Uh oh...

Today I discovered that fabric buying is addictive......uh oh.

Stay tuned.....

Skirt Progress

I have pockets!!! And pleats!!

I am making definite progess on my skirt project. It is turning out to be easier than I expected. Everything so far is stuff I know how to do so it hasn't been too challenging yet but I have the zipper to go yet so we shall just see...

Last night I sewed and attached the pockets and I also basted the pleats in. I used the overlocker to finish off the edges of the pockets and the back seam and I LOVE IT. I wish I had an overlocker at home. It would just make everything so much easier. It was a bit scary to use at first though. It goes so much quicker than my machine and then there's the threat of the cutter!

It is starting to look like an actual garment. (apologies for the dodgy photos)

Next I have to join the front and back pieces, attach the yoke and the bottom panel and put in the zipper. Another session should get it pretty much finished. I'm very excited.

The Ship of Brides

I just finished the most fantastic book. 'The Ship of Brides" by Jojo Moyes.

The year is 1946 and all over the world young women are crossing the seas in their thousands en route to the men they married in wartime, and an unknown future. In Sydney, Australia, four women join 650 other brides on an extraordinary voyage to England - aboard the Victoria, which still carries not just arms and aircraft but a thousand naval officers and men.

Rules of honour, duty and separation are strictly enforced, from the aircraft carrier's captain down to the lowliest young stoker. But the men and the brides will find their lives intertwined in ways the Navy could never have imagined.

And Frances Mackenzie - the enigmatic young bride whose past comes back to haunt her thousands of miles from home - will find that sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

Based on the true voyage undertaken by HMS Victorious, The Ship of Brides is a novel about love, blind faith, and an age when the collision between duty and love could leave you with more than a broken heart. 

It was just wonderful. Such a gripping story that I had to force myself to put it down and then I would pick it up every chance I got. The characters are so engaging and intriguing that it just made me want to read and read until I knew more. This book is based on true events where war brides were transported  across the seas and by having that element of reality to it just made the story more vivid. I want to write more about the story but I am afraid of giving away too much.

Jojo Moyes is a wonderful writer and storyteller. She paints such wonderful characters and the story moves so beautifully between years and decades, past and present, yet has a flow that keeps you engaged and wanting more.
I have read other Jojo Moyes books, in particular "Foreign Fruit" which has a similar style of intertwining present and past. It too is a wonderful read with wonderfully rich characters and story. She is a truly gifted writer.

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!!! The 3rd of Feb 2011 is the start of the Year of the Rabbit!!

Since January pretty much sucked for all of us I think we should all just restart the New Year with the Chinese. Hands up if you're with me...

Photoshop my life....

It is time to photoshop my life.  Touch up the edges, adjust the tones, blur out the background,  focus on me and crop people out.

 The last few weeks/months have been some of the most confusing, mixed up and emotional that I have experienced so far. I came to realisation that I had never had my heart broken before. I can now no longer say that. 

 While it was a heart-wrenching, stomach-contracting mind-f*ck of an experience; it was exactly that. An experience. Something that I think every emotionally available person has to go through at some stage, possibly even more than once.  

I has taken me a long time and more than a few tears to get to the stage that I'm at now where I am feeling marginally better and even a little bit positive about my life. I can only hope that these feelings of positivity continue and that I am strong enough to get through the bad times when they do arise.

 It took me a little while to get to this stage and it will take me even longer to truly be ok but at least I have now made a step in the right direction.

 

 

Fabric Arrival!

Finally, my beautiful Hummingbird fabric arrived from Etsy!!! Very excited!!!

I'm pretty sure it arrived a few days ago but a few things in my life happened and I kept forgetting to go to the post office. But...never mind. I now have my fabric and I am happy.

I now, however, have to put a temporary fabric buying ban on myself. I have three lots of fabrics for dresses and a skirt currently in progress, not to mention other craft projects (like my felt fruit). That is plenty to keep me occupied for now so I have to lay off the fabric buying until I at least make a dent.

Now I just have to make sure I stay on track and actually (start and) finish my planned projects. I'm not the best at finishing projects I start. I get very excited and into a project but am very easily distracted and things tend to get left by the wayside. I'm am striving towards changing that part of my personality.

Wish me luck!

Skirt Project Progress

I had my first sewing class yesterday. It was really great. The other girls in the class were nice and it is a really great atmosphere. It all very loose and informal. Everyone just works at their own pace, on their own projects but there's help there when it's needed.

