starting the year off right

I've had such a slow start to my sewing year so far - here we are in the third week of January already and I haven't even finished a single garment yet. Well actually, I did finish one dress but I wasn't happy with how it turned out so I've taken it apart and am currently reworking it.

But I have started the year off on the right foot. I gave my sewing room an almighty clean up - putting away the remnants of last year's projects, packing away loose pattern pieces that were laying around, giving everything a good dust and vacuum and tidying up my fabric shelves. In fact my sewing room is so clean, I almost don't want to use it for fear of messing it up!

I didn't make any sewing resolutions or goals this year, in fact I think this year I will just sew on a whim: whatever takes my fancy is where I shall go. I may as well do it this way, since I'm absolutely hopeless at sewing with a plan and there's no real hole in my wardrobe that I need to fill.

I will continue on with the one intention that I made last year and was actually successful with - no new UFOs. Yes, that's right, I either finished all of the projects I started or I remade them into something else for Anna if they didn't work out. Of course I haven't finished all of the UFOs that still reside in my big box of UFOs either, but not adding to the pile is something at least. Which is where the dress I'm currently taking apart comes in - I was tempted to put it down and move on since it's supposed to be a simple summer dress that is in fact turning into a fiddly nightmare, but I'm determined to finish it and wear it. So stay tuned!

And because I don't like to post without a photo, here's a photo of the unflattering pleated navy blue polka dot skirt I made from Burda 10-2008 pattern 103 , reworked by evenly gathering the fabric around the wide waistband:

Much better! This was a great skirt to wear on our holiday to make it through the steamy hot days.

Thankfully my inlaws survived the floods with no damage to their house at all, except for the loss of the contents of their fridge and freezers due to the electricity being off for a few days. Which is nothing compared to what others have experienced, so to keep karma on side we shall be making a donation to the relief effort.

look who's two!

Hi y'all, I'm back home from holidays. Although any parent will tell you that travelling with children isn't actually holidaying, it's just parenting in a different place with additional challenges because the kids are out of their comfort zone. Anna was extremely naughty the whole time, but Cairns in tropical north Queensland is a beautiful place and we managed to have a good time despite her best attempts to sabotage it! We took a boat trip out on the Great Barrier Reef and saw some beautiful coral and fish, a day trip into the amazing Daintree rainforest (a world heritage listed wet tropics area), and a fair bit of splish splashing in the huge outdoor pool in Cairns since it was so hot.

I don't know if this has made worldwide news yet, but most of Queensland is currently under flood, in fact an area greater than Germany and England together is affected and today there is a major flood crisis in Brisbane and surrounds. There was no catastrophic event like Hurricane Katrina, but the aftermath of the flooding is just as bad. My inlaws in Ipswich have been evacuated and will be safe, but we are worried about their property though. My thoughts are with all those in Qld, I could not imagine losing everything or fearing for your life in this manner. I hope you all keep dry and safe.

Anna had her second birthday while we were away, I cannot believe how quickly the last two years have passed. It such a cliche that you hear parents often say, but now that I have lived it I can understand how true it is. How did I get from this:

to this so quickly?

Of course another birthday means another birthday dress. This year I went for a simple style with some cutesy embellishment:

It's a red stretch cotton poplin made into a simple shift dress with a double layered puff sleeve made using McCalls 5916 which is now firmly a TNT dress pattern. I used some black gingham bias tape for the neckline and sleeve edge, which meant I could eliminate the neck facing so it was even quicker to sew because while sewing in miniature isn't difficult it can get fiddly sometimes.

I used some heat'n'bond transfer paper to iron on a dacschund image from black gingham on the front of the dress. That stuff is magic - very quick and easy to use and this dress has gone through the wash twice now and there's no hint of fraying of the edge of applique, and it is still firmly stuck on despite no sewing. Basically all you do is iron the heat'n'bond paper to your fabric, cut out whatever shape you want, peel off the backing paper and then iron it onto your garment (or other fabric), and you're done! So simple, but much easier than doing applique stitch around the edges of your embellishment.

