Competition entries finished!

Above are my six finished items for Pattern Reviews Endless Combinations competition. (...lol - I just noticed that item 1 in the piccie is a photo from the back... too late I am not going to fix it now...)

The last item finished are the Vogue pants 1059. The review is here if you wish to read it. I loved making these pants and am quite pleased with how they turned out. The only two issues were

• the length - I made them to short so the hem is just barely there and they will need to be worn with flat shoes *sigh*
• and the fly didn't come out perfectly - the zipper pull does not tuck away as nicely as it should.

I did narrow the width in the bottom of these pants and wonder if I should narrow them some more? Anyway I will make these again as I am very happy with the fit, particularly around the butt! I also entered these pants in the New Techniques contest as I made faux welt pockets in the back - see this review for piccies and details.

Here is the composite I put together of all the items shown worn together...

Review here for endless combinations.

Fame down under...

The Australian Stitches magazine has mentioned some of our blogger buddies in its latest magazine. So these blogs may be receiving more hits from down under for the next while -

• Hungry Zombie Couture
• The Slapdash Sewist
• Couture Et Tricot
• Sew Tawdry

So if any of you guys want a copy of the magazine let me know & I will post you one... How exciting!

What did Santa bring me?

In response to this post at Gorgeous Things Blog, I received for Christmas -

• A voucher for a body treatment (yay!)
• some beautiful bath fizzies and chocolate
• a book 'The little Black Book of Style' by Nina Garcia
• and some money my parents gave me - I intend to invest in a ironing board! ... lol... you have to be a sewist to think that is a good gift! My ironing board is tiny and I want a nice large one and couldn't justify spending the money but now it has been gifted to me I will!

Everyone else in the family received new computers so I have the hand-me-down lap-top and I was going to scan the book cover in but couldn't get it to work so there is the first issue I have found.

Anyway I am very happy and love that my family know what I like... maybe it was all those hints I dropped... clang!

The sewing year in review part 1

These are items I have made mainly in the first part of the year. As I have really only begun this clothes sewing adventure this year, the success rate wasn't so high for this part of the year.

Here are some of the skirts....

The first skirt is the one I made in a class and is Vogue 7937. It was a highly successful project. The finish is great and I really love it. However I have lost weight so now it sits very low on my hips. I need to wear a very long top to hide this fact. It is lined so it is too much work to alter it, but I will keep using it for the moment.
The second skirt is from Vogue 8295. The fabric is gorgeous in this skirt and I love it however it has suffered the same fate as the first and now sits really low on my hips and is uncomfortable to wear. I do plan to take it in but I am not sure when that will happen.
The next two skirts are Simplicity 4138. I have used these skirts a bit but have moved the cream one out of my life as I hate the fabric (lesson - don't buy cheap fabrics, it really is no saving unless you really like the fabric). The other skirt is also from a cheap fabric and I like it more than the cream one but it needs repair as the filmy fabric has given away at the seams. I am not sure it is worth the effort of fixing as the dodgy hem really bothers me with this skirt so it may be leaving my wardrobe also.

T-shirts - Jalie tops (2794 & 2566) - all successes - I will be making more of these tops.

The next lot not quite so successful.

The brown top is McCall's 5105. This pattern has been tossed - the top was too big when I made it so now it really doesn't work. I have never worn it but I am planning to fix it somehow as the fabric is too good to chuck.

The second is a silk top I made from a Burda wof magazine (my first burda wof). I like this top but have never worn it as it is a bit of an orphan but still plan to keep it and try to use it.

The last top is Butterick 4188. I love this fabric and I love this top. Unfortunately it now swims on me but as it is lined it is too hard to alter so will move out of my closet.

Pants - the first is Vogue 8157 - too big even when I first made them so they have been tossed. However I would like to try this pattern again.The second pair is Vogue 8335 and I liked these a lot and wore them on the plane when travelling. However same story - they are too big and it would be easier to make another pair than alter them so they have been passed onto my Mum.

Dresses - the first is a Vogue 8351 and I did wear it a few times but have tossed it as I never really liked the fabric. The dress also had a maternity look if you wore it when you were bloated so not a big favorite.

