Depository for GBP9.75!!!!! (It's now GBP12.88, which is still a great price, especially since they have free shipping worldwide) I ordered it as fast as I could get my credit card out of my wallet. (And then sheepishly phone the bank to activate the card, which I've had for several months, which shows how often I use it) It arrived in under two weeks (Easter was in there, so that was pretty good time!) and to my delight, it's even the English version! Happy happy happy. (The photo on the site doesn't have the "now in English" sticker on the cover, so I was expecting Japanese) I um, also ordered Pattern Magic 2 on Saturday when I noticed the price was no longer GBP19.95 but GBP12.88. Fingers crossed for the English version! I just noticed it's back at GBP19.95 today, so this is presumably something to watch for.

Project #1 (of several I plan to make) toile:

I forgot to set my dummy to my size, so it hangs awkwardly. But you get the idea. When I make it for real I'll model it myself. To my utter astonishment when I made a toile of the basic bodice block from the book (with nothing altered except for adding 3cm to the length) it fit perfectly! I actually said WTF? (not abbreviated) when I tried it on. I did have to make the largest size, but apparently I'm proportioned like a Japanese woman. Sadly the modified version of this block (which was to be manipulated into the design) didn't fit perfectly, but required only minor alterations before I could start the hack-and-slash, I mean pattern manipulation.

I also made a few garments from my own designs, one of which was a simple boys' shirt. I stenciled paw prints up the front, over the shoulder and down the back, but had the iron too hot when I heat set the ink and ruined the front panel. When I was having a go at gently stretching it to see if it was salvageable I did this:
And swore again. And tried to be grateful that at least I could remove and replace the panel, and even salvage the pocket.

Photos of the garments made are going to have to wait for a sunnier day than this. I am so over winter. Which doesn't even START for another month.....

To finish this rather all-over-the-place post, a story about the Teenager. Once a month or so he has three or four friends over for an overnight computer game session. They all bring their computers, network them together and proceed to kill each other all night. They traditionally eat pizza and chips, but last time decided to get chicken nuggets, wrap them in bacon, batter and deep fry them. This was a huge success, and the Teenager has decided that deep-frying is the best. So occasionally I get up in the morning to discover evidence (reasonably well cleaned up) that he's had a deep-fried snack overnight. One morning I got up to find three battered and fried discs on a plate in the fridge. I couldn't work out what they were (and wasn't game to try one!) so waited till the Teenager got up and asked him. The answer? Biscuits (cookies). I asked why he'd battered and fried biscuits and the reply was that he'd had batter left over after he'd made a jam sandwich, spread nutella (chocolate and hazelnut spread) all over it and covered it it batter before deep frying it. I think cinnamon and sugar came into it somewhere as well.

I am speechless.

Coat for Isabella

2011-04-08T12:50:00.003+12:00

While I was pretty happy with progress on Isabella's coat the motifs on the front just didn't quite look right. The lightbulb moment (also known as the Attack Of The Blindingly Obvious) was reading Gail's comment - that she'd wear it sans motifs. Um, yes. It immediately brought to mind a picture of the coat without them, and the obvious solution - take some off. I only unpicked the top two and bottom one, which I think improves the balance considerably.

The buttonholes are made with my Greist buttonholer, which I love so much! Keely helped me pick buttons when we actually managed to meet up in person this week! (By "helped" I mean "distracted the twins while I looked at every button in Anne's and Threads")

Hard to photograph without it collapsing and hanging oddly. I need a child sized dress form.

And in other squealy excitement, this is currently drying on my kitchen bench.

Can't make it out? Here's a closer shot.

The logo designed by my clever friend, printed onto fabric with my computer printer! I used this tutorial, and it is so easy it's fantastic. Once it's dry I still have to heat set the ink with the iron, and do a test wash, but apparently they work really well. I can't wait to see how they stand up! I would love to print some vintage dress form images I have and make them into a collage to hang on my wall....

New stuff

2011-04-04T09:24:00.003+12:00

I very firmly believe the adage that it aint what you know that counts, but who you know. I ran into M at her work a week or so ago (as opposed to running into her at our fortnightly craft nights, at which she is FORCING us to make a quilt. There you go M, I complained!) She mentioned running into a former colleague who has just opened a shop in Port Chalmers to sell locally made baby/kid stuff! Does that sound like me or what?! She suggested I contact her to see if maybe there'd be room for me. So I did, and yesterday I went to see her with some things. All of which are now in Little Chalmers on my behalf. I love designing, patternmaking and sewing. Don't like promoting myself, so having my things in a shop (on consignment) suits me perfectly!

Here's the latest crop. A bubble dress, modelled by Isabella. So willing. So unable to stand still. (I do love this shot though.)

Shirt.

Trousers. Not sure why the photo of the back is first, but it's too much trouble to shift them around before I post!
Front. I love the robot stencil. I have discovered that freezer paper stencils can be used more than once, which is great!

Here's Isabella in the altered Heidi dress. I re-cut the sleeves to be un-gathered petal sleeves which vastly improved the balance of the dress, and sewed buttons (from the shirts used) to hold the straps. Better.

Progress shot of Isabella's coat. Facial blurring done by Isabella, not me editing.
Back. Really loving this.
I still have to do buttonholes and buttons on a couple of things, but that means hauling out Georgia's sewing machine since it works much better with my buttonholer than mine since it actually sews slowly. Which mine doesn't. So that won't get done till the twins are in bed or at Kindy.

I'm on Felt!

2011-03-25T13:48:00.004+13:00

Thanks to the fact that I know people who are way better at marketing me than me, I now have a presence on Felt. Neat huh? I realised a long time ago that I have confidence in my ability to do the designing, pattern making, prototyping and producing. I have pretty much no confidence at promoting myself. Thankfully I know Kahlia who has all that in spades, and she has taken on my stuff on my behalf. (And her Mum's a friend of mine so if she gets bolshy I can go crying to M!) Cheers Kahlia!

And since poor Isabella pretty much only gets prototype designs these days it was inevitable that her new winter coat would be one. The weather has suddenly gone from drab to "OhCr*pSheNeedsHerNewCoatSOOOOOOON!" So I thought I'd better crack on with it.

So far it looks like this.

Yeah, I should be sewing, not blogging!

Take Two

2011-03-18T11:08:00.003+13:00

I would have finished this sooner, but I had to wait till I could get to town for thread. And I would have blogged it yesterday but the teenager had the camera batteries!

So here is Hotpatterns 1089, The Three Graces T shirt, take two. (Same fabric, totally new top) I've altered it very slightly from the original version - in about 6cm (total reduction) at the waist, and out about the same at the hip. I hemmed it at 3.5cm instead of the 5cm allowed, and messed with the neckline to make it less bulky where back meets front. I also omitted any form of sleeve, since I think it would have been too much in this shiny fabric. (And I like sleeveless tops - with a layer under for warmth I can wear this year round) I just used cross grain strips of self fabric to do a binding/facing on the armholes. Looking at these photos I think I should have spent a bit of time in front of the mirror arranging it to sit better, but it's probably better to have a truer representation of how a garment looks in the real world!

Back. Despite my waist reduction it's still not very shapely. I might have a fiddle with pinning out a little more on this one to see if it looks better, but I 'm not at all unhappy with this shape. I wonder whether the addition of a cb seam for additional shaping would be worth doing?
Verdict: this is (I think) the most expensive pattern I've ever bought, at around NZ$30, so I was very very keen for it to be a success. And I think it is. I love the drapes, and the way it feels to wear. While it was a lot of buck, I think it is worth it for the bang. And there are two more versions in the pattern to try......

Why prototypes are essential

2011-03-14T09:12:00.004+13:00

Katy at No big Dill is hosting a month of guests showcasing clothing designs inspired by childrens books. What a great idea, I thought. I design childrens clothes, I read childrens books (I can recite "The Little Yellow Digger" from memory. Just ask David, who turned the pages for Nicholas while I recited it from across the room!).

So I started thinking about books, and suddenly thought of Heidi, my favourite book when I was a child. I remembered the illustrations, like this:

And this:
When I was about seven I got this dress as a hand me down from my cousin. I called it my Heidi dress and it was probably my favourite dress of my whole childhood.

So I decided to have a crack at a 21st century version along the lines of the designs I'm currently working on. Striped skirt, some gathers (I gathered a panel in the cf of the bodice and made puffed tulip sleeves, giving the feel of the peasant style original), flowers embroidered on the skirt (remember Heidi gathering meadow flowers?). Two recycled mens shirts (I'm sure Heidi wore recycled clothes) and here we go:
Looks ok on the hanger doesn't it?

Then I put it on Isabella. And inside my head I swore. Loud and long. I struggled to get a picture of her standing still and straight to show the problem in all it's glory, but you get the idea - the skirt collapses instead of gently flaring out (every other dress I have made along these lines, from this block, flared perfectly fine) and the SLEEVES!
This one really emphasizes the problems. Blech.
This is more like it should look. Unfortunately I don't think I can persuade Isabella to spend the day walking around with her hands in the air.
I am really annoyed - since I was using a known block and stable fabric I wasn't expecting this! I'm going to remake the sleeves (as much smaller probably un-puffed petal sleeves) and I'm thinking that some stiffening along the hem might help.

On a much less grumpy note, Beangirl has bestowed upon me the "Stylish Blogger" award. (Something to do with us unpopular girls sticking together I think) The rules state that I have to thank the person who awarded me (Cheers Beangirl!) and list seven unexpected things about me. Which is why it's taken days to respond - I couldn't think of a single interesting thing to say! I'll do my best.

1 I do not believe in any form of supernatural anything whatsoever, nor superstitions. Apart from one - if I make a bowl or glass "ting" I grab the rim to stop the noise - to stop a sailor drowning. My Mum told me this one when I was a child (her family loved to sail and were very involved with the RNLI)

2 I am totally unafraid of spiders (the joy of growing up in a country where practically nothing is poisonous!) I will cheerfully pick them up (or any bug with legs) but I cannot abide slimy things - worms, slugs, snails - they make my skin crawl and no amount of money would make me go near one. I won't step on one or run one over with the buggy wheels, not out of concern for their well being, but my own desire not to get worm on my shoe. This may have something to do with my total disinterest in gardening. I really really want to handle a tarantula. A lot.

3 My fantasy dream job would be either head of the historical costume department for the BBC or a conservator in a big museum with a huge textile collection.

4 I got my navel pierced about 8 years ago, to celebrate losing 29kg. I got asked a lot about how I lost so much weight, and how much work I did at the gym to do it. I got a huge kick out of saying none - I joined the gym after I lost the weight. And I lost the weight by watching what I ate, cutting waaaay down on snacking and being calorie aware rather than rigidly counting. I haven't stayed at that weight because it required fairly strict discipline. My set point is a few kgs above, and with fluctuations I pretty much stay there.

5 My favourite singer is David Gray. Hands down, no competition. My sister has seen him perform at Glastonbury. Twice. He performed in Christchurch a couple of years ago, but I was pregnant enough with the twins to be nervous about travelling. We thought he was going to perform there again this year, but can find no confirmation of this. If he does, we're GOING!

6 I have never had a fight with my husband. We've been together for 16 years and in all that time he's never made me angry. We disagree on plenty of stuff, but somehow we can disagree without heat. Dunno why that is, but it makes for a very contented home. I tell him that as soon as he p***es me off, I'll let him know. Possibly the fact that he notices and thanks me for every tiny little thing I ever do for him is also a factor.

7 I only learned to drive 9 years ago after having my third child. I got a speed camera ticket on a driving lesson, and failed my practical test for my full license for speeding up before getting to the sign that indicated a higher limit. I consider the $70 it cost me to resit the test a fine. (Just for the record, I passed with flying colours the second time. I went over the same route, and crawled down the hill where the sign was, with every other car whizzing by me.) I've never been done for speeding since. Because I don't speed.

Phew, anyone who got this far deserves a cup of tea and a lie down!

I can be quick!

2011-03-11T11:09:00.004+13:00

I confess this post is pretty much only here so that I can have a slight smirk at Keely. We ordered some Hotpatterns weeeeeeks ago. (By "we" I mean she placed the order and I took advantage to piggyback!) The original order never arrived, so Hotpatterns resent them and they arrived yesterday. While texting Keely during the day arranging to pop out to her place to pick mine up, I smirked that maybe she'd like to bet on whether I could get the 3 graces top I've been dying to make done by today. She sensibly didn't take the bet!

Got home 8pm-ish and got to work tracing and cutting my trial version. If this one works, yippee! If not, no big deal. Um, yeah, those instructions are brief. I labelled the twisty seams and spent a while staring blankly at the instructions willing them to suddenly become clear. Eventually I just tried different configurations until I think I got it right. I wasn't prepared to sew at that point so left it till this morning when I could check the EXTREMELY helpful video Trudy has made demonstrating how it works. It's very easy to sew, but not easy to figure out.

And it looks like this. For the record, I cut a size 8. I didn't bother with sleeves, but I think the armscye will be fine (the weight of sleeves will pull the shoulder seam a bit further towards my shoulders. If I add sleeves. I may just finish the armholes and leave it sleeveless).

My fabric is very very drapey and I like how it hangs.

Back. See how it's pooling on my hips?
But there's heaps of room around my waist.

In a bit at the waist is easy enough to alter on this version, but out at the hips will have to wait till next time.

Meanwhile, here's that navy dress I was making for Isabella on her. Boy it's hard to photograph an excitable two-and-three-quarter year old!

Oh, and my latest Alabama Chanin corset. The fit of this one is better than the red and cream version (I made a small instead of a medium), but after I'd cut it out I remembered that I wanted to dip the hem at the front a bit more so it's more like the dip at the back hem. Ooops. The girls at our craft group immediately guessed that this means I need to make another one. They know me well.

Weird trousers

2011-03-01T11:15:00.003+13:00

As promised yesterday, here's a scan of those trousers - #137 from Burda 09/03.

The big circle is a sewn-on motif or buckle or something.

And the pattern pieces - neat huh?

Difficult to alter, but fortunately I know from experience that Burda pants generally fit me well, so worth a gamble. I didn't have to alter these at all, except that they're SHORT! The grey ones I was wearing in yesterday's post have added flaps at the hem to give extra length.

I might need to make these again. You can never have too many subtly weird pants in your wardrobe.

Stuff I should wear more often

2011-02-28T12:00:00.003+13:00

Like so many others I want to mention the Christchurch earthquake. We live about 300km south of Christchurch, and I have visited it many, many times - the last being two weeks after the September earthquake. I have nothing to say that has not been said infinitely better by others, but want to add my most heartfelt "Thanks, World" to the hundreds and hundreds of rescue workers from all over the world helping in the grimmest of tasks. David and I both have relatives in Christchurch, all of whom are ok. Facebook finally gets useful!

It certainly put my pouty whining about waiting for patterns into proper perspective. (They have been given up for lost, and immediately resent.)

I've almost finished the new Alabama Corset - stitching on the binding, then stitching around the hem. A day or two and it'll be done. (Depending entirely on how much Mad Men I get to watch). I have finished the navy blue dress for Isabella from my last post. Turns out I had a pile of piping cord tucked in another box marked "notions". I would photograph it today, but it is YET ANOTHER grey and dreary day. So our cr*p summer limps to an end. It hasn't been particularly cold, but it sure does seem to have been grey and damp.

