The orangest sewing machine you'll ever see

A few weeks ago I commented on Pam's post on sewing with denim at Threading My Way that my sewing machine isn't very good on the thicker fabrics - it tends to skip stitches even using a thick denim needle.  It's a mid range newish computerised Brother model. Instead I use my mum's Husqvarna Viking 3600 mechanical machine when I need to sew something really thick - it is an absolute powerhorse of a machine. She bought it in 1975 for around $300 which was the best part of a fortnight's wages for her back then but it definitely proves the old adage of buying the best you can afford.

The machine has never been serviced or oiled, the outside gets wiped down every now and then, and apart from a light globe or two it's all original and still in perfect working order. Sure my mum doesn't sew as much as I do, but this machine has been used to sew zippers into motorbike leather pants and jackets, the thickest denim, and old style canvas tents and it didn't even flinch, yet it also sews through thin cottons and other delicate fabrics without problem too. It's a really heavy machine though, having a metal casing and not a plastic one like newer models.

But this level of amazing services pales in comparison to it's most outstanding feature - it's a bright orange sewing machine! Pam replied to my comment that she had never seen an orange sewing machine before, so Pam this one is for you:

Aren't newer models with their streamlined white plastic so boring compared to this sewing machine? In this post at Apartment Therapy they describe the Husqvarna 3600 as a "workhorse and a beauty" and apparently the orange colour is quite rare. In fact they link to a store that had this machine for sale for $700!

Now I hope I haven't tempted fate or invoked Murphy's Law by writing down that the sewing machine hasn't needed servicing or repair in 38 years - fingers crossed it keeps on giving! But I've never given either of my Brother sewing machines a service in all their years of use and they are both still going strong despite lots of use. Fingers crossed they carry on strongly for years to come as well.

Speaking of which I'm taking my beloved Babylock in for a service tomorrow since it's been over two years of constant use and the dealer I bought it from says it needs regular servicing to keep the jet air threading tubes clear and working. So it looks like I'll be spending the next week sewing things that don't need overlocking - I'm beginning to understand why people have multiple machines!

Oh and I didn't win the stashbusting competition - the winning lady sewed 60+ garments and used over 90m of stash! But I did get a special prize for the most children's clothes sewn and received a lovely book and a piece of fabric (just what I need right?).

Vintage fabric and sewing notions auction

The Shapiro Gallery is auctioning vintage couture from the Victoria and Albert boutique, which was a couture boutique in Double Bay in the 1960s, on Sunday 14 September in Woollahra. Amongst the beautiful vintage clothes and accessories there are also various lots of buttons, belt buckles, ribbons, trims and best of all - rolls and rolls of vintage European fabrics. Seriously, check out these beauties:

Five rolls of European fabric, cotton, crepe and silk from the 1960s, 70s and 80s which range in length from 2m to 9.5m and are expected to fetch $200-$300:

Another lot of five rolls of French crepe, silk georgette, silk organza ranging in length from 6m to 14.5m with a price estimate of $400 - $600:

Ribbons and trims, with a price estimate of $50 - $80.

Over three hundred red buttons and buckles, with a price estimate of $80 - $120.

And there are loads more beautiful items available.  I am very tempted to go to the pre-auction viewing only - much safer to the bank balance that way! I would love some of those fabrics - but what would I do with such long lengths? My stash is too much out of control as it is.......

Anyway for my Sydney readers and anyone else who just happens to be in Sydney on 14 September consider this my public service announcement!

Stash status update

Thanks for all your comments on my last post - I'm pleased that you're all as impressed as I am with myself! I was fortunate to have two months at the beginning of the year when both the kids were at daycare three days before I went back to work which gave me a good headstart, but overall I think I've kept up quite a steady output of finished items.  And thanks KC and Summerflies for your perspective - I hadn't really thought about making only one wadder out of all those projects (though there were a few close saves and some borderline ones too!).

Some of you may remember that earlier this year I started cleaning up my stash which had gotten very unruly indeed. I got as far as doing the purple, red and grey shelves of fabrics before my enthusiasm petered out - it takes quite a long time to measure and catalogue all those pieces of fabric before folding them neatly. Not to mention having to make some hard decisions about culling some of the less lovely pieces out of the collection. I'd much rather be sewing!

But I had an unexpected two days off work earlier this week with an annoying cold, and while I was too sick to do any actual sewing I did put the rare child free time to good use to do a bit more stash cleaning up. So I decided to focus on the blue and green shelves of the stash, which looked like this before I started:

What a complete mess! But after a day of culling, measuring and refolding (interspersed with resting and Dr Phil) this is how it looks now:

Much better. I didn't actually get rid of too much from these two colour groups, it's just that folding and storing them neatly takes up much less space.  Those three shelves there contain about 290m (317yds) which kinda puts the 55m of stash fabric I've used this year into perspective doesn't it? Especially when I have 9 other shelves equally full of fabric (gulp!). No wonder there was no noticeable difference in the stash despite sewing so much from it.

