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?

January 6, 2013 – Unveiled!

The WA Museum is currently hosting an exhibition all the way from London’s Victoria & Albert Museum – wedding dresses! Lingerie! Hats! Shoes! See website. From the website:

Relive 200 years of romance and glamour with this dramatic collection of wedding fashion from the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

This exhibition traces the development of the fashionable white wedding dress and shows how both brides and designers have stamped their own style on tradition. It considers the influence of the wedding industry, the effect of the increasing media focus on wedding fashions, and the excitement generated by society and celebrity weddings.

The exhibition features 65 wedding outfits and accessories of both brides and bridegrooms. The range of accessories includes veils, hats, shoes, wreaths, and lingerie.

Interested in going along and checking it out? Well, the exhibition is on display until 24 March 2013. But, a group from the sewing club will be heading along on Sunday, January 6 at 1pm. Visit MeetUp to RSVP if you want to join us!

Just for the record, 98% of the reason I’m going along is to see Gwen Stefani’s John Galliano-designed wedding dress (below)!!

Sewing Club Meets 2013

Hi everyone! For your new, shiny diaries… here are the dates for the 2013 meets of the Perth BSC Sewing Club!

In 2013, meets will continue to alternate between Saturdays and Sundays, beginning at 1:30pm.  Dates for the meets are as follows:

• Saturday, January 19
• Sunday, February 17
• Saturday March 16
• Sunday, April 14 (also proposed month for sewing weekend away)
• Saturday, May 18
• Sunday, June 16
• Sunday, July 21
• Sunday, August 18
• Sunday, September 15
• Sunday, October 13 (also proposed month for sewing weekend away)
• Sunday, November 17
• Sunday, December 15

Most meets will continue to be held at the Sewanista Fashion Workshop in Malaga – thanks to Sandra for her ongoing generosity. (Don’t forget to check out the Sewanista Facebook page!) However, as in previous years, the January & February meets will be held elsewhere – I’ll keep you posted as we get closer to the January meet.

Don’t forget to join our MeetUp page for notifications relating to scheduled meets – and please do your best to remember to RSVP… we’ve been close to or at capacity a few times in the last year, and we’ve got to make sure we have enough chairs for everyone!

See you in 2013 for more sewing!

Ironing board cover

My ironing board was up for an update. The old cheap cover it came with was less than perfect, it moved all the time plus it was in a weird silvery colour.

I got from the library “Home sewn home : 20 projects to make for the retro home” by  Sally Walton (which btw is, in my opinion, an ok book,  one of those books worth flicking through but not to buy). The book features an ironing board cover. I say “features” because there isn´t really any pattern, it just tell you to used the old cover to traces your new one. So I did so.

Finding the fabric was harder than I though. I went to Spotlight, all the fabrics I liked couldn´t be ironed at high temperatures! it took me around an 1h of looking at labels until I saw this fabric in the distance:

 

I thought that should stand high temperatures! and it did! So here is my new ironing board cover and my boyfriend happily (?) ironing on it.

Sewing sale – swim/dancewear fabric, trims, notions etc

Hi

I saw this advert on www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/west-leederville/miscellaneous-goods/strap-turner-and-assorted-sewing-merchandise/1009456792

I rang Denise and she is downsizing her business and selling lots of fabric for $3 a metre, trims, bra cups 20c (if you have bought these you know how expensive they are).  Also industrial machines, patternhooks, scissors and lots of other stuff.  The business is located next to West Leederville trainstation; Sarah I can hear you squealing at close it is to your work.  Denise said it would be wise to ring beforehand as they are not always there.  I’m planning on checking it out tomorrow as I think I may need my car to carry it all home.

Vanessa

Scraps for Starlight

Hiya fellow BSC sewing peeps.

The Facebook discussion on what to do with sewing scraps got me thinking. I know I have heaps of scraps and as much as I think I will use them for facings and pocket linings etc. I rarely do.  They just sit there in that big box cluttering up my sewing room.

Overflowing box of scraps (this is not the only one!)

