blog housekeeping

My apologies to everyone who had to see those horrible explicit spam comments in the last few posts - normally I get nonsensical but benign spam comments that I remove eventually but I really should have acted faster to get rid of those disgusting comments. 

Actually I have been getting inundated with the anonymous spam comments to the point where I can't really keep up with removing them so unfortunately I've had to reinstate word verification to leave comments.  I know that the word verification is sometimes difficult to read and can be painful to use, but please don't let that put you off commenting - I appreciate every comment and love the two way conversations starting to develop here on my blog.

And since I don't like to post without some eyecandy, here's an inspiring thought to brighten your Tuesday:

unblocked

Unblocked.  A rather indelicate phrase isn't it? In my mind it conjures up images of old people talking coyly and abstractly about laxatives in tv advertisements, or the absolute vileness that is the gunk that blocks up the s-bend under your kitchen sink.  But it also describes the unblocking, finally, of my sewing mojo which has been in short supply of late.

Ordinarily I do a bit of sewing each day - sometimes a little bit or sometimes a lot, but the continuity and incremental work is I think the best way to keep on top of my projects.  But the past two weeks or so I've barely stepped into my sewing room.  I've been so exhausted it's hard to just get off the lounge.  Not just sleepy, but absolutely bone tired exhausted with aching muscles and joints.  It didn't help that I recently won a Kindle (yay me!) and I've been rediscovering the classics like Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters. I followed that up with a nice day snuggled on the lounge watching the Colin Firth version of Pride and Prejudice.

But after a discussion with a friend followed up with a consultation with Dr Google, I've discovered that muscle and joint pain is quite common in breastfeeding new mums.  Something to do with the hormones in the body that relax the joints in preparation for childbirth remaining while breastfeeding.  So I've started taking glucosamine supplements, had a massage and a long hot bath and already I feel like a new person.  I've even cleaned up my sewing room in anticipation of the prolific output that I'm about to produce!

Another delightful thing to happen recently was the parcel I received in the mail from the lovely Steph, a reader in New Zealand.  She had bought the wrong sized pattern and offered to send it to me, but when it arrived it came with another pattern and two cute boy themed prints which was a wonderful surprise.  Thanks again Steph!

I also stepped out of my comfort zone and bought this bold striped ponti fabric from Spotlight during their recent 30% off everything sale.  I bought enough fabric to make a dress, but when I got it home and draped it around myself I'm not so sure I'll be confident enough to wear such a bright dress.  Maybe I'll take the easier option and make a skirt instead. What do you all think: too much?

I did a bit of opshopping last week too, the first time in ages since I've been on a major declutter phase and have been dropping bags of goods off but not bringing anything home.  Luckily I didn't buy too much, just a few cute kid's sewing patterns but I did find this hilarious craft book that I just had to buy:

Gotta love the 1970s and that classic "lovers" picture!  

And the best thing to happen this week is that Toby has finally figured out how to roll back from his stomach to his back.  He is quick to roll over from his back to his front, but after about 5 minutes he starts to whinge loudly and needs rolling back like a stuck turtle - I guess holding up that big head of his takes a fair bit of effort! (Mean but true, just check out the photo below).  But now he can sort himself out, just like a neglected second child needs to learn.  Just kidding.

why I'll stick to sewing......

so it turns out I'm not the all round crafty superstar I like to think I am!

Ever seen on random food blogs or other amusing sites really really bad birthday cakes that are labelled epic cake failure?  No? Google it, trust me you'll get a chuckle or two. Well I hereby submit my own entry in the cake failure stakes:

For my husband's 40th birthday on Wednesday I decided to make him a golf themed birthday cake since he's a golf fanatic and clearly I have a little too much time on my hands.  Sadly it didn't turn out like the picture I had in my mind, probably because I started with this lumpy lopsided base cake:

I should have just bought a slab cake instead of baking one! Never mind, I slathered it up with buckets of butter icing in a nicely off putting shade of green, with a circle of water based icing for the 'putting green'.  Stick on a flag made from a toothpick, a breath mint for a golf ball and some spearmint leaves for shrubbery and you've got yourself one hot creative mess!

I am a stickler for accuracy though, did you notice the smoothed out icing for the fairway surrounded by the rough? That's so my totally out of scale little golfer figurine had somewhere logical to sit of course!

Well I'm clearly not above laughing at myself, so feel free to share some of your epic cake failures please to make me feel better!

And I so apologise to people who have left me questions in the comments from a few posts ago and I have not answered yet! Sorry, here I go:

Carol asked whether I could sit in the grey plaid Burda skirt with the godet I posted here.  I found sitting in it ok, although the godet got quite wrinkled after a day of sitting and the skirt did have a tendency to slide up a little so it felt like the waistband was right under my bra! But that could just be me not being used to wearing higher waisted clothes.

prttypnk asked on the same post why I thought dresses are more fun to do.  I think I like sewing dresses more than anything else because I like wearing them more than anything else - they usually look great, are so simple to wear and I don't have to think about mixing and matching clothes. 

