Just a metre, or 10!

Thought I better double check today that the length of fabric I'm ordering will be enough before work orders it in for me.

It's when you think I need this amount, times two that it gets a bit scary!!!!!! 

Button Porn!

These gorgeous buttons came in at work today, I told one of my colleagues not to even bother putting them on the shelf in a tube, I HAD to have them.

Imagine how beautiful these will look down the back of my wedding dress, sort of that beautiful vintage look. Just perfect. I keep swooning over them.
 

My darling hubby to be is almost finished making me a light box, for my tracing patterns and transferring markings, how's that for fab! And he's even going to help me make a dress makers mannequin. He's very talented, great at metal work etc. But still this big burly man, wants to help me with things like this. I love him!

Have your say.

I have two styles here. Which do you prefer.

1: Asymmetrical AND horizontal pleats

2. Asymmetrical pleats only
(unpleated side and top of skirt will be trued out to be even)

Cast your vote here!

A womans prerogative...

It's always said, that it's a womans prerogative to change her mind, right?
Well not so much change my mind, but I've finalised my wedding design!

It's a combination of a Vogue skirt front, butterick skirt back, and burda bodice! That's going to be "fun"

Here is a line drawing of all 3 line drawings combined!
I've also come to the conclusion of having white duchess satin for the dress. Looking forward to getting it started!
The button loop elastic has been purchased. I have to find some horsehair braid for the skirt. So excited!!!

Toile #2 - not too shabby

Toile #1 was an epic fail. I did it straight to size 22 on the pattern, it didn't fit very well at all, too short over my boobs, too narrow across the back, and the V neckline at the back was very low on me.
It wasn't even photo safe!

Toile #2, I did a Broad back adjustment as per Sandra Betzinas instructions in her Fast Fit book. Then I also did a Full Bust Adjustment, once again referring to her brilliant book. I added 5cm I think it was to the height of the back "V", 1cm to the side front side seam equalling 2cm overall.
It's an awful lot better!

The front neckline is too low for my taste, I'll take it up and in a bit. There is once again my usual "princess gaposis" going on, but that's a quick easy fix which I am now well used to!
But the big problem is, the shoulders, they keep slipping off. I'm wondering if it's due to the length between bust point and shoulder seam is too short? Or maybe it's because of how wide the V is in the front.

The back actually fits, and does up now, so mcuh so I can take out about 3cm on each side of the CB, which is good and easy - I have to adjust the back V again, I'm not happy with it still. May be a case of getting someone who's the same size as me to throw it on and I draw the V.

Any suggestions on how to fix the slipping shoulders would be great. The more I look at it, the more I think I don't want to do any major design changes, I love it!

Let's get it started in here, lets get it started in here...

Go on, join in, you know you want to ;)

Today I pieced together all 86 odd pages to make my base dress pattern. 

I had another change of mind (hey, females are allowed to do that!) and now we have Butterick 5462 on the go!

It's quite a simple pattern, I'll add ruching to it on a slight diagonal on the waist area somewhere - still to be decided. Ohterwise I'll leave the waist as is, and do a beautiful tight gather all over the bust/bodice which will be gorgeous. I also have the PERFECT brooch to put on the back - from my late nana, so that'll be my something old/something borrowed.

It was a LOT of work piecing all the bits together, but it's very satisfying to look at the amazing flared skirt parts to the pattern and think wow I'll be wearing that.

Thsi was one part. *groans*

Now comes the fab part. Testing it out in muslins. adding bits here and there. seeing how it fits.

The wedding isnt until august, but I intend to get the main pattern sorted in advance so I'm not too stressed close to the time of the wedding trying to decide how I want the dress, as well as making it!

Giddy as a child in a candy store - that's me!

Doing it my way!

After going back and forwards back and forwards, looking at patterns etc. I spoke to my boss this morning, during a quiet moment at work, turns out she was a wedding dress maker before she owned the shop. So we went through patterns, had a good old talk, and gave me lots to think about.

I came home deciding to make my own.
Now I've spent the afternoon looking at patterns again, and Burda 8056 jumped out at me.
B8056

The shape is what I want, and I think I will add some sort of rouching/detailing to the front. But otherwise it's lovely. I can't wait to get started on it.

There's plenty of time (ish!)
4th August is the day. So the date will read 4-8-12(in the southern hemisphere anyway lol). Rather cool!

And on that note - driving past a car hire place in town, they had this in the window. Cue a "STOP THE CAR" from me and then DO A U TURN!!!
This dress I saw is beautiiiiful!

Need for a wedding dress!!!

Yes that's right, there's a need for a wedding dress.
The best news of all - the wedding dress is for ME!

My darling FIANCÉE proposed in the most loevly spot yesterday, in the middle of the Molesworth Station which is the largest farm in NZ. I turned around from taking this photo to him down on one knee. 

So now I need a wedding dress. I am seriously considering buying a dress off the likes of Lightinthebox.com or DHgate.com. Custom made to my size. And I can always get it altered at work if any alterations are needed.
But there are so many options to choose from.
I haven't been able to find any patterns I really like, that would be what I want in a wedding dress, and right now I don't have a lot of time to sew anyway.

Now we are holidaying in Hanmer Springs NZ until tomorrow. It's bliss, we played mini golf this morning and then spent several hours at the local thermal spring pools. I am now looking a bit of a cross between Snookie and an Oompa Loompa.

If anyone has bought from DH gate or lightinthebox I'd be very interested to hear about your experience.

Top, skirt, and a blog post, all in one week!

A top and a skirt, all in one week, I am on a roll. Of course as promised, here are pics of the skirt on. And a pic of the free Hot Patterns cowl neck top available from Fabric.com for zilch! 

I changed the top a bit, added sleeves that I left "slashed". And it isn't as cowly as I had hoped, more boat neck than anything. But maybe if I'd gone to the next size up(used size 22) then I would've had more cowl.

It'll be my outfit to wear to my first day of work at the fabric store on Saturday! Can't wait!

And check out the gorgeous spring weather. So much for the forecast rain!

 Woops, bra slipping off my shoulder in this picture, giving me a  very peculiar effect.
*note to self. do not wear this bra with this top*

It's been a while! A lot of changes have happened.

Wow, well it's been over a month. Sorry everyone!
I've been away on holiday and having a bit of a "me" time as there's been a lot going on.

First of all,(the big news is at the end, so read on mcduff!) we missed out on the house with the sewing room. *heavy sigh* But one door closes, another opens right?
We move into a different place in 11 days *gulp* there's a lot of work to be done. I'm living around boxes right now.
No sewing room, but an external hobbies room will eventually be built.
Below are a few pictures.. I've coined my bedroom the "Wizard of Oz" room, for obvious reasons.
It's got a huge wardrobe. 3m long(if not a bit more, I haven't done exact measurements) but no wardrobe doors, ridiculous!!!

 Looking east. Master, lounge, kitchen and my bedroom all open out onto this area, going to be great in summer.

 The kitchen.

Wizard of Oz room. aka my room!  

New drapes are being made as I write this (I am NOT making them myself, no way, no how. But I shall make the roman blind myself, I'll rip that one apart as a pattern and use all the existing hardware) 

The walls shall also be painted, oh and the wardrobe, and the door frames, and the skirting, you name it, it's yellow!

Now for the big news..

I went to get a couple of things from a local homewares store(for the new place, of course!) and they are right beside the local fabric and sewing store, you know, my other home. Where I did my drafting etc.

It just so happened there on the window of the sewing store, was a sign for a retail assistant! In I trotted, spoke to the wonderful owners, and after a couple of days, they let me know I had the job!

I am going to be working in a sewing store, around beautiful fabrics. It's only part time, but will work in perfectly right now with everything that's going on, and my health hasn't been the best lately so it wont put too much stress on me.

The ladies in there are wonderful. I can't wait. I have training this coming tuesday, and then start next Saturday. 

Of course, I need something to wear, don't I?

So last week, I couldn't find a pattern I wanted (and let's face it, after learning to do basic drafting, I wasn't going to spend $20 on a pattern that I could make myself). So I took some time out from everything, and drafted a skirt to fit my new measurements. 

