Button-up in blue

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Here's a dress I finished up actually while we were at the old house but hadn't had a chance to grab pics of until now.

The pattern is Simplicity 6294 and the fabric is some kind of polyester slippery fabric from the Fabric Cave. I've had it sitting in my stash for a while but was never quite sure what to make with it. In fact, I think this is my first dress made from a plain coloured piece of fabric!

The pattern was for a 36 inch bust so I spent some time learning how to grade the pattern down using this handy tutorial from A Fashionable Stitch. I didn't both with the skirt pieces though, I was more worried about the top fitting. After finishing the pattern grading a made a quick muslin and ended up having to adjust the armholes (as always!). You may also notice the darts are slightly misaligned. whoops!

The buttons are just come left over ones I think I got from Reverse Garbage for 50cents a few months back.
I actually really like this dress and it's ended up on high rotation in my wardrobe. Only downside is it definitely needs a belt with it because the waist seam is a tiny bit wonky. The black belt (of the dress kind not the hiiiii-ya karate chop kind)  is the only one I own, but I think it would work quite well with brown, what do you think?

A few weeks back I also had a bunch of friends up from Canberra for the weekend and we had a bit of fun taking jumping photos off the back step. Isn't it funny how differently everyone jumps?!

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!

Put a bird on it

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What's this? I finally finished a dress?! About bloody time.

I've been in such a sewing funk lately and finally got my sewing mojo back. These past two weekends have I've gone sew crazy.

I'd seen a few versions on Simplicity 2444 floating around the blogsphere that I really liked so I ordered the pattern a few months back. This fabric is actually an old bed sheet I picked up at an op-shop during our Walcha trip, for about $2. I really loved the patterns on it and although generally white and brown colours don't look these best on me, I just couldn't walk past it.

It's finally spring! I was actually warm in this dress and sandals today. Hurrah for warm weather!

To try break up the print a bit I put some leather bias piping in the waistband (picked it up from fabric cave months and months back and finally had a chance to use it!). I also purposely centred the bird on my chest, it was just my favourite part of the print.

For this pattern I made a muslin and ended up having to take about 1.5 inch out of the centre front and another 2 inches from the back, sloping down to nothing at the waist. I'm still working out this fitting thing but I think I have a small chest and potentially rounded back? Either way I'm really chuffed with this fit, it's a tiny bit tight (particularly in the armhole), I think because I chose to put an invisible zipper in but decided to handpick it, to try that technique and because I just wasn't feeling up to the invisible zipper sewing challenge.

Inside the dress (unironed and straight outa the wash) and the picked zipper.

My favourite thing about this dress? The insides! So neat and tidy. I decided to line the whole thing with some left over fabric I had and boy oh boy and I glad I did. The bedsheet had that slightly see-through thing happening so it's great to know it's not at all see-through now!

My boss at work has this thing about hipsters putting birds on things. He always says to make something hip just 'Put a bird on it'.

Voilà!

The Saffron Cross-Over

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Lately has been a knitting bonaza. I've been feeling in a bit of a sewing funk so have been knitting my little wrists off. Have you noticed how this season has been all about the orange? Not the food....the colour! Or perhaps more of a tangerine, pumpkin is a better way to describe it. Anyway, I've been keen to have an item this colour in my wardrobe but being completely disheartened with the quality and variety of cute jumpers out there in this colour I decided to make something myself.

Tangerine?

I saw this Purl Bee Short Row Sweater a while back and had it on my list of to-make patterns. I made it up in the recommended Blue Sky Alpaca Melanges in Saffron colour. It didn't actually take too long at all, perhaps because there's barely any back to it!

Cross-over back

I'm fairly chuffed with how it turned out. It's a bit shorter than I imagined, particularly in the back but I think once spring sets in it will be nice to wear with a singlet top underneath. At the moment I'm finding it a bit hard to match any colours or outfits to it. The other thing that confuses me about this pattern is the sleeves. They're not singlet top nor are they cap sleeves....odd.

Apologies for my lack of photos outside, it was FREEZING cold here on the weekend, I'm not sure when the weather's going to change but I'm getting sick of all this winter weather. Bring on spring! 

Directing the photographer. "Don't forget to get a photo of that bust area, you know...here"

In the background here is my muslin of a new creation...the cause of my sewing funk. What is it with me and excess back material? I seriously have to cross over the back by about and inch and a half at the top for it to fit. Anyone else have this problem?

Dye-tastic

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Cough,splutter, hack. Sorry I've been a bit MIA lately in blog/sewing land, I managed to catch a flu cold thing that's going around at work. So my weekend's mostly consisted of watching movies, eating takeaway and lying on the couch. But that's nice in it's own way. One exciting thing I did get onto was dying some fabric.

Everything and the kitchen sink.

I bought this creamy woven fabric at Flemington markets quite a few months back. Flemington markets are like these giant trash and treasure markets on a Saturday morning. I saw the flowers poking out the side of a mound of fabric and thought it would make a cute dress so I tried to pull out all the fabric.....and pulled.....and pulled..... there was about 6 metres of fabric! Anyway the guy gave it all to me for $5 which was brilliant but then I realised cream and my skin really don't go together. I've never dyed fabric before and was a bit concerned that the colour of the flowers would change but thought I'd just cut off a few metres and give it a try.

Volia!

