So, it's been a while since I posted here hasn't it? I did realise how long it's actually been until I received two emails this week from lovely readers enquiring whether everything is ok in my world given my blog silence (thanks Shibani and Esther!).
There is no particular reason or exciting tale to tell, just the usual boring excuse of being very busy and not having anything interesting to post. You see, we moved house shortly before Christmas and it took weeks to pack, move and unpack as well as being totally exhausting. Thankfully I didn't have to pack up my sewing room though it's currently full of half of our belongings - we've moved into a two bedroom apartment temporarily while our old house is demolished and a new one constructed.
This is very exciting to me, because I designed our new house to be a compact two storey dwelling that will be highly energy efficient with all the space we currently don't have (a butlers pantry! a large walk in wardrobe! more than one poky bathroom!). Our old house is a 1950s weatherboard dwelling that was very hot in summer, very cold in winter and had small rooms with no storage at all - even though we did a partial renovation about 8 years it just wasn't great.
The garage, with my sewing room above it, is in a separate building to the house and it won't be demolished. This is why I don't need to pack up my sewing room (phew) although I can't use it for the next 9 or 10 months during construction. So it's back to sewing on a little desk in the corner of my bedroom just like I did my single days when I lived in a small apartment in the city.
Given I have next to no storage space in my current sewing space, you would think that I'd be sensible and not buy fabric. Or possibly, you're just like me and really can't help yourself! I haven't sworn off buying fabric for many years now because I know I just can't do it. But I like looking at other people's fabric purchases and I hoping that posting these here will make me a bit more mindful of future purchases, so I thought I'd share my acquisitions over the last 6 months (plus this post needs some photos to liven it up).
I mentioned a few posts ago that I'm enrolled in Susan Khaljie's French jacket course in February, so I went to Bewitch Fabrics in Leichhardt in search of some suitable boucle fabric. They were having a closing down sale and the fabrics were marked down by up to 50% which was lucky because those very exquisite fabrics were very expensive. The funny thing was that they had rolls and rolls of fabric just shoved in their little store, even though the fabrics were $100/m plus. This is Toby pointing out a fabric I should buy:
I ended up buying a multi coloured chunky wool fabric which was marked down to $60/m for my jacket, and a lovely navy blue with gold floral motif in a silk / wool crinkle blend (soon to become a Frocktails dress) and a grey wool herringbone which will become pants or a jacket this winter:
Back in November the Sydney Spoolettes had a fabric swap day. I took a bag of fabric, and meant not to return with more than I brought. I was doing ok until the very end when I stayed behind to help pack away the leftover fabric and then I added very significantly to my haul and took home more than I brought. I did score some lovely fabrics (no immediate plans) and some amazing patterns, plus just generally had a great time chatting with lots of lovely ladies:
I also ventured to the Fabric Cave to drop off some more donations and came away with some more lovely pieces. These beautiful wool fabrics at a bargain price will become a jacket some winter soon:
At the Fabric Cave I also found a large piece of red printed John Kaldor print cotton which will become my December Burda project soonish and a candy stripe cotton drill. I also stopped by Spotlight two weeks ago to get some thread and walked out with a blue rayon print for some drawstring pants and some neon yellow stretch denim:
You read that correctly - neon yellow stretch denim! Unsurprisingly it was marked down to $2/m, but I bought it to make some pants for a dear friend's young daughter who specifically requested yellow pants. She has spent far too much time in hospital with some chronic health issues these last two years so I was very happy to oblige. I made these from Burda 11/2010 #146, and recipient was delighted:
For my birthday late last year my parents gave me some cash, which I happily spent on more fabric! I happened to be in Parramatta for a work meeting, so I popped into My Hung fabrics which has some great fabrics. I bought some cotton sateen in light purple, peach and white to make summer jackets (probably next summer at this rate), dark blue fabric which has been made into a birthday dress for Anna, and check cotton which I'm currently making into a dress:
And finally, I swung by Tessuti fabric last week in Chatswood to buy some tracing paper. Well, I didn't get any tracing paper, but I bought some glorious wool suiting fabric in emerald green and electric blue which I've had my eye on all last year to make some new work jackets, plus some stripe jersey which will become a simple t-shirt dress.
So I popped into Tessuti in Surry Hills a few days ago to get that tracing paper, but walked out instead with a new sleeve board and another piece of fabric which is currently being washed and no tracing paper. Sigh, I will never be able to control myself......
Anyway, I hope sharing this has made you feel better about your recent fabric acquisitions and overall stash. But I would like to finish with this statistic - last year I made 43 garments for myself, 1 for Anna, 1 for Toby and 29 gold sequin jackets for Anna's school, so I am sewing - just not fast enough to possibly use all the fabric I've ever purchased ;(
There is no particular reason or exciting tale to tell, just the usual boring excuse of being very busy and not having anything interesting to post. You see, we moved house shortly before Christmas and it took weeks to pack, move and unpack as well as being totally exhausting. Thankfully I didn't have to pack up my sewing room though it's currently full of half of our belongings - we've moved into a two bedroom apartment temporarily while our old house is demolished and a new one constructed.
This is very exciting to me, because I designed our new house to be a compact two storey dwelling that will be highly energy efficient with all the space we currently don't have (a butlers pantry! a large walk in wardrobe! more than one poky bathroom!). Our old house is a 1950s weatherboard dwelling that was very hot in summer, very cold in winter and had small rooms with no storage at all - even though we did a partial renovation about 8 years it just wasn't great.
The garage, with my sewing room above it, is in a separate building to the house and it won't be demolished. This is why I don't need to pack up my sewing room (phew) although I can't use it for the next 9 or 10 months during construction. So it's back to sewing on a little desk in the corner of my bedroom just like I did my single days when I lived in a small apartment in the city.
Given I have next to no storage space in my current sewing space, you would think that I'd be sensible and not buy fabric. Or possibly, you're just like me and really can't help yourself! I haven't sworn off buying fabric for many years now because I know I just can't do it. But I like looking at other people's fabric purchases and I hoping that posting these here will make me a bit more mindful of future purchases, so I thought I'd share my acquisitions over the last 6 months (plus this post needs some photos to liven it up).
I mentioned a few posts ago that I'm enrolled in Susan Khaljie's French jacket course in February, so I went to Bewitch Fabrics in Leichhardt in search of some suitable boucle fabric. They were having a closing down sale and the fabrics were marked down by up to 50% which was lucky because those very exquisite fabrics were very expensive. The funny thing was that they had rolls and rolls of fabric just shoved in their little store, even though the fabrics were $100/m plus. This is Toby pointing out a fabric I should buy:
I ended up buying a multi coloured chunky wool fabric which was marked down to $60/m for my jacket, and a lovely navy blue with gold floral motif in a silk / wool crinkle blend (soon to become a Frocktails dress) and a grey wool herringbone which will become pants or a jacket this winter:
Back in November the Sydney Spoolettes had a fabric swap day. I took a bag of fabric, and meant not to return with more than I brought. I was doing ok until the very end when I stayed behind to help pack away the leftover fabric and then I added very significantly to my haul and took home more than I brought. I did score some lovely fabrics (no immediate plans) and some amazing patterns, plus just generally had a great time chatting with lots of lovely ladies:
I also ventured to the Fabric Cave to drop off some more donations and came away with some more lovely pieces. These beautiful wool fabrics at a bargain price will become a jacket some winter soon:
At the Fabric Cave I also found a large piece of red printed John Kaldor print cotton which will become my December Burda project soonish and a candy stripe cotton drill. I also stopped by Spotlight two weeks ago to get some thread and walked out with a blue rayon print for some drawstring pants and some neon yellow stretch denim:
You read that correctly - neon yellow stretch denim! Unsurprisingly it was marked down to $2/m, but I bought it to make some pants for a dear friend's young daughter who specifically requested yellow pants. She has spent far too much time in hospital with some chronic health issues these last two years so I was very happy to oblige. I made these from Burda 11/2010 #146, and recipient was delighted:
For my birthday late last year my parents gave me some cash, which I happily spent on more fabric! I happened to be in Parramatta for a work meeting, so I popped into My Hung fabrics which has some great fabrics. I bought some cotton sateen in light purple, peach and white to make summer jackets (probably next summer at this rate), dark blue fabric which has been made into a birthday dress for Anna, and check cotton which I'm currently making into a dress:
And finally, I swung by Tessuti fabric last week in Chatswood to buy some tracing paper. Well, I didn't get any tracing paper, but I bought some glorious wool suiting fabric in emerald green and electric blue which I've had my eye on all last year to make some new work jackets, plus some stripe jersey which will become a simple t-shirt dress.
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Anyway, I hope sharing this has made you feel better about your recent fabric acquisitions and overall stash. But I would like to finish with this statistic - last year I made 43 garments for myself, 1 for Anna, 1 for Toby and 29 gold sequin jackets for Anna's school, so I am sewing - just not fast enough to possibly use all the fabric I've ever purchased ;(