It worked. and looks beautiful!

 Skirt laid out (camera died before I got ones on me!)

It's a basic slightly flared skirt. Faced with the same ribbon as the added hem. And a side invisible zip. Will look great with tights and boots while it's still a bit chilly, and good in summer with flats.

Up close of the skirt hem.

So there is my big news post. A lot has happened, and is about to happen. It's been stressful, but I found drafting my skirt a real escape for me. And it was so quick. Only took about an hour! I can't wait to do MORE!

A sort of sewing day!

It did involve being on the machine. There's little sewing going on here due to all fabric being packed up, so the blog will be quiet over the next few weeks. (4 more days until auction day. eeekk. hopefully the house sells at auction, otherwise the offer on the house my parents are buying, will have to be extended. Stress!!!)

I've been wanting for quite a while, an upholstered headboard, made by yours truly.
Found lots of cool ideas around google and pinterest.com and today, I got it done.

The fabric is a chocolate fake leathery feel fabric, that I topstitched 4 lines on, in a cream topstitching thread. I bought several metres on my trip away last year.
(in the picture, there's a bit of a bugger up on one of the lines. I'll just flip the headboard upside down when I attach it for real, it was only placed there to get a picture and idea of height etc)

I started off with a sheet of MDF, and bought a cheap foam bed topper. Cut the MDF to the size I wanted, then the foam to the same size, and attached with a glue.
Then flipped it over, on top of some cheap polyester batting, where I wrapped this right around the edges and stapled. This was FUN!!! I used a staple gun - gotta get me one of those!!!
Then I divided the board into 3 sections, and marked a straight line on my fabric(with sticky tape!!!), to correspondence with the measurements. I then topstitched 1cm each side of the line.
From here, I lay the foam and batting covered board on the fabric, wrapped it around so all the lines were in the right spot, and stapled to my hearts content. The stapling was the fun part, I had a blast!

I'll eventually hang it up at the new house with a wall cleat (and most likely change the fabric, to match the new curtains that'll be going up.) but for now, I'll attach a couple of boards so I can stand the board up behind my bed.

Must admit, I am actually really pleased with how it turned out. For a first time, I expected a lot of pulls and puckers, so was surprised it came out so well.
A nice quick easy weekend project. (literally only took a couple of hours, and that included me having lunch LOL)

I have no travel sewing kit!

It just dawned upon me - while browsing www.pinterest.com (my new addiction!) that I do not have a travel sewing kit at all. Even people I know who do not sew, have little sewing kits with needle, threads, scissors etc.

Now it means I'm going to need to of course make myself a wee pack up to have either in my car, or in my handbag, for those times when I just need to stitch a button on, or find a stray thread (though this may be slightly awkward standing in a queue and clipping a stray thread on someone in front of me. haha)

Has anyone found a really good kit to buy, I don't just want one of those cheap ones for a couple of dollars. You get what you pay for, scissors that don't cut, thread that doesn't thread, needles that are blunt etc!
Or am I going to need to start collecting bits and bobs to make my own!

Ideas welcome!
No more updates on the house front - another 2 weeks until we know for sure. Can't come soon enough. 7 weeks of waiting is a long long time! Then another 6 weeks until possession - there's a lot of packing to be done.
The fabric closet is now fully packed though.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Giddy with excitement.

I can now finally reveal a few things that I've been keeping from everyone.

First off - the immediate family member had their cancer and the internal organ that it was in, and lymph nodes removed yesterday. All went very well, and it looks like things may just be ok!

Now the best news of all. With this recent development, my parents have decided to sell their house, and move to a smaller one (currently in a large, 4 bed, sunroom, 2 living, sleepout and massive garden, pool etc. too big for them now)
It all started with a combined family argument over moving etc, we'd all been "looking" casually over the last year or so, and after the argument I dragged them out to an open home 3 weeks ago. Well we all fell in love with it then and there.

