My 2013

ARGH - silly blogger, this was meant to publish over two weeks ago... The scheduler didn't work.

2013, well it was to be the year of stashbusting... that didn't happen. I got well and truly sucked in by the pretties on sale in my local fabric shops and the enabling from my lovely WSBN friends.

I did hope to make trousers for the first time, well I did make trousers, but they weren't for me, they were for Mr N, some loud trousers for him to play golf in..

Looking at my makes, I did actually learn a number of new skills.

Flat fell seams - Mr N's shirt was completely finished with flat fell seams

Hong Kong seaming - my self-drafted pencil skirt was finished with these

Sewing with knits - I finished the Cake Tiramisu and I've also made my first Renfrew (not blogged about) Yay! Feeling happier about knit fabrics now.

Fly front zip - although I don't have photos, I've learned how to stitch a fly front when I made Mr N's trousers.

Hand-picked zip - I learned how to hand pick a zip and have actually used this method twice now, the first was on my Lily Anna

Phew! I'm quite impressed with myself! I think that's all

Vital statistics of makes:
Tops, including blouses -- 4
Dresses -- 4
Skirts -- 3
Skort (not blogged about yet) -- 1
Trousers (mens) -- 1

In addition, I knitted a beret and have also made the curtains for our lounge/diner. Life itself has been pretty hectic, we've moved house and I also broke my ankle giving me an enforced sewing absence of a few weeks.

Our Wellington Sewing Bloggers Network has grown from strength to strength, we now have 26 members and it's great to have a group of local sewers I can ask for help, meet up with, compare patterns and go fabric shopping with :-)

I really am not going to think about how much fabric went in and went out of the stash. All I know is, the numbers go the wrong way!

What I have done at last, is create an extra page of makes at the top of blog. This page is still very much under construction, so please excuse the spacing, size of photos, etc. At the moment, the page starts with makes made within the life of this blog, but I'm intending to add older makes which I still have too.

I'll finish with what I consider my fave makes from 2013...

Here's to 2014!

Secret Santa picnic time

Still a strange mixture of words for me, Santa and picnic, one means Christmas and the other summer... OK, not a odd combination for those born in the southern hemisphere, but for me, the two words still don't seem to match.

Anyway, we had a picnic a couple of weeks back! We being the WSBN. We've now been a group for over a year. It doesn't seem like it, but we had a first birthday dinner the other week...

I digress, this post is about the picnic, the pretty frocks and the Secret Santa notions game.

We met at the sound shell in the Botanic Gardens. It's a great place for picnics and we were even entertained by a string quartet.

I can't believe I didn't take any photos of the food, I must have been enjoying it too much :-) We had sausage rolls, picnic pie, egg and cheese rolls, asparagus rolls, coleslaw, beetroot, followed by strawberries (lots), lemon tarts, forgotten biscuits, brownies, all swallowed down with fizzy grape juice... Phew, I'm full up thinking of it all. :-) We certainly know how to create a feast!

The dress code was to wear pretty frocks - do we need encouragement? And there were certainly lots of pretty frocks around, absolutely stunning ladies...

Hang on, is A Charm of Magpies showing off her knickers, nope, its the sparkly petticoat :-)

Our Secret Santa was fun, lots of lovely goodies to be had. However, this was not a Secret Santa with the normal rules, these were different. Basically we were encouraged to steal from others if we didn't like what we opened and liked something else. As you can imagine, there was quite a bit of fighting over some gifts!

A Charm of Magpies opens her first gift as The Crazy Gypsy looks on...

Not content, The Crazy Gypsy decides to open her own...

Methinks A Charm of Magpies had her gift stolen, time to open another :-)

Two Random Words gets a go

 It's mine, all mine says Flossie FT

There was certainly a lot of fighting taking place. Three strikes at the same gift and it's yours! And I didn't even take a photo of mine... I got a roll of ribbon and some earrings made from bobbins.

