Catch up and Christmas sewing.....Warning....Long post

I have been distracted by Christmas sewing instead of finishing the stripy dress in the last post but more on that later. I have just worked out I can put my SD card straight into my MacBook Pro so lots of photos!!

In September school holidays my beautiful boy and I went to Toowoomba just at the end of the Carnival of Flowers. Toowoomba is a two hour drive from Brisbane and it is a lovely city on the top of a mountain. It was just a couple of days but really fun.

Alexander's breakfast

Alexander eating my breakfast!

Some of the beautiful flowers (nice smoker in the background!).

Sewing room mess in process of being sorted! (random photo drop!)

This is the Motorcycle Museum on the way to Toowoomba.

For motorcycle enthusiasts - there are A LOT of fantastic, rare, special and weird bikes here all privately owned!

Now to the dress I started about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Pattern reminder. So I stalled as the fabric is quite thin I decided to buy some Steam-a-seam - where has this been all my life?? It is great to fix those seams and hopefully make sewing around the neck and armholes - I say hopefully because of course when I finally bought it and used it, I broke my twin needle - arrgh! They are so expensive so I had to make a trip to Spotlight. Finally today (after Alexander's piano concert) I will finish it to wear to Simple Minds (at A Day on the Green at Sirromet Winery with Devo, the Church and Models [?]) tomorrow. But I have proof of my stripe matching of which I am proud!

Dress in the make - nearly done

Stipe matching pride!

I've made two sets of Christmas napkins for teacher gifts. One is a set of 4 and one is a set of 5 matching the family numbers. It was as remnant fabric and I used my No 6 rolled hem foot. Most machines come with a No 2 but I bought a set with No 2,4 and 6 a couple of years ago. Great for napkins, hankies, hems, aprons and tea towels. I have also made two little Christmas dresses for a cousin's 1 year old and my new neighbour's 10 week old baby. I used Butterick 5326. I changed it a bit for the 1 year old's dress - I didn't put buttons all down the back..just put 3 buttons on the bodice. The baby's dress will have buttons all down the back. Actually I'm still to finish the baby's but will do that today. Actually the buttons are just for show I have put snaps to make it easy for on and off with little ones.

Christmas napkins - school teacher and piano teacher gift.

One year old's Christmas dress gift

Pattern used for Christmas dress

On another note, as evidenced above, I am clearing out my sewing room and have started an Etsy shop to sell the patterns I have used, never used, just hoarded or bought because I liked them but will not suit me. I will also sell some of the fabric I have because I have too much and some is just not me but I recognise as beautiful. Some patterns and fabric is vintage so when it is running I will let you know and have a giveaway! Stay tuned - I'm just in the process of photographing it all - boring but necessary! Till next time; happy sewing!

More things I've made - part 2

Hello... welcome to part two of things I've made. I now realise there will be a part 3 as there's more I can't post tonight. These things I made last year before I went to South Korea for a holiday. The photos of the top that I made with the Vogue pattern above are down below. Don't know why Blogger won't let me move them, but I don't have time to argue with it! Anyway, I made it with some merino French Terry I bought years ago. It is merino loops, but the outer facing part of the fabric is nylon. It's very lightweight, warm and comfortable but not the best for this pattern as the nice high neck doesn't stay up high, but it's still really nice and useful in my warmish winter. I made it as the vest top and hemmed it and bound the armholes with some fold over elastic I bought at some markets in Lisbon in my trip last year. I put a chunky metal pink zip as the closure. I will make this again as I really like that it's not a boring old pullover. I...

More things I've made - part 3.

Well part 3 is here. First up Style 1876. Did I ever say that Style are my favourite patterns? So this one was an op shop find a long time ago. It's a great pattern. I can't remember if the bodice is cut on the bias (but I think not) and the skirt is cut on the bias. I made it out of some synthetic crepe in the most fabulous colour. It has great pockets that you can see on the red dress.. The are sewn onto the back pieces, and then when you sew it up and leave the opening, you stitch the pocket onto the inside/front of the dress. That pocket isn't going anywhere. I used up all the fabric which was a gift from a friend's mother in law. It turned out to be a bit see though and I didn't wear it. It fits so nicely around the shoulders and arm holes. I decided I was going to wear it to Brisbane Spoolettes Frocktails this year as I didn't have time to make something else. I decided that it needed something else though as it was a little too see through for me. I had ...

YFASMA - Fabric shopping in Athens

I promised this post in March! Fabrics from Euro1 per metre! I didn't buy anything in this shop but there was some lovely fabrics. I did buy the green and pink one above on the right. A satin finish rayon. It is lovely. There was a lot of lovely fabrics in this shop. It wasn't cheap Euro 8 p.m. but I didn't have a lot of room in my bag and I wanted something I would really love. I also didn't buy anything in Paris this time. I did buy the fabric for a table cloth just across the way from this shop. I also bought some orange/white weave linen fabric for Euro 4 p.m. at another shop, which I think I'll make some summer trousers with. As I was going to the airport, I saw this dress on the platform and I really liked it. Very easy to do too, I went to the Benaki Museum while in Athens. There is actually 2 locations. In this one I saw lots of Greek and Cypriot cultural crafts. This was a bridal bed in Crete. There was lots of clothing, embroidery and gold jewelle...

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