One Thimble e-magazine

Late last year, I discovered a wonderful newish Australian publication- One Thimble sewing magazine. I'm not normally a fan of digital magazines, but Australia pretty much has no decent sewing magazines and I thought I'd buy one issue to see what I thought. The verdict? I'm hooked!

One Thimble has lots of great articles aimed at both the home sewist and the small sewing business owner. There are hints and tips as well. The best art is the PDF patterns that come with each issue. The patterns come from a variety of Australian indie pattern designers.

Most of the patterns are for children's clothing, apparel and toys. I don't sew a lot for my children, so this is a good excuse for me to make more things for them!

The first pattern I decided to try was the Mem Rose skirt pattern, by Ainslee Fox Boutique Patterns. It features a shaped front yoke, side ties, and back elastic.

This is for my friend's daughter's birthday. She's not really into typical girly patterns or colours and I thought this collection of fabrics would be just perfect. Unfortunately, I only had a fat quarter of each of these fabrics, so I had to do some maths to get the two 90cm wide panels for the skirt sections. I used a combination of 30cm and 15cm wide panels of each different fabric.

This skirt was a joy to sew and I had no dramas with it at all. I can't wait to make one for my daughter.

I also made a little yoyo to go on a coordinating t shirt, plus a bow hair tie. I think it's a super cute little ensemble!

Also in this issue were these cute softies. They are aimed at children (as in, for children to sew), but I think my kids a still a bit little at four and six years old and with no prior sewing experience.

They cut out their own pattern pieces, and helped me pin the pieces to the fabric and did some fabric cutting. They did some sewing but only on the ears, arms and legs- the minky fabric they chose is really tricky to sew with. I had to put my walking foot on to stop the layers moving around.

The kids had fun stuffing all the bits with hobby fill. They are completely in love with the finished result- Elizabeth has been carrying hers around with her everywhere she goes!

Stash bustin'!

I have one major resolution with regard to my sewing this year, and that is to use up all or most of the fabric in my stash before I buy any new fabric.

Here is (most of) my fabric stash as it stands today. Yeah, it's really, really messy. I promise I will tidy it up.

In this basket are small cuts (1metre or less) of girly fabrics. Usually when I make something for my daughter, I'll use fabrics from here.

Small cuts of boyish fabrics and overflow from the girly basket. My son doesn't really like handmade clothes so I will need to be creative to use this all up.

On this shelf is all of my dress fabric. Mostly cottons except for the far right which are mostly polyester. I have many fabrics here that I have been saving for ages until I find the perfect pattern- notably the black cherry sateen and the watercolour sateen under it.

Here are corduroys and denims. Far out, I didn't realise how messy my fabric was!

I will be putting a huge dent in this shelf come winter time.

Various crap here, including cotton sheeting, black suiting, drill, crepe, old sheets, and poplin.

This is my top shelf. You are probably thinking, "Why has she got shitty old sheets?" Well, instead of throwing out old sheet sets when they start to get a bit threadbare, or the fitted sheets have lost their elastic, they go here to be used for making muslins or to be used as linings. They are nice and soft and don't need to be pre washed so it works well! 

Also here are various home decor cottons, some fleece, and some flannelettes.

So, that's what I need to get rid of! Hopefully by the end of this year, the 'after' photos will look very different!

I have a few little projects to blog about over the next week or so. Stay tuned!

2014 in review

I quite like doing these end-of-year roundup posts. I don't count my projects as I complete them through the year so I really have no idea of how many makes I completed. I do know that I pretty much did nothing on my new year's re-sew-lution list. Whoops!

To start off, here's what I made in 2014:

Elizabeth's birthday dress

Husband's brthday shirt

Hidey Hole mouse

New Look 6000

Mummy and daughter farm skirts

Apple Mouse for Jimmy

Shorts for Jimmy

Ottobre magazine shorts for Jimmy

Sewaholic Thurlow shorts

Christine Haynes Emery dress

Emery #2

Emery with New Look 6000 sleeves

Simplicity 2154 blouse and cardi

Mish Mash Dress

Sewaholic Renfrew top

Self drafted skirt for Elizabeth

Sewaholic Renfrew dress

Sewaholic Renfrew dress

Jiffy dress

Lisette Traveller dress

New Look 6176 linen shift dress

Lisette Round Trip dress

Lisette Round Trip dress

Summer dressing gown

Kitschy Koo skater dresses for Elizabeth

Elizabeth's Christmas dress

Christmas dress

 I'm pretty pleased that I made 12 items for other people. I am a pretty selfish sewist, so it's good that I took the time to make things for other people. Damn, I just realised I forgot to photograph the scarf and bag I made my sister in law!!!

18 makes for myself. I tried out 8 new patterns this year, and made a few of those multiple times because I like them so much. I becamse more patient with my sewing and tried not to set myself deadlines. I took the time to finish my hems nicely, using either machine or hand blind hem for most of my dresses, and made sure my zippers were inserted neatly. I'm pretty proud of the quality of my sewing compared to last year, but I still have a long way to go!

Hits and Misses

Hits

 - The mouse toys that I made the kids for their birthdays- they both sleep with them every night.

- Floral Emery- this gets worn on a regular basis and works well in any season.

