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Vogue, togs and Pandas!

Well, it has been a while since I have bought a Vogue pattern.  Here in Australia they are $18 or more and I just can't afford it, especially when you can buy similar in other patterns that sometimes go on sale.  Well I bit the bullet and bought some from sewingpatterns.com in the US when they recently had a $5.99 sale.  I bought some simple things - 2 top patterns and a dress with a simple jacket. I also bought a kwik-sew pattern for some togs (Queensland speak for bathers!) and an Issey Miyake that is pants and a really interesting jacket.


Vogue 8650vog
Size: AA(6-8 -10-12)
Delivery: Postal
5.99
1
5.99



Vogue 1100Vog








Vogue 8232vog







Vogue 1052vog






Vogue 1058vog







Kwik Sew 3779KSP






Sorry about posting my order sheet but my scanner doesn't want to play! One of the tops isn't showing up either but is Vogue 8392; just a simple top with neckline tucks and some interesting sleeve options (one puffy, one tiered frllls and one just plain short) and an option for a neck band.  I need tops and I am sick of buying cheap tops that don't fit when I have lots of lovely material.  

Tafe is starting next week so I will have to really manage my time better to be able to fit in some therapeutic sewing.  I am really keen to make up the togs .. I made my little boy a pair of boy leg togs that I copied from a pair we bought in Cyprus when on holidays in August 2009.  He loved those and everytime he put the ones I made on he said "I don't like these togs, mum ..... I LOVE them!"  They are only my second pair (the others were a pair of ordinary togs I made in a hurry) - so I haven't had any swimwear sewing experience... but I have a pair cut for training togs and now my new Kwik sew pattern too!  From my limited experience, it isn't hard to make them but my technique is lacking and I keep looking at Blooms Fabric Obsession and Sew-4-Fun to see how they do it.  

On another tangent, I also ordered some Birkenstock from Germany as mine are falling apart and I live in them.  It is at least 1/3 cost of buying them here in the shops and I always get about 2 or 3 pairs every two years or so.  Have a look here German Shoes Online.  They are very reliable and it is great value!

We also had our holiday in Adelaide ... we went to the Zoo to see the Pandas.  They are there for 10 years and you must book a session.  My friend was told they are more active in the morning so she booked the morning session for us and boy were we rewarded! 



 The session is for one hour and unless they do something spectacular like walk around there isn't much to see for an hour.  While this panda was walking around, she had the idea to climb the 15 metre tree!  That was pretty exciting - to see a 100 kg panda just climb this tree in seconds and then just sit on that very small branch.  She even went higher than this!  When I asked the attendant if they do this often, he said she hadn't done this for 10 weeks or so .. so it was very lucky for us.
 This is my son riding a borrowed bike at the local bmx park the council maintains in Adelaide.  It has three levels of track and my son loved it.  He used this bike in the Tour Down Under cycle week Kid's race.  I didn't tell him till after he'd finished that it had no front brakes (this he knew) but the back wheel was really buckled... but he did it and loved it.


This is the togs in action in Adelaide in my friend's pool.  
Ill take photos of my poor technique soon to show how poor they look up close but my son loves them and that's important ... I have another pair cut out for him so I'll finish them up and hope my technique gets better.




Comments

Kristy Chan said…
oh I was so tempted by that sewingpatterns.com sale on the Vogue patterns! I managed to resist temptation, only to buy some Simplicity patterns on sale instead because they had a pattern that isn't available here yet in Australia, and well if you're paying postage for one may as well pay postage for 5 right? Of course by the time I get around to making the pattern it probably will be available here!

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