The other is Butterick 5065. I have tossed it and have never worn it as I hated the fabric - I have learnt some big lessons about fabric choice this year! I actually sewed it really well and was quite proud of its construction but will not make that pattern again as I felt it looked a bit 'Mumsy' on me.


So all in all, not a great success rate but I did improve my skills and learned a lot about pattern and fabric selection. The weight loss impacted also but I am not sorry to have lost the weight. The second half of the year was more successful. I will post on that later.

I hope you have all had a lovely relaxing Christmas. We had our Xmas dinner last night in the Finnish tradition so we have all been taking it easy today and playing with our new toys.

Would you like some cheese with that... (**Warning: cliches abound**)

I have been reading a lot of blogs lately where people have reviewed their year in terms of sewing. I plan to do this also but I have also been thinking about where I stand in terms of health & fitness this year. I think this has been put into my head by a comment one of the instructors made at a class (at the gym) today about the fact that she was considering training to participate in a triathlon next year. It left me wondering what are my goals for next year... and how have I done this year?

I feel I am a bit of a tortoise in terms of tortoises and hares as I have not had made any changes in huge speedy ways. I have been going to gym for a while now (think years) and have been having Personal Training sessions for probably over a year now. However I do believe this year has been a real turning point for me. Even though I have been slowly improving for a while I have been hitting some milestones this year.

From a purely weigh-loss end I probably have lost about 6 kg since the start of the year but I have really dropped size. My wardrobe has had to be totally revamped this year as I don't fit a lot of my of my clothes any more. I never set a goal to loose a certain number of kgs but if I try and think what my goal was this year I would say fitting my clothes better would be one of them and I really feel I have accomplished that - I can't stop shopping or making new clothes as it is so much more fun to shop for clothes when they fit and hang well on the body!

The other goal I had in my head was to get stronger and ...please don't laugh... but I wanted to be able to do a full push-up. Yep, I reached that one and was really proud when I was first able to accomplish my first full push-up (on my toes...yay!)

What are my goals for next year? I am not so sure ... I know that I still want to improve my strength. Maybe increase the number of push-ups and also be able to do a chin-up (not sure If that is the right expression but I m sure you understand what I mean) . A real chin up where you pull your whole body weight up to a bar at the moment I am still doing them reclined on the floor!

My biggest pet peeve this year ... Please don't tell me you want to lose weight when you are not prepared to change...people who tell me that they want to lose weight while they have a mouthful of cheesecake.... "it's just a treat" (sorry not when you eat it all the time!) Yep, just wait a moment while I climb on that soapbox. I read sometime ago in a women's health magazine an article about change. Really it is probably a Dr Phil-ism but if you don't change anything how can you expect change to happen? Yes you will be fit and healthy if you attend gym regularly and eat well but you won't improve unless you push yourself that extra bit. If you continue to work-out to the same level constantly yes you will stay fit but nothing will change - how can it? Go the extra mile... go hard or go home... (yes I read the lorna jane t-shirts!)

Really this year I needed to change my approach to reach my goals. I did it in a couple of ways. There was a big trip planned to visit family OS (and you all know that feeling of wanting to look your best for people you haven't seen in a long time) so to move things along I increased my PT sessions from one a week to two a week for ten weeks - boy did this work for me! I am a big advocate for PT as I don't believe many people are able to push themselves hard enough when they train alone. In those ten weeks I really increased my strength and the weight started to come off! It was a bit weird as it didn't come off until right at the end of the ten weeks and then it just fell off one day!

Then after the trip I did return to my once a week sessions of PT but I added an eating plan. I used the Musashi products and eating plan that the gym suggested. I did not follow it 100% ( I still like the one odd one or three glasses of wine most nights) but did follow it reasonably well and again not a huge kg difference but the body fat seemed to melt away!

Well now it is Christmas time and I am only planning to maintain what I have done this year for now. For next year, I will have to think more about what I should challenge myself with.... I still have a bit of a jiggle around the tummy - I would love to see that go, but maybe I should be setting my sights higher as overall losing weight is not such a big issue for me anymore.... Gwennie's comment about the triathlon has really set me thinking. I am not saying Gwennie needs to become a triathlete next year, but I really like that idea of setting yourself a challenge. I am not really sure what next year's will be... I will have to think on that one a bit longer...

