Pondering

I have just found Syrena's blog via the Sew Retro blog today: http://balcsgirllovesvintage.blogspot.com/

What piqued my interest is that she describes herself thus: "a stay at home mom and housewife with traditional values that reflect those of the mid 20th century when women were homemakers & men were the breadwinners."

While I share Syrena's love of and fascination with sewing and vintage fashions, styling and sensibilities, I yet I also find myself the breadwinner, with a stay-at-home student and homemaker husband, and no desire to procreate.

I just thought this was interesting, the way people can share similar values on some things (modesty for example) and be so polar opposite on others.

Viva la diversite!

Wardrobe Refashion Spring 2010 Pledge

I Melbourne Belle pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 2 months.
I pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle preloved items for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract.
I pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoted, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that thy thriftiness brings! Signed

Melbourne Belle

My personal goals for Spring 2010 are:
1. sew from stash
2. work through my refashions-in-waiting collection, and
3. Tackle (or trash) some UFOs.

Simplicity easy chic suit skirt part 2

Today’s Sewing Philosophy: stop, look, and listen (to yourself).

Today I have stitched the darts and side seams. The last time I made this skirt it turned out too big, and even though I’ve taken it in to sit properly on my hips, it still feels a bit ‘baggy’ and frumpy. So I made sure to stop and try on after I did the side seams this time. As you can see from the first 2 photos, it still looks a bit loose, especially around the hips. Before going any further, I thought I’d pin the flounce on to see how that affected the overall look. I am glad I did – look how frumpy this is!

Looking at the pattern envelope, the skirt is supposed to stop mid patella. I re-pinned a few times until I got the length right. This told me I needed to take out a (whopping) 7 cm of length. That was more than I thought I could manage by just pinning and cutting. So I unpicked the side seams, folded the pattern at the designated spot, pinned the darts in the pattern, laid the paper pattern over the fabric, and re-cut the pieces.

I then re-stitched the side seams, and have decided that is enough for today.

P.S. Photos apear to have uploaded in reverse order - opps!

These are a few of my favourite things

About half-an-eon ago Villana asked me to post about some of my favourite sewing blogs. So here they are:

http://www.dressaday.com/dressaday.html
This is the one the probably started it all. I think I found it via mrsbrown’s f’list, but it may have been that someone else pointed it out to me (if it was you please do let me know, I like to give credit where its due.)
I think the next few came from Google reader’s recommendations.

http://nikkishell.typepad.com/wardroberefashion/
I think I found this one via google reader, its one of the most recent additions to my reading list, and it has inspired me to look at my wardrobe off-casts in a whole new light. I think I will take up the pledge for 2 months.

http://missceliespants.com/
I really enjoy Miss Celie’s writing style. I enjoy the way she talks about selecting fabrics, patterns and notions, her thoughts about pattern alterations, and the way she rocks her finished garments. I think this is where I first read about Burda magazine http://www.burdafashion.com/en/index.html (formerly Burda World of Fasion or BWOF) and http://sewing.patternreview.com/news

http://sewingfantaticdiary.blogspot.com/
I love reading Carolyn’s blog. She has such a joie de vivre and a joie de sewing! Sewing is Carolyn’s one and only hobby, and her blog is full of tips and tricks, great ideas in inspiration. I love watching a garment develop from an idea – often inspired by catwalk fashion – to wearing it out in the world. She is happy to answer questions, is very encouraging of less-advanced sewers, does a weekly New Sewists post, and generally makes me feel really good about where I am at in my sewing journey – I want to be like Carolyn when I grow up!
Reading Celie’s and Carolyn’s blogs have also alerted me other sewing/fashion blogs, some of which I have enjoyed, others I have passed by after a few entries. Here are some examples that (I think) came from these ladies’ recommendations:
http://betweenlaundrydays.blogspot.com/ (I don’t think she sews, but she makes jewellery)
http://daddylikey.blogspot.com/ (check out her “Don’t Showcha your Chocha” entries. They will change the way you view the world, I promise)
http://www.lindsaytsews.com/ (Lindsay and I have completely different aesthetic, life stages and experiences. Some days I scroll right over her posts, other days I am intrigued by what’s going on in her world.)

