St Patrick's Day fun

Our merry band is growing!

The Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network met up again today. It's now a regular thing in our diaries, organising something once a month. On a purely selfish note, I love it, we always have a great laugh, there's always lots to talk about, we even get to see new creations from pattern testers...

Today the plan originally was to have a picnic in the Botanic Gardens, but the forecast for rain (the first in nearly two months!) meant we changed our plans and at the request from one member, we went on the hunt for yum cha as we call it here in NZ, or dim sum.

So a merry throng of eight, plus our two mascots in the form of Ash and Drake, stuffed our faces with prawn dumplings, steamed pork balls, chilli beef, spring rolls, etc. Finishing with mango pudding...

From the Chinese restaurant we all decamped to Made on Marion to swap patterns, fabric and for a show and tell. Look at all these goodies...

The fabulous Joy had LOADS of patterns for us to look through

The best thing about swaps at Made on Marion means we can shop and/or finish off anything we're making. It's great and MrsC is the perfect host.

I succumbed and this is what I came away with from the swap.

Two lots of upholstery fabric which may become cushion covers.

Three patterns to add to my collection

I even bought some buttons from the shop...

And the team photo...

So from left to right on the sofas

Wendy - in a great top which she'd made.

Me - my old favourite dress made in the mid-90s! It was almost made to go with my cast :-)

FlossieFT - a dress she finished off this morning!

Curious Kiwi - in a fab Rooibos

The Girl from the Naki - just check out the colours in this latest creation

Piccolo Presents - with our latest mascot, baby Ash

The Ccrazy Gypsy - she even brought along the green jacket for us to check out

The Dreamstress - the expert on all things historical

PolyCraftual - in her latest infinity dress 

Sat on the floor are

Kat - with baby Drake looking so cute holding his toes!

Joy - the bringer of masses of patterns and fabric!

MrsC I think was busy with customers at the time and missed the photo :-(

Excuse the change of font size. Blogger is misbehaving and I've not the patience to sort it out at the moment!  

Enforced absence...

It's about a week since my last post and it's likely to be another few weeks before the next.

Sewing around these parts is a bit non-existent at the moment. It's not for not having things to sew - I've loads, but I can't really get to do it very easily...Reason is this...

Nice colour of cast isn't it?

Mm, not really what I had in mind! I mentioned we went down to Queenstown for MrN's birthday. We had a great time. The hotel was close to the town, so it was easy to get into town for meals, etc. If you ever get the chance to go, I recommend it, yes, it's touristy, but it's fun for a weekend and there's loads to do. There is a gondola which goes up one peak, but we've done that before! So we...

Played crazy golf :-)

 

Had a lovely Thai meal

Went on the TSS Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu

 

Where I took arty shots with the camera

Did some wine tasting...

Went to Arrowtown

And watched the PGA ProAm golf at the Hills (yes, that's Lydia Ko)

The Hills has lots of arty sculptures around the place

 

And that's where it ended... I slipped while walking up a hill and managed to break my ankle. Straight to the hospital we went. Since then, I've been sat at home on the sofa with my leg up and in plaster. It's likely to be like that for sometime to come... Sewing is not easy, since my leg really needs to be kept up for now and strangely, you get used to using the non-driving leg to balance somehow when sewing.

So I've not got out much the last week or two, but I do have a bloggers meet on Sunday to look forward to - yay, the WSBN (Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network) are meeting again! There's more information on Melissa's blog and if you ever feel like joining us, you'll get this cool image to add to your blog too :-)

The giveaway winner and why I'm grateful...

At last the winner of my giveaway. I've had problems with my laptop and I think it knows I'm frustrated as it continues to cause problems... Time for a new one methinks!

So the winner is...

 

Sewpapillion

Congratulations! Sewpapillion is new to the blogging world and hasn't written a post yet, so welcome to the blogging world! What a great way to start! I shall be in touch soon!

So why am I sew grateful?
Both my grandmothers knitted and sewed, one being mad on patchwork and quilting. My mother also sewed a lot of her own clothes.

Mum made her own wedding dress as well as the two bridesmaids dresses. She was apparently hemming the bridesmaid dresses the night before they got married! She's amazing. I decided it would be far too stressful to make my own wedding dress.

How's this? It's 1961 for those interested. Doesn't my Dad look handsome! :-)

I was lucky because as soon as I was able, I'd watch Mum sewing, learning from her, probably from about the age of 8 or 9.  When I was big enough, I got to play on the hand Singer machine. As far as I know, this was her mothers and I've now got it. It's in need of some TLC, but I still love using it. It has a satisfying sound sewing with it!

The first thing I made was a drop waisted dress when I was about 10. Then I made clothes for my dolls which I self-drafted. Yep, I still played with dolls aged about 10 or 11... I was a real girly-girl. Mum encouraged me with this sewing and I'm glad she did. OK, the dolls clothes may not have been perfect, but... My dolls were the best dressed in the neighbourhood! And still are :-)

 I copied this pattern from a dolls pattern book for New Dolly (she never had a proper name!)

