Good-bye 2012, Hello 2013!

There's nothing like a firework filled skyline to bring in the new year!

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I've been reading my favourite blog summaries of 2012 and plans for 2013 and everyone is so inspiring. I don't really have a lot to recap for 2012, since my blog is still in it's infancy however the most exciting sewing event was my return to weekly sewing classes. It's been a great way to get back into more consistent sewing,  improving my pattern drafting and altering skills, sewing skills and having loads of fun on a Saturday morning with the sewing gals!

I also entered the Tessuti Awards for the first time. Whilst I didn't win, I really enjoyed challenging myself to sew to a theme and to extend my sewing, pattern drafting and pattern draping skills. The stripe matching took quite a bit of time, patience and hand-sewing but it was 100% worth it! If anyone is interesting a reading about the process, let me know and I'll do a blog post about it.

Close up shots of my Tessuti Awards 2012 entry. For more photos, see my entry page.

The next highlight is getting a blog up and running. I've spent a lot of time playing around with the look and feel of the blog and bringing any valuable posts over from my old and quiet blog! Since I still feel like I'm only just kicking off my new blog, I'm calling today my official blog starting day for anniversary purposes. Woo!

So onto planning for 2013

• I feel like my blog is a big part of my plans for 2013. I would like to blog at least once every week but I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't!
• One of the key reasons why I started sewing, was to be able to get great fitting clothes which is difficult with RTW due to my height. So focusing on fit is an important part of my year. I'm not one to turn out a garment a week (hats off to those who can do that!), so I'm not going to pressure myself to churn out garments when it's just not feasible for me.
• I've toyed with the idea of doing a SWAP over at Artisan Square and the rules this year look achievable. I've been doing a lot of planning, selecting patterns and pre-treating of fabrics.
• Get more involved in the blogging community. I'm an avid reader of quite a few blogs but I tend to keep quiet and rarely post comments. This is something I want to change! I just need to work out the most efficient way to do this, particularly using my commute. I normally read blogs on my RSS reader but never really got the hang of commenting at the same time. So that is something I want to change!
• Make some of the things I've pinned. I love pinterest and am addicted to pinning all manner of pictures but I rarely make the time to go back and make up some of the items.

So here's to an awesome 2013!

2010 recap and 2011 goals

I can't believe it's day 2 of 2011 - where did 2010 go? I feel like it went really fast and was a so-so year for me. So I was ready to bring on 2011!

From a sewing goals perspective, I don't think I did that well in 2010. I did sew more but no where near what I wanted. I started lots of sew-alongs and finished ... none. Terrible, I know!

So that brings me to 2011 ... I'm calling it the year of finishing things, since I've identified that I start lots of things but finish very few. I think my list of UFOs doesn't quite capture all of my UFOs (I have sewing, scrapbooking and knitting UFOs!) so I will be working to update that list to give myself a good target.

I've also decided to try to keep posts sewing related with the occasional non-sewing but craft related post thrown in for good measure. I'm also planning to blog at least once a week - I know, considering my last year that will be tough but I'm up for the challenge!!

Valentino Exhibition in Brisbane!

I feel like I've totally fallen off the Blogtoberfest wagon - probably because I have!! Things got a bit crazy and then once I'd missed one day it was easy to miss a few more.

It all started on Friday night. I went out to some work drinks and had a so-so night. I won't go into the details but I headed home thinking I should have gone straight home to work on a summery skirt instead. Lesson learnt - do what I want to do! So then I got home and couldn't be bother to log onto my computer.

Saturday rolled around and it was my first Saturday sleep in for months. Since the weather outside was pretty awful, I spent an hour or so snoozing in bed before I got up and did some cleaning. Then I headed out in the afternoon for some scrapbooking fun! I was working on a Printers Tray and will post photos when complete (might be awhile away!). On my way home, I caught up with a friend for what was to be a quick dinner but ran later than expected. By the time I got home, I just rolled into bed ... especially knowing I had such a big day ahead of me on Sunday!

Which brings me to Sunday! I headed up to Brisvegas for the day with some sewing buddies to see the Valentino Exhibition. All I can say is wow! It was really awesome! There were about 100 dresses on display, along with some other memorabilia and short movies. There is also a book catalog but they are sold out - so I'll be getting mine on Amazon. You can order it but I'm doing an Amazon order soon anyway.

If you get the chance - go and see it! If I was to do it again, I would go for the weekend and go 2 days in a row. You take different things in each time and there is just sooo much to see. I would live to see the inner construction of so many of them and now I want to see The Last Emperor again. Must ... buy ... DVD :) I will post more about my thoughts and favourite dresses (if I can find some pics online!)

Then the start of this week has been a combination of feeling like I'm getting over jetlagged (Sunday I was up 3am - midnight!). Then work has been busy with a bunch of late nights - which brings us up to today!

On the sewing front, I'm falling behind of my Lady Grey. Between being flat out, gathering my notions and not even pre-treating my fabric, I'm a good week or 2 behind I think. Yikes! I need to get my skates on! It will be hard though with a work deadline fast approaching and weekends busy with house hunting and classes, so I might end up doing it on my sewcation. Yep, you heard right! I have cup week off and plan to spend some of that time at home and then 3 days in King Island.

I'm also still in the planning (procrastinating?) phase of a couple of summer skirts. They should also get completed during my week off.

Oh and I fell off the stash busting bandwagon. Clegs have a sale on and I picked up some fabrics I've been eyeing for awhile. Bad, I know! That's why I started the stash busting challange - to curb my fabric purchasing! So I guess I will need to finish A LOT of garments to catch up. Argh!!!

Your own personal style

I read a really interesting post this week about understanding your own personal style. It really got me thinking about my own style and the fact that I feel that there is a gap between my style and what I aspire for my style to me. I'm not someone who follows trends but enjoy some elements of current fashion. But mostly I aspire to be "stylish", classifying my personal style as "Elegant and sophisticated with a twist" with the twist being interesting elements such as a bright scarf, funky earrings or sassy heals, although it's something that's been missing in recent years. I just love classic looks and timeless elegance. Thanks to the stylings of Mad Men (and many of the awesome sewing bloggers out there) I'm becoming a fan of vintage, mainly late 50s and early 60s (but not as far as the swinging 60s).

So now that I've declared my style to the world, it's time to unveil my master plan to build my ultimate wardrobe, or should I say sew my ultimate wardrobe! I have an awesome book the Lucky shopping manual which is split up into chapters by type of clothing article and gives recommendations for the minimum you would need in each category and then the extras you would need if you wear a lot of that clothing type (eg if you're a pants girl like me, have more pants than skirts). It also includes tips for styles that flatter and photos of different types of that type of clothing (different collars, cuffs, styles etc...) and designer profiles. It's a great book that I recommend and will form the building blocks for my wardrobe. I plan to find patterns in my stash and also new patterns to get wardrobe coverage, then I'll find the fabric and then sew it up! It's still in the planning stages but something that I'm really excited about it!

Another great book is The Pocket Stylist which helps you find your body shape and suggests the styles that flatter your shape. Once great tip for determining your shape is to take a photo and print it A4. Then cut it out and look at it from the back. It helps you to identify your shape without any "distractions" that may influence what you think your style is.

Another great tip I learnt was to find out if you are short or long waisted. You use measurements to work it out and it helps identify styles that fit. I always thought that I was long waisted because tops are always too short (except for recently as it's the current fashion that tops are longer) but then I discovered that whilst my waist may be longer than most peoples, it's actual short based on my proportions. Very interesting stuff! It made me realise why short tops don't suit me as it makes me look even shorter waisted!

Scrapbooking Retreat!

So, it's been another 2 weeks (where does time go?!) and I'm mostly moved back home but am considering spending a couple of weeks living in Collingwood with my brother. So, I may be moving ... again...I just hope it doesn't mean carting projects back and forth because it drove me a little crazy!

I just spent a fantastic 2 days with a group of over 50 avid scrapbookers at the Scraptacular Retreat. We started the weekend with dinner on Friday night, followed by scrapping ALL weekend (meaning all hours of the night and day, only stopping to eat and occasionally sleep!). It was my second retreat and was even better than last year. It was a wonderful weekend and I'm always blown away by the talent and generosity of these women! I will post some photos of what I worked on but it was a whole lotta cards and also some layouts.

I've finished the beanie and scarf I mentioned in an earlier post and will post some photos of those two. The beanie didn't work out as expected but that's ok - hopefully Beanie #2 will be better. Photos to come soon!

Sewing and Knitting project update

I can't believe it has, but it has ... Unfortunately for me and my sewing machine, the last week or so have been pretty busy and have included me going down with a cold but I'm starting to feel a bit normal again and hopefully that means more sewing or knitting time for me!

I'm mid-way through a number of projects and want to get some photos up soon but so you know what I'm working on:
Simplicity 2860
* A pair of pin stripe pants using this pattern. I love this pattern and have made it once before (in a woven stretch fabric with woven pin stripes which are not obvious. Whilst these turned out ok, whilst making them they stretched out by about 2 sizes, which I took in but they also stretched up and are still high waisted!) My latest pair are non-stretch so fingers crossed they work ok.
* I'm also planning a grey pair and a pair in stretch pin stripe but that's not yet cut out!

Patons Learn To Knit


I bought this book about a year ago and used it whilst I was learning to knit properly (I knew the basic knit stitch but that's it). Along with help from my mum, this has been a really valuable resource when I was learning.

After completing some basic scarves, I'm now working on a few of the projects in this book (don't worry, I can count - the numbers below are the project numbers in the book:
1. Garter Stitch scarf. I decided to make this in stocking stitch because I have a few garter scarves and wanted to try something else, plus I love the way scarves curl when you use Stocking stitch.
7. Fitted Hat with Roll Back Brim. I decided to change the roll back brim slighly and have also done this on circular needles so I didn't have to join it at the back. I wouldn't recommend this for beginners but if you do decide to give a try, these are the links I found most useful:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEXlHPcE9QU
http://www.stitchdiva.com/custom.aspx?id=104
11. Knit Your First Sweater. I'm having fun with this so far and hope to improve my increasing and decreasing skills, as well as having a lovely warm jumper for winter!

Pencil Skirt
I started with a straight skirt block and used it to draft my own pencil skirt with a yoke and an invisible zip that runs through the yoke. I'm currently making this up in a black stretch denim (left over from another skirt, so this is my toille) and some grey stretch suiting. I also have a grey 100% wool remnant that I'm planning to make this up in - with silk lining! Pictures to come soon -- I promise!

Moving back home
Amongst the above I'm moving back home after 3 months of house sitting. It's been fun but I'm looking forward to being home again. No more carting crafting projects back and forth - yay! Where I was living was without internet, so I have discovered that I have a lot more time available to me when I don't spend hours
wasting time on surfing the web. Farmville on Facebook, I'm looking straight at you! I'm planning on using this new found time to exercise more and work on the above projects and some others I have planned. Let's see! I'm back after the 17th but out of town the next weekends but after that, I'll be sewing up a storm!

The start of something new

I’ve been a big lurker when it comes to blogs for a long time and I try to keep up with a lot of different blogs (thank-you rss feeds!) and I’ve contemplated writing my own for some time (mainly thanks to Julie and Julia, to the point that I started some but never posted … ever). So – here goes nothing!

I started sewing a little over a year ago for a few reasons. I have a lot of trouble finding clothes, particularly pants that are long enough for me and even when I do find them I have found RTW quality of tall clothing to be not so good. When I travelled to Hong Kong for my cousins wedding in 2008, I had the opportunity to have some clothes tailor made (pants, jackets and shirts). After experiencing a good fit (not perfect but still good!) I thought to myself "I can do this" and so my sewing adventures began! I've since have some work changes and travel which put my classes and sewing time on hold but am now back at it! I've also since had some pants made in Singapore (in 2009) which were a higher quality, fit and using beautiful pure wool fabrics, so I've taken all my experiences and added them to my sewing knowledge to determine what I want to be able to produce.

My goal is to be able to make my own wardrobe, with the exception of basics (t-shirts, singlets etc...) with a focus on making my own jeans, jackets and suits.

Somethings general about me -
* I love to sew but am still learning. My desire / goal is to be able to sew my own work clothes which means suits. I’ve made pants, skirts and half a shirt but not jackets so far. I have a big long list of items that I want to sew, so I’ll try to post that soon.
* I work in IT, so I would say that I’m a bit of a nerd but I’m ok with that :)
* I enjoy scrapbooking as a creative way of documenting the events in my life, both big and small.
* I love 1950's fashion, so I love watching Mad Men for the clothes but not for the way women are treated.

More to come, including what I’m sewing at the moment and what some of the pieces I’m planning at the moment! I might even try to put together a post of things I’ve made in the past (as much for my record as it is for your enjoyment!).