Puppy coat

This weekend I had planned on finishing some pants and starting a dress and so forth...when somehow after taking our dog Misty for a walk, we ended up at the RSPCA.   Not leaving Misty there of course, but getting suckered into a new family member.  This is Hamish.  Hamish is a 4 month old german shorthaired pointer.  He's a smooch and remarkably (for the first 24 hours) not much trouble except for the upset tummy, which has meant we've gone through 2 rolls of kitchen paper today.

However this Melbourne winter is still a little cold for a pup, so I set about making a dog coat for Hamish out of an old cat polarfleece blanket.  If you're looking to make one of these, go to here for a fantastic pattern.  I didn't use the pattern directly, but as a guide to what shape the pieces needed to be, and then literally threw the blanket over the top of Hamish and started marking it for cutting.  

Being a whipped together sunday night project I'm pretty happy with the result (and the model), but I had to leave part of the neck unbound as to have some stretch when getting it on him.  I only had a polycotton to use as bias binding, which didn't have enough give.   Seeing as he will grow out of it pretty fast, it's not the end of the world.  

My current excuse for being lazy

Ok, I haven't blogged in a very long time.  And I've prepared a very long list of excuses...but will only share the top 3.

1.  Husband and I bought our first home, and moved in.  Which is very time consuming between signing and reading documents, cleaning things and carrying furniture.  I'd easily allocate two months to this kerfuffle.
2.  I've spent all of my time since moving reading design magazines, and blogs...and thinking of plans for our home with no correlation to reality.  Load bearing walls, budgets, time blah blah blah.  The second story devoted to the library is my favourite dream feature (it is complete with bookshelves with ladders).  In addition this library would have conceptual art from LOTR, Tim Burton and the Dark Crystal.
3.  I haven't done much sewing and in guilt, therefore no blogging.

As the weather warms up (I hope) I'm venturing into my sewing room more, and will have more projects complete.

And the last dirty secret....Katies quilt still isn't complete.  And Katie's been married for a couple of months now.  3 actually.

But, just to help understand why I might spend so much time on point number two, here is a picture of what I'm working with.  Oh, i mean the curtains, not the evil looking cats.

Not getting much done

And that's for two reasons.

The first being that Kate's wedding is next week, therefore I'm sewing like mad trying to finish the binding.

The second being we're moving houses this week, and the I'm surrounded by boxes and the sewing machine is all packed up:(  The real challenge will be this binding, when I'm about to run out of thread to boot!

Alannah Hill silk (AKA the one that got away)

18 months ago, I tried on a silk Maxi dress for $80.  It looked fantastic, and for some STUPID reason, I didn't buy it.  Even after the shop girl said I would regret this.  Damn her foresight.

But we'll get back to that in a moment.  Being a poor Alannah Hill addict, I have often frequented the Clear It store in Brunswick Street, where all of her excess/seconds/samples are sent.  And only recently did a dim memory reappear, of the rolls and rolls of excess fabric also sold there.  Within 3 hours, a lunchtime expedition was launched to Brunswick Street.

And oh the delight.  Printed silk, $9 a metre.  Lightweight pinstripe suiting, $4 a metre.  THAT IS CHEAPER THAN MY COFFEE!!!!  So naturally I came home with 6 metres.  Gosh was the husband surprised.

Thus, the plan is to recreate the dress that got away, in better material and the perfect fit.  Now to just find a pattern.  It can't be that hard right?

The pinstripe?  That has already been set aside for one of the following 1950's dresses.  The only question is, which one?  I'm leaning towards the one with the little underbust belt.

one yard wonder shorts

Recently I added One Yard Wonders to the growing sewing library, and have given a few small projects a try.  The first was the sleeping shorts.   I'll start with saying I love the final result, but it took some tweaking.

Where to start...I suppose the first problem was that having seen the picture of the very young slim woman wearing the shorts, I anticipated the outcome would be for my posterior to look the same.  That was never going to happen.  The pattern calculations were based on a slim build, so *hint* by taking the measurements at the widest point, I was able to get the width.  The other problem is the inner seams don't allow for any "booty".  So add on a inch there.  

If a pattern asks for your hip measurement, but you're wider a few inches below - use that measurement otherwise it won't fit as well.  It's better to have some ease around the hips than too tight around - well, where ever that place may be.

Aside from that, the only other issue was insufficient instruction around the final waistband.  I ended up putting in a tie, for two reasons.  One being that my old pyjamas had a tie, and the other being I dislike elastic.  Neither reason being very good, in hindsight some elastic along the back would be very comfortable, but this isn't built into the dimensions of the pattern.

I used french seams for comfort, however the next pair of shorts will have flat felled seams.  Definitely give this a go, very quick to make and overall good instructions.

Like the cherry fabric?  I just couldn't resist.

Spring Top week - game on

I'm not sure where I'm going to find the time, but I've decided to join spring top week with Made by Rae!  

The last top I made (first and most recent) was her design for last years Spring top week - and I think I've got a few ideas of my own......

Challenge accepted!

It doesn't kick off until the first week of May, but with moving house in-between it could be challenging.

Summer Ruffle top

February was busy.  Very very busy.  But - we have persevered, and we are one hem away from completing Made by Rae's summer ruffle top.  While the bloggers in the Northern hemisphere are heading back there - I attempted one last ditch attempt at holding onto summer with this light top.

Overall Rae has made a fairly easy to follow pattern, which I only made one change to - being the chest band, next time I will cut as two separate pieces (as opposed to folding it over) so the straps can be sewn inside the band.

I would recommend this pattern and style to anyone quite slim - or for the girls with larger assets, if you don't have a waist belt, this would be easily modified to make an excellent maternity top.  In Australia, this most definitely is a "Bec Cartwright" style.

I've already cut the pieces out to make this in a pale purple without the frills - a quick easy to make work top!

(please ignore the washing machine, kitty litter et al)