A little Sunday sewing.

I love the weekend, staying home, getting stuff done, hanging out with Dave and seeing friends.

I did all of these thing this weekend and a little house work, but I managed to keep that to a bare minimum, phew.

Sunday has been super, we got to spend some time with our adopted family at church this morning, has eggs benedict cooked by my talented husband, had home made scones for afternoon tea with my good pals (the scones were cooked by super chef Shell), and I made a super quick dress.

It is going to be a cold and horrid week next week so I wanted something new to wear to ease the pain.

I made this dress using another jersey dress that I made at the start of the winter as a pattern.

I laid the fabric out on the floor and folded it in half. Then I laid the dress on the top and cut around it. I wanted an asymmetrical hem so I cut it on an angle.

Then I folded it in half to make sure the top was symmetrical, which it pretty much was, yay.

Next I sewed the shoulder seams using my trusty ole janome overlocker.

I popped the dress over my mannequin, to see what shape the neck was, I cut it a little deeper in the front.

Originally I planned to edge the neck in the same fabric but it is too stretchy and hard to cut, so as I was after a quick and fun project I used some black jersey left over from another project.

My mother in law taught me how to make t-shirts a few years ago and I love doing the neck.

I cut out a strip of fabric that was about 3 inches wide and about half a meter long. Then I measured it roughly around the neck of the dress keeping the band tight.

Once I had worked out the length required I sewed it in to a loop. And folded the fabrics in half.

Now for the fun bit, I marked the circle in to quarters buy folding it in half and then half again, marking with pins.

Then the same on the neck of the dress getting the center front and back by matches the shoulder seams.

To find the middle on the sides of the neck I match the center front to the center back, note it is not the shoulder seams because the neck front is lower than the neck back.

Next I matched up the pins on the neck band with the pins on the dress with right sides together, making sure the seam on the band was at the back.

Then I sewed it in to place being sure to keep and even tension on the neck band.

Once it was sewn all around, it was time to press it. I love how the jersey contracts to make a neat circle.

wobbly to start

iron on high with lots of steam

ta da nice and flat

All that was left after that was to sew the side seams and hem the bottom and sleeves.

Ready for Monday, boom.

Where did all the time go?

Wow it has been a really long time since I have blogged, I have thought about it a lot but never really got around to it.

What happened I hear you cry, (or not as no one will be reading anymore) well sadly I got a full time job  (it's not actually that sad. I get paid and it keeps me out of mischief - for the most part) and it is all I can do to fit in some sewing never mind photograph it and put it on here.

But I really miss being part of the online sewing community, being apart of the discussions and I really miss the fun of collaborating with others.

I have recently stumbled on to a bunch of great sewing blogs thanks to Pattern review and I want to dive back in to that world, do some sewing challenges and swaps, get tips and tricks from all those clever sewers.

So I am resolved to blog again, weekly to start with and we will see how it goes from there. Wish me luck.


Oh and here are a couple of sewing projects from the past year just to prove I haven't stopped sewing all together.

High tea

Last weekend I attended a high tea with the lovely Kelli and the charming Bek. It was held by one of the churches in Mildura to raise money for a women's hospital in Africa.

It was a great event full of ladies in dresses drinking tea and eating cakes. I thought you might like to see some of the photos.

 

Kelli and me, ready to go.

A nice cup of pink tea.

Kelli enjoying her tea with a super cute bow.

It was a lovely afternoon and a great turn out.

 We were lady-like for most of the afternoon but we couldn't help ourselves when we saw the photo booth. Great fun!

Thanks for reading x

A really cute and super simple DIY.

This week Sophie and I did a bit of craft experimentation, most of which didn't turn out as we had hoped - one of the fun parts of trying to think of new craft ideas. Fortunately we had a small pile of of cute things that we had thrifted and were able to pull a last minute triumph!

And here it is! 

It is as simple as it looks.

A thrifted cardie and some doilys.

a little bit of hand sewing and you're done!

For full instructions head over to her library adventures

Thanks for reading x

synchronised travel adventure

I saw this first on my friend Rebecca's blog goo and titch and thought it was a lovely idea! Basically you go on a walk with your camera and follow the instructions below. Rebecca and I live in the same town but had very different walks.

1. Starting point.

 2. Walk 50-100 paces and turn 180 degrees. I brought my lovely husband along for the walk.

 3. Continue until you see something blue. I was hoping for some thing more exciting than a blue car but we were just getting started so I took it.

 4. Make a left turn and walk 50-70 paces. We spotted this cool tree in real life the orange fruit looks a bit like eyes, yuck.

6. Walk in any direction until you find something that is or resembles the number 7 or 11. You are going to have to squint to see it but It was getting late and we were getting desperate.

 7. Take the first left and continue walking until you find somewhere to sit. Cool old farm equipment on some ones lawn.

 

 8. Choose any direction and walk for 25 or 50 paces. We chose the direction that took us past this pretty garden. It smelt amazing.

9. Continue walking until you see an unusual shape, colour or texture. Turn 180 degrees. These roses were beautiful!

 10. Keep walking in any direction until you see an archway or an unusual architectural feature.

 11. Head for home, but keep looking for something that catches your eye.

Unfortunately it was too dark to take any photos on our way home, but we saw lots of nice old house on streets we had never been down before.

Thanks for reading. x

A sea worthy DIY.

This week Sophie and I got in touch with our inner sailor, and whipped up a cool nautical cuff.

 

 We took these items, put them into a captains hat jiggled them around and this came out!

Ok so there might have been some platting, gluing and sewing, you can find the full instructions Here on Sophie's blog.

 

It is a quick and simple DIY and we love the results.you should give it a try!

Thanks for reading.

The start of the 2012 Gran Prix, good excuse for a weekend in Melbourne!

This weekend Dave and I were in Melbourne for the Grand Prix. It was great to be in a big city, catch up with some of the family and too watch noisy cars drive very fast in a circle!

I was cheering for Jenson Button and he won which was awesome I was also cheering for Lewis Hamilton who came second and Paul Di Resta came in 11th so even he got point all in all it was a great weekend.

Thinking about what to pack

A few hours later and I was good to go.

At Melbourne airport

An awesome gate not far from out hotel

Big city op shop, the displays were brilliant

and coffee

Race day Breakfast

Hanging out with some uber fans.

Dave and I ready for action, such a great view.

 WHat did you get up to over the weekend?