I got all of my pattern cut out, pinned to my fabric and got my fabric cut out too. I even started to pin the cut pieces together to start stitching. I didn't quite get to stitching despite being there for three hours.

I took the steps very slowly until I gain a bit of confidence. It took me that bit longer because I had Bronwyn (the instructor) check each step before I continued. Hopefully as I get more comfortable I'll be able to move a bit faster but for now I really don't want to stuff it up!

Sewing class tomorrow...

I'm very excited. Tomorrow is my fist sewing class at The Sewing Workshop.

I already know how to sew, having learned from Mum and then later at high school but it has been so long since I have done any real sewing. I have done small projects and mending etc but sewing something substantial from a pattern is very different so I decided I needed a bit of help.

I found Ana's Sewing School, which is not too far from my house and looks to be exactly what I am looking for. I have been on the waiting list for a while and finally my first class is tomorrow.

The project I have picked to start with is this skirt.

It is not too difficult that I would struggle and get frustrated but it is not so simple that I'm not going to learn anything either. The skirt I am making is the one being modelled (A).This came about from both choice and necessity.

A little while ago I went fabric shopping with AJ and Helen and picked out some great fabric with this class in mind. Unfortunately I made the very silly choice of buying the fabric before having a pattern so of course I ended up with not enough fabric. Thankfully this pattern calls for a contrasting band of fabric around the bottom thus allowing me to use my original chosen fabric and just buying a matching contrasting fabric. Phew!

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This is the fabric I have chosen. (The flash makes the colours go a bit strange. Those tiny flowers are actually a lime green). I have a matching red fabric for the bottom band and now I just have to find a top to go with it once it is finished. Maybe something in brown....

Bookfest!!

I had heard about Bookfest but never had I been so when it came around this year I was determined to go. And it was exactly as I imagined. Table after table of BOOKS! I was in heaven. I spent hours just wandering from table to table collecting as I went. Luckily I had taken the advice of those that had been before and took my big wheelie suitcase with me so I didn’t have to carry all my finds home! I actually didn’t get to spend as much time there as I wanted because I got a call from the man who was fixing my car and I had to leave. I was disappointed because I hadn’t even got to the cheap section yet (next year I will learn to start there and work my way up). I got a great stash of books to work my way through. It is probably a good thing I didn’t get to the other sections and I left when I did because who knows how many books I would have ended up with. Next years game plan: get there earlier, start in the cheaper sections first and turn off my phone. I might need a bigger bag....

My Bookfest Stash

Books, Books, Books...

 This was one of about 100 tables full of books!

Beautiful Books

Dead Sexy

Add another one to the 100+ list.

This was an ok book. I've tried reading some of Kathy Lette's stuff before but could never really get into it.

This book starts out with a music teacher, Shelly, being signed up for a reality dating show. The couple is matched by computer and then if they decide to marry they get money and prizes etc, starting with a romantic honeymoon on a tropical island.  Just one small problem: The guy she ends up marring is a jerk and the romantic tropical island is taken over by local militants trying to overthrow their French oppressors.

It is actually a bit weird with a few little plot twists and some sauciness (what Kathy Lette book doesn't) but of course, it all works out in the end (sorry if I ruined it for you). Not sure I would recommend it unless you really like her style of writing.

Spotlight Shopping

I went Spotlight shopping today. For me Spotlight shopping is not something i do lightly. I always end up spending more than I plan to so a Spotlight shopping trip requires some pre-planned budgeting.

It is so much fun though. I am really loving having the sewing machine out and making stuff.

I went in search of some fabric to make this apron with in-built pot-holders that I found on The Mother Huddle. I fell in love with this fabric.

It is a Moda fabric, which AJ was horrified that I bought beautiful quilting fabric to make a kitchen apron, but I don't care I love this fabric. I got the coordinating purple for the pot-holders and the other striped one just because I loved it. I'll find something to make with is later.

I also bought a cutting mat, quilters ruler and rotary cutter. I love the rotary cutter. I'm not very good at cutting straight so for me it is a godsend.

Hammer of the Gods

Another book down on the 100+ reading challenge.

'Hammer of the Gods' is an (unauthorised) biography of Led Zeppelin. For those of you who have lived in a cave for the past 40 or so years, Led Zeppelin are a British rock band (1968 - 1980). There were considered very controversial at the time and were so influential, their music and their style is sampled by musicians still to this day.