The old and new

The plan now is for this to be made into a dress. I made a muslin of the pattern I'm using the other day and now just need to iron and cut out this fabric. Lately I've had a bit of a sewing lull, just haven't felt like sitting down and putting my brain into it. I think partly it's been such gorgeous weather I've just wanted to lie around outside and soak up as much vitamin d as possible!

On a completely different note, have you ever played this game called Puerto Rico? Holy banana, it's amazing.*

Growing my indigo

Here's some delicious garlic prawns made on the bbw. om nom nom.

* not because I've won twice, although that perhaps helps.

Up Walcha Way

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Last weekend Benj and I took off in a van and headed up north a bit. It's school holidays round these parts so Benj has a fair bit of time off.

Leaving Thursday night we made our way up past Newcastle. Stopping at Myall Lake National Park we slept in the van and woke up to a delicious breakfast of pancakes (yep, I'm spoiled). Om nom nom. We kept driving up towards Crowdy Bay National Park, stopping at Taree so I could look at the op shops and Benj could buy a fishing rod (all about priorities folks). Unfortunately nothing much in the op-shop there but never mind. After we finally made  it to Crowdy Bay (narrowly dodging many a pot hole and Benj having to suss out the probability of getting bogged) we set up camp. And then the rain set in! So while Benj stood in the ocean and fished I sat in the van and read 'In Cold Blood.' If you haven't read it, do so. It's fantastic. Slightly creepy to read while camping but never mind.

A giant kanga watching us as I made a cuppa, pancakes for breakfast! Benj testing the water levels, will we get bogged?

On wards and upwards! Moving towards Wauchope we stopped at lots of great little op-shops where I got some of these delights...

Cute doona cover with birds on it, thinking about using it for a dress. The red fabric is kinda like linen and I'm still not sure what inspired my to pick up the holey fabric.

We ended up driving along the the Oxley highway which is a gorgeous drive, along winding roads and ducking in and out of forest and rainforests until you reach the highlands. Staying overnight at Tia Falls we did a lovely walk, lit a campfire and watched the stars. Gosh I love camping sometimes!

The next night we stayed in Walcha in a little B &B and headed out for dinner. We came across the only place in town that was open the 'Chinese Restaurant' (actually called Chinese Restaurant). As soon as we walked in the music playing sounded really familiar but I couldn't quite place why. Then I realised! Ah a pan pipe version of the wind beneath my wings. That's not all! They had the Beatles panpipe style, songs from the Bodyguard, it was never ending! I love places like that.

Benj enjoying a left over meat rissole. He's looking at that with pure joy. Building a campfire, sitting next to campfire, cows on the way.

Now we're home! A lovely little break away. I managed to get lots of knitting done and am already ready to share something with you!

The big wet

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Last weekend was a lovely loooong weekend, with three whole days to lie around and relax. Ben and I had planned to go camping down near Jervis Bay with friends and despite the rain through the week Ben swore it wouldn't rain during the weekend.

Boy oh boy was he wrong. It poured!

We had a nice fine Saturday where we set up our tent and lounged around, then drove from beach to beach where Ben and Murray would stand and stare at the waves to see if they were good enough to surf.

The Sunday morning was quite fine too but come Sunday afternoon it started to bucket down. Not to let that get in the way of a good camping trip though, we had a giant tarp which we could huddle under and play cards (Blackjack is confusing when no-one remembers the rules).

While we were away looking for surf breaks, a giant, chubby wallaby came and ate our bread. Cheeky little thing. We was pretty tubby, I think he just went from campsite to campsite eating bread.

On the way home on Monday we decided to take a short cut past some of the traffic. Lesson learned- never trust google maps when it says a road is a road -it may be just a fire trail. With all the rain, the fire trail was pretty slippery and there were a few 'jump out and push moments'. The best part comes when we dropped into Ben's folks place and I was telling his dad how we almost got bogged. Ben came in and said 'I've bogged the car in the backyard.' His folks live with a block of land that gets pretty soggy when it's wet. So then we had to do another rescue mission!

From top left: Bogged car, Ben and Murray checking out the surf, Ben and Murray looking at a surf break, a dead fish, Benj cooking, more surf watching, a tubby wallaby.

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!

Leggy brunette

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Last weekend Benj and I headed back to Canberra to visit my family.My sister pointed out these leggings she wanted online yonks agobut they cost about $80. I thought this was just craaazy so I decided to whip her up a few pairs while I was in town.

We headed into the local Spotlight when we picked up this cheap green stretchy jersey and black and white stretchy jersey. I used a burdastyle pattern and a leggings drafting tutorial to double check the measurements on the pattern.

Here's Deeny sitting out in the sunshine in her new green leggings.

Doing some exercises.

The black and white pair.

It's always lovely to go back to Canberra, I particularly like the autumn days, beautiful sunny, warm days and chilly nights. We drove the new Beetle down there and boy oh boy was it fun!

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.

The Great Escape

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Ben and I decided to make the most of a long weekend and escape to the coast. Of course, it bucketed down but thus just gave me a chance to start my new dress, the Colette Macaron and play on my new toy ( early bday present from ben).

Kindle! I am now officially a Kindle convert. Really loving having books with me all the time.

We also went fishin'!

Caught two delicious fish

Then dropped into Ben's folks house on the way back. Here's their rooster: