Being

It's been a wonderful, relaxing summer so far. There have been daily swims with friends, dinners on the back deck, card games and Cointreau, and gardening. There has also been a lot of sewing and a little bit of crochet. After the hectic months leading up to Christmas, it has been lovely to relax and live life a little better. To smell the air and listen to the croaking frogs, and most importantly engage fully with the people who are so important to me.



Speaking of holidays, I'm sending this little old blog on one. A hiatus (I love that word). Or a sabbatical even. I don't know when or if I'll come back to it, but please know that I have loved the friendships I have made and the lovely comments you have provided me with over the last six years and 503 posts.

But for now it's time to make more jam, plant more lettuce, sew more quilts and spend more time just being.

Shell top

The pattern for this shell top, McCalls 2873, is the same pattern I used for my Christmas skirt. On paper, this is the perfect top - sleeveless, a little roomy, and BUTTONS! All the way up the back of the top! It was going to be perfect for a lovely cream silk/cotton fabric I have with red thread stripes, with red vintage buttons going up the back.

On looking closer at the pattern however, I suspected this top was in danger of being quite shapeless. The only shaping is in the bust dart, and it's the worst kind of bust dart - the kind you sew and then trim. Bleurk. So the safest thing to do was try this top in a fabric I didn't care too much about, just in case it didn't work out.

Enter grey and charcoal double gauze from Spotlight, circa 2008 or 2009.



The first thing to notice about this top is that I cut it about 2 sizes too big, even though I followed my measurements. I should have left the sizing as it was at the hips, but graded it to the smaller size for the bust and shoulders. It hangs loosely off my shoulders, is far to short at the front but long at the back, and my God, that bust dart drives me nuts with it's awkwardness. It's almost like the pattern drafters designed this for a flat chested woman.

However the back is quite lovely. I am annoyed that I didn't have any black or grey vintage buttons to put on the back, but I had some modern black ones in the stash.



Despite the fabric acting like a limp rag, the extreme shortness at the front and the fact it keeps dropping off my shoulders, it's actually a very comfortable top. Today is quite warm, and I've been getting hot working in the garden and exercising at the pool this morning. This shell top has managed to cool me right down. And I just love the print and the colour of the fabric.

So it's a keeper, but would I make it again? Probably not without major re-drafting. That precious cream and red fabric I mentioned above will have to find another perfect pattern, and at this stage I am actually tempted to make my own pattern based on the bodice in yesterday's dress. Stay tuned!

Also, today is my my 20th anniversary of first arriving in Canberra as a naive 21 year old. Not much has changed except my age. We are going out to celebrate with friends and dumplings tonight, and I'm planning on wearing a new dress I have just made. I'll show it off tomorrow!

Frock-a-rama

There are a lot of skirts and some blouses being made around this joint, but not a lot of frocks. I made a frock last year, and was disappointed in the pattern, fit and fabric. It has now gone to a better home (St Vinnie's) where hopefully someone with a "Burda Shape" and a perkier boobage will fit into it beautifully and forevermore praise my superb overlocking and curse the awful zipper fitting.



But last week I made a frock. See? And it's lovely. And very long. I wanted to take it up a lot but the Mister had an opinion and to be honest, he was right. The fabric lends itself to being a bit more formal and longer. This is actually a dress I could wear to work when we have Frock it up Friday in summertime. I wore it to lunch with a friend yesterday and I did feel a wee bit overdressed, but that's not such a bad thing when I wear skirts and singlets and thongs all day at home and to the pool.



I used Simplicity 2929 * and made the bodice pieces about 2 or 3 inches longer to account for my longer torso. I can't remember - I cut the fabric out out a year ago! Hopefully it was 2 inches, as I've just cut out another one to make in time for the weekend. The bodice does this elegant little blousey thing over the waist, and the waist actually has some hat elastic inserted into the skirt seam to cinch it all in. It's not at all uncomfortable, even with the belt at the waist (made in the same fabric but you really can't see it very well in this photos. I wouldn't want to make this dress in a thicker fabric. This one is in Swiss Cotton, and I probably could have lined the skirt, as the fabric is very soft and a little see-through (if I stand in front of a blazing sun, it is). But I didn't line it, and it looks and sits fine.