And here's my two year old who epitomises the phrase "terrible twos" to a tee, hamming it up for the camera:

Happily, she is back at daycare but my husband and I aren't back at work until next week so we have a few quiet days without her. I'd like to say we are relaxing and re-enacting life pre-child, but sadly we are painting the kitchen and hallway, so it's all go, go, go around here at the moment.

All the best intentions....

As I said in my last post, I had so much I wanted to get done for Christmas this year but I only managed in the end to get a little done. Oh well, the good thing about Christmas is that the next one is only 12 months away....

I did get all my Christmas shopping done and wrapped, travel plans arranged and booked (no chance of snow related delays here) so the major things are ticked off and all is well. But this year I wanted to get more into the Christmas spirit now that Anna is cottoning on to what it's all about, and I did want to make some child friendly Christmas decorations for the tree, using this tutorial:

*image from retro-mama.blogspot.com

I bought some blue and white felt, dug out some buttons from the stash but this is as far as I got:

Hmmm, maybe I'll finish them for next year! In the meantime, unbreakable baubles from Ikea came to the rescue.

I also planned to make some wristlet style zippered purses for the carers at Anna's daycare centre instead of giving the standard chocolates or gift box of sweet smelling toiletries of which they must get heaps. Wristlets are very simple to make and there are loads of tutorials out there like this one. I went through my stash and pulled out some pretty fabrics, linings, zippers and even embellishments and this is what I came up with:

Success you might be thinking? Well sort of - I think these two are gorgeous, but I was planning to make seven of these! I ran out of energy and time to make any more, so instead went and bought seven boxes of chocolates. Life is too short to spend time sewing for people you are not sure will like what you've made. I think I'll give these two to my mum and sister instead.

This is starting to sound like another 'oh dear' post isn't it? But wait, there's more! When I'm away from my sewing machine and fabric I still have to keep my fingers busy, so I get into papercraft in a big way. Seriously, in my office I quite the collection of origami since I like to fold paper when I'm stressed or bored (beats mediation) and I have access to an endless amount of paper in the office. I found these cute paper partridges in little bird cage decorations available for free download at this site. All you have to do is print, cut out and glue, and you should get this:

But I only managed to make two from the eight I printed (I was making these at home and two year olds + paper = disaster), and even those two look a bit, well, if I'm being honest, crap:

And my final best but failed intention: I bought a gingerbread house kit from Ikea because I knew I wouldn't have the time to bake gingerbread as well as assemble and decorate one. All I can say is thankfully the kit has an expiry date of August 2012, so there's always next year!

I did manage to get a little Christmas frock done for Anna in time for Christmas (no less!). It's just a simple a-line shift dress that is fast becoming my TNT pattern (McCalls 5916) for her since I've made it several times before.

My very talented photographer friend Vanessa and I set up a Christmassy photo shoot to take some photos of our kids and we tried so hard to get them all smiling or at all least looking in the same direction but it was absolute chaos to say the least. There were a few funny photos to come out of it though!

Merry christmas everyone, hope you have a lovely holiday season. Thank you all for reading along with me this year, and leaving wonderfully supportive, helpful and funny comments. I'll be back in the new year.

*Yes that is my christmas tree, minus any handmade decorations.

It's all Japanese to me....

Wow, has it really been a whole week since I've come on here and posted inane blather about my life? Time certainly flies when you're absolutely flat out doesn't it?

I managed to get some photos of Anna wearing her new little shorts made from the Japanese sewing book I got for my birthday last month. They are the shorts with the gathered pockets made from the "Let's Go Out Girls" pattern book (ISBN 9784529048163):

It wasn't too difficult to sew these even though the instructions were in Japanese thanks to the illustrations in the book and this helpful sheet of Japanese character translations I found over at my little mochi. It took about two hours all up, including head scratching time and unpicking only two seams so a relatively successful project I think. I say 'relatively' because I did end up with two pattern pieces left over that I couldn't for the life of me work out where they are supposed to go, but the shorts look good and unlike flatpack furniture that you put together and end up with spare screws I don't think these are going to spontaneously deconstruct one day!

