New doona from the SWA!

SWA – Sewing Weekend Away!

One of the projects I sewed at the May 2013 SWA was a new doona for my bed. First, I must say… I do not recommend sewing bedding. The lines of stitching are long and boring, and having to move approximately 10 metres of fabric every time you need to iron/turn a corner is tiring. #bleurgh

But… OMG I’M SO THRILLED WITH THE RESULT! I put this on my bed, and I swear to God – all I wanted to do was jump straight underneath it! Amazingly toasty looking and feeling )

In case you were wondering, this is the doona/duvet which I fell in love with years ago… and was my inspiration to use this (Spotlight – on sale (!) fabric I picked up some time ago).

Your turn – what did you make at the May 2013 SWA!?

The next BSC sewing sleepover

Christine and Peter are rather looking forward to us coming up to stay at Moondyne Park in the middle of May.
It’s about 40 mins drive from my place in Midland, about 20km off the Great Northern Highway at Bullsbrook.

If anyone’s interested in going up in convoy, I’ll be leaving about 6pm. I’ve also got some room in my station wagon if anyone wants to ride with me.

There isn’t a Blue Wren Cafe equivalent, unless we want to go to the pub in Bullsbrook, so we’ll be cooking every meal ourselves. I’m happy to do most of this (I have a fab pumpkin scone recipe, for example).

Depending on how many people come, we should be able to do this for between $5 and $10 per person per meal. Which would work out for five meals, between $25 and $50 for all catering. I’m also happy to coordinate this, but would love a hand with the shopping and getting it up to Moondyne – I do have to fit my sewing stuff in my car too.

We can expect it to be quite cool at night, but the main dining/sewing room has a fireplace, as does the sitting room. There’s a huge covered outdoor area and a swimming pool. If you like walking, the property is breathtakingly beautiful and includes a bit of the Avon River.

The kitchen is very well equipped, and if we’re nice to Peter, he might let us use his barbecue, too.

So, who’s in?

Pincushion cuff

I’ve been wanting a pincushion I could wear on my wrist for a while now and I bit the bullet today and made one using the tutorial on the Michelle Patterns blog.  This reminds me that I’ve purchased a number of her bag patterns and I really need to have a go at making the Messenger Bag next.

I dug out some fabric I bought at the recent Homecraft sale and also made a covered button using  a scrap of the fabric.  I’m really happy with it and you’ll definitely see me using it at all future BSC meets.  It doesn’t take long to make and I highly recommend it.  Definitely follow the suggestion to use a strip of plastic to stop you accidently poking pins into your wrist.

Speaking of BSC meets, we miss all of you who haven’t been for a while.  So make sure you come to the April meet and show us what you have been making.

V

Sewing with Knits

Hey all!

 I’ve been having a FIELD DAY this weekend because I got a ‘new’ overlocker (well, hand-me-down) from my mum-in-law and have been playing in my sewing room like a hyperactive 2 year old

 

This sewing with knits thing has really got me going!  They’re cozy, warm, easy to make up and totally satisfying!  What more could you want from a sewing project.  You’ve gotta figure out a few tips/tricks to working with them since they are a bit of a different beast, and you need a few special tools; but once you got ‘em…you’re golden and there’s nothing stopping you.

Here are some pics of my two newest additions to my winter wardrobe (it’ll be here before you know it…but not soon enough…what a hot summer!)

First once is this pattern off BurdaStyle.  I loved the waterfall neckline.  I made it out of a buttery soft bamboo jersey from Fabulous Fabrics in Balcatta.

 

 

 

 

And the second one was this one.  I made this one for the nice cowl and ruched side/sleeves..a really nice touch.  Again, fabric was a poly jersey from FF in Balcatta.

 

 

 

 

I just love the fact that I whipped these two babies up in a weekend!!  I have tonnes of tips/tricks and construction techniques on sewing these knit wonders over at the ol’ blog http://coutureacademic.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/sewing-with-knits/.

Has anyone been to KnitWit on Stirling Hwy?  Worth the trip?

Now, to wait for the day time maximums to get below 25….

Cheers,

Kat

 

It’s summer in Australia. Shorts required.

It’s Hottest 100 Day/Survival Day/Australia Day here in Australia today… so what could be more appropriate than a post about a pair of SHORTS?!

Shorts. What horrible things to buy in the shops. I don’t know about you, but when I’ve looked for a pair in the shops, they are invariably too tight/short/unflattering Seriously. I’ve never found a decent pair (sport shorts are the only exception to this rule)!

So, this is the third time I’ve made a pair of denim shorts. (I made 2 pairs late last summer and LIVED in them when I was travelling in Cambodia!) The shorts are based the culottes pattern which my previously-posted-about linen trousers were based on too! (Who would’ve thought a somewhat-weird looking pair of culottes would get so much use!?)

