Moving and an update

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As a kid we only ever moved house once, from a house in the city centre to a block of land about 30 minutes away. It seems to be as I've gotten older and moved from sharehouse to unit to house, I've become better at adapting to change and trying to go with the flow. So when our little unit was put up for sale a few months ago, Benj and I thought it might be time to start looking for somewhere a tiny bit bigger to rent - with a backyard was Benj's criteria. 

After a bit of searching and a few inspections we found a lovely little run-down cottage house just a few blocks away from where we currently live, with a giant backyard and in our price range. Hooray! 

Saturday we  hired a truck and with the help of my bro and our two lovely friends Megan and Ben, loaded all our crap in the back and drove it to the new place. 

It's amazing the little differences you appreciate. Bathtub! Full phone reception! Television reception without rabbit ears! A big room just for sewing! A backyard with lots of veggie space! 

The only downside is now I never want to leave for work! 

Ben, Megan and I out the backyard. 

The panoramic backyard view

In other exciting news, a new sewing/craft place has opened up near Broadway in Sydney. They were looking for people to get involved and I'll be holding a sewing stretch leggings workshop in a few weeks time! Eek! If you know anyone looking to learn to make their own clothes, let them know!

The Green Hornet dress

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Photo time!
Excuse my recent absence, I recently finished up a TAFE course so I've spent all my free time knitting, sewing and sitting on the couch. Ah to be free again!

Today we went to the dog park (read about the awesome dog park over here) with Megan and Ben x 2. They have a small dog called Poppy. I'm not quite sure what breed she is, I think a mixture, but I do know she's fluffy and very very cute!

I owe you about 3 posts on various dresses (count 'em, 3!) and finally got around to taking some happy snaps today.

First up, the Green Hornet dress. I've had a recent attraction towards colour and love the colour of this fabric. It's this grassy green and a kind of stretch jersey, originally meant to be made into something else for my winter sewing plans.

Ok, this dress turned out nothing like the pattern.  It was meant to be Vogue V1257, faux wrap type dress. Now there was only about 1.3m of this fabric, I bought it on a sale roll at the Remnant Warehouse. 

I just managed to squeeze out enough pieces to make this dress and was all 'hurrah, what a success!' until I started the tricky skirt part and realised I had cut the one skirt piece on the fabric on the wrong side instead of right, meaning the wrap bit at the bottom linked to a non-wrap bit at the top. You with me? 

Anywho, I scrapped that plan and decided to just add some pleats on the other side so that it would all match up. This was working fine till I stuck in on my mannequin (still yet to be name, any ideas?) pinned it and place and sewed top to skirt. Uh oh. Now I don't have a tiny bust but I have a pretty flat one. So it was all 'hello ladies' when I tried it on. That really wouldn't work. Not even with a singlet underneath. So I painstakingly unpicked it (how much of a pain is unpicking zigzag stitch?!) and then re-adjusted. To make it work I had to not only pull the wrap over bits across but also down a bit. Basically I winged it. 

The improv-wrap.

 Despite all the difficulties and a bit of frustration (I may have flung it onto the floor at one stage), I actually really like this dress. It's comfy, a great colour and a nice style. I'd like to make another but perhaps in a slightly more organised fashion.

It covers the boobs! Success!

 

An obligatory  photo with Alexander the beetle for @Perfect Nose.

Here's some cute photos of Poppy, isn't she just a gorgeous fluffball?

Snuggle snuggle!

cutie wootie wootie, She really was loving these cuddles. Maybe not so much....

Me-Made-May check-in

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Whoops how time does fly! I can't believe we're almost half way into Me-Made May already. This month has turned into a really busy one at work so I haven't had much of a chance to do the sewing projects I had planned.

It's also about time for a quick wrap-up of Me Made May outfits so far.  I've managed to snap a picture each day as I was running out the door but my camera skillz aren't quite as advanced as my sewing skillz so there's a few headless shots!

 

 

 Next week I'm heading to Bangkok for a conference where it's apparently 40 degrees at the moment. This feel like the ultimate challenge, wear something handmade, conference-suitable and that I won't sweat to death in!  

I'm hoping to finish off another dress this weekend to take with me. I'll let you know how I go!

The Herringbone wrangler

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Evening!
I'm finally learning how to relax on a weekend and managed to fit in some good sewing time this weekend without worrying about what we were going to eat for dinner this week!

I'll post later in the week two finished projects (yes, you read right, two!) but I wanted to share with you this lovely herringbone scarf I made for Ben recently.

I've tried to branch out in my knitting a bit this season and I like to challenge myself with new patterns and techniques so decided to learn the herringbone stitch. I used this pattern from the Purl Bee, and although at first I had to refer to the pattern every two seconds (seriously, so confused at first!) I eventually got into the rhythm. Once you know the pattern it's actually quite easy because you can easily tell the right side from the wrong side so it's a bit harder to bugger up!

I used this really thick cream wool I got at The Fabric Cave which means it's a really toasty scarf.

Here's Ben wearing the scarf; he wouldn't allow a photoshoot so I draped it over him while he was fixing something. Hence the drill thingo.

This weekend we also had an impromptu BBQ with Ben, Megan and Pete. It was delicious and a lovely way to spend an evening.

Clogging it

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Today Megan and I spent a nice girl day together. First heading to the city for some clogs, zara shopping and myer.

What can I say, we're both suckers for red!

This afternoon we ducked into Marrickville to grab some more fabric (yes, more!) for various projects. My next projects involve a black skirt with red piping, a Blue Macaron and floral dress. Megan is starting on a gorgeous grey skirt, floral dress and some other bits and bobs.

Ben and I also got to look after the gorgeous Poppy this weekend, above is a photo of her looking positively cute!