Silk dress update

I have been working on a silk dress to (hopefully) wear to the races this week-end. I have a beautiful Silk Georgette and I am making Mccalls 5039. As it is such a light fabric I am making a silk slip from NL 6244. I have finished the slip up to the stage of hemming and permanently attaching the straps. It sewed together quite well. I am stretching myself as I am using seam finishing techniques such as french seams, etc. The dress body is together (including an invisible zip) but I have to put in the sleeves and finish the neckline ruffle. The instructions for the neckline ruffle make no sense at all, which was confirmed by Caity yesterday when she came around to help me interpret them. Hopefully we have worked that issue out now.

Caity also helped me look at some items in my wardrobe and suggested re-vamping a RTW skirt I have worn a bit but isn't working for me anymore - sometimes you need someone else's eyes to see these things! Thanks Caity!

Yesterday was a calm day off but life has been busy lately - more hours of work than I need, preparing for the Toowoomba Quilters Open Day (lucky they are a good bunch and very helpful) and then on top of all that I have been going to gym more than usual as I am feeling very inspired to improve my fitness some more and to hopefully, lose the one major roll still left hanging around my middle!

On a really exciting note, I received a call from Qld Quilters on the week-end, to say that the raffle quilt I entered in to the Collaborative Section of the Qld Quilt Show has won a prize! I will be attending a presentation ceremony next Wednesday to find out what prize exactly!

However it brings up the ever present quandary - what will I wear?

Shopping is an art... I am an artist.

Caity & I went out and had a great day out - We had our make-up done and Caity was clever enough to organise a photo when she got home, but I didn't. However here is one that Caity took while we at the make-up counter, Cheesy grin & all...

After a great day out - which was also a very busy day as I also went to Gym in the morning, then drove around all the quilting/fabric shops and dropped off flyers for the Toowoomba Quilters Open Day before starting the girly fun day.

I was exhausted by the time I got home but was delighted to find that the postie had left me a parcel wtih the Patrones magazine I won on Christina's blog . Thanks Christina - it is a great issue!

I love the coat on the cover.... As well as the coats there are great dresses...
and pants - not sure if this straight leg style would suit me but I might have to try them...

I am not sure my sewing is up to this yet but I hope to try at least one item from this magazine by the time we are heading toward Autumn. Hopefully my sewing skills will keep improving!

Keep watching the blog as I plan to have a give-away also to keep this lovely act of kindness moving...

Girraween Camping

We went camping at Girraween this week-end as our vague attempt at being good parents during the school holidays. We took our youngest son and one of his school mates. This is the camping set-up - yes we do it fairly comfortably - our best piece of camping equipment is the fridge which keeps the beer and bubbly cold...

Girraween has plenty of great walks. We did Castle Rock the first day.

Wildlife abounds at Girraween. The brochure tells us that this is a Cunningham Skink.

Same lizard & rock, picture taken wider...
Can you still see the lizard?

McCall's 5391 Fashion shots

Brian has a new flash for his camera, so I decided he could practice using it taking some photos of me (a rare occurrence!). I wanted a new avatar photo as well as some photos of the McCall's short 5391 that I have just finished. Here in Toowoomba it is Springtime and the town celebrates with a 'Carnival of Flowers' . We went to one of the parks and took lots of photos along with all the other tourists!

Here are a few shots of the shorts. Notice I am wearing my Burda wof top from this previous post.

As we are in drought and we cannot water as much here the gardens are not as extensive as they used to be. So to make up for this the Council encourages artists to display artworks in places where gardens would have been. There is a really interesting stainless steel sculpture in this particular park. It is a cube but it gives interesting reflections. Kids love it - which you can tell by all the sticky fingerprints, but so did I - here is my reflection in the cube...

More photos and details of the shorts can be found in my review of the pattern - here.

Another successful shopping day

I have been wanting to make Burda wof 05-2008-105 for a while now.

I have been looking for a fabric and also checking out the fabric shops for a suitable buckle. I decided it may be better to find the buckle becuase if I find fabric but could not find a suitable buckle then the dress would not happen. I hadn't been able to find a suitable buckle in the fabric stores, so I had thought I would need to go op-shopping to get a buckle I liked. However today I dropped by Quiltfest and one of the stallholders sold vintage buttons and buckles and I found this mother-of pearl buckle.


I love it and now need to find a fabric. I am swaying toward a plain fabric (ie not a print). My local Gardams sell a beautiful jersey which comes in brown, black or red. The brown or black would work - maybe the brown to offset the colour of the mother-of-pearl. I wouldn't mind a lovely deep green, so I may have to look further yet before I decide...hhhhhhmmm...

Shopping the blahs away...

I have been feeling a bit blah so asked Caity to spend a girly shopping day with me today. We had a really great day and successful too! Of course we ended up at Gardams where Caity bought the most gorgeous fabric and pattern for a 'frock-up' high tea we have been invited to. I also decided I needed a new frock so decided to use a pattern I had bought previously M5039:

And bought this silk fabric to make it with. I also bought some Jap Silk (I think that is what Nettie called it) in a beautiful green to make a slip with to go under the silk as it is a bit diaphanous.

Caity, luckily provided the slip pattern from her pattern as she doesn't need it for the version of her dress. So I am now all set! Nearly... I didn't have the pattern with me and as this pattern is not available in Australia (and therefore not in the shop) I had to phone home to find out how much fabric to buy. I have these details in a little book in which I keep a picture of my patterns along with fabric amounts. I managed to direct my youngest to find the book but he could not find the 'dress' section as I had it listed in my book as 'frocks'! That's boys for you. Anyway I didn't know what notions I needed so will have to pick up a zip and some elastic.

I do plan to make a pair of shorts also this week as I am going camping for a few days at the end of next week. I am hoping to be in sewing heaven for the next few days as I don't have to work (hopefully!) Yippee - blahs are banished for now!!!!

Little Summer Skirt

I made another skirt with Simplicity 4138. The previous one was made in a cream crepe-type fabric and I have been looking for a pretty floaty fabric to make another one.

I found an inexpensive fabric at Mass fabrics (oops Make it Fabrics - been in Toowoomba long enough I am hanging on to the old shop name) which I assume is a poly but very pretty. I bought a nice cream cotton for a lining and made this pretty little summer skirt.

I used the rolled hem on my overlocker for the first time and was very happy with it. this is the finished result.

The rolled hem on the cotton was easy and went on beautifully. The poly was not so simple. I had to keep the tension on the fabric being fed in and coming out to get a good hem. Otherwise this happened. It happened a few times before I caught on to what was going on. So the skirt got shorter and shorter as I tried to get the perfect rolled hem.

I thought I had it licked but saw the above boo-boo when I was wearing the skirt today. I think I will try and hand sew this glitch some how. Its a pretty little skirt but probably won't live beyond this one season.

I also realise I need to practice my rolled hem before I try it on a more expensive floaty fabric!

You can't see it well in the photo but I am wearing my new summer sandals in pink and brown - it is amazing how many things a pair of pink sandals go with!