So anyway, I decided that I am sick of the way I dress. (Again. This happens about once a week.) This time triggered by a really well presented Mum at Kindy. It got me thinking that I could do better. So I went digging in my drawers and found these pants. (I made them in a stone colour as well.)

They're from a 2003 Burda magazine, #137 from 09/03, to be exact, and are now a smidge too small, (made in the days when I was prepared to be disciplined enough to keep my weight under the recommended BMI.) but still wearable, especially with this loose tunic style shirt, also a Burda mag pattern, but I can't be bothered hunting out the details right now. I will if anyone wants to know. If I were less vain I'd show you a proper shot of the front, showing the angled zip, or of the back, showing the angled CB seam, but I couldn't bring myself to publish those! Looking at these pics makes me realise that the details are really hard to make out. The pattern pieces are really interesting, so when I get a chance I'll scan the line drawing and pattern overview to show them better - I love this sort of project!

Procrastinating again....

2011-02-21T11:20:00.005+13:00

The twins are tucked up having their nap, although judging by the occasional chirp audible on the baby monitor Isabella is spending more time chatting to Soggy Bunny than napping. (Soggy Bunny is a very cute stuffed bunny. He acquired the "Soggy" bit from me, after I surreptitiously popped him in the napisan to soak for the squillionth time, since Isabella likes to suck/chew his leg. Even she calls him that now.

So I have about an hour and a half to myself before waking them, giving them lunch and taking them to Kindy (which gives me another hour and a half!) So in time honoured fashion I'm procrastinating.

I could be working on this dress for Isabella, the pattern for which came from a magazine I bought last September. The dress has been cut and partially assembled for weeks (probably months) and came to a grinding halt because I couldn't be bothered to cut facings. It'll only take a couple of minutes to trace facing patterns from the dress pattern (the original is double layered so didn't need facings) and cut them out, but I can't be bothered. And it's been languishing in a pile on my desk ever since. Hence the dire need for it to see an IRON before I take it up again.

Or there's this dress, which is the first iteration of a design from the grey toile from my previous post. I haven't abandoned the idea of puffed sleeves on something else, but not with this fabric. It's lines came from a rough sketch in my sketchbook (well, everything in my sketchbook is rough!) I've tried the bodice on Isabella and I'm happy with the look and fit, but she wasn't in the mood for a photoshoot.
I love piped edges! This one came to a halt because I ran out of piping cord. The waistband will also be piped. (Although since the bottom edge of the waistband is at the waistline, it's probably more accurately a midriff band.) And it also needs a really good press before I start working on it again. I love this crossover back design. Isabella often wears the pink dress I made a while ago (another prototype of course!) and I find the cross over back just brilliant - easy to get on and off with two domes holding it closed, and the back flaps far enough over that it doesn't open where it shouldn't, and it gives her plenty of room to move (handy when you're climbing onto the slide at Kindy) It is so helpful to have her test wear my designs to see how they work in use on an active toddler! Nicholas is less useful as a fit model since he's so tiny that I have to custom make his clothes in "Nicholas Size" rather than according to any size chart!

Oh, and there's this.
And the terrible reason I'm not feverishly working on this one? I've borrowed Seasons 1-3 of Mad Men from my sister and will be watching while the twins are at Kindy this afternoon. Handwork goes very well with DVD watching.

And of course the lavender dress from my last post hasn't been touched since I hung it up after taking it off Isabella. All it needs is some embellishment. Haven't decided what image or technique to do, so it's hanging there, eyeing me forlornly, another in-progress project.

Still waiting for the Hotpatterns. I'd have to check with Keely for the exact details, but it's been WAY OVER the 28 days it should have taken since she placed the order, and her emailed query was answered vaguely - not addressing her specifically worded questions. Delays are frustrating, but they happen. What is irritating me is that the response from Hotpatterns came across as giving her the runaround. I imagine that as a small company they're pretty busy, but I do feel that if a customer asks you a direct question as to the status of their order you should either give them the answer or say that you don't know for whatever reason.

And since I'm really trying to avoid doing anything productive, here's a question for you - if you see a tutorial on the web somewhere in which a strip of fabric very clearly cut along the grain is described as being bias, how much would it bother you, and would you comment a tactful correction? I saw this a few days ago, and it really really bothers me! The tutorial is written by a homesewer, for other homesewers, probably with little experience. I didn't comment because I don't want to look like a snobbish know it all belittling her efforts with a trifling correction. (Although since the strip in question was binding a neckline it would have worked a lot better had it actually been cut on the bias, so maybe not so trifling?)

The fit model

2011-02-11T13:42:00.003+13:00

I think I've mentioned before that Isabella is a very willing and cooperative fit model. However, she is 2 3/4 years old. Enthusiasm is fantastic, willingness to take direction is brilliant. Ability to hold a pose for longer than a millisecond is non-existent! Add her small twin to the mix, wanting to get his hands on the camera, and you get photoshoots like this - dodgy focus, less-than-ideal poses, but at least it's quick!

The bottom 2 photos are next to useless for evaluation purposes, but I did have a better look when I tried it on her. Even over a dress and t shirt it does meet easily (it's cut from a bodice block, not an overgarment block) and the sleeve works just fine. So this design gets to go another round. I wonder what the final design will look like? Thank you Beangirl for suggesting a jacket - I'm now imagining a cropped, puffy sleeved jacket similar to this one I made before. I love drafting - endless possibilities!

And really all of this is just to distract me from waiting. I piggybacked on Keely's Hotpattern order and all I can think about is the 3 Graces top (the cowl necked cross over one of course) which is very very slowly winging it's way to me now. (Well, actually it's winging it's way to Keely, but I'll get it right away! 28 days from her order was Last Sunday. Sigh....) I feel like I'm cheating on my 80 hour top - I'm working on that but thinking about the new pattern.

Stuff in progress

2011-02-08T13:50:00.005+13:00

Yet another motivation to blog - friends who give me a hard time about not doing so! Why they complain I can't understand - I brought my top to our fortnightly craft night last night, so they could have taken a close up look if they'd wanted to!

This one is progressing considerably slower than the red and cream one because I keep having to do other stuff. A couple of shirts for a friend of David (broad of shoulder and chest, slender of waist and neck, poor guy can't buy a shirt to fit, so was very pleased with a couple of custom made shirts). I may have shot myself in the foot with them though - David now knows I can knock out a shirt in a day or two (when fit has already been worked out). Oops.

I also made another bubble dress for a market next week. Kahlia is having a stall and offered to sell my designs on my behalf. She is so much better at marketing me than I am, and shortly starting her own website to sell the reusable lunchbags and other things that she makes, along with other products for kids. Since I'm not doing anything else with my designs at the moment it seems like a perfect fit to me!
And I figured it was about time I got back into some pattern work, so here is my work in progress (so, J, K and M, you can stop giving me a hard time about not updating my blog - this is what I'm up to!)
I got Helen Joseph-Armstong's pattern drafting book out of the library last week (I'll do a post on the bodice block when I've toiled it - it looks odd to me!) and the drop shoulder idea took hold. Above is my first go at it. The sharpie line is where I think I'll add a princess line. I've no idea what the neckline or skirt of this dress will look like yet, (I think it'll be a dress) but I wanted to try the gathered sleeve before I commit to further work on it. I got this far before I took the twins to kindy, so I have yet to try it on my house model.

And there's also this dress, another prototype of course! This one is intended to be for Isabella.

I loved the pleat/belt combo from a dress I saw somewhere, and it's an easy feature to do, but unfortunately it doesn't give enough fullness to the skirt. Again I have yet to check on the house model, but I think the skirt will look a bit skimpy. I haven't decided how to deal with this yet for the next version, but this one may just get shortened to tunic length. Since I'm not sure, I haven't added any embellishment to the dress. It's just hanging around, waiting.

So there you are - several projects in various stages of completion. I'm capable of intense focus and prolonged dedication to a project or idea, and also of having the attention span of a gnat.

Not obsessive, really

2011-01-26T13:29:00.002+13:00

Sometimes I've been motivated to blog because I really don't want to see whatever photo is at the top one more time when I log in. This has been pretty much the opposite - I didn't want to get rid of the latest one!

So I decided to make another eighty hour top.

Navy with hot pink underlayer (since the crafty girls' consensus on Monday was to go with this rather than the grey I'd had in mind first). Paint and stitching will be grey.

It's a different rose stencil, in three sizes to mix it up a bit. (A very small bit).

Meanwhile I finally got around to making the Oliver+S ruffle halter which I have wanted to make forever, and printed out months ago. (It's available as a free download here.) I'm not a big fan of halter necks for small children because they don't tend to stay sitting nicely when playing, especially if you layer them with a T shirt (I live in Dunedin - we layer a lot, even in summer, sigh...) So I made a full back. Deciding just how I'd do this was the reason for the procrastinating. In the end I just made the back exactly the same as the front (since the ruffle makes it obvious which is the front!) and traced a facing which went to the inside, but was otherwise constructed exactly the same way as the front.

And Isabella wore it on Monday to her first day of Kindy.

Front, two prints from the same range, so identical colours.

Back

Eighty hours later

2011-01-12T11:44:00.003+13:00

It's finished. I don't really know what else to say about it after I spent what I estimate to be eighty hours making it, all by hand. (I even did my hair for photos - that's the level of respect it gets!) I was right about the binding - it just brings everything to where I want it to sit.

It might sit better across my back if I wasn't trying to quickly get into position before the timer went off on the camera!

The binding is sewn on with rosebud stitch. I spent a very frustrating time with google trying to find an explanation of rosebud stitch after seeing many examples on the Alabama Chanin Flikr group. So many people referred to it that I figured it had to come from one of the books and was probably also known as something else. An hour or so of fruitless searching later I gave up and sat down with a needle and thread in front of a photo on the computer and had figured it out in approximately 30 seconds.
I didn't want to bind the hem, but I worried that the areas of unstitched red would curl up too much once washed, so I did the same stitch around the hem to finish it off.
My fear now is that the knots will come undone in the wash. I was a bit nervous anyway because my thread (Molnlycke Goliath) is 100% polyester, not the cotton cored, polyester wrapped thread used by Natalie Chanin. (If I ever find that I'm buying in bulk!) A discussion thread on the flikr group covered this topic - someone using the same type of thread had had half her knots untie in the wash. As I told Keely, there are not enough swear words in the world to express how I'd feel if that happened, so I quickly did a few lines of stitching onto the sample I'd made of the rosebud stitched binding so I had several knots and tossed it in the washing machine. To my intense relief none of them came undone, so I'm hoping for the best.

So close!

2011-01-10T11:24:00.004+13:00

Not that I get obsessed or anything, but it really is amazing how much you can achieve when you put in at least six hours a day on one project. (And your husband is on holiday to play with the twins!) Pricked fingers aside (don't like wearing a thimble) I have loved every single slow second of this project. And now I've finished seaming it.

Interesting tan lines acquired sitting outside in the sun while I stitched. (Note to self - improve posture in photos)

I still have to bind the neckline and armhole edges , which will take a while as well, but in a couple of days I will be wearing it! I reckon it'd look fantastic with old denim......

Seeing it on myself reminds me that I should have gone with the smaller size (this is size "M"). I was worried that the lesser degree of stretch would make it too small, and that the sewing would further reduce stretch. Well, I made very sure as I sewed all those roses that the fabric would still stretch so that isn't an issue. Further, once I'd snipped out the motif centres the pieces eased out a bit as well. I didn't sew the seams as described in the instructions because I thought that might be unwieldy to stitch flat, and too bulky (visually "clunky", if that makes sense). Instead I sewed them as lapped seams, (which also added room, requiring little or no cloth allowance) so I just overlapped each one a smidge more than indicated. I think I should have overlapped a little more, as this is a little bigger than it should be. The shoulders are a little wide, but binding the neckline may bring it in a little. Since it's cotton jersey I'm going to wash it before I start taking it in! I suspect it will have a tendency to grow in wear and shrink back in the wash. (I did preshrink the fabrics before I started.)

Maybe I'll just have to make another one in the smaller size, hehehe.

I hadn't realised until I got into the project that the two layers would retain so much suppleness and flexibility - normally sewing two layers of fabric together like this (by machine) would make the resulting unit considerably stiffer, but this method doesn't - yippee! The layers give each other support and body, but the garment is soft and flexible. I'm really curious to see how it wears.

And to answer a couple of questions and comments:

Joy, my machine is a Globe 550, which I understand was marketed by but not made by Bernina. It has run like a dream since I talked my father into buying for me when I was 14. (That's 27 years) One model up from entry level it does everything I want (unless I get a really good machine that does embroidery, sigh.....) Oh yeah, and I have yet to teach it to make me coffee.

Karen, I love the spirals on your top! I know exactly what you mean about enjoying the contemplative nature of this sort of sewing. (I'm probably hooked now.) And how something will go into your head as one thing and emerge as something else!

Keely, I'll bring it tonight so you can pass judgement :-)

Slow Progress

2011-01-08T11:29:00.004+13:00

Actually I'm making pretty quick progress on my Slow project! It took me about a week to do all of the running stitching on all eight panels of my corset. I've been putting in 6-8+ hours every day on this because I'm so fired up over it.

Now I'm snipping out the centres of the motifs. (Very, very carefully) So far I've done this much:

I'm thinking that I'll leave the red-stitched rose un-snipped. Not yet decided.
I love how it looks from the inside when held up to the light.

I took this photo with the tri-pod and timer, just for fun. I spend so much of my time at this desk (ignoring the mending pile on the chair beside me, hehehe) and have pretty much no pictures of myself thus occupied. (David has just come over to see what I'm doing and commented that this is the view he has of me all the time. Um, yeah, that'd be right!) Headphones in, listening to David Gray, engrossed in what I'm doing. The few photos in which I feature are family ones - when I'm old (and when I'm gone) this sort of thing will show my children and grandchildren what (besides them) I'm passionate about.

Oh, and so will this - I'm often interrupted for this sort of thing.

One last shot of the twins with their books - each open to their favourite pages.

It is incredibly gratifying to see how much they love them. Nicholas will ask for his "book!" (he's a man of very few words) and hug it to himself as he wanders off to play with it.

An appreciation for slow

2011-01-02T12:37:00.003+13:00

(Yes I know I should have said "slowness"). Anyway, I have now completed the outlining of all the stencilled shapes on one (of eight) garment pieces. By the time the stencilling was all done (which took about six hours to paint) and the stencils peeled off I was completely in love with the colour. On my computer screen it doesn't show up very well at all - the colours are richer in real life.

The instructions have you only basting the layers together at neckline and armhole edges, but I like more security than that so I basted around each section in it's entirety. Then began outlining each stencilled shape with a running stitch. That's where "slow" really takes hold. I know it took me over 6 hours to do this section, which is one of the two largest. That's a lot of time to conteplate what you're doing. I find that this sort of contemplation quiets my racing mind and relieves stress. It takes so long that there is no sense of rushing to finish, the slow sewing aids the slowing of my mind. I'm not good at explaining this, lets just call it the best stress antidote there is!

