More Magnificent Op Shop Finds

Remember that 20 cent broderie anglaise I posted about a little while ago. Here is what became of it:

Matched with a little blue floral and plain blue cotton (and lined with some other cotton) it became a delightful little girl's dress. Op Shop sewing is my new favourite thing and a couple of weeks ago the sewing stash increased with more wonderful op shop fabrics.I intended to post about it and took a few pics, but time got away from me. In the meantime some of the smaller pieces were turned into things. Highlights include:

 This large piece of thai silk. It has been hemmed around the edges so it has taken up residence as a lovely table cloth. Yes I know it is a little bit posh to use thai silk for a table cloth - but it was only $2 so I don't feel that guilty.

These pink beauties haven't been used yet, though the houndtoothish one is earmarked for a dress, and the paler pink number for a skirt. The top one is over 3 metres by 90cms wide, while the bottom one is over 4 metres by 112 cms wide! Neither cost more than $4. Bargain prices for amazing vintage fabrics.

 And just when you thought it couldn't get any pinker it is time ... for some more pink:

This cute pink gingham was purchased for the princely sum of a dollar. It must have had a bad turn with the iron because by the looks of it, it used to have a former life as seersucker cloth. It had a few bubbles to it but these had lost their groove. It also made it a little stiffer than other fabrics but I thought it had character. It served its intended purpose well - as one of the dress I submitted for the Dress a Girl Campaign. I know I've said it before, but it is a great cause, so go check it out! I used this pink dress to practice button holes, and added a few bits of trim and patches I had in the stash.

Don't worry, it wasn't all pink as you can see by the assorted collection below:

 Most of these were at least a metre in length, and ranged in price from 50cents to $2. A quick wash and they were good to go. Some were used as lining. The grey is earmarked to become a work dress. The brown stripes became pyjama pants (intended for the lovely other half but were so botched by my lack of sewing skills that they remained as mine.) Most of the other fabrics also became (or will become) girls' dresses. Wanna check them out? Well you can't, because that's for another post ... but if you really must know the blue dress at the beginning of this post was also submitted. Along with 18 others!

20 dresses and 20 tomatoes but only 8 hours to cook

I've been a domestic goddess of late. Sewing, Gardening, Cooking and Meandering around Melbourne have all been on the agenda.

Sewing

I sent off 20 dresses to the Dress and Girl campaign today and am so excited. I hope Australia Post takes good care of them. I'll add some  more pics in a later post, but for now the one above of a few of the dresses will have to do. I'm relaxing away from the sewing machine (though feeling the urge to crawl back and sew some more.) I pretty much made one dress a day for the last few weeks. It is such a great cause, I urge you to visit the Australia website and check it out. Take part in whatever way you can, and make a difference in a young girl's life. It may seem like a small thing, but empowerment through the most trivial seeming things can make such a difference.

Gardening

Apart from sewing I've been gardening. The lovely other half has been helping and we've successfully potted up several of the balcony garden trees and large plants. We've also added a tonne of new plants, with full details available over at my other blog. The most exciting bit is the addition of, what will be, over 20 new tomato plants. Here are some of them:

Tomatoes have had a patchy history on the balcony garden. The first year they flourished, but the year after that they all wilted early (and not one of the usual wilts either, it was weird.) Last year I only planted a couple and they did reasonably well. However, this year I threw caution to the wind, and threw the the contents of my wallet at various nurseries and invested in about 10 different varieties. I only grow from seedlings, simply because that seemed to work the best (the year they all died, most were from home raised seeds.) Hopefully we will be eating delicious tomatoes in a few months time.

Cooking

Lettuce is in the garden too, but I won't be using it for tonight's meal. Lettuce and mint wrapped chicken sausages are on the menu tonight, though it is with store bought lettuce, until the other is big enough. It is an idiot proof meal, oven baked sausages wrapped in a lettuce leaf with some mint from the garden thrown in. Other meals have been a little more time consuming. For instance I made pulled pork two Sundays ago. Overnight marination followed by 8 hours in the oven, it was, for lack of any other terms, heavenly. The lovely other half devoured it willingly and I found it delightful both in rolls with BBQ sauce and in a stir fry. It was so good I'll be making it again this weekend for a few guests.