- Black Renfrew top- I lived in this in winter. So, so comfy and I can't wait to make more.

- Linen shift dress- I can't wait to make this pattern again, and use linen again. It's so lovely.

- Lisette Round Trip dresses- especially the Eiffel Tower one. I just adore this style of dress.

Misses

- New Look 6000- This style of dress is just not me. Too tight. I only wore it twice all year.

- Shirt for my husband- it just looks home made.The fit is far too baggy.

-Groovy retro car print shorts for Jimmy- even though these are awesome, he refuses to wear them. Says they are too long. I suspect he just doesn't  like them because I made them.

This year I have a few goals.

1) Do not buy ANY fabric. I have shelves and drawers full of fabric and need to use it all up.

2) Make more casual clothes as I hardly have any. Pretty much all I own is dresses and exercise gear. I need plain skirts, solid coloured blouses, and casual dresses.

3) Make gifts. I can't really make gifts for Jimmy's friends but I will try to make a simple skirt or dress every time Elizabeth is invited to a birthday party.

4) Try to take better pictures for my blog.

So that's it! So long, 2014, hellooooo 2015!!!

Last dress of 2014

I made this dress to wear on Christmas Day. We normally have Christmas Day at the in-laws', but this year we hosted it at our house and I wanted to make a dress for the occasion. I toyed with the idea of making one in Xmas fabric but didn't really want to spend hours on something that I could only wear once a year.

I've had this light cotton print in my stash for at least 4 years. I'm not sure of the exact fabric type. Pale yellow is not a colour I'd normally wear, but I thought it was very sweet and summery- perfect for our usual 30+ degree Xmas temperatures (which, thankfully, it didn't even get close to this year!).

For the bodice, I used the Lisette Round Trip dress as my block, and modified the neck. I used my favourite, oh so simple skirt- slightly more than A-line, but not quite circular.

Putting this dress together was an absolute breeze. I lined the bodice with an old fitted sheet and left the skirt unlined- I can wear a petticoat underneath for modesty if I need to, but I don't think it needs it. 

The fit is not perfect. There are a few wrinkles, especially on the back which I noticed after looking at the photos. But you know what? I really don't care! Is there really such a thing as the 'perfect' fit, anyway? Surely the more advanced our skills become, the further and more unattainable is our idea of perfection?

This is my last dress of the year and I love it!

Christmas sewing: Festive dress

I wasn't going to make Elizabeth a Christmas dress this year as I made her one last year and I generally try to make clothing last as long as possible. But I realised I have had this Christmassy Michael Miller fabric in my stash for 4 years and if I left it any longer, I wouldn't be able to make anything to fit my girl as she won't be tiny forever.

I laid out 3 different patterns before I found one that would work- being a directional print, my options were severely limited by the one-metre cut of fabric. I had to settle on a pillowcase dress, just like the one I made last year. I added 6" to the length because Elizabeth has grown heaps this year. The print is festive, but not too festive...she can get away with wearing it during the year and not just at Christmas time.

I added a little yoyo detail with a vintage button given to me by one of my students.

Lisette Round Trip dress

Meet my latest and most fabulous creation! I can't really describe how much I love this dress.

I bough the fabric especially for the project when Spotlight had their 40% off all fabric sale. It's quilting cotton and was reduced to $11 per metre. I bought the exact amount needed to make the sleeved dress, but ended up with about 60 cm of fabric left. Crazy! How do they even come up with the yardages - do they just guess??? I'm sure I will find a use for the remaining bit but it's annoying to have so much left when I was a good girl for once and bought only what I thought I needed!

This dress was super easy to fit. I've come to realise that with Simplicity patterns, pretty much all I need to do is cut a size 8 bodice and taper it to 10 at the waist. I made a quick bodice muslin before cutting into my Eiffel Tower fabric and didn't need to make any changes.

The trickiest part of this was facing the keyhole section, but as long as you read the instructions and have transferred all markings accurately, it's not too bad. I used a tracing wheel and carbon to transfer the markings and it's now my favourite method.

There are sweet little pleats on the skirt and pockets. I'm so used to having dresses and skirts with pockets now that it feels weird without them!

I love this so much that I've already cut out my next version, this time with the cute collar and no sleeves.

Christmas sewing: Simplicity summer dressing gown

Another handmade Christmas gift has been ticked off the list.

This is for my mother-in-law. A couple of weeks ago, my daughter went to a 6th birthday party. It was a pamper party, with the girls having a mini day spa experience including their own dressing gown made from vintage print cotton. She loves her dressing gown so much that I decided to make one for her Gran.

I found this pattern in Spotlight. There were better options, but Simplicity patterns were two for $10 and I can't justify paying full price for Big 4 patterns, so I got this (and maybe three other little girls' patterns too...). It's very simple, with two big patch pockets, a facing (I would have preferred a contrast band, but oh well), and a belt with belt loops. The main fabric is some lovely cotton that I found in an op shop last year, and the spotty one is poplin from Spotlight.

I wanted it much shorter for summer so reduced the length by 11" and the sleeve length by a whopping 12". It came together pretty easily. I just wish I had a fatter mannequin to photograph it on as it looks crap hanging on my size 8 one.