So this is what one of the side back panels looks like. The rose that looks unstitched is actually stitched in red. I like interest on the back of a garment - we only see ourselves from the front, but the rest of the world sees us from all angles, so I feel that clothes should be interesting from any angle. This rose will be slightly tucked under my left arm, just peeking out.

Here's what the inside looks like. Bad photo unfortunately, but I love the effect.

This corset is a celebration of the handmade and the unique - all the work shows, every single stitch. I couldn't exactly duplicate this if I wanted to.

Alabama on my mind

2010-12-30T10:52:00.005+13:00

After the mammoth effort of making the twins' books and then after Christmas doing bunch of mending and altering for a friend of my sister (for which I will be paid with her professional services a a massage therapist - can't wait!) it's high time for MEMEMEMEME. So it's time to get on with the corset from the Alabama Stitch Book. David made me go to Spotlight for fabric a couple of days ago when I discovered that one of the maternity tops I planned to use was too narrow in the shoulders. Love that man. And dress fabric was 30% off that day.

So, it'll be red with a cream underlayer. Here are the front pieces. (They'll all get a cream underlayer.)

And here's the stencil I've decided to use. Roses, how surprising, hehehe. I'm cutting them from freezer paper. I still need plenty more to make an all-over pattern.....

I suspect that this will be the "Foundling"/"Draw the Line" corset. David gave me David Gray's latest album (Foundling) for Christmas, so naturally it's on my mp3 player now and being listened to All Day Long while I work on this. I found "Draw the Line" on sale in K Mart yesterday (which was meant to be my birthday present last year, but we never got around to it. With five kids there's always a higher priority!)

Whenever I hear certain songs from one or other, or both, Finn brothers I think of making my wedding dress because that's what I listened to while making it. Does anyone else have certain music evoke certain sewing projects? I can think of way worse associations!

In the meantime my sewing time has been highjacked because in our house it's time for this:

And as I've mentioned before Nicholas has the smallest bum in the world. I kid you not. He wears cloth nappies, and the cover is intended to fit a baby up to four months old. I will never find undies small enough for him. (I did look, just to prove it to myself). So it's another thank-goodness-I-sew moment. I bought Jalie 2327 some time ago. (With the best of intentions to make the trunks for David, Cayden and Oliver. They're still waiting) Anyway, I figured it'd work well for Nicholas. When I measured his hip circumference and compared it to the size chart in my drafting book it turned out to correspond to about newborn to three months. Yeah, thought so! Anyway to size the pattern down I simply traced the size 2 and drew on the stitching lines, then scanned it into the computer and scaled it to 75% of it's original size. Print it out and trace it again, adding back the seam allowances and voila - undies that fit Nicholas. They look like doll clothes! I have a stack of eight pairs to sew for him......

And just to show what Christmas looks like in our house, here are a couple of my favourite pics. I love this one of Nicholas on the table with Isabella's book.

Although this is more like what he looked like.

David took this one of our annual Christmas Eve Gingerbread House Decorating Session. (No points are given for neatness of decoration or economy of lolly-usage. Creativity is encouraged.) I love this photo. Even though it reminds me that I really should do my hair more often.

Our Christmas Day looked in part like this. A picnic with my family at Brighton Domain on a gorgeous hot, sunny, windy day. Isabella and David on the slide. She's only wearing a cardigan because I couldn't find the sunscreen. (I added some new and interesting tan lines to my shoulders personally) That's my Dad walking past below. I really don't know about the bright blue Crocs.

There was also some eating.......

Isabella's book

2010-12-23T13:51:00.004+13:00

Thanks for the lovely comments yesterday! Just for posterity, here's Isabella's book, pristine and new.

Tie my shoe, to match Nicholas' book. Sometimes twins need one each of something.
Clock. Once again, yay google and photoshop!
Dress-up doll. The pocket holds more clothes. As time permits I'll probably make more clothes. This dress is made from leftovers of one of Isabella's dresses. The doll has velcro "undies" to which her clothes attach.

Another double width alphabet page. (That twin thing again).

Fairies in the dell. I combined and adjusted craft patterns from the same designer for this one. The fairies are made the same way as the dinosaurs from Nicholas' book. Isabella likes them, so they'll no doubt be pulled off to play with.

Barn, template from here. Scarecrow and fence from a craft magazine.

Inside the barn and hay bales (the idea for having hay bales came from a 12 year old neighbour!) are these finger puppets, designs from a library book. (Apart from the horse on the left, which I designed myself.)

Under the sea/in an aquarium (depending who you ask!) Have I mentioned google rocks?

The flaps hide these guys. Georgia points out that this was her idea. (I was going to do a fish bowl with clear plastic and have the fish loose.)

An early page, counting. Isabella likes to count.

And me hoping they'll remember me fondly when choosing my nursing home!

Phew, that was a lot of work, but so much fun. I will not be repeating this effort till I have grandkids.

Now I'm off to finish cleaning the gingerbread dough from under my fingernails and enjoy the aroma imparted by a morning's baking with my sister. Tomorrow we'll take it all to her house and deocorate it. Yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmm.

Wanna see the last four months of my life?

2010-12-22T10:48:00.004+13:00

This is what four months looks like.

A 23cm (9 inch) high pile of cloth books for my twins.

I took them to our fortnightly crafty girls meet up on Monday and they all very nicely oohed and aahed and told me to blog them. So here they are. I'll make it two posts or we'll be here all day! First up, Nicholas' book.

Tie my shoe. Shoe template from here. (Other images from various craft magazine patterns for other stuff. I very seldom use craft patterns as set!)

Of course we have to learn to tell the time. I got the clock image by googling "clock colouring pages". I love google. And photoshop.

My idea, mix-up robots. The pocket holds the other pieces.

And since we gave our children long names, these pages have to be double width! The pocket with animals and letters on it holds two entire alphabets. I got a bit sick of making the letters by the time I got to letter #104! (And kept asking myself why I did this for my twins)

This is possibly Nicholas' favourite. (I made no attempt to keep these secret since the twins are only 2 1/2. When the pieces (which hold on with velcro) were done Nicholas got hold of them and wouldn't give them back. I take this as a good sign that I have not wasted four months. Images again from all over the place. The robot in the rocket is from a pattern in a Homespun magazine which I got after combining two other rocket pictures to get what I wanted. Saw this and decided to make it instead. So glad I found it before I made the other one!

What little boy (and most girls too I think) doesn't love dinosaurs? The landscape started with this and this. The cloud is from a book of stained glass quilts I think!

Hiding in pockets are these guys. Yay for google and photoshop once again! Once I had my images the right size I traced them onto press'n'seal and stitched them onto felt, which I backed with stiff interfacing and cut out. I cut a matching piece of felt for the back and sewed a bit of velcro onto it before blanket stitching the shapes together.

I'm not sure where the idea for this came from, but once the idea sparked, it was back to google for some leaves.

For these guys to hide under. They're made the same way as the dinosaurs.

And after all that work you can bet I want credit for it!

So there you go, Nicholas' book. I hope it will be loved and worn out with use (but not for years!)

Where'd November go?

2010-12-01T13:11:00.005+13:00

It CAN'T be a whole month since I last blogged anything! Apparently it is. November is a pretty busy month around here anyway with two birthdays and a week of sole parenting while David was away with Georgia on her year six camp. I'm not sure who had more fun! Next time I want to go.

Just to really ramp up the busy factor I got a phone call from the secretary at Georgia and Oliver's school a couple of weeks ago, and after reassuring me that nobody was sick and in need of collection, she asked if there was any chance I could sew up a tutu for her daughter's end of year ballet performance. Apparently the costumes were supposed to be made at a sewing bee by a group of ballet Mums but this had fallen through and with two weeks to go before the performance she'd been handed a cut out tutu and told that sorry she'd have to organize it herself (!) After some fruitless phoning around anyone who looked promising in the phone book, she asked in the staffroom if any of the teachers knew anyone who could help. Which naturally led straight to me! (The secretary is actually very good friends with a friend of mine, who would also have sent her straight to me. I was destined to make this tutu.) Anyway, long story short, I made up the (very simple) tutu, and the skirt she had dumped on her with a week to go, and all was well. The phrase "saving my bacon" was uttered more than once and I got a very happy text after the performance to say that M's dresses were clearly the best on stage. (Which is really important to a teenager, and much appreciated by her Mum!)

Then the call from a friend of my sister last week to ask if I could alter a dress for her to wear this Friday. No probs - finished that today.

Oh yeah, and I'm working feverishly on the pages for the twins' activity books. Still assuming there'll be some late nights in the week before Christmas. Still loving doing them, so late nights won't be too dreadful.

Which leads me to my next big project for me. Here's what the first toile looks like on me.

Every year I cringe a bit at my 14 year old advent calendar and vow to make a new one. One day I'll get around to it. Probably for my grandkids.

The top is the corset from the Alabama Stitch Book. As soon as I saw Natalie Chanin's work I fell head over heels in love with it all - not only is everything just stunningly beautiful, but made by hand and embellished in a style into which I have dipped a toe and love doing, and want to pursue. Her books are on my list of coveted items. And there it was - on the shelf in the Dunedin Public Library. I actually said "SWEET!" out loud (in my library voice of course) as I snatched it from the shelf. We have a very good library here.

I want to make it as it is in the book - stencilled, reverse appliqued and all sewn by hand. So it aint gonna happen this summer! I have some maternity T shirts which would be perfect to refashion, but obviously at least one toile was needed to check the fit before proceeding. The measurement chart and comments led me to think that in a good stretchy fabric a small would probably be right for me.

Enter a cast off T shirt from my brother in law. Perfect for a trial run.

Only just big enough for my corset, thanks to inset panels in it's sides!

And it's great. Bring on summer 2011......

Getting Crafty

2010-10-26T11:35:00.006+13:00

Well that was a longer break than I intended! Mostly because the teenager (grrrrr) used up our monthly bandwidth allowance with twelve.days.to.go. Apparently all his games had updates and it was the holidays so he wanted to play them. Nobody enjoyed twelve days of dial up internet. And since it was school holidays and I had all my offspring underfoot I didn't do as much as I'd have liked. (But I kept telling myself that if I didn't have them I wouldn't be making this fun stuff anyway. Usually through slightly gritted teeth....)

Anyway, I thought I'd start this off with pictures of Isabella in her new dress. She is a very willing model, but will do what I ask for approximately 35 milliseconds before racing off to do something else. So these are the two best shots I got.

I got a lot of these!
On the Hand Crafted Christmas front, I'm getting a slightly panicky feeling that Christmas is going to be here in five minutes and the twins' books will have a dozen started-but-not-finished pages and I will be pulling all nighters for a week and not enjoying the run up to Christmas at all. I think I need to write a list of what I'm going to do for each book. And finish each page before starting a new one. Um, not likely.

This is probably my favourite idea so far. Maybe because it's pretty much my idea.

The spark of inspiration came from a book of kids quilts which featured one with those mix-up pictures - head body and legs from different characters could be mixed up. I decided robots would be fun and found a picture of cupcakes which did a similar thing (great minds and all that!) Using those for inspiration I designed my own robot stitcheries and made tags which can be interchanged to make different robots. The 9 and 10 year olds love these. We'll see what the two year old thinks!

This is how the pictures are attached. I still need to add velcro tabs to hold them in place. The plastic tags are cut from template plastic and make it very easy to thread the ribbon through the slots on the back of each tag. I think Nicholas could manage this pretty easily. Whether he puts heads at the top and legs at the bottom remains to be seen.

The options. So far. I don't think I'm finished yet.

This guy is going to be the pocket which holds the extra tags. I think I like him best. Nicholas will probably like the zip on the pocket best of all.

After the drama making one little horse finger puppet I found cute animal stitchery patterns and figured I'd do those on felt scraps and cut around them. The designs are drawn onto press'n'seal which is pulled out aferwards. To support the felt while I stitched I sewed the felt scrap onto a fabric scrap like this.

And cut (very carefully) a window behind the felt.

As you see I stitched onto my backing fabric a bit, but after stitching I just cut the backing very close to the stitching and pulled it out.

And way down here at the bottom are juggling balls made for Georgia and Oliver. Named in case they forget who they are. (In my experience kids love things with their names on)

Sitting on my latest score from the library. Yes that's the Betty Kirke Vionnet book. Turns out the library had two copies - one for issue, one not. Oh the eye candy in that book!

Now to delete the photo from computer and camera before Georgia sees it - she saw her pincushion on the camera, but since the screen is quite small she didn't see the details and I sort of dismissed it as "something that didn't work". She may have fallen for that!

Someone else's pattern - what a novel idea!

2010-09-30T11:22:00.004+13:00

I have been known to wryly comment that poor Isabella is going to spend her life dressed in prototypes. The best way for me to trial a new design is to make it to be worn. And when I have a small model living in my house (who is too small to complain that she is not paid for this) I take full advantage and she test wears many of my designs.

The downside to this is that I seem to be constantly having to make things up as I go along - sometimes it would be nice to just open a pattern and make it. One where someone else has worked out the kinks and written instructions so that I don't have to think!

Enter My New Pinafore. A delightful pattern designed by Karen Davis and sold through http://www.patchworkpassion.co.nz/ If you go to their patterns page and scroll down you can see it, but apparently you have to email them to buy it. (I got it from the Craft and Quilt Fair in Christchurch.)

Here it is in a size three for Isabella. A pretty, simple pinafore.

The pattern for which I probably wouldn't have bought had there not been a beautifully made sample right there which I unbuttoned to find a very clever opening. I love clever, elegant design solutions so I just had to make this!

The instructions for this were fantastic - clear and thorough. Gotta love instructions which tell you to press - repeatedly. I didn't line the skirt which simplified it a bit. Isabella is currently napping and today is grey and cold so I have yet to photograph this on her. Once I do I'll do a proper review on Patternreview. Short version - Good pattern. Worth buying.

Edited to add a photo of Isabella most willingly modelling her new dress. I ask her if she wants to try on a new dress and she starts jumping up and down and trying to rip off whatever she is already wearing. Once in the new dress she immediately climbs onto the chair placed for her photo. When she's older she might start asking for her modelling fees to be direct paid into her bank account, but at the moment we get by with cuddles.
This is a size three on 2y4m Isabella. The fit is described as "very easy" and it fits my chubby little girl perfectly - not too tight or baggy.

So Spring already!

2010-09-28T13:59:00.012+13:00

Well ok the past couple of days have been lovely - I wore my new Vionnet dress yesterday and felt a million bucks in it! David concurred ;-)

In a desperate attempt to force the weather to play nice, I made these two dresses for Isabella.
(Although Keely and I are convinced that as soon as she starts thinking about making a warm coat the weather warms up. Start thinking Keely!)

The one above is made from the softest cotton (?) sateen which has been mellowing in the stash for ages since I bought it as a remnant. There wasn't enough to make anything floaty for me or Georgia, so it waited till I had Isabella. Then it popped up and politely requested that I make it into a summery dress for her. Done.