These are basically a standard elasticised waist shorts with cuff band, with a gathered pocket sewn to each side which are drawn in by a ribbon (or self fabric tie if you could be bothered sewing and turning a fiddly tube). And the fit is amazing! The measurements in the book correspond closely to Anna's, and the end garment was near perfect on her. I guess since she is part Asian she fits the body type that these patterns have been drafted for, unlike the Big 4 patterns which are always way too big but way too short for her.
From the front they have a delightful puffy appearance:

And you can see how the pockets wrap half way around the back too:

A bonus with these deep pockets is how much they can hold - Anna has just worked out that pockets are for putting things in, and has now started collecting bits and pieces that she finds about the place. Now when I'm looking for a lost earring or some loose change her pockets are the second place I look after checking under the lounge cushions!

Despite those two left over pieces, the shorts held up well during some adventures in the playground:

although they do look pretty wrinkled which is because I sewed these from some grey linen fabric remade from a sheath dress I made for myself years ago. As much as I love this colour and the fabric, I made this dress before I knew what I do now and I didn't construct it all that well. I didn't line or underline it which meant it not only got crazily wrinkled but it also 'grew' during the day as linen has a tendency to do, so that areas under strain like around my butt would stretch out but my waist area would still be fitted, and the fit would just end up looking all wrong. I was going to pull it apart and remake it, but it is easier to start from scratch with some other fabric of which I have an abundance of and do a proper job from the beginning. But at least I could reuse the fabric, and since I did wear the dress alot despite those problems the fabric is already soft and comfortable for Anna to wear.

So, only three days until Christmas people! I have so much to do, and I'm doubtful I'll get it all done.....

Christmas party frock

I'm glad I provided you all with a laugh at Anna's escapade - think of it as my Christmas present to you. She has been better behaved these last few days, but it is still exhausting keeping up with her as she leaves a trail of destruction around the house. Thank you especially to those who left tips on how to get the sudocream out of the carpet, I am going to try it as soon as I can muster the energy. And as for the dog, well he can sleep on the floor while he learns his lesson!

And as promised, here's a pic of my new frock made just in time for the festive season. My social calender is looking a bit light this year, with just a few casual get togethers scheduled which is actually kind of nice and much more relaxed. And because it's so hot, all I need is a simple but colourful dress, just like this:

It's made from Simplicity 4930, which is undated but I'd guess that it's late 1950s/early 1960s. It's very similar to the dress I made for Christmas last year which is the white, black and red print dress up in there in my blog header, but this one doesn't have the contrast 'bib' and it has a lower cut back.

I made it from some medium weight cotton which has mint coloured stripes on it which are graduated in colour so the stripes on the bodice are darker than that of the skirt. I bought this from an op shop some time ago I think. The fabric is a bit vintage itself, according to the selvedge it's a 1983 Robert Burton (an Australian designer): look at that font, it reminds of the school projects I used to so proudly print out on my commodore 64 when I was in primary school!

Not much to report on the construction of this pattern, it is so simple and a pretty typical fitted bodice with full skirt type pattern. I did switch the side zip to a centre back invisible zip just because I don't like the zipper tape and pull digging into the flesh under my arms. I also didn't sew the skirt to the full width required by the pattern because I didn't have enough fabric, if I had the skirt would have been enormously voluminous. I also fully lined the bodice because that seemed easier than fiddling about with separate neckline and armhole facings.

And you can see from the photo above that I matched the stripes at the back perfectly, and the sides are pretty spot on too. It must be all that practice I've had lately with stripe matching....

Just for k, here's the wretched Santa photo:

I'm pretty sure my face wasn't that shiny, they just had a super dooper flash happening. And I wished for what I always wish for - a full nights sleep with no screaming or tears, but I'm not sure if Santa can deliver on that!