Bodie asked on the same post what tracing paper I use for tracing Burda patterns.  I bought some architectural drafting paper from Eckersleys art supplies (which just happen to be down the street from Tessuti's in the city), but it turns out that probably wasn't the best place to purchase it.  If you read the comments to this post you'll get some far better ideas of where to source a good supply - my readers know everything!

Gail - I can't wait to see what you've made with your purchases from Bewitched Fabrics. I did see the sale signs in the shop window when I went past on the bus to work last week, but I assumed wrongly that they only sold bridal type fabrics.  I will definitely have to check it out now!

Yoga bag for non bendy people

I am not a yoga aficionado. I could never follow the sequence of poses and nor could I ever get my body to co-operate either - I was never very flexible or fit even back in the days before I had Anna when exercise wasn't given last priority in my never ending list of things to do each day.  But I have recently started a course in digital photography and since we did a night field trip this week to practise photography in low light and no light situations, I needed to carry my tripod along with all the other stuff I usually carry.

Then I spied a lithe lycra clad lunchtime exerciser bouncing off to a yoga class carrying her rolled up mat in a drawstring bag with a shoulder strap and I realised that is exactly what I needed to make. However because I didn't want my tripod to get knocked about (or it to knock me about), I quilted two layers of cotton with a layer of batting in the middle.  And after about an hour or so I had a highly functional bag made fully from stash materials:

To pretty it up I sewed a ribbon with a faux tape measure printed on along the shoulder strap, which was also handy for finding the handle in the dark since I made this out of black cotton drill.  I bought this ribbon from Typo store (a stationary store) in the city of all places, bought only because I'm sucker for cute things:

So simple to make - literally a rectangle of fabric sewed along the long edge to create a tube, a circle of fabric sewed onto the bottom and the other end turned over to create a casing for the drawstring.  Sew on a long skinny rectangular strap and you're all done!  Amy Butler even has a free downloadable pattern for a yoga bag as well as some other pretty cool patterns, if you need a little more direction than my one sentence description.

So glad I did make it though, everyone else in my class sure had their hands full lugging around their tripods.  No photo of me demonstrating how great it is (the downfall when you're the photographer I guess), but here's my little model still in her jarmies modelling it for me:

Of course you want to see the photos I took don't you? Too bad I'm going to show you anyway because I'm a little bit proud of how much my photography skills have improved in the last 6 weeks since I began this course.  The Vivid Festival is currently on in Sydney, and down in Circular Quay (home to the Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge) there are many buildings lit up and other light installations in place.  I went on Tuesday night with my photography class but also went back on Thursday night with my husband and Anna because it was just so much fun. 

Clearly I have much yet to learn, but they're not too bad are they? Hopefully this means my blog photos will also improve too now, although since taking photos of myself involves a tripod, remote control and a fair amount of finger crossing I can't guarantee it!   

oh dear.....

Ever had one of those weeks when practically everything goes a little bit wrong, and all you can do is sigh and say oh dear? That was my week last week.....

Oh dear #1

It turns out the blue polka dot skirt in my last post was too tight across my ample rear end, because on my second wearing of it I heard a little rip and this happened:

It's torn vertically, but right in the centre of the topstitching of the pleats so that was obviously causing too much of a strain. Luckily I was at home when this happened and no one was there to witness my wardrobe malfunction! So, I've already pulled the waistband off and taken the side zipper out, and I'll remake it into a centre back zipper because that rip is right in the middle of the back and is just right for a centre back seam. I'll also gently gather the fullness of the skirt evenly around the waistband, instead of those somewhat unflattering pleats on either side - I don't know why I keep making things that add volume to my wide hips and saddlebag thighs! Hopefully this will also remove the problem of the skirt bunching up between my legs as I walk too.

Oh dear #2

I found out the hard way that leaving a toddler with an almost full tub of nappy cream is disastrous. Anna got hold of a newly opened tub of Sudocream, which is a very thick, white, oil zinc based cream that is good for her little butt, but not so good for her hair, the walls, the floor and especially not the carpet!

We were about to go out for a photo with santa, but instead I spent a good 45 minutes cleaning her, the walls and the carpet (with little success with the carpet unfortunately). What's worse about this situation though is that she did the exact same thing again the very same afternoon with the replacement tub of cream I bought, only to a lesser extent since I decided to check up on her because she was being too quiet!

And the photo with Santa was disastrous, involving lots of tears, running away, no smiling and in the end we got a photo with me and Anna and Santa.