Meandering

We went up to the Dandenongs last Sunday with a dear friend. It was lovely, great food, great views, too many tourists but great company which made up for it. The lush green of the properties up there was really enticing but I'm still glad I live where I do.

And all without drinking a drop. In fact most days I don't even think about alcohol anymore. Well ok I do sometimes, and I tell people I miss it, but I don't think I really mean that.

More sewing (but for a good cause)

I think I have an addiction. Actually, I know I have an addiction ... and it is sewing. Pretty obvious from the posts here that it is taking over my life. It's not a problem at the moment because I have quite a lot of spare time until TFA starts. Even though money is tight I have such a large stash already to sew and I have discovered a few awesome op shops that sell fantastic fabrics at even more fantastic prices (1 metre square of new, non-pilly, thick blue broderie anglaise for 20 cent! 20 CENTS!!!!!!!)

I also have many cottons leftover from Mum's collection that needed using up. All I required was a cause - because people only need so many aprons and bags and other goodies. Mum loved her apron by the way - and I can finally release the pics of it:

Patchwork one side, and brocade on the other.

So what next??? ... Bring on the shorts, skirts, so many many skirts, and Dress a Girl around the World.

Shorts - not my strength

I made myself a pair of shorts. I believe the term used is 'camel toe'. So while they are super comfy, they will be simply house shorts for the moment. The material was lovely, part of the first op shop find so only a dollar or two slightly wasted.

Then I made the lovely other half a pair of shorts. I used the blue and brown striped materialfrom the op shop pile:

  I believe the term in this case is 'Hammer Pants'. Even with a pattern made from his own pants, I guess I underestimated and overestimated his actual dimensions and then ended up with a short-crotched, overly-gathered mess. But with a crotch lengthening they've been happily included in his 'around the house' wardrobe. Awwww, he is so lovely. Again only a couple of dollars of op shop material, so not a big waste, and they are supposed to be very comfortable.

Skirts

First off I finally defeated that pattern, the pattern of doom, the pattern I had twice pulled out of its wrapping, made a confused face at the 'instructions' and promptly repackaged and placed back in the drawer. Once I used the old grey matter (and translated the instructions in Prueish) I made not one, not two, not three, but 4 versions of this skirt! Three were for me. The first was a green tartan practice version to get sizing (this material was more amenably priced than muslin.) I don't have a picture of the skirt, but look at the green tartan in the previous picture of op shop materials, and imagine it in a longer version of the other skirts.

The second was a wonderful purple number, which was a bit shorter and looks better on me than in the picture.

The third was op shop material in a black, grey and white swirly pattern. It has a little stretch to it. This is a terrible photo as it is folded over on one side, but it is the only one I have and it shows the material well.

 

This blue version is for a much skinnier friend - which means I need to work out how to put a zip in (the skirts in my size put over my large backside scarily easily, though never seem to fall down.) I'll get mum to show me when I next visit Adelaide because my sewing machine instructions for zips were the only thing more confusing than the pattern instructions (yes I have a PhD so I'm not entirely daft, sewing pattern instructions are simply gibberish.)

 I have some amazing medieval lady fabric that is too small to make me yet another version, so I have plans to use this skirt pattern to make it for a dear friend who helped me work out how to weight them hems properly. You see as comfortable as these skirts are, and they really are comfortable, and as amazingly flattering as they are on my oddball (emphasis on the ball) shape, they weren't perfect. None of the materials used had enough weight to stay down in the breeze, and more annoyingly, the static or just the material itself keeps catching on my stockings and pulling the skirt up. I am not keen on flashing Melbourne on a daily basis so I needed a solution. The lovely friend suggested 20 cent coins as weights, so I'm going to give it a try

(* I should note here that my lovely other half had already suggested weights, and he was certainly right, it was simply this friend who suggested the kind of weights to use. Although if he wished to be made a skirt to say thankyou I'd definitely oblige.)

