At Last!

Finally DD's birthday pj's are finished - a little late, but nonetheless finished, YEAH!





This time I decided to embroider one of Wendy's Treasures poodle fit designs http://www.wendystreasures.com/d61fit01.htm since DD is right into the gym and has the cutest toy poodle, Mollie.

Oops, excuse the sideways pic.

Not only are they done, but that's another 4m gone from the stash, yippee.

One done, One to go

Slowly I'm working through the stash and sewing items to be included in the Pattern Review Stash contest.

Last weekend was rather hectic, so I only managed to finish one pair of pj's.
They're so snuggly and warm. The second pair I'll finish today as I want them to add to DD's birthday parcel.

Another Two Ottobres ... love that pattern

I've just finished another two Ottobre tops from the famous 2/2007 Women's Ottobre magazine. That brings the total to 5 new tops for June from this pattern.

Today's tops were from a beautiful piece of rayon/lycra from (would you believe Spotlight!!!) circa 2005. It was a dream to sew, and feels so lovely and snuggly on.

I've definitely come to the conclusion though, that when I purchase fabric for tops in the future I'll just stick to 1m lengths. In the past I've tended to but 2m at a time, which means 2 tops in the same fabric, not a biggy, but ......

Jalie Sewalong on PRDU

Have you ever collected some exciting patterns only to have them languish away in

your sewing room??? Haven't we all! Some of us at the Pattern Review Sewing Downunder board are digging out our Jalies and having an informal sewalong.

I've had the J snowboard pants pattern sitting for ??? long along with several suitable fabrics.

Last night, while soaking up the heat from the fire, and watching a favourite show on TV, I finally opened the pattern and traced my size.

I just need to decide which fabric to use. In the stash were 3 pieces of dry japara (dusty pink, mauve and pink) along with a piece of navy entrant. I even found the lining!!! Cream wickaway mesh.

I'm tending towards the mauve at this stage as it would work well the rest of my ski gear. Looking at the pattern pieces, and never having used Jalie before, I can already see that the crotch depth is too long. Methinks a tet sew is in order.

AT LAST! PROGRESS

Finally, I've managed some time in the sewing room, and what's more even managed some sewing, YEAH!

Having entered yet another contest on PatternReview (at least this time I know I'll have some entries), it was essential to turn some fabric into something functional. SOOOO, I now have 3 Ottobre T's (finished) and 2 pair of fleece-backed satin PJ's (one pair for DD and one for moi) cut ready and waiting.

LOTS OF THINKING ... little sewing!

Once again the best laid plans have resulted in zip sewing. ARGH!

I really must get some sewing underway. I have my niece getting married in September (spring) in a seaside setting, so a new outfit is essential. In my stash are some beautiful Thai silks (purchased in Bangkok last October) that would be perfect, now to decide on a design.

It's time to really get moving with some sewing

The past few months I've been really neglectful of my sewing, unplanned, but nevertheless neglectful.

Metres of fabric are now adorning my cutting table awaiting some inspiration! Our current cold snap, along with a lack of warm clothing means I have to get moving now.

What's in a name?

I find this sort of thing interesting, maybe you do too ...

JANINE

What Janine Means

You are fair, honest, and logical. You are a natural leader, and people respect you. You never give up, and you will succeed... even if it takes you a hundred tries. You are rational enough to see every part of a problem. You are great at giving other people advice. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

I'm in love ....

... with Ottobre Woman magazine.

I've had very good results with the infamous T (2/2007) - great fit straight "out of the box". This spurred me to try one of their pants patterns (#15, 2/2007 a jeans style capri). I actually measured between size 44 and size 46 and opted to trace and sew the larger size, figuring it would be easier to size down. In hindsight, I could have just sewn the smaller size.

The "test" garment was sewn in a beautiful aqua stretch drill (lovely to sew and soooo comfy to wear). The fit, was almost perfect straight off the original pattern, yes I did need to downsize. There was some excess fabric just under the butt (this happens to me in RTW too) ... could this be a flat butt??? Now there's a first! Mind you, these are still perfectly wearable, and have been given quite a run. Pinching out approx 3cm at the CB and tapering to 0cm at the side seam eliminated this problem. Onto mark II with the above alteration, this time in a soft denim ... perfecto!!

Ok, so now I've entered the Wardrobe Contest on Pattern review http://sewing.patternreview.com/. Nine garments and one accessory in three months. Yikes! I need to get a wriggle on.

Forget about doing anymore testing, let's just take the plunge. I'm making a Dressy Wardrobe to cover all those pre-Christmas, pre-wedding, dinner occassions, which my current wardrobe lacks. One of the items on my list is a pair of dress pants in some satin-backed shantung that has been aged nicely in the stash.

Various forays into the stores, revealed that more formal pants had no pockets and an invisible side zip. OK, I can handle this. Armed with Ottobre Woman 2/2006, I figured I could make # 13 work for me. I traced the size 46 again (this time I needed the larger size), made the "tuck" alteration in the back, eliminated the pockets and fly front and cut the fabric!

Woo! Hoo! Yippee! The invisible zip went in perfectly in the side seam and the fit is wonderful. It's so great knowing this pattern range, for me anyway, requires minimal pattern alterations. I'm totally wrapt.

Wardrobe Gaps

Ok, so Christmas and New Year have both come and gone without a new post. What can I say?

Anyway, one thing became very evident during the holiday period ... that my wardrobe is severly lacking in certain areas. Yes, I have a couple of lovely, comfortable, dressy outfits (shoes and handbag to match), but definitely "wedding" outfits. Casual outfits, same thing, but do I have anything for dinner, lunch or a party???? The answer is sadly ... NO!

With this in mind, (and mindful that I'm on a fabric diet) I decided to enter the Wardrobe Contest on Pattern Review http://sewing.patternreview.com/. I've scoured the stash and managed to find several suitable fabrics including some red silk (purchased in HK in 1991), some black shantung (5m! What the..! 2002) 5m of cool wool (I guess I had a fixation with buying 5m lengths), more black silk (bought at the same time as the red) which I'll use as lining, oh, and some rayon/viscose lycra (this is the baby, just aquired this one last year). This should give several outfits to fill the void. Embarassingly, I don't even need to purchase a single notion or thread.

Now, it's just on with the sewing.