Oh dear #3

I did about a bajillion loads of washing this week since we finally had some great hot and sunny weather. Sadly, this knit top that is my bestest ever effort in sewing with knit fabric:

went through the washing machine accidentally and shrunk so much that it would now probably fit Anna. Except for the neckline and hem that I so carefully stabilised before sewing - they stayed the same size and are still perfectly straight with no waviness! The fabric did felt up nicely though, so I'll chuck this in the refashion pile and make Anna a cardigan next winter instead.

Oh dear #4

Remember this bed I sewed for my dog, which is stuffed with fabric scraps:

well that lasted about three days before the dog tore it apart and it looked like there had been an explosion of the fabric kind in his bed:

(Don't get alarmed, we don't lock him in a cage, that's actually a collapsible travel crate that he's had since a pup and he loves to sleep in there.)

Well I finally got around to sewing up a second one, this time from some sturdy upholstery fabric and some more fabric scraps. It lasted a few weeks this time, but he dragged out into the yard and tore it open so now our entire backyard is covered in fabric scraps. Good husband was not amused picking them all up before he mow his beloved grass.....

But to finish on a good note, I made a pretty awesome dress for myself and successfully made my first item from those Japanese sewing books I bought recently. I hope of all you have had week that made you say oh yeah! instead of oh dear....

translations....

Argie asked in the comments to the last post what 'manky' and 'stickybeak' mean - sorry, I forget that although we Australians speak english we do have some crazy sayings that no one else can really understand. And contrary to Hollywood movies we don't generally go around saying alot of things people think we do, like g'day mate, although I do say it sometimes to my husband in jest since he was born and raised in rural Australia and speaks in a very Australian accent, even though he looks Chinese.

Anyway, manky means yucky, generally something pretty gross or horrible. I don't know the origins of it, and I don't know how widespread its use is, but my friends and I use it fairly frequently. But you have to pronounce it correctly, long and drawn out: maaaaaaankeeeeeee. To have a stickybeak means to have a look at something, to be a stickybeak means to be a noseyparker.

And I won't even get into the endless variations of other things: trousers/pants, jumper/pinafore, thongs/flip flops/havianas (if you're pretentious)/jandals (which is my new favourite word thanks to my New Zealander friend Vanessa).

Well spied Carolyn - you've got eyes like a hawk! I am indeed making a white and red pinstripe jacket which makes a change from grey doesn't it? I've seen a lot of RTW jackets lately with horizontal stripes, but silly me picked a raglan sleeved princess seamed jacket so you can imagine how many seams there are to match. So that's why no finished jacket to show you, yet.

But since I don't like posts without pictures, here's a photo of Anna with one of her little friends from my mother's group looking at owls last week at a wildlife park:

Isn't that cute? Those two are inseparable, and when they see each other at daycare they run up to each other for a hug. And this is sewing related since I made her those jeans and that shirt too!

the generosity of others / shameless pattern hoarding enablers!

Yesterday I received a package from the lovely Kaye who is giving away a gazillion patterns over at her blog. Since I am such an avid vintage pattern collector / greedy hoarder, these are the lovelies I requested and received:

So much goodness for the mere price of postage! The Style dress in the top row is a maternity dress so it will be a very long time before I sew that (fingers crossed for no accidents), but I love the shell top in Simplicity 6444 and that Fabiani designer Vogue pattern is gorgeous if I could find the right fabric. I don't know how old exactly Simplicity 4586 girls dress and coat pattern is, but it's obviously from a more naive time because look at the back of the pattern envelope:

In case you can't see that clearly, yes the pattern does say it is suitable for 'chubbies', but make sure you purchase additional fabric for chubby girls. I'm partly shocked at the nastiness of it, but partly amused at times when things could be said so bluntly and simply be accepted!

Gosh, so much loving feedback on the last post - thank you all for comments, it certainly encourages me to go through my unloved pile of UFOs and come up something amazing. Vicki - you must have incredible eyesight, because yes those mint green heels do match the mint green stripe through the fabric. Carolyn - I have a little one who LOUDLY reminds me constantly that she exists, so there's no hiding from the fact that I have a one year old LOL! But I attribute all the weight loss to her never sleeping, since I probably walked the equivalent of a marathon every day and night trying to settle her. And maybe breastfeeding for 14 months, which is finally finished and the girls are back in more attractive bras! (Sorry if that's too much info!)

