And finally....

I'm back!!

It's only been a few months (what can I say, I like to blog but prefer to sew :) ) and finally I've found the energy to post again. I have no idea why as it was my first day back at work after two weeks of holidays today, but there you go.

So, this is what I have been sewing over the last few months.

In no particular order...

Oliver+S Tea Party Sundress in Size 2 which fitted Alice perfectly over the summer, and still fits her now with a white t-shirt underneath. I love the piping on this dress and I was really happy with how it turned out. I think I originally got the fabric from Hawthorne Threads for the main piece and then got the piping fabric locally to match. I find it really hard to color match over the internet. In the photo it looks like it puckers down one side, but this is just how the dress was hanging.

Oliver+S Popover Sundress. I bought the material ages ago from Hawthorne Threads. Another dress that looked great over the summer and is working well with a top underneath as the weather gets colder here.

Oliver+S - there seems to be a theme here :) Bubble Dress pattern. I think this is the first Oliver+S pattern I made late last year and I really enjoyed sewing it. I love the instructions too, they just seem to encourage you to take more time and sew carefully. Oliver+S skirt from the Sunday Brunch Jacket and Skirt pattern. I purchased this material in my first online order way back in the middle of last year when I was first corrupted by the lovely sewers of EB ;) It's a Japanese fabric but I can't remember from where. I really love this pattern. It sits so beautifully and is so simple but classic with the two pockets at the front and the kick pleat at the back.The same pattern, different fabric. I've actually made 3 skirts from this pattern so far. I also made one for a dear friend from the April 08 Due In group - Hi Jode :)

And finally, my model and the owner of these clothes - Miss Alice. I attempted to get her to model one piece of clothing for me, but she wasn't so keen. So, this is the MIP Uptown Girl jacket which I adore. However, Alice is not so keen on jackets so it hasn't been worn as much as I'd like. The last picture. This is the top to the quilt that I have been distracted by over the last two weeks. Sorry Ottobre winter cords that have been half made for about a month now, but this quilt has been calling out to be made. So, I've finished the top and I might leave it now until I do the quilting course in late June to put it all together. It's made from a layer cake of Plume by Tula Pink.

Oh, and I have made clothes for the other girls and Angus, I've just run out of time to post the photos today. Hopefully I'll be back a bit sooner for the next entry!

Patterns to share

Hard copy
Kids
oliver + s
puppet show tunic, dress and shorts (0-24 months)
tea party sundress, bloomers and playsuit (0-5)
swingset tunic and skirt pattern (0-5)
bubble dress(0-24months)
gracie ruffle skirt - Marie-madeline studio (0-10?)
make it perfect
uptown girl
flipsy skirt
The mia top - pink fig patterns
McCalls 5033 (3-6)
McCalls M5572 (3-6)
adult
funked out peasant blouse lila tueller

pdf
leila&ben sweet dress
growing up with Rosy criss cross twirl top
bella marie boutique Emma swing top
sewsensible boutique bottoms

My favourites are; boutique bottoms, uptown girl and the bubble dress. I've made each of these heaps of times!

Notebook and Pencil Holder

Thanks to oneredrobin.com , yesterday I made a notebook and pencil holder for a friend of one of my girls for her 4th birthday. I think it's fantastic. I hope she loves it as much as I do. I've never made anything 'crafty' before that wasn't an actualy piece of clothing. It was great fun! Apart from turning it inside out slightly incorrectly, thinking I'd sewed it together incorrectly, unpicking it and then realising I hadn't, and then resewing it - it all went well - relatively speaking. To be honest I'm getting a bit sick of making mistakes and unpicking with every single thing I make. At what point do I start to make things without mistakes? Someone advise me please.

Eclectic

There are lots of projects on the go at once here, so I thought I'd try and post about a few of them. Then I got distracted because my latest fabric from etsy arrived this morning.