http://twoontwooff.blogspot.com/
I’m not sure how I found Dawn’s blog, but I enjoy her writing. She lives in Alaska, has 3 kids (twin girls and a son), works as a teacher, runs something like 5 miles a day, and yet find time to sew more garments in a week than I finish in a month. She has been sewing for a relatively short time, sews from Burda quite often, and is at the level I;d like to reach in the next year or so. Her “courageous” sewing, i.e. experimenting with her sewing, is inspirational.

http://botticellicraft.blogspot.com/
This is my friend A. Although we’ve lost touch over the last year or so, both busy with our respective lives, I enjoy seeing what she’s been up to, and what she is producing in her sewing/craft room.

I hope that you enjoy reading some of my favourite blogs. Please feel free to comment leaving links to any of your must-read sewing/fashion blogs that you’d like to share.

Going about sewing the wrong way?

As I came back to the office from my coffee run today I was struck by the notion hat I am going about my sewing preparation backwards. Inspired by Caroline of diaryofasewingfanatic, I have for some months been intending to use my week nights to prepare fabrics, patterns and so forth, so that on the weekends I can sit down and sew (or perhaps more accurately, construct). The problem has been that I often can’t be bothered with the ironing board, fold-out dining table, patterns and fabric on a weeknight, so inevitably I fall behind on my sewing plans.

This week I have been working on construction of SammyHubby’s robe for Armageddon. I am finding it quite easy to come home, have dinner, then sit at the machine for an hour to get a few seams done than I find it to start on project preparations. The added bonus being when its time to stop, I can just get up form the machine, throw the dust cover over everything and walk away, whereas if I am cutting, ironing etc, I feel I need to tidy up and put away at the end of the evening, especially if I have been working in the lounge room rather than the sewing room.

So perhaps I will try doing things the other way around – prepare for projects on weekends when I can dedicate several hours to it at once, then sew in fits and starts on weeknights.

Birthday Dress – the beginning

I really wanted a new dress to wear for my birthday outing at the end of the month. I don’t need a new dress - I have plenty of lovely things to wear, but I wanted one. I had thought of going to Fashion Incubator and splashing out on a designer dress (http://www.fashionincubator.com.au/), but I also want to save my pennies for my trip to Festival at Easter.

The other day I was running through my stash in my head, thinking about another project I suspect, when I remembered the purple crepe I bought earlier in the year. I had planned to make a Golden Age Cat Woman dress for a fancy dress party (http://www.goldenagebatman.com/catwoman.html), then realised the party clashed with a mate’s gig at the Espy. Since we was driving overnight from Wollongong to do the gig, the least we could do was attend – so the dress was never made.

With less than 3 weeks until my birthday, rather than trying a new pattern, I have decided to make a new version of a dress I made several years ago: Simplicity 9258. I chose the pattern size based on measurements Villana took of me in January – does anyone else find they take bigger sizes in patterns than in off-the-rack clothing? Perhaps it’s because the patterns are not Australian.

Last weekend I cut out all the pieces. I have realised that, for me, I need to break sewing from a commercial pattern down into small steps. First, I cut out the patterns pieces, then I leave it until the next day/weekend to construct – otherwise I suffer delusions of grandeur about the speed with which I sew, and get upset when the piece isn’t finished in a day.

Today, I constructed the bodice section. I am taking my time, reading the instructions carefully and following them precisely, not cutting corners or rushing. And as a result, I am not only enjoying the process, I am really happy with the results (so far). It means I haven’t finished my dress in a day, but I think I will end up with something of which I can be really proud.

So I am not a fast seamstress – I can live with that, as long as I look good doing it.