It's a lot smaller. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and an external HOBBY ROOM! (small garden, no lawn, good size garage still. but the hobby room is the main attraction for me!!) And only a few years old, so no maintenance needed!
See that wee room in the left of the picture? 3mx3m approx. And it's perfect for sewing.
To say that we have already mentally moved everything in there would be an understatement.

 It's currently carpeted, but when we get in there, I will be laying laminate wood flooring.
My parent's dont officially own it yet, but hopefully on the 16th it'll go unconditional. And then it'll be another 6 weeks before we are in (good timing with everything else that's going on. Will hold back the stress a bit)

It's very exciting. Everyone has so many ideas. Though the house is currently full bedroom wise here at the moment, so god knows where everyone is going to fit in the new place. It is a big change though, for my brother, myself, and all the waifes and strays who've been here over the years, this has been "home". Now matter how many times my brother and I have moved out, it's always been here to come back to, for 15 years. We've grown up here, there's been weddings, deaths, new babies. A lot of memories in those 15 years.

What a long post this is! LOL. So I'll end with a couple of photos.
Packing has started, fabric closet has started to be pcked too, ugh what a job!

I've given up on drafting for now!

I've been on this healthy weight loss program for almost a couple of months now. In that time I've lost almost 8kg(17lb) and something insane like 12cm off my hips, 14cm off my bust, 13cm off my waist. I made a mock version of pants from my block I drafted to fit myself 2 months ago, they fell straight off!
Great, but at the same time, it's tricky because I don't want to have to redraft a new block every couple of weeks when I want to make something.
So for now I'll stick with my boring old Big 4 patterns!
But today (after hitting one goal, and also being able to throw on some jeans that haven't fit me in a very long time!!!) I decided I wanted a new pair. So I've got out the Jalie pattern, and am making the low rise version, so everything is smaller, (including my rise LOL)

The cutting table was used to full effect this morning, very exciting. I love it so much, being able to cut a pair of jeans all at once without having to bend, bliss!

There's also some very big developments in my life, hopefully more of which I shall be able to share in the next 48hours or so when one thing gets confirmed.
Though another development is an immediate family member has been diagnosed with Cancer. It's been a massive few weeks trying to get my head around that, and also these other exciting things happening.

Hopefully tomorrow I shall have jean pictures, and amazing news!

This weeks project - wide leg jeans designed by ME!

so this week, I am taking a step into unknown territory and I'm excited.

I have decided I want a pair of lovely wide leg jeans, no zip in the CF but an invisible zip in the CB. I saw jeans like this and they looked stunning. They'd been top stitched to look like jeans where the zip would normally be, but there was no bulk. Fabulous.


So what do I do? I decide to design them myself, with the changes I want. The front pockets will be straight and angular instead of curved. I'll be doing double stitching down the inner leg seam.

My first ever draft design

(I am not an artist, on paper anyway)

Next time I'll do the back on separate piece of paper as I ran out of room. Otherwise, I'm not that disappointed. They seem to look OK for a first go, but the main thing is, they seem to look how I want them to!

There's going to be a lot of trial and error in muslins, I'm sure. But this is a step for me in the right direction. 

Off I go to start drafting! Wow

Study then career! My mind is made up!

Well it's taken a lot of soul searching, and internet searching over the years, of finally deciding what I want to do as a career. A lot of people have suggested over the years, I get into the fashion/garment industry. I always kept it in the back of my mind though, as I wasn't fully sure.

These past few weeks of doing my drafting, has helped cement my decisions.

I want to work in the fashion design, or drafting etc area of the garment industry. I have been leaning that way for a while now, but after doing the drafting, my mind was made up.

There are a few different types of opportunities within the industry that I can look at eventually(that would also work in with the possibility of children and a family in the future, unlike a previous career goal that would really put me out of the running for a family), but for now, I plan on upskilling and studying.

For several reasons right now, which I won't go into details of, due to a blog stalker, moving away from my small town is not an option. It will be in the future, but at this current stage, it's a no go. So I shall hopefully be doing one basic correspondence course shortly(should know in the next 2 weeks!) and then doing a much more advanced course that runs on the Teleista pattern technology system, via correspondence too(with the possible opportunity of a few classes in person, but it's at the other end of the country, so I'd have to travel there via plane. but that is an option if I need more help), but I won't be able to start that particular one for at least 6-9 months.