The one below is the result of several design ideas I've had floating around for a while, most notably back wrapped styles and external facings. I saw something somewhere which smacked me in the face and those disparate ideas coalesced and this was the result. The fabrics are quilting cottons from Spotlight, which I found in their remnant bin on Sunday. There was just enough of the pink, if I cut the bodice upside down and put a seam in the bodice at CF. I'm not sure how they'll stand up to wear, but I'm keen to find out. And they cost only $5.40 so I won't be heartbroken if this dress doesn't wear terribly well. The joy of drafting my own patterns is that I can repeat a design any time I like, with alterations as I choose.

The bird stencil is one I got from a library book. (It took aaaaaaaaages to cut from freezer paper, so I was really careful peeling it off to see if it can be reused. I've never heard that stencils can be reused, but I have heard that when used for patterns for quilting and such, freezer paper can be readhered.) I dropped the paintbrush while I was doing it, and there's a small smudge to the left of the image. Can you see it? I was careful not to go near it with the iron while I was heat setting, so it may wash out over time. Too bad if it doesn't!

In the mean time, not a lot else creative has been happening, often because of this guy. This is why we have a kiddie proof gate across our kitchen. (He's not allowed in at all if the oven is on!)

Totally unrehearsed or coached - he just watches us and when allowed in for a snack, copies. The boy is T.R.O.U.B.L.E.

Maybe this would help?

Would you believe that this was his idea as well?

I really love my kids..

2010-09-14T12:23:00.006+12:00

....or else I wouldn't be doing this! I have decided that this year I will make as many of my childrens' christmas gifts as possible. I would love their stockings, handmade by me for each of them as they were born (well, the year they were born, not the actual moment) to be full of handmade goodies which they will love and cherish and play with for years. I've been working all their lives on indoctrinating them into believing that handmade is more precious than shop-bought. (It worked with me, thanks Mum and Dad!) I make people stuff as a tangible way to show that I love them. Georgia is well and truly brainwashed, hehehe. I have months. Should be plenty of time.....

Exhibit "A", the beginnings of cloth books for the twins. In my usual fashion I have begun each page as I've thought of it, with the intention of finishing them as I figure out how I'm going to do that! Some applique, some stencilling, some stitchery. Whatever I feel like. I'm desperately hoping that I won't need to resort to glue - my dear friend J (the glue queen) would never let me hear the end of it. I am pretty condescending about glue. So condescending that I don't actually own any glue of any kind.

The barn was taken from here, very slightly modified, and contains this guy. I am rather proud of him because I designed him myself. (I don't know how I am so sure he's a him. I just am) I used a much-too-big applique design as a guide for the face and made up the rest. He is being modelled by a purple clothes peg and duplo building plate because I could not hold my hand still to model him myself!

Exhibit "B"

Back.

I cut him out and sewed him up during the smallest crafty girls evening ever (just me and M - everyone else was busy this week!). M was highly amused by his "hands". Haven't you ever seen a horse waving his hands in the air? Anyway, I like him, wonky as he is. And he (and a buddy or two I have yet to make) are for two year olds. They are unlikely to be critical. And yes I know he's too big for a two year old. There was no way I was sewing (or cutting, that was harder!) anything smaller than this. I'll pretend that it's deliberate so that Mummy can join in with the play. They should fall for that. Once he was made and I tried him in the barn I realised that he is also too tall to be hidden by the doors when they're closed. Oops, too bad!

And tucked down here at the bottom where I hope Georgia doesn't see it, is this wrist pincushion for her.

Exhibit "C"

The stitchery is actually symmetrical, but extends over the sides a bit, so he looks wonky. I got the idea from here, but drew my guy myself. I just picked a christmas issue of a craft magazine (probably Homespun) and found a gingerbread man outline which was the right size and drew on the details. The pincushion is my own design and has a casing sewn onto the base so that the elastic can be easily replaced when it wears out. Georgia will love it, but she's been bugging me to make her a wrist pin cushion for a while and I'm not sure how well I can put her off till christmas. I'm famous for procrastinating, so I'll give it a shot!

If anyone's interested I'll post my progress on my Handmade Christmas. (Yay for Kirstie's Homemade Christmas for being one [of many] to inspire me!)

I may just aquire some supplies on our Crafty Girls road trip this weekend. Five of us are going to the Craft and Quilt Fair. In Christchurch. Yeah. We've been planning it for months. It's my first break since I had the twins. (I don't count the two days I spent hospitalized with pneumonia getting iv antibiotics in January, or the many days either side of them when I was too sick to do anything other than lie on the sofa while David just got on with taking care of everybody.) According to the fair website and our accommodation website both are operating business as usual. Earthquakes be damned - I WANT MY CRAFTY GIRLS ROAD TRIP! (And I'm sure the Christchurch economy could use the income).

Vionnet dress - finished!

2010-09-02T12:55:00.005+12:00

I don't like how I look in these photos, (when do I ever?) but I'm so pleased with the dress that I couldn't wait to show it off and couldn't wait for David to get home and take nice pictures (he makes me smile) and wanted to show it on me rather than the dummy - you get a much better idea of how it looks in real life. (Phew - need a breath after that sentence).

So here we go - angled view of the front:
And the back:

These shoes are not what I would likely wear with this dress, but they were the first heels I grabbed when getting organized to take the photos. And despite appearances to the contrary I am quite vain enough to want to make my legs look the best that I can. Which means heels.

I'm not wearing sucky-in undergarments (great suggestion Ann) because I don't own any. I've always worked on the theory that anything requiring such things was going to be too much work to wear! I may revisit this opinion, but this doesn't look too bad. I have several convertible bras which are ideal - just cross the straps at the back and we're good to go.

The hem I ended up just cutting. To stop the overlocked seams unravelling I would normally just stitch over the end, but given my sewing machine's dislike for this I decided to deal with the ends by threading them back through the seam. To have an end to thread after cutting the hem I left the seamlines uncut when I cut the hem, then unpicked the overlocking on the dangling seamlines, cut off the excess fabric, knotted the threads and threaded them through the seam.

My parents visited yesterday and were fascinated by the dress - especially my Dad, who is a retired structural engineer. He had a great appreciation for the dress' evolution from scaled schematic (with no indication given of what scale!) to dress. It is from him that I inherited my love of this sort of problem solving.

Now of course I want to WEAR it! Spring sprang yesterday with a gloriously bright sunny day so today is of course grey and overcast.

I'm not sure what's next. I have a large stack of possiblities from the Kirke book, or approximately seven kersquillion (yeah it is so a number!) other dresses that I'd like to make. With the twins weaned just after they turned two I will never breastfeed again (sad and not sad about that) so I can wear dresses whenever I want.

I'm linking to No Big Dill's sewing month challenge - to do something new. When I first read about it I struggled to think of something I hadn't done before - wedding dress(es)? yes. Design and pattern making? yes. Canvas boat cover (with clear plastic zipped door)? yes. Menswear? yes. Historical costumes? yes. Velvet, silk, wool, lace etc etc? yes. Then I realised that I have never made a dress for myself to wear from a pattern schematic of a design by Madeleine Vionnet (one of my design idols). So there's my first!

Vionnet dress - almost there

2010-08-27T12:01:00.003+12:00

I had this dress cut out and sitting in a bag on my desk for quite a while because when I sewed the waist dart on the front I realised that this is one of those fabrics which my sewing machine haaaaaaaaaaates. It has a rubbery feel to the stretch and is what I call pin resistant - it's hard to push a pin through. The overlocker loves it, and it is heavy and drapey - perfect for a dress of this style, so I was going to persevere. Unfortunately the busy print pretty much renders the interesting seaming invisible. Fortunately it hides the hole I cut right at the CF when I trimmed away the excess facing strips from the neckline. (Yes I swore as I sewed it up.)

Oh, and it clings to every little bump. The bumps you can see on the hip are the adjusting knobs on the dummy. I don't have adjusting knobs, but I do have my own collection of bumps.

Inside out you can see much better how it's put together.

I love how it falls in such perfect graceful folds. I really don't love how hard it was to finish the neck and armholes. My first plan was to use a self facing. My attempts to sew this using my machine looked terrible, even with a brand new stretch needle and a walking foot, even using my usually fool proof press'n'seal stabilizer method. I tried using a narrow three thread overlock, but that lettuced out (first time in 20 years I wished my machine had a differential feed). Hand rolling (on a sample) also looked awful. Lying in bed stewing over it and describing my problems (at length and in detail) to my long suffering husband made me feel better but didn't produce an answer. Stewing about it some more after he went to sleep (sensible man) made me wonder if bias strips of a woven fabric would work as facings. Vionnet used on grain strips of self fabric to do this, but with my very stretchy fabric I thought bias would be better. And what do you know - perfect solution. The woven fabric stopped all the skipped stitches and finishes the edges perfectly. I still need to press the edges, but trust me, they sit very nicely against me.

So this is going to be a wearable dress. I'm going to leave it on the dummy for a couple of days to let the bias hang (yeah, I cut this very stretchy knit with a fantastic degree of recovery on the bias. Just for the hell of it), but I don't expect a whole lot of change. I'm thinking of hemming it longer to make the most of the swishy skirt. My first plan was just below the knee, but I think maybe longer would be better. Next problem - how the h*** am I going to sew the hem?

Cold feet

2010-08-24T13:54:00.003+12:00

I don't like having cold feet. So with only one week left of winter I finally decided to do something about it. And I really wanted to get rid of the photo of my butt which greeted me every time I looked at my blog. (Amazing what will motivate me sometimes - my visits to the gym are sometimes motivated by a desire to get exercise, sometimes by the thought of the shower afterwards and sometimes by the desire to not be the parent on duty. Whatever works!) So I figured that if I made some slippers I could post them here and get the butt photo off the top.

This is why I needed slippers. All winter I've been wearing these because I find most women's slippers ugly beyond belief. (Yeah, while these are stunning!)

So about half an hour's work and some lovely thick polar fleece (scraps from a manufacturer's clearance many years ago) and now I have these.

Rough prototype, but warm and comfy. The final product will be neater, probably lined, and I'll bind the top edge to help them stay put, and think about what the soles will be so that I don't slip on my kitchen floor. Knowing me I'll wear these ones to shreds and then make up the "proper" neat ones. In about two years.

Vionnet toile #2 on me

2010-08-05T11:37:00.003+12:00

Between a temperamental computer and blogger being picky I figured that rather than edit my last post to add these photos I'd just post again.

So here it is on me, now with seam allowances around the armholes cut away as well so this is the current toile's finished size. (And not only is my hair brushed, but I've also run the straighteners over it. Not for blogging pride I'm ashamed to admit, but because we're going to Georgia's intended Intermediate School's open night this evening. Out in public=tidy hair)

I am really really pleased with how it's looking. The "bubbling" of excess fabric over my hips and odd fall of the back skirt's side seams below this are almost certainly due to the uneven match of seams between waist and hip. Just to check I'll probably adjust this toile and press the seams. As it is it makes my butt look huuuuuuge. (So we all know it'll be fixed in the final garment!)
It isn't perfectly flat across my lower back, but a more drapey or stretchy fabric may address this. I still can't get over the fact that such a fitted dress fits over my head with no opening. What a perfect dress.

Any suggestions/opinions very welcome.

Vionnet toile #2

2010-08-05T08:33:00.010+12:00

Ta DAAAAAAA!
Front:
Back:

A couple of quick notes - I've cut away the seam allowances on the neckline, so this is the finished neck size, but I haven't trimmed away the armholes, so they will be 2.5cm smaller. The skirt is just portions of the total, cut on the correct grain, incorporating all of the seams but not all of the length, to save fabric and time. (I actually quite like it!) And it isn't pressed at all.

I can't believe it only took two toiles to get it to fit! (It helps that I'm not wildly different in size to the original wearer.) I was so eager to get the alterations done that I forgot to photograph how I added in the extra. I'll explain as best I can.

By measuring the sewn-up toile #1 I worked out that I had to add about 8cm to bust and waist. This is a very managable figure - 2cm each at CF, CB and side seams. Pretty straightforward - on a traditional pattern with side seams. I established where the sides were on my toile and marked that on the front pattern piece. Then I drew a line perpendicular to the CF onto the piece, making sure it went through the sticking out bit which contained the sides. I traced the stitcking out bit and slid the tracing 2cm along the perpendicular line, then blended the lines back to the original at the armhole and to an added 1.5cm along the hip bit I'd added to be safe, I figured I could always take it out) I just added 2cm to the CF. It'll lower the neckline, but since it's quite high that won't be a problem. To the back I added 2cm to the CB by tracing the original toile right down to where it curves in at the bottom. There I pivoted so that the original lowest point (at the CB) was on the new moved CB line. That just meant that I hadn't changed the length of this section and wouldn't need to alter the corresponding skirt piece. It's such a small amount I've changed the angle that I'm not worried that it'll affect the drape of the skirt hanging from that seam in any noticable way. I didn't have to touch the back skirt pieces, and the front skirt is a simple quarter circle with a right angled triangle cut off the top. Since I'd altered the section to be joined to the front skirt I worked out how much to cut off by measuring the lower bodice edge and applying pythagoras. I wish my kids had been around at the time so that I could have lectured them sanctimoniously on how useful mathematical theory is in the real world.

A bit of feverish haste to sew and slip it over the dummy and it FIT! Just like that! So I tried it on me. To my complete and utter astonishment, it fit me too! Now this is a relatively fitted dress with no fastenings - the stretchy nature of bias is what enables you to get it on and off. M Vionnet was one very clever lady. It's tight across the bust but otherwise damn near perfect. I was twisting and turning to see the back in a tiny wall mounted mirror but David said that when I stood still the back was perfectly flat. So I drafted and cut out sections of the skirt, just to get a feel for how it looks all together. There is only one area that needs tweaking, where I've altered the length of one bodice section and need to compensate on the skirt. You can see on the front that the lowest portion of the bodice is a bit puffy. Easy fix! I tried it on when I'd attached the skirt and couldn't believe how well it fits on only toile #2. I'll try a self-timer shot on me when the twins go to bed.

So that's whereI'm at. So very nearly there, with way fewer headaches than anticipated. I'm inclined to think that I've learned all I'm going to from the lining toiles, and since fabric choice is crucial it's not worth doing any further testing and tweaking till I know what I'm going to use. I have about 8m of a knit I got because if you bought the whole roll you got it for next to nothing. Curiosity might drive me to try a toile in that, just to see how it works. Who am I kidding? Expect toile #3 in a knit next!

I'm having so much fun with this project! I was browsing some of my historical reference books the other night, including this beautiful two volume set of drool inducing eye candy. And there in Vol II, p460 is my dress! In black silk. I wish they'd included a picture of the back, but at least it's a picture. Also I hit Google to see if I could get any help with the project and found this article from Threads written by Betty Kirke herself. She explains how she measured the garments to produce the patterns - fascinating!

And Sherry I had to laugh when you commented that you were suddenly bored with your project and wanted to spend an afternoon here - that was pretty much my reaction when I saw the wedding dress you posted - I'd love to spend an afternoon exploring your stuff! (And watching you do bound buttonholes. That'd be good too.)

Edited to add - Arrgh!!!! Blogger won't let me break up my text into paragraphs! Sorry, this is a massive chunk of unbroken text to read. What's their problem with spaces anyway?

Vionnet toile #1

2010-08-03T12:13:00.005+12:00

And so it begins....