The book was pretty interesting, although it is an unauthorised biography so all of the stories I took with a grain of salt. Some of the stuff they got up was pretty full on.

Lucia Lucia

Second book down in the 100+ challenge.

I just finished a great book called Lucia Lucia by Adriana Trigiani. It about a young girl in the 50's who is a seamstress for a fancy department store. She meets a handsome stranger and falls in love but they have to win over her very traditional Italian family and there is an unexpected twist as secrets are revealed and scandals ensues.

It was a great book and a great read.

My first Esty buy

I have just ordered my first lot of fabric on Etsy.

It is Hummingbird in Teal by Patty Young for Michael Miller.

I fell in love with when I went fabric shopping with AJ and Helen and saw it in Sewco in Mt Gravatt. It had been made into a bag that they had there and I just loved the fabric. They didn't have it in stock in the teal so I had to venture out into the world of Etsy and order it from there.

Now I just have to wait for it to arrive.

The Sewing Room

The constant rainy weather is starting to get to me. Everything feels damp and I miss seeing the sunshine.

Because I was stuck inside all weekend I decided to do a little remodelling. Nothing structural, I just moved around some furniture to make my house more...usable.

Previously, I had a spare room and an office/sewing room. The office/sewing was always a mess and not actually use for sewing or studying. The spare room was always beautiful and set-up (except for the pile of washing on the bed) but I rarely have visitors (that sounds a bit sad!).

During the holidays I cleaned out the office/sewing room and sorted out all of the crap that had accumulated over the few short months since I have been in this house so the room was lovely and tidy but still not really usable. 

My laptop lives out in the lounge room rather than in the office and when I study I sit at the dining room table. The spare room has really only been used once and so I decided that I would use the sewing room much more often. I needed more space for the sewing room to actually be usable so I did a little bit of thinking and figured out a way to move my furniture around to fit it all in, plus an extra table.

I now have a office/spare room and a single dedicated sewing room, with a table just for my machine, a cutting/work table and even have the ironing board in there too. I sorted out all my bits and pieces; fabrics, buttons, haberdashery, ribbons, millinery and just plain stuff so it all beautiful and organised.

Here is my newly organised sewing room.

It's a bit bare and not quite as impressive as some of these sewing/craft rooms on Tip Junkie but it will hopefully fulfill my needs for a while.

Now I just need to start sewing...

A Company of Swans

Today I finished a wonderful book called 'A Company of Swans' by Eva Ibbotson.

It was a fantastic book set in 1912 about an aspiring dancer who runs away from her oppressive home to join a ballet company bound for Brazil and the Amazon.

Flashback Friday

The frist Flashback Friday of the year...

This photo is from Schoolies (2003). We spent the week on Great Keppel Island and had an absolute blast!!! Can't believe how much we have all changed!!!

Fabric Shopping Fiesta!

A couple of days ago I went on a fabric shopping trip with AJ and Helen (who was visiting from WA). It was a great day of driving around visiting a couple of different quilting and fabric shops. I was a bit scared because AJ and Helen are quilters extraordinaire and both have amazing fabric collections so I wasn't quite sure what I was getting myself into. It turned out to be a great day and I got very excited because I started my very own fabric stash!!! I hope AJ and Helen are proud of me! :)

I got a couple of different fabrics for some dresses, some new scissors and thread snips, bobbins and a little storage box for them to go in and a 1/4 inch foot for my machine.

I am planning on using this for a skirt (with plans for a matching top later on, I think in brown satin)

These two are for dresses.

This is the pattern I'm going to use for the above fabric.

I think I need a bit of sewing instruction before I attempt these. I haven't sewed in years!!!

Luckily I have some sewing classes booked in so it won't be long before I can get started!!

100+ reading challenge

Happy 2011!!!!

It has been over a year since my last blog post! How slack of me!

As a positive start to 2011 I will attempt to blog more often. This means I actually have to do exciting things to blog about.

What better way to start off the year than with a blogosphere quest about reading....one of my favourite pastimes.

Darling sister AJ has inspired me to join Home Girl in her 100+ reading challenge.

I don't foresee this being a problem for me at all. My biggest problem, I think, will be keeping track of what I finish and when and then blogging about it.

The End of Blogtoberfest

October is over and thus brings the end of Blogtoberfest.

I tried my best but didn't quite make it. I only skipped a few days and I did blog more during October than I normally do so I would call it a success!