It's a rather exciting decision, and I know it'll be a lot of hard work. But everyone who knows me, knows that once I put my mind to something, I work my arse off to make sure I achieve that goal.

While I don't imagine I'll be a world renound fashion designer - I'd one day love to have my own small line of clothing, even if it was only for family or friends! But the idea of drafting for a company, and walking down the street seeing clothes that *I* have created the pattern for, that's a pretty satisfying and exciting thought.

So here endth my rambling!

Wish I had a picture to add, wordy blog posts are so boring sometimes LOL, I've changed the font so maybe that'll make it a bit more interesting than times new roman!

How did I ever survive?

You know how sometimes you look at an invention, and think "pfftt really, is it really going to be that useful?".
It's a bit like a changing table for a baby, most people scoff at them, but once they've used one, they find how useful they are.

Well this cutting table is like that.
I pulled it out this morning and lifted one leaf up, it fits perfectly in an empty space, and is the perfect size for drafting. So I pulled out my drafting tools, my sleeve cap that I needed to change, and with no bending over, no having to get help to put the trestle table up and taking up space in the lounge(!!!), I changed the cap very easily.
Then I wondered, how on earth did I cope without it. Isn't that silly? 20mins using a new table, and I'm a full convert.
No bending over, no straining, I love it. So does my back, and my head(over 2 weeks of one constant headache now, that goes boom boom boom with bending, argh!).

But truly, if anyone has ever looked at these tables and thought "nah not worth it". You're wrong. LOL

And of course no blog post is complete without a photo.
I saw this painting a few weeks ago, and fell in love. It's massive (1m x 70cm) and had to have it (for an amazing price too. It was a $1 reserve, and didn't get very high)
The photo doesnt do it justice at all.

The more you look at it, the more you see. its so deep, dark, and you kind of walk into it. I can't believe I own it actually, as I turn my head and look at it now!

Look what found its way to my house!

I found a bargain, and got this table for a 3rd of the price they are new, not too bad!

My parents were taking a couple of cars down to the same town to drop off cars and pick other ones up from my brother, so I drove one of the cars down, and had a fabulous weekend with a girlfriend and her friends, and picked the table up on the way home! It worked out perfectly.

So here is the table last night. It's HUGE! like seriously HUGE!  With a working surface of 990mm x 1880mm (39" x 74") and being 87cm high, it's perfect. No bending over on the floor, no having to get help to put up the trestle table. Will do wonders for my back.
Excuse all the stuff around it, the main aim was to get it in the door last night and all the bags etc outa the cars we bought home! lol

The handles were pretty faded and cracked and scratched, so I thought I'd head to the $3 shop and get some cheap wee ones,
here it is with one new handle on. it looks like a new table!

Now I just have to work out how to fit it in the sewing room. It'll be compacted until it's actually needed, otherwise there's no room to walk in the room, woops!

On another bright note, I've now lost a total of 5.5kg(12lb) in a month I think it is. Fantastic! I'm really happy.

Pant block photo

Here's a photo of the front pant block traced ready to be cut out.
It is a very satisfying photo for me, because it does look how a pant pattern should look.

Success! Pattern drafting week 5

Gosh really, week 5 already, one more week to go.
So while I didn't get to class this week, the tutor emailed me the instructions, and this morning I hesitantly started drafting my pants block.
Well it took about 1.5hrs to draft the front and back, and the pattern pieces themselves look really good. Fitting of course will be another issue, but wow. It's about time I had a success moment!
They were without a doubt, the easiest thing I've drafted, bizzare eh!

I've got a couple of books coming through the librarys "interloan" system on pattern drafting, to see if they are any good, if they are, I'll buy them from Book Depository.

I feel inspired! Off to buy an old sheet now from the op shop, to make these pants, I'm out of musliny type fabric, and I don't want to use my good stuff for obvious reasons.
So exciting!

Update: It actually doesn't look too bad! There are a few wee alterations needed of course, but wow, disheartened I am not!