Dresses

In the last post I showed you little pillowcase dresses I have made for friends and others. Given most of my friends either don't have or want kids, or only have boys, I quickly ran out of people to sew for. And goodness know little girls don't want that many Prue-made dresses in their collection (though I am very heartened that the dress I made for a uni friend's daughter was much loved, and even though it was a little too big she wore it all night when she first recieved it!)

But I still had to scratch the dress sewing itch. And I wasn't up to making me any yet (If you saw my shape, and the troubles my amazing sewer of a mother had in fitting me you'd understand that it involves an everest sized leap in skills.) So I just kept sewing, and sewing and sewing these little pillowcase dresses. I made patchwork ones, ones out of the 20 cent material, the amazing 50 cent thick cotton paisley material, from ribbons and lace and anything I had in the stash. But I wasn't without purpose because I had stumbled upon a cause, a worthy cause. One which I will contiune to sew towards - Dress a Girl (around the world) Australia. Here is the local webpage.

I'm just putting the finishing touches on my first batch to send off tomorrow. But I'd suggest if you have time to sew, sew a few dresses for this great cause (yes its a bit gendered, yes there is post-colonial issues written all over it, but I don't care, I think it is a wonderful cause regardless and will donate and donate again.) If you can't sew then you can donate to it too (fabric, pillowcases, money for postage.)

Once the dresses are sent, I'll post about them in more detail. Until then, enjoy this little dress, which I won't be donating to Dress a Girl but gives an idea of the kinds of dresses I've been sewing. If you can't work out why I am not donating it then look at the Victorian era children playing in the centre panel and refer to earlier comments on post colonlial issues.

Dressed for Success

I'm currently knee deep in tartan material and a skirt sewing pattern that has me puzzled. I'm sure I'll solve it soon, but I'm so new to using paper patterns that is can be a bit overwhelming. I thought, in an effort to regain my sewing mojo I'd show you my recent sewing success(es). I fell in love with this tutorial, it is a fat quarter dress and uses up the small bits of fabric I have lying around the place.

First I made a practice dress, sized for an 18 month old, with some awesome leftover fabrics. It turned out so well I'm going to hold on to it to give it to one of my friend's daughters one day.

This was the first time I had top stitched, and it was a great dress to learn that technique. I also made a lined version, adapted from the pattern but not following their lined version (which looked wonderful but seemed a little fussy and I thought my tweaks would work ... they did.) The lining is the same as the hem colour (a light blue floral on one side, dark blue on the other.) It is one continuous piece each side, attached to the same hem join as the original pattern. I can't describe it very well but suffice to say it did the trick.  Not the best photo just you at least get to see the colours.

I also used it yesterday, to make this dress, size 5 for a friend's daughter. Pattern with a purpose, let's just hope it fits.

Not bad really. The tutorial was excellent, and helped me learn a few pointers about sewing, like topstitching and serging edges.

 The only problem is, now I'm addicted to this one pattern! And I don't have any kids of my own so it is almost a little creepy to be making them. It isn't that I'm clucky, or that I want kids yet, but I thought if I cut my teeth on little people's clothes then if I made a mistake I would waste far less material. The lovely other half agrees, and instead of being freaked out by my toddler clothing making binge he supports it. My sewing space shares the room with his computer so it also means we get to hang out in close quarters while he smashes cars or shoots bad guys (or writes thesis) and I sew to my heart's content. And now that I have the hang of it I feel almost confident enough to tackle a me-sized article of clothing. Hence the skirt, though the pattern fiasco is putting me off a little. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have sewn a few other things lately. I finished my Mum's pressie, but wont show it here until I've given it to her. I also finished the lovely other half's apron, with beer fabric and a fabric I had printed which is little mariokart figures. He loves it!

 

 A couple more bags have joined the fold too, a magnificent flamingo one (I've already worked out who I want to give this to, I just have to get it to her) and a Frido Kahlo one which is just glorious. I'd give this to my Mum but she already has so many of my bags she mightn't want it.