Vogue bag

Recently I have made two bags from Vogue 7354. The first one was given to my good friend Caity before her holiday with her family. The second is made for another friend but I have been organised enough this time to take some photos of it.

The bags have been made with a beautiful (what I believe to be) silk velvet which was given to me in a box of vintage fabrics. It is really soft and shiny - beautiful to touch. The fabric piece has some little holes in it so it is perfect for cutting the small pieces required for this bag. The lining is silk - in this case blue silk leftover from another project and in Caity's bag it was red silk. The red silk was purchased as it was one of Caity's favourite colours until she dyed her hair pink! The bag is interfaced with silk organza I picked up from a remnant table.

Here is a photo of the bag. The nap looks more pronounced in this photo than it looks in real life. You can just see the blue silk lining in the inside of the handle.

Here is a photo of me with the bag to give you an idea of the size - perfect for your essentials - phone, keys, some money and a handkerchief. Best of all, you can hang it on your wrist when you have one hand holding a glass of bubbly and the other with yummy finger food in it...

I love this little bag and plan to make more. The one I want for myself will have a gold-yellow silk lining but I haven't found the fabric yet!

The pattern is simple and reasonably quick to make and makes a lovely bag with these sumptuous fabrics!

I hope the recipients love them as much as I have loved making the bags!

Happy Birthday...s

Hubby & I have our birthdays in December - mine has already happened and hubby's is tomorrow.

We went out last night with our boys for a lovely dinner at Encores restaurant and then a show at the Empire Theatre which is a beautiful renovated theatre in Toowoomba. The show we saw was the Spicks & Speck-tacular (based on an Australian ABC TV show - a hilarious quiz show about music). We had a great time - all four of us - so it was a perfect way to celebrate.

I have just finished making hubby's Birthday pressie. I decided he could have a bit of luxury in the form of a pair of silk boxers. I used McCall's 3019. The pants pattern had to be shortened considerably (about 3 inches) and I also ended up shortening it between the waist & crotch so that it wouldn't sit so high on the waist. The pattern is dead simple. Possibly the only negative is that it doesn't have a fly or imitation fly front, but I know that doesn't bother hubby as they are used for sleeping in. I just think they would look more 'boxer'-like. First up I made a pair in a quilting cotton to check for size. I had to get him to try them on and that's when I decided to shorten them.

Now I have finished the silk version. The silk was beautiful to work with. I got it from our local fabric heaven, Gardams here in Toowoomba.

I put a tag in each of the pants to show the back easily when putting them on. In the cotton pair I simply sewed a piece of ribbon folded over into the seam at the back waist. I forgot to do that for the silk ones so I found a label from the days the boys needed their clothes labelled and just used the surname as a label in the pants. It looks pretty good I think! I am going to investigate having some labels made to put in my clothes as I am seeing the point of it more and more all the time.

Working with silk is getting better. My french seams came out pretty good and I also used a 'simulated french seam' on the crotch seam as I wanted all the seams enclosed. I have found that a walking foot is great to use with these kinds of slippery fabrics. The only negative was that when I inserted the elastic I must have put too much pressure on the back seam near the waistband as it looks a bit pulled around the stitches. I must remember to take more care with things like this next time I work with a delicate fabric like this.

Overall I am very happy with how these boxers have come out and I hope he likes the silk ones when he receives them tomorrow! Anyway now maybe I can start thinking about Christmas more....

Dressember

I needed a break from sewing coordinating items so I got caught up making this dress ...

It is from this pattern a 1960 Vogue pattern I recently purchased off ebay.

My friend Caity gave me some fabric from her stash (this was purchased in the eighties) and it seemed to all come together to make this dress. I love the fit of this dress it has french darts in the front and darts in the back as well as a centre front and center back seam. This is a piccie of the back of the dress...

I need to put some fake tan on my back to cover all that white skin.

I simplified the making of the dress by not using the facings but instead used purchased bias binding to finish the neckline and armholes. I also used an invisible zipper in the CB seam. I finsihed the hem with bias binding or would have lost too much length.

I really enjoyed making this dress and I really love the fit of it. I wore this to a Xmas BBQ recently and it was lovely to wear in our warm summer weather. I look forward to making another one in a more evening-type fabric as the dress is actually intended as evening wear.