I made up just the top portion of the Vionnet dress to see how I'm going scale wise. It's cut on the correct (bias, naturally) grain, of lining. And when I tried to slip it onto my dummy it was immediately obvious that it wasn't going to fit. After ripping out the "side" seams I slipped it on and had a look.

You can just make out my stitching lines in white (I marked those with dressmakers carbon before I took the paper pattern pieces off). I didn't pin it terribly evenly so one side gapes more than the other.

It's close enough that I think my scaling is pretty close - it's just a tiny dress! It's also meant to be made from very drapey satin, which would make it looser than my lining.

So, my next problem is how and how much to scale up? My first thought is that with complex and unconventional seaming it would be easier to just enlarge the whole thing by using a larger scale than by any type of grading technique. The problem with that is that it'll make the bodice longer as well as wider, which obviously wouldn't work. So I'm going to do some measuring to see how much extra width I need and see if I can add that in without ruining the lines of the dress. I can sneak a bit in at CF and CB, the rest is going to take some careful thought. The skirt is so full that I feel I can ignore it at this point. It's also so simple that it can be easily adjusted to match anything I do to the bodice without compromising the cut. And Sherry, yes it is slashed at the CB to match the point of the bodice CB. Can't wait to see how that looks!

Up Next

2010-08-02T13:28:00.003+12:00

So I went to the library yesterday, and whilst browsing the shelves I spotted the famous Vionnet book by Betty Kirke. I've wanted this book ever since I knew it existed, but as is always the way, cost is prohibitive. So to see it sitting on my library shelves seriously made my heart start to flutter! Sadly it had a "Not For Issue" sticker on the front cover, but it did not have a "Do Not Pick Three Garment Schematics To Photocopy" sticker, so I raced away to the photocopier and cleared out the change in my wallet, grateful that (most unusually) I had change in my wallet! I photocopied the sketch and pattern schematics for three designs, with plans to go back and have a proper look at the book when I don't have Georgia downstairs picking her own books and wondering what Mum's doing upstairs for so long!

I seem to be suffering a serious case of winter blahs this year and I've decided that a Vionnet dress is the perfect antidote. Even recreating the pattern presents all sorts of challenges. Just what my brain needs.

I remembered a post on Kathleen Fassanella's blog, Fashion Incubator, about the Kirke book and a Japanese companion book which is better for reproducing the patterns. So I knew before I even saw the Kirke book that there are likely to be some challenges turning the pattern schematics into patterns. For my own entertainment I'm going to blog this process, and maybe I'll learn something of use to others who want to do the same thing!

I'm going to start with this dress, pattern #14. Isn't it beautiful? I'll shorten the skirt and I'd like to make it from something I can wear as an every day summer dress, but I'll see where the pattern leads me.

First problem - there is no scale indicated to enlarge the pattterns. Crap. (I did know this beforehand) There are no landmarks such as "waist" helpfully marked to help gauge scale. I made a fairly educated guess that it was 1-10 scale, based on estimating where the waist would fall on the pattern, and working out that the back neck to waist measurement was about 4cm, and the measurement on a person is about 40cm. Very dodgy estimation, but I would guess that it would be a round number scale - not 1-12.34 for example. After I'd decided this I found a message board thread (which I didn't mark, annoyingly, so I can't find it again!) in which someone mentioned using a 1-10 scale for these patterns. She didn't say it hadn't worked, so I'm going to stick with it.

So now I needed to scale up with no grid. It was actually quite easy to transfer the schematics to a grid - I just traced them onto a 5mm grid torn from an old maths book. Then I took a large sheet of paper and folded it into a 5cm grid to get my 1-10 scale. I folded rather than drew because it was less prone to errors (as a pencil blunts the lead gets thicker, and further from the ruler etc etc). Also I then have my grid visible on both sides of the paper and I can rub things out without losing the grid.

Not my favourite method to reproduce something, but with great care and careful measuring (I think I used every measuring tool I own) I could recreate the pattern pieces.

Traced onto plain paper and with 2.5cm seam allowances added, here's the result of about 2 hours work today.

At this point I ground to a halt because my dummy and the fabric I'm going to try first are in the bedroom where the twins are napping. For my first toile I'm going to use lining because it's lightweight and I have a lot of it. I know it's not nearly drapey enough, but it should give me an idea of how it's going size wise. Tomorrow.....

Stuff I've been making

2010-07-21T11:49:00.004+12:00

I've been busy making up some of my designs while I get up the nerve to open an Etsy shop. What if I do and no one even LOOKS at my stuff?! Self Confidence and Putting Myself Forward have never been my strong suits. Anyway, I really need to suck it up and just DO it!

In the meantime, I've made this:

And this:

And this, the dress from my last post:

And some nice bright stripes and printed batik, with pockets incorporated into the princess seams and stencilled jacks, just for fun. Like it wasn't a fun dress already.

And I added the shark to this shirt which has been returned from Miracle having sat there unsold for quite a while.

I used today's bright sunshine to get most of these photos taken, and since I did I was able to put off the last detail needed on this coat. Keyhole buttonholes. Making them on scraps of denim is one thing. Making them on a garment which I hope one day to sell is something else. Somebody (sorry I didn't respond then, I tend to get a little distracted) asked about using a buttonholer on zig zag machines. It's even better - it'll work on straight stitch machines! I guess these type of attachments were developed in the days when machines pretty much only did a straight stitch.

Right, the 16 year old has a half day and needs the computer so I'm out of excuses. Back to the machine......

My creative space - an external all-in-one facing tutorial.

2010-07-15T15:03:00.004+12:00

I'm visiting Kootoyoo's Creative Spaces again this week - so much fun to peek into everyone else's!

My creative space is full of stuff in various stages of completion, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to demonstrate my way of doing an all in one facing, expertly demonstrated by Sherry recently. Her method works for pretty much all applications, mine only when there is a centre front or back opening in your garment, and wide enough shoulder straps. I find it easier, so I thought I'd show it here in case anyone else might benefit!

As mentioned, the garment must have an opening in CF or CB. Begin by sewing the shoulder seams of garment and facing and press them open. Since my facing is going to be on the outside I've sewn the dress with wrong sides together and facing with right sides together. This means the seams will all be enclosed when the dress is finished.

(Apologies in advance for the rather over-exposed photos in this post - my desk is bathed in sunshine during the twins' nap time!)

Then sew the facing to the garment around the neckline and armholes. If you're inserting a zip, leave about 3cm unsewn at the CB edge. I'm not so I sewed it right to the edge. Most importantly, leave about 3cm unsewn at the armhole edges.

Clip the curves so they'll turn evenly. I always offset my clips so that where the "Vs" form by opening out a curve they aren't in the same place on garment and facing seam allwances. This makes for a smoother edge.

Then turn the garment right side out by pulling the backs through the shoulders.

At this point I pin and edgestitch my neckline because it's easier when it's flat and the way my CB opening is finished won't be affected by it being done now.

Next sew the side seams of garment and facing, and press them open.

Then finish sewing the facing to the garment around the bit of armhole left unsewn, and finish clipping the curves.

After edgestitching the armholes, it looks like this.

Last of all the seam allowance on the lower edge of the facing is pinned and stitched down. After one final press, here it is.

I really like these external facings on dresses I make for children since they give a lovely smooth finish inside, and a nice lift to a plain design.

Why My Blogging Is Somewhat Erratic At Times

2010-07-11T10:23:00.002+12:00

This is Nicholas's favourite position from which to watch Timmy Time while I try to drink my first cup of coffee for the day and catch up on blog reading. Usually he has a handful of my hair too. (Yes I know I should have brushed it. It's Saturday and I wasn't going anywhere so I was slack!)

My Creative Space - Um, Bandwagon, room for one more?

2010-07-08T11:51:00.006+12:00

I thought I'd join in with Kootooyoo's Creative Spaces this week because I just couldn't resist jumping on the man's shirt to toddler dress refashion bandwagon. (One of my personal favourites on this theme was the hilarious "How to turn a toddler's dress into a man's shirt" posted on April 1st. annoyingly I can't now find it, and Google isn't helping)

So here's my version, for which I won't provide a tutorial because there are about 70,000 results from Google if you look. Besides which I don't do the "lay a dress which fits your toddler on top of the dress and cut around it" style of sewing. I'm a pattern maker. Not a proper one (a patternmaker, with no space between the words), but I learnt the principles as part of my degree and continue to learn all I can from books and the internet (check out Sherry's blog for some brilliant tutorials). I drafted a pattern for an A line dress in a size three (so it should fit Isabella better this summer, when she'll be over 2 and a half) and made this.

I'd started with this. David doesn't wear short sleeved shirts, so when his brother was having a clean out I swiped it.

To maximize available fabric I unpicked the (flat-felled) side seams.

And squeezed my pattern pieces on. I had to unpick a bit of the armhole seam as well to get it to fit.

Here's a reminder of how I manage my turn of cloth allowance for collars. Sherry shows how to do it properly at the pattern stage. I've folded the collar and pinned the lower edge and now I'm sewing within the seam allowance to secure it before attaching it to the neckline. You can just see how the underneath layer is peeking out.

Also on my desk today are these trees, freezer paper stencilled. I really really really love silhouettes of bare trees.

And my friends have been giving me stick for not mentioning my dress. I wore it out to dinner for one friend's birthday last weekend. Where it was much admired and I felt a million bucks. (I even ran into my BIL who told me I looked fantastic.) I realised that it wasn't the dress that left me feeling Meh, it was the grey and dismal winter we've been having! So Keely, J, M, H and other J, there you go. I mentioned it.

And it's done.

2010-06-29T11:26:00.003+12:00

Well, I finished my dress. Here it is. Front:

Back:

It fits well and looks just how I envisioned, but it leaves me feeling sort of "meh". The fact that I look so sour in these photos really doesn't help! I used the timer instead of getting David to take them because he isn't coming home for lunch today and by the time he gets home after work the light will be too gloomy. Perhaps it'd be a happier dress if I was wearing it out to dinner instead of quickly putting it on for a couple of photos before getting back into warmer clothes!

Yeah I can crochet!

2010-06-19T10:56:00.003+12:00

After my eight questions yesterday I wondered if I still had any of my early crochet efforts. I know that somewhere I should still have the round pineapple pattern doily?tablemat? I made 20 odd years ago but it might take a bit of searching to find! I did however find this piece of filet crochet which I am fairly sure is at least 20 years old. It is rather stained and I had a horrible feeling that I had washed it before putting it away, and after washing it again and not even slightly shifting the stain I'm pretty sure that this was the piece that was sitting on a stained wooden coffee table which got water spilled on it. I think the stain is wood stain which leached out of the wood. Oh well, I can always dye it!

And when I came back into the room after photographing this I was met by this sight.

It's blurry, but you can make out in Nicholas's right hand an empty overlocker thread cone, and on the floor in front of him the white thread which he has pulled off the cone. Sigh.

I guess I'm it

2010-06-18T11:43:00.002+12:00

I've been tagged by Sherry of Pattern Scissors Cloth in a game of eight questions. I'm telling you now, if you've never read her blog, go now. This lady is a real live designer and patternmaker - her tutorials are BRILLIANT - really easy to follow and she covers all sorts of really interesting topics. I love me an expert and boy do I appreciate one who is so willing to share her expertise. anyway, enough gushing, on to the eight questions.

1, Which pattern/vintage style have you been thinking about lately?
Easy, I've been stewing over The One That Got Away. I spotted this Christian Dior evening dress pattern on Trademe last week, popped it on my watchlist and FORGOT ABOUT IT. I missed the end of the auction, where it failed to garner any bids. It could have been mine for $8. (Insert mental picture of my anguished wailing and wringing of hands right about here) It's been relisted and bidding currently stands at $10.50. I'm reluctant to spend too much on a pattern, no matter how intriguing, if I'm not sure I'll ever make it. I'll see what happens to this one, but boy am I annoyed that I forgot it! And yeah I know I could draft it. It may come to that. I tend to get "focussed".

2, What's the one place you want to visit that you've never been to before?
Again, easy. England. Not very precise destination I know! My Mum is English, as is my Dad's father, and I'd love to see where I come from. And while I'm there, the V and A beckons, as do one or twelve other museums......

3, How do you relax?
Relax? What's that again? Like many sewers, I sew to relax. I'm not sure whether it makes me strange that I find tedious, never to be seen handstitching (like the catchstitched seam allowances in my last post) restful. Other than slow, meticulous needlework, I go to the gym. It's my "me" time - All About Me. I feel better for the physical activity, I look better because of it, and that also makes me feel better, so it's an important part of my week.

4, What is your favourite holiday?
About 10 years ago David and I spent a few days in Fiordland. It is the only time we have ever been away by ourselves (we got together when I was a single Mum with a one year old). We drove Cayden to Wanaka to spend a few days with my parents at Glendhu Bay, then went on to Te Anau. We did a number of fun things while we were there, the best of which was an overnight cruise on the Milford Wanderer. I got my G&T on deck at sunset, but heavy cloud cover (hey, this IS Fiordland!) meant it was less than spectacular. As our only time away alone, it's a pretty special memory.

5, What is one sewing skill you want to learn/try out?
Where to start on this one? There are many, many things I want to try, but one I've thought of consistently is proper full-on tailoring. Oh, and a whole lot more about patternmaking than I know now.

6, Can you knit? Crochet? Other crafting talents?
Yes I can knit well. I like cables, lace patterns, tricky stuff. I love the look of stocking stitch but knitting it gets boring pretty fast. I really fancy the socks Sherry showed on her blog.....
I can crochet, but it's not something I've done much of, and I can't follow a pattern without a how-to in front of me to remind me what is a double crochet, treble crochet etc. I've also done a bit of cross stitch and very basic embroidery. I can't draw to save myself.

7, What garment/accessory do you wear the most?
Baring my soul, it's this cardy at the moment. (NB, this is the first time I've used the timer on my camera - all it took was a tissue box on the table and voila! Apart from the cartoon-esque glint off my front teeth I don't even hate this! Should have brushed my hair, but I'm not going anywhere today.....)

I made it when I was pregnant with the twins (lets face it, there was no way much else was going to cover me!) And I lived in it for the latter part of my pregnancy and all through the winter after I had them. It was great to snuggle a baby under while breastfeeding. I'm embarrassed to admit that the next winter and the next (this one) out it came again, and I wear it pretty much every day it isn't in the wash. The sleeves are too short (hey, I was pregnant, I thought I did well to grade and slightly alter a pattern that started at a size 44 [Burda WOF] when I needed a 36. I can't be expected to remember that I have long arms too.) The fabric is cheap synthetic, so it looks pretty dingy now, but at least it dries quickly after washing. It also hangs quite a way away from the front of my body worn loose like this (I had, um, quite a lot more front when I made it) so it does my figure no favours. You'd think I would have enough pride/class that I wouldn't wear it out of the house,but I do. Under a coat, but it gets out!

8, How much time do you spend reading blogs? (Per day or per week?)

Um, that varies quite a bit. If my sewing is frustrating me or just not inspiring me it can be quite a lot of the twins' daily three hour nap time. (Yep, just turned two and they nap for three hours. I'm not about to mess with that!) Usually about an hour or two a day. I can't help it that there are just so many clever people out there who blog!

