Tessuti Eva dress

The Eva dress by Tessuti is not my usual style but I feel like my 'style' is evolving and I am exploring new options lately.

The fabric was bought from Tessuti as well and is one of their recommendations for this dress.  It is called Giolica and is a linen polyamide blend and has a lovely crinkled texture.  I made my dress and used the tip in Sandra's excellent review to spritz the dress with water after after sewing to restore the crinkle.  The picture is after doing this.  I have washed it since and the crinkle is slightly more pronounced.  This makes it a lovely dress - no ironing required!

The dress has been worn to my work Xmas lunch as well as on Xmas Day and was lovely and comfy (no need to loosen the belt after eating!)  I had been thinking though that if I had made it in green, it may have made a good Xmas tree costume...

Anyway a great pattern with wonderfully written  instructions that makes a very easy to wear dress, perfect for an Australian summer!  I still have two pair of pants not blogged about (both Tessuti patterns)... getting the photos is the road block, but life should be a little less busy now that Christmas is over so I hope to show them to you soon... Ciao!

Pincushion ...

I use magnetic pin holders a lot and I had been thinking I needed another one so I can leave one near my sewing machine while the others (yes two - I use two different kinds of pins!) sit on the sewing/cutting table.  However I realised that what would work better is a pincushion on a cuff.  I was gifted one once but it died an unnatural pincushion death as it had that kind of strap that you slap on your wrist and it goes from straight to holding your wrist ... aka a kid magnet!

I looked in Spotlight but ugliness and nastiness abounded, so I remembered a sewing buddy making some many years ago.  A search of the web and I found this tutorial which is very good to follow and now I have my own...

I did use the hint at the top of the tutorial and put a 2" square of template plastic into the middle of the strap by inserting it through the gap used to turn the strap out the right way.  I then folded the gap edges tidily over it and top stitched the strap as per the instructions. 

  It works great and would be a great gift for a like-minded sewing buddy...

 Ciao kittens, back with pants soon (honest!)

Opal quilt

I have finished my Opal Quilt - so named for the blue-green colourway.  

The pattern layout is from the book Spectacular Scraps by Judy Hooworth and Margaret Roolfe.  It is called Black Opal.  I love the colourway they use in the book - purples and blacks, but wanted to make a quilt as much from stash as possible.  So blues and greens seem to dominate the stash, so that is how the colourway came around.  One good quilting friend did give me some bits and pieces to use as well and I am glad to have part of her in the quilt now as she moved away and I do miss her.

I used the books suggestion to quilt it in wavy lines along the diagonal.  I used my walking foot for this and set myself up on the dining table to help take the weight of the quilt.

The borders were free motion quilted in leaves and swirls like a vine.  It is very hard to photograph on the busy fabric.  I am very grateful I bought the Bernina Aurora 440 as it has the BSR foot and is a boon for someone like me who doesn't free motion quilt regularly.

The colour scheme works really well on the double bed in our guest room (my older son's room).

Caio kittens!  Back soon with pants.