Shoooeeessss...

OK I was in Brisvegas again today to catch up with a girlfriend - which was really great BTW but I also had the chance to shop. I bought more Lorna Jane clothes for the gym (I bought a pile last month but loved the quality of it so much I had to go back for more...) I do go to gym 5 to 6 times per week and really like to wear clothes that cope with sweat - I sweat a lot! ( OK entering the realm of too much information...) so that was the first purchase(s).


Then I found shoes - half price and they fit! They are marked as size 6 1/2 W so they must be for wide for feet like mine and they were so comfy I couldn't walk away... and every girls needs some leopard print shoes don't they?


The other pair are a brown mesh with a bow and look really cute on .... and did I mention, they fit really well!

Then I bought some flavoured tea for my sewing gal-pal days ... then on my way out of the centre I came across a Peter Alexander shop and bought this nightie that I have been really needing.... I really do need a pretty nightie.... don't I?

Then I stopped at dfo on the way (a discount shopping outlet) and bought a Guess handbag to go with shoes I bought last shopping trip to Brisvegas... the ones I am wearing in the last post in my photo shoot... Oh! & I bought one Xmas present....

On the way home I had to drive into a storm at the bottom of the range and that was quite miserable but I was rewarded by a full rainbow at the front door later. Here is my not very good photo of it - you need a wide angle lens to get a whopper like this one in a photo!

Endless combinations - items 2, 3 , 4 & 5 *image heavy*

Hi - I haven't been blogging much lately but I have been sewing. As it is University vacation I have a student covering some of my duties at work so I have been able to get on with sewing. I have made 4 more things for the endless combinations competition and their reviews are here -

Item 1 review - Hot Patterns pencil skirt
Item 2 review - Hot Patterns tie me down top
Item 3 review - McCalls 5431 Purple floral skirt
Item 4 review - Vogue 2925 Khaki top
Item 5 review - same as item 3 review - McCalls 5431Japanese print cotton skirt


Please see the reviews for more info on how I found the patterns. I have not done my Collage of photos yet for the EC entry but I have taken photos of the items in the intended combo's. I am still hoping to add to the EC entry so will do the final collage when I know all the items are made. However for your viewing pleasure today I will show the photos I plan on using in my entry. Hubby was terrific on the week-end helping me set up our 'studio' - a sheet and piece of carpet on the back veranda and then patiently taking the photos for me.

Item 4 (top) + item 5 (skirt):

Item 4 (top) + item 3 (skirt)

Item 4 (top) + item 1 (skirt) - my favourite look...

Item 2 (top) + item 5 (skirt):

Item 2 (top) + item 3 (skirt)
Item 2 (top) + item 1 (skirt)

and for the finale - Hubby told me to make like a model... I don't think so...

Bookworm Award

I have been nominated by Christine of and sew it begins... for a bookworm award.

The rules of this award are:
Pass this on to 5 friends.
Open the closest book to you, not your favorite or most intellectual book, but the book closest to you at the moment, to page 56.
Write out the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that...

The book that is closest to me is The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie by May Gibbs and the 5th sentence on pg 56 is Through the darkness she saw the wicked eyes of a Banksia man looking at her.

I thank Christine very much for passing on this award. If you would like to particiapte please consider yourself nominated.

Witchey-poo Shoes

After seeing that Caity had put up some photos of her great shoe buys , I thought I would put mine up too. Sadly only one pair followed me home, but even my 18 yo son thought they were great!
Two reasons I thought they were great $210 down to $20 and they FIT!

& we'll try that just one more time...

The Burda wof draw I had last week was won by Leslie in NZ but she has realised she already has that issue so has kindly offered it up for a re-draw. This time the draw was won by Leesa of the Love2Sew blog. Leesa please send me an email with your address and I will post the mag to you. Email me at smkenny *at* tpg *dot* com *dot* au. I hope you enjoy the magazine.

Update for Endless Combinations -

I am still in the process of making the HP top in cream bamboo jersey. I altered the pattern slightly to take into account my sloping shoulders and am up to the stage of putting the sleeves in and sewing side seams and hemming. I am tossing up how to finish the flutter sleeves. Twin -needle hem, rolled hem, or perhaps raw edge? The shirring went well which was the first time I have attempted it so I was very happy with that. Hope to have a photo and full review soon.