And I'm choosing to answer 8b as well.

8b, your motto/mantra?
I have two. The first has been my signature line on Patternreview for all the years I've been a member. "There are no sewing mistakes, only opportunities for design features" It's been much commented on over the years, so I think I've struck a chord with a lot of people!

The other is our house rule - "Be nice or be quiet" Exactly the same sentiment as "If you can't say something nice..." etc, but it has an air of parental command about it! An implied "or else!" attitude that kids sometimes need. One day I want to make a wall hanging of this.

Now who to tag?

Keely of Keelysews who is my BFF in real life. Despite this I don't know her answers to these questions!

Kristine of Beangirl, who is just funny and clever and worth visiting just for the giggle even if she didn't sew.

Kathryn of Les Petits Anglais because I'd just like to know more about you!

Katie at Kaddidlehopper because she leaves such nice comments and makes such cute stuff.

Gail at My Fabrication because she makes beautiful clothes from beautiful fabrics that I love to look at.

And I'm going to leave it at that because some others I would have tagged have already been by others. My apologies if I've doubled up! I'd love to learn more about everyone. It's nosy, but so interesting!

My Creative Space - dress interrupted

2010-06-17T12:45:00.005+12:00

I'm playing along with Kootoyoo's Creative Spaces this week.

As much as I want to finish my dress, it's taking a backseat this week so I can make a top for a dear friend to whom I owe sewing in return for babysitting during the school holidays before I had the twins. Um, yeah, she's patient! (actually she waits till she wants something then cashes in a favour). Even if I didn't owe her sewing I'd want to do it because she's a) lovely, and b) a real pay-it-forward kind of person. She truly deserves a bit of pretty coming her way. Anyway, she's just undergone surgery and (as you do) needs a pretty new top. This is one that we copied for her from a RTW top a couple of years ago. By "we" I mean "me-while-she-sat-beside-me-saying-"uh huh"-at-relevant-points-and-feeding-me-Pinky-bars." I got started on it yesterday and quickly decided that it needed to be prettified. J and I have very similar taste so I am a little more confident that she will like something I like than other friends would.

My first idea was to do a very simple applique using a running stitch around a stencil design then cutting away the excess fabric, a technique very similar to what I've done on my children's designs with an influence from the utterly stunning work of Natalie Chanin (if you've never heard of her, go and check out Alabama Chanin). After I'd done the first one I was not convinced. Here's the best photo I could get of the front of the top with one applique done and two others pinned in place.

I just wasn't feeling it, so I decided to paint a couple and see if they look better. Since they're on scraps of fabric there's no risk of wrecking J's top if it doesn't work or she doesn't like it. Two silver and one burnt umber, on two different coloured fabrics. Now to watch the paint dry......

.......and they'll look a little like this. Once the paint is properly dry and heat set I'll figure out how best to attach them to the top. I'm thinking of going back to the running stitch (with toning but slightly contrasting thread) and trim method.

And just to finish I thought I'd show what happens when you forget to cover (or lower, if that's an option) the feed dogs on your sewing machine as stated in the instructions before using your new favourite toy, the Greist buttonholer. I was trying to go around each buttonhole twice and the second one wasn't lining up with the first. After four keyholes and one short buttonhole (and several heart palpitations) I realised my mistake and covered the feed dogs. After which I got a beautiful short buttonhole and the most Perfect Keyhole Ever. I am so in love with this. I need to make myself a(nother) coat just so I can USE it!

And many thanks to Katie, who had the great, simple (and blindingly obvious to anyone other than me) idea of starting the buttonhole at a point other than the top with my other buttonholer - worked a treat!

Dress progress

2010-06-14T11:15:00.005+12:00

Being pretty much incapable of just following instructions from the beginning and methodically working my way through to the end, I've completed the front and back of my dress before doing the much-less-interesting underdress (aka, lining). I couldn't wait to see how this was going to look! And it looks pretty much like this - a bit saggier than it should look on me as I am very slightly better endowed than my dummy and it's just pinned hastily together and unsupported by the underdress.
Front:

Back:
I'm really pleased with how all the sections came together and how nicely the skirt hangs - I was a bit worried that it would stick out stiffly. It wrinkles very readily, so I'm leaving it pinned to the dummy as much as possible. Even so I can see that it looks like I need to have at it with the iron again over the long skirt seams.

Once I'd got this far I couldn't avoid the underdress any longer. Well I could have, but it makes sense to have the foundation complete before determining any alterations to the side seams. The instructions have you fuse interfacing to all the bodice bits but I didn't have any nice knit interfacing around and no way was I fusing cardboard to this! So I opted to use lining as an underlining. It gives nice body to the bodice without compromising flexibility.

Hand basting all the bodice sections takes a while, but it's mindless work and rather restful. What does it say about me that I find this sort of task relaxing? Anyway, here's my finished pile of bodice sections, done while I watched Star Trek IV on tv.
I like the red underlining. It'll be totally hidden once the dress is finished of course but it was way more fun to sew than a dull colour!

Once they were all done I had fun fitting the bodice. On the dummy it's easy, but then I have to try it on me. I got sick of contorting myself trying to hold the sideseam closed and assess the fit and got David to pin it for me. He's willing and deft, but not used to pinning! Eventually we got there and I was able to determine that I did need to take it in under the bust but not much else. Once the seams were sewn, pressed, trimmed, notched and hand catchstitched (yes, hand catchstitched. Relaxing!) to the underlining it looks like this:

And that's it for today folks. The twins are snuggled in their cots for a nap and I am way too tired to do anything which requires me to think, thanks to a certain someone who shall remain nameless (but who's name begins with N and ends with icholas) who woke at 11pm and then at least once per hour, usually 3 or 4 times till 4.30am for no apparent reason. He wasn't fussing so I don't think it's teeth - he just wanted to sit up and take off his sleeping bag, and if I wasn't quick enough, his pyjamas too. Delightful.

Edited to add - the day has been saved from the blahs by the arrival of the post - containing my other Greist buttonholer! And it WORKS! Really really well! Oh happy happy me!!!!!

It's alive!!!!

2010-06-10T12:30:00.003+12:00

Well, it's working at least! My long-wished-for Gresist buttonholer, far from being in "good working condition", required two overnight spa treatments marinating in CRC and more than two hours over two days to clean off the old toffee-like grease with cotton buds (q-tips), rags and toothpicks (they turned out to be the best cleaning tools). After which I held my breath and fitted it to my machine and almost closed my eyes as I pressed the pedal.....

......and round she went! My first attempt is the straight one at the top of the pic below. It skipped a few stitches, including one big chunk on it's first round, but I just went around again and covered it better and after that it didn't skip any more stitches. Then I put in the keyhole template (which is what I wanted all along) and made two of those - each of the ones below has been stitched around twice and I think they look lovely. I am puzzled though by the odd extra bit at the top of each one - when I went around the second time I got the lovely rounded top and I can't figure why it starts like this. It's easy to pick out those couple of stitches, but I'm totally baffled as to why it does this. Apart from those few stitches the second round was exactly on top of the first.

As I showed them to David when he came for lunch I commented that it seems a bit weird that just a few stitches on a scrap of fabric can give me so much pleasure. He totally understands. Which may be why I married him ;-)

And in other news, I have now stencilled one panel of my Vogue dress. The design came from a beautiful book of William Morris designs for applique. Applique designs frequently lend themselves really well to stencilling, and I love these!

This panel is the front (believe it or not). The stencilled design will go from left shoulder down to right side.

The colours aren't great in this photo - dodgy light and basic camera. The red is more of a blood-red than the bright red ink (due to the grey base fabric) and the silver is metallic. On some angles, in some lights, the silver fades out of sight. I love how the design differs depending on your view. If I wanted the the colour to be less influenced by the base fabric I'd need at least one more coat, but this is exactly what I wanted so I stopped at two.

Bugger!

2010-06-08T22:15:00.004+12:00

Humph. The end of the sentence I left hanging was .....reist buttonholers. I stumbled across not one but TWO on Trademe by the sneaky technique of trying Google instead of looking through the Tradme listings for machine accessories under sewing. For some reason both were listed under antiques and collectibles, and I was the only bidder for each! (Another case of bewilderment that I'm not fighting off other bidders with big sticks). I got them both, and the first arrived today. I paid $30 (plus postage) for it and it was described as being "in good working condition". I was very hopeful, but have enough cynicism to be a little wary of such a claim not backed up with "when I tried it this morning". I put it on my machine and gingerly pressed the foot pedal. The needle went up and down and the buttonholer did nothing. I said a few colourful words and took off the case to have a look inside. There is a thick treacly coating of very old lubricant preventing certain parts from moving freely. As I type it is sitting in David's shed having been carefully sprayed with CRC, which should remove the gunk so I can re-oil it and hope that this time it will work. The instruction manual suggests lubricating with petrolum jelly once a year. I think I now know what 20 year old vaseline looks like. There is no other indication that anything is broken or wrong with it and I suspect that the seller did not wilfully mislead me, but took his mother's word that it worked perfectly when she last used it - at a guess 20 years ago. I will send him a polite email, but I see no need to be too annoyed. I may be more annoyed when my second one arrives (end of the week probably) for which I paid the grand total of $5 plus postage, and about which no claims of being in working order were made. It appeared to be in extremely good condition and may well be in good working condition. If I paid $30 for a non-working buttonholer and $5 for a working one I may not be overly impressed. If it doesn't work either I'll probably take them both to my (retired-engineer-and-all-round-very-clever-bloke) Dad to see if he can make one of them go. David probably could too, but Dad has more tools.....

Just to give you something cute to look at after that long-winded grumble, here's Isabella modelling her new dress. I wish I'd taken her cardigan off so the dress isn't obscured, but you get the idea. If I'm very lucky I get three shots before she loses interest and wanders off. (And just for the record, I'm really glad I did go over All That Topstitching. And even more glad that it actually makes a difference.) She has a real thing for shoes - she is constantly wandering around in any pair she can get her feet into!

Cutting multisized patterns

2010-06-07T11:35:00.003+12:00

That is a seriously dull post title isn't it? I wish I could come up with better ones, but sadly that is not where my creativity lies.

Anyway, getting to the point, I got my dress cut out yesterday (took almost a whole nap time!) and I thought I'd share a couple of things which make cutting a complicated or multisized pattern easier.

When I cut a tissue pattern I always cut it so that all the sizes are retained because you never know when you might need another size or to grade (which is a whole lot easier if you have three sizes intact), but it makes cutting to the smallest size a bit tricky, especially around curves. Also this pattern has long thin bits which are very prone to distorting when pinned to fabric (as all tissue does) To minimize distortion as much as possible I left the prong things joined together and used a BRILLIANT tip I found in Threads magazine (Issue 148, p22). I traced the cutting line with a sharpie marker - the ink bleeds through the tissue and leaves a mark on the fabric. Since it's the cutting line it's not going to show on the garment (it will usually be cut off by the overlocker anyway), and it doesn't damage the tissue - genius!

This is what the marked cutting line looks like when you take the tissue away - perfectly visible. I drew the notches onto the outside of the cutting line so I could mark them with snips into the seam allowance as I usually do when I cut.
The one above was done with a teal sharpie, the one below with a fine line black one.

Isn't that great? I used to do the same thing with dressmakers carbon and a tracing wheel, but of course the wheel damages the already flimsy tissue which is far from ideal. This way the pattern is undamaged, the marks are very accurate and best of all it's super quick and easy peasy.

Now I wonder if I could transfer the darts, tucks and other markings using a washaway fabric marker the same way - imagine the time that would save! (Although I do find threadmarking restful and therapeutic to do - time out in my somewhat hectic life!) Time to experiment I think. Right after I cut the stencils I want to use on this dress. That should take care of the rest of today's nap time. At least it'll distract me from the fact that there's no mail delivery today because it's Queen's Birthday. Hopefully my squealy exciting (well, for me anyway!) trademe purchase will arrive tomorrow. And, um, so will another identical item later in the week. You can never have too many G.......

My Creative Space - It's all about ME!

2010-06-03T13:07:00.007+12:00

When I started this blog it was supposed to be about the more interesting projects I undertook for myself. As life and designing for small children has taken control I thought it was high time I wrestled said control BACK! So for my visit to Kootoyoo's Creative Spaces this week, it's me time.

One evening last week I was idly browsing on Trademe (NZ's local version of ebay) in the pattern section when I came across an auction for Vogue 8417 . Uncut, my size, no reserve, asking for a $3.50 opening bid, free postage within New Zealand, closing in about an hour, no current bids. Um, what? Why am I not fighting off other bidders with a stick?! There should be people all over this pattern! So of course I stayed hunched all over the computer till the auction closed, when I as the only bidder happily scored this pattern for $3.50! And today it arrived - about 10 mins before the twins went down for their nap. Does life get any sweeter? (Well, it does actually. In a couple of days I should receive the Other Thing I bought on Trademe, and believe me, THAT made me dileriously happy!)

Having all sorts of curvy seamlines and tucks which will make alterations seriously problematic once I cut the fabric, I flat measured the underdress to quickly assess fit before a more accurate tissue fit on my dummy, with the plan to mock it up in fabric if required. If the underdress fits ok, the dress itself should too. I hate pattern tissue and trace where possible, but the sheer size of the pieces for this dress made that impractical. Fortunately the underdress pieces are small and manageable so I traced them to tissue fit, then use. (I would like to add here that I've made enough Vogue patterns in my time to know that this is almost always enough investigation for me to go ahead with a pattern. I shouldn't need much more than a slight tweak here and there to get a good fit. Please don't hate me. Someone has to be average.)

Here's the underbodice on my dummy, set to match me. I have very similar proportions to the dummy so it's a fair representation. It has more ease than needed, but I suspect that by the time I have two layers of fabric (although thin) and the weight of the skirt pulling it down a smidge it will fit pretty well. There are seams at the sides, so a bit of altering there will be possible. Phew! This is one pattern that makes me very happy that I generally don't have to alter commercial patterns in any significant way. No way I'd want to undertake an FBA or SBA on this puppy!

The grey fabic is my dress fabric (from stash - perfect!) and the red is a bolt of lining I bought for $2.00 (for the whole bolt!)a couple of years ago because I needed a small amount for something and figured that I'd use another 10-ish metres of red lining eventually.

The weather here is turning decidedly winterish and as usual makes me long for bright colours. Red to me always says winter. A nice cheerful lining on this dress will perk me up every time I put it on. There will be some red on the outside too, but I have yet to decide what form that will take. If you've seen my kids designs you can probably take a wild guess.

So, after tissue fitting the underbodice I had to make a start on cutting this slightly daunting pile of tissue. (Please excuse the green overlocker thread cone in the picture. The twins think it's great fun to play with and it turns up all over the place)

And after a while I ended up with this pile of cut pattern pieces.

And with not enough time to press the wrinkles out of my fabric and cut the dress before the twins get up after their nap, that's it for today. I'll blog the process for this dress because I have a few tricks to share, and quite frankly the project excites me!

There will be some embellishment. Possibly using these.