So, I'll start with the etsy purchases. The first is a whole lot of half yards of the Tanya Whelan Darla range. I love it! Obviously :) It's very old world charm. Reminds me of my grandparents house on the farm where I first lived. I have no idea if they had anything like this in the house, but it makes me think of their house on the farm. I'm planning to turn it into a whole series of frilly tiered skirts for the girls. There are 10 half yards. The pattern I'm going to use is called 'gracie ruffle skirt' and it's from http://www.mariemadelinestudio.com/ I got the fabric from them as well. I love the speed that things arrive from the US. I ordered on the 29th of August and it arrived today the 7th of September. Actually, when I look at how long that took it doesn't feel so speedy, but approx 10 days is pretty good I think. They also have an etsy shop if you're in the mood for shopping.

I also had another parcel in the mail this morning from, cottonthreadfabrics on etsy. I got 3 yards of Michael Miller fabric. I have visions of the red material as a top for me, and the two dotty ones as ruffle pants or skirts for the girls. Or maybe both. The Amy Butler yard is from the Midwest Modern 2 range and is to hopefully finish the pinkfig Mia top. It is for the underskirt. What a spoilt girl R is that she gets this beautiful material for an underskirt!

The 3 pieces of Pop Garden fabric are to make a colorful top (eek!) for me for summer. The pattern should arrive in the next few days. Hmmm. I haven't managed to take photos of it. What was I thinking? I'll try to add them in later.

I also started my 'Simple Country Sampler' (don't you love the name) quilt on Saturday. Here are my first 4 squares. One I did in class, the other 3 were for homework. Yes, for the first time in my life I have finished homework early! The quilt is potentially going to hang in the family room so it is in blues, greens and with a hint of orange and gold; so it matches all the rooms surrounding it. The hand is provided by my helpful assistant A.

Finally, I have included photos of the flipsy skirt. I am still yet to do the final tie (I know, I know) but I really wanted to show it off. I did lie the material for the tie across the top, so you get the effect. I might try and sew that tonight or tomorrow night. I'm really happy with the way the skirt turned out, and would gladly make another.

Husqvarna Viking Sapphire 850

So, here it is. My beautiful new machine. We had a few hiccups in the first few days, mainly from me not understanding that I needed to adjust the tension (which I still don't feel confident with) but apart from that we are on our way :) It is so exciting to finally have a new machine and I just love it. I am still adjusting to where everything is, but it is great! The first thing I have made (well half made) is the Mia top below. It's hard to capture what I'm attempting to do, but it's my first go at shirring. So far I have done the whole bodice twice. The first tute talked about steam shrinking the elastic. It didn't. I must have had the tension wrong. I then rang the lovely people where I brought my machine and they rang someone who lives 5 hours away (I love their dedication to sewing) to get me some advice. I finally got a method that works so I've done the bodice. However, I have discovered that my machine cannot read patterns, so when I only cut out two pieces for the skirt instead of four, it didn't tell me where I'd gone wrong. So, I now have to redo the underskirt which involves buying more material as I have run out. Aaaagh! Luckily R is loving it so far.

New title

Okay I've decided to change the title of my blog. It was too negative and implied that I had too little time to do anything! Sometimes that might be true but I don't want it to become a self fulfilling prophecy. So, the new title. It's taken from a poem in a poetry anthology called... yep, you guessed it 'The world's contracted thus'. I can't remember who wrote the poem at the moment so I'll have to look it up. Either that or unpack the boxes of books I packed up four years ago when we moved here. For me the poem is about the centre of the world and the universe is here, and time should stop for those who want this moment to last forever. It's actually about two lovers in bed feeling the demands on their time pulling at the edge of their moment, but not wanting to leave. That's how I feel about my life. It's going too fast, I love it so much and I wish time would slow down so I could enjoy each moment more. Hmmm I could start philosophising about that now, but I won't go on. Suffice to say, I have a new blog title and this is it. Not bad given I haven't read the poem for at least four years. I'll probably look it up now and discover it is totally different to what I remember :)

Dear Blog

Dear Blog
I have no time to visit you at the moment. Hence your title I guess. And I'm sorry, I have no photo for you either even though I have done a photography class since we last made contact. I have done a little sewing of part of the pinkfig Mia top, but it is slow going at the moment. I also have my new machine, and I have no time to describe the wonders of that either. Or even really enjoy it properly. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I miss you, and I will be back, perhaps on Thursday. Hmmm - maybe Friday. Does next week sound do-able?