Handling all those fabrics was certainly inspiring - I have lots of future project ideas swirling around in my head and being added to my very long 'one day' sewing to do list. And better still I found a few gems amongst it all: two Liberty cottons that I have no idea where they came from, or how long they've been there:

So now I'm about one-third the way through sorting out my stash - still so much to do....

Year to date stocktake

I know it's a little unusual and quite random to do a post tallying up the projects I've completed so far this year, but since I had to compile a list and photograph it for my entry in to the Australian Sewing Guild stashbusting competition I thought I'd share it here too. The rules for the contest were that the projects had to be wearable, made since January 1 2013 and from fabric that was in the stash prior to March 2013.

It turns out that I've made a total 41 projects that fit into the parameters of the competition (although I've made a few more projects from non stash fabric and some non wearable projects) and I've used a total length of 54.9m (total area of 76m) of fabric from the stash! When I put it down in cold hard figures like that I'm quite impressed with myself - I think that's quite a reasonable effort.

Unsurprisingly the most items I made were dresses for myself:

Only two skirts, and one pair of pants and shorts:

One shirt yet to be blogged, one jacket and three tops (one of which was a UFO for 14 years!)

Quite a few things for Anna:

And nearly as many things for Toby:

And one thing only for my husband, plus accessories for myself and Toby:

Not pictured are two pairs of pants I made for a friend's son and a blouse that turned out so horrible I've already binned.

I'd love to say that my stash is now reduced greatly and there are gaping holes in the shelves, but no - there is no discernible difference in my stash despite using all that fabric!

Butterick 4273 - twice more for good measure

Thank you all for the lovely comments on the plaid dress - once again I was being hyper critical of myself pointing out flaws that probably no one else would notice at all! I haven't actually worn it yet, mainly because I don't have a jacket to go with it and it's been too cold in my office to wear it alone. I think I'll wear it a few times to see how wrinkly it gets to judge whether it's worth salvaging by dyeing a solid colour and taking it in a fraction, but I do like the idea of wearing a scarf with it to hide the mish mash of plaid at the neckline.

And I'm so glad you all liked the background fabric too - trust me you'll be seeing a lot of it in future, but it's a nice change from boring beige lounge which is usually in the background!

During my recent clean up of my sewing room when I was deep in procrastination mode I discovered dresses for Anna that I had cut out ages ago in a rare fit of efficiency, but had only sewn the pink and purple paisley version just recently and I forgot about the other two because I was busy with other sewing projects. But you can't leave kid's clothes sitting around in the UFO pile for too long because they grow so fast there's a real danger they'll become too small before you even finish them.

I'm currently taking part in a stash busting contest being run by the ASG, which ends this Sunday so now was the perfect time to finish them up. Plus it took a little more than an hour for each dress so no excuse not to finish them really! These two are the sister dresses to the paisley dress I made for Anna recently from Butterick 4273, an OOP basic A-line jumper style dress.

One of the dresses is made from a wide wale corduroy in a dark purple/aubergine colour that's been in the stash for a long time because it was quite a small piece. So this was the perfect use for it because there were only the tiniest scraps left after making this simple dress:

 

Anna has been watching me take blog photos too often I think, because she's got that hands on the hips pose down pat: 

 



I added little decorative taps at the empire line made from a purple polka dot cotton, which is actually from another dress for Anna that I'm about 90% finished and some natural timber buttons from the stash. The mix of colours and textures makes me really happy, I think it's a pretty look:

The other version is made from a denim that has been in the stash a long time too - I remember buying it from Home Yardage in York St in the city where Lincraft now is - personally I prefer the old Home Yardage store, it's fabric were far more interesting. Actually I made a dress for Anna from this same fabric when she was only 10 months old, and a skirt for myself not long after I had Anna and there's still a little bit of the fabric left over still.

For this one I added some pink ric rac and buttons down the centre front, and was a bit lazy by using bias binding for the neckline instead of making facings.

Please excuse the colour difference in that second photo - it was a cloudy day when I took that photo.

I've actually done of a lot of sewing this week but haven't had a chance to photograph or blog them. I've made a shirt and a scarf for myself, and have partly made a new shirt for Toby that I'm hoping to get done by Sunday so that I can count it in my stashbusting projects. I'm going for number of completed garments rather than most fabric used since kids clothes don't use all that much fabric and nor do my clothes either. I've surprised myself how many garments I've actually made since the beginning of this year - some months it feels like sometimes I just get my Burda project done and that's it.

Procrastination project: New Look 6144 plaid dress

I may appear to be quite efficient and productive, popping up here on a regular basis to show off my latest finished creation as well as looking after two small children, a rambunctious dog, a part time job and all that is involved in looking after a house. Plus a husband to bear with too. But the reality is if I didn't procrastinate so much I could achieve so much more, but sadly when I get the slightest bit bored or frustrated I actively start looking for distractions and I really need rock solid deadlines to get back on track. You should see how clean my desk is at work.....

