Treasure hunitng with the Wellington Sewing Bloggers

The Wellington Sewing Bloggers network not only share fabric sale news, we sometimes actually coordinate to meet there together.  A local church was holding a fabric sale so of course I had to go.  I meet up with some of the Wellington Sewing Bloggers and had time for a hot chocolate afterwards. I have plans for the wool and the linen tablecloth. . 

Fabric fair treasures

New scarf wool I'm thinking

The rest of the goodies will go into the stash and the dome/fasteners I'll have a play with before I actually try and use them on some material.

Girls tunic top Kwik Sew 3769

I've made this top before for my goddaughter and it's a great top if you are making for children that are not easy to measure (especially if they live some distance away). It has a neck casing that the tie goes through, so the neckline is easily adjusted. It can also be worn as a dress/tunic or top.  

Kiwk sew 3769

Holes for the neck casing to go through

Top one complete

I made these for my gorgeous nieces. It was too hot for fabric shopping with them, but luckily I had some difference fabrics in my stash they could choose from, - I knew all the fabric shopping/hoarding would come in handy.

I did laugh when I was busy cutting these out and Ms 4 bounced into the room to see if I had finished yet, 20 minutes after choosing her fabric! I had visions of making coordinating hats, but decided to just go with finishing them and posting while they still fitted.  

Lazy sewing - a guide

This is what happens when you have twelve white togas to sew for a school production with one days notice. You run out of energy to rethread your machine when the right needle breaks at 11pm at night.

Three thread overlocking for the lazy

So you sew with one needle on a default three thread overlocking style. I figured since they were being worn for 4 minutes once, they could do with a less stable thread. The overlocker is now proudly sporting new needles and black thread. I used to dread rethreading, but amazingly enough, found that if I followed the rethreading instructions exactly it worked fine. Its a very sturdy Huskylock bought second hand and rarely adjusted.

Prem baby''s blanket

My beautiful new pink and orange wool for a baby blanket.

There is a wonderful facebook group called earlybuds who make clothes and blankets for prem babies. I've been following them for a while and decided to make a premature baby's blanket for them. It meant I could knit in pink for a while as I never get to make girls things, and it was a small square (50cmx50cm) so I thought it was achievable. There were a couple of issues though.

My knitting needles when I went to knit today

Everyone denies it, but somehow my metal knitting needles got very bent! I was able to make a quick trip to the yarn shop nearby http://www.hollandroadyarn.co.nz/  to get new needles. I chose bamboo ones. They are very nice to knit with, and it was an easy project to take with me in my purse.

Mr F trying the blanket out for size

Its now finished, but I need to figure out how to get it to not roll at the edges then I can send it off. So that makes it project knitting no 3 completed.

Sewing projects half started

When I don't have the energy to actually sew, or lug my machine to the monthly sewing group, I take along projects that need cutting out with the intention to sew them up sometime soon. Unfortunately that box is a bit overflowing at the moment.

Behold my box of cut out projects

half sewn slip that needs a lot of adjusting to complete

Oliver & S Bucket hat

 The hat I've actually completed since these photos were taken.http://livinglifenz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/01/hat-making.html

A small size Oliver & S Red riding hood cape

The last cape I made from this pattern was fun to make and very cute. Just waiting for time to finish this.

This is a self drafted pattern from a cute wrap top that I own. 

There is a self drafting challenge coming up with the sewing bloggers so I might get inspired to finish this. I need to make myself some detailed  instructions so that I get the sewing order correct as there are rolled edges and seams to get in order.

Possibly a summer skirt

I'm not sure if this one will get completed. Its a skirt, cut out but its leftover material from my nightshirt. the nightshirt has faded dreadfully so I'm not sure if its worth the effort to make this up knowing its not going to last.  Also the boys have pointed out that I'm in camouflage when I'm against our blue floral duvet.

Bluet Dress

I bought this beautiful dress pattern with some of  the other Wellington Sewing Bloggers.  Its from a small independent pattern house in France. Very fancy.  Unfortunately their instructions were not so fancy.  I love the back and after the second re cut I got it fitting really well. The collar instructions were almost non existent.

The very cute bow in the back

The front I mucked up by getting paranoid that it would not fit around the middle and I didn't have enough material left over to recut the front centre panels.  I had to cut off a couple of inches at the front neckline as it gaped quite a bit, then I added a self drafted facing to the front that I wrapped around the front to use as a button placard.  

The front before alteration

The final dress

I extended the sleeves, but lost any form of shaping in the process. I have since reduced the width of the sleeves but they could do with a button at the wrist edge to reduce width even further. 

Hat making

 I've restarted my hat making efforts. I made a very cute red hat last year, and it looked so great that I immediately bought some more material and cut out a blue and green hat. Then summer finished (it happens quickly in Wellington) and it sat around all last year. 

Oliver & S Bucket hat

I made it reversible in Mr F's favorite colors, but held my breath that although he'd grown a couple of inches last year his head size would be similar. Thankfully it was.  I didn't spend quite as long sewing circles round the brim as I wanted to get it finished and worn so it's not quite as well sewn as the red hat.  You can see in the photo below the set up at the fabric hoarders Sunday sewing - lots of big long tables to spread out on!

Reversible as well.

Mr F looking very happy with his surprise green hat.

I was also pleased to finish a hat for Mr D.  I had thought about making this for a Christmas present but knew I would be pushed for time so I didn't mention it. I did wash the material and dry on the line outside so it was hard to keep the fact I was making something starwars a secret! This is the Escape hat by Angel Lea Designs.  via PDF.  I made two hats, the first one a uregntly needed painting hat, which meant I used what I had to hand, which was a tan woven and a tan stretch - not the easiest combination to sew together. I also cut out sew in interfacing rather than iron on and decided to use that. It didn't have quite the same body to it but it was in use straight away so can't have been too bad.

In usage about 2 mins after making!

I added the fabric band that was included but only on one side to see how it worked. It was good to try it out but since it added to the sewing time I didn't bother in the starwars version.

With the fabric band

With a peek of geek

Or all star wars

 Apparently its perfect for cricket watching. Now only need to make one for Mr J and myself and we are all set for summer!