Oh be still my beating heart - just look at the shapes of those pattern pieces! My excitement level over this dress (not to mention my serious over-use of exclamation points in this post) is a pretty good indication that it is high time I made something for me - something that makes me feel the way my flippy skirt did a couple of weeks ago.

So close......

2010-05-28T13:11:00.003+12:00

Take a look at this dress. Anything strike you as being not-quite-right? Something which if done a little differently would make the design sing instead of hum quietly in the back row?

Here's the back. Spotted anything yet?

No? Bugger. It's only me who thinks the topstitching is too wishy-washy? I really really really need to get over myself? Yeah, thought so. (In my partial defense, I had a hell of a time photographing this - the topstitching must like the camera, because it aint popping in real life!)

I made this dress for Isabella. The embroidered denim is so soft and I love the muted shade, but it refused to tell me what it wanted to be till I came up with this design. It WANTED to be this dress, but I think it was wrong. The seamlines which took me a very long time to sew did not pop as they were supposed to, and the topstitching didn't help. The big design feature of this dress is the zig zag seaming and it sort of gets lost in the embroidery, which is louder than the topstitching. So after thinking (stewing) about it for a while I came up with a solution. (No way was I unpicking all that topstitching and redoing it with two strands of thread or topstitching thread like I should have done in the beginning!) I went over it again. Or rather, I'm going over it again. It takes a very, very, very long time because it Must Be Right, which means that I have to wheel the sewing machine by hand to ensure that the needle exactly hits the existing holes. And you know what? Take a look at this photo.

You can hardly see the difference! Mostly that's the photo again - in real life the difference is more apparent, although subtle. (In the above picture I've gone over the upper stitching and the lower panel in the middle right.) However, when I glance at the dress sitting on my desk the doubled stitching does noticably pop out a little more. The effect will be more pronounced with all the stitching done. If this was to be sold I doubt I'd have gone over it, but it would annoy me every time Isabella wore it, so it Had To Be Done. It will take a couple of hours and nobody but me would have noticed. I bet everyone reading this is rolling their eyes and yelling that I should get over it. (I know, I should.)

On the plus side, I'm really pleased with the colour combination of the denim and facing - it's a lovely soft yellowy green. Is this colour called celadon? Anyway, I love the two together, and I totally love the tree. Stenciled in black from the Duplo robot tree I photocopied. Done in black as directly inspired by the beauty on Foxs Lane here (although I also absolutely love this one too) Hers are screenprinted directly onto vintage sheets, and the crisp sharp black looks stunning against their slightly faded softness. Mine was stenciled onto a scrap of the facing fabric then sewn on and trimmed.

So, when I am finished the other 7 skirt panels and resewing the hem (which I did undo so that I could do my restitching past the hem fold or else it'd look funny) Isabella will have a new dress. (Poor girl will spend her life dressed in prototypes!) It'll look so cute with the red rose patterned tights she's inherited from Georgia.....

My Creative Space - covered button tutorial

2010-05-20T11:19:00.006+12:00

I'm playing along with Kootoyoo's Creative Spaces again this week.

Today I bring you covered buttons, but not the kind you buy in kit form and cover. I was wandering through town a few days ago and saw something like this on a jacket in a shop window and my brain just about exploded with approximately four trillion possible variations.

This is what my first two (very quick) versions looked like.

To make them you need either buttons, flat with holes or with a shank, (mismatched or ugly buttons would be great) or something to use as a button form. A layer or two or three of firm plastic cut into any shape and size you fancy for a button will work perfectly. I reckon old ice cream containers would be ideal. (Not that I have dozens of them lying around or anything you understand). Just cut your desired shape and poke holes so it can be sewn onto something. Also some fabric, preferably one which won't fray. (If you use a fabric which will fray you can always dab fray check on the edges.) I can see this idea working brilliantly on some of the stunning felted wool jumper refashions I've seen around the place. And thread - embroidery floss or regular sewing thread, whatever you like!

First place a button between two layers of fabric. (Note to self - desk surface looks horrible. You really should sand and refinish it to get rid of that nasty rough surface)

A few pins around the perimeter to keep it in place. (Is that how you spell perimeter? It looks a bit odd to me.)

Then with floss or thread and a simple running stitch, stitch around the edge of the button. My fabric was pretty thick and fuzzy, so I used 6 strands of floss.

Then trim away the excess fabric beyond the stitching.

To attach to your garment, you need to find the button's holes and stitch through them. After sewing it on with regular thread, go over it with embroidery floss to match the running stitch.

Easy!

To use a shanked button, poke a hole just big enough to squeeze the shank through in a scrap of fabric, then proceed as before sandwiching the button between two layers of fabric.

To make it more interesting I did the most basic lazy daisy embroidery on the scrap to be the face of the button. The sky's the limit for embellishment here! This time I sewed the two fabric layers together with matching sewing thread before trimming away the excess.

Then went around the edge with a simple blanket stitch for a different look.

So there you are - a very simple idea which lends itself to infinite possibilites for unique and perfect buttons for deserving projects. It would be great for brooches too, just sew or glue a brooch back to the finished button. I can see one or two (or three...) as the finishing touches on a bag, one single giant button pinned over a simple fastening on a cardy - I'd better stop before my brain really does explode. Oh how I love possibilities!

If anyone makes these, please let me know - I'd love to see what a creative mind can do with this!

Oh yeah, and I obviously didn't invent this idea, but I haven't seen it anywhere else, so I'm hoping that I don't have a bunch of readers rolling their eyes saying "That tired old idea again!" and yawning. Hopefully someone else will find this as intriguing (now there's another word I'm never sure how to spell) as I did.

Dreaming of summer.....

2010-05-19T13:13:00.003+12:00

This is the first time I've made something with a hypothetical potentially international market in mind. I haven't managed to talk myself out of a shop on Etsy yet, so I thought I should make some things which are geared to a northern hemisphere summer. Light blue cotton drill, teal piping, and teal and green stencilling with a seaside theme - laying on "summer" with a trowel!

Which on this grey dreary uninspiring autumn day makes me long for the long hot days of summer. (Yes Dunedin does so get those!)

What a difference a skirt makes!

2010-05-14T12:35:00.004+12:00

I've been thinking about my image lately. Like most women I'm not happy with how I look. Mostly I'm happy with what's under my clothes, (I eat well-ish, I work out regularly) but I dress like a frumpy housewife. I fall into the trap of not bothering to dress up because so many days I spend all my time dealing with children and not even leaving the house. If nobody but my family is going to see me, why bother?

I have lots of lovely clothes in my wardrobe, made when I worked in my BIL's hair salon. I have very large boxes filled with fabric I love, and enough pattterns to last forever. Not to mention the know-how to create my own, should I so wish. So I have no excuse to dress like a frump.

A few days ago David found some photos of a holiday we went on 10 years ago to Fiordland (the only time we have ever been away with no kids - Cayden spent a few days in Wanaka with his grandparents and it was a year before we had the next one). So there I was, 30 years old and having had only one child, and the thought that I couldn't get out of my head was that I look better now than I did then! But quite frankly, who could tell?

And that got me thinking that it is high time I stopped dressing like a frump and started working those lovely clothes into my wardrobe. Today I had some errands to run in town, and I decided to get out something nice to wear, as opposed to the something tidy I usually reach for. And when I started the archaeological dig required to peruse the long unworn contents of my wardrobe what do you think I found? This skirt. I made it before I had the twins and loved it, and had never worn it because I couldn't think what to wear with it! Time to change that! A good dig through my drawers'o'tops produced this one (well, actually first it produced a dull gold one identical to this one, till I remembered this one and thought it'd work better). I wore a little black cardy over it, but David said to take it off for the photos he took when he came home for lunch. He said lots of other stuff too, but that's private ;-)

And all day I've felt like this.

Here's a boring frontal shot to show how it sits when I'm not swishing.

When I looked in the mirror this morning I thought "nice legs!" and I hate my legs and their cankles, so that tells you something!

For the record, the skirt is Butterick 4859. And the top is a Burda one which I can't currently find on their site because a server somewhere appears to be down. Next time I make it I'm going to bring in the shoulder. I don't think that hanging off the shoulder point does me any favours - my shoulders and arms are my best bits and would be shown to better advantage with an armhole that shows the top of my arm.

So there you go, I've decided that I want to feel like this all the time. I need to work out how to incorporate the lovely items from the depths of my wardrobe into outfits I can feasibly wear to play with the twins and walk down to school. I'll keep you posted.

One more done

2010-05-12T11:25:00.004+12:00

Are we sick of bubble dresses yet? I'm really liking the softer wintery colours of my newest creations, and the pop of the stenciled designs that makes them distinctively mine. How about some plaid on the bias - why didn't I think of bias before?!

And a rose because it's pretty.

I've been mulling over the online shop idea and peeking around etsy and pay-pal. It's going to take a clear head and a few cups of coffee I can tell you, but I'm pretty well decided that there will be an online shop in my not-too-distant future. I will build up some stock though, and I also need to have a good think about what I should make - a small number of styles in different fabrics/colours? Or would a larger range of styles in smaller numbers have the widest appeal (more obviously unique)? So anyway, it won't be immediately.

Oh, and Kathryn, the tree dress is one of my own designs. (The tree is a duplo piece, from their robot line a couple of years ago. I photocopied it and added a bit more trunk.)

Finished stuff

2010-05-11T10:55:00.002+12:00

I finally got the paint colour I wanted and finished this dress. I love the sound of "burnt umber". It sounds so autumnal and perfect for a tree I think. Usually paint colours' names are, um, creative, but this one just sounds right.
Anyway, this is what burnt umber looks like painted onto dusky pink satin, sewn onto a sage green dress.

Now, do I keep it or sell it? I still haven't tried it on Isabella, largely because she has a cold and I keep envisioning a huge messy sneeze just as I pull it over her head, and then deciding that it isn't her colour and I shouldn't keep it.

The other finished garment is this dress. Another one I really like - oh how I love seaming concave and convex curves together - especially with piping in the seams.

The printed panel on this one was done with a craft punch and freezer paper, but I have visions of this dress done in any number of ways - contrasting fabric for one panel, closely toning different fabrics for each panel, different seam treatments, heavy winter fabrics, lightweight summer fabrics.......

My Creative Space - bits and pieces

2010-05-06T13:27:00.004+12:00

I'm playing along with Kootoyoo's creative spaces again this week.

My creative space is dominated by stuff half done. And instead of finishing said half-done stuff, I shoved it all to the side in favour of a bit of pintucking (on the bias of course, I'm nuts like that) this way...

....followed by a bit of pintucking that way.....

While blog-surfing yesterday I saw someone do a cute baby tunic using fabric pintucked this way. And do you think I can find it today? Not likely! So naturally I had to do this today so that I wouldn't forget it! (I love my blind hem foot for this by the way - brilliant invention)

This piece may well get used as the yoke for another dress like this.

This one is actually intended for Isabella, but I reserve the right to change my mind once I try it on her. (The colour may be a bit heavy for her. With her big blue eyes she looks beautiful in blue.) I love the design of this one - so many elements I love to do. Inset corners, pleats, concave curves sewn to convex curves. I deliberately drafted this in her size, so if it doesn't suit her it'll go for sale and I'll make her another one. It just needs it's embellishment. I know what I want to do but don't have paint the right colour, so it'll hang by my desk making me happy for a few more days.

Here's a better detail shot of the bodice details I love.

Also hanging by my desk making me happy is this dress.

I'm a bit in love with this one too. The black and white houndstooth check, the deep red stenciled roses, the tulip sleeves edged with piping in the same red. This one is definitely for sale though.

Which brings me to another subject - selling my stuff. I've been musing for a while over getting a shop on Felt to try selling my designs, and I think maybe now's the time. I went into Miracle yesterday for my regular supply of nappy liners and they told me that due to space constraints (they're full of gorgeous new stock just now) there isn't room at the moment for my things. Since I have no other outlet, I'm quite happy for them to hang onto them and pop them out again when they have space (which is what they offered to do).

The fees on Felt are very affordable, so it wouldn't cost much to get some things listed there. It just seems like such a big step to get an online shop! I'd really welcome any thoughts from anyone on the subject. I want to keep selling through Miracle because I get great feedback from them, but is it time now to try and get a bit more of my stuff out into the world?

Tutorial: Wrap front onesie, part 2 - sewing

2010-05-03T20:45:00.006+12:00

Right, time to sew this together. I have an overlocker (serger) so I sew most of it with that, but an ordinary sewing machine zig zag stitch will work just fine.

Firstly, sew the shoulder seams. This is where you'll notice if you didn't mirror your front. Go on, ask what made me stress that point during my last post ;-)

Then the neckband gets sewn on. Fold it in half along it's length, and give it a gentle press (it makes it so much easier to manage). Pin the centre of the neckband to the centre back of the neckline, matching raw edges.

Now it gets a bit more interesting. You have to pin the rest of the neckband to the neckline, but obviously, the neckband is shorter (to accommodate the shorter distance required at the outer edge of the neckline), so it needs to be stretched to fit the neckline. That's easy enough, but I don't distribute the fullness of the neckline evenly - you don't want much along the front edges, and you want to squish a lot into the tight neck curve. I sort of estimate what looks about right and put in a pin close to the top of the front, like this:

Then the fullness is distributed evenly within each of those 2 zones and the neckband is sewn on. After sewing and pressing, it looks like this:

I often finish the lower edge of the front underlayer just by overlocking it. It isn't going to fray so could be left raw, but the overlocking helps to prevent the fabric rolling.

Next up are the side seams. Make sure you get the layers around the right way. Go ahead and ask me how I know to check that too! All three layers are sewn together.

My preference is to always set in my sleeves rather than sew them in flat, but in the interests of making my life somewhat easy I hem them before I sew the sleeve seam and set them in. If you want to sew your sleeves in flat and then finish the side seams, that will work just fine.

To flatten the sleeve seam I sew a few stitches holding it open.

Now to set in the sleeve. I personally don't find this any harder than sewing them in flat, and I think they sit much better sewn this way but that's just my preference, and I have done a lot of them so I've had a lot of practice!

See how nicely they sit? I think it gives a better, rounder shape to the underarm.

Which just leaves binding the leg opening. Join the two short ends of the binding, quarter the binding and opening and pin together at those points, with onesie and binding right sides together.

Stretch the binding to fit the curves, stretching more on concave curves, and less on convex, pin it on and sew in place. (I do this with a straight stitch on my sewing machine.)

Then wrap the binding over the seam allowances to the back, and pin in place.

I use a simple zig zag on my sewing machine to sew from the right side to anchor the binding. Since the zig zag has stretch, and is holding all the layers, the straight stitch you did earlier can pop if it wants to without in any way compromising the garment (but I've never noticed that it does). Then just carefully trim away any excess binding on the inside.

Two domes (snaps) and you're done! I'm cheating and showing the same photo as my last one because I had it already, and the new onesie is identical.

There, I said it was easy! If anyone has any questions, please sing out. I've done so many of these I forget sometimes that not eveybody else has too.

Tutorial: Wrap front onesie alteration. Part I: Pattern

2010-04-28T14:13:00.012+12:00

First up, you need a pattern. I used one from Ottobre, issue 01/06, #4, but there are plenty of others around. My preference is for set in sleeves (I'll explain why when I get to that bit) the neckline and shoulder style are irrelevant because you're going to change them anyway. I looked up a few options. There's KS 2433 or KS 3375 for a looser fit. Or there's Butterick 5896 or McCalls 6103 or Simplicity 2459 or 2905 (which looks to me to be the same bodysuit pattern).

To start with you need a whole front, so trace one, flip the paper and trace another one. I then copy over that line from the right side so I have a whole front traced on one side of the paper. I particularly like working with Ottobre patterns because (apart from the great fit) they don't have seam allowances added. (It is a whole lot easier to work on patterns with no seam allowances and add them when you're done.) If you have a pattern with seam allowances already on it, it's worth marking in the stitching lines to make it easier to work with.

You need to trace the shoulder (stitching) line. If you have an envelope neck design this may be marked on. If not, there will be a registration mark to line up the overlap. Use this to work out where the shoulder line is.

I've used KS2433 to illustrate this. I traced the front and back pieces, overlapping them where indicated by the notch. I then folded my paper so that the side seams lined up and creased where that put the shoulder line. I've drawn in a dotted line to mark it. (I haven't subtracted the seam allowances for this, since it's just to illustrate how to find the shoulder line)

As you can see the resulting neckline needs a bit of tweaking, but at this stage that is very easy to do to produce a smooth neckline.

Then you draw the style lines onto the whole front. The neckline in the original pattern I'm using was to be bound, so the neckline here is the finished neck edge. I drew a line from the neck edge to the armhole seam. This line is the new finished neck edge. Now draw another line 1.5cm in from this line. This is the new stitching line for the neckband. The reason I choose set in sleeves becomes apparent here. If you choose a raglan style, the finished neckline will be shorter, which gives you less room to fit over the child's head. It is unlikely to be so much shorter that it causes a problem, but I figure why risk it?

The two parallel lines across the tummy are the cutting line and fold line for the under layer.

Now to work out the length of the neckband, overlap the back and front at the shoulder stitching line (I've traced my pattern to show this, since I didn't take any photos of the process I showed bits of in an earlier post). The solid line at the shoulder is the stitching line, and the dotted lines represent the overlapping seam allowances.

Then using a tape measure on it's side measure the finished neckline from centre back to the armhole. The measurement you get is half the length of the finished neckband (since you're measuring half the pattern). Easy!

Now the bit you need to be careful with. I decided on a finished neckband width of 1.5cm, so I drew a line on my pattern pieces 1.5cm from the finished neck edge. If you click on the picture below you'll get a bigger image and should be able so make out that this line is marked "1". This is the stitching line for the neckband. Then draw a seam allowance onto that - this line will be between the neckband stitching line and the finished neckline. My seam allowance is 1cm. That line is marked "2" and the finished neckline is marked "3".

Cut out your pattern pieces along the new cutting lines. (You'll be working with two separate pieces of paper for front and back of course, not a single piece of paper as I'm showing here since this illustration was just a tracing to show the process.) This gives you new front and back pieces.

To make a pattern piece for the front under layer, trace a mirror image of the front, down to the lines drawn on earlier.

Make a neckband pattern piece twice your finished width, plus seam allowances, and half as long as the finished neckband so you can cut it on a fold. My finished neckband is 1.5cm wide, so my pattern piece is (1.5cm + 1cm) x 2 = 6cm wide (finished width + seam allowance) x 2 (since it's folded in half.)

The sleeves are unaltered from the original pattern.

There you go, pattern done! Next up I'll show you how to sew it together. I promise it's easy too.

When you don't have a printer

2010-04-28T08:59:00.004+12:00

Cough cough, hack hack, blech - I have a cold. Courtesy of the twins who are nothing if not generous when it comes to sharing their snot. I tell you, nothing makes me feel more like I have a tribe of kids than calling the doctor's office and asking for appointments for "a couple of my children". When I actually meant three of them. Fortunately it was a nice quick visit - one case of conjunctivitis , one possible blocked tear duct and confirmation that the warty rash on Isabella is that contagious one which will go away on it's own in 3-4 months.

Anyway, it seems to have been sick central around here lately - so far only David and Cayden have not come down with anything. This is the first cold I've had since I had pneumonia in January, and I'm really nervous - I've been told that I may be more susceptible to chest infections and related problems because of it.

Which is all a very long winded way of saying that production around here has been patchy at best. I have a couple of patterns half drafted, three dresses cut and ready to stencil and sew, and little inclination to do any of it. So I procrastinated by tracing some images I've had stored in the computer forever. When our computer died my clever SIL put our old hard drive into this computer, which I only realised a few days ago!

I'm still waffling aren't I? The point of this post was supposed to be to show how I traced an image from my computer rather than just print it out. We used to have a printer. Then it ran out of ink and we balked at spending the cost of a new printer on replacing it, so the printer just got used as a scanner for a while. Then Nicholas got at it, and now it doesn't work at all. In any case, I couldn't print the images. So I traced them. Last time I did this I learned that computer screens are the one thing from which Glad Press'n'Seal will not pull away cleanly. Oops. The teenager (who owns the screen) was not impressed! So this time I taped a piece of gladwrap (clingfilm) over the screen and placed the press'n'seal on that, and traced away.

Very very low tech, but it worked just fine!

Finished bubble dress, and some replies

2010-04-23T11:22:00.005+12:00

Does it look like I'm showing off to show the finished bubble dress the day after showing it in pieces? Yes? Thought so. Oops. Sorry! It is truly the quickest thing to sew though. Not necessarily the easiest, but once I'd figured out the best construction method/order the first time all the subsequent ones have been a breeze.

I have a soft olive and cream plaid version cut next, and a bunch of rose stencils for it done the long way with a craft knife. I really really really need to do some major sucking up to my very clever and fabulous and wonderful (I've just learned that she reads my blog, hehehe) scrapbooking friend who owns a cricut......

So on to other things. I've had a couple of questions and comments lately which could do with proper responses, so here goes:

Imaan - if you're interested I'd be happy to do a full tutorial on the onesie design. I think it's a pretty good one for beginner sewers because the modifications I made to make it easy to use also make it easy to sew, and the modifications to the pattern are pretty simple. Isabella needs another one, so I'll photograph the process as I do it. Oh, and craft punches can be found at SL, and also often at stationery shops and anywhere that sells scrapbooking supplies.

Julia, you asked about my appliques. I showed how I did them in this post and this post a while back, but you've guessed correctly - it's two layers of fabric on top of the garment. You start with the garment section, place on a scrap of your contrast, followed by a scrap of your garment fabric. Then stitch the design and very carefully snip away the fabric around it, leaving more of the constrast to form a border. It's not hard, but it is a bit fiddly.

Kathryn at Les Petits Anglais commented on My Favourite Book giving her problems with ease allowances. Having seen Beangirl's first efforts with the same book also give great-but-not-quite-perfect results too I'm really really really keen to hear absolutely anything either of you (or anyone else who has used it) have to say about it. I am totally in love with the book, and very very happy with the blocks I've drafted from it, and the clothing designs I've drafted from those blocks. I want to know why I'm totally happy and you aren't. (Although, Beangirl, I think you're well on the way!) Trust me, it isn't because I'm cleverer ;-) I wish the three of us could get together for a few days, ditching kids with husbands and see what we could come up with! Wouldn't that be the best fun?!

My Creative Space - Why buy what you can make better?

2010-04-22T11:21:00.009+12:00

I thought I'd join in on My Creative Space over at Kootoyoo today, because it's so much fun peeking into other creative spaces!

My creative space has been busy for the last few days, working on a few different projects, depending on whether or not the twins are around. Lately I've been trying to get sewing done while they're not napping, so they get used to it going on in the background and don't feel the need to investigate what I'm doing in up-close detail! Um, yeah, this might take a while.

So anyway, project #1 was a singlet (vest, undershirt, onesie) for Isabella, who is about to outgrow the ones she's wearing now. I bought a couple on sale in Farmers and wasn't happy with either of them really. I didn't like one because I don't personally like the envelope neck style - great principle, but they never seem to sit well because the wrap over bit isn't big enough so they take fiddling . I'm NOT a fan of fussing with clothing on wriggly toddlers! The other was annoying because it's a wrap over style (so far so good) but it has too many domes. (See previous comment about fussing and wriggly children). So with two not-very-satisfactory singlets I wondered why I didn't just MAKE her some - I'd adapted an Ottobre pattern for Nicholas some time ago and it works really well, so I just needed to do the same thing for her size and get to it. (For the record it's Ottobre 01/06, #4)

First I needed a complete pattern for the front. Trace one, flip the paper and trace again...
At this point Nicholas got interested. This will become relevant later.

I drew my new style lines on the complete pattern. The outer neckline is there so I can measure it to see how long to cut my neckband. The inner neckline is the new seamline. The two horizontal lines are where to cut the under layer and it's hem fold line.

To make the singlet I cut one complete front and one (mirrored obviously) half front. I find the cross over style is easy to pull on over their heads and then sits nicely. And I only have to do up two domes at the crotch. Easy! Easy is good.

Then Nicholas did this....

Yup - tore it! By very lucky chance he only ripped the bit I was discarding anyway, but still! At this point I gave up till nap time.

With the tiny destructo-bots safely tucked up for a snooze, I went on to the Not-With-Them-Around project - freezer paper stenciling for a bubble dress. I wanted to use a darker, more wintery coloured fabric, but it still needed to have a bit of a pop to stop it looking too drab.

I didn't want to waste effort stenciling on the turned in lower edge of the bubble, so to establish where that lower edge would be I placed the lining pattern on the dress section and chalked on a line half way between the two to use as a rough guide.

Then I cut a bunch of leaves from freezer paper with a craft punch - how quick and easy is that compared to laboriously cutting each stencil with a knife?! Iron them on in what I thought was a pleasing pattern...

Have at it with textile paint, and there you have it. A front and two backs lying on the floor to dry. Slight panic while I figure out where I'm going to put them when the twins wake up...

When the paint was dry and I'd peeled off the freezer paper and heat set the paint, it looked like this.

Much prettier than plain navy I think. I have a couple of plaids destined for the same treatment once I get the right paint colours....

Meanwhile, while the paint was drying, I got to sewing Isabella's singlet. It took next to no time to sew, and cost pretty much nothing. Pattern from a magazine I admittedly bought, but already owned, so that's free right? Fabric courtesy of Keely destashing while I was pregnant - free. Domes - 2 sets of the 2000 sets I bought for $4.00. That's 0.2c each - not 2c each, 0.2c each! Thread - hard to assess how much overlocker thread I used, and the sewing was done with whatever was lying around, so next to nothing. End result is a style I really like, and all it really cost me was a small amount of time. So why did I buy two I didn't even like?

Edited to add - oops, domes are snaps. I forget that not everyone speaks New Zealand!

The Baby Trench Part 8: Finished

2010-04-19T12:10:00.004+12:00

I've been procrastinating with this too, but this time it's because I was a bit sad about seeing it All Finished. I'm going in to Miracle tomorrow and should really take it in so thought I should get on with it. All that needed doing since my last installment were the buttons and buttonholes. To my relief the buttonholes behaved - I'd have said some Very Bad Words if I'd had to unpick any!
So, without further ado, here it is:

And the back:
If she'll cooperate (and is spotlessly clean) I want to get a shot of this being modelled by Isabella. Don't hold your breath.

And just for fun, another bubble dress. They seem to sell well, so it's worth making more.

I've added a link over on the right to an album of my designs. Just to keep them all in one place. I was a bit surprised at how many there were! I know a few may be missing thanks to our computer dying, so I'll have to do a troll through my blog archives to see if I can pick any extras.
Feedback and suggestions are always very welcome - what should I do next? What does anybody like or not like?

Procrastination pays off

2010-04-16T11:37:00.003+12:00

This is the dress I was working on last week. I was all fired up over the tulip sleeves, and love how they turned out. And then I ran out of enthusiasm for it. The neckline looked too plain, but piping it or adding a collar or something would have made the dress too fussy. So it got put aside in favour of mucking around with other stuff.

Then a couple of nights ago as I sat up in bed giving Nicholas his midnight snack it hit me - the neckline needed a little curvy nick taken out of it!

I could hardly wait for the twins to have their nap the next day so I could get stuck into it. By the end of the day the dress was all finished. The back was the first element I thought of, and an idea I think I'll revisit.

So there you go - procrastinating till the right idea hits totally pays off!

Beangirl, the paint I used is Fas brand Fastex Textile Ink, the colour is metallic silver. My next experiment is to try acrylic craft paint mixed with textile medium.

Mary Nanna, I got freezer paper at Spotlight in the dress fabric department (used to be in the craft dept with the quilting stuff). If Dunedin has it it'd be worth asking if any of the Auckland stores have it.

Freezer paper stenciling, oh yeah!

2010-04-13T22:01:00.003+12:00

I've wanted to have a go at freezer paper stenciling since I first saw it somewhere on the net. It looked just like something I would really enjoy, and really lent itself to the sort of embellishment I like to do. So when I realised that I could get freezer paper at Spotlight there was no stopping me!

I won't bother with any sort of tutorial because blogland is full of them - I googled it and got over 10 000 hits! It's really easy and heaps of fun. I plan to do a lot more of this.

After a couple of experiments I made pants for Nicholas. I wanted to photograph them flat on the floor to show the design, but as soon as he saw them Nicholas decided that he wanted to put them on. (He was really interested in the stenciled leg when it was on my desk). As it turned out, the resulting photo shows the design really well! So here is my first stenciled garment - footprint pants for Nicholas.

The best way to spend Sunday morning

2010-04-12T13:03:00.003+12:00

My kids love playing on my Dad's boat whenever we go and visit my parents, or when it was parked outside our house while I worked on The Cover . And when it was realised, by kids and everyone else, that they had never been out on a boat Dad accused David and I of coming close to child neglect and a trip was rapidly arranged. The twins were left in the expert hands of my Mum while Dad took David, Georgia, Oliver and I for a run. (Cayden was sleeping, in preparation for the all-night networking session he and two friends were having that night!)

Sunday dawned calm and warm with a little patchy cloud. Perfect for a run from Back Beach to the Heads. (Back Beach is just behind Port Chalmers, and the Heads is Taiaroa Head at the mouth of Otago harbour.) We saw seals and even a penguin (well, I didn't because I was putting away the camera, damn it!) albatrosses, shags and all sorts of other neat stuff. The kids took a bit of getting used to the motion of the boat, especially just outside the Heads, where it was a LOT bumpier, but declared it great fun. (And to my profound relief, nobody got seasick!)

I love looking at Dunedin from the water. It is fantastic to live so close to such easily accessible beautiful scenery. (Well, if you have a Dad with a boat. Otherwise you can climb a hill on one side of the harbour and then you can admire the other side and a whole lot further. The walk from Aramoana to Haywards Point or even as far as Murdering Beach is one of my personal favourites.)

I have been sewing, (and I've been discovering the joys of freezer paper stenciling too, hehehe.) But I've had two nights of crap sleep (on top of goodness knows how many patchy ones) thanks to one or other or both twins and today is too gloomy to photograph the pants I made anyway, so a post will have to wait till I can summon a bit of energy!