McCall's 7608 for Brisbane Spoolette's High Tea

Well it's that time of year again. Brisbane Spoolette's High Tea - it is usually on around my birthday date so it's a great double excuse for a nice outfit and a cocktail. I chose to make McCall's 7608. Originally it was View D but with the shorter legs, but I forgot and cut out the long legs so I stuck with it as I figured if I don't like them I'll chop them again. As it was I cut off about 10cm from the bottom and that was just enough. Now this pattern was one of the ones that my friend brought back from the States for me when she was living there (they are living in Europe now). So I would give her a list of wannabe patterns and she would get what she could in the $1 and $2 sales. When I saw this one, I was "huh? what was I thinking". Plus it takes a lot of fabric and I usually buy fabric I love and then match it, so it's usually 2-3 metres only so when I found this fabulous hot pink fabric at the Maroochydore 2nd hand shop and it was 4 metres at 140cm wide, I knew it would be this jumpsuit.

I actually made a toile of this outfit, but it was from a thinner and more stiff fabric and that led to some problems.

I had orange thread in the overlocker for a gift garment I'll post up next (it's great, and I'm going to make me one too I love it so!), and I had no hot pink but I love orange and pink together so didn't bother getting more pink. But look at that point at the V! So pleased with that. Followed all the rules and it worked perfectly.

Here's the outside of the point. Nice!
So, the High Tea... I have a friend who I know from my son's 1st year at primary school where now, we are so busy we catch up here!

My other friend Kim got to her first Spoolette event and we started with a refreshing cocktail.

One for me too.

It was yummy and very pretty.

In the foreground is my friend Sarah.. she made her hat, which was fabulous and with a zip as the swirly embellishment... plus perfect match for my jumpsuit! I'll be asking to borrow that if I ever need a hat for the Melbourne Cup for example.

Yummy food, 62 women who love to sew, a glass of bubbles, tea, coffee, fabric swap and just all round fun. The standard and range of clothing was fabulous this year. I loved everything. In that photo above, in the background you see Kerry, who when we notice each other said, "oh it's you, I didn't recognise you with your clothes on.". The people nearby were a bit stunned, but we knew what we meant... we know each other from aqua aerobics at the night classes. Kim above if from the day classes. Worlds colliding!

Menu with added bonus words: The classic SANWICHES (sic), the roast beed (sic) was my favourite!

First time I think we've had a printed menu, which was quite pretty and entertaining!

Just as we were leaving we thought we'd get a photo at the beautiful staircase. Thanks to Liz for organising this event for the 6th year.

So, just a few words about my jumpsuit. It's very comfortable. I put in an invisible zip that was red as I had no pink.. this is a stash outfit all the way. As I said I did make a toile, but my fabric, which I think is a ramie or cotton or a mix of both. It's very linen like but doesn't wrinkle quite so much and is very soft and comfortable. It seemed to grow during the day and by the time I got home the straps were falling off. (I do have tiny shoulders). I didn't fit the bodice terrifically well as it's hard when you are by yourself, but I think I'll shorten the straps a bit and widen the front darts, which will allow a small pleat in the front which is completely eliminated on the current iteration. This should fix up the waist and shoulder length that has grown, but firstly I'll give it a hot wash and see if it shrinks a bit. All else fails, it's a quick sew and I've got heaps of fabric and I'll give that one to my niece.

Up next the orange gift.

Paris, river cruise 2022 - photo bomb!

(this post has been in my drafts since July 2022 due to life circumstances. I'm just going to write just a little and then just show some photos) My friend worked on a Superyacht for many years and through this connection was offered a friends and family deal on a river cruise in Europe. It was a deal too good to miss even though it wouldn't have been a first choice for me for a holiday. She had done this trip before but during the winter taking in the Christmas markets. We were going in June 2022. We decided to have 5 nights in Paris (where I'd been 5 times before) and 2 nights in Amsterdam where my friend lived for 2 years in her youth. We flew into Frankfurt... not because we wanted to but because these were the only flights we could get but we worked with it. Remember great deal! So ok, a short (5hr), fast ride on the ICE/TGV trains got us to Paris eventually (one was late which missed the connection to the earlier TGV but there was one a bit after). We knew that w

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 jewellery.

The saddest dress, then a few more.

Well hello. It's been a while. It was 8 months from the last post to the previous one to that and it's a bit longer this time. The last day I wrote was 10 Jul 2021. On 12 July my son and I were finally seeing Tim Minchin after booking it before we went to Europe at the end of 2019. It was going to be April 2020, but changed a few times and although it was a school night (year 12 for Alex) we went for dinner and sat in the show. My Mum had gone to hospital that morning and my sister was still at the hospital with her. Just after interval I got a message on my phone, "get to the hospital now". So we raced out and to the hospital where. although it was a lockdown and no visitors allowed, all 10 of us were allowed to see Mum as she was end of life. I won't go into the whole thing but Mum didn't die that night, but because of lockdown, we were not allowed to go and see her until a week and a half later when we were allowed just to discuss palliative care. By the n

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