Endless Combinations - Item 1

Here is a photo of the first item in the Endless Combinations competition on patternreview.com. Excuse the scary face without make-up. I could have cropped it off but I figured headless bodies gets a bit much too. Here is the back view of the skirt - it is actually hemmed straight but it looks crooked in this photo!

My review is here for anyone interested. It has taken me ages to set up the review and contest entry so I don't feel much like talking about this skirt any more. If you want info on it please see the review.

I need to go and trace the pattern for my next item.

Ignorance Rules...

I am really saddened to hear that a club I have been very heavily involved with has decided to no longer link to members blogs. I take this as a real insult that they do not wish to be associated with their member's blogs and am horrified at the ignorance that they believe if opinions are stated in personal blogs that by having a link to theirs that people will think it will reflect on them. That only shows how little they understand about blogging. I have now deleted links to their blog and am contemplating deleting all ties with the Club. As I said, I have done heaps for this group and now I wonder why I have wasted all that time to help a Club that has this kind of disregard for it's members.

A big old slap in the face from the Club - perhaps it really is time to move on!

Endless Combinations - post 1

I have joined the endless combinations contest at patternreview.com. I haven't actually sewn anything yet (even though the competition started 6 days ago!) but I have done lots of thinking about it (does that count?)
I have at least decided in my head where I will start - my first item will be this Hot Patterns pencil skirt in this camel- coloured stripe fabric

I hope to tissue fit and start cutting tomorrow.

Then in a cream bamboo jersey this top in the short sleeves -

And then item 3 will be these pants Vogue 1059 in View A.

These will be made in a chocolate brown linen. I recently did a pants fitting workshop where we used the Palmer Pletsch method to tissue fit the pattern. I have found it very helpful so it will be an interesting exercise to now make the pants. I did buy the PP pants fitting book so I think that will help a lot in the making.

What do you think - are the combinations working so far?

Drum roll please...

...and the winner is

Leslie please email me

smkenny at tpg dot com dot au

with your address and I will post your magazine. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!

What goes around comes around...

Recently a won a Patrones magazine in a giveaway organised by Christina of Assorted Notions

In the spirit of this generosity I am having a giveaway of the July issue of Burda wof.

This is a great issue and has lots of lovely summer items such as this wrap skirt ( I have a lovely brown/cream linen lined up to make this one)...

For those who need dress-ups there is this...

And this great little summer skirt with top stitching detail...

In the Plus size section I love this swirly skirt...

Now I know there are some of you who read this blog who are already Burda aficionados, but for those who haven't tried it yet this is a great opportunity to try this magazine.

I will post the magazine anywhere in the world and all you need to do to get you name in the draw is leave a comment on your favorite item in your wardrobe at the moment and did you make it or is it RTW by Wednesday 5th November.

I don't get heaps of comments so please join in so that I can pass this magazine on and the joy of winning something!

McCalls 5576

I have finished McCalls 5576 in View A. I was a bit ambivalent while I was making this dress. I love the fabric which is a Michael Miller Cotton called 'Dumb Dot'. It is a beautiful quality cotton and I never realised but if you use a good quality cotton with a high thread count it doesn't crush so much or need so much ironing. I will certainly be keeping an eye out for more fabrics like this as they wear so well in our Australian summer.

I had to take the sides in by 1.5 cm (5/8") on each side. It just looked like a 'house dress' otherwise. There is heaps of ease in the dress (well it is described as 'loose' but it was too loose for my taste).

If I make this again I will make an adjustment for sway back. You can see the creases reaching from my waist. You can also see by the back shot that I can't really go down a size as I need the width across the shoulders.

The sleeves are lined and I found that a great way to make them. The finish is very neat as there is no edge finish showing on the sleeve. It also makes them very 'pouffy'. If you had a softer fabric this would also be good, but not so necessary in this cotton.

I wore it out for the first time on Sunday afternoon when I was spending some time with the girls. I am showing this photo as I want to show the cute shoes I wore with it. I am looking for a yellow bracelet to complete the look, but have had no luck so far. I wish I had thought of that when we did our road trip down the hill the other day. There was heaps of bracelets at the Craft & Quilt Fair. (The shoes are yellow btw, it is not so clear in theis photo.)