Funnily enough a few weeks later my lovely friend and housemate Gabby asked me if I had any fabric scraps I could spare for Starlight. Gab works for Starlight Children’s Charity as an Arts Facilitator in their Livewire room for teens in Princess Margaret Hospital. It’s a place where they can escape the hospital environment and have some fun. They love crafts and are obsessed with sewing softies at the moment so they would love some more fabric scraps of all types to play with.  If you have any fabric scraps, and I’m sure you all do, you can bring them to the December Burdastyle meet.  I will be sure to pass them on to their new home. Who knows what creature they may become!

Sarah W

From conference bag to lunch bag

Last February I attended a nanotechnology conference (actually it was three in one, ACMM22/AOMC10/ICONN2012, but that is another story).  For the first time in a very long long time, the conference bag was made out of a pretty fabric. It was inspired in aboriginal paints.  At the time I wasn´t sure what I want to do it, but it was to pretty to miss, so I asked if I could have a few extra bags. I ended up with 3 bags (for the embarrassment of my colleagues)*

I loved Sarah´s lunch bag, and I though I would use my “conference bags” to make a nice “lunch bag”. So this bag is made of out almost entirely of these conference bags (I used two): inside & outside, and even the handles**.

* My colleagues want now one lunch bag!

** I put leftover fabric from my chair cover to give some body to the bag.

Boring Admin Stuff

We had a fabulously fun meet this afternoon, with 12 people, including 2 new faces.  We had a theme of upcycling, and there was some interesting stuff going on, which I will post about after feeding the hungry hordes.
However, just right now, the boring admin bit is……

Are these yours?  They were left behind, and I have put them on the lost property wall, but if I can match a name to them first, I’d be much happier

Ultimate verge!

Hey everyone!

I love verge…no, I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVE VERGE!!!  I’m a hopeless scrounger, and if you know where to look you can get some fabulous finds.  Last year someone had their entire fabric stash on the verge!  Now it’s in my stash

But, this year beats all former verges.  I found a vintage Singer 401G from the late fifties/early sixties on Marlow Street during my daily bike commute to work.  I almost fell of my ebike with excitement and utter shock.  Needless to say it came to work with me an then home – all in the back of the basket.  She doesn’t have a power cord or foot petal, but these things can be found online – a really good source for vintage sewing machine parts and a fab blog about restoration can be found here.

Feast your eyes!

She’s beautiful, eh?  I plan to start tinkering soon, so stay tuned to my blog for more restoration details.  Hopefully the motor is good, but we’ll see once the power arrives!

Cheers,

Kat

The culmination of many ideas…

So, this new top was, as the title suggests, the culmination of many ideas. These ideas included:

• I wanted to make a top with a peplum. I’ve wanted to make one since before they were all over the shops.
• My housemate had asked me if I knew how to replicate this dress. I thought I’d attempt to figure it out (thanks to Vanessa for being my dark manipulation inspiration!).
• I wanted to use my bodice block to make a top (I’d only made dresses using it up until now).
• I’d been wondering about wearing linen. I’ve always thought of linen as a crumply old ladies’ fabric… but then Potters had some in such pretty colours!

So, I came up with a plan to address all this thinking etc in one go, and here’s what I came up with (excuse the jeans – this top clearly needs some straight/skinny leg jeans, as opposed to an old pair of worn out jeans, to go with it!) ::

The top I came up with:

1. Has a not-insignificant, self-drafted peplum. I’m pretty psyched with the peplum – I think it has just the right amount of flare.

2. Is based on my bodice block (with some bonus dart manipulation). Hopefully you can see in the pattern piece below, I slashed and then folded out the dart which usually goes from the waist up towards the bust point. I repositioned the dart to come out of the neckline as a visible folded detail instead!

3. Has 3 different types of finishing thanks to my overlocker being in for repair – overcasting stitches around the facings and sleeve holes, bias binding on the side seam withe the invisible zipper, and french seams everywhere else (other side seam, waist seam etc).

4. Is made out of Potters linen – it’s a gorgeous pinky red. However, I’m still not completely sold on linen. Not sure I can cope with this appearance of permanent crumpled-ness!

Overall, I’m putting this top down as a just-okay. I think it will get a reasonable amount of wear… but it’s not LOVE. Mostly because of the linen, but also because the peplum takes more styling effort than a normal top. But, it was a good experience to make this top, and fun to try out so many new things!