And so it is with this latest dress I've made. I should be sewing my August Burda project since it's coming close to the end of August, I've traced the pattern pieces out and pre-treated the fabric, but the thought of pinning and cutting out the fabric, lining and interfacing and then going onto block fusing all those pieces is just too much. So instead I decided to make a quick dress instead. Except it didn't turn out all that quick, and I got frustrated with it and procrastinated further by cleaning up my sewing room!

Anyway it's finished now, mostly - after seeing how it looks in photos I realise a few things need fixing that weren't obvious from looking at it in the mirror.  So, the finished dress:

I made New Look 6144, view B without a belt, from some teal green plaid cotton that I've had in the stash for ages and have been wanting to use for a while. Unfortunately I should have waited a bit longer to use this fabric because this pattern and this fabric are not the ideal match. I was so careful to match up the plaid on the front and back shoulder seams, the outside sleeve seam (it's a two piece sleeve), the side seams and the back seam. I did a pretty good job too, here's the back:

and the sleeves:

 but look at the front:

I was so concentrating on getting the plaid to match at the shoulder seam that I totally didn't think about what would happen to the plaid with all those angled darts at the front. As you can see those darts totally mess up the yellow line across the front and makes it look quite messy. It was about this point that I got out the vacuum and started to clean......

But I forced myself to finish it (no new UFOs being my mantra these days) and decided just to treat this as a wearable muslin if it looked ok. And mostly it does, except that the lining is peeking out at the neckline - I'll need to press the neckline again and understitch. I also concentrated so much on getting the plaid at the centre back to match (which it does) that I didn't do the top of the neckline very well - one side sits higher than the other so I'll have to resew that.

I also think that overall it's a smidgen too big, which is why the lower darts at the centre front of the skirt are a bit puffy. I cut my usual 8 at the bust, 10 at the waist and 12 at the hips which has worked really well for the other New Look dresses I made recently, but this time not so well. Usually I overfit my dresses to have minimal ease, but on this one I only reduced the ease a little because the fabric is quite thin and I didn't want the fabric to tear or the plaid to become too distorted from stress or pulling at the seams.

This fabric also wrinkles really easily, the wrinkles you can see in the front near the hem are just from kneeling down to set up for this photo shoot, so I'd hate to see what it's like at the end of a long work day. (Oh and please excuse the rather wild and bouffy hair - I took these photos this morning which is a non work day so I didn't straighten my hair.)

It is a lovely pattern though, it just doesn't suit plaids and probably not stripes either. I should have used the other view with the pleat at the neckline instead, but you live and learn. I will make this dress again in a solid colour so I don't drive myself nuts with all that seam matching again!

And now I would like to say that I will be getting on to my August Burda project next, but I've promised Anna a new dress for a birthday party on Sunday morning so I have to deliver that first. Luckily I'll be spending tomorrow at my local ASG group so I may be able to get it finished in amongst all the chatting that goes on at those days!

Finally what do you all think of the new background? It's just some bright fabric from Ikea which I thought was more attractive than my beige lounge and antique chinese wooden screen you normally have to see in the background. But is it too distracting or overwhelming?

Groovy baby: Butterick 4273

Thanks everyone for your positive and encouraging comments on my entry into the Tessuti Awards. The finalists were announced and sadly I'm not one of them - the ones that were selected are really outstanding and look like they came off a catwalk. I know that my dress is sewn perfectly, but it was very bland compared to the others because I sew what I like to wear, which I guess is the difference between a home sewist and a fashion designer. And let's face it, I didn't exactly spend a long time planning it and working on it did I? But as Vicki pointed out I do have a great dress, winner or not. And Meredith I'll definitely have to organise an occasion to wear this dress, as fancy cocktail parties are not a regular occurrence in my social life these days!

I've been feeling a little burnt out after that frantic bout of sewing, although it was exhilarating at the time and it's good to know if there's ever a sewing emergency I could probably conquer it in a short time! But I needed something simple to recharge, and since Anna has been asking me for a new dress every time I bring something new out of my sewing room it was about time I made her something.  And now she's become even more clever at asking, picking out a pattern using my ipad and putting in specific requests for how she wants it to turn out. So I let her pick out some fabric from the stash and quickly whipped up a dress for her so I can get back to my own sewing.

She picked out Butterick 4273 (now OOP) which is just a simple a-line dress with embellishment options and this rather loud pink and purple paisley print cotton fabric that has been a long term stash resident, origin long since forgotten (and possibly a vintage fabric given that it's only 90cm wide and the print is very 70s):

I did double and triple check with her that she understood that this wasn't a twirly dress pattern because I didn't want to hear any complaints about it being 'broken' later on, but she told me in a very serious voice that she would wear it on days she didn't feel like twirling. She's getting to be so grown up in her mannerisms now! But it didn't stop her having fun, twirling or not:

Because the fabric print is so busy I didn't add any embellishments or pockets, and I literally made this in about 90 minutes including cutting out and finishing. So I have no excuses not to make a few more really.

The fabric she picked out is quite a sturdy cotton, but is not really a winter fabric so it needed to be worn over a few layers, but it certainly brightens up a cold winter day don't you think?