After wearing the dress (and getting some lovely feedback form my mates) I do like it more. When you have problems with the fit I think it can put you off an outfit but I believe if I wear it as soon as I can, I usually overcome the doubts.

Yesterday I had a free afternoon (after rounding up the dust buffalo in the house). I started on New Look 6807 in View B. I thought it would be an instant gratification type of thing but did not get it finished. I ended up having to hand sew the neck edge after a disastrous attempt at doing it by machine. It looks much better now but took a while so I still have the hem to go. It is a bit bland in the off-white jersey I choose but I can picture it with some chocolate brown linen pants I am making soon. Hopefully I will have it finished by the next post.

Renovation success

I have spent this week-end making over some clothes. Caity suggested fixing this skirt and shortening it and was right on the mark!

I was getting ready to move it out of the wardrobe as it was driving me insane as it had a wide turn-over band of jersey to hold the skirt up and it was always slip, sliding away. It's not a good look to always being hitching your skirt up! It was also too long to be truly flattering. As it was a slippery black jersey it was a real pain to work with, so the top band isn't as tidy as I would have liked, but I would always wear a top over it anyway. However the double needle stitching on the hem came out beautifully. I had a new twin needle which was narrower than previous ones so that could be the trick!
However I had two different brands of black thread going through the needles and you can see a difference when you look closely. I will have to remember to buy two rolls the same or put some on a bobbin next time.

I also dug out a black long dress that I have worked out is 12 years old. I have worn it once as a long dress. I have been hanging on to it for all these years as I really love it. However I had two problems with it -
(1) it was long and there was never any occasions to wear it and
(2) it hasn't fit me for ages!
Well I have been working hard at the gym and following a plan of using Musashi products and when Caity was over I tried it on. Viola the zip was done up and I didn't look like a sausage trying to escape from its casing (as I did a few months ago when I last tried it on!) Caity marked the hem for me and I fixed it yesterday and wore it to dinner to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary!



Here is the care label in the dress. This really does date it as you never see clothes with a 'Made in Australia' label anymore...

We had a lovely dinner out and I am considering getting out my wedding dress to see what shape it is in and to see if I am brave enough to try it on agian after 20 years!

Qld Quilt Show

The girl's and I - Caity and Vicki all got up at sparrow's f**t yesterday to head down the hill to Brisvegas to attend the Qld Quilters Quilt Show. The Toowoomba Quilters Club raffle quilt (coordinated by moi and made by lots of members) had won a prize so it was with real delight that we attended the presentation. The quilt got third in the Collaborative Section and I received a parcel of Leutneaggers fabrics and other goodies and a voucher for Be Be Bold.

Here is the quilt - it was beautifully displayed at the show.

This is the parcel of goodies I received. This will all go back to the Club, probably to be used as a raffle prize.
The only annoyance was that I didn't realise the voucher was part of the prize until I was at home again. This was a shame as I could have used it at at their stand at the show. Now I will have to mail order as the shop is located at Lismore.

We had a great time shopping after viewing the quilt show. This is my booty-
I also ordered a magnifying glass for my Bernina machine and as they didn't have any at the stand they said they would mail it - well it arrived today at 11am - that must be a record for prompt service!

After lunch, we thought we should take advantage of being in the big smoke and went into the city to go shopping. I scored a MAC lippie and a big bling ring! We had heaps of fun trying on hats (as it is spring carnival racing season here at the moment and we are considering going to a Melbourne Cup function).



Then we still managed to make our way into the Fabric Barn on the way home and I scored a beautiful black jersey with the chain print and a cotton/spandex which is camel coloured with a stripe in it - that one is also in he photo above under the lippie and ring.



We had a great day but I think I really need to stay out of the fabric shops for awhile now and just get to my sewing machine. I did finish a dress today - piccies to come soon.

And for those interested I have done my review on the Silk dress McCall's 5039.

Silk dress preview

Here is the photo of the silk dress, finally done, review for patternreview.com to follow:

Ps - I had a spray of feathers in my hair, the white flowers were not in my hair - they were in the May Bush in the back ground!