 Carol (she was a Christmas doll!) is standing on the dolls bed which was my mothers dolls bed. That means it's about 70 years old! How could I ever get rid of that?

 Believe it or not, I did that embroidery too!

[You're probably wondering why someone of my age still has her dolls... well they were meant to be sold on in the UK, but I didn't have the heart and they kind of followed me all the way to NZ. Funnily enough, I still haven't the heart to get rid of them, unless I know where they will be going. How selfish and silly is that?]

I continued to sew until I went to uni, then I didn't really sew much for about ten years. The Singer machine was given to me in my late 20s and that's when I started to sew again, mainly curtains and soft-furnishings for my various homes.

My sexy Singer. In need of some TLC and an overhaul, but isn't she a beauty? A traditional hand crank machine. No electrics with this one!

I made dresses for weddings, etc, then about seven years ago, I finally bought my own electric machine. I began to sew lots more and I think it was once I discovered the blogging world that I began to sew quite a lot. This is about three years ago. I've never looked back.

I been lucky to meet-up with bloggers, such as Sew incidentally, Stevie and Dibs in both the UK (about 18 months ago) and now have a great group of bloggers here in my adopted home of Wellington. We've met three times in about four months and regularly keep in touch and will help with even the smallest of problems we may have (such as why interfacing won't stick!)

I have so much to be grateful for... my grandmothers, Mum in particular for keeping me going, but not forcing me and the sewing world, particularly bloggers I've had the privilege to meet.

She now exits stage left very quickly before showing gushing tears to the masses :-)

Thanks all and particularly to Debi for another great Sew Grateful week.

Simplicity 2360 - a flounced top

For our latest meet-up the cunning plan was to wear something which we got from the previous meet-up, be it a pattern from the swap or a piece of fabric. I secured this beautiful sheer fabric from A Charm of Magpies. It's a really dark navy blue with the leaves almost embroidered on. They feel quite silky.

There was just over a metre there, enough to make a top or blouse. Having made a blouse from Simplicity 2360 once before, I decided to have another go.

This pattern is one of the Project Runway patterns. As you can see it is a dress pattern, but when has that ever stopped me? I love the flounces over the sleeves and went with this version, but after the V-neck and back didn't work very well last time, I went for a round neck. The pattern has the option of a V-neck or round neck at the front, but the back is only a V-back. I drafted a curved back hoping that it would work! I lengthened the top, because obviously it's made to be waist length only. I also decided to make the flounces a wee bit bigger by extending them by about a couple of centimetres.

I have used French seams throughout the top. I also decided in my infinite wisdom that I would edge the flounces with binding in a contrasting colour. I didn't find any binding and bought double-sided satin ribbon. It looked good and it went on like a dream...

Until I attached the flounce to the top and put it together...

As you can see, it's a disaster! Note to self - do not use satin backed ribbon for binding edges, particularly on sheer fabric!

The top sat for a couple of days while I decided what to do. It was nearly a bin liner! In the end at the suggestion of Modern Vintage Cupcakes, I took me and my top to see MrsC at Made on Marion. We had two ideas. One to completely remove the grey edging. When I hemmed the edges last time they were a mess so this wasn't my favourite option. The second option was to Pendrell-ise the sleeves. The top has Princess seams and is a similar shape to the Pendrell. So I decided this would be the option.

I sat down one evening, unpicked the French seams and lay the flounces down so they were attached to the bodice higher up. This meant cutting off large pieces of my carefully stitched ribbon! :-( It's taken me a week to decide I won't keep them and chuck these bits in the bin - what am I like? MrsC also found me some satin bias binding in the same colour of the ribbon to bind the neck - why didn't I go there first?

So I managed to finish the top in time for Sunday's meet-up. As many of us have said already, the sun shone and it was a fantastic day. Although I added to the length of the top, it still was not that long and I ended up using a belt to tuck it in my skirt.

The finished item... You can see we did posing practice on Sunday!

 I still don't like my back view!

The nitty-gritty
Fabric:  Some kind of sheer fabric with a silky pattern, which I got at our first Wellington blogger's meet-up last November. Just over a metres worth.
Trims:  Satin ribbon from Spotlight and satin bias binding from Made on Marion.
Pattern:  Simplicity 2360 with the skirt removed and top lengthened. The back neck changed to a round neck. The flounces cut wider and shorter and attached higher up.
First worn:  For the Wellington bloggers meet-up in the Botanic Gardens last Sunday.
Worn with:  A skirt I made about four years ago (not blogged about), belt which came with a dress from Debenhams years ago and my bargain Mischief sandals (if you didn't see the last post, check out these beauties...)

The Welly bloggers picnic...

We had another meet-up!

The day dawned bright and sunny and stayed that way! No four seasons in one day for Sunday 20th January.