Ok, back to the drawing board, well in this instance the cutting board to tackle that skirt. At any rate, if I stuff it up it is only opshop fabric I am ruining. And check out this opshop fabric haul I got the other day. Seven different fabrics ranging from 1 metre lengths to just over 2 metre lengths in a couple of cases. Altogether it cost just under $10, and included another couple of metres of yellow cotton (not pictured) as well as the awesome lace. I'm using the two metres of tartan for today's skirt.

And no, this isn't a sewing blog, it is still my teetotal 2012, it just seems I've replaced one addiction (social drinking) with a new one (sewing.)

Pressies for all

I've been sewing (really???!!!???) and I made a few pressies for people. This cushion was for dear friend and cat lover, nearly Dr A. I hope it made her smiley and doesn't make her cat think it is competition.

The fabric patches are a mix of cats and kittens and this awesome cat newspaper print. Not too cutesy but lots of fun. The back turned out pretty wonky (sorry nearly Dr A) but it is such an awesome fabric, combining cats and cocktails, two very awesome things according to the receiver.

I managed to make the quilt below in a day. Just one day! I was impressed with my little sewing self and it didn't look ruches. It also didn't need to be done in a day, I just got caught up in the fun of it all. It is just a little lap quilt, only a bit over a metre each side and was for my wonderful cousin A's birthday (not Nearly Dr A, they're two different people.) The squares were from a precut charm pack but the black in between and binding were my choice and cut. It turned out really well I reckon, not bad for a day's work.

I also made a few things for rellos overseas which I don't want to give details of yet, because they wont be getting them for a few weeks ;)

Do I ever have time for anything else? ...

... of course not ... I only have time for sewing. Ok so I do a lot more than sew bags, but judging by my recent posts that's all I seem to do. Plus eating decadent foods and occasionally wearing silly gowns and hats. However in sewing land it has been bag central.

These two are for my Aunt's 80th Birthday this weekend. A big one for all that shopping, and a little one for those smaller trips. I hope the big one isn't too big for her. She isn't too frail or anything, but something that size can fit a lot, and would get heavy for anyone. I just couldn't help myself and kept adding layers which made it bigger and bigger. More and more blue (her favourite colour)

Here's a close up of the big blue one. It is large patchwork in the middle, with a blue floral border then some smaller patches on the outside. This was the first time I had embedded handles between the lining and the outer, they ended up a little long, but workable.

I gave this one to a different Aunt and Uncle last Sunday. Patchwork on both sides, with two different kinds of purple. These are very basic, but were test runs for french seaming. It seems I am improving and they loved the bag. Again it is really just a glorified shopping bag, but it looks good too. Machine washable for when the bananas you forgot to take out two weeks ago go mouldy. Don't you just love the boots int he background! Maybe I shoulda cropped those out ...

This picture below doesn't do the bag justice, and now it has gone home with its recipient (my Mum!!!) I can't take anymore pics. I wanted to show the front, back and floral lining all in one shot, but really it just looks like it is falling off a shelf. Pink patchwork one side, pink and black dots on the other, with some dark purple florals inside. Again another french seaming practice run.

A friend on facebook asked for closeups of the stitching of the dooner cover I made. This is about as close as you'll get. It had three different sizes of patch, mostly orienal and floral motifs. See here:

In between I sewed some gold ribbon. This covered the joins of the material and also added to the overall design of it. I wanted the black stitching to be noticable so I did this zigzag stitch. It's uneven in places, but worked out ok.

This is the floral material that covers the bottom half. I had to run a few lines of stitches through it but I didn't want to quilt it properly, leaving it instead to retain some natural flow. That's because it is partially seethrough and I loved the effect of the blue behind it. We will see how long this holds up.

 
Here are the three elements together.

Current projects include finishing an apron for the lovely other half, finishing a different apron for Mum and making a skirt for me. Well trying to make a skirt for me.