I love the little details on this dress. Like the gathered neckline (next time I will gather it a bit better, and start the basting stitches an inch before the pattern says).



And for the first time ever I made a proper loop. I used embroidery floss rather than thread and it turned out beautifully.



* A note to add that Simplicity patterns are currently half price at Lincraft, including this one!

It's the simple things

This is the 499th post of this little old blog, so I thought I would try and share some tips that have helped me out when cutting out pattern pieces in dressmaking. They might help you too!

Tip #1:
When I first started sewing clothes, I cut out my fabric and pattern pieces on the floor. Carpetted floors were both a blessing and a curse - a blessing in that it was at least soft on the knees, but a curse in that I'd end up pinning my fabric to the carpet, carpet burn on my knees were a reality and the points of dressmaking shears always got caught in the carpet loops.

Sometimes I'd have to move furniture around so I would have enough room to cut out. And not only that, being on my hands and knees for up to half an hour, spreading fabric, working out the best cutting position for the pattern and then pinning and cutting is painful. As in ouch.



Then one day I was given a cutting board. My sewing life changed. This board is just cardboard, folds up to lean against the wall or in behind book shelves, and basically extends and protects your dining table or kitchen bench to make things easier to cut out. Fabric sits flat on the board. It's brilliant - no more sore knees, no more pushing furniture (other than dining chairs) around.

And the best thing is they cost between $20 and $25 at most sewing stores.


Tip #2:
Every sewer should have a pair of Good Scissors for dressmaking. Mine are Fiskars Soft Touch. They are ergonomic and have a blunt end, so when Dropsy McDropthings (a.k.a. me) drops these, they don't spear into her foot or the cork tiles. I've had mine for years and have used them constantly. And they still haven't needed to be sharpened.




Tip #3:
When you are cutting out your pattern pieces, you will notice on the instruction sheet some diagrams for how to lay out your pattern on the fabric length, depending on fabric width, size, and nap. Nap? Basically it means fabric that has a direction in the print or the texture. It means you need to think about the fabric being the right way up so your daisies aren't upside down on the back of your dress, and right side up on the front.

So I look at these diagrams ... and then ignore them. Because in my experience they are usually wrong, or waste too much fabric. And on the issue of wastage, it usually pays to cut out your pattern pieces first, lay them out on imaginary fabric (of both 45 inch and 60 inch width fabric) on your cutting board, and then measure how much fabric you'll actually need. Write this new calculation down on the back of your pattern envelope. A very useful tip if you are looking buying expensive fabric!





Tip #4:
When your pattern says "cut 2 interfacing", do it. Interfacing gives your fabrics shape and muscle. It is usually used in skirt yokes and shirt and jacket facings. I use soft woven iron-on interfacing, and I buy 4 metres of it at a time so I always have it on hand. Don't be tempted to not use it, because your skirt/shirt/jacket will end up looking like a sad old rag.



So what cutting out tips can you share? I'd love to hear them because I know there's always a better way of doing things!

2010 - a year of a little bit of everything

I'm not one for usually making resolutions or restrospectives at year's end, but I have been thinking a lot this week about what an amazingly diverse year 2010 was for my little family, and how blessed we were. I tend to keep about 95% of my personal life off the blog, but here's what I can share with you.

I did some truly extravagant things, like fly to Melbourne. To shop for fabric and other delights. For a day.



I made 13 skirts, 4 blouses, 2 dresses, 7 beanies and 12 shawls. Not all of them made the blog. One (a dress) only got made yesterday.

I thought about stopping blogging about 84 times.

I did some things that I never thought I would do, like an Old Bus Depot Market day (two of them!) with Carrie.



Like conducting a choir of 80 voices from union choirs around Australia.