Seven intrepid bloggers (no not dwarves, even though we're in the Middle of Middle-Earth...) met in the gorgeous Lady Norwood rose garden in the Botanic Gardens in Wellington. The plan was to wear something made from the swap at the previous meet-up, but one thing and another (chewing overlockers, life, dodgy ribbon trims, etc) meant that only two of us made something from the last meet, however, there were still plenty of new makes to ooh and ahh over!

The sun was shining bright and after a pick me up coffee/tea in the cafe we retired to the Dell to spread out our food! And what a spread!

Mini calzones from MrsC, cheese scones from the Curious Kiwi, quiche from Making it well, cold meats and cheese from me and Cation Designs, lovely drinks from Modern Vintage Cupcakes and amazing tarts from the Crazy Gypsy, which deserved their own photo...

 

The time went so fast, chatting about sewing, patterns, sewing, knitting, patterns, etc, etc. We were so busy chatting that we didn't realise the time, the pattern and fabric swap happened so fast, I even forgot to take a photo of the striped stretch denim I got from Kat! We intended to have posing for photo practice, but it didn't really happen, but we did get some photos of outfits not blogged about and we even managed to cajole a passing tourist to take a group photo or two...

 The serious school pic

And our "Blue Steel" version!

And so, the bloggers were...

Top row (left to right): Kat (with baby Drake looking very serious!), Emily, Maryanne, Juliet.
Bottom row (left to right): Jo, Mel, Me.

And here for your delight are a couple of posing practice photos!

 

And if you are thinking "those wedges look interesting" and are getting shoe envy, here's a pic to make you even more envious...

 

Yes I do have odd painted toe nails...

It was a fab day and a great picnic. If you're thinking that you'd like to join in and are in or around the Wellington area, give us a shout, we'll add you to the group for the next meet-up. Some of the other bloggers have already posted about the meet-up, so check out their blogs too.

Welly bloggers finally meet-up!

Warning - picture heavy post!

One fine day in the middle of spring, seven intrepid sewing bloggers (and a baby!) from Wellington (OK, one from Palmy really) finally met to drink tea, eat cake, talk about sewing, look at patterns, ooh and ah over furry fabric and swap ideas, stashes, etc!

Yesterday we met up in Martha's Pantry, a tea room in Wellington. This tea room on Cuba Street is the quintessential English tea room, with fine bone china and high teas. We opted for sparkly cakes and milkshakes instead!

Sparkly cake!

Lots of hundreds and thousands!!

Joy making sure she gets the most out of her shake!

After trying on the hats in the tea room...

we moved on down Cuba Street with the intention of going to Minerva Books. However, we walked past Unearthed on the way, after laughing at the tartan Thermos flasks (remember those from childhood picnics?) Juliet suddenly unearthed (geddit?) a box full of vintage patterns! That was it!

Forgotten was the book shop while we ooh and ahhed and had a good look through the patterns. I believe most of us came away with goodies!

So finally we dragged ourselves away and went on to Minerva books. We had the chance to check out the Drape, drape books and the Pattern Magic books which were in store, but at a price. We left there empty handed!

Next on to Global Fabrics... The linen sale didn't tempt us, nothing really convinced us to buy anything, not even the bright pinks...

Nor the fur...

We left there empty handed too! Perhaps it was the thought of the fabric swap ahead. So final stop for these intrepid sewers was the famous MrsC's shop, Made on Marion where to took over the big table space at the back of the store to swap fabrics, patterns, etc.

MrsC was sewing the ribbons for Tuesday's grand opening of the newly refurbished National Library of New Zealand. This happens to be where I work, so I was definitely interested in that!

I can't wait to see them Tuesday morning at 6am!

And so on to the swap! There was a LOT of patterns there. Juliet had a whole load she'd got from the local op shop, so we were ages cogitating and ruminating over patterns. Whether to actually take that 80's pattern with the massive collar or the party frock straight out of Working Girl!

Joy deciding whether the pink really is her or not!

Anyway, there are loads left so look out for something very special coming next week...

So the intrepid band, minus one, who had left by now, but is in the earlier pics.

Joy - a charm of magpies

MrsC - Sent from my iRon and also of Made on Marion

Jo - Making it well

Erm, Me, Nikki

Juliet - The crazy gypsy chronicles

Kat (with baby Drake) - Modern vintage cupcakes

Missing from this pic is Mel - the Curious Kiwi

So no doubt you'll be wanting to know what I came away with...

From Unearthed, I got the following...

 Two lovely vintage patterns which will need grading up, but...

 This great fabric! It's shouting circle skirt at me, but I'll need red or navy with it as there's not enough there.

From the swap I got...

The dresses, not the jackets!

Pale blue lining and a dark blue with grey leaf pattern fine crepe which I'm hoping might make a Taffy blouse.

Phew! What a day or afternoon to be precise! I was shattered time I'd wended my weary way home back on the bus, but I can't wait for the next meet-up!

Oh and as for the outfits... We tried to go sixties for the Sew Weekly theme... You'll have to check out the other blogs for their outfits, and mine will follow soon!