Lurgy season

I have been knocked out with a dreadful cold this week but I am feeling vaguely human today. Prior to this illness I was sewing like mad and just wanted to post a photo of a dressing gown I have made for my Mum. We are travelling next week to Finland and my Mum needs a summer-weight dressing gown, but of course they are hard to find in the shops now, so I elected to make one from an old Style OOP pattern (I don't think that pattern brand even exists anymore). As my Mum did not want to spend a lot of money on it I picked up some fabric from the $2 clearance table at Spotlight and made this...
The colour is probably not my Mum's favourite but I think suitable for a dressing gown (not much choice on the clearance table) but other than that it came out well. Hope you like it Mum!

Gaposis

I think I have a gaposis problem in my Vogue pants. I have been making these pants and reached a stage where I could try them on....


I don't think they should be sitting that far out from my back waist. Do I have a sway-back? I have looked at my fitting book and it doesn't seem helpful. It talks about wrinkles in the back waist - this is no wrinkle - you could slide anything down that gap! I don't know whether I just take it in the centre back seam or what - I may have to call for help on this one.

In other pant news. We went shopping today for clothes for my youngest who is 15 but fits into size 10 clothes. This elastic was in two of the pants we bought. It is great as being a bit of a string bean you just pull the elastic and move the button along to another buttonhole in the elastic - what a great idea - maybe that's what I need?

Shopping

Today I braved the Spotlight sale and bought this fabric from the $2 clearance table - yep you say $2 (she paid too much) ... the colours are not showing true here as I photographed it instead of scanning it, so the background 'yellow' is actual a white/cream so the whole fabric is actually white/tan/red/black, not yellow/gold/orange/black as it looks here. I think it will make a cute simple t-shirt.

I also bought Vogue 8157 (half price) and some Deboinare fabric ($7.95/m) which is a stretch woven - Poly/ Viscose-Rayon/ elastane mix in a chocolate brown from which I will make View A - the mid calf pants. I thought these would be great to wear on Holiday and I would also be able to use this pattern to enter the Adv Beginner competition on Pattern Review.

Well the pattern is simpler to make than I anticipated with the buttons really only being decorative, but never mind - I don't expect to win the competition - I only want to participate. I like the idea of these comps to keep myself motivated to try new things. I had anticipated a more complex pattern - being pants, but these will fit the bill nicely for my holiday as well, so worth the effort of making them before I go away!

One more top for the week-end

I managed to squeeze one more Jalie T-shirt out of the week-end. 2566 (twinset). I made the T-shirt only - view B with cap sleeves. This fabric was a dead cheap dark navy 2-way stretch rib-style from Lincraft for $5 a metre. Considering this top only needs 1 metre I will be watching all the remnant bins some more to see if I can pick up a bargain to make this top!

I love, love love Jalie patterns - patterns made and designed for stretch fabrics, designed for woman and with enough instruction to finish them and they look better than RTW!

What a free week-end does for me...

I have had a reasonably free week-end - went to a show (Menopause the Musical) & dinner last night for a girls night out , which was a lovely break from my routine, but the rest of the week-end has been reasonably free. I had a rotten headache yesterday but am over the worst of that now! So this week-end I have made up the two items I had cut out previously:

The Jalie Sweetheart top (again). This time with cap sleeves and made out of my more expensive fabric from Sckaf's.

I love this pattern and will make many more. I have ironed the tissue paper patter onto interfacing so it will last longer!

and...Burda wof pyjama pants from Issue 12-2007-127. I ended up adding a contrast band at the bottom as I bought not quite enough fabric. The fabric was on the clearance table a Spotlight for $5 a metre, so I am pretty pleased with these pants. The next ones will be made of silk...*sigh*

So I hope you are all having a good week-end too. Now I must go & put out some more washing while the sun is shining!

What my sweetie does for me...

I had a long, hard day at work yesterday and this is what was waiting for me when I got home...

What gym has done for me....

2003 and 2008.

It is hard to find photos of me standing before a camera around 2003, but I came across this one taken in front of my first quilt and couldn't help comparing it with my latest photo. I think going to the Gym has paid off for me, even my posture has improved (and I really used to like that pink top)...

Jalie Sweetheart Top

I finished my Jalie Sweetheart top today. It is made from fabric I bought at Spotlight, so I consider this top my wearable muslin. However I do like a good black Tee and I really love this one!

I have cut out another one with cap sleeves from fabric I bought at Sckafs on our last shopping trip. It is the green/brown/pink fabric. I have decided to try & be as focused as I can with my sewing to ensure I make clothes I will take to Finland on my trip next month.

I have also cut my pyjama pants from Burda wof fashion and found I was a few inches short of fabric. Luckily I remembered that there was an option to add a contrast band to the bottom of the pants. So I have cut some green fabric to lengthen them.

I will probably have to go to work for the next few days so probably won't make any progress over the next few days...

Vintage

I have recently purchased these two vintage paterns from ebay. I have always wanted to try making (and wearing) a vintage dress, so AF (after Finland) I think I will do M4524 - the narrow skirt pattern. I love the pockets and the collar line and (hopefully) it won't be too hard to make. It still seems to need a surprising amount of fabric however! The best part of these patterns is that they are not too far off my size so I amhoping I don't need to make too many alterations!

My travel duds

I have sewn these pants this week and already worn them twice - they are so comfy. However as they are black I had to wait for the right time to get a photo. They are made from Vogue 8335 and I highly recommend them as they are quick to make and soooo comfortable to wear!. I have done a review on pattern review which pretty much says the same thing!

Shopping and a finished top

I have had a really great week-end. The girls (Caity & Chriss) and I went fabric shopping in Brisbane.

First up was Fabric Barn at Sumner Park. They had a great range and also lots of lovely stretch knits which looked very similar to ones I have been checking out on overseas fabric sites. These are the lovely jerseys I bought. The first two will make up Jalie tops and the black is for comfy pants for travel.

Next stop was Indooroopilly Shoppingtown and Sckafs fabrics - yummy.... terrific range again, great service and also heaps of trims and notions.

Again I bought a few fabrics. The first two in the photo are cottons from the end of roll sale - $5 a metre could not pass them up. The next is the most delicious stretch knit to make another Jalie top. the fourth is a plain cream cotton knit - very good quality to make a great wardrobe builder top. I am going to have plenty of tops when I sew these all up! However I have a big pile of old t-shirts that are due to be thrown out!

On Sunday, Caity & I met up with Linda for a coffee and chatted about our new art quilters on-line group which Linda has just organised. Linda was up for a quilting retreat week-end. Lucky she doesn't feel the cold as it was quite a miserable week-end!

Then in the afternoon I decided to make a small sewing project and made the McCall's 5105 top in a remnant piece of Cavalli (Poly/spandex) bought from Gardams. If you are interested I did a review.

This is the first time I have tried twin needle stitching and it went quite well. I think the tension on the back was a little tight but otherwise if went very well.