And finally thank you to Stephanie who has awarded me this:

Stephanie has a deep love of horses, which I have to say I'm secretly scared of horses because I have this irrational and unfounded fear that hey will bite me with those big chompers of theirs and they always seem to be giving me beady stares so I steer clear of 'em. That's just me - a bit unexplainable sometimes. But how can you not love a blog called 10 sewing machines and a serger ? Now I'm supposed to pass this on to 12 other bloggers, but I have the baby asleep and husband watching Top Gear so I'm going to disappear into my sewing room for a while so excuse me for breaking the rules!

a round up of goodness

{one} these gorgeous patterns have landed in my mailbox from the very lovely Katherine over at ZipZapKap vintage pattern etsy store:

These are some of the patterns I won from the Sew Retro contest, so not only did they cost me nada, Katherine threw in free postage and also included a beautiful card and a quirky photo taken in the Bahamas in 1959. Such great customer service!

And this is going to sound bizarre, but these patterns smell so nice! Usually vintage patterns at best have no smell, or at worst have a musty old paper smell, but I can only imagine how lovely Katherine's house/office/storage area must smell. So if you're in need of some vintage patterns, head on over to ZipZapKap and start squealing very loud ooohs and aaaahs. She also has a great blog too.

In fact I've already cut the pink top on the left of this pattern out, and will finish it once my overlocker comes home again:

{two} a recipe for these very cool looking shortbread biscuits over at forty-sixth at grace (via Craftzine):
{three} finding a funny and seemingly knowledgeable person who is going to repair my overlocker in a week and for only $80 plus parts. Kim - I haven't had my sewing machine or overlocker serviced before (in more than 8 years, how shameful!) so I picked randomly from the Yellow Pages. Well, I picked the Dulwich Hill Sewing Centre sort of randomly from the yellow pages, there was an op shop in Dulwich Hill I wanted to visit and there was also a sewing repair shop there so it seemed like a good omen and it is much much closer to my house than the place in Liverpool that Toyota recommended (Sewing Machine Services if you're out that way). The service guy noticed straight away that I had broken some little prong off the presser plate that separates the two needle threads, so I'm pretty confident he'll do a good job but I'll report back in a week.

{four} Reading this gorgeous book received as a christmas present from my husband:

The illustrations are simply beautiful, I only wish there was detailed photography or line drawings so I could make a copy or two!

{five} Anna is sleeping through the night again, and most importantly is going to sleep without any tears or screaming, yipee! And I don't know if this is coincidence or not, but the last few days since she was at childcare she has been much better behaved, eating her dinner properly and not throwing her food around and is much less whingy too. Jean - Anna's childcare centre is quite large because it caters for 0-6 year olds, and in her section there are maybe about 10 or so one year olds. When I picked her up on Wednesday afternoon she was happily sitting on a mat with some other children, although I don't know if I'd call snatching toys off each other and pushing and poking each other playing!

{six} it's almost a long weekend (Tuesday being Australia Day) and my husband has decided not to play golf on Saturday because it's going to be extremely hot. I'll have to find some household chore for him to do LOL

Viking sewing

Well I managed to squeeze in some sewing time after all this week. Helpfully the in-laws played with Anna for a few hours so I could get some baby free time in. So I got to finish the Viking tunic I'm making for a crazy friend of mine who has started fighting in re-enactment battles. This is the inspiration photo:

And this is my finished product:

Thankfully I had a pattern to work from which was pretty much like your standard dress pattern, although it is the multi size pattern from hell. Not only does each pattern piece have sizes from child XS to adult XXL, the pieces I used also were multi pattern - that is several similar but different pattern pieces were in the one pattern piece, so I had to get my trusty highlighter out and figure out which piece I needed to cut around.

The photo below is the pattern piece for three different sleeves, with the common bit being the shoulder seam, and this was the same for the front and back pieces too! Talk about being economical with paper.....

That was the hardest part of all of it though, because the tunic is of pretty basic construction being basically a rectangle front and back, rectangular sleeves sewn in flat with a little square gusset under the arm to give movement. It's meant to be loose and baggy because it will be cinched in at the waist with a belt, so no fitting was required which cut down on the time needed to make it enormously. The instructions were pretty simple, although they do suggest a large amount of handsewing, which I guess is authentic and rustic looking but I wasn't going to be that pedantic and used my trusty machine to make it all.

It has a keyhole neckline, and I made the facing from a herringbone patterned wool in a maroon and white pattern and put it on the outside as a trim, because surprisingly enough my local Spotlight didn't really have a big range of Viking style braids! The rest of it is made from a cotton drill in a deep red colour, which should be sturdy enough for its purpose but not too hot to be worn during the warmer months when our climate is very much un-Viking like.

Now I'm onto the quilted jacket that goes with it, or a gambeson for those of you in the know! It looks pretty simple too, so hopefully I can knock it over quickly and get back to my UFOs since I'm on such a roll.........

And thank you for all your lovely comments on the curtains, they do look pretty good so I've decided to decorate the rest of the room around them, all in good time though since there are plenty of other things to do around here. Such as finishing the floors, finishing the kitchen, painting inside and out and on and on and on and on LOL