Sew Darn Tired

I finished my togs yesterday at 5.30pm... great, that gave me 30 minutes to get to the pool before it closed at 6pm and have a swim to test them out. They are great. I didn't 'feel' them at all. I'm still surprised to see that I MADE TOGS!  Truth be told they are a little big.. not noticeably so if you see me in them but they need to be a little tighter - there isn't enough negative ease for my size. I made a size Y which was a 40. All the measurements except the body length, where I'm 5 cm shorter than the size Y. There isn't any markings on the pattern to shorten the body and I couldn't find any  instructions or help on the website with shortening either.  Maybe there is but I couldn't find it.  As I have a tiny back I cut the back band out a couple of sizes smaller but I could have cut it smaller, but I think with one size smaller overall, a slightly smaller back band would be needed still.  Because I was using smaller pieces of th...

This is where my togs are at still.... I wanted to finish them to do aqua on Friday but I didn't have the right elastic, what I had was too wide. I went to Trad's on Thursday night to get some and my son wanted sushi for dinner and that was ticking two boxes with one trip. I parked at the shopping centre and luckily I checked for something in my bag before I sat down to eat and realised I left my wallet at home... sigh! So we went back home, got the wallet and I said to my son, I'm getting the elastic before we eat, but of course he closed at 7pm and it was 7.04pm.  Sigh! So instead of avoiding one trip in the car, I added an extra one because I had to go back yesterday after  aqua aerobics and coffee. I hope to finish them today and swim in them this afternoon. This is a close up of the topstitching on the panels. Two things to note. I realised after finishing that I should have made the stitch length longer. Confession - I rarely think to change the stitch length...

This is the second start at this. The first time was too long and detailed. The short version: - son started high school... busy.. buses... piano... homework club etc - old parents getting older - house clear out (took forever... did every room) - guests stay - sewing room clean out. I haven't finished the Burda pants still.. just the waistband and hem to do but I need togs before I need pants. To tell the truth, it has been so hot and humid here, I couldn't bear to think about trying them on to check the waistband size. I do need togs for aqua aerobics and lap swimming, my year round exercises of choice. I was so desperate, I bought a pair at Aldi (that are pretty nice actually for a really reasonable price) but they are not good for active swim sports, more for swanning about.  I'm using Jalie 3134 . There's a story to the pattern but I'll tell you about that another post. This fabric I got from a  Brisbane Arcade,  shop sale, where the shop...

Well it's been a busy summer holiday season what with ageing parents and young children. It's been that 'busy but relaxed' sort of time - many activities, like the day at the big rambling park with lots of friends and cousins and the kids with their bikes and scooters and long picnic table with food. It made for a really fun day and the bonus was that it was so cool at the park despite the 34 deg celsius.  I actually made this a couple of months ago and have worn this to death. I have spoken of it but had no pictures with me wearing it. It's a Simplicity Jiffy Plus pattern - what's the plus mean? I don't know... maybe a bit more complex? Anyway it was quick and easy.  A couple of things to note about the pattern. See the ties? They are just threaded through channels on the right side of the dress and the back is one piece but the front is made of the top bodice and the skirt part. I omitted the pockets so the pattern would be seen. I also didn't...

I'm not that much into stats, but reading others reviews made me wonder again about how many items I made and of what. It's actually really pleasing to see how much I do get done in a year. So, to the details.... Total number of items made = 49 - most were clothes (5 of 'other') Total patterns used   = 37  of those... vintage = 8 (!!) Review of the 'other'. Costumes - can you forget the pies....? Here's a reminder ... I had such fun making these. I really enjoyed working out the process of how to construct the costume so that anyone could use it, being inventive with materials to fit a budget and not to forget my sister's surprise at P1 and P2. ( Bananas in Pyjamas  reference). I also made a dog coat... unfortunately my sister's dog died this year also :( RIP Hercules! Also I made a Finn jumper/hoodie for my boy. I am so pleased with this with the bonus that Alex still loves it and I will add a band along the bottom so ...

These are the last (unless I get some spare time this arvo) of the sewn things of 2015. I used Kwik Sew 3674, a pattern I got at the 2nd hand shop a while ago. Quite a useful little pattern if you have a young girl around, with two different looks and the puff sleeve dress without sleeves (like I've made below) makes it three looks. The dress above is made from remnants, both I got at Spotlight in separate purchases for minimal money. The owls are so cute I couldn't resist and my friend's daughter just loves getting me made dresses! She's only 5 but very tall (think 7 or 8 year old) so it's nice to make her something her age that fits. She has seen the fabric on their last trip down from Yeppoon and I promised a dress from it. They are moving back in a number of weeks and so she will open it with her other presents. When I made the dress below, I just leave the sleeves off, overlock and turn over the armholes and then make a casing for the straps... this ...

These are the fab four... a charcoal one, a purple (one of her colours) with coral/orangey back (not her colour), the rust red one and the taupe one. I thought I'd show the four singlet tops I made for my niece in more detail. They were made from scraps of merino knit that was from the fabric sale I went to a few weeks ago. It is a lovely slubby merino and behaved very well. I traced the pattern - pretty easy for a singlet - front and back. The original has bindings on the armholes and neckline but I didn't have enough fabric for binding for the armholes. In the photo above I cut two fronts or backs at a time. You can also see the leftovers were not much - I had to cut the neck bindings out of those tiny scraps. The fabric was also about 5 cm shorter than the original top (and serendipitously just wide enough). The original tip was very long on Zoe's body (she's a stage manager and does a lot of bending and stretching so for work wear it needs the length)...