And like travelling to Central Australia to sing with the loveliest people I know.



I bought a fancy schmancy camera, and started learning how to use it.



I started off the year still contracting, applied for 11 permanent jobs during the year, and finally, after tears and frustration (and not just mine) and a long time of waiting for some action, my own job was made permanent, with the announcement made exactly one days before I thought my contract was to be terminated, and half an hour after I'd picked up every bit of non-fileable paper on my desk and shredded it. Oops.

My life changed forever when I started weekly injections for cat and grass/pollen allergies. Seriously - it did. I now have another 5 years of monthly injections to look forward to.

My second nephew on my side of the family was born. I am the proudest aunty ever.

I decided to stop making bags, and then took about 5 months to make the announcement.

But I'm still making bags anyway, for Carrie, and it's so much more fun working together.



And that's pretty much where 2010 finishes up. What's next I wonder?

Have a wonderful new year, everyone. Thanks for the year of reading, company, support and comments. See you in 2011!

Michelle xo

You say potato ...

Coming back from our few days away, I was disappointed to see that my tomatoes still hadn't ripened, the parsley has not returned from the dead, and the capsicums were a very miserable size. It's enough to make you wonder whether all this hard work is really worth it, especially when I have to buy tomatoes from the supermarket. And then I just read that Dixiebelle, a local gardener, is of the same opinion.

So I had to put some perspective on it in order to keep my sanity. Just because some vegetables aren't ready yet doesn't mean they won't be. It's all about practicing patience. And when I think more about it, I did manage to harvest rhubarb, my second cucumber, nectarines and potatoes yesterday. I've never managed a successful crop of potatoes before! I was so excited.

My other herbs are doing just fine, and I can toss sage through my potatoes tonight (I just called a friend and invited her around for smoked trout, home-grown potatoes and lettuce, and store-bought tomatoes. And stewed rhubarb. Yum.)



This is what we had for dinner last night - baked and smashed potatoes with sour cream, chives, bacon and cheese. I can't recommend this type of meal enough for summer. Except if it's a 34 degree day and you don't fancy having your oven on for an hour and a bit at 200 degrees celcius. Things could get a bit hot and nasty then.

The Christmas Skirt

When I was a girl my mum used to make me a new dress for the school breakup, which was then worn again on Christmas Day when we headed to Brisbane each year. It always made me feel special, and very pretty in my new dress. My mum continued the tradition until I was 17 and had finished grade 12 (it was a white collared dress in a textured cotton, sleeveless, with hi cut shoulders, patch pockets and a pink sash. I'd worn it to my senior dinner at Bulls Britches first)*

This year, for the first time in a little while, we decided to spend Christmas in Bendigo with the Mister's family. Past Bendigo Christmasses haven't been overly happy, nor Christmassy, affairs, but I was determined to make an effort.

The Christmas Dress Skirt was reborn!



I used a NEW! pattern - McCalls 2873. It's a great pattern - no waistband, fully faced, and 8 darts in total with a back zipper. Ah - if only I'd followed the instructions correctly for easing the side seams into the facing - I took it in instead, and the skirt doesn't sit quite right. Plus my posture in these photos is thoroughly shite. The Mister took them as I left for church on Christmas morning and I was getting cranky with the locusts flying into my legs. Please do note the awful blouse I'm wearing, and the fact that I have broken my own rule of fussiness around the hips of hippy girls. Please also note that having seen these photos I will arm myself with the unpicker Tout de suite.



It's a really happy skirt. Coupled with my sunny yellow Saltwater Sandals (which arrived in the mail as we were leaving for Bendigo) I was the brightest person at church that morning. I was also the brightest person at Christmas lunch.



As for Christmas Day, well it was wonderful. The table looked festive, for once, probably because I set it. There were no plastic plates, other than some used for serving meats. There were still bowls of vegetables in aspic, but I made a lovely garden salad with local fetta and parsley olives which my fellow aspic-haters scoffed down. The company was good, some superb Christmas treats were enjoyed for dessert, and sporting battles were fought and lost in the formal dining room.