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....

Going dotty

Finally the sun has made an appearance over Sydney skies, so I took the opportunity to get take some snaps of my new skirt. Using a navy blue and white polka dot cotton from the stash (yay for more stash busting), I made skirt 103 from Burda 10-2008 which looks like this:

It's a super simple skirt - a wide waistband that sits at the natural waist line, three pleats on either side of the centre that are top stitched down, and a side zipper. It's unlined with just the waistband faced with self fabric, although it would be a simple matter of adding a lining if needed. My fabric is a fairly dense weave that I think will be fine without a lining, and since this is a summer skirt I wanted to keep it cool. And here's how my version came out:

A bit blah isn't it? Possibly that's the fault of me wearing it with a boring plain grey tshirt. Let's add some accessories and see if it works better:

Ah, that's better! Although I probably should have worn a darker brown belt to match the shoes, or worn heels instead of flats because I just don't feel dressed wearing flats. But we were only going out to the local shopping centre to buy a christmas tree, and if I had worn heels I would have felt too overdressed. How's that for irony Alanis Morrisette? Although now she's about to have a baby of her own, I'm sure she'll be able to write several more verses to that song!

The back of the skirt is also pleated and top stitched down, although it only has three pleats in the centre back:

Looking at this photo I think the top stitching across the pleats means the skirt isn't wide enough to fit properly around my wide beeehind, and is causing those drag marks at the sides. As much as I loathe taking rear photos, they are certainly valuable for seeing what you really look like from behind!

Overall, a simple and quickly made skirt that once I figure out something more colourful to wear with it on top will be a welcome addition to my summer wardrobe. The only negative I have found after wearing it for a day is that those pleats on either side of the centre front cause the fabric to gather between my legs so that the skirt closely resembles those baggy culotte shorts that we used to wear in these parts during the early 1990s, usually in an ugly floral fabric. Not good, not good at all!

And happily I didn't put the leftover fabric back into the stash, I used it to make Anna a pair of elasticised shorts instead:

They looked awesome worn with her hot pink high top Cons, but it seems my daugher prefers to be barefoot and wildhaired pretty much all of the time.

No I haven't gone completely dotty, we shan't be seen wearing these garments together at the same time, trust me on that! But boy am I happy to have made two garments and do a little stash reduction at the same time.

And speaking of dottiness, Lindsay T - I had a good chuckle at your suggestion of a brother or sister for Anna! Actually, it was more a scoff followed quickly by a shudder. One day she'll get one, but while I'm still shellshocked daily at toddler behaviour and sleep is just a long forlorn memory I can't bring myself to contemplate doing it all again. But I'm sure I'll get the third degree about it from my inlaws over christmas, and even my husband has starting dropping subtle hints.

Mrs Juzzie Green - I have been known to shop at the Remnant Warehouse on occasion. Oh alright, it may be been on frequent occasions until my husband confiscated my frequent purchasers card and reminded me of my self made promise to only buy fabric retail if I had a specific project in mind. He tolerates my opinion that purchasing fabric from op shops is 'rescuing' it but goes get concerned whenever I step foot into a retail store!

Re a comment from two posts ago - Melinda thank you so much for pointing out the croquis templates over at fashionary.org, I think I like them even better than the Hokey Croquis ones. The main difference is that the fashionary ones are lightly dotted so you can't really see the template when you've drawn your sketch over the top, whereas from what I can tell you only get that effect after photocopying the Hokey Croquis one. But it's great there's so much choice in tools out there for us amateur fashion designers.

And from a few further posts ago, Kirsten asked where I bought the Japanese sewing books. I purchased those two from the Kinokinuya book store in the Galeries Victoria on George St in the city, which I love to browse in because they have an enormous selection of sewing, fashion and craft books. But I know you can also buy them from Tessuti Fabrics as well.

And now I only have two more outfits ready for a show and tell from my very industrious week last week!