So that's Christmas here in Wellington. Unfortunately the weather today isn't quite as clement as it was on our picnic. It's Christmas eve and we have low cloud, rain and a severe weather warning for winds gusting to 120kmh, well this is Wellington. Yesterday was stunning, wall to wall sunshine with a strong breeze. Here's hoping tomorrow it brightens up so we can get out. We have guests staying who are expecting a summer Christmas...

So all that leaves me to do is to wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope that it brings you all you wish for. I'm hoping there might be something sewing related, but unfortunately I don't think the family have quite cottoned (geddit?) on yet...

I shall finish with a photo of our Christmas tree which is looking decidedly windswept :-) (It's a real tree from the windy city!) But hey, look at all those pressies...

Merry Christmas!

Frocktober time!

Yay! I've actually managed to make something for The Monthly Stitch. Three of my lovely WSBN friends are behind the Monthly Stitch and ever since it started I've been attempting to get my sewing to match in. [As you've probably realised, I'm not the best at keeping up with joint projects, or group sewing.]

This is the fourth in a line of Sewaholic patterns I've made this year and this time I've joined the Cambie bandwagon. [One is yet to be photographed and blogged about.] They are such a great fit for me and go together so quickly too. I have some more of Tasia's patterns stashed away, so I reckon another will happen before long!

This fabric has also been tucked away for about a year (which I think officially means it's from the stash!) I bought it specifically for a Cambie. It's a stretch cotton sateen and perhaps is a bit stiff for the full-skirted Cambie, but hey, it's worked out OK, don't ya think?

The background on the fabric is a very pale cream colour, not white, which I actually prefer. The pattern is in navy blue. So you can guess I chose a fine navy cotton lawn for the lining. The zip is also navy. I've even done things like using a navy bobbin thread and cream top thread so the stitching all matches with the fabric. It's a bit of a faff changing the thread and bobbin a lot, but it's satisfying when done.

I ended up making this for a conference dinner I was going to. It was the impetus I needed to make it up. The dinner theme was a sea theme. OK, it's not very sea like, but teamed with a cropped navy jacket, I reckon it looked kind of sea like in the end. :-) The plan was also to add a lace edge to the lining which showed below the skirt, but have you have tried to buy navy lace? I couldn't find any for love nor money!

I did make a muslin of the bodice. Mainly to check the length and dart placement. [No you're not going to see any photos of the muslin.] But suffice it to say, it was too short as usual! The darts also finished too high and too far to the side, so I had to alter those.

I took care over the pattern placement for the bodice and the belt/waistband piece.

The bodice front is centred exactly. I spent ages cogitating and ruminating over how I would cut the waistband piece with two different pieces centred. I'm glad I chose the one I did for the outside, the inside piece is not the best piece of sewing I've ever done.

The back is also cut to look as if the zip is not really there. I'm not completely pleased with how the waistband has lined up at the back for the zip. I put this zip in three times and this is the best version. Perhaps I should have done an invisible zip after all? [This is just a centred zip, as I couldn't get hold of a navy invisible zip when I went looking.] And of course this dress has pockets :-)

All the seams are pinked, I decided that since the dress is fully lined, I could get away with pinking rather than French seams, which I might have used on the lining at least.

The details...

Fabric:  Cream cotton sateen with a navy pattern from Global Fabrics (that was) in September 2012. I can't remember the price, but it was not in the sale (and not particularly cheap!) The lining came from the Fabric Warehouse.

 Notions:   Thread and a standard dress zip, oh and I also stitched cotton tape to the neckline to help it keep shape and not gape.

Pattern:  Sewaholic Cambie view B
First worn:  To the LIANZA conference dinner in Hamilton, where I got lots of compliments and did you really make that comments :-) PS Librarians really do know how to party...
Worn with (in this pic):  Cream sling back wedges I bought in Nordstrom, Chicago about 7 years ago!
Changes made:  Lengthened the bodice by 3/4 inch and shifted the darts more to the centre.
Another one?  Oh yes, I think I will eventually, once I've made everything else on my wish list!

No apologies for this one, but what's a girl to do when wearing a full skirted frock in Frocktober?