Here’s what the finished, super-comfortable, super-weather appropriate product looks like ::

The width of the legs of these shorts are perfect for me – the wider shape is much more flattering than a narrow pair! Here they are from the back ::

Good fit, eh? The shorts have a fly front, and waist band. The “button” used is a proper jeans button (I bought a packed of them in Cambodia last year!) – there’s no thread holding it on… you actually have a metal/rubber screw -like thing which I had to bang in with a hammer to attach it. Not sure if that was how I was meant to do it… but it worked, and seems solid! Oh, but my machine ABSOLUTELY HATED sewing that buttonhole!

Why, yes. I am an innie! I don’t find fly-fronts too difficult to sew, following the instructions always seems to get me there! However, at some point I’ll have t figure out how to sew a zip-protector thingy (you know the piece of fabric placed behind the zipper so it doesn’t touch your skin?). These shorts don’t need one… but I’d just be curious to find out how you add one in!

Hmmm… what else? Oh! This ::

Polka-dotted quilting cotton for the (hidden) pocket lining? Abso-fruit-ly! I find I get so much more joy out of an item if it has fun hidden things like this!

The denim for these shorts was purchased from Homecraft Textiles in St James. It was tough to find the right denim for these shorts – it couldn’t be too heavy, but it couldn’t be too light either. I eventually found this denim which is just the right weight… though, truth-be-told, is a little more blue than I would’ve preferred. The compromise was totally worth it, though.

 

 

Frankensale dress!

So. As most of you know, local fabric store Potter Textiles recently had a big (50% off) sale. As many of you also know, my office is 138 steps from Potters. So, yeah. No “I will only sew from my stash” new year resolutions for me… the fabric was on sale!

In the sale, I impulse purchased a patterned viscose. I *must* have seen this fabric on the racks many times before… but it had clearly never grabbed my attention. But this time – I could picture exactly the dress I was going to make!

The dress is based on the Sewaholic Cambie pattern which I had made once before… which, come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever blogged about! Whoops. Here’s what I ended up with ::

I opted to make the sweetheart neckline less pronounced  (though in hindsight I wish I’d straightened it). But otherwise, I made the bodice pretty much to the pattern (with a few small fitting adjustments).

Here’s the dress from the back (I also wish I’d lifted the back neckline – next time, Gadget! ::When I made the pattern the first time, I made it with a full skirt. This time, I was making a work dress, so wanted a  a narrower skirt. Having borrowed the pattern from a friend, I didn’t have the pattern pieces for the a-line skirt option which came with the pattern. So I franken-pieced the skirt together using a pattern piece I’d made for an earlier skirt, and then used the pocket pieces/yoke etc from a pair of shorts I’d made!

Here’s how the pockets ended up looking ::

Dresses with pockets are the bestest! I also added belt loops to a dress for the first time. Ace! Also – did you notice my pattern matching on the side seam there? (Sure it’s not like matching stripes or anything… but I made an effort! It counts!)

Want to know the other secret of the dress? Well, I might have had trouble distinguishing the right side of the fabric from the wrong side when I first started sewing. So I might have sewn the darts in backwards. Unfortunately the needle marked the fabric quite badly, sew I decided against unpicking the darts, and instead decided to justify them as a “feature”! Sneaky, eh? Turns out the busy-ness of the fabric means the outward facing darts aren’t all that obvious anyway!

Final thing to say? The dress is fully lined using the lovely black silk-cotton (also purchased on sale from Potters). Lovely, lovely.

Btw – are you friends with Potter Textiles on Facebook? If not, send them a friend request here:: http://www.facebook.com/fabricoutletshop

Darling Ranges Dress – Modification

Hey all!  Remember that fine day when Megan Nielsen herself came to our meetup and kindly dropped off a bunch of her patterns for free?

I DO!

I quickly snapped up her Darling Ranges Dress and finally got around to doing something with it!

I got some fab ‘nautical’ (whatevs) voile from Spotlight with the intention of making a maxi out of the Darling Ranges pattern.

This pattern is simple and is thus easy to play with.  I made a few mods

1.  Moved the dart from the side to the top and replaced the dart with three tucks

2.  Lowered the shoulder seam of the front bodice by 2cm and subsequently lengthened the back bodice shoulder seam by 2cm.  This ensures the tucks hang attractively down the front of the bodice and don’t start right at the shoulder seam.  It makes them look smoother.

3.  Made a centre front seam and got rid of the buttons

4.  Lowered the bodice by 5cm

5.  Put darts in the back (had to modify this twice, as the first dart I drafted wasn’t long enough but it’s hard to fit yourself especially at the back!)

6.  Made a 3cm wide waist band

7.  Drafted a dirndl maxi skirt with three tucks on either side of both the centre front and centre back.

8.  Added a back zipper

9.  Dropped the bottom of the armscye 1.5cm

I just love the results and the tucks on the shoulder!

For all the details plus a tutorial on how I changed my dart to tucks see my blog post.

Cheers,
Kat