We got a Fußball table for my father-in-law for Christmas. How much fun is that? Heaps of fun, I say.





Then I spent the afternoon wandering around my mother-in-law's garden with my camera. She's such an amazing gardener - she manages to get flowers despite the climate, and at the moment she is even having to contend with a locust plague. Garden = still looks great.









And then on Boxing Day I took the train to Melbourne, wandered around town for a few hours and hit the Boxing Day sales a little before returning to Bendigo that night. Twelve hours later we were on the road again heading back to Canberra. But that's a whole other story.


* Do you see that? I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday, and yet I remember what I wore and where I was for my Senior Dinner in 1986. And I think I had the roast buffet that night.

Hello yellow

We've been having very cold weather in Canberra the last couple of days, and I'm ready for summer to start. I'm so tempted to push the summer feeling along a little by getting* a pair of these.



I don't know what's going on. I don't even think I like yellow very much. But these sandals just holler happiness, don't you think?


* Gotten. Late night shopping never felt so good, especially right before Christmas...

P.S. I've made a special skirt for Christmas Day, and I'll be showing you all very soon, OK? Just to prove it's not all about Glee and yellow sandals around here (even though it really is).

Skirt 'n' blouse

Very often I see a fabric I love, but I have no idea what I'd do with it. I spotted this shibori-style 100% cotton at Tessuti Fabrics in Sydney last December, and hummed and hawed over the red version of it, but left the shop without it. A couple of weeks later I tried to track it down, having made up my mind, and the only colour I could get was this "Night" colour in the end of year sales. It's the perfect mix of blue and charcoal.



I spent the next 12 months procrastinating finding the perfect pattern for this fabric. And I found this one - Simplicity 2372. I cut it out a couple of weeks ago and finally had a chance to make it this morning. So easy. No adjustments required, except for letting out some of the side seams for my hips. All the markers matched, and the facings were perfect. The fabric made things easy for me - it being a seersucker I wasn't expecting this at all.

Could this be the perfect blouse pattern? I think it could be.

And then there's that age old dilemma that all sewers have - if this fabric is to be a blouse, then what will I wear it with? I had in my mind that camel would be a good colour, and a skirt (of course) because since I started making skirts a year ago I have become a Skirt Person.



I thought I might try a new skirt pattern, given I've been making the same two patterns all year. And then I realised that was crazy talk - so I pulled out the pieces for Simplicity 5208 and starting cutting.

The one fault with this skirt pattern is the lack of pockets. I added some patch pockets to the front of the skirt (I was going to add them to the side seams, but that hip-flounce theory for blouses in my last post applies to side pockets on skirts too). I had some top stitching thread left over from the last time I hemmed jeans, and I used that to topstitch the yoke, front seam, hem and pockets.



I'm really happy with my new outfit, and I think I'll get a lot of wear out of the linen skirt, especially. But I really do think it's time to move on to a new skirt pattern.

I know! Crazy talk!

Adjust

Sometimes I do silly things, like today. I bought a blouse at a shop, paid too much for it, and had already decided to take it apart before I'd left the store.



Here it is in it's 'before' state. I'm not too sure whether that bottom frill is channelling Elly May Clampett or an 80s nightie from Sussans, but it doesn't looks good, and it doesn't sit right. Women with hips, like myself, do not need extra flounce at the bottom of our blouses. But the blouse is 100% cotton, will be cool in summer, and has a neck ruffle which I love (and it's red gingham!) so a little extra effort will be worth it, I think.



I took to the bottom ruffle with my trusty unpicker. It only took 20 minutes to detach the offending piece.



I now had a short blouse, and a very wide piece of fabric from the ruffle. So to make the blouse longer I trimmed the ruffle piece to fit the bottom of the blouse, folded it in half lengthways, and then attached it to the bottom hem with my overlocker. A little pressing, and a little more top stitching